American Hysteria

In this classic episode, learn about the battles fought for and against this controversial American holiday from the Puritans to the present as well as some of the forgotten traditions that may change your perspective on this "season of giving" for good. American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Produced and edited by Clear Commo Studios Research and cowriting assis...

For part two of our series, we will look at skeptics' explanations for the alien abduction phenomenon to see what factors they believe may be creating these visions: repressed memory hypnotherapy, sleep paralysis, and cultural fears. We will also ask what deep human needs may be expressing themselves through these stories of 21st century secular supernaturalized trauma. Become a Patron today to ge...

For part one of our two-part series, we will learn about the lives of some of the most influential abductees and the people who've studied them in order to set the stage for part two, in which we will use every intellectual tool at our humble human disposal to try to better understand what on earth, or off of earth, is going on. Become a Patron today to get access to our follow-up talk show 'Hyste...

Here's a little more information about our new Patron's-only talk show Hysteria Home Companion, in which producer Miranda Zickler and I dive deeper into the show's current topic and share all the gossip from the cutting room floor as well as a little more of our personal experience with the whole self esteem thing. Our most recent episode focuses on the strange circle that surrounded writer and co...

Sarah Marshall and Alex Steed host the feelings/movie podcast 'You Are Good'. On this episode, we talk about our own self-esteem, the movies that made us, and break down the secular myths we've created. Sarah is also the host of 'You’re Wrong About', so expect lots of Satanic Panic content too. Become a Patron, a new 'Hysteria Home Companion' is out Monday Follow @youaregoodpod on twitter and Inst...

In the late 1980s, a New Age America began telling children that they were special, that if they just believed in themselves all their dreams would come true. Not only that, but spiritual seekers and psychologists began making claims that programs in self-esteem could solve all our most pressing national issues, an idea soon supported by law and order conservatives as well. The value of self-estee...

This rerelease episode is about America's lifelong obsession with Get Rich Quick magical thinking. It will help us put into context next week's brand new episode called Self-Esteem and the magical thinking behind a movement that promised to solve all of America's ills, inside and out, based entirely on a lie. To listen to Flash Forward, head to flashforwardpod.com or anywhere you get your podcasts...

If you want to learn more about the topics covered on American Hysteria, subscribe to our Patreon talk show with myself and producer Miranda Zickler in which we gossip about all the juicy stuff left out of the episodes, share our own experiences with the content, and chat about what else we've been interested in this month. Today we reveal a little more about McKamey Manor and Russ McKamey, talk m...

Today we talk to the wonderful Shar Mayer, a 45-year veteran of Scare Acting known in the haunt community as "The Mother of Monsters". Become a Patron, 'Hysteria Home Companion' starts Monday Learn more about Shar Mayer Watch Haunters: The Art of the Scare Check out Web Crawlers here American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Sound design by Clear Commo Studios Produ...

Today we'll be talking about the fake-blood-covered history of Haunted Attractions, their raucous origins wrangling violent pranksters, the gory charity haunts that once ruled the scene, and the extreme iterations that still scandalize and fascinate the nation. We ask the burning question: Why do some of us love to be scared? Become a Patron! 'Hysteria Home Companion' talk show coming this month!...

This ghostly re-release (with a new introduction) is here to help us fit next week's brand-new episode 'Haunted House Attractions' into a larger American haunted history. Re-listen or listen for the first time, you might be surprised by what the "other side" has to say. Become a Patron and support our show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us October 18th for our spooky season premiere on Haunted House Attractions and learn a little more our show's new structure. Click here to become a Patron!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2017, YouTube Kids was embroiled in a major scandal when it was discovered that a dark underbelly of inappropriate cartoons, computer animations, and live action videos were lurking just under the surface of the supposedly safeguarded app. With themes of injections, sexuality, violence, scatology, and much more, we will explore these bizarre, uncanny valley videos made by mysterious content cre...

In preparation for our upcoming *Weirdest Episode of All Time*, we are rereleasing this minisode on a mysterious phenomenon where large numbers of people remember an event or cultural detail differently than it really was. From the spelling of 'Berenstain Bears' to the funeral procession of Nelson Mandela, people have explored these cognitive discrepancies through the lens of both mass psychology...

(Make sure you listen to part one first!) Today, Chris shares his experience becoming a sudden villain in the fringe conspiratorial zeitgeist, and then we move gracefully on to sharing the value we have found in talking to strangers, him as a podcaster who has conversations on an anonymous hotline, and myself as a former hitchhiker. Chris hosts the podcast Beautiful Stories From Anonymous People,...

Chris Gethard is a stand-up comedian, podcaster, actor, filmmaker and author of Weird New York as well as an editor at Weird New Jersey and Weird US, all of which cover local ghost stories, urban legends, and roadside attractions. Over the next two episodes we will be discussing the most dangerous waterpark in history, the last vestiges of American tourist traps, the outrageous 1980s and 90s child...

Susan Styker is the author of Transgender History: The Roots of Today’s Revolution as well as a filmmaker, distinguished professor, and longtime activist for the LGBTQ community. She began transitioning in the late 1980s, a very different era for gender nonconformity than the one we find ourselves in today. In this episode we discuss fragmentation within the wide rainbow umbrella, issues between f...

Over the last ten years, Gender Reveal Parties have exploded, figuratively and literally. Parents, communities, and social media followers alike can witness the moment that parents and families find out the sex of their future baby, but lately, these parties have gotten so out of hand as to cause massive wildfires, explosions, damage to homes, injuries, and death. For this episode, we will try to...

Pride Rerelease! This is a listener favorite. Back in 2018, I had my two Christian friends on the show, who wished to remain anonymous, as they shared some pretty anti-establishment opinions. Brianna is a poet who got her masters with me at the University of Virginia, and her husband Patrick has a master’s degree in biblical and theological studies and teaches the bible at a private high school. B...

Listen or re-listen to learn all about our panics surrounding what amounts to the queer illuminati and their evil plans to recruit children and overthrow the government, plus some queer history of the US dating back to precolonial indigenous tribes. We are leading up to our pride special coming later in the month on our new and dangerous American obsession, Gender Reveal Parties. Look for more Pri...

Finally, it is ME CHELSEY WEBER-SMITH as our interview guest, questioned lovingly by our producer Miranda Zickler. We will discuss season four, what I learned, what we didn’t cover and why, the power of the Rainbow Coalition solidarity, couples we would make out with in a haunted house, a dream dinner party with Mary-Kate and Ashley, the importance of Teen Dramas, and yes that’s right, I talk for...

The kids' book series Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was based largely on urban legends, and when I read them for the first time I realized that I had heard them before, but as something true that happened to a friend of a friend. For our season four finale, I will be sharing my own journey with contemporary myths, from that first book series through the 1998 teen slasher Urban Legend, the land...

In preparation for our season finale next week on Urban Legends, we wanted to replay our deep dive into the 2018 viral internet urban legend about "Momo", a creepy humanoid figure with giant eyes, an uncanny too-wide smile, and grotesque chicken legs. Momo was somehow believed to be involved in mysterious texts that teens and kids were receiving on messaging apps, giving them escalating dangerous...

The genres of modern scary movies known as slashers, meta-horror, torture porn, and social thrillers, each tell us about the anxieties of the generation in which they came to exist. Like part one, this episode explores the themes present in some of the most important films in the horror canon; themes of feminism and satanic ritual abuse, of Reagan-era morality and greed, of moral ambiguity in time...

We need a little extra time for Horror Movies II, so here is a re-release of a very related and very important episode. Monsters come from the darkness, from the depth of lakes and swamps, from the shadows of forests and hills, and live too in the dark parts of all of us. However, this episode is less about Bigfoot and more about the idea of the monstrous, and how it has been used as a tool to dem...