American Hysteria

Today we are talking to Jason Stanley, Jewish-American professor of philosophy at Yale University and author of the New York Times bestselling book 'How Fascism Works'. He'll help us understand more about the relationship between conspiracy theories, moral panics, and the tactics of fascist movements.Make sure you check out Jason's book 'How Fascism Works', it's vital!Next time on the show: TelevangelistsHosted by Chelsey Weber-SmithProduced by Miranda ZicklerSound by Clear Commo StudiosBecome a Patron for extra content every month! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

PLEASE VOTE!!! Fake news was the unofficial buzzword of 2016, as incendiary disinformation spread prolifically across the tabloids, TV news reports, and social media, along with accusations of liberal media bias and even accusations of a democratic satanic cult. Some of what we are covering today are fantastical hoaxes that duped a gullible American public, priming future generations with a preference for the almost-unbelievable. But we’ll also look at how atrocity propaganda has been used by opportunist media outlets and politicians to get rich and to help incite literal and cultural war. Through examining fascist tactics, we’ll also see the dangers of constructing alternate realities, and how stories that hit on our most base emotions are controlling our personal and national consciousness and the future of our democracy at large.Please consider donating to First Draft NewsCheck out the awesome Wild Wild Tech podcastCheck our voice actor Will Rogers and his sister Kristen Anderson in the hilarious and spooky podcast Guide to the UnknownAmerican Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-SmithSound design by Clear Commo StudiosResearch and co-writing by Riley SmithCo-produced and edited by Miranda Zickler Voice Acting by Will Rogers and directed by Kristen AndersonBecome a Patron for extra episodes, interviews, and videos monthly!Follow American Hysteria on social media:Twitter: @AmerHysteriaInstagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Find our merch at americanhysteria.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rachel Monroe, author of Savage Appetites, explores true crime fandom, the impact of crime narratives on public policy, and the disturbing subculture of 'columbiners'. They also discuss the contradictions of true crime, the allure of CrimeCon, the perception of danger for female travelers, the impact of true crime on identity and society, and personality hoaxes throughout American history.

To this day, glossy tabloids show the face of a six-year-old pageant girl murdered in a wine cellar in 1996, and 20 years later, an NBC special about the unsolved case still pulled in more viewers than the Emmys. Over the last few years, America has experienced a serious boom in True Crime entertainment; endless docuseries, TV shows, films, podcasts, and books, but our fascination with crimes that have nothing at all to do with us is a part of American history, and in fact, a part of human history as well. On this episode we will explore our most sensational boogiemen: uncaught sadistic geniuses, sociopathic hippy cults, allegedly handsome men with broken arms calling you into their cars, and silent killers slipping into your window at night. But we will also chart our historical reactions to this content, our intrinsic desire to become armchair sleuths and what that says about the psychology and biology of this thing called Justice, and how the public fear of these rare, sensationalized murders has aided Law and Order policies by making us all into future victims. Please consider donating to the Insight Prison ProjectAmerican Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-SmithProduced and edited by Clear Commo StudiosResearch and cowriting assisted by Riley SmithCo-Produced by Miranda Zickler Voice Acting by Will RogersBecome a Patron for extra episodes, interviews, and videos monthly!Follow American Hysteria on social media: Twitter: @AmerHysteria Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

American Hysteria is back for season four beginning October 19th! Join us as we investigate our ‘vehicles of hysteria’, everything from True Crime to Televangelists, Tabloid Talk Shows to Fake News to see how pop culture, the media, misinformation, and disinformation have influenced and manipulated the reality we share, and sometimes, the reality we don’t.Become a Patron for more content every monthFollow us on social mediaInstagram: @americanhysteriapodcastTwitter: @amerhysteria Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just in time to kick off this Halloween season, I got to be a guest on the amazing podcast ‘You’re Wrong About’ talking what else, but killer clowns.Mike Hobbes and Sarah Marshall are super smart and hilarious journalists obsessed with the past. Every week they reconsider a person or event that's been miscast in the public imagination. They talk about everything and everyone from Tonya Harding to Koko the Gorilla, from sexting to acid rain, and of course the Satanic Panic. 'You're Wrong About' is so much like American Hysteria, we call it a sibling show.American Hysteria will be back in mid October, in the meantime follow us on Instagram @americanhysteriapodcast and Twitter @amerhysteriaGo subscribe to You’re Wrong About! Here are links to Apple and Spotify.Follow YWA on Twitter: @yourewrongabout @remember_sarah @rottenindemark Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We finally have the extremely dope merch you’ve been asking for, and it's ready for preorder! The design (from Brothers Design Co (https://brothersdesignco.com/) ) reimagines our razor-blade-in-the-apple logo with brand new nods to the illuminati and the Satanic Panic. Shipping in September just in time for our season four premiere and Halloween, find the design on our social media or our website. Links below! Get a special discount code with you follow us on social media.Click here to order!Twitter: @AmerHysteriaInstagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcastAll proceeds from our preorder are going to BEAM, Black Emotional and Mental Health, a nonprofit dedicated to breaking down the barriers to healing for the Black community. All our products are made eco-friendly and Fair Labor Certified in the USA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over our summer break, we will be rereleasing some of our old episodes as they become relevant in the present moment with an intro explaining their new context. This episode talks about a brand new conspiracy theory called #WayfairGate which alleges that the furniture company is trafficking children in boxes through the mail. We'll explore the theory first and then give you a chance to re-listen to the related topic of satanic ritual abuse we covered in season one in our episode called Satanic Panic Part 2. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For our season finale, we will be exploring our ultimate human fear, our number one cognitive dissonance that arguably leads to all our American hysterias, all our archetypes, beliefs, and delusions, our moral panics. We’ll be taking at look at the historical progression of how Americans have dealt with mortality starting with a place known as the Disneyland of Death, then traveling back to learn about the Puritan idea of the Good Death, and then see how the mass casualties of the Civil War and Lincoln’s embalmed corpse changed our relationship to bodies and immortality, all the way up to the present day tech billionaires funding strange new science to live forever. But we’ll also explore how, historically, the deaths of Black people have been treated in an almost polar opposite way to the deaths of white people, and how the echoes of this reality reach into the present day. Through a psychological concept known as the Terror Management Theory, we’ll try to understand how this uniquely human knowledge of our inevitable deaths shapes our psychology, society, and culture.We will be taking a hiatus for the summer but please stay with us, stay subscribed, follow us on social media or if you can, become a Patron. We love you all so much, thank you for being the best audience we could ever hope for <3American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-SmithProduced and edited by Clear Commo StudiosResearch and cowriting assisted by Riley SmithCo-Produced by Miranda ZicklerShow art by RoacheVoice Acting by Will RogersBecome a Patron for extra episodes, interviews, and videos monthly!Follow American Hysteria on social media:Twitter: @AmerHysteriaInstagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcastConsider donating to the nonprofits and organizations we mentioned in this episode.This week's #AmericanHysteriaBookClub (on Instagram) Worm at the Core by Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon, and Tom Pyszczynski Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The national and international protests over the death of George Floyd have generated larger and more widespread conversations about systemic racism in the United States. We hope to use our platform to help provide context and understanding around our shared moment in history, to show how our past creates our present, and to help illuminate how anti-Black racism has been passed on through our culture and politics, changing with each generation but also very much staying the same.Here are some books by Black authors that helped create this episode that we strongly recommend for further reading:The New Jim Crow by Michelle AlexanderStamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. KendiHow to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. KendiChoke Hold by Paul ButlerCatalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross GayThis episode was put together by Chelsey Weber-Smith, Riley Smith, Rod Rodriguez, and Miranda Zickler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices