OddBallers

OddBallers will be back for a Season 2 starting February 2022!

New topics, new guests, and the same great oddities! 

Join us for Season 2 of OddBallers. 

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This is OddBallers.

Writer and Journalist Elizabeth Weyers dives deep into popular culture, and media to explore any and all topics odd and interesting. From witch hunts, to trending skincare routines, schizophrenic writers, and blood-sucking demons turned sexy pop-culture icons. We will talk about the biggest trends, tales, and oddities of the world.  Join us for a new topic every month to learn a little something odd about the world we inhabit.

Christmas is the time of giving, the time of cheer, a great festive holiday where trees are decorated, lights are hung, and chestnuts are roasted by an open fire. Christmas is a time of merry gentlemen, eggnog, rewatching Christmas Vacation for the 1000000 times, spreading time with family, and yeah also that big guy in the red.

Santa, Old St. Nicholas, Kris Kringle, Papa Noel, no matter what you call him or where you are from, the legend of a man building toys and delivering them to children on Christmas Eve is one that is a staple of Holiday legends. Some stories have the elves and reindeer that live at the north pole like the Tim Allen Santa Clause movies. Some show a more humble approach to the folklore of Santa with the holiday favorite Santa Claus is coming to town. No matter the story of good old saint nick that you enjoying during the wintertime the story of a large man in red squeezing down your chimney to drop gifts for all of the good little boys and girls of the world there is a story that turns the jolly story of Santa on its head. And it starts in Germany and the Alpine region.

While good Kris Kringle was out putting smiles on the faces of the young children of the world giving them small gifts and, well I know his story, another was out doing the complete opposite. Created as the counterpart to the kindly St. Nick who was out delivering sweets and treats to the good, his opposite was out dealing with the naughty kids. 

His name was Krampus.

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Resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus

https://www.history.com/news/krampus-christmas-legend-origin

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Krampus 

Music Credit--- Theme- Elizabeth Weyers

Jamestown was one of the first American colonies and one that is only briefly mentioned in school and in American History. I imagine it is because it is full of betrayal, loss, religious turmoil, politics, death, and so many dark and grizzly mysteries and stories that we might just want to forget about it. Or paint over it much like Columbus. But like another colony in America, one that was only a few miles to the South of Jamestown some 17 years earlier called Roanoke and we are still reveling in the mystery of what happened to them after the colony just vanished.

Did Jamestown settlers heed the warning that Roanoke’s legacy left behind? Or are they also going to be doomed to a grizzly and grim fate?

Join Elizabeth Weyers as she explores the story of Jamestown.

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Resources:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/new-archaeological-research-jamestown-reveals-identities-four-prominent-settlers-discovery-180956028/  

https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/jamestown

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pocahontas-180962649/

Music Credit--- Theme- Elizabeth Weyers

In school, we were taught that in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and then a century and a half later in 1620, the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. But what about all of the stuff that happened in between. I am here to let you know that after Columbus’s voyage of murder, rape, slavery, and colonization, the mysteries and dark discoveries of the New World did not slow down any. Because in between the two most well-known points in the “founding” of America, we have another timeline. One of the new colonies, starvation, wars, lots of mysteries, and of course lost colonies as well. The legacy of Roanoke Island and its colonists remains a mystery. Although archaeologists have tried to figure out one of the oldest mysteries of America there have been no satisfactory answers.  What happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke? 

Join Elizabeth Weyers as she explores the story of Roanoke.  

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Music Credit--- Theme- Elizabeth Weyers

Let's get spooky! 

Trick or treating, spooky ghouls, foggy cemeteries, and Spooky scary skeletons, all things that we as Americans associate with Halloween. That grand old holiday at the end of October that you either love or you hate, desperately. I have never met someone who is just meh about Halloween. You are either all in or all out. I am definitely all in. Horror movies, costumes, scary stories, and the brisk chill on the autumn nights. Halloween is a custom, a holiday, a tradition, Halloween is a requirement in my household. It always has been. From the fake cemeteries and screaming portraits, and bloody decals stuck to every window, mirror, floorboards, and toilet seat. Halloween is not a small feat for my family. But Halloween looks different for everyone. Some people go all out, others just go trick or treating and put up some inflatables. Some use it as an excuse to go party dress up, and others might sit in a pumpkin patch all night waiting for the Great Pumpkin to stop by. But no matter how we choose to do Halloween, we can’t deny that we have turned it into a pop culture movement. But where did Halloween come from you might ask? Join Elizabeth Weyers in the telling of the origin of Halloween.

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Research-

https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween 

https://www.history.com/news/halloween-folk-legends

Music Credit-- OddBallers Theme- Elizabeth Weyers

Join Elizabeth Weyers as she interviews a practicing Hellenic Hereditary Hedge Witch.

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Music Credit--- Theme- Elizabeth Weyers

After the 200 years of persecution and witch hysteria known as the burning times fizzled out in Europe it took a transatlantic flight to the new world, America. There it poisoned a small village in Massachusetts known as Salem. In the year 1692, the social, political, and economic climate of Salem was as rocky as Massachusetts bay and they plummeted into the vast darkness of rooting out the devil in their new world much like their predecessors in their homeland. But centuries later, we have turned the ugly image of the witch into nothing more than a Halloween costume and scary movie antagonist and have reverted back to the old origins of the witch, rooted in nature a benign practice. Join Elizabeth Weyers as she interviews a practicing Hellenic Hereditary Hedge Witch.

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Music Credit--- Theme- Elizabeth Weyers

The origin of witches starts even before King Saul and the Old Testament. These ancient deities were called creation goddesses and were all-powerful beings. Witches have not always been seen as evil and gruesome before even the story of King Saul deities and entities existed in mythology and lore and history that were more benign. But how then did this benign image of a witch turn maligned, and why is that the only image of it we know today? Let's talk about witches, and the power struggles between the church and the monarchy. 

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Music Credit--- Theme- Elizabeth Weyers

Happy International Podcast Day podcasters, listeners, and enthusiasts! 

Find out how you can be a part of the celebration by going to https://internationalpodcastday.com

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Join Elizabeth Weyers with another small business September episode with a woman in business. We are here today with the owner of Custom Threads and Design. An embroidery and screen printing company out of Woodward, Iowa. She is a very busy woman, between setting up the Woodward Farmers’ Market, Homeschooling her kids, she is also a business owner. This episode is all about how to embroider, and how to screenprint, and what is the biggest challenge for this industry, all right now on OddBallers. Please Welcome, Melissa Rothfus Founder and Owner of Custom Treads and Design.

Find and follow Custom Threads and Design on Facebook at @customthreadsanddesign or head over to their website at customthreadsanddesign.com

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Music Credit--- Theme- Elizabeth Weyers