It’s the spooky season, and this episode is a doozy and an oozy, as in the oozing of decomposing bodies. Ed Gein, the inspiration behind characters Norman Bates, Leatherface and Buffalo Bill, is the topic of today’s Strange Country. Cohosts Beth and Kelly have an especially important PSA before you press play: Don’t eat while listening.

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

Cite your sources:

Bloom, John. “They Came. They Sawed. – Texas Monthly.” Texas Monthly, November 2004, https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/they-came-they-sawed/. Accessed 11 October 2024.   Dimitropoulos, Stav. “Serial Killer Ed Gein Was a 'Model Patient' After Being Incarcerated for His Gruesome Crimes.” A&E, 11 January 2018, https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/serial-killer-ed-gein-was-a-model-patient-after-being-incarcerated-for-his-gruesome-crimes. Accessed 12 October 2024.   Hanneman, Joe. “A Look Back at the 'Plainfield Butcher,' Grave Robber Ed Gein.” The Hanneman Archive, 4 November 2014, https://hannemanarchive.com/2014/11/04/plainfield-butcher-ed-gein/. Accessed 6 October 2024.   Keller, Robert. Unhinged: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, the Butcher of Plainfield. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017. Accessed 6 October 2024.   Piccotti, Tyler. “Ed Gein: Biography, Murderer, Grave Robber, 'Monster' Season 3.” Biography (Bio.), 17 September 2024, https://www.biography.com/crime/ed-gein. Accessed 6 October 2024.   Sutton, Candace. “The mother of the most depraved serial killer of all time.” NZ Herald, 24 October 2020, https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/who-was-the-mother-of-the-most-depraved-serial-killer-of-all-time/T75XZ2O7K7AGAP5LBGPKDKHVV4/. Accessed 12 October 2024.

Hey Dashhounds, it's our favorite month for creepy tales at Strange Country! October brings warmish temperatures at night, hot sunny days, hurricanes with power that you have never seen before, and the uncomfortable feeling of politics gone wrong--rarely landing with a woman in charge. Today Beth and Kelly bring you the story of the Night of Terror. Enjoy!

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

Cite your sources, dude:

Deuel, Nathan. “Book Prize winner Stephanie Jones-Rogers on women slave owners.” Los Angeles Times, 17 April 2020, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-04-17/female-slave-owners-independent-brutal-stephanie-jones-rogers. Accessed 22 July 2024.

Jones Rogers, Stephanie. They Were Her Property. https://archive.org/details/they-were-her-property-white-women-as-slave-owners-in-the-american-south-pdfdrive/page/205/mode/2up.

Kell, Gretchen. “Unmasked: Many white women were Southern slave owners, too.” Berkeley News, 25 October 2019, https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/10/25/white-women-slaveholders-q-a/. Accessed 22 July 2024.

“Madame LaLaurie | The story of Delphine LaLaurie, of New Orleans.” Ghost City Tours, https://ghostcitytours.com/new-orleans/haunted-places/lalaurie-mansion/madame-lalaurie/. Accessed 22 July 2024.

The mid-20th century was heady times full of LSD, and a NASA flush with cash, which is how we get to today’s story about a scientist trying to get dolphins to speak English. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about Dr. John C. Lilly, inventor of the sensory deprivation tank and dolphin whisperer, whose plans for dolphin communication veered off in a strange direction when one volunteer started giving Peter the dolphin a helping hand, if you catch our meaning.

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

Cite your sources:

GRECO, JOANN, and Benjamin Franklin. “The Psychonaut You Never Heard Of – The Pennsylvania Gazette.” The Pennsylvania Gazette, 20 June 2017, https://thepenngazette.com/the-psychonaut-you-never-heard-of/. Accessed 12 August 2024.   Greenwood, Arin. “What It Means To Say A Dolphin Committed Suicide.” HuffPost, 13 June 2014, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dolphin-commits-suicide_n_5491513. Accessed 14 August 2024.   Houghton, Gerard A. “John Lilly.” The Guardian, 5 October 2001, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/oct/05/guardianobituaries.highereducation. Accessed 14 August 2024.   Jones, Tom, et al. “The Ketamine Secrets of 'Ecco the Dolphin.'” VICE, 16 March 2015, https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-ketamine-secrets-of-segas-ecco-the-dolphin-347/. Accessed 14 August 2024.   Kabil, Ahmed. “Meet the psychedelics-obsessed scientist who wanted to learn dolphins' language.” Medium, 28 November 2016, https://medium.com/timeline/neuroscience-doctor-drugs-lsd-c17d5e84c653. Accessed 14 August 2024.   Rapp, Joshua. “Just How Intelligent Are Dolphins?” Discover Magazine, 26 March 2021, https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/just-how-intelligent-are-dolphins. Accessed 13 August 2024.   Riley, Christopher. “The dolphin who loved me: the Nasa-funded project that went wrong.” The Guardian, 8 June 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/08/the-dolphin-who-loved-me. Accessed 14 August 2024.   Schreiber, Dan. “Will We Ever Speak Dolphinese?” The Theory of Everything Else: A Voyage Into the World of the Weird, HarperCollinsPublishers, 2023, pp. 161-173.

New Hampshire seemed like the perfect state to start a libertarian utopia. No sales or income tax, aversion to governmental interference and the motto “Live free or die.” But for residents of Grafton, it soon became un-BEAR-able. Do you see what I did there because I don’t. Join Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly as they share this remarkable tale of libertarian hijinks from the book A Libertarian Walks into a Bear by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling.

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

Cite your sources:

Austin, Elizabeth. “Libertarians Took Control of This Small Town. It Didn't End Well.” Washington Monthly, 30 August 2020, https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/08/30/libertarians-took-control-of-this-small-town-it-didnt-end-well/. Accessed 27 July 2024.   Barry, Dan. “What Is the Free State Project?” The New York Times, 15 July 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/15/us/politics/nh-free-state-project.html. Accessed 30 July 2024.   Bookman, Todd. “Libertarian activist sentenced to 8 years in prison for role in cryptocurrency money laundering scheme.” NHPR, 2 October 2023, https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2023-10-02/libertarian-activist-sentenced-to-8-years-in-prison-for-role-in-cryptocurrency-money-laundering-scheme. Accessed 30 July 2024.   Hongoltz-Hetling, Matthew. A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (and Some Bears). PublicAffairs, 2020.   Malone, Clare. “What Does Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Actually Want.” The New Yorker, 5 August 2024, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/12/robert-f-kennedy-jr-profile-presidential-campaign.   “Pastor Killed in Fire at 200-Year-Old Grafton Church.” nhpr, 14 January 2016, https://www.nhpr.org/post/pastor-killed-fire-200-year-old-grafton-church.   Sullivan, Adam. “Judge settles dispute over fire-ravaged church in New Hampshire.” WCAX 3, 2 May 2019, https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Judge-settles-dispute-over-fire-ravaged-church-in-New-Hampshire-509395891.html.   Sullivan, Adam. “New life for New Hampshire church destroyed by fire.” WCAX 3, 21 August 2019, https://www.wcax.com/content/news/New-life-for-New-Hampshire-church-destroyed-by-fire-557778101.html.

Things are changing in ‘Merica, we can feel it. Join Beth and Kelly today as we tell the tale of white women in the south who played a very major role in the trading of enslaved people during the 18th and 19th centuries. It is a story that has only recently been uncovered and exposed thanks to the research work of Stephanie Jones-Rogers and her book They Were Her Property. Now after years of historians painting pictures of the delicate flowers known as white Southern Belles married to men who owned enslaved people, do we learn that the women—these wives—were some of the worst, most evil and violent part of the entire slave economy. And maybe this explains why we have women today supporting the most racist and misogynist former president we have ever seen. Because old habits die hard. Thank you for listening; it’s an act of love.

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

Cite your sources, dude:

Deuel, Nathan. “Book Prize winner Stephanie Jones-Rogers on women slave owners.” Los Angeles Times, 17 April 2020, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-04-17/female-slave-owners-independent-brutal-stephanie-jones-rogers. Accessed 22 July 2024.

Jones Rogers, Stephanie. They Were Her Property. https://archive.org/details/they-were-her-property-white-women-as-slave-owners-in-the-american-south-pdfdrive/page/205/mode/2up.

Kell, Gretchen. “Unmasked: Many white women were Southern slave owners, too.” Berkeley News, 25 October 2019, https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/10/25/white-women-slaveholders-q-a/. Accessed 22 July 2024.

“Madame LaLaurie | The story of Delphine LaLaurie, of New Orleans.” Ghost City Tours, https://ghostcitytours.com/new-orleans/haunted-places/lalaurie-mansion/madame-lalaurie/. Accessed 22 July 2024.

In today’s episode Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly slog through the remaining 4,567,324 pages of Project 2025, a manifesto to turn America into Dante’s 8th circle of hell. If you don’t want to face this, the basic gist is anything good and just is gone and is replaced by bad.

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

So many citations, so little time:

Borosage, Robert L. “Why Trump's Second Victory Would Be Worse.” The Nation, 4 June 2024, https://www.thenation.com/article/society/project-2025-trump-heritage-foundation-maga/. Accessed 13 June 2024.

Dans, Paul, and Steven Groves, editors. Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership. The Heritage Foundation, 2023, https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf.

Folkenflik, David. “Trump CEO over Voice of America repeatedly abused power, investigation finds.” NPR, 21 May 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/05/21/1177208862/usagm-michael-pack-voa-voice-of-america-investigation-trump-abuse-of-power. Accessed 11 June 2024.   Garcia, Lulu. “Inside the Heritage Foundation's Plans for 'Institutionalizing Trumpism.'” The New York Times, 21 January 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/21/magazine/heritage-foundation-kevin-roberts.html. Accessed 19 June 2024.   Goldman, Adam. “The Director of National Intelligence Serves Trump Agenda Amid Promises to Stay Apolitical.” The New York Times, 23 November 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/us/politics/john-ratcliffe-intelligence.html?searchResultPosition=6. Accessed 11 June 2024.   Hakala, Kate. “Here's the Absurd Advice 70s Cosmo Gave Women to Land a Man With Sex.” MIC, 21 April 2015, https://www.mic.com/articles/116000/here-are-the-super-easy-steps-a-woman-should-take-before-sex-according-to-1971-cosmo.   Leingang, Rachel. “What is Project 2025 and what does it have to do with a second Trump term?” The Guardian, 26 May 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/26/what-is-project-2025-trump. Accessed 9 June 2024.   Lewis, Chris. “Ken Cuccinelli and the Persuasive, Pervasive Politics of Cruelty.” The American Prospect, 29 February 2024, https://prospect.org/politics/2024-02-28-ken-cuccinelli-persuasive-pervasive-politics-cruelty/. Accessed 8 June 2024.   Maass, Peter. “Christopher Miller, Trump's Defense Secretary, Fights for Reputation.” The Intercept, 11 March 2023, https://theintercept.com/2023/03/11/trump-defense-secretary-christopher-miller/. Accessed 11 June 2024.   Marantz, Andrew. “Does Hungary Offer a Glimpse of Our Authoritarian Future?” The New Yorker, 27 June 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/04/does-hungary-offer-a-glimpse-of-our-authoritarian-future. Accessed 19 June 2024.   Michel, Casey. “How Viktor Orbán Conquered the Heritage Foundation.” The New Republic, 15 March 2024, https://newrepublic.com/article/179776/heritage-foundation-viktor-orban-trump. Accessed 19 June 2024.   Nichols, John. “Project 2025's Guide to Subverting Democracy.” The Nation, 4 June 2024, https://www.thenation.com/article/society/project-2025-democracy-fcc-fec/. Accessed 9 June 2024.   Pengelly, Martin. “Revealed: 'extremist' Trump economist plots rightwing overhaul of US treasury.” The Guardian, 29 February 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/29/trump-economist-stephen-moore-us-treasury-project-2025. Accessed 8 June 2024.   Pilkington, Ed. “Mass deportations, detention camps, troops on the street: Trump spells out migrant plan.” The Guardian, 3 May 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/03/trump-mass-deportations-detention-camps-military-migrants. Accessed 13 June 2024.   Prokop, Andrew. “Trump second term agenda: Would guardrails of democracy hold him back?” Vox, 20 May 2024, https://www.vox.com/politics/24159069/trump-guardrails-authoritarian-democracy-second-term. Accessed 11 June 2024.   Reinhard, Beth. “Trump loyalist pushes ‘post-constitutional’ vision for second term.” The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/08/russ-vought-trump-second-term-radical-constitutional/. Accessed 8 June 2024.   Sanger, Margot. “How Insurers Exploited Medicare Advantage for Billions.” The New York Times, 8 October 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/08/upshot/medicare-advantage-fraud-allegations.html. Accessed 12 June 2024.   Savage, Charlie, et al. “The Resistance to a New Trump Administration Has Already Started.” The New York Times, 16 June 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/16/us/politics/trump-2025-democratic-resistance.html. Accessed 16 June 2024.   Smith, David. “Trump’s Project 2025 plot would take ‘wrecking ball’ to US institutions, key Democrat warns.” The Guardian, 11 June 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/11/trump-project-2025-wrecking-ball. Accessed 11 June 2024.   Summers, Juana, et al. “Emails show Carson family fingerprints at HUD.” CNN, 2 February 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/02/politics/ben-carson-family-hud/index.html. Accessed 13 June 2024.   Thrush, Glenn. “Ben Carson's HUD Spends $31000 on Dining Set for His Office (Published 2018).” The New York Times, 27 February 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/us/ben-carson-hud-furniture.html. Accessed 13 June 2024.   Weiland, Noah. “Trump Administration Erases Transgender Civil Rights Protections in Health Care (Published 2020).” The New York Times, 28 September 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/us/politics/trump-transgender-rights.html?searchResultPosition=9. Accessed 8 June 2024.

Project 2025 is a 920-page bloated opus about taking our fragile democracy and turning into Christian Nationalist nightmare if Trump gets back into the oval office. And Beth read it!! Well, skimmed some portions because oh my god was this bureaucratic gibberish. But that’s the point; onslaught us with so much information, we’re too numb to fight back. Listen to part one on Strange Country where Beth and Kelly detail how the Project 2025 authors, an assortment of Garbage Pail kids, pin all of society’s ills on “wokeness,” abortion, and gay people having rights. The plan is to get rid of all those things.

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

Lord in heaven, look at all these citations:

Ainsley, Julia. “DHS says Border Patrol agents used force on Haitians, but didn't whip them.” NBC News, 8 July 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/dhs-report-says-border-patrol-agents-used-unnecessary-force-haitians-t-rcna36992. Accessed 15 June 2024.   Bedekovics, Greta. “The Far Right’s Invitation for Foreign Interference in U.S. Elections.” The Center of American Progress, 6 June 2024, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-far-rights-invitation-for-foreign-interference-in-u-s-elections/. Accessed 9 June 2024.   Berkowitz, Bill. “'Cultural Marxism' Catches On.” Southern Poverty Law Center, 15 August 2003, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2003/cultural-marxism-catching. Accessed 2 June 2024.   Blitzer, Jonathan. “A Trump Official Behind the End of DACA Explains Himself.” The New Yorker, 10 November 2017, https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trump-official-behind-the-end-of-daca-explains-himself?_sp=effc46a3-4cfc-4ce5-8e5b-2d14e76847e5.1718279776181.   Borosage, Robert L. “Why Trump's Second Victory Would Be Worse.” The Nation, 4 June 2024, https://www.thenation.com/article/society/project-2025-trump-heritage-foundation-maga/. Accessed 13 June 2024.   Bowman, Emma. “The upside-down American flag becomes a pro-Trump protest.” NPR, 3 June 2024, https://www.npr.org/2024/06/03/nx-s1-4987590/upside-down-american-flag-protest-symbol-history. Accessed 11 June 2024.   Chait, Jonathan. “John Durham Admits He Knows Little About Russia Scandal.” New York Magazine, 21 June 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/06/john-durham-admits-he-knows-little-about-russia-scandal.html. Accessed 11 June 2024.   Dans, Paul, and Steven Groves, editors. Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership. The Heritage Foundation, 2023, https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf.   Davis, Julie Hirschfeld. “Shoot Migrants' Legs, Build Alligator Moat: Behind Trump's Ideas for Border (Published 2019).” The New York Times, 2 October 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/us/politics/trump-border-wars.html. Accessed 11 June 2024.   Folkenflik, David. “Trump CEO over Voice of America repeatedly abused power, investigation finds.” NPR, 21 May 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/05/21/1177208862/usagm-michael-pack-voa-voice-of-america-investigation-trump-abuse-of-power. Accessed 11 June 2024.   Goldman, Adam. “The Director of National Intelligence Serves Trump Agenda Amid Promises to Stay Apolitical.” The New York Times, 23 November 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/us/politics/john-ratcliffe-intelligence.html?searchResultPosition=6. Accessed 11 June 2024.   Grim, Ryan. “Trump Administration Allows Appointees to Apportion Federal Funds.” The Intercept, 20 August 2020, https://theintercept.com/2020/08/20/federal-funds-omb-apportionment-trump/. Accessed 9 June 2024.   Jackson, Harold. “Joseph Coors.” The Guardian, 18 March 2003, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/mar/19/guardianobituaries.usa. Accessed 11 June 2024.   Joselow, Maxine. “Ex-EPA official on rollbacks, snowballs and selling Trump.” E&E News by Politico, 22 February 2019, https://www.eenews.net/articles/ex-epa-official-on-rollbacks-snowballs-and-selling-trump/. Accessed 8 June 2024.   Kelly, Caroline, et al. “Ken Cuccinelli blames drowned man in border photograph for own, daughter’s deaths.” CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/27/politics/ken-cuccinelli-drowned-father-daughter-fault/index.html. Accessed 8 June 2024.   Leingang, Rachel. “What is Project 2025 and what does it have to do with a second Trump term?” The Guardian, 26 May 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/26/what-is-project-2025-trump. Accessed 9 June 2024.   Lewis, Chris. “Ken Cuccinelli and the Persuasive, Pervasive Politics of Cruelty.” The American Prospect, 29 February 2024, https://prospect.org/politics/2024-02-28-ken-cuccinelli-persuasive-pervasive-politics-cruelty/. Accessed 8 June 2024.   Maass, Peter. “Christopher Miller, Trump's Defense Secretary, Fights for Reputation.” The Intercept, 11 March 2023, https://theintercept.com/2023/03/11/trump-defense-secretary-christopher-miller/. Accessed 11 June 2024.   Nichols, John. “Project 2025's Guide to Subverting Democracy.” The Nation, 4 June 2024, https://www.thenation.com/article/society/project-2025-democracy-fcc-fec/. Accessed 9 June 2024.   Nichols, John. “Project 2025's Guide to Subverting Democracy.” The Nation, 4 June 2024, https://www.thenation.com/article/society/project-2025-democracy-fcc-fec/. Accessed 13 June 2024.   Pengelly, Martin. “Revealed: 'extremist' Trump economist plots rightwing overhaul of US treasury.” The Guardian, 29 February 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/29/trump-economist-stephen-moore-us-treasury-project-2025. Accessed 8 June 2024.   Pilkington, Ed. “Mass deportations, detention camps, troops on the street: Trump spells out migrant plan.” The Guardian, 3 May 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/03/trump-mass-deportations-detention-camps-military-migrants. Accessed 13 June 2024.   Prokop, Andrew. “Trump second term agenda: Would guardrails of democracy hold him back?” Vox, 20 May 2024, https://www.vox.com/politics/24159069/trump-guardrails-authoritarian-democracy-second-term. Accessed 11 June 2024.   Reinhard, Beth. “Trump loyalist pushes ‘post-constitutional’ vision for second term.” The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/08/russ-vought-trump-second-term-radical-constitutional/. Accessed 8 June 2024.   Sanger, Margot. “How Insurers Exploited Medicare Advantage for Billions.” The New York Times, 8 October 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/08/upshot/medicare-advantage-fraud-allegations.html. Accessed 12 June 2024.   Savage, Charlie, et al. “The Resistance to a New Trump Administration Has Already Started.” The New York Times, 16 June 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/16/us/politics/trump-2025-democratic-resistance.html. Accessed 16 June 2024.   Smith, David. “Trump’s Project 2025 plot would take ‘wrecking ball’ to US institutions, key Democrat warns.” The Guardian, 11 June 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/11/trump-project-2025-wrecking-ball. Accessed 11 June 2024.   Summers, Juana, et al. “Emails show Carson family fingerprints at HUD.” CNN, 2 February 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/02/politics/ben-carson-family-hud/index.html. Accessed 13 June 2024.   SUPERVILLE, DARLENE. “Jill Biden will lead new initiative to boost federal government research into women's health.” AP News, 13 November 2023, https://apnews.com/article/jill-biden-research-womens-health-gender-policy-dbe0eec03767cacbbccd07cc83ee15df. Accessed 9 June 2024.   Swaine, Jon. “Stephen Moore: Trump's Federal Reserve pick withdraws nomination.” The Guardian, 2 May 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/may/02/stephen-moore-trump-federal-reserve-nominee-withdraws-latest. Accessed 8 June 2024.   Thrush, Glenn. “Ben Carson's HUD Spends $31000 on Dining Set for His Office (Published 2018).” The New York Times, 27 February 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/us/ben-carson-hud-furniture.html. Accessed 13 June 2024.   Weiland, Noah. “Trump Administration Erases Transgender Civil Rights Protections in Health Care (Published 2020).” The New York Times, 28 September 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/us/politics/trump-transgender-rights.html?searchResultPosition=9. Accessed 8 June 2024.   Yachnin, Jennifer. “Trump BLM chief: Let's do away with Antiquities Act.” E&E News, 6 February 2024, https://www.eenews.net/articles/trump-blm-chief-lets-do-away-with-antiquities-act/. Accessed 8 June 2024.

Hey Dash Hounds, you clever playful listeners. Why do we play? Are we even allowed to play as adults without judgment. Not if Beth is around. In this episode, Kelly and Beth discuss the science of play—specifically animal play. Of course we have watched our cats indulge in “playful” ankle biting, but other animals also incorporate play in their daily lives. But why? Listen and find out. Thank you always for listening; it’s an act of love.

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

Works cited, dude:

Wikipedia, https://www.watchmojo.com/articles/top-5-freaky-facts-about-dolphin-sex/dolphins-are-sexually-aggressive-and-violent. Accessed 9 June 2024.

Gigliotti, Carol. The Creative Lives of Animals. NYU Press, 2022.

“Information and stories about San Francisco coyotes: behavior & personality, coexistence & outreach, by Janet Kessler: Unveiling first-hand just how savvy, social, sentient and singular coyotes really are! | Page 3.” Coyote Yipps, 10 November 2023, https://coyoteyipps.com/page/3/. Accessed 9 June 2024.

Norris, Courtney. “Group of orcas attack and sink vessels off Iberian Peninsula.” PBS, 14 June 2023, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/group-of-orcas-attack-and-sink-vessels-off-iberian-peninsula. Accessed 9 June 2024.

Smith, Ellie. “Why playing games is good for you.” BBC, 3 February 2022, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220127-why-adults-should-embrace-their-playfulness. Accessed 9 June 2024.

Toomey, David. Kingdom of Play: What Ball-bouncing Octopuses, Belly-flopping Monkeys, and Mud-sliding Elephants Reveal about Life Itself. Scribner, 2024. Accessed 9 June 2024.

What should you not do if you commit crimes? Write a book where the main character is someone just like you doing the very crimes you are doing. John Leonard Orr, fire captain and arson investigator, wrote a book about a serial arsonist in LA County while he was being that very serial arsonist. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about the strange crime of arson in today’s weekly/bimonthly podcast. Thanks for sticking with us!

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

Cite your sources:

Antholis, Kary. “A Convicted Fireman-Arsonist and Me: The Facts As I Knew Them.” Crime Story, 24 January 2020, https://crimestory.com/2020/01/24/a-convicted-fireman-arsonist-and-me-the-facts-as-i-knew-them/. Accessed 18 May 2024.   Hesse, Monica. American Fire: Love, Arson, And Life in a Vanshing Land. WW Norton, 2017.   “INVESTIGATOR CHARGED IN 3 ARSON CASES.” The Washington Post, 6 December 1991, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/national/1991/12/07/investigator-charged-in-3-arson-cases/cb86ce32-f4fc-40ba-9cd7-21104b1f4e0c/. Accessed 18 May 2024.   Ricapito, Maria. “My Father John Orr Got Sexual Thrills from His Murderous Arson.” A&E, 5 June 2018, https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/john-orr-arsonist-father-firefighter-murderer-family-lori-orr-kovach. Accessed 18 May 2024.   Wambaugh, Joseph. Fire lover. HarperCollins, 2002.

Charles Lindbergh wasn’t only known for that flight, his weird reverence for Nazis and being the public face of America First, he was also interested in literal immortality. In the 1930s, he collaborated with Dr. Alexis Carrel to devise ways to regenerate organs so people could possibly live forever, but not just any people. It’s the 1930s and these two white guys are mainly interested in elongating the lives of other white western dudes. Join Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly as they share another Lindbergh story and discuss whether they would want to live forever.

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

Cite your sources:

Dodes, Rachel. “The One-Body Problem.” Vanity Fair, no. 755, February 2024, 62-67, 97-99.   Friedman, David M. The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever. HarperCollins, 2008.   Harding, Luke. “DNA backs Lindbergh family claim | World news.” The Guardian, 28 November 2003, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/nov/29/germany.usa?CMP=gu_com. Accessed 29 March 2024.   Jehangir, Waqas. “Evolution of Artificial Hearts: An Overview and History.” NCBI, 6 October 2014, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5358116/. Accessed 16 March 2024.   Mark, Joshua J. “Gilgamesh.” World History Encyclopedia, 15 December 2022, https://www.worldhistory.org/gilgamesh/. Accessed 3 March 2024.   Stein, Rob. “First human transplant of a genetically modified pig kidney performed.” NPR, 21 March 2024, https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/21/1239790816/first-pig-kidney-human-transplant. Accessed 23 March 2024.   Tully, Tracey. “The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping: A Grisly Theory and a Renewed Debate.” The New York Times, 6 March 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/05/nyregion/charles-lindbergh-baby.html. Accessed 24 March 2024.   Velie, Marissa Sertich. “What's the Difference Between Dutch Process and Natural Cocoa Powder?” Serious Eats, https://www.seriouseats.com/difference-dutch-process-natural-cocoa-powder-substitute. Accessed 3 March 2024.