If you found out all of your neighbors, co-workers and vague acquaintances were cannibalistic, demon-worshipping child molesters, would that make you feel better or worse about the nature of reality, overall? American Hysteria's host Chelsey Weber-Smith calls out the Devil as a convenient scapegoat for people who want to oversimplify the problems facing our world.

Chelsey Weber-Smith is the writer, co-producer, and host of American Hysteria, a show that investigates our moral panics, urban legends, conspiracy theories, and archetypes, basically our special brand of fantastical thinking. They also write country music and rambles around the United States building campfires and hoping for the best. Chelsey is a graduate of the University of Virginia's MFA program in poetry and has written and self-published two chapbooks, a travel memoir, and two full-length folk/country albums, and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Their work has been published in BOAAT, Transom, Matter, Wu-Wei Fashion Mag, the James Franco Review, and Miracle Monocle. They currently live in Seattle.

Follow them at @americanhysteriapodcast on Instagram!

Here's some homework for you nerds who love to read:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43697573

https://web.archive.org/web/20180521193259/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/31/us/proof-lacking-for-ritual-abuse-by-satanists.html?sq=satanic+ritual+abuse&scp=1&st=nyt

"Indecent with Kiki Andersen" is a production of Next Chapter Podcasts.

Hosted by Kiki Andersen

Produced by Pete Musto & Max Wolfson

Executive produced by Jeremiah Tittle

Follow the show at @indecentkiki on Instagram and follow Kiki at @itskikiandersen

Email us at [email protected]