American Hysteria

Author of the book Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America, historian Wendy Woloson joins me to discuss the long-time American obsession with pointless, poorly-made products and novelty items like Sea Monkeys, X-ray specs, fake vomit, and exploding cigars. Today we will go into much more detail analyzing this definitively American crap and what it all means about our history and society. Get Wen...

The novelty pets known as Sea Monkeys have delighted and disappointed millions of American children since they were first marketed in the early 1960s, with the nostalgia-fueled craze returning decade after decade, even after the creator was linked to Neo-Nazi activities. Described in the highly exaggerated ad copy as the most lovable pets in America, these tiny, allegedly monkey-like aquatic creat...

This is a rerelease of last year's holiday special! Find our new merch at americanhysteria.com/merch They usually go something like this: A cranky career woman from the big city who has lost the true meaning of Christmas arrives in a small town where she falls in love with a handsome handyman or baker or Christmas tree farmer and together they vanquish whatever big business force threatens the idy...

This is a story from a recent episode of our exclusive Patreon/Apple + talk show Hysteria Home Companion, where producer Miranda and I take turns sharing stories related to the topics we are covering. For this one that we felt was too good not to share far and wide, Miranda tells me the story of a mysterious hanging cadaver that once decorated a California dark ride and unravels the decades-long,...

(explicit content warning) This *Urban Legends Hotline* episode dives deep into the viral myth that 90s shock rocker Marilyn Manson had ribs surgically removed so that he could perform autofellatio. We'll look at two other famous and controversial artists who also had this rumor attached to them, learn about another related tale that went around during Victorian times, and see how the rib removal...

To celebrate five long years of American Hysteria, our producer Miranda Zickler interviews Chelsey about the origins of the podcast and how their own life has impacted the content. Chelsey also answers questions that listeners have sent in over the years and gets into feelings around queerness, solidarity, faith, and death. And we celebrate you, our dear listeners, who have made all of this possib...

For our very special two-part Halloween conversation, Sarah Marshall and I are going to be sharing the less serious things that scare us: our favorite phobias, eerie feelings, and uncanny upsets. In this episode, I share the things that freak me out, from stilts and spiders to giraffes and medieval art. in order to hear all about what freaks Sarah out, head to the You're Wrong About feed, do not m...

Home Depot's 12 ft. Skeleton decoration first premiered in the fall of 2020 and sold out immediately, the nationwide obsession fueling an underground black market. Memes and tweets made 'Skelly' the hottest Halloween fad of the last three years, and for some reason, the internet's biggest crush. For this episode, we will not only explore how the craze around this big old bone daddy unfolded, but w...

Our Halloween special will cover the 12 ft. Skeleton craze and the history of skeleton decorations in America. This episode will give some extra context using segments from: Haunted Attractions Death Horror Movies pt. 1 Join our Patreon or subscribe on Apple+ for ad-free early episodes and bonus content! Call into our Urban Legends Hotline and share your teenage tale! This episode was produced by...

Please enjoy this rewind of last year's Halloween special called Haunted Dolls. Coming up next week we'll start our Halloween series called 'The 12 ft. Skeleton.' Then we'll be teaming up with our sibling podcast You're Wrong About for another Halloween special! For this rewind, we'll see how possessed playthings have crept their way into the dark attic of America: Thomas Edison's little monsters,...

Justin McHenry, author of the forthcoming book Lemuria: A True Story of a Fake Place, tells me an expansive tale of an alleged long lost continent first written about in early scientific works, then harnessed by esoteric eccentrics and new age mystics, mutating over the decades into fantastical fuel that is embedded in the strangest of conspiracy theories and cults to this very day. Preorder Lemur...

To unpack the movie trope of the Murderous Man in a Dress, prolific horror film analysts and writers BJ and Harmony Colangelo discuss with me all the complicated trans and drag “representation” in movies like Sleepaway Camp, Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, Dressed to Kill, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. We’ll look at how these crossdressing killers have affected the psyche of Americans throu...

For part two of our series, we are starting in the anti-gay moral panic of the 50s and 60s to see how the drag scene continued to transform underground, with female impressionists dazzling the starlets they tried to copy as closely as possible. We'll be introduced to a nationwide pageant circuit which allowed drag queens the opportunity to compete just like Miss America contestants, leading to a p...

This series will cover the moral panics and cultural crazes that have long followed the controversial art form once called "female impersonation." For part one of our two part series, we'll start back in the 1800s to look at the earliest drag balls put on by formerly enslaved men as well as the police raids that made front page news. We'll learn about a famous Vaudeville star known for his hyper-f...

Our upcoming series, Early Drag Queens, will cover the surprising relationship between "female impersonation" and American masculinity in the time before the gay and transgender civil rights movements. This episode will give historical context with excerpts from these previous episodes: Gender Reveal Parties Trash Talks Shows Horror Movies pt. 1 Join our Patreon for ad-free early episodes and bonu...

As the social media and the news got word of the new cases of leprosy found in Florida, a slew of misinformation and stigmatization followed. José P. Ramirez Jr. is the author of the memoir Squint: My Journey With Leprosy (Hansen's Disease), which leads readers through the mystery illness that took over his life as a teenager in the 1960s, his diagnosis at age 20, and his years spent at the only f...

BJ Colangelo is an editor at Slash Film and the writer of “The Only Guide To Barbie Lore You Will Ever Need,” a comprehensive look at the cultural movement of America's pinkest lady. On this episode, BJ will take us through the moral panics, conspiracy theories, and misunderstandings that have followed this controversial toy starting back in the 1960s and continuing into this very day. Read The On...

This is a collaborative look at the panics around Furby with the podcast Unspookable, a show much like ours that takes a more kid-friendly approach to understanding urban legends. In honor of the return of Furby to toy stores in July 2023, we revisit some of the ridiculous myths and freaky stories around the hottest toy of the late 90s, and look deeper into what it says about human nature and Amer...

Jamie Loftus is the author of the recent New York Times bestselling book 'Raw Dog: The Naked Truth about Hot Dogs.' Together we discuss some very weird hot dog-related urban legends and conspiracy theories as a companion to our episode about the cannibal pig people of Pig Hill. We'll also learn about the history and politics of this great American meat tube and most importantly, we interrogate the...

*Urban Legends Hotline* The inbred cannibal pig people who are said to inhabit Pig Hill in Meadville, PA attack teenagers who park on its lovers lane. But these are far from the only human-pig hybrids featured in American urban legends. For this episode, not only are we sharing different variations of the tale, but we are also digging deep into the weird history of pigs: Puritan bestiality trials,...

Harmony Colangelo is one of the hosts of This Ends at Prom, a podcast that analyzes coming of age teen girl movies through a queer feminist lens, using her perspective as a trans woman and her wife’s experience as a cisgender woman. Today we are discussing the teen boy content of Jackass, how it affected our own journey with gender, how it changed the American culture of masculinity, what it says...

In the year 2000, a group of rowdy skateboarders and loosely defined "performers" came to MTV with a pitch that would showcase their vulgar antics—outrageous stunts, shocking pranks, and gross-out humor. Tweens and teens from all over the nation became enthralled with Jackass, leading to some copycat incidents and a customary moral panic. For this episode, we will be exploring the roots of the sho...

This episode will give context for our upcoming series on Jackass, an early reality show starring a group of skateboarders and unorthodox performers that filmed their stunts and pranks, becoming the outrageous superstars of the new millennium. Episodes used: Influencers Rotten.com Haunted Attractions The Streaking Craze Join our Patreon for ad-free early episodes and bonus content! This episode wa...

Blake Pfeil is the host of 'abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast,' a multimedia travelogue exploring abandoned spaces across the United States. Together, we discuss what our deep love of these American ruins means, how it relates to queerness, to addiction and recovery, capitalism and politics, and how these spaces can help us recultivate the empathy we need to find solidarity. Listen to aban...

*Urban Legends Hotline* Lauren's story: On a rural road outside Chicago, the ghosts of children killed in a school bus-train collision are said to push cars uphill, off the tracks, and out of harm's way, leaving their handprints in baby powder dusted on the bumper by local legend-tripping teenagers. So we investigated this urban legend, versions of which are told in small towns all over the countr...