American Hysteria

The genres of modern scary movies known as slashers, meta-horror, torture porn, and social thrillers, each tell us about the anxieties of the generation in which they came to exist. Like part one, this episode explores the themes present in some of the most important films in the horror canon; themes of feminism and satanic ritual abuse, of Reagan-era morality and greed, of moral ambiguity in times of war, and those that are coming to define the smoldering culture wars we find ourselves in today. With a never-ending series of sequels, each new American terror resurrects our collective fear, making it perfectly clear that horror never dies. Become a Patron to get access to Chelsey's other podcast Walk with MeCheck out Hark here to experience podcasts in a new way!Head to tryfirstleaf.com/hysteria to get 6 bottles of wine for $29.95Check out the Queery podcast today!American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-SmithSound design by Clear Commo Studios Research and co-writing by Riley SmithCo-produced and edited by Miranda ZicklerFriggin incredible voice acting by Will Rogers and Miranda Zickler(Check our Miranda's band Kuinka and their new single All Mine)Follow American Hysteria on social media:Twitter: @AmerHysteria Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Find our merch at americanhysteria.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We need a little extra time for Horror Movies II, so here is a re-release of a very related and very important episode. Monsters come from the darkness, from the depth of lakes and swamps, from the shadows of forests and hills, and live too in the dark parts of all of us. However, this episode is less about Bigfoot and more about the idea of the monstrous, and how it has been used as a tool to demonize black folks since the first slave ships landed in America, both through folktales and famous works of fiction. We also explore how Darwin's theory of evolution affected white Americans and led to the actual creation of human zoos that displayed African people as both the missing link and blood-thirsty monsters.Become a Patron!Follow American Hysteria on social media:Twitter: @AmerHysteriaInstagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of three books, the award-winning Her Body and Other Parties, a collection of vibrantly haunting short stories, In the Dream House, a bestselling memoir and examination of queer relationship abuse, and most recently, a graphic novel horror story called The Low Low Woods. She has also taught several courses at the University of Pennsylvania, most relevant today, a fiction course called The Art of Haunting. Today we are over the harvest moon to talk to Carmen about haunted house motifs in American horror movies, the emotional core of these stories, and our personal experiences with various kinds of ghosts, both the scary and the beautiful.Get yourself a copy of Carmen’s books!: In the Dreamhouse, Her Body and Other Parties, and The Low Low WoodsNext time on the show: Horror Movies pt. 2Head to TryFirstLeaf.com/HYSTERIA to get six customized wines delivered to your door for just $29.95!Become a Patron to watch our entire Live Variety Hour and our brand new podcast Walk with MeProduced by Miranda Zickler Sound design by Clear Commo Studios Follow American Hysteria on social media:Twitter: @AmerHysteria Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Find our merch and more at americanhysteria.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Horror movies, consistently written-off by critics, exist unbound from mainstream respectability and because of this, they can often tell us the brutal truth. For this two-part series, we will be investigating what horror movies, their plots, their victims, and their villains reflect back to us about the dominant repressed fears of each generation. From the Big Bug movies of the atomic era, the earliest monster movies of post-WWI eugenics, the psychotherapy gender-panic of Psycho inspiration Ed Gein, to the new age of gore born from the violence of the late 1960s, horror movies may be vital in helping us survive the true terrors of American life.Come back next week for Return of the Horror Movies where we cover the 1970s to the present with all the teenaged blood and guts you could ever dream of!Subscribe to Euphomet now!Subscribe to Lolita Podcast now! Become a Patron to get access to Chelsey's other podcast Walk with MeAmerican Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-SmithSound design by Clear Commo Studios Research and co-writing by Riley SmithCo-produced and edited by Miranda Zickler Voice acting by Will Rogers Follow American Hysteria on social media:Twitter: @AmerHysteria Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Find our merch at americanhysteria.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mara Wilson is a writer, actor, and the former star of the 1996 classic movie Matilda as well as the author of the memoir 'Where Am I Now? True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame'. In this episode, Mara shares her relationship to the character that many in the public still see her as 25 years later, and we talk about the dramaturgy of living, our on-stage and off-stage personas, and for Mara, the pressure that comes from yet another mask. We’ll also talk about mental health, queerness, drag and burlesque, and finding one's self among those who most fully embrace the performance.Get a copy of Mara's book Where Am I Now?Subscribe to Queery now! Become a Patron to watch our entire Live Variety Hour and our brand new podcast Walk with MeProduced by Miranda Zickler Sound design by Clear Commo Studios Follow American Hysteria on social media:Twitter: @AmerHysteria Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Find our merch and more at americanhysteria.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new American archetype known as the “Influencer” has existed in various forms long before the advent of social media, and long before Kendall Jenner and the offensive brand activism of a now infamous Pepsi commercial. For this episode, we will trace the history of how corporate brands have used the idea of personal “authenticity” to sell us shit we don’t need since the mid 1800s: we’ll hear about the early form of visual social media that swept America in the 1860s, the story of the first living brand, Aunt Jemima, the handcrafted PR industry created by Sigmund Freud’s propagandist nephew, the skateboard sponsorships of the late 1990s. We’ll look too at the psychological and biological imperatives behind the “brand”, both those of companies and those of our own, and whether this thing we call authenticity even exists at all.Subscribe to Lolita Podcast now!Become a Patron to get access to our brand new podcast Walk with Me American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-SmithSound design by Clear Commo Studios Research and co-writing by Riley SmithCo-produced and edited by Miranda Zickler Voice acting by Will Rogers Follow American Hysteria on social media:Twitter: @AmerHysteria Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Find our merch at americanhysteria.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gael Aitor is a senior in high school and the host of the podcast Teenager Therapy, a show where he and four other teenagers talk about mental health and the experiences they share with a rare and empathetic nuance. Today Gael and I will explore the differences and similarities between Gen Z and Millennials and the importance of moving through our egos and being vulnerable. Today, I’ll check in with the kids to find out if they are, in fact, alright.Next week: InfluencersMake sure you subscribe to Teenager Therapy!Subscribe to Beach Too Sandy Water Too WetBecome a Patron to watch our entire Live Variety Hour and our brand new podcast Walk with MeProduced by Miranda Zickler Sound design by Clear Commo Studios Follow American Hysteria on social media:Twitter: @AmerHysteria Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Find our merch and more at americanhysteria.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our Live Variety Hour is not your run-of-the-mill podcast live show, but an actual two-hour theatrical production performed in 2019. For the first time ever, you can get access to the full video on Patreon (pay what you can)! Using my background as a drag and performance art producer, a handful of my brilliant creative partners and I created a vaudevillian bananas bonanza with skits, drag, dance, stand-up comedy, and videos from clips you'll remember from season one. Expect a lot of weird surprises along the way. Special guests include Satan, Tinky Winky, John Harvey Kellogg, and Alex Jones. Head to our Patreon for access to our live show and so much more!*No one turned away for lack of funds, email americanhysteriapodcast@gmail.com for link*Acting, writing, and production byLily OrreyErin McCarthyWill RogersChelsey Weber-SmithProduced/edited by Riley Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the nation grapples with a volatile culture war over just what version of American history our children will grow up learning, in this episode we will see that the Public School has always been a complicated, explosive, sometimes bizarre socio-political battleground. We’ll look at the messy transformations of children’s curricula through the conservative and progressive clashes over the bible, evolution, Black anti-literacy laws, Indian boarding schools, anti-commie-patriotism, good suburban morals, multiculturalism, and a radical public television program called Sesame Street. Become a Patron to get access to our brand new podcast Walk with MeSubscribe to Everyone's a Critic!American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-SmithSound design by Clear Commo Studios Research and co-writing by Riley SmithVoice acting by Will RogersCo-produced and edited by Miranda Zickler   Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, it really helps us out! Follow American Hysteria on social media:Twitter: @AmerHysteria Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Find our merch at americanhysteria.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ellen Cushing's recent piece in The Atlantic called “I was a teenage conspiracy theorist” tells her story as a young Illuminati-truther during the post-9/11 years. Her history with conspiracy theories isn't all that different from my own, so I asked Ellen to join me to talk about our experiences to try to explain what these stories were like back in the 2000s, and how they intersect with the stories we hear now. We’ll also ask the biggest question of all, how do we combat this alternate reality? As the subtitle on Ellen’s article reads, “Want to know why wild conspiracism can be so irresistible? Ask a 14-year-old girl.”Read Ellen's piece, I Was a Teenage Conspiracy TheoristBecome a Patron for extra episodes, interviews, and videos monthly, including our brand new podcast Walk with MeThis episode has sound by Clear Common StudiosProduced by Miranda ZicklerPlease leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, it really helps us out! Follow American Hysteria on social media:Twitter: @AmerHysteria Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Find our merch at americanhysteria.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices