- 1 hour 28 minutesOur 300th Episode with Sarah Marshall
We are celebrating our (estimated) 300th episode of American Hysteria with a little Chelsey Weber-Smith Q&A session hosted by Sarah Marshall of You’re Wrong About. It’s been a strange journey, and to celebrate, I’m answering questions provided by our beloved Patrons, so join us to learn more about the show and more about my own weird life, my unceasing fears, my hopes, my dreams, and how I feel about all of you special eccentrics out there.
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts
Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group who are on the ground in Gaza delivering food and supplies to displaced families.
Leave us a message on the Urban Legends Hotline
Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler
Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith
Additional editing by Kaylee Jasperson
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
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25 May 2026, 9:23 pm - 1 hour 25 minutesThe Voyager Golden Record with Riley Swedelius-Smith and Miranda Zickler
During the 1970s, a ragtag group led by American astronomer Carl Sagan set out to create and then launch into deep space an audio time capsule of sounds, songs, and messages that would represent the Earth to any intelligent alien life that might come in contact with the crafts they called Voyager I and Voyager 2. For this American Hysteria team episode, assistant producer and sound designer (and my brother) Riley Swedelius-Smith tells producer Miranda Zickler and I about the fascinating process of creating the Voyager Golden Record, how they made the choices they did, and what they felt was important enough, understandable enough to share with hypothetical beings we probably cannot even comprehend.
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts
Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group who are on the ground in Gaza delivering food and supplies to displaced families.
Leave us a message on the Urban Legends Hotline
Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler
Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith
Additional editing by Kaylee Jasperson
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
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18 May 2026, 7:01 am - 1 hour 21 minutesThe Disturbing World of Cute Cat AI with Panic World
Warning! Extremely weird episode! In a world where AI creations are taking over social media, we are seeing more and more bafflingly bizarre content overwhelm apps like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, including what has come to be known as Cute Cat AI. These seemingly kid-friendly, uncanny, Elsagate-esque humanoid cat videos include gore, gross-out scenes, sexual themes, and just the weirdest stuff you can imagine. For this collaboration, Ryan Broderick and Grant Irving of the podcast Panic World join me to explore these disturbing Cute Cat AI videos as well as another classic story of online cat content taking a turn for the worse, the early internet’s Bonsai Kittens Hoax. Cat lovers, do not fear, the real cats are alright, but the people? Maybe not so much.
Listen to Panic World wherever you get your podcasts or watch this episode complete with the Cute Cat AI videos on their YouTube channel @panicworldpod
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts
Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group who are on the ground in Gaza delivering food and supplies to displaced families.
Leave us a message on the Urban Legends Hotline
Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler
Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith
Additional editing by Kaylee Jasperson
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
11 May 2026, 7:01 am - 12 minutes 29 secondsIntroducing: No Such Thing
We’re excited to share a preview of a new podcast we think you’d enjoy: No Such Thing.
No Such Thing is a show where three best friends and journalists settle their dumb arguments — and yours — by actually doing the research. Hosts Manny Fidel, Noah Friedman, and Devan Joseph start each episode with an argument using just their gut feelings. Then they go out into the world, investigate, talk to experts, and conduct some experiments. Finally, the guys bring their findings back to the group to see if they can change minds, enlighten each other, and move past their emotional truths.
Find No Such Thing on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. New episodes out Wednesdays
Listen here: No Such Thing
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7 May 2026, 4:00 pm - 1 hour 26 minutesTHE BENNINGTON TRIANGLE pt. 2 with Sarah Marshall
When the Bennington Five disappeared in Southwest Vermont between 1945 and 1950, the local refrain became: Don't go into the woods while wearing the color red. For part two of our series, former Bennington College student Sarah Marshall of You’re Wrong About joins me again as I explain four more disappearances and their alleged paranormal explanations: UFOs, forest monsters, and bizarre structures hidden in the mountains. Then we'll look at how the popular legend of the Bennington Triangle actually formed over the last 70 years.
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts
Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group who are on the ground in Gaza delivering food and supplies to displaced families.
Leave us a message on the Urban Legends Hotline
Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler
Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith
Additional editing by Kaylee Jasperson
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
4 May 2026, 7:01 am - 1 hour 28 minutesTHE BENNINGTON TRIANGLE pt. 1 with Sarah Marshall
At Bennington College in southwest Vermont, tales of a curse have been passed around for 75 years. Known as the Bennington Triangle, the nearby mountains and forests were the sites of five mysterious disappearances from the late 1940s and early 1950s, disappearances that some have blamed on paranormal forces. Former Bennington student Sarah Marshall of You’re Wrong About joins me for this two part series, and for part one, I’ll tell her the story of the most famous and confounding of these disappearances that would help inspire one of our favorite novels of all time, The Secret History by Donna Tartt. For part two, we'll get into the other disappearances as well as the tales of UFOs, forest monsters, and strange structures in the woods, all of which have been floated as the true reason the Bennington Five vanished without a trace.
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts
Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group who are on the ground in Gaza delivering food and supplies to displaced families.
Leave us a message on the Urban Legends Hotline
Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler
Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith
Additional editing by Kaylee Jasperson
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
27 April 2026, 7:01 am - 16 minutes 15 secondsIntroducing: History Daily
Today we bring you an episode of another great podcast: History Daily. Every weekday, host Lindsay Graham (American Scandal, American History Tellers) takes you back in time to explore a momentous event that happened ‘on this day’ in history. Please enjoy their episode about April 21, 1934, when The Daily Mail published an alleged photo of the Loch Ness Monster, sparking an international sensation around one of the world’s most enduring modern legends.
Subscribe to History Daily wherever you get your podcasts and check out their website at www.historydaily.com
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24 April 2026, 4:26 pm - 50 minutes 37 secondsBlowing Up the Georgia Guidestones with Tyler McBrien
In 1980, a Stonehenge-esque monument called the Georgia Guidestones appeared in the rural county of Elbert. Financed and designed by a mysterious donor, it presenting ten guidelines for mankind, guidelines that were interpreted by some as a satanic. And then in 2022, the controversial roadside attraction was blown-up by an unknown assailant. For this episode, Tyler McBrien, host of the new podcast Who Blew Up The Guidestones?, tells me the story of this confounding monument from the beginning and shares the wild truths he uncovered while trying to solve this kitschy yet consequential small town mystery.
Listen to Who Blew Up The Guidestones? wherever you get your podcasts
Podcast website: www.ajc.com/georgia-guidestones-podcast
Tyler's website: www.tylermcbrien.com
Bluesky: @tylermcbrien.com
Twitter: @TylerMcBrien
Instagram: @brien_mctyler @ajcnews
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts
Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group who are on the ground in Gaza delivering food and supplies to displaced families.
Leave us a message on the Urban Legends Hotline
Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler
Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith
Additional editing by Kaylee Jasperson
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
20 April 2026, 7:01 am - 1 hour 3 minutesBlack Magic with Gruff Webb
Take a seat in our old, ornate theater for the confounding wonders of this traveling magic show. For this episode, my dear friend is here, the artist, musician, cowboy, sailor, and now magician, known as Gruff Webb. They will tell me all about the history of Black magicians in America and the magical traditions they drew from, explain the strange power that stage magic imbues into those who practice it, and wax poetic about this secret door to another world that otherwise seems impossible.
More from Gruff Webb:
Instagram: @whereaboutzUnknown
Merch: WhereaboutzUnknown.bigcartel.com
Booking: [email protected]
Catch their shows at the Seattle Public Library throughout the month of June
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts
Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group who are on the ground in Gaza delivering food and supplies to displaced families.
Leave us a message on the Urban Legends Hotline
Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler
Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith
Additional editing by Kaylee Jasperson
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
13 April 2026, 9:48 pm - 44 minutes 14 secondsHysteria Home Companion: The Berners Street Hoax
This is a Subscribers-Only episode from 2024 in which I tell our producer Miranda about a wild April Fools Day prank that took place in 19th century London involving hundreds of people from bakers and undertakers to bankers and politicians. If you like what you hear go to patreon.com/americanhysteria or subscribe on Apple+, we have a huge back catalogue with lots more stories like this one.
Produced by Miranda Zickler
Additional editing by Kaylee Jasperson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
6 April 2026, 7:01 am - 1 hour 1 minuteDINOSAURS pt. 2
Prior to becoming stars of the stage, screen, and of wondrous World’s Fairs, dinosaurs had to be uncovered, dug out, studied, and finally, displayed. Prehistoric fossils became a valuable treasure found by laypeople and industrial workmen digging in the earth, and the hunt for the most impressive specimens became a kind of Wild West gold rush for paleontologists and those who funded them. For part two of our series, we are going to look at the quirky, vicious, rambunctious, and surprisingly political history of paleontology in England and the United States, and how, through the work of proto-billionaires, dinosaurs became symbols of American exceptionalism as well as a justification for predatory capitalism.
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts
Follow us on instagram @americanhysteriapodcast to see the videos that go along with this episode
Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits this month go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group.
Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline at americanhysteria.com
Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler
Sound Designer and Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith
Voice Actor: Will Rogers
Written, Produced, and Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
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30 March 2026, 7:01 am - More Episodes? Get the App