American Hysteria

American Hysteria


Latest Episodes

Talking to the Future: Nuclear Semiotics
May 13, 2024

How do we warn people 10,000 years in the future about nuclear waste sites that will remain extremely dangerous for longer than human civilization has existed? When language, symbols, and technologies are lost to time, how can we get our message across? A

Context Clues: Going Nuclear
May 06, 2024

For some context for our upcoming series that we have not yet revealed, we will revisit excerpts from our past episodes: Horror Movies pt. 1, The End of the World, and Alien Abductions pt. 1 and 2. We encourage you to listen to the full episodes! Become

Magical Overthinking with Amanda Montell
April 29, 2024

Amanda Montell is the host of the podcast Sounds Like A Cult as well as the author of the new book The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, a collection of personal essays on various cognitive biases, those flawed ways of thinking t

Francine and the Wolves of Wall Street with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'
April 22, 2024

Sarah Marshall joins me to chat about how, in 1968, one unsuspecting young womans bustline almost caused a stock market bust when thousands of Wall Street employees became obsessed with watching her walk to work. I also tell Sarah about an absurd 20-year

The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals
April 01, 2024

In the late 1950s, an organization known as SINA started a campaign with the mission of clothing naked animals for the sake of decency. Today we will look at this bizarre moral crusade and its leader, whose life you'll have to hear about to believe. Beco

When Conspiracies Aren't Just Theories with Journalist Tom Risen
March 25, 2024

Journalist and author Tom Risen is here to tell me about some of the real conspiracies that the CIA and the FBI were involved in from the 50s to the 70s and how, in 1975, one senator finally took these agencies to task, revealing shocking truths that woul

When Conspiracies Aren't Just Theories with Journalist Tom Risen
March 25, 2024

Journalist and author Tom Risen is here to tell me about some of the real conspiracies that the CIA and the FBI were involved in from the 50s to the 70s and how, in 1975, one senator finally took these agencies to task, revealing shocking truths that woul

Bigfoot's Big Adventure with Author John O'Connor
March 18, 2024

John O'Connor is the author of The Secret History of Bigfoot: Field Notes on a North American Monster, a cross-country adventure and investigation into the lore around Bigfoot as well as the personalities of those who spend their lives chasing this elusiv

Gang Initiations pt. 2
March 04, 2024

For the second part of this Urban Legends Hotline episode, we are continuing to explore various tall tales of ruthless gang initiations from the 1990s onward, as well as looking at the sweeping anti-gang laws of the 80s and 90s that had devastating effect

Gang Initiations pt. 1
February 26, 2024

For this Urban Legends Hotline episode, we are answering a listener message about a story of street gangs initiating wannabes with frightening rituals including driving around with their headlights off and murdering the first good samaritan who gives them