We all know that women and men are monoliths, right? Women like shoes and the government controlling their bodies; men like muscled-up NFTs of Donald Trump and bench-pressing bitcoin. But what if people aren’t on this straight black-and-white binary? Candy Darling, born James Slattery, defied societal expectations and chose to live her life as a superstar along the lines of her favorite actor Kim Novak. Darling was one of Andy Warhol’s last “superstars,” until her untimely death from cancer at the age of 29 in 1974. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss how Darling straddled two very different worlds; one where she hobnobbed in Warhol’s inner circle and one where she relied on friends and acquaintances’ couches because she had no money.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

Als, Hilton. “The Warhol “Superstar” Candy Darling and the Fight to Be Seen.” The New Yorker, 8 April 2024, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/04/15/candy-darling-dream-icon-superstar-cynthia-carr-book-review. Accessed 7 July 2025.

 

Baumgold, Julie. "Andy, Candy, and me." Esquire, vol. 125, no. 5, May 1996, pp. 120+. Gale OneFile: Popular Magazines, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A18239581/PPPM?u=nysl_sc_flls&sid=bookmark-PPPM&xid=b00684c9. Accessed 11 July 2025.

Carr, Cynthia. Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024.

Ottenberg, Mel. “Who Is Candy Darling? Behind the Mystique of the Ultimate Warhol Superstar.” Interview Magazine, 19 February 2024, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/who-is-candy-darling-behind-the-mystique-of-the-ultimate-warhol-superstar. Accessed 6 July 2025.

Rasin, James, director. Beautiful Darling. Flowersides Creations, 2009. Amazon Prime, https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07YVLX3L2/ref=atv_hm_mys_c_uJQOV1_3_1.

What do you do when you need a little pick-me-up? Exercise? Drink some coffee? Laugh uproariously at Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly? For some, like politicians and celebs that didn’t cut it so instead they went to Dr. Max Jacobson to get a concoction of vitamins, monkey gonads and amphetamines injected into their necks and arms. Jacobson, known as Dr. Feelgood, had the ability to cure any ailment merely by making you so high you couldn’t feel anything. Until he got his medical license revoked in the 1970s and the party was over.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

Brody, Jane E. “Patient and His Physician: Quandary for Medicine.” The New York Times, 16 January 1973, p. 81, https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/16/archives/patient-and-his-doctor-quandary-for-medicine.html. Accessed 20 June 2025.

Carlson, Peter. "Synthetic Vigor." American History, vol. 46, no. 2, June, 2011, pp. 29-37. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/magazines/synthetic-vigor/docview/863238837/se-2.

Lertzman, Richard A., and William J. Birnes. Dr. Feelgood: The Shocking Story of the Doctor Who May Have Changed History by Treating and Drugging JFK, Marilyn, Elvis, and Other Prominent Figures. Skyhorse, 2014.

Markel, Howard. “John F. Kennedy Kept These Medical Struggles Private.” PBS News, 22 Nov. 2019, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/john-f-kennedy-kept-these-medical-struggles-private.

Smith, Benedict. "Ex-White House doctor known as the 'candyman' dispensed pills without prescriptions; Reports that Ronny Jackson courted influence in Obama and Trump administrations by giving staff drugs while ignoring medical procedures." Telegraph Online, 19 Feb. 2024. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A783037514/STND?u=nysl_sc_flls&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=bd49799b. Accessed 22 June 2025.

“The Power and the Fraility.” The Washington Post, 14 June 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/2003/06/15/the-power-and-the-frailty/0c817a9c-2294-4218-ab4a-9b67a985fbf9/. Accessed 18 June 2025.

Reeves, Richard. “Opinion | Kennedy's Private Ills.” The New York Times, 21 November 2002, https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/21/opinion/kennedy-s-private-ills.html. Accessed 18 June 2025.

Rensberger, Boyce (December 4, 1972). "Amphetamines Used by a Physician To Lift Moods of Famous Patients". New York Times. 

Shachtman, Noah, et al. “Trump's White House Was 'Awash in Speed' -- and Xanax.” Rolling Stone, 3 March 2024, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-white-house-drugs-speed-xanax-1234979503/. Accessed 22 June 2025.

Twohey, Megan. “On the Campaign Trail, Elon Musk Juggled Drugs and Family Drama.” The New York Times, 31 May 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/us/elon-musk-drugs-children-trump.html. Accessed 22 June 2025.

Dear Dashhounds, have you lost the ability to handle all the things? Enough that you are thinking about bringing back the streaking fad of the 70s? Before you get all hot and bothered and start taking off your clothes in front of strangers, listen to this Strange Country episode #300 about where streaking in ‘Merica originated. If you thought it was something free and fun, you are a little right, but only for a chosen few. Thanks always for listening, it is an act of love that you can do with your clothes on.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources: 

“CRUMP, George William.” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/C000956. Accessed 03 July 2025.

KIRKPATRICK, B. (2010), “It Beats Rocks and Tear Gas”: Streaking and Cultural Politics in the Post-Vietnam Era. The Journal of Popular Culture, 43: 1023-1047. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5931.2010.00785.x

Margoshes, Pamela. “Speaking Personally; A College Streaker Bares the Whole Naked Truth.” New York Times, 4 August 1985, https://www.nytimes.com/1985/08/04/nyregion/speaking-personally-a-college-streaker-bares-the-whole-naked-truth.html.

“Music: Streaking, streaking everywhere.” Time, no. March 18, 1974, https://time.com/archive/6844977/music-streaking-streaking-everywhere/.

Stevens, Ray. The Streak. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtzoUu7w-YM.

“Streaking - Wikipedia.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaking. Accessed 3 July 2025.

Charlotte Osborne Mason was one of the biggest benefactors of the Harlem Renaissance but her patronage came with a cost. While she gave noted luminaries Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston monthly stipends to make art, she wanted a say in what the art would be in order to realize her vision: a flaming bridge to connect America to Africa. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about this strange rich white lady who believed she knew more about being Black than the artists she supported with strings.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

Boyd, Valerie. “About Zora Neale Hurston.” Zora Neale Hurston, 18 September 2024, https://www.zoranealehurston.com/about/. Accessed 7 May 2025.

Hosie, Rachel. “Powerful people act as if they’ve suffered a traumatic brain injury, find scientists.” The Independent, 26 June 2017, https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/powerful-people-brain-injury-traumatic-empathy-mirroring-keltner-study-science-a7807946.html. Accessed 13 June 2025. “When Hurston Had a (Mule) Bone to Pick with Hughes.” Proquest, 20 June 2018, https://about.proquest.com/en/blog/2018/when-hurston-had-a-mule-bone-to-pick-with-hughes/.

Kaplan, Carla. Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance. HarperCollins, 2013.

Panovka, Rebecca. “A Different Backstory for Zora Neale Hurston’s “Barracoon.”” Los Angeles Review of Books, 7 July 2018, https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/different-backstory-for-zora-neale-hurstons-barracoon/. Accessed 7 May 2025.

 

We love our trials of the century here at Strange Country and this one is a doozy. It’s likely one you’ve never heard of: Rhinelander v Rhinelander. See a young aristocrat married a domestic worker and everyone went all “heavens to betsy” about it, but what made it bring out the worst in people was that the working class bride was biracial. This was in 1924 before the country accepted interracial marriage and the KKK was on the resurgence—or what we could now call the present time.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

Greene, Bryan. “How an Interracial Marriage Sparked One of the Most Scandalous Trials of the Roaring Twenties.” Smithsonian Magazine, 20 November 2024, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-an-interracial-marriage-sparked-one-of-the-most-scandalous-trials-of-the-roaring-twenties-180985486/. Accessed 8 May 2025.

Johnson, Theodore R. “When One Of New York's Glitterati Married A 'Quadroon.'” NPR, 7 June 2014, https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/06/07/319813854/when-one-of-new-yorks-glitterati-married-a-quadroon. Accessed 10 May 2025.   Lewis, Earl, and Heidi Ardizzone. Love on Trial: An American Scandal in Black and White. Norton, 2002.

Onwuachi-Willig, Angela. A Beautiful Lie: Exploring Rhinelander v. Rhinelander as a Formative Lesson on Race, Identity, Marriage, and Family , 95 California Law Review 2393 (2007) https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/310

“Rhinelanders Flee Glare of Publicity.” The New York Times [New York], 15 November 1924, p. 6, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/11/15/100236265.html?pageNumber=6.

Does it make you feel better to know that America has always been populated by horrible people determined to ostracize others and destroy our democratic principles? Probably not. But it’s true. The ghouls we see today are repeating the things that ghouls of the past once said. Today’s episode of Strange Country, cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about ghoulish Elizabeth Dilling, a self-proclaimed sahm who traveled the country preaching in the 1930s about the communists all around us and wrote crank Glenn Beck’s fav book.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

ERICKSON, CHRISTINE K. ""I have Not had One Fact Disproven": Elizabeth Dilling's Crusade Against Communism in the 1930s." Journal of American Studies, vol. 36, 2002, pp. 473-489. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/i-have-not-had-one-fact-disproven-elizabeth/docview/195681500/se-2.

Jeansonne, Glen. Women of the far right : the mothers' movement and World War II. University of Chicago Press, 1996. Accessed 6 May 2025.

Tan, Sarah. “Quick Facts About Candace Owens: Net Worth, Husband George Farmer, Children and More.” IBTimes UK, 11 February 2025, https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/quick-facts-about-candace-owens-net-worth-husband-george-farmer-children-more-1730903. Accessed 20 April 2025.

With the on-again, off-again tariffs and total economic sh*tstorm, one wonders why anyone ever thought Donald Trump had any economic sense. That’s because Mark Burnett transformed the six-time bankruptcy declaring tabloid star into a successful businessman character on the “reality” show The Apprentice. On today’s episode of Strange Country, cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about the ultimate deception that led over 70 million Americans to give the keys to a chaos agent for a second time.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Works Cited

Buettner, Russ, and Susanne Craig. Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success. Vintage Publishing, 2024. Accessed 22 March 2025.

Bushard, Brian. “Kwame Jackson Claims Trump Not ‘Comfortable Around Black People’: Apprentice Runner-Up Allegedly Called N-Word.” Forbes, 1 June 2024, https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2024/06/01/kwame-jackson-claims-trump-not-comfortable-around-black-people-apprentice-runner-up-allegedly-called-n-word/.

Keefe, Patrick Radden. “How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success.” The New Yorker, 27 December 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/07/how-mark-burnett-resurrected-donald-trump-as-an-icon-of-american-success.

Keveney, Bill. “Arnold Schwarzenegger leaves 'Apprentice,' Trump says he was fired.” USA Today, 3 March 2017, https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2017/03/03/arnold-quits-apprentice-before-he-can-fired/98700892/.

Nussbaum, Emily. Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV. Random House Publishing Group, 2024.

Reiss, Adam, et al. “N.Y. attorney general refuses to drop $486 million judgment against Trump.” NBC News, 10 December 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/ny-attorney-general-refuses-drop-486-million-judgment-trump-rcna183603.

Setoodeh, Ramin. Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass. HarperCollins Publishers, 2024.

Smith, Greg B. “Trump Org Presses Eric Adams for Wollman Rink Rights After City Hall Spurned $120M Nonprofit Gift.” The City, 15 March 2025, https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/03/15/trump-wollman-rink-eric-adams-central-park/.

Hey Readers! Alice Duer Miller was a women of her time and ours! Who was she? Why don’t you know? Because she is a woman, and that’s a dangerous word these days.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite Your Sources Dude

“Alice Duer Miller.” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/alice-duer-miller#tab-related.

Dresner, Zita. “Heterodite Humor: Alice Duer Miller and Florence Guy Seabury.” Journal of American Culture, 07 June 2004, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1542-734X.1987.1003_33.x. Accessed 27 03 2025.

Miller, Alice D. Are Women People. ebook access on Project Gutenburg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11689/11689-h/11689-h.htm, Project Gutenburg, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11689/11689-h/11689-h.htm.

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. "Alice Duer Miller". Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 Aug. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alice-Duer-Miller. Accessed 26 March 2025

“Where Women Fail in Marriage.” Fulton History, The Washington Post, 03 06 1928, https://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html. Accessed 27 03 2025.

This is a true story. Of two strange podcasters picked to podcast in an attic about a strange country. Find out what happens when Beth and Kelly stop being polite and start getting real about The Real World, the reality show that created the blueprint for all other reality shows.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources: 

Arthur, Kate. “Looking Back At "The Real World: San Francisco," The Show That Changed The World.” Buzzfeed, 7 January 2014, https://www.buzzfeed.com/kateaurthur/real-world-san-francisco-pedro-zamora-rachel-campos.   Chaney, Jen. “Every White Person Should Watch This Week’s The Real World Homecoming.” Vulture, 19 March 2021, https://www.vulture.com/2021/03/the-real-world-homecoming-rebecca-kevin-racism-fight-episode.html.

Cohen, Randy. "Real World. Not." The New York Times Book Review, 12 July 1998. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A150174908/STND?u=nysl_sc_ahs&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=0add2ee3. Accessed 22 Feb. 2025.

Gatollari, Mustafa. “The Real World Cast Members Who Have Died.” Distractify, 24 June 2024, https://www.distractify.com/p/real-world-members-who-have-died. Accessed 21 February 2025.   Heldman, Breanne L. “Eric Nies Reflects on Life After The Real World: 'My Life Is Filled with Angels and Demons.'” People.com, 24 February 2021, https://people.com/tv/eric-nies-life-after-the-real-world/. Accessed 22 February 2025.   Nussbaum, Emily. Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV. Random House Publishing Group, 2024.

O'Connor, John J. "Review/Television; 'The Real World,' According to MTV." New York Times, 9 July 1992. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A174928194/STND?u=nysl_sc_ahs&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=0a1bbe5a. Accessed 20 Feb. 2025.

Roberts, Michael. “The Unreal World | Music | Denver.” Denver Westword, 14 March 1996, https://www.westword.com/music/the-unreal-world-5056129. Accessed 17 February 2025.

Shales, Tom. “MTV’s ‘The Real World’ needs to, like, get real.” San Antonio Express, One Star ed., 5 June 1992, p. 26. NewsBank: America's Historical Newspapers, https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=EANX-K12&req_dat=0FA0729FAB9D3500&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Aimage%252Fv2%253A10EEA20F1A545758%2540EANX-K12-16DE61B4872929B2%25402448779-16DE257513777099%254025-16DE257513777099%2540. Accessed 20 Feb. 2025.

Wallace-Wells, Benjamin (November 18, 2003). "Reality Killed the Video Star". The Washington Monthly. Archived from the original on March 24, 2006.

Wickman, Kase. “Sean Duffy From The Real World Is Trump's Latest Cabinet Pick. Yep.” Vanity Fair, 19 November 2024, https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/sean-duffy-from-the-real-world-is-trumps-latest-cabinet-pick?srsltid=AfmBOopQpcPd7CaQppFbaXcvMwJ-FZX_J2BL142NZWfOdNXIErmPpest.

Smile, you’re listening to a podcast about Candid Camera. Created by Allen Funt, Candid Camera was America’s first prank reality show. A case could be made that this show is responsible for the reality television trend that led to a con man being packaged as a “successful businessman” and is now pranking America as prez. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about this pioneering show whilst smiling through their tears.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands.

Cite your sources:   “Candid Camera | Television Academy Interviews.” Television Academy Interviews |, 1997, https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/candid-camera. Accessed 26 January 2025.   Engle, Harrison. “Hidden Cameras and Human Behavior—An Interview with Allen Funt.” ida, 1 October 2000, Hidden Cameras and Human Behavior—An Interview with Allen Funt.   Flagler, J.M. “Student of the Spontaneous.” The New Yorker, 2 December 1960, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1960/12/10/student-of-the-spontaneous.   Funt, Allen, and Philip Reed. Candidly, Allen Funt: A Million Smiles Later. Barricade Books, 1994.   Miller, Robert Nagler. “Q&A: The keeper of ‘Candid Camera’s’ zany TV legacy.” The Jewish News of Northern California, 12 July 2018, https://jweekly.com/2018/07/12/qa-the-keeper-of-candid-cameras-zany-tv-legacy/. Accessed 6 February 2025.   Nussbaum, Emily. Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV. Random House Publishing Group, 2024.   Perry, Gina. “Stanley Milgram and Candid Camera.” Gina Perry, 10 April 2012, https://www.gina-perry.com/2012/04/10/candid-camera/. Accessed 6 February 2025.   Saxon, Wolfgang. “Allen Funt, Creator of 'Candid Camera,' Is Dead at 84.” The New York Times, 7 September 1999, https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/07/arts/allen-funt-creator-of-candid-camera-is-dead-at-84.html. Accessed 25 January 2025.   Stewart, Travis. “How “Candid Camera” May Have Destroyed America.” Travelanche, 16 September 2020, https://travsd.wordpress.com/2020/09/16/how-candid-camera-may-have-destroyed-america/.