Strange Country Ep. 281: Quest for Immortality
Strange Country
Charles Lindbergh wasn’t only known for that flight, his weird reverence for Nazis and being the public face of America First, he was also interested in literal immortality. In the 1930s, he collaborated with Dr. Alexis Carrel to devise ways to regenerate organs so people could possibly live forever, but not just any people. It’s the 1930s and these two white guys are mainly interested in elongating the lives of other white western dudes. Join Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly as they share another Lindbergh story and discuss whether they would want to live forever. Theme music: Big...
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Strange Country Ep. 280: Gimme Some Credit
Strange Country
Dear Dash Hounds, join Beth and Kelly as we try to pull the curtain open on the Wonderful Wizard of credit scores. Do you know your credit score? Do you care? Has it ruined your life? We talk about many things on Strange Country from periods to sex to murder and now, the most secretive of things–money. ‘Mericans don’t talk openly about their money issues, and surprise! That is not good practice. We are stressed and worried and in debt, and there’s a reason why. Find out today on Strange Country. Thanks for listening. It is an act of love, and sometimes all you need is love. Theme...
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Strange Country Ep. 279: Robbers Cave Experiment
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 . Cite your sources: Higgins, Nick, and Maria Konnikova....
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Strange Country Ep. 278: Emma Goldman
Strange Country
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 . Works Cited Goldman, Emma. Living My Life. New York, Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1931,...
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Strange Country Ep. 277: The Sullivan Institute
Strange Country
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 . 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,...
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Strange Country Ep. 276: OneTaste
Strange Country
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 . Cite your sources: Brown, Mick. “Inside Hollywood's Orgasm Cult - LAmag - Culture, Food, Fashion, News & Los Angeles.” Los Angeles Magazine, 26 May 2022,...
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Strange Country Ep. 275: Henry Darger
Strange Country
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...
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ENCORE: Strange Country Ep. 274: Bohemian Grove
Strange Country
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 . Sources: Flock, Elizabeth. “Bohemian Grove: Where the Rich and Powerful Go to Misbehave.” The Washington Post, 15 June 2011, . 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, ....
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Strange Country Ep. 273: Kary Mullis
Strange Country
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 Cite...
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ENCORE: Strange Country Ep. 272: Killers of the Flower Moon
Strange Country
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 Cite your sources: Grann, David. Killers of the Flower Moon.
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.