Who really ended the Cold War, Ronald Reagan or a ten-year-old girl? Eighties correspondent Maris Kreizman joins us for a heartfelt conversation about America’s Youngest Ambassador, Samantha Smith, a child who wrote a letter to Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov in hopes of cooling nuclear tensions. Then, Andropov wrote back. Maris and Sarah discuss the burden we place on the youth to “change the world” while simultaneously scolding them for their naivety. Digressions include the millennial urge to cut up plastic soda can rings, Christina Applegate’s SNL infomercial, and an important lesson from the Golden Girls.

More Maris Kreizman:

Buy the book, I Want to Burn This Place Down

Subscribe to the newsletter, The Maris Review

Maris on Bluesky

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What do John Hinckley Jr. and a jazz age tuberculosis patient have in common? Legal correspondent ​​Mackenzie Joy Brennan takes Sarah through some of the strange cases that helped make—and break—the insanity defense in America. Our story includes a woman who carried her (alleged) victims’ bodies around in a suitcase, and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan—carried out with the intention of impressing a young Jodie Foster.

More Mackenzie Joy Brennan:

http://www.mkzjoybrennan.com

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Can you find your way out of the maize? The corn maze has become an enduring attraction of the American autumnal experience, seen at touristy family farms next to pumpkin patches and haunted houses. But what are the historical roots of this iconic living puzzle? Sarah guides the eternally-lost Chelsey Weber-Smith through the twists and turns of the corn’s corridors and reveals the hidden architects that walk behind the rows.

More Chelsey Weber-Smith:

www.americanhysteriapodcast.com

Mr. Jeff's Labyrinth Typology Hand Out:

https://www.labyrinthos.net/Labyrinth%20Typology.pdf

The Labyrinthos Labyrinth and Maze Resource Photo Library and Archive:

https://www.labyrinthos.net/index.html

Listen to Magpie Cinema Club:

linktr.ee/magpiecinemaclub

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In the second part of our series, pop culture historian Jamie Loftus takes us through the meteoric rise of Pee-wee Herman and the withering of Paul Reubens' world as dubious allegations surface that threaten to turn a beloved children’s character into a real life villain. Jamie tells us about his struggle to reconcile the character of Pee-wee with the real Paul Reubens, and how his longtime friendships became his sanctuary until the very end. 

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of explicit materials involving minors 

More about Jamie Loftus:

https://www.jamieloftus.xyz/

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What’s today’s secret word? Paul Reubens spent years bringing to life one of America’s most beloved characters, Pee-wee Herman, an icon of joy for weirdos of all ages. In the first of this two part series, Pee-wee superfan-turned-historian Jamie Loftus lets us into the playhouse for a journey through Paul’s early life and art school days, his collaborations and relationships, and the beginnings of a kind of fame that would blur the line between character and creator.

More about Jamie Loftus:

https://www.jamieloftus.xyz/

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What happens when you’re just a little too good at forging the diaries of Adolf Hitler? And why did so many people want to read them? In 1983, the West German news magazine Stern bought sixty volumes of forged journals and held a press conference to announce their publication. This week, Adrian Daub of podcasts In Bed With the Right and The Feminist Present is here to tell us all about what would be the publishing hoax to end all hoaxes…if only the book in question wasn’t so boring. 

More about Adrian Daub:
https://www.adriandaub.com/

More about the Hitler Diaries (German language podcast):

https://www.stern.de/faking-hitler/

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For many of us, house cleaning is a daunting, unpleasant affair, but for You’re Wrong About editor Miranda Zickler, it is a love language. Continuing the Peg Bracken Book Club tradition set forth by our I Hate Cookbook episode with Sarah Archer, we discuss The I Hate to Housekeep Book, a tongue-in-cheek guide for housewives that came out in 1962. Miranda also shares her background as a housecleaner as she and Sarah get into all the figurative cracks and crevices of the archetypal Home to figure out why keeping our space clean can feel so emotionally charged.

 More Miranda Zickler: linktr.ee/mirandatheswampmonster

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Who is out there behind the howling midnight parties in the distance? For generations we have coexisted in varying degrees of rivalry, conflict, and admiration with the North American canine known as the coyote. From pre-colonization to our modern backyards, through the wild west and the streets of San Francisco, award-winning NPR science reporter and YWA Maligned Animal correspondent Lulu Miller takes our pack on a journey toward a better understanding of these resilient creatures.

*EDITOR'S NOTE: Lulu Miller would like to submit a correction to her statement that Ronald Reagan put a band on coyote poison, she actually meant Richard Nixon. Sarah would like to add that he grew up drinking raw milk and at least one of his brothers died of tuberculosis which really makes you think, doesn't it?

Terrestrials // “The Howler: The Dog Who Joined a Coyote Pack”
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab-kids/articles/the-howler-the-dog-who-joined-a-coyote-pack

More about Lulu Miller:
https://radiolab.org/team/lulu-miller

Visit Christine E. Wilkerson's website
https://scrappynaturalist.com/

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Where else to find us:
Sarah's other show, You Are Good

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Where did all these teens come from? Harmony Colangelo, co-host of This Ends at Prom, is here to explain how, before Americans got to worry about what teenagers were up to, we first had to decide what they were—and how a boom in postwar educational films taught a generation of adolescents what not to do.

Skipper Learns a Lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8kJzBJrOkU
1950 Family Date: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8kJzBJrOkU

More about Harmony Colangelo:

https://www.instagram.com/veloci_trap_tor

Support You're Wrong About:

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Where else to find us:

Sarah's other show, You Are Good

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https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/yourewrongaboutpod

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Have you scrubbed down the top of your fridge lately? Home & garden correspondent Sarah Archer is here to tell us how and when we got so obsessed with the antiseptically clean house as a status symbol, and whether we really need to worry about every bit of dust on that baseboard.

Find out more about Sarah Archer:

https://www.sarah-archer.com/

Support You're Wrong About:

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Where else to find us:

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Links:

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