Strange Country

Maybe this got lost in the shuffle for you, dear readers, like it did for Beth who completely spaced about this, but in the weeks after 9/11, opening the mail was a terrifying act. That's because someone was sending anthrax letters to the media and politicians. Five people died and another 17 were sickened in these attacks. It took eight years for the FBI to find their suspect, and even now some q...

Join us this week on Strange Country as we go way back in time to the 1600s when life was grand, and if you lived to be a 50-year-old woman, you should just STFU. Because if you did decide to speak truth of any sort you would likely be accused of witchcraft. That's what happened to Goody Garlick of Easthampton (originally one word), NY. Enjoy Goody Kelly and Goody Beth as we sweat like they did in...

What is the youngest age a child can live on her own? In this episode, Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss the absolutely bonkers documentary "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace" that premiered this year on Investigation Discovery. An Indiana couple petitioned a court to have their adopted child re-aged from 9 to 22 so she could be removed from their home and placed in an apartment. Them...

Twenty years before the Stonewall Uprising, another group fought for rights for LGBTQ Americans. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss The Mattachine Society, a group that sought dignity and respect for LGBTQ during a time when being gay was criminalized. Luckily things are chill now. Oh wait. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: Chew, Rebecca, and Brian N...

You know how every little girl dreams of the day her dad signs a pledge promising to keep her vagina penis-free until she marries. Wait, you don't? Well, sit back, slap on your purity ring, superglue your legs together and get ready for a Strange Country episode on purity culture. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands Beaty, Katelyn. "Opinion | In wake of Atlanta shooting, Christian c...

Hey Readers! You know, you look a little tired. Maybe you should. . . smile? While you're at it, take a listen to Beth and Kelly as we learn the history of the smile. You will learn that Kodak had more to do with why we smile for the camera and don't look as miserable as we are. Smiles are a funny thing or are they? Are they really a creepy thing? A submissive thing? Find out on today's episode an...

What is the main PSA of Strange Country? Trust your gut. Especially when self-proclaimed gurus tell you to suck it up inside a blistering hot sweat lodge. On this episode, cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss James Arthur Ray, another self-help platitude-spilling grifter, who hawked the law of attraction and The Secret, repackaged as Harmonic Wealth ™. His spiritual warrior retreat in October 2009 led t...

Hey Readers! Who has pellagra?? Would you know if you did? Don't worry you won't get it. But you will learn on this episode what pellagra was, why it killed 100,000 Americans, and took many dedicated hours to figure out the cure. Thank you for always listening and wondering alongside our stories. Why is it that Beth talks abut the taint so much? Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands C...

We have finally reached the end of the Strange Country siege of covering the Waco Siege. In the final episode, cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss the aftermath of Waco and how the dots can be connected to such awfulness like Oklahoma City bombing and the Jan. 6 insurrection. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: Benson, Eric. "At Bible Study With David Koresh's Last Fol...

We're almost there, gentle dash hounds, to the end of our siege. In part 4 of Waco, Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about the 51-day standoff between the FBI and the Branch Davidians that ended disastrously. Cite your sources: Benson, Eric. "At Bible Study With David Koresh's Last Followers." Texas Monthly (TX), sec. Religion, 26 Mar. 2018. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and...

In third installment of the Waco Siege, Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss the ATF raid on Feb. 28, 1993. The ATF steamrolled ahead even when they heard the Branch Davidians knew they were coming. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: Benson, Eric. "At Bible Study With David Koresh's Last Followers." Texas Monthly (TX), sec. Religion, 26 Mar. 2018. NewsB...

In this second installment of the Waco Siege, Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss some of the features of being in David Koresh's orb. If you were a young—like really young—girl, you'd likely find yourself including in the House of David. This is what his harem of women were called. Because of God or Jesus or the Holy Ghost—not sure which one wants all those wives. Theme music: Big Whit...

Welcome readers to part 1 of a possibly 144K episodes about the Waco Siege. Thirty years ago, federal agents raided the Mount Carmel Center to serve a warrant on David Koresh, and it did not go well. In this first part, cohosts Beth and Kelly explore the beginnings of the religion to William Miller who made some predictions the world would end leading up to Koresh taking over his group with a gun...

What drives someone to pretend to have a serious illness? In this episode of Strange Country, cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss two women who convinced friends, loved ones and colleagues that they were dying. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: Kettler, Sara. "The Story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Her Mother." Biography (Bio.), 3 June 2021, https://www.biography.com/...

Hello dear readers! Happy Listening Love month! Join Beth and Kelly as we try to learn the real story of Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman immigrant in America. 1834 was the year when middle-class Americans were looking to spend some cash at Marshalls, but could only attend exploitative shows featuring Afong. Learn as little as possible about a woman who everyone was talking about, and no one rea...

As librarians, Beth and Kelly know Bigfoot books are located in the nonfiction section; the 001s for the unexplained, yet to be definitively proved. But for Bigfootaphiles, the penultimate proof is a nearly minute-long shaky film of a sasquatch walking near a creek bed shot in 1967 in northern California. Strange Country delves into this film and other Bigfoot encounters in this episode. And answe...

Welcome back, readers! Where the hell have you been? This episode--249, if you are counting—Kelly and Beth explore the side of Henry Ford that weirdly gets left out of his story. Ford, the innovator and 20th-century Elon Musk, is also Henry Ford the antisemite. He didn't try to hide it, and neither are we. Welcome back to the podcast that reminds you 'merica is strange, and women take up half the...

Shirley Jackson has had a resurgence this century, her works being turned into successful series and movies. But when she was writing in the mid-20th century, she had to contend with sexism, a philandering husband, a cold mother, and male reviewers who didn't get her writing about the plight of women. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: Cooke, Rachel, et al. "Laur...

Dearest Dashies: It's time to learn about the Most Dangerous Woman in the World, aka, Mother Jones. Have you ever heard of her? Do you read the magazine that has her namesake? Mother Jones is a worthy woman to know and love and maybe resurrect from the dead. She stood up for what was right as far as labor rights and wrongs go. When she showed up, everyone listened. Not only did she have important...

From May 1968 to the following winter, Tony Costa went on a killing spree in Cape Cod. He claimed an alter ego egged him on to do the murderous deeds. Strange Country co hosts Beth and Kelly talk about this tiresome asshole and the problems of New Journalism in today's episode. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: Driscoll, Molly. "New errors are discovered in 'In...

Dear Dash Hounds: Be thankful you can listen to Beth and Kelly today because, if ol' misogynist Anthony Comstock had any say, we would have been shut down years ago. Our episode dives into the mayonnaise jar that is vice and the mailing of such materials. The Comstock Laws were created in 1873 and took until Roe v Wade in 1973 to be overturned. That's a lot of suppression for one man to handle- bu...

Kelly's back!!! And just in time because in this episode of Strange Country, we send in the clowns—lots of em pouring out of that one tiny car. Cohosts Beth and Kelly dive into the Clown Panic of 2016 and recognize that Americans need some media literacy lessons stat. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: Chan, Melissa. "Penn State Students Flood Streets to Hunt for...

Life imitates art, as they say, and in these cases life inspired some famous horror films. In today's episode, Strange country co-host Beth and guest host Terry talk about the inspiration behind Scream, Poltergeist and When a Stranger Calls. Don't worry Dash Hounds, Kelly will be back. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: Baby Sitter's Slayer Sought in Missouri. Fo...

Mildred Gillars was the American mouthpiece for Nazi Germany. Known by the GIs as Axis Sally, Gillars tried to derail the war effort by spewing garbage over the airwaves. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly discuss Gillars rise to fame in Nazi Germany and how she'd likely have a cozy spot in some right-wing fringe network today. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands Cite your sour...

Dear Dash Hounds and Readers: Join us this week on a flight of fancy—not really—actually the opposite. Dead birds falling from the sky in Arkansas. Thousands. So what caused it? Can you figure it out faster than E.T. can phone home? This is all intentional word salad to keep you interested and intrigued and to make you give us your weekly listening love. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Th...