Strange Country

Barbara Newhall Follet was a child prodigy, banging out her first novel by the age of 9...accomplished enough to make the rest of us feel inadequate. But her adulthood was less than idyllic. And at the young old age of 25, she disappeared never to be seen again. In ep. 40, Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly explore this talented writer's life cut short. And we try out our new tagline: This is...

Project Acoustic Kitty is not the name of a 1990s band, but a CIA surveillance program involving cats as spies. . . until CIA researchers realized that they were working with cats and cats never do what humans want. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about this failed experiment and wonder if hermit crabs would have been the better choice. And if you feel your pet is watching you...it is...

Strange Country digs deep into the muck and mire and humbuggery that was the Cardiff Giant. Co-hosts Beth and Kelly discuss how people were hoodwinked by the 10-foot tall petrified naked dude and perhaps why people like to be fooled. And did we mention the statue was naked? Theme music: Resting Place by  A Cast of Thousands Cite Your Sources: Andrews, Evan. The Cardiff Giant Fools the Nation 145 Y...

In September 1906, the Bronx Zoo unveiled its latest exhibit--a Congolese man named Ota Benga. His cage was right next to the orangutans in the monkey house. This was the brain child of the "civilized" people who proclaimed to be great masters of science, but in reality showed the darkest sides of themselves. Listen to Strange Country Episode 37 as it explores this sad, sordid tale. Cite your sour...

Is Morgellons disease real or is it one of those women diseases caused by our wandering uteri? Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly look into this alleged condition and the many ways women are dismissed by the medical community. Theme music: Resting Place by  A Cast of Thousands Cite Your Sources: "Borrelia Burgdorferi." Bay Area Lyme Foundation, www.bayarealyme.org/about-lyme/what-causes-lyme-...

Breakout your switchblades and grab a fire extinguisher, it's time for ghost stories from Wells College. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly share some creepy tales from the once all-women's college in picturesque Aurora, NY, compiled by Wells College librarians no less!

Radium was beautiful to Marie Curie even though it killed her, and radium made the teens and young women employed at United States Radium Corp. shine in the night. They put their radium coated paintbrushes in their mouths like they'd been trained, and ingested the deadly substance. Strange Country Co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about the ramifications, the workers' struggle and their plans to open a...

Victoria Woodhull is probably best known as the first woman to run for president, but her life encompassed so much more at a time when ladies were told to do less. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly explore this unusual life as well as their shoddy memory, tonsil gas-lighting, and the swinger lifestyle.

Do you ever wish you could find the perfect rule book to guide your behavior as a young lady that happened to be in perfect alphabetical order? Well look no further than Charles Varle exceedingly long titled book mentioned in the podcast because it's way too long to type here. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly go through this list although many of the rules involve not talking so get ready f...

You likely can easily name the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, but what about the guy who killed John Wilkes Booth? Strange Country Ep. 31 focuses on the strange, mercury-filled life of Boston Corbett, the hatter, who fired that fatal shot. Much credit to Scott Martelle's fascinating book,  Madman and the Assassin. Theme music: Resting Place by  A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: "Boston Corbett...

Centralia, Pa., a small mining town, caught on fire in 1962 and that fire smolders underground today and will continue to rage after we've left the Earth. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about family, mining, a sense of place and government indifference in episode 30. Theme music: Resting Place by  A Cast of Thousands Sources used: http://files.dep.state.pa.us/Mining/Abandoned%20Mine%...

Grover Cleveland was one of those nondescript walrus-mustached presidents that everyone forgets about, but he made an impact on the life of Maria Halpin. Strange Country co-hosts explore Cleveland's shady past and shed light on a woman's story more people should know. Theme music: Resting Place by  A Cast of Thousands Sources used: "Cleveland signs devastating Dawes Act into law." History.com, A&E...

Maybe listening to this podcast makes you feel like a chicken with its head cut off. But that means you're likely in line to make some serious cash unlike the cohosts of Strange Country. Listen to them discuss the infamous headless Mike and maybe finally give an answer to the infernal question: what came first the headless chicken or the deformed egg? Theme music: Resting Place by  A Cast of Thous...

Do you believe in UFOs? Alien abductions? In the 1960s, there were a slew of these reports, the most famous being Betty and Barney Hill who claimed they were abducted and experimented on by aliens. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly explore this phenomena and uncover deep truths about themselves, mainly that Beth has no idea how to say dachshund. Theme music: Resting Place by  A Cast of Thous...

Warren G. Harding is usually the first on the list of worst presidents....until now. But what is really strange is his death. Or is it? Co-hosts Beth and Kelly explore the death of Harding and dispel the myth that his wife had anything to do with although Kelly wouldn't blame her if she did. The bigger mystery is who is Jerry??? Theme music: Resting Place by  A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources:...

Hang onto your muffs! Or at least hide it on your leg so Cordelia Loomis can't get to it. Strange Country Episode 25 is all about the Loomis Gang, a family of horse thieves who stole horses and a bunch of other stuff in the mid-1800s near Cazenovia NY. Hey isn't that where Cazenovia Bagels is? Cite Your Sources Man… Thompson, W. Harold. Body, Boots & Britches . Dover Publications, New York. 1962 L...

When you feel a slight cold coming on, do you have the desire to dig up a dead family member and burn his heart for your cure? If so, then this episode is for you. Strange Country explores the anti-vampire rituals in 18th- and 19th-century New England that were used to ward off consumption. While it may suck, this episode sure doesn't. Theme music: Resting Place by  A Cast of Thousands Sources use...

Nothing…not too much wine or Hermione the cat laying on the computer keyboard and pausing the show mid word can stop co-hosts Beth and Kelly from diving into the deep, dark depths of the Patricia Hearst kidnapping. On Feb. 4, 1974, three members to the Symbionese Liberation Army, crashed into Hearst's apartment, threw the newspaper heiress into the trunk and continued their failed revolution. Beth...

What kind of capitalist are you? Did you play Monopoly for hours with your family in hopes of owning all the land and hoarding all the money? Guess what? That's not how the game was originally meant to be played. And remember the sweet story of the inventor of Monopoly, Charles Darrow, a poor man, destitute and desperate to support his wife and children on a lowly electrician's salary-only to come...

The Bell Witch tormented the Bell family for four years starting in 1817, according to a reporter named Martin V.B. Ingram who wrote the definitive, but terrible book in 1894. Beth slogged through the book until she couldn't take it anymore and marvels that the legend sustained itself. Listen as Strange Country attempts to coherently tell this story from a most incoherent book. Beth manages to get...

How do you define eccentricity? Dr. David Weeks decided to find out what makes an eccentric an eccentric and studied a whole bunch in 1984. Learn if you're one by listening to Strange Country Episode 20. Oh, and Beth really does not like FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. 

Kansas was bleeding way before the Bender family showed up, but they sure added their share to the body count. In Strange Country Episode 19, co-hosts Beth and Kelly discuss this murderous family that ran and inn/slaughterhouse on the Osage Trail in the 1870s, and come up with a new idea for Martha Stewart. Theme music: Resting Place by  A Cast of Thousands Sources used....lots and lots...it makes...

Imagine spilling blazing hot coffee on yourself, getting such terrible third-degree burns the doctors think you'll die and then being called a money-grubbing dummy. That's what happened to Stella Liebeck. She became the villain and McDonald's the victim. Not cool...literally. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly decide good must prevail against evil even if it requires a whole new category of da...

Do you hear the sound of our world slowly disappearing under water, or is that "glug glug glug" the sound of Beth's bass guitar? Find out when you listen to today's episode:"Under Water: Home is Where the Heart Is" or go take a long walk off a short pier.  This story is not so much about a strange person, but rather a strange bunch of towns that once existed and now lie on the bottom of acres-wide...

Ever been so hungry, you could eat a cat? Strange Country Episode 15 delves into the ways people deal with their hunger as cohosts Beth and Kelly explore the Minnesota Starvation Experiment in the 1940s, designed to discover what happens when people starve to counteract the mass starvation from the world wars. Spoiler alert: people act crazy. Beth shares a tale of solving world hunger by fasting f...