Strange Country
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....
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In a time when democracy ruled, women had all the freedoms, people went to college and news sources were plentiful and trustworthy Wisconsin native Mildred Fish Harnack and her husband, Arvid, chose to begin their newlywed lives in the fun city of Berlin. Have you heard of it? Beth may have mentioned she has been there. That was Berlin in the 1920’s. Things were about to change. Laws were passed to keep certain people down, the rich and poor gap was widening, Mildred got let go from her professorship, and two men, Hitler and Goebbels, were really making a name for themselves talking about...
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Do you believe psychics can predict the future? in the later half of the 20th century, Jeane Dixon was one of the best known psychics. Her astrological star rose when she “predicted” the assassination of JFK. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly, in what is predicted to be the greatest podcast episode according to a Snapple bottle cap Beth found on the sidewalk, talk about Dixon and the Jeane Dixon Effect. Also includes a recipe! Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Christy, M. (1970, March 11). Greensboro Daily News , p. 5. Available from NewsBank: America's...
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One hundred years ago, there were fewer left handed Americans than there are now. Why the change? Obviously the indoctrination of public schools…or maybe it became more accepting to be left handed and so more people feel comfortable using their dominant hand. Weird how that works. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about the stigma once attached to left-handedness and relate it to today’s anti-trans legislation being pushed by trash people. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Adeleke, Y. (2021, September 20). Left-handers once experienced severe stigmatization...
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Dear Dashhounds, are you one of the 75% (15% according to Beth) who know the term, Dewey Decimal System? Do you care? You will today as Strange Country hosts Beth and Kelly discuss the life and times of Melvil Dewey, which really encompassed a lot of misogyny, racism and antisemitism. Yet still he was lauded as a library great. How do we handle these people of the past, and how should we handle them now? The answer lies within a sweet song that you won’t be able to get out of your head. Always, thanks for listening it is an act of love which is the opposite of fear. Theme music: Big White...
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Things seems super chill around education these days. Wait—do they? Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about the current state legislation being passed to ban the instruction of Critical Race Theory in K-12 schools, something that isn’t happening. So since it’s not happening, what is happening instead is banning the instruction of anything associated with race or racism. As the Brooklyn 99 folks like to say, cool cool cool cool cool. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: ABC4 Utah. (2021, May 4). What you need to know about Idaho's new critical race theory law....
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We all the run risk of falling for a con and we all believe we are immune to it. For the low, low cost of $9.99 a month, Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly can teach you how to avoid scams as soon as they free a Nigerian Prince. Today’s episode explores the cons of Victor Lustig who sold the Eiffel Tower twice. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Demain, B. (2020, Aug. 21). Smooth operator: How con man “count” Victor Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower—Twice. Mentalfloss. Hutson, M. (2016, Jan. 12). Why we all fall for con artists. The Cut. King, G. (2012,...
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On Dec. 21, 1954, the world was supposed to be flooded, and true believers taken aboard flying saucers to safety. When that didn’t happen, the Seekers tried to excuse away the no-show aliens, and thus cognitive dissonance entered the American psyche. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly discuss how Leon Festinger put his theory to the test by pretending to be a true believer to study how followers managed their cognitive dissonance when the world kept spinning. Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Adventures by A Himitsu https://soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons...
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The current spate of book banning is nothing new in America. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly take readers back to Kanawha County in 1974 when protestors firebombed schools and shot at school buses to protest the adoption of a new textbooks. The books, they said, were obscene and would hurt children so what better way to save them but by throwing sticks of dynamites into their classrooms, right? Theme music: Big White Lie by Cite your sources: Bloch, E. (2021, May 18). Florida Education commissioner says he made sure Amy Donofrio was fired; now her legal team's responding. The...
info_outlineArrgghh. It's time me maties to talk about the poop deck or the cockswain...wow could these words be more loaded? Anyone in episode 69--ha! 69!--Kelly and Beth tackle the seven seas and share a story of fair, or more appropriate fearsome pirate by the name of Anne Bonny who chose a life of crime.
Theme music: Resting Place by A Cast of Thousands.
Cite your sources:
Cordingly, David. Pirate Hunter of the Carribean. Random House Publishing Group, 2011. Ebook.
Norton, Rick. Gay History and Literature. Lesbian Pirates:
Anne Bonny and Mary Read http://rictornorton.co.uk/pirates.htm. Accessed Nov. 24, 2018.
Tucker, Philip Thomas. Anne Bonny, The infamous Female Pirate.
Woodard, Colin. More Than a Pirate, a Rebel With a Democratic Spirit
Opinion. New York Times. Nov. 22, 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/22/opinion/blackbeard-pirate-golden-age-.html
Woodard, Colin. Republic of Pirates Website http://www.republicofpirates.net/Bonny.html, accessed Nov. 24, 2018.
Yolen, Jane. Bad Girls; sirens, jezebels, murderesses, thieves and other Female Villians. Watertown, MA : Charlesbridge, c2013.