Strange Country Ep. 299: Charlotte Osgood Mason
Strange Country
Charlotte Osborne Mason was one of the biggest benefactors of the Harlem Renaissance but her patronage came with a cost. While she gave noted luminaries Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston monthly stipends to make art, she wanted a say in what the art would be in order to realize her vision: a flaming bridge to connect America to Africa. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about this strange rich white lady who believed she knew more about being Black than the artists she supported with strings. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Boyd, Valerie. “About Zora...
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Strange Country Ep. 298: Rhinelander v. Rhinelander
Strange Country
We love our trials of the century here at Strange Country and this one is a doozy. It’s likely one you’ve never heard of: Rhinelander v Rhinelander. See a young aristocrat married a domestic worker and everyone went all “heavens to betsy” about it, but what made it bring out the worst in people was that the working class bride was biracial. This was in 1924 before the country accepted interracial marriage and the KKK was on the resurgence—or what we could now call the present time. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Greene, Bryan. “How an Interracial Marriage...
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Strange Country Ep. 297: Elizabeth Dilling
Strange Country
Does it make you feel better to know that America has always been populated by horrible people determined to ostracize others and destroy our democratic principles? Probably not. But it’s true. The ghouls we see today are repeating the things that ghouls of the past once said. Today’s episode of Strange Country, cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about ghoulish Elizabeth Dilling, a self-proclaimed sahm who traveled the country preaching in the 1930s about the communists all around us and wrote crank Glenn Beck’s fav book. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: ERICKSON,...
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Strange Country Ep. 296: The Apprentice
Strange Country
With the on-again, off-again tariffs and total economic sh*tstorm, one wonders why anyone ever thought Donald Trump had any economic sense. That’s because Mark Burnett transformed the six-time bankruptcy declaring tabloid star into a successful businessman character on the “reality” show The Apprentice. On today’s episode of Strange Country, cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about the ultimate deception that led over 70 million Americans to give the keys to a chaos agent for a second time. Theme music: Big White Lie by Works Cited Buettner, Russ, and Susanne Craig. Lucky Loser: How...
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Strange Country Ep. 295: Alice Duer Miller
Strange Country
Hey Readers! Alice Duer Miller was a women of her time and ours! Who was she? Why don’t you know? Because she is a woman, and that’s a dangerous word these days. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite Your Sources Dude “Alice Duer Miller.” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/alice-duer-miller#tab-related. Dresner, Zita. “Heterodite Humor: Alice Duer Miller and Florence Guy Seabury.” Journal of American Culture, 07 June 2004, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1542-734X.1987.1003_33.x. Accessed 27 03 2025. Miller, Alice D. Are Women People....
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Strange Country Ep. 294: The Real World
Strange Country
This is a true story. Of two strange podcasters picked to podcast in an attic about a strange country. Find out what happens when Beth and Kelly stop being polite and start getting real about The Real World, the reality show that created the blueprint for all other reality shows. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Arthur, Kate. “Looking Back At "The Real World: San Francisco," The Show That Changed The World.” Buzzfeed, 7 January 2014, https://www.buzzfeed.com/kateaurthur/real-world-san-francisco-pedro-zamora-rachel-campos. Chaney, Jen. “Every White...
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Strange Country Ep. 293: Candid Camera
Strange Country
Smile, you’re listening to a podcast about Candid Camera. Created by Allen Funt, Candid Camera was America’s first prank reality show. A case could be made that this show is responsible for the reality television trend that led to a con man being packaged as a “successful businessman” and is now pranking America as prez. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about this pioneering show whilst smiling through their tears. Theme music: Big White Lie by . Cite your sources: “Candid Camera | Television Academy Interviews.” Television Academy Interviews |, 1997,...
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Strange Country Ep. 292: Plants Know What You Think About This Podcast
Strange Country
Well Dash Hounds, if you are still out there listening and tuning in, we are thankful. Listening is an act of love. Love brings joy, and joy is a form of resistance. So sit back this week and learn how Kelly and Beth are getting through the hard times naturally. Of course with everything that seems good, be cautious. Nature is such a healer until it isn’t. And it’s just you and your houseplant whose picking up on your negative vibes and blaming you for everything. Confused? So are we. Theme music: Big White Lie by . Cite your sources, dude Eells, Josh. “He Talked to Plants and They...
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Strange Country Ep. 291: David Starr Jordan
Strange Country
Since we heard America was “being made great again” or something, we decided it was time for Strange Country to return. This time, cohosts Beth and Kelly tackle the story of David Starr Jordan, noted ichthyologist and first president of Stanford University, who definitely was a eugenicst but not certain a murderer. He did cover up Jane Stanford’s murder by poison so there’s that. That’s not good, right? We don’t know because it seems laws are meaningless now. Yay, America!?! Theme music: Big White Lie by . Cite your sources, or not, who cares nothing has meaning Flores,...
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Strange Country Ep. 290: Ed Gein
Strange Country
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 . 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. ...
info_outlineSlender Man was a boogyman birthed on the Internet. It was a crowd-sourced story, brought to life by wikis and youtube. But two 12-year-old girls took the fantasy too far by planning out the stabbing of another friend as a sacrifice to the mythical character. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about the harshness of adolescence, the power of storytelling and how sticky it must be under Jeffrey Toobin's desk.
Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands
Cite your sources:
Brodsky, Irene Taylor, director. Beware the Slender Man. HBO.
Chess, S. Folklore, Horror Stories, and the Slender Man: the Development of an Internet Mythology. Palgrave Pivot, 2016.
Dewey, Caitlin. “The Complete History of 'Slender Man,' the Meme That Compelled Two Girls to Stab a Friend.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 28 Apr. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/06/03/the-complete-terrifying-history-of-slender-man-the-internet-meme-that-compelled-two-12-year-olds-to-stab-their-friend/.
“The H Man.” Wattpad. https://www.wattpad.com/564688055-creepy-urban-legends-the-h-man
Jones, Abigail. "The Girls Who Tried to Kill for Slender Man; It's extremely rare for young girls to attempt murder. These two 12-year-olds did so to prove their allegiance to Slender Man." Newsweek, vol. 163, no. 7, 22 Aug. 2014. Gale OneFile: Popular Magazines, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A378409011/PPPM?u=nysl_sc_flls&sid=PPPM&xid=69108617. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.
Kuhagen, Christopher. “The State Supreme Court Could Review the Slender Man Stabbing Case after Geyser's Attorney Files an Appeal.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 14 Sept. 2020, www.jsonline.com/story/communities/waukesha/news/waukesha/2020/09/14/slender-man-stabbing-morgan-geyser-files-appeal-supreme-court/5792460002/
“The Latest: Father Says 'Slender Man' Movie Distasteful.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 3 Jan. 2018, www.usnews.com/news/best-states/wisconsin/articles/2018-01-03/the-latest-father-says-slender-man-movie-distasteful.
Mar, Alex. “Out Came the Girls: Adolescent Girlhood, the Occult, and the Slender Man Phenomenon.” VQR Online, 2017, www.vqronline.org/essays-articles/2017/10/out-came-girls.
Miller, Lisa. "Slender Man Is Watching; If 12-year-olds Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser knew that the internet character they worshipped was a fantasy, why did they want to kill their friend for him?" New York, vol. 48, no. 17, 24 Aug. 2015. Gale OneFile: Popular Magazines, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A426718120/PPPM?u=nysl_sc_flls&sid=PPPM&xid=b074d8bb. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.
Moreno, Ivan. “Girl in Slender Man Stabbing Gets Maximum Mental Commitment.” Wisconsin Law Journal - WI Legal News & Resources, 2 Feb. 2018, wislawjournal.com/2018/02/01/wisconsin-girl-to-be-sentenced-for-slender-man-stabbing/.
Surge, Victor. “The Something Awful Forums: Create Paranormal Images.” Create Paranormal Images - The Something Awful Forums, web.archive.org/web/20120120074129/forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3150591&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=3.
Velocci, Carli. “The Failed Slender Man Movie Was a Nail in the Coffin of a Dying Fandom.” The Verge, The Verge, 30 Aug. 2018, www.theverge.com/2018/8/30/17793760/slender-man-movie-creepypasta-fandom-community-stabbing.
Vielmetti, Bruce. "Mother protests treatment of girl charged in Slender Man stabbing." USA Today, 23 June 2016, p. 05A. Gale OneFile: News, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A456044570/STND?u=nysl_sc_flls&sid=STND&xid=0772a8d7. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.