The Weirdest Thing

Happy 2024, everyone! For our first show of the new year, we have a couple wildly different stories for you. Amelia tells the tale of how one guy stole an idea and turned it into one of the biggest fast-food chains in the world. Meanwhile, Scotty details the sad life and strange death of Edgar Allan Poe. Since we're coming into Awards Season, we also spend a few minutes at the beginning talking ab...

Happy holiday season, everybody! We've got a couple wildly divergent stories for our final episode of 2023. Scotty talks about the strange--and disturbing--rise of Andrew Dice Clay, and how the comedian became trapped within the ugly confines of his own character. Amelia provides a refreshing glass of egg nog, however, with her discussion of the origins of some popular Christmas traditions. We als...

This week Scotty and Amelia welcome author/longtime friend Shannon C.F. Rogers onto the pod to discuss her new novel "I'd Rather Burn Than Bloom" (2023, Feiwel & Friends), named one of the " 20 Best Books to Read in July " by Kirkus Reviews and one of " The Best New YA Books of July 2023 " by Paste Magazine. We also talk about fan fiction,"The Animorphs,&quot...

We're closing out spooky season with a couple spooky-adjacent stories this week. Scotty talks about the bizarre and ultimately deadly story of the "Hammersmith Ghost," and Amelia takes us through the history of one of Disney's most popular rides: the Haunted Mansion. This podcast is powered by Pinecast .

Spooky spooky! We're back with some more Halloween-month content for you. This week we dive into two movies, "When a Stranger Calls" (1979) and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" (1997). We talk about the urban legends that inspired them (the-call-is-coming-from-inside-the-house and the tale of the Hookman, respectively), along with their possible connections to true stories. SP...

We're leaning hard into spooky season this week. Amelia talks about the grisly origins of the infamous "The Girl with the Green Ribbon" story, while Scotty takes us through the making and ignominious release of the "cursed" horror movie "Incubus," the first film ever made in the constructed Esperanto language. CONTENT WARNING: Our stories this week touch on murder, ex...

To really kick off the start of spooky season, we're easing in and going only lightly creepy this week with the histories of two murdery/eerie board games. Scotty kicks things off with the creation of the Ouija Board, and Amelia takes us back into the billiard room with a candlestick and the origin story of the game "Clue." We also spend a few moments at the beginning talking about the d...

In an interesting role reversal, Amelia is the one who goes super dark this week with her story about the enduring mystery of the "Atlanta Blood House." Meanwhile, Scotty takes us back to Seattle with the infamous "Lexicon of Grunge" hoax. This podcast is powered by Pinecast .

This week Scotty talks about how a down-on-his-luck Detroit musician became a cultural icon on another continent without him even knowing about it, and Amelia explores the very strange and twisty tale of "Miranda Grosvenor," the "Sweet Talker to the Stars." This podcast is powered by Pinecast .

Welcome to another episode that only makes sense in the land of The Weirdest Thing. This week Amelia talks about the history of some of our very favorite cocktails... which she'll need to combat the stress dreams caused by Scotty's story about the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever created. Mix yourself a drink and join us to watch the world burn! This podcast is powered by Pinecast .

Scotty's got family in town this week, so Amelia brought in actor/screenwriter and longtime friend Elizabeth Dwyer to guest host. They talk about the movies "Striptease" (1996) and "Hustlers" (2019), and how the cinematic depiction of sex work has evolved over time. And is it true that all you youngs have decided you don't want sex scenes at all anymore, period? Amelia and Eliz...

We're back with another yin-yang episode this week. Scotty goes grim with the story of South Africa's Boesmansgat sinkhole and the tragic death of cave diver Dave Shaw, and Amelia lightens(??) things up with an examination of changing beauty standards of the industrial era and how Coco Chanel and Josephine Baker turned tanning into a thing. CONTENT WARNING: Scotty's story deals with drowning and a...

Happy (continued) Pride Month! This week Amelia talks about the importance of "Bob Damron's Address Book" to pre-Stonewall gay culture, and Scotty continues his exploration of the life and work of author, filmmaker, queer icon, and shameless Hollywood gossip-monger Kenneth Anger. To read Anger and filmmaker Stan Brakhage's cuckoo-bananas correspondence, go to: https://www.desistfilm.com . This pod...

Happy Pride, everyone! This week Scotty presents Part 1 of his exploration of the life and career of author, filmmaker, and queer icon Kenneth Anger. Meanwhile, Amelia invites us all to experience the disaster bisexual dumpster fire that was Hans Christian Andersen. To watch Kenneth Anger's "Fireworks" (1947) in its entirety, go to: https://vimeo.com/425202939 This podcast is powered by Pinecast .

In one of the stranger episodes we've done, Amelia talks about erotic performance artist, sex columnist, and celebrated burlesque dancer Honeysuckle Divine, while Scotty goes full tinfoil hat with the Nibiru Cataclysm Hypothesis and the very real possibility that there's a ninth planet lurking somewhere at the far reaches of the solar system. This podcast is powered by Pinecast .

Welcome to the very first (and maybe only) Weirdest Thing ask-me-(us)-anything! After soliciting questions from our listeners, Scotty and Amelia talk about the genesis of their friendship, how the podcast got started, why softball is (maybe) a sexist sport, and the most embarrassing thing Scotty ever saw Amelia do. Nothing was off limits! Link to watch "SEND" (2010), the first short film Scotty an...

Amelia is out of town this week, so horror writer and editor Rebecca Rowland is back for another impromptu edition of A Weirdest Thing! This week she and Scotty talk about some of their earliest influences–from the movie "Time Bandits" (1981), to the darkest episode of The Smurfs and the grislier work of Clive Barker–and how it all informed their development as horror writers. To buy Rebecca's nov...

Scotty's here to bum everyone out this week with the story of the Hartford Circus Fire of 1944 and the enduring mystery of "Little Miss 1565." Luckily Amelia is on hand to cheer us all up with a deep dive into the history of Barbie, one of the most revolutionary and iconic toys of all time. Plus, the inevitable spoiler-free discussion of the second season of Showtime's "Yellowjackets." CONTENT WAR...

RIOT!! This week we delve into two of the dumbest music-inspired free-for-alls in recent history. Amelia details the infamous "Disco Demolition Night" at Chicago's Comiskey Park in 1979, and Scotty goes into the story of the Metallica/Guns 'N' Roses Stadium Tour of 1992 and its resulting "Battle of Montreal." CONTENT WARNING: This week we talk about racism, sexism, and homophobia, and there are a...

Plans changed at the very last minute and we decided to do another impromptu movie episode, inspired by our viewing of "Cocaine Bear." This week we compare that film to last year's "The Menu" and talk about horror comedies in general. Also: a classic Amelia Ampuero Weirdest Thing rant! WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS!! If you have not seen either "Cocaine Bear" or "The Menu," you should wait until you g...

This week Scotty goes through the history of the "jump scare," and Amelia details some past and current food trends that have helped shape society. This podcast is powered by Pinecast .

In this return to THE Weirdest Thing podcast, Amelia talks about the fascinating history of the T-shirt, while Scotty takes us through the making of one of the biggest cinematic debacles of all time.

Welcome to the return of A Weirdest Thing podcast! This week Amelia takes the reigns along with guest host/friend-of-the-pod Danielle Robertson. Inspired by Duke City Repertory Theatre's upcoming Bard Crawl, Amelia and Danielle take two classic (?) teen movies–"10 Things I Hate About You" (1999) and "She's the Man" (2006)–and explore how they hold up as adaptations of William Shakespeare ("The Tam...

Welcome to 2023! To celebrate the new year (and Friday the 13th), we're coming at you hot and hard this week with a few infamous curses. Scotty talks about three cursed tombs–including that of Egypt's Tutankhamun–while Amelia discusses the Superman curse. Plus some fairly extensive geekery around comic-book movies in general. CONTENT WARNING: Amelia's story mentions suicide. NOTE: When Scotty refe...

This week we decided to talk about two holiday season movies that manage to not be about Christmas. Scotty chose the classic animated film "An American Tail" (1986), which has become a bit of a Hannukah tradition for many Jewish families. Meanwhile, Amelia chose "Knives Out" (2019), a movie that is rapidly becoming the "'Die Hard' of Thanksgiving." SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't seen "Knives Out,"...