Maybe you've tried Keto or Atkins or the blood type diet, but have you thought about maybe trying God? The Weigh Down Workshop was founded by Gwen Shamblin in 1986. She didn't believe in dieting, exercising or counting calories. Shamblin instead told followers to rely on God and pray that He will slap the Doritos out of your hand. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about this program turned church and how some cult experts see it as a cult.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

Dello Stritto, Mike. “Weigh Down: Faith or Fraud?” News Channel 9, Cult Education Institute, 25 Nov. 2002, culteducation.com/group/1224-weigh-down/21806-weigh-down-faith-or-fraud.html.

Dugan, Jeanne. “Church Lady of Diet Weighs In On Trinity and Her Flock Flees.” Wall Street Journal, Cult Education Institute, 30 Oct. 2000, culteducation.com/group/1224-weigh-down/21821-church-lady-of-diet-weighs-in-on-trinity-and-her-flock-flees.html.

Ellin, Abby. “Religion Journal; Seeing Overeating as a Sin, and God as the Diet Coach.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 29 May 2004, www.nytimes.com/2004/05/29/us/religion-journal-seeing-overeating-as-a-sin-and-god-as-the-diet-coach.html?searchResultPosition=3.

“Firm Beliefs.” NewsChannel 5, Cult Education Institute, 5 Feb. 2004, culteducation.com/group/1224-weigh-down/21827-firm-beliefs.html.

Levenson, Michael, and Jesus Jiménez. “7 Presumed Dead After Plane Crashes Into Tennessee Lake, Officials Say.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 May 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/05/29/us/plane-crash-tennessee.html?searchResultPosition=2.

Mead, Rebecca. “Slim for Him.” The New Yorker, 7 Jan. 2001, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/01/15/slim-for-him.

“Parents Convicted of Killing Son, 8.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 16 Feb. 2007, www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna17191330.

Ross, Rick Alan. “Has Gwen Shamblin's ‘Weigh Down’ Diet Turned into a ‘Cult’?” Cult Education Institute, 30 June 2017, culteducation.com/group/1224-weigh-down/21804-praying-to-be-thin.html.

Shamblin, Gwen. The Weigh down Diet. Waterbrook Press, 2013.

“Why People Become Overweight.” Harvard Health, 24 June 2019, www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/why-people-become-overweight.

Williams, Phil. “Controversy Surrounded Brentwood Church, Founder for Years; Gwen Shamblin Lara among Those Presumed Dead.” WTVF, WTVF, 30 May 2021, www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/controversy-surrounded-brentwood-church-founder-for-years-gwen-shamblin-lara-among-those-presumed-dead.

Today's Strange Country tale involves murder, racism and goats. The big three, as we like to say. In 1932, Jennie Merrill was murdered in Natchez, Miss. Her neighbors who lived in a dilapidated estate nicknamed The Goat Castle likely had something to do with it, but it was a black laundress named Emily Burns who was convicted of the crime. Because everything is garbage.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources: 

Carter, L. M. (2018, September 21). Murder, She Rewrote. Country Roads. Retrieved August 2, 2021, from https://countryroadsmagazine.com/art-and-culture/history/murder-she-rewrote/

Cox, K. L. (2017). Goat Castle: A True Story of Murder, Race and the Gothic South. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.

Neighbor Pair Held in Natchez Murder. (1932, August 9). The New York Times. Retrieved August 2, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/1932/08/09/archives/neighbor-pair-held-in-natchez-murder-rh-dana-and-his-housekeeper.html?searchResultPosition=2

Octavia Dockery, 84, Lived in 'Goat Castle'. (1949, April 23). The New York Times. Retrieved August 2, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/1949/04/23/archives/octavia-dockern-84-lived-ingoat-castle.html?searchResultPosition=1

You know Beth and Kelly have issues with numbers, and anything prior to or around BC, AD and CE is hard for us to comprehend. So please bear with us this episode as we go back 1,000 years to the hopping city of …Cahokia. Have you ever heard of it? We didn’t think so (but if you have, please tell us!) It is real and it is part of the important but ignored history of North America. And who can we blame for the fact that thousands of earthen mounds with rich and deep history have been plowed under? Dash Hounds - we know you can figure this out! Thanks for listening- it is an act of love.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite Your Sources Dude:

Adena mound. Adena Mound - Ohio History Central. (n.d.). https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Adena_Mound. 

Baires, S. (2018, February 23). White settlers buried the truth about the Midwest's mysterious MOUND CITIES. Smithsonian.com. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/white-settlers-buried-truth-about-midwests-mysterious-mound-cities-180968246/. 

Gosart, U. (2018, March 17). The idea of the Vanishing Race. Performing Archive. https://scalar.usc.edu/works/performingarchive/ideavanishingrace. 

NEWITZ, A. N. N. A. L. E. E. (2022). Four lost Cities: A secret history of the urban age. W W NORTON. 

Miamisburg mound. Miamisburg Mound | OHIO'S HISTORY. (n.d.). http://touringohio.com/history/miamisburg-mound.html. 

https://moundville.museums.ua.edu/about/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS1TD6WFNeQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAXBA2Pt9wE

https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/mound-builders-poverty-point-adena-hopewell-and-mississippian-cultures

Strange County episode 200, everybody! That means, you've likely wasted 199 hours of your life. Why not waste an hour more with today's story of Sante Kimes, a grifter with a penchant for fraud, arson and murder. Beth and Kelly also share a new way to express anger.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

Andrews, S., McLean, B., & Seal, M. (2000, March 01). The Story of Sante Kimes: Mother, Murderer, and Criminal Mastermind. Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 22, 2021, from https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2000/03/sante-kimes-mother-murderer-criminal-mastermind

Feuer, A. (2014, May 22). Sante Kimes Dies in Prison at 79; Killed and Swindled With Her Son. New York Times. Retrieved July 22, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/nyregion/sante-kimes-dies-in-prison-at-79-killed-and-swindled-with-her-son.html?searchResultPosition=2

Rohde, D. (2000, May 17). Sante Kimes Chastised by Judge Over Contacts With News Media. New York Times. Retrieved July 22, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/17/nyregion/sante-kimes-chastised-by-judge-over-contacts-with-news-media.html?searchResultPosition=1

Tefler, T. (2021). Sante Kimes. In Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion (pp. 256-285). Harper Perennial.

The lady vanishes [ii]. (1999, November 20). The Guardian. Retrieved July 24, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/nov/20/weekend7.weekend5

Tania Head told others she was on the 78th floor sky lobby when a plane crashed through the windows, nearly killing everyone on impact. Head said she made it out with seconds to spare before the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in what would turn out to be America's most devastating terrorist attack on Sept. 11. Head took her trauma and put it into action as president of a survivor's network. Trouble is, her story was completely untrue. Strange Country hosts Beth and Kelly discuss Head's deceit and their disbelief over the steps Head took to maintain her ruse.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

"9/11 ordeal was a pack of cruel lies." People [London, England], 3 Aug. 2014, p. 8. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A377173856/STND?u=nysl_sc_flls&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=17676dad. Accessed 12 July 2021.

"Barcelona paper casts new doubt on Tania Head's Sept. 11 account." Sep 30 2007. Web. ProQuest. 12 July 2021.

"CON AIR." Daily Telegraph [Sydney, New South Wales, Australia], 14 Sept. 2013, p. 40. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A352528323/STND?u=nysl_sc_flls&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=8bba2a26. Accessed 12 July 2021.

Dunlap, David W., and Serge F. Kovaleski. “In a Sept. 11 Survival Tale, the Pieces Just Don't Fit.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 Sept. 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/world/americas/27iht-27survivor.7660692.html?searchResultPosition=14.

Fisher, Robin Gaby, and Angelo J. Gugliemo. The Woman Who Wasn’t There: The True Story of an Incredible Deception. Touchstone Books, 2013.

Graff, Garrett M. “On 9/11, Luck Meant Everything.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 10 Sept. 2019, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/september-11-blind-luck-decided-who-lived-or-died/597688/.

Gugliemo, Angelo J., director. The Woman Who Wasn't There. Amazon Prime, 2012, www.amazon.com/Woman-Who-Wasnt-There/dp/B00AHGXIE2.

Kovaleski, Serge F. "Comic Says His Story About 9/11 Was a Lie." New York Times, 17 Sept. 2015, p. C1(L). Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A428848750/ITOF?u=oswego&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=76b45bde. Accessed 12 July 2021.

Britney Spears conservatorship got Kelly and Beth thinking about the ways society tries to clamp down on women's bodies. Because of Kelly's feeblemindedness, she forgot that Beth already covered the forced sterilization of Carrie Buck, but lucky for her--is lucky the right word?--there are a ton of forced sterilizations to choose from. Listen to the story of one such woman Fannie Lou Hamer who turned her trauma into activism.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources: 

“About the Film.” Bellyofthebeastfilm.com, www.bellyofthebeastfilm.com/about.

Brown, DeNeen L. “Civil Rights Crusader Fannie Lou Hamer Defied Men - and Presidents - Who Tried to Silence Her.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 12 June 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/10/06/civil-rights-crusader-fannie-lou-hamer-defied-men-and-presidents-who-tried-to-silence-her/.

Buck v Bell, www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/274us200.

Cleghorn, Elinor. “The History of Coercion Dressed Up As Care Is a Long One.” Vogue, 25 June 2021.

democracynow. YouTube, YouTube, 17 Mar. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=acVPt1qr5MY. 

“Fannie Lou Hamer.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 June 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Lou_Hamer.

Mills, Kay. This Little Light of Mine: the Life of Fannie Lou Hamer. The University Press of Kentucky, 2007.

Naftulin, Julia. “Inside the Hidden Campaign to Forcibly Sterilize Thousands of Inmates in California Women's Prisons.” Insider, Insider, 24 Nov. 2020, 

Pearce, Jessica, et al. “Mississippi Appendectomies: Reliving Our Pro-Eugenics Past.” Ms. Magazine, 28 Oct. 2020, msmagazine.com/2020/10/28/ice-immigration-mississippi-appendectomies-usa-eugenics-forced-coerced-sterilization/.

www.insider.com/inside-forced-sterilizations-california-womens-prisons-documentary-2020-11.

From slavery through the Civil Rights Movement, passing was one means of avoiding the inequities and injustices of being Black in America. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about instances of light-skinned African-Americans leaving family ties and connections behind to pass for white.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

Hammer, Josh. “Why America Needs to Ban Critical Race Theory in Schools.” New York Post, New York Post, 5 July 2021, nypost.com/2021/07/04/why-america-needs-to-ban-critical-race-theory-in-schools/.

Hirsch, Arnold R. “Massive Resistance in the Urban North: Trumbull Park, Chicago, 1953-1966.” The Journal of American History, vol. 82, no. 2, 1995, pp. 522–550. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2082185. Accessed 2 July 2021.

Hobbs, Allyson. A Chosen Exile: a History of Racial Passing in American Life. Harvard University Press, 2014.

Lopez, German. “Study: Anti-Black Hiring Discrimination Is as Prevalent Today as It Was in 1989.” Vox, Vox, 18 Sept. 2017, www.vox.com/identities/2017/9/18/16307782/study-racism-jobs.

Mancini, Olivia. “Passing as White: Anita Hemmings 1897.” Passing as White - Vassar, the Alumnae/i Quarterly, 2001, www.vassar.edu/vq/issues/2002/01/features/passing-as-white.html.

“Massacres in the United States.” Zinn Education Project, www.zinnedproject.org/collection/massacres-us/.

Ransom, Jan. “Trump Will Not Apologize for Calling for Death Penalty Over Central Park Five.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 June 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/06/18/nyregion/central-park-five-trump.html.

Schwantes, Marcel. “Harvard Study Says Minority Job Candidates Are 'Whitening' Their Resumes When Looking for Jobs.” Inc.com, Inc., 11 Apr. 2019, www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/why-minority-job-applicants-mask-their-race-identities-when-applying-for-jobs-according-to-this-harvard-study.html.

Sim, Jillian A. “Fading To White.” AMERICAN HERITAGE, 1 Mar. 2019, web.archive.org/web/20190328214952/www.americanheritage.com/fading-white.

Todd, Kim. "Sensational: The Hidden History of America's 'Girl Stunt Reporters.'" Harper, 2021.

Ellen and William Craft, both born into slavery, came up with an ingenious plan to win their freedom in 1848. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about their four-day excursion evading slave catchers, and question why history about Black Americans has some white people all riled up and frothing at school board meetings.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

Bernstein, Brittany. “Florida Board of Education Approves Rule Banning '1619 Project' from Classrooms.” Yahoo!, Yahoo!, 10 June 2021, www.yahoo.com/entertainment/florida-board-education-approves-rule-165718175.html.

Craft, William. Running a Thousand Miles to Freedom. William Treedle, 1860, Google Books, www.google.com/books/edition/Running_a_Thousand_Miles_for_Freedom/C50TAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0.

Dunbar, Erica Armstrong. “George Washington, Slave Catcher.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 16 Feb. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/opinion/george-washington-slave-catcher.html.

Fulwood, Sam. “Gingrich Rejects Apology for Slavery.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 14 June 1997, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-06-14-mn-3177-story.html.

Holmes, Marian Smith. “The Great Escape From Slavery of Ellen and William Craft.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 16 June 2010, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-escape-from-slavery-of-ellen-and-william-craft-497960/.

Iati, Marisa. “What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Do Republicans Want to Ban It in Schools?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 2 June 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/05/29/critical-race-theory-bans-schools/.

McCaskill, Barbara. “The Profits and the Perils of Partnership in the ‘Thrilling’ Saga of William and Ellen Craft.” Melus, vol. 38, no. 1, Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States and the University of Connecticut, 2013, pp. 76–97, doi:10.1093/melus/mls008.

Morgan, Thad. “The Daring Disguise That Helped One Enslaved Couple Escape to Freedom.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 28 Feb. 2020, www.history.com/news/slavery-escape-william-ellen-craft.

Salcedo, Andrea. “A Lawmaker Wanted to Ban 'Divisive' Teaching on Race. Then He Mentioned 'the Good' of Slavery.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 29 Apr. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/04/28/ray-garofalo-louisiana-good-slavery/.

Webb, Cassandra. “Arkansas Infant Mortality Rate Third Highest in the Country and Getting Worse.” KARK, KARK, 29 Jan. 2021, www.kark.com/news/local-news/arkansas-infant-mortality-rate-third-highest-in-the-country-and-getting-worse/.

Join Beth and Kelly this week as they discuss the best way to smell like a flower…It’s our best advice yet. Learn about how women have gone from wool to cotton to acetone and pesticides in hopes of stopping the monthly carnage that escapes from our loins. It’s hard to be a woman for so many reasons, but dealing with our monthly uninvited, jealous, coworker known as our menstruation is probably top on the difficulty list. Thanks for listening- it is an act of love

Theme music: To Be A Woman by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

http://www.sarahsundin.com/make-it-do-tire-rationing-in-world-war-ii/

http://www.mum.org/MenCups.htm

https://www.womensvoices.org/whats-in-period-products-timeline-of-chemical-testing/

https://onlinenursing.duq.edu/master-science-nursing/the-ultimate-guide-to-feminine-hygiene/

https://www.knixteen.com/blogs/the-rag/the-history-of-periods

https://wanderwomenproject.com/women/leona-chalmers/

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

Sometimes you just need to make an announcement in the newspaper declaring yourself Emperor of the U.S. especially if other people don't realize it. That's what Joshua Norton did in 1859. His next step was to abolish Congress. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about San Francisco's greatest tourist attraction and decree that you will love this episode with your very being.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

Drury, William. Norton I, Emperor of the United States. Dodd, Mead, 1986.

“It's Good to Be King.” Wired, Conde Nast, 1 Mar. 2000, www.wired.com/2000/03/kingdoms/.

“Joshua A. Norton.” The Museum of the City of San Francisco, www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/norton.html.

Lumea, John. “Emperor Norton, Schizophrenic. Or Not.” The Emperor Norton Trust, The Emperor Norton Trust, 3 Apr. 2020, emperornortontrust.org/blog/2017/5/22/emperor-norton-schizophrenic-or-not.

Pitney, Nico. “Donald Trump Supporters Are Now Calling Him 'God Emperor'.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 14 Jan. 2017, www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-god-emperor-creepy-reddit_n_579a6970e4b08a8e8b5d38b5.