Reaching Out
Also in Society & Culture
Society & Culture
American Hysteria
by chelsey weber-smith
Today: #166 in Society & Culture on our combined chart.
Chart positions today
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Ranking history
History builds daily. We started tracking this show on the Society & Culture chart recently, so the trend line appears after a second day of data.
View as table
| Date | Combined Rank | Apple Podcasts |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 6 | #166 | #157 |
About the show
American Hysteria explores how fantastical thinking has shaped our culture – moral panics, urban legends, hoaxes, crazes, fringe beliefs, and national misunderstandings. Poet-turned-podcaster Chelsey Weber-Smith tells the strangest stories from American history and examines the forces that create the reality we share, and sometimes, the reality we don't.
Latest episodes
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The Cat in the Hat Serial Killer Panic with Guide to the Unknown
October 5, 2026 · 1 hr 37 minBreaking news, my dear friends, and this one’s a doozy, an urban legend born from an uncanny movie. Some of it’s silly, some of it’s serious, it’s all happening now and the truth is mysterious. The cat in the hat played by Mike…
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Halloween Newspapers.com Dive pt. 2 with Sarah Marshall
September 28, 2026 · 1 hr 23 minThis is part two of our Halloween season kick off celebration with Sarah Marshall, host of the podcast You’re Wrong About. In this series, we use the newspapers.com archives to play our favorite game in which we give each other random…
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Halloween Newspapers.com Dive pt. 1 with Sarah Marshall
September 21, 2026 · 1 hr 24 minIt’s the beginning of Halloween season here at American Hysteria, and we are kicking it off with this two part episode cohosted by Sarah Marshall of You're Wrong About in which we play our favorite game, the newspapers.com Dive, using the…
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Let's Talk About Sex (Ed) with Margaret Grace Myers
September 14, 2026 · 1 hr 30 minFor this Back to School episode, we are getting schooled in the history of sexual education by Margaret Grace Myers, author of The Fight for Sex Ed: The Century-Long Battle Between Truth and Doctrine. Through STI public health crises, sex…
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Baby Got Backstory with Heather Radke
September 7, 2026 · 1 hr 28 minFor this episode, we are covering the storied history of the Butt, that humorous, salacious, anxiety-inducing part of the body, the shape and meaning of which has changed depending on the time period. Heather Radke is a reporter, essayist…
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Ye Olde Cleanse Diet with Zoë Rom of 'Your Diet Sucks'
August 31, 2026 · 1 hr 24 minFor all of American history, we have been obsessed with the idea that what you eat is about more than just the purity of the body, it’s about a kind of metaphorical purity as well. For this episode, journalist Zoe Rom, co-host of the…
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Solar Storms and the Carrington Event with Ben Bradford of 'Are We Doomed?'
August 24, 2026 · 1 hr 5 minIn 1859, a powerful solar storm known as the Carrington Event hit the world, disrupting early technology in a shocking way. Our guest today is Ben Bradford, host of the podcast Are We Doomed? A show that investigates the greatest risks…
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KU KLUX SCAM pt. 2
August 17, 2026 · 1 hr 10 minAt the height of their popularity, the 1920s era Ku Klux Klux counted millions of Americans as part of their secret society, and as we covered in part one, became a kind of pop culture phenomenon using a PR team, family-friendly events…