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. ...
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Strange Country Ep. 289: Night of Terror
Strange Country
Hey Dashhounds, it's our favorite month for creepy tales at Strange Country! October brings warmish temperatures at night, hot sunny days, hurricanes with power that you have never seen before, and the uncomfortable feeling of politics gone wrong--rarely landing with a woman in charge. Today Beth and Kelly bring you the story of the Night of Terror. Enjoy! Theme music: Big White Lie by . Cite your sources, dude: Deuel, Nathan. “Book Prize winner Stephanie Jones-Rogers on women slave owners.” Los Angeles Times, 17 April 2020,...
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Strange Country Ep. 288: Talking Dolphins
Strange Country
The mid-20th century was heady times full of LSD, and a NASA flush with cash, which is how we get to today’s story about a scientist trying to get dolphins to speak English. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about Dr. John C. Lilly, inventor of the sensory deprivation tank and dolphin whisperer, whose plans for dolphin communication veered off in a strange direction when one volunteer started giving Peter the dolphin a helping hand, if you catch our meaning. Theme music: Big White Lie by . Cite your sources: GRECO, JOANN, and Benjamin Franklin. “The Psychonaut You Never...
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Strange Country Ep. 287: Free Town Project
Strange Country
New Hampshire seemed like the perfect state to start a libertarian utopia. No sales or income tax, aversion to governmental interference and the motto “Live free or die.” But for residents of Grafton, it soon became un-BEAR-able. Do you see what I did there because I don’t. Join Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly as they share this remarkable tale of libertarian hijinks from the book A Libertarian Walks into a Bear by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling. Theme music: Big White Lie by . Cite your sources: Austin, Elizabeth. “Libertarians Took Control of This Small Town. It...
info_outlineHalloween is the time of year of ghouls, goblins and moral panic about candy. Could some neighbor be handing out candy full of pins? Or even worse, plain boxes of raisins? Where did this all come from? Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about the origin of poisoned candy, stemming from one father who poisoned his own kid to collect insurance money.
Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands
Cite your sources:
“DEA Warns of Brightly-Colored Fentanyl Used to Target Young Americans.” DEA.gov, 30 August 2022, https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2022/08/30/dea-warns-brightly-colored-fentanyl-used-target-young-americans. Accessed 1 October 2023.
"Halloween execution date sought for man who killed son." UPI (USA), sec. News, 2 Sept. 1983. NewsBank: Access World News, https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AWNB&req_dat=0FA0729FAB9D3500&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews/1567BF11158C5F68. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023.
"Joe Rogan and Dr Phil push Halloween candy fentanyl story before producer says it could be fake; 'That was always the fear right, when we were kids, is that someone's gonna sneak in a razor blade into an apple,' Rogan says." Independent [Online], 31 Oct. 2022, p. NA. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A724680900/STND?u=nysl_sc_flls&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=4905dace. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023
"RHODE ISLAND MAN SENTENCED TO SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON FOR ROLE IN NATIONWIDE CONSPIRACY THAT TRAFFICKED DRUGS HIDDEN IN TOY TRUCKS, DISNEY ITEMS AND HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS." States News Service, 20 Sept. 2023, p. NA. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A766621939/STND?u=nysl_sc_flls&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=1a1aa97e. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023..
"Should reports of candy-colored fentanyl spook you?" Daily Herald [Arlington Heights, IL], 28 Oct. 2022, p. 1. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A724348841/STND?u=nysl_sc_flls&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=8b7c1e70. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023.
Ortega, Nicolás. “Wife Takes Stand At Husband's Trial In Son's Poisoning (Published 1975).” The New York Times, 29 May 1975, https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/29/archives/wife-a-takes-stand-at-husbands-trial-in-sons-poisoning.html?searchResultPosition=5. Accessed 1 October 2023.
Ponti, Crystal. “The Haunting Legacy of Ronald Clark O'Bryan, the Man Who Killed Halloween.” A&E, 22 October 2020, https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/the-man-who-killed-halloween. Accessed 1 October 2023.
Skal, David J. Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween. Bloomsbury USA, 2002.
TALLEY, OLIVE. "Ronald Clark O'Bryan, who killed his 8-year-old son with...." UPI (USA), sec. News, 30 Mar. 1984. NewsBank: Access World News, https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AWNB&req_dat=0FA0729FAB9D3500&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews/1568797363D91408. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023.