Podcaster and storyteller Glynn Washington grew up in an extremist religious sect called the Worldwide Church of God and also hosted the Heaven’s Gate podcast about the UFO cult that famously committed a mass suicide in 1997. He’ll tell us all about this experience and how it shaped him, and together we will talk about how cults draw well-meaning people in, and what it means to be a seeker.

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This episode was produced by Miranda Zickler, check out her band Ladies and their new cover of Blue Christmas with more at listentoladies.com

Sound by Clear Commo Studios
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Seekers and Swindlers with Glynn Washington

American Hysteria explores how fantastical thinking has shaped our culture – moral panics, urban legends, hoaxes, crazes, fringe beliefs, and national misunderstandings. Poet-turned-podcaster Chelsey Weber-Smith tells the strangest stories from American history and examines the forces that create the reality we share, and sometimes, the reality we don't.

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Sarah Marshall joins me to chat about how, in 1968, one unsuspecting young woman’s bustline almost caused a stock market bust when thousands of Wall Street employees became obsessed with watching her walk to work. I also tell Sarah about an absurd 20-year-long craze called Girl-Watching that taught "genteel" men the "refined art" of covertly checking out women, as well as the avant-garde artist and feminist responses to the treatment of Francine Gottfried who would come to be known as the Wall Street Sweater Girl.

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Head to americanhysteria.com to get merch and leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler
Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith
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Francine and the Wolves of Wall Street with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'

In the late 1950s, an organization known as SINA started a campaign with the mission of clothing naked animals for the sake of decency. Today we will look at this bizarre moral crusade and its leader, whose life you'll have to hear about to believe.

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Find us on Instagram @americanhysteriapodcast
Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline or get your mitts on some merch 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
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The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals

Journalist and author Tom Risen is here to tell me about some of the real conspiracies that the CIA and the FBI were involved in from the 50s to the 70s and how, in 1975, one senator finally took these agencies to task, revealing shocking truths that would be used for decades to make the conspiracy theories we know today seem far more plausible. Tom writes about government surveillance and spy agencies and is the co-author of the bestselling book 'The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys—and One Senator's Fight to Save Democracy,'" which he wrote with his father, James Risen, another journalist who has spent decades covering intelligence agencies.

Get Tom's Book

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler
Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Head to americanhysteria.com to get merch and leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline!

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When Conspiracies Aren't Just Theories with Journalist Tom Risen

John O'Connor is the author of The Secret History of Bigfoot: Field Notes on a North American Monster, a cross-country adventure and investigation into the lore around Bigfoot as well as the personalities of those who spend their lives chasing this elusive creature.

Get John's book here

Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler
Associate Producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith
Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith

Go to factormeals.com/americanhysteria50 and use code americanhysteria50 and use code americanhysteria50 to get 50% off your order
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Bigfoot's Big Adventure with Author John O'Connor

For the second part of this Urban Legends Hotline episode, we are continuing to explore various tall tales of ruthless gang initiations from the 1990s onward, as well as looking at the sweeping anti-gang laws of the 80s and 90s that had devastating effects on communities and categorized entire neighborhoods as gang associates, enacting severe punishments based on erroneous assumptions and outright lies.

Call for a Ceasefire and Help End Civilian Suffering

Leave us a message on our Urban Legends Hotline
Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content
Or subscribe to American Hysteria on Apple Podcasts

Sound designer and associate producer: Riley Swedelius-Smith
Producer: Miranda Zickler
Voice Actor: Will Rogers
Written, produced and hosted by by Chelsey Weber-Smith
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seekers and Swindlers with Glynn Washington

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