Strange Country

The mid-20th century was the heyday of figuring out why humans were the worst through the use of social psychological experiments. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about one such experiment, Muzafer Sherif's Robbers Cave Experiment where Sherif gathered a group of 12 year old boys to see if he could pit the boys against one another. Sherif's experiment is included in Psych 101 books about group dynamics, but did this hostility occur organically or was it more manufactured by the adults?

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

Cite your sources:

Higgins, Nick, and Maria Konnikova. "Revisiting Robbers Cave: The easy spontaneity of intergroup conflict." Scientific American Blog Network, 5 September 2012, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/revisiting-the-robbers-cave-the-easy-spontaneity-of-intergroup-conflict/. Accessed 15 January 2024. Mcleod, Saul. "Robbers Cave Experiment | Realistic Conflict Theory." Simply Psychology, 27 September 2023, https://www.simplypsychology.org/robbers-cave.html. Accessed 27 February 2024. Perry, Gina. The Lost Boys: Inside Muzafer Sherif's Robbers Cave Experiment. Scribe Publications, 2019. Perry, Gina. "Robbers Cave Experiment." Practical Psychology, 26 September 2022, https://practicalpie.com/robbers-cave-experiment/. Accessed 27 February 2024. Shariatmadari, David, and Gina Perry. "A real-life Lord of the Flies: the troubling legacy of the Robbers Cave experiment." The Guardian, 16 April 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/apr/16/a-real-life-lord-of-the-flies-the-troubling-legacy-of-the-robbers-cave-experiment. Accessed 27 February 2024.

Hey Dash Hounds, are you still there? Beth and Kelly are. Or are we? Has ChatGPT taken over? Can it? We are just women after all. What is our worth? In this episode, we will talk about women's worth and Emma Goldman, a woman who fought for many things and has been forgotten like so many others. But Strange Country is doing its best to keep women's work alive before AI eats us up? Thanks always for listening.

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

Works Cited

Goldman, Emma. Living My Life. New York, Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1931, https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-living-my-life. Accessed 31 January 2024.

"Joseph A. Labadie Collection." University of Michigan Library, https://www.lib.umich.edu/collections/collecting-areas/special-collections-and-archives/joseph-labadie-collection. Accessed 1 February 2024.

"The Labadie Collection A Hidden Treasure In Our Midst." Ann Arbor District Library, https://aadl.org/node/247050. Accessed 31 January 2024.

PBS American Experience. "Emma Goldman: 1869-1940." https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goldman-1869-1940/. Accessed 28 1 2024.

Happy 2024! And Beth and Kelly are back with another tale of another cult on another year of Strange Country. What's to say? It starts off with plans for communal living and burns out in abuse, financial malfeasance and weird sex awfulness.

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

Cite your sources: Hoban, Phoebe. "Psycho Drama: The Chilling Story of How the Sullivanian Cult Turned a Utopian Dream into a Nightmare." New York Magazine [New York], 19 June 1989, pp. 41-53, https://books.google.com/books?id=XOcCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46&dq=sullivanians+1989+New+York+Magazine+article&source=bl&ots=IFdQMBb5im&sig=9gTIMcGzzHJpDx8Bz-pESJDkFZA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUo7SF3KDPAhVGWh4KHbTMDhwQ6AEIODAE#v=onepage&q=sullivanians%201989. Murray, Stephanie H., and Adam Serwer. "Why Parents Struggle So Much in the World's Richest Country." The Atlantic, 5 January 2024, https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2024/01/america-failed-parents-rich-countries-raising-kids/677023/. Accessed 6 January 2024. Offenhartz, Jake, and Kerry Shaw. "Inside the Rise & Fall Of A 1970s Upper West Side Cult." Gothamist, 21 September 2016, https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/inside-the-rise-fall-of-a-1970s-upper-west-side-cult. Accessed 30 December 2023. Stille, Alexander. The Sullivanians: Sex, Psychotherapy, and the Wild Life of an American Commune. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023. Winter, Jessica. "The Upper West Side Cult That Hid in Plain Sight." The New Yorker, 14 June 2023, https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-upper-west-side-cult-that-hid-in-plain-sight. Accessed 30 December 2023.

You've heard of six-minute abs, but how about the 15-minute orgasm? That's what Nicole Daedone of OneTaste was touting; female empowerment through clitoris stimulation. Then like most high-demand groups, things go south pretty quickly. In this Strange Country episode, co hosts Beth and very uncomfortable Kelly talk about the rise and fall of OneTaste.

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

Cite your sources: Brown, Mick. "Inside Hollywood's Orgasm Cult - LAmag - Culture, Food, Fashion, News & Los Angeles." Los Angeles Magazine, 26 May 2022, https://lamag.com/news/inside-hollywoods-orgasm-cult. Accessed 10 December 2023. Canner, Liz, director. Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste. First Run Features, 2022. Netflix. Cohen, Luc. "US founder of 'orgasmic meditation' company charged with forced labor conspiracy." Reuters, 6 June 2023, https://www.reuters.com/business/onetaste-sexual-wellness-executives-charged-by-us-with-forced-labor-2023-06-06/. Accessed 10 December 2023. Ferriss, Timothy. The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman. Harmony/Rodale, 2010. Gross, Rachel E. Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage. WW Norton, 2022. Huet, Ellen, et al. "The Dark Side of the Orgasmic Meditation Company." Bloomberg.com, 18 June 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-18/the-dark-side-of-onetaste-the-orgasmic-meditation-company. Accessed 10 December 2023. James, Emma. "'Orgasmic meditation cult' OneTaste SUES Netflix for defamation." Daily Mail, 28 November 2023, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12781527/Orgasmic-meditation-cult-OneTaste-SUES-Netflix-defamation.html. Accessed 10 December 2023. Meko, Hurubie. "Founder of Sexual Wellness Company Indicted on Forced Labor Charges." The New York Times, 6 June 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/nyregion/one-taste-commune-nicole-daedone-indicted.html. Accessed 10 December 2023. Meyer, Robinson, and Ashley Fetters. "Victorian Doctors Didn't Treat Women With Orgasms, Say Historians." The Atlantic, 6 September 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/09/victorian-vibrators-orgasms-doctors/569446/. Accessed 2 December 2023. Morin, Roc. "Inside the Implosion of OneTaste, San Francisco's Orgasmic Meditation Cult,." Playboy, 9 October 2018, https://www.playboy.com/read/one-taste-orgasmic-meditation. Accessed 12 December 2023. "OneTaste Founder and Former Head of Sales Indicted for Forced Labor Conspiracy." Department of Justice, 6 June 2023, https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/onetaste-founder-and-former-head-sales-indicted-forced-labor-conspiracy. Accessed 10 December 2023. Peltz, Jennifer. "OneTaste founder pleads not guilty in forced labor case." Fortune, 14 June 2023, https://fortune.com/2023/06/14/nicole-daedone-onetaste-entrepreneur-promoted-orgasmic-meditation-route-woman-health-pleads-not-guilty-forced-labor-case/. Accessed 10 December 2023. Pogash, Carol. "In San Francisco, a Coed Retreat Dedicated to Female Sexuality." The New York Times, 13 March 2009, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/fashion/15commune.html?searchResultPosition=2. Accessed 11 December 2023. Tiku, Nitasha. "My life with the thrill-clit cult." Cult Education Institute, Originally published to Gawker, 16 October 2013, https://www.culteducation.com/group/1373-onetaste/26847-my-life-with-the-thrill-clit-cult.html. Accessed 10 December 2023. "View Exhibit." N I N E S - View Exhibit, https://nines.org/exhibits/Victorian_Anxiety_Over_Female_?page=2. Accessed 2 December 2023.

Henry Darger is one of the most profitable outsider artists out there. Unfortunately he didn't reap the benefit of that while he was alive, spending much of it in abject poverty. He was compelled to make and write art during the time he was not working as a janitor or dishwasher. His artwork dealt with themes of child abuse and violence, subjects very familiar with Darger when he was put in an asylum at the age of 12. Strange Country cohost Beth with special pinch (or pitch) hitter Terry discuss this artist and why work gets recognition after they're gone.

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

Sources:

Andrey V. "Henry Darger." Widewalls, 16 January 2017, https://www.widewalls.ch/artists/henry-darger. Accessed 13 December 2023. Bouchard, Sara. "Phyllis Bramson on Henry Darger." Painters on Paintings, 9 November 2015, https://paintersonpaintings.com/phyllis-bramson-on-henry-darger/. Accessed 13 December 2023. Boxer, Sarah. "He Was Crazy Like a . . . Genius?; For Henry Darger, Everything Began and Ended With Little Girls (Published 2000)." The New York Times, 16 September 2000, https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/16/arts/he-was-crazy-like-genius-for-henry-darger-everything-began-ended-with-little.html?searchResultPosition=3. Accessed 13 December 2023. Coleman, Megan. "Influences." Henry Darger, http://officialhenrydarger.com/about/influences.html. Accessed 13 December 2023. Elledge, Jim. Henry Darger, Throwaway Boy: The Tragic Life of an Outsider Artist. Harry N. Abrams, 2013. "Henry Darger." MoMA, https://www.moma.org/artists/28600. Accessed 13 December 2023. Holst, Amber. "The Lost World." Chicago Magazine, 2005, https://www.chicagomag.com/chicago-magazine/november-2005/the-lost-world/. Accessed 13 December 2023. Lerner, Nathan. "On Henry Darger." Nathan Lerner, http://www.nathanlerner.com/articles/henry-darger.html. Accessed 13 December 2023. McNett, Gavin. ""Henry Darger: In the Realms of the Unreal" by John M. MacGregor." Salon.com, 23 July 2002, https://www.salon.com/2002/07/23/darger/. Accessed 13 December 2023. Pogrebin, Robin. "A Henry Darger Dispute: Who Inherits the Rights to a Loner's Genius? (Published 2022)." The New York Times, 8 February 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/arts/design/henry-darger-estate.html. Accessed 13 December 2023.

Welcome dash hounds to an old episode from the pre-covid days when men could be rich men and spend the weekend urinating on trees and ruminating on how they could make life miserable for the rest of us. Strange Country will be back soon with a brand spanking new episode.

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

Sources:

Flock, Elizabeth. "Bohemian Grove: Where the Rich and Powerful Go to Misbehave." The Washington Post, 15 June 2011, www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/bohemian-grove-where-the-rich-and-powerful-go-to-misbehave/2011/06/15/AGPV1sVH_blog.html?utm_term=.3196c5a24d65.

Guy, Peter. "The Fatuous Folly of the Super Rich and Their Plans to Escape the Apocalypse in New Zealand." South China Morning Post, 18 Feb. 2018, www.scmp.com/business/global-economy/article/2133724/fatuous-folly-super-rich-and-their-plans-escape-apocalypse.

Ingraham, Christopher. "The Richest 1 Percent Now Owns More of the Country's Wealth than at Any Time in the Past 50 Years." The Washington Post, 6 Dec. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/06/the-richest-1-percent-now-owns-more-of-the-countrys-wealth-than-at-any-time-in-the-past-50-years/?utm_term=.2ebb43e94b48.

Loudenback, Tanza. "The World's Richest People Spend $234 Billion a Year on Luxury Goods - Here's How Much They Spend on Yachts, Private Jets, Wine, and Clothes." Business Insider, Business Insider, 1 Mar. 2018, www.businessinsider.com/rich-people-spending-on-travel-private-jets-clothes-cars-2018-2.

MacLellan, Lila. "Science Proves Rich People Don't Really Notice You-or Your Problems." Quartz, Quartz, 23 Oct. 2016, qz.com/816188/science-shows-the-richer-you-get-the-less-you-pay-attention-to-other-people/.

Mearhoff, Jeff. "Mississippi close to having most-Restrictive abortion law." ABC News, ABC News Network, 8 Mar. 2018, abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/mississippi-test-state-restrict-abortion-53601798

Santos, Danny F. "15 Weird Habits Of The Super Rich And/Or Famous." Theclever, Theclever, 6 Apr. 2017, www.theclever.com/15-weird-habits-of-the-super-rich-andor-famous/.

Saunders, Debra J. "Bohemian Grove: Men Only." San Francsico Chronicle, 10 July 2011, www.sfgate.com/opinion/saunders/article/Bohemian-Grove-men-only-2355089.php.

"State Facts About Abortion: Georgia." Guttmacher Institute, 5 Jan. 2018, www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/state-facts-about-abortion-georgia.

Weiner, Sophie. "My Summer Job at the Bohemian Grove, Serving Milkshakes to the Shitfaced Global Elite." Gawker, gawker.com/my-summer-job-at-the-bohemian-grove-serving-milkshakes-1763551409.

Weiss, Philip. "Masters of the Universe Go to Camp: Inside Bohemian Grove." Spy, Nov. 1989, pp. 59–76, whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/power/bohemian_grove_spy.html.

Williamson, Elizabeth. "Truth in a Post-Truth Era: Sandy Hook Families Sue Alex Jones, Conspiracy Theorist." The New York Times, 23 May 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/us/politics/alex-jones-trump-sandy-hook.html.

We're sure you've heard of the Nobel Prize although it's hard to make the case Beth has since she mispronounces it quite a bit in this episode. But have you heard of Nobel Disease? It's when people are labeled geniuses and go on to embrace some whackadoodle pseudoscience. In today's Strange Country episode, Beth and Kelly discuss Kary Mullis, the only Nobel winner to be referred to as "generally barking mad." He discovered the polymerase chain reaction, which we all regularly employed when we wanted to make dang certain it wasn't covid.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

"First DNA Exoneration, Center on Wrongful Convictions: Northwestern Pritzker School of Law." Northwestern Law, https://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/il/gary-dotson.html. Accessed 9 October 2023. Guo, Jerry. "A Little Off the Top for History." The New York Times, 13 July 2008, https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/fashion/13hair.html. Accessed 9 October 2023. Jarry, Jonathan. "The Man Who Photocopied DNA and Also Saw a Talking Fluorescent Raccoon." McGill University, 15 August 2019, https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/technology-history/man-who-photocopied-dna-and-also-saw-talking-fluorescent-raccoon. Accessed 9 October 2023. Joseph, Pat. "Intolerable Genius: Berkeley's Most Controversial Nobel Laureate." Cal Alumni Association, 12 December 2019, https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/winter-2019/intolerable-genius-berkeleys-most-controversial-nobel-laureate/. Accessed 8 October 2023. Loeb, Dylan. "Kary B. Mullis, 74, Dies; Found a Way to Analyze DNA and Won Nobel (Published 2019)." The New York Times, 15 August 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/science/kary-b-mullis-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1. Accessed 9 October 2023. Markel, Howard. "How the talented Oscar Levant broke taboos by talking about mental health." PBS, 14 August 2021, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/how-the-talented-oscar-levant-broke-taboos-by-talking-about-mental-health. Accessed 9 October 2023. "Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Fact Sheet." National Human Genome Research Institute, 17 August 2020, https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Polymerase-Chain-Reaction-Fact-Sheet. Accessed 9 October 2023. Schreiber, Dan. The Theory of Everything Else: A Voyage Into the World of the Weird. HarperCollins Publishers, 2023. Thielking, Megan. "How Linus Pauling duped America into believing vitamin C cures colds." Vox, 27 February 2015, https://www.vox.com/2015/1/15/7547741/vitamin-c-myth-pauling. Accessed 9 October 2023. Warden, Rob. "Kary B. Mullis: A lament for the loss of a life that saved many." Injustice Watch, 18 August 2019, https://www.injusticewatch.org/commentary/2019/requiem-for-kary-b-mullis-a-lament-for-a-life-that-saved-many/. Accessed 9 October 2023.

Welcome to a blast from the past. This is a re-release of ep. 59 The Osage Murders, repackaged as Killers of the Flower Moon to coincide with the new film by Martin Scorsese. Thanks for all your support, dash hounds. We'll be back with a new episode soon.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

http://usdakotawar.org/history/newcomers-us-government-military-federal-acts-assimilation-policies/what-reservation

Grann, David. Killers of the Flower Moon.

http://www.famous-trials.com/osage-home/2378-the-osage-reign-of-terror-murder-trials-an-account

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-marked-woman

https://www.npr.org/2017/04/17/523964584/in-the-1920s-a-community-conspired-to-kill-native-americans-for-their-oil-money

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/osage-murders-photos-killers-of-flower-moon

http://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2011/03/the-osage-murders-oil-wealth-betrayal-and-the-fbis-first-big-case.html

http://www.famous-trials.com/osage-home/2378-the-osage-reign-of-terror-murder-trials-an-ac

Hey DashHounds, if you were listening last episode, we mentioned the true story of Candyman. This may be the very first time Beth and Kelly said "we should look into that" and actually did! Find out how haunting life was in Chicago in the 1980s if you lived in Cabrini Green housing. It is scary to think how people lived and even scarier to hear about how they died. Thanks always for your support and listening; it is an act of love.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

Bogira, Steve. "They Came in Through the Bathroom Mirror." Chicago Reader, 3 September 1987, https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/they-came-in-through-the-bathroom-mirror/. Accessed 17 October 2023.

"Cabrini–Green Homes." Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabrini%E2%80%93Green_Homes. Accessed 17 October 2023.

Chow, Andrew. "How Candyman Reclaims the History of Cabrini Green." Time Magazine, no. August 27, 2021, https://time.com/6092375/candyman-cabrini-green-true-story/.

Halloween is the time of year of ghouls, goblins and moral panic about candy. Could some neighbor be handing out candy full of pins? Or even worse, plain boxes of raisins? Where did this all come from? Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about the origin of poisoned candy, stemming from one father who poisoned his own kid to collect insurance money.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

"DEA Warns of Brightly-Colored Fentanyl Used to Target Young Americans." DEA.gov, 30 August 2022, https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2022/08/30/dea-warns-brightly-colored-fentanyl-used-target-young-americans. Accessed 1 October 2023.

"Halloween execution date sought for man who killed son." UPI (USA), sec. News, 2 Sept. 1983. NewsBank: Access World News, https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AWNB&req_dat=0FA0729FAB9D3500&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews/1567BF11158C5F68. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023.

"Joe Rogan and Dr Phil push Halloween candy fentanyl story before producer says it could be fake; 'That was always the fear right, when we were kids, is that someone's gonna sneak in a razor blade into an apple,' Rogan says." Independent [Online], 31 Oct. 2022, p. NA. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A724680900/STND?u=nysl_sc_flls&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=4905dace. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023

"RHODE ISLAND MAN SENTENCED TO SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON FOR ROLE IN NATIONWIDE CONSPIRACY THAT TRAFFICKED DRUGS HIDDEN IN TOY TRUCKS, DISNEY ITEMS AND HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS." States News Service, 20 Sept. 2023, p. NA. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A766621939/STND?u=nysl_sc_flls&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=1a1aa97e. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023..

"Should reports of candy-colored fentanyl spook you?" Daily Herald [Arlington Heights, IL], 28 Oct. 2022, p. 1. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A724348841/STND?u=nysl_sc_flls&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=8b7c1e70. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023.

Ortega, Nicolás. "Wife Takes Stand At Husband's Trial In Son's Poisoning (Published 1975)." The New York Times, 29 May 1975, https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/29/archives/wife-a-takes-stand-at-husbands-trial-in-sons-poisoning.html?searchResultPosition=5. Accessed 1 October 2023.

Ponti, Crystal. "The Haunting Legacy of Ronald Clark O'Bryan, the Man Who Killed Halloween." A&E, 22 October 2020, https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/the-man-who-killed-halloween. Accessed 1 October 2023.

Skal, David J. Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween. Bloomsbury USA, 2002.

TALLEY, OLIVE. "Ronald Clark O'Bryan, who killed his 8-year-old son with...." UPI (USA), sec. News, 30 Mar. 1984. NewsBank: Access World News, https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AWNB&req_dat=0FA0729FAB9D3500&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews/1568797363D91408. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023.