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...
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Strange Country Ep. 302: Candy Darling
Strange Country
We all know that women and men are monoliths, right? Women like shoes and the government controlling their bodies; men like muscled-up NFTs of Donald Trump and bench-pressing bitcoin. But what if people aren’t on this straight black-and-white binary? Candy Darling, born James Slattery, defied societal expectations and chose to live her life as a superstar along the lines of her favorite actor Kim Novak. Darling was one of Andy Warhol’s last “superstars,” until her untimely death from cancer at the age of 29 in 1974. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss how Darling straddled...
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Strange Country Ep. 301: Dr. Feelgood
Strange Country
What do you do when you need a little pick-me-up? Exercise? Drink some coffee? Laugh uproariously at Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly? For some, like politicians and celebs that didn’t cut it so instead they went to Dr. Max Jacobson to get a concoction of vitamins, monkey gonads and amphetamines injected into their necks and arms. Jacobson, known as Dr. Feelgood, had the ability to cure any ailment merely by making you so high you couldn’t feel anything. Until he got his medical license revoked in the 1970s and the party was over. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your...
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Strange Country Ep. 300: Streaking
Strange Country
Dear Dashhounds, have you lost the ability to handle all the things? Enough that you are thinking about bringing back the streaking fad of the 70s? Before you get all hot and bothered and start taking off your clothes in front of strangers, listen to this Strange Country episode #300 about where streaking in ‘Merica originated. If you thought it was something free and fun, you are a little right, but only for a chosen few. Thanks always for listening, it is an act of love that you can do with your clothes on. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: “CRUMP, George...
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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,...
info_outlineWe 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 A Cast of Thousands
Cite your sources:
Greene, Bryan. “How an Interracial Marriage Sparked One of the Most Scandalous Trials of the Roaring Twenties.” Smithsonian Magazine, 20 November 2024, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-an-interracial-marriage-sparked-one-of-the-most-scandalous-trials-of-the-roaring-twenties-180985486/. Accessed 8 May 2025.