Strange Country
William Penn Patrick founded Holiday Magic Cosmetics in 1964. The defunct company is mainly known by law students learning about pyramid schemes. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about this company and its bizarre management style which could involve eating turds. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: “ABC’s: the Ern Westmore Show 1953-1955.” Westmores of Hollywood, https://www.westmoresofhollywood.com/ern. Accessed 2 August 2022. “A not so magical holiday with Holiday Magic Cosmetics.” The Makeup Museum, 25 February 2021,...
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It’s summertime, Readers, and that means time to cautiously hit the road, head to the skies, climb aboard (that’s what she said). No really. Kelly said that—be sure to laugh during the intro to today’s episode. We do hope you are all catching some time to travel this summer, and we have a few tips to keep you worldly but stable. Mostly don’t join a cult. You may not even know it is happening. We doubt that though since listening to us keeps you sharp enough to spot a cult miles away–or does it? In today’s episode learn how Kelly innocently brings her family to yet another cult...
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In the concluding episode on Jeffrey MacDonald, Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly delve into the theory that maybe MacDonald didn’t murder his wife and kids. Maybe he did, but Errol Morris outlines a case where it appears MacDonald was not given a fair shake at his criminal trial. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Anson, Robert Sam. “The Devil and Jeffrey MacDonald.” Vanity Fair, https://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/1998/07/macdonald199807. Accessed 13 July 2022. Beyerstein, Lindsay, and James Harkin. “Wilderness of Errol.” Columbia Journalism Review, 8...
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Jeffrey MacDonald was convicted in 1979 of killing his pregnant wife Colette and two young daughters Kimberly and Kristen. These murders have been the subject of documentaries, books, tv series, and most importantly, Strange Country Podcast. In today’s topic, cohosts Beth and Kelly’s discuss the book that set the narrative, Joe McGinness’s Fatal Vision. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite Your Sources: Anson, Robert Sam. “The Devil and Jeffrey MacDonald.” Vanity Fair, https://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/1998/07/macdonald199807. Accessed 13 July 2022. Beyerstein, Lindsay, and...
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The mystery surrounding Natalie Wood’s death continues to captivate 40 years after the fact. The answer to the question, why was Natalie Wood in the Pacific Ocean on a late, cold drizzly night, has never been sufficiently answered. Theories abound though, and Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly discuss these theories while performing possibly the best Christopher Walken impression in history. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Jorge Xavier Camacho, opinion contributor. (2022, June 18). Expected reversal of Miranda requires states to step up on policing. The Hill....
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Could we actually replicate the biomes of Earth on other planets? In September 1991, eight intrepid explorers entered Biosphere 2 in the Arizona desert to spend two years seeing if humans could sustain life in the same way biosphere 1, the Earth, does. And it wasn’t so great, unless you’re heavily into mites, cockroaches, Steve Bannon and pot-bellied pigs. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss this failed experiment and why it might more sense to fix this planet than try to ruin other ones. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Bruck, C. (2017, May 1). How...
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Where do you fall on the abortion debate? Some people like to believe that if you are pro choice, you must idolize Margaret Sanger. But wait. . . do you even know who that is? Listen today, dear Dash Hounds, as we hear who this outspoken woman was. A thumbs up or a thumbs down? Is Margaret worthy of her name being on the building or her name being taken down? Your call. We do our best to give you some info. As we seem to keep learning on Strange Country, people are complicated, the world is complex, and hang on, we are about to experience everything all over again. $10 please for your fortune....
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Nothing is certain but death and Strange Country’s guarantee of exquisitely-designed mousepads. Oh, and taxes. But some people really don’t like paying taxes and take their ire too far. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly discuss Gordon Kahl, an avid anti-government pro-Posse Comitatus fan who took his anger to the extreme when he killed two US Marshalls in 1983. Luckily, we’ve seemed to address domestic terrorism now…oh wait. And sorry about the little audio glitch midstream. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Cameron, L. (2019, May 28). During the 1980s farm...
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Our memories are fallible and malleable. In the 1980s and 1990s, recovered memory therapists convinced patients they had been sexually abused in some cases by satanic cults and repressed all memory of it. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss the trial of George Franklin who was convicted of murder based solely on the testimony of his daughter who “recovered” memories of witnessing him kill her childhood friend. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Carpentier, M. (2021, Oct. 8) Where Is Eileen Franklin, Whose Recovered Memories Convicted Her Father, Now? ...
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On this episode of Strange Country, Ofterry and Ofbryan talk about the U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion dismantling women’s reproductive freedoms. Forced birth advocates are rejoicing. The rest of us, not so much. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Campoamoar, D. (2022, March 18). New tennessee bill would allow rapists' families, friends to sue if victims have an abortion. Today. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://www.today.com/parents/pregnancy/Tennessee-bill-rapists-sue-abortion-rcna20581 Chamie, J. (2021, March 3). America's single-parent families. The Hill....
info_outlineSun Myung Moon claimed to be the Messiah who would bring about the kingdom of heaven. See God visited him and told him it was his turn to pick up where Jesus left off. And apparently that was convincing lonely college kids to peddle candy and flowers at street corners and airports. In this multi-episode show, cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about the Unification Church, the True Parents, and ways they could possibly convince loyal dashounds to peddle Strange Country merch to the masses.
Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands
Cite your sources:
Benscoter, Diane. Shoes of a Servant: My Unconditional Devotion to a Lie. Lucky Bat Books, 2013.
Blake, Mariah. “The Fall of the House of Moon” The New Republic, 30 Nov. 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/115512/unification-church-profile-fall-house-moon.
Blake, Mariah. “EXCLUSIVE: Meet the Love Child Rev. Sun Myung Moon Desperately Tried to Hide.” Mother Jones, 9 Dec. 2013, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/12/reverend-moon-unification-church-washington-times-secret-son/.
Fessenden, Marissa. “A Brief History of Sesame Street's Snuffleupagus Identity Crisis.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 20 Nov. 2015, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-sesame-streets-snuffleupagus-iidentity-crisis-180957351/.
“Frontline: The Resurrection of Reverend Moon.” 1992, PBS. https://vimeo.com/520151453.
Gorenfeld, John. Bad Moon Rising: How Reverend Moon Created The Washington Times, Seduced the Religious Right, and Built and American Kingdom. PoliPointPress, 2008.
Hong, Nansook. In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moons Family. Little, Brown, 1998.
Kaplan, Anna. "The Moon's the limit." The Humanist, vol. 64, no. 5, Sept.-Oct. 2004, p. 14+. Gale OneFile: Popular Magazines, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A121765419/PPPM?u=nysl_sc_flls&sid=bookmark-PPPM&xid=e603ec35. Accessed 19 June 2021.
Levine, Martin, et al. “Sun Myung Moon, We Hardly Knew Ye-or Your Church's Finances!” Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly, 12 Sept. 2018, https://nonprofitquarterly.org/sun-myung-moon-we-hardly-knew-yeor-your-churchs-finances/.
Shoaib, Alia. “Trump Spoke at a 9/11 'Moonies' Conference Organized by the Widow of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Praising the Controversial Unification Church.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 12 Sept. 2021, https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-speaks-at-moonies-911-event-praises-unification-church-2021-9.