In 1973, mysterious communications from a young boy came over CB radios in the Southwest, leading to a massive search and rescue mission that generated far more questions than answers. For this episode, I tell American Hysteria Producer (and co-host of our subscribers-only podcast Hysteria Home Companion) Miranda Zickler about the dubious case now referred to as Lost Boy Larry and go through the tangle of strange new information I feverishly uncovered deep in the archives of newspapers.com.

This episode is a shortened version of our subscribers-only podcast Hysteria Home Companion. Head to patreon.com/americanhysteria or subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠ to get access to Hysteria Home Companion as well as ad-free episodes.

Producer and Editor: ⁠⁠Miranda Zickler⁠⁠

Associate Producer: ⁠⁠Riley Swedelius-Smith⁠⁠

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join hosts Morgan Absher and Kaelyn Moore as they take you deep into the world of the most notorious crimes ever — where a single clue can crack a case wide open. From shocking murders to serial killers, Clues dives into all the forensic details and brilliant sleuthing of the world's most infamous cases. CLUES is a Crime House Original, powered by PAVE Studios. Follow and listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2009, the news reported live as a six-year-old boy careened through the air at 7,000 feet trapped inside a homemade balloon craft. Millions tuned into the harrowing saga, but once the balloon finally hit the ground, no little boy was found inside. Details then emerged that seemed to indicate it was all a hoax created by a family as part of a PR stunt for a reality TV show. On this episode, we explore the story of Balloon Boy, ask whether the event was indeed a hoax, and look at the early history of the hot air ballooning craze in the 18th and 19th centuries where hoaxes and wild spectacles were a foundational part of the emerging scientific field.

Become a Patron⁠ to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠

Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline at ⁠americanhysteria.com⁠

Sound Designer and Associate Producer: ⁠Riley Swedelius-Smith⁠

Producer and Editor: ⁠Miranda Zickler⁠

Voice Actor: ⁠Will Rogers⁠

Written, Produced, and Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Right now we are seeing accusations of gang associations used to to justify abducting immigrants off the street and sending them to either US detention centers or the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador with no due process. We have included a new introduction for this rerelease of our two part Gang Initiation series from 2024 in hopes that we can illuminate how these types of accusations and their consequences are straight out of the American playbook.

Head to immigrantjustice.org/know-your-rights

Sound Designer and Associate Producer: ⁠Riley Swedelius-Smith⁠

Producer and Editor: ⁠Miranda Zickler⁠

Voice Actor: ⁠Will Rogers⁠

Written, Produced, and Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah Marshall takes me on a journey through two possible historical literary deceptions and asks me to try to figure out what is real, what is fake, and what it all means. This is a sibling to our recent episode on You’re Wrong About called Hoax Memoir Spectacular, so make sure you check that out as well.

Listen to 'You're Wrong About' and 'You Are Good' wherever you get your podcasts

⁠Become a Patron⁠ to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠

Producer and Editor: ⁠Miranda Zickler⁠

Associate Producer: ⁠Riley Swedelius-Smith⁠

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

*Please listen to part one of our series first.* 'The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk' was an 1800s true crime memoir about the horrors a runaway nun claimed to have suffered while living among debaucherous and murderous Catholic clergy in a convent-turned-torture chamber, and at the time, it was the second bestselling book in America. But was it really a truthful account of Maria Monk’s life? Or was it all a hoax, a piece of propaganda meant to incite hatred of the early immigrant folk devils of American culture? In this two part series, Sarah Marshall of 'You’re Wrong About' and 'You Are Good' joins me to try to separate fact from fiction, talk about the similarities between this this book and other hoax memoirs, and discuss the particular ways that anti-immigrant rhetoric has remained the same for two centuries.

Listen to 'You're Wrong About' and 'You Are Good' wherever you get your podcasts

Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler

Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

'The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk' was an 1800s true crime memoir about the horrors a runaway nun claimed to have suffered while living among debaucherous and murderous Catholic clergy in a convent-turned-torture chamber, and at the time, it was the second bestselling book in America. But was it really a truthful account of Maria Monk’s life? Or was it all a hoax, a piece of propaganda meant to incite hatred of the early immigrant folk devils of American culture? In this two part series, Sarah Marshall of 'You’re Wrong About' and 'You Are Good' joins me to try to separate fact from fiction, talk about the similarities between this this book and other hoax memoirs, and discuss the particular ways that anti-immigrant rhetoric has remained the same for two centuries.

Listen to 'You're Wrong About' and 'You Are Good' wherever you get your podcasts

Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler

Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The hottest new (and embarrassing) trend in the billionaire bubble is luxury doomsday shelters, wildly expensive bunkers that the ultra-rich believe will allow them to live extravagantly in a post-apocalyptic world. Join me, Joshua Belhumeur, and Malcolm Critcher of the podcast 'This is Propaganda' as we enter their futuristic world, try to understand their tech bro mindset, and take a look at the history of prepping to see how unchecked capitalism has transformed the way we think about the end of the world.

Listen to 'This is Propaganda' wherever you get your podcasts and check out brink.com

Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts

Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler

Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a very special episode I did last year with the podcast You’re Wrong About in which Sarah Marshall and I swapped stories about some of our favorite historical hoaxes and pranks in honor of April Fools Day.

Listen to You're Wrong About wherever you get your podcasts

Become a Patron to support our show and get ad-free early episodes and bonus content

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts

Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline

Carolyn Kendrick produced this episode for YWA

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler

Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Woody Shticks is a comic stripper and burlesque performer as well as the director, production manager, and co-star of our recent live stage show with You’re Wrong About. For this episode, Woody and I talk about our histories with and philosophies around modern burlesque, and I tell him about the drama surrounding the first burlesque troupe to make it big in the United States back in the 1860s. This sexier-than-usual episode will show that the radical joy of art forms like burlesque continue to speak hilarious truth to the boring ass powers that be.

Check out Woody's website

Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content

Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts

Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler

Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith

Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices