Strange Country

In today's episode, Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly unmask Melvil "John" Dewey, question whether or not they are actually ghosts making a ghost podcast, and tell some scary stories set in libraries. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands Cite Your Sources Dude: Smart, Gil. 2 Authors Peg Lancaster Native as Murderer of 19 Year0Old Penn State Student in 1969. Lancaster Online.com...

Slender Man was a boogyman birthed on the Internet. It was a crowd-sourced story, brought to life by wikis and youtube. But two 12-year-old girls took the fantasy too far by planning out the stabbing of another friend as a sacrifice to the mythical character. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about the harshness of adolescence, the power of storytelling and how sticky it must be under J...

Many hotels boast their ghosts, but for these two hotels, reality is scarier than the supernatural. Join Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly as they talk about the strange tales of quack Dr. Norman Baker and the mysterious death Elisa Lam. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: Al-Samarrai, Noor. "Found: A Quack's Medicine Bottles, Buried Behind a Haunted Hotel."...

Something is brewing this October, and it is Kelly and Beth getting witchy--or not. The reality is, Beth does not fully believe in witches. Kelly is on the fence, or broom. There are witches, and stories of witches, and we will do our best to sum them up and let you decide. This October Dear Dash Hounds. Thank you always for listening, but especially now when the wind is chilly and the seasons are...

Get out your flag and wrap yourself in it because it's time for a little patriotic education. Donald Trump's desire to rewrite history is just a rehash of the past when other organizations clamored to control what kids learned in school. Join Beth and Kelly as they sing patriotic songs and deny reality to make you fall in love with America all over again. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of T...

Heya there Dear Dash Hounds. Are you taking your daily dose of bleach? If you paused on that suggestion on how to survive this terrible pandemic of 2020, you may appreciate stories of survival from the other pandemic of 1918. It's funny, (but it isn't) how that terrible virus was downplayed by politicians, killed an unknown number of people, and had people up in arms about their right to wear or n...

You know how things are terrible? Well this should give you comfort--things have always been terrible. Settle in, dear dash hounds, as Beth and Kelly share the tale of Minik Wallace. Minik was brought to America's shores in 1897 as a boy along with five other Greenlanders to be put on display like a museum piece. And when you think of people as objects, it turns out as bad as you expect. Theme mus...

Amelia Earhart's disappearance is one of the greatest mysteries of the century. Listen today Dash Hounds as Beth and Kelly dive into who this tousled-hair woman really was, and what lead up to her last flight. There is mystery, love, and determination to prove that women can do anything! It's a story worth telling and a life worth knowing. Enjoy readers, as always, listening is an act of love. The...

You may not have heard of John Murray Spear, but he ran with cool kids like Frederick Douglass and Victoria Woodhull, preaching for equality and against exploitation. So why isn't he in our history books? Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly discuss Spear's illustrious life and his quest to build a God Machine with blueprints provided in real-time by a dead Ben Franklin. This God Machine requir...

It's hard to imagine a more beloved figure than Charles Lindbergh (pre-1939) so when his baby was kidnapped, it was like everybody's baby had been abducted. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about this "crime of the century" and also reminiscence about their three years on the air as the most beloved podcast (pre-1939). Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands Cite your source...

Are you inflicted by a Strange Country demon? If so, this episode will provide the cure you need, a cure as beautiful as a hot dog stuck into a clam. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly take their dear dash hounds to Spindale, N.C., where parishioners of the Word of Faith get blasted to rid them of their demons, and are forbidden to play air guitar. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Tho...

Dear Readers and Dashhounds, if you have ever suffered from VVF, we are so very sorry and are thankful you live in this Er-ah. But the history that led up to the medical advancement in treating VVF and basically the beginning of all gynecology work had terrible beginnings with one J. Marion Sims. Learn about him in today's episode and the women he took advantage of in trying to make a buck. We hop...

Hold on, chicken littles, the sky isn't falling. It's just some pieces of meat. Wait--what? In 1876, pieces of beef fell from the Kentucky sky leaving some to wonder why and some to say "let me put this in my mouth." Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about meat storms and other strange weather phenomena. Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: "Can It Rain...

Listen up, dear dash hounds, your reptilian overlords Beth and Kelly have an odd tale about the Illuminati, witchcraft, the apocalypse, and eternal damnation. Strange Country is talking conspiracies and includes a special Jack Chick readers theater! Theme music: Big White Lie by  A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: Austin, Jon. "Bill Clinton Tried to Discover Truth about UFOs and JKF Murder – T...

Sometimes we are so invested in our children's lives that we don't make the best choices. Like, say, listen to Betsy DeVos about reopening schools normally during a pandemic or hire someone to murder another mom. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about Wanda Holloway's dream deferred and desire to see her daughter be the cheerleader she never was regardless of the cost. Oh--that's right...

If you're like us, you likely never heard of Synanon, but its tactics live on in "tough-love" drug rehabilitation programs. Synanon was founded in 1958 by Charles Dederich, and it was the first ever non-medical drug rehabilitation program. And then it became a cult. Join Beth and Kelly as they share the story of shaved heads, forced abortions and the origin story of one of Nancy Reagan's favorite...

Are you feeling a little trapped in your life these days? Surprisingly, Kelly and Beth are as well because masks and limited travel are your best bet at avoiding COVID. One of the few things that helps us feel a little free is a good, long bike ride. But if that is too arduous for you, fear not, you can imagine yourself peddling as you listen to this week's episode about the famed Annie Londonberr...

One way to get rid of people was to petition to have them declared feeble-minded and locked away. That's what happened to 17-year-old Carrie Buck in 1924. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about the Supreme Court case, Buck v. Bell, that led to Buck's sterilization, and the sterilization of a voiceless many under the banner of eugenics. And hey, it's still on the books so. . . ugh. Them...

Not too long ago, America's elite thought they could stamp out the bad genes by closing our borders and sterilizing some people. This was the era--Er-ahh--of eugenics, the idea that people inherited traits like shiftlessness from their parents. The Nazis would take the eugenicists theories to their logical conclusion. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about the racism and classism under...

As if it returning to work during a pandemic isn't worrisome enough, your building may be teeming with Legionella bacteria due to the stagnant water. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly discuss the latest scare and what gave it its name. In 1976, delegate from the American Legion met in Philadelphia for a conference. A few weeks later, 34 were dead from some mysterious virulent pneumonia. Them...

Well Dash Hounds, it just keeps happening. We think maybe telling the stories of the past each week will enlighten us to become better humans. But really our little podcast reminds you each week that yes, history does repeat itself. And here we are together as a hurting nation and sick world, watching white racist men in power continue to abuse people and their power. This week Kelly and Beth tell...

As beaches open up for the summer, remember there's more than COVID-19 to worry about. No, actually, that should be the main thing to worry about. Oh and sun cancer. While Strange County is talking about shark attacks, shark attacks are pretty rare. You have a better chance of having Trump grab you by your genitalia. But in the summer of 1916, a shark or sharks terrorized the Jersey Shore over 12...

Is this a giant CIA experiment where we've all been dosed with a substance to make us think there's a pandemic? Sadly no, but in the 1950s, in an attempt to stay ahead of the Soviets, the CIA led mind-control experiments to see if we could break someone's brain. Who knew that only a coronavirus and a reality-tv-host-turned-presidential-nightmare were the keys to bringing this country to its knees....

This week we will scare the shit out of you. Ah Dash Hounds, if our stories of strange, ghostly things never made your shoulder hair stand up, how about the idea that vaccines can take a really long time to get right. We will dive into the polio vaccine of 1955 and learn that sometimes problems can arise when doling out the new promising vaccine. Our intention is not to make you fearful, but to br...

Don't drink bleach. That seems obvious like along the lines of don't go swimming when there's lightning or run for president when you have no interest in governing. But yet countless cleaning products had to take to social media discouraging users from drinking them because Donald Trump said it could knock out coronavirus. Where did he get this "tremendous" idea? Co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about...