Strange Country Ep. 312: Bath School Massacre
Strange Country
America is known for multiple things: apple pie, Mr. T, and school massacres. But the worst massacre of all time is likely one you’ve never heard of before. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about the 1927 bombing of Bath Consolidated Schools that resulted in the deaths of 43 people, mainly children. Just your ever-so-often reminder that while it seems like things are extra terrible now, we’ve always been pretty shitty. Theme music: Big White Lie by . Cite your sources: Bernstein, Arnie. Bath Massacre: America's First School Bombing. University of Michigan Press, 2009....
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Strange Country Ep. 311: Tylenol Poisonings
Strange Country
In 1982, seven people died after taking doses of Extra Strength Tylenol, leading to a full-blown and safety standards for over-the-counter meds. To this day, the murders remain unsolved. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss this 1982 mystery and its possible suspects while Beth mispronounces “business ethics” because that’s not really a thing. Theme music: Big White Lie by . Cite your sources: Bergmann, Joy. “A Bitter Pill.” Chicago Reader, 2 Nov. 2000, . Accessed 22 Mar. 2026. Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders. Directed by Yotam Guendelman and Ari Pines, Netflix,...
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Strange Country Ep. 310: Inez Nathaniel-Walker
Strange Country
Hey dear Dash Hounds, we are back this week in a regular kind of way talking about a woman you probably have never heard of—unless you are a folk art phenom like Beth. Learn about a woman and artist whose life may have gone unnoticed except for her self-taught crayon portraits. They go for about $3K on Antiques Roadshow, which is so close to our going rate for Patreon. Inez Nathaniel-Walker’s life was not easy, but somewhere, someone with an easier life is looking at her work and likely wondering who was she? Well you have come to the right place. Thanks for listening; it is an act of...
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Strange Country Ep. 309: Viola Liuzzo
Strange Country
It may seem the government’s technique of denigrating the people they kill to make it appear that the killing was justified is a new fun thing in 2026, but we’ve been here before. It’s likely you’ve never heard of Viola Liuzzo, the only white woman murdered during the Civil Rights Movement. Her name kept popping up on the social media accounts of historians after the murders of Renee Good and Alexi Pretti, trying to tell us all once again to maybe pay attention to the past. In this episode of Strange Country, cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about Liuzzo’s life and how J. Edgar Hoover...
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Strange Country Ep. 308: Psychic Readers Network
Strange Country
“Ask again later” would have been a common response if you had asked your magic eight ball when Strange Country would have a new episode over the last weeks. But now “the outlook is good” because here are cohosts Beth and Kelly together again to talk about the time people spent tons of money to talk to barely trained psychics over the phone lured in by the infomercial featuring the self-proclaimed shaman Miss Cleo. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Aniskovich, Celia, and Jennifer Brea, directors. Call Me Miss Cleo. 2022. Amazon Prime. ...
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Strange Country Ep. 307: Huey Long
Strange Country
While he may have been called a demagogue and a counterfeit Mussolini, Huey Long had some darn tootin’ good ideas—mainly taxing the rich into oblivion. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about Long’s rise to populist power in the 1930s and the corruption in its wake, but also how much a 65% tax increase on the rich makes a whole lotta sense. Like Long said “We only propose that, when one man gets more than he and his children and children’s children can spend or use in their lifetimes, that then we shall say that such person has his share. That means that a few million...
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Strange Country Ep. 306: ELIZA
Strange Country
In 1964, MIT researcher Joseph Weizenbaum created the first therapy chatbot ELIZA and realized soon after that it sucked and humanity was worse for it. Sixty years later, our new tech gods are like “sex porn bots for all!” Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly emulate the AI versions of themselves as they tell the tale of a computer scientist realizing Frankenstein’s monster is a pile of generic platitudes that soaks up more energy than is sustainable. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Huet, Ellen and Rachel Metz. "The Chatbot Delusions." Bloomberg...
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Strange Country Ep. 305: The Page Act
Strange Country
Hey Dash Hounds! Remember when that famous person said the thing that the other famous person put on a coffee mug? “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history?” Well it’s true. And if you want another reminder, listen to Beth and Kelly this week as the Strange Country cohosts tell you about the time when Chinese women were wrongfully taken off the streets under The Page Act of 1875, the very first official legislation allowing some guy in charge to unkindly remove people from the country. This story is getting old but we keep it fresh. Thanks for...
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Strange Country Ep. 304: Villisca Axe Murders
Strange Country
Tis Pumpkin Spice time and Strange Country has a spooky story to listen to as you drink a pumpkin spice-flavored whatever gets you through this America 2025. Co-hosts Beth and Kelly discuss the unsolved ax murders plaguing railroad towns in the early 1900s and how people trampled crime scenes for entertainment. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Dash, Mike. “The Ax Murderer Who Got Away.” Smithsonian Magazine, 8 June 2012, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-ax-murderer-who-got-away-117037374/. Accessed 7 October 2025. “An Entire Family...
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Strange Country Ep. 303: It's Britney, Bitch
Strange Country
It’s Strange Country, bitch. Yes, we’re back. Has anything happened? Likely no. In today’s episode cohosts Beth and Kelly tackle the conservatorship saga of pop icon Britney Spears and how gross people were to her much of her life. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Aswad, Jem. “Britney Spears: Full Court Transcript Against Conservatorship.” Variety, 23 June 2021, https://variety.com/2021/music/news/britney-spears-full-statement-conservatorship-1235003940/. Accessed 11 August 2025. Austin, Sophie. “After #FreeBritney, California to Limit...
info_outlineThe 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 A Cast of Thousands.
Cite your sources: