Welcome to Strange Country, a podcast devoted to bizarre, surreal and extraordinary stories that make America the weird place it is. Co-hosts Kelly and Beth are former newspaper reporters turned school librarians who have always had a soft spot for a good story--the stranger the better. Discover the first woman to survive a barrel ride over Niagara Falls and the man who invented “complex marriage” in one of the most successful utopian experiments. Things get weird pretty quickly around here.
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Strange Country Ep. 280: Gimme Some Credit
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Dear Dash Hounds, join Beth and Kelly as we try to pull the curtain open on the Wonderful Wizard of credit scores. Do you know your credit score? Do you care? Has it ruined your life? We talk about many things on Strange Country from periods to sex to murder and now, the most secretive of things–money. ‘Mericans don’t talk openly about their money …
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Strange Country Ep. 279: Robbers Cave Experiment
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The mid-20th century was the heyday of figuring out why humans were the worst through the use of social psychological experiments. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about one such experiment, Muzafer Sherif’s Robbers Cave Experiment where Sherif gathered a group of 12 year old boys to see if he could pit the boys against one another. Sher…
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Strange Country Ep. 278: Emma Goldman
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Hey Dash Hounds, are you still there? Beth and Kelly are. Or are we? Has ChatGPT taken over? Can it? We are just women after all. What is our worth? In this episode, we will talk about women’s worth and Emma Goldman, a woman who fought for many things and has been forgotten like so many others. But Strange Country is doing its best to keep women’s …
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Strange Country Ep. 277: The Sullivan Institute
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Happy 2024! And Beth and Kelly are back with another tale of another cult on another year of Strange Country. What’s to say? It starts off with plans for communal living and burns out in abuse, financial malfeasance and weird sex awfulness. Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands. Cite your sources: Hoban, Phoebe. “Psycho Drama: The Chill…
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Strange Country Ep. 276: OneTaste
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You’ve heard of six-minute abs, but how about the 15-minute orgasm? That’s what Nicole Daedone of OneTaste was touting; female empowerment through clitoris stimulation. Then like most high-demand groups, things go south pretty quickly. In this Strange Country episode, co hosts Beth and very uncomfortable Kelly talk about the rise and fall of OneTas…
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Strange Country Ep. 275: Henry Darger
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Henry Darger is one of the most profitable outsider artists out there. Unfortunately he didn’t reap the benefit of that while he was alive, spending much of it in abject poverty. He was compelled to make and write art during the time he was not working as a janitor or dishwasher. His artwork dealt with themes of child abuse and violence, subjects v…
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ENCORE: Strange Country Ep. 274: Bohemian Grove
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Welcome dash hounds to an old episode from the pre-covid days when men could be rich men and spend the weekend urinating on trees and ruminating on how they could make life miserable for the rest of us. Strange Country will be back soon with a brand spanking new episode. Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands. Sources: Flock, Elizabeth. …
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Strange Country Ep. 273: Kary Mullis
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We’re sure you’ve heard of the Nobel Prize although it’s hard to make the case Beth has since she mispronounces it quite a bit in this episode. But have you heard of Nobel Disease? It’s when people are labeled geniuses and go on to embrace some whackadoodle pseudoscience. In today’s Strange Country episode, Beth and Kelly discuss Kary Mullis, the o…
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ENCORE: Strange Country Ep. 272: Killers of the Flower Moon
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Welcome to a blast from the past. This is a re-release of ep. 59 The Osage Murders, repackaged as Killers of the Flower Moon to coincide with the new film by Martin Scorsese. Thanks for all your support, dash hounds. We’ll be back with a new episode soon. Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: http://usdakotawar.org/hi…
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Strange Country Ep. 271: Candyman
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Hey DashHounds, if you were listening last episode, we mentioned the true story of Candyman. This may be the very first time Beth and Kelly said “we should look into that” and actually did! Find out how haunting life was in Chicago in the 1980s if you lived in Cabrini Green housing. It is scary to think how people lived and even scarier to hear abo…
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Strange Country Ep. 270: The Man Who Killed Halloween
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Halloween 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 insuran…
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Strange Country Ep. 269: Vaccine Roulette
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In the 1980s, whilst the media stirred up frenzies over Satanists in our midst or a nuclear bomb landing in Washington, a reporter made a documentary adding vaccines to the growing list of dangers. Vaccine Roulette claimed the pertussis vaccine caused brain damage in kids, which led to a drop in immunizations, a rise in whooping cough, and a near-e…
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Strange Country ep. 268: Mabel Norris Reese
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Mabel Norris Reese shone a light on racism and injustice in Lake County Fla. in the 1950s and 60s before the racist element drove the newspaper editor out of town. Strange Country cohosts and former reporters Beth and Kelly talk about this intrepid journalist and wish that Bugs Bunny gif of him sawing off Florida could somehow come true. Theme musi…
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Strange Country Ep. 267: Ruth Handler
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We are requiring all readers of Strange Country and their partners, families and friends and everyone else to watch the Barbie movie. That way you can fully enjoy Kelly and Beth’s homage to Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie. Learn details about the woman who, really, all of us should have studied in school as an example of an entrepreneur. Women …
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Strange Country Ep. 266: Stone Mountain
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If your site is like a video game health regenerator for the Ku Klux Klan, that might be a sign your site needs a facelift. Yet Stone Mountain, Ga., continues to exist as the the largest Confederate monument in the world. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss this paean to traitors and how the United Daughters of the Confederacy united to …
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Strange Country Ep. 265: Anthrax Attacks of 2001
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Maybe this got lost in the shuffle for you, dear readers, like it did for Beth who completely spaced about this, but in the weeks after 9/11, opening the mail was a terrifying act. That’s because someone was sending anthrax letters to the media and politicians. Five people died and another 17 were sickened in these attacks. It took eight years for …
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Strange Country Ep. 264: Goody Garlick
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Join us this week on Strange Country as we go way back in time to the 1600s when life was grand, and if you lived to be a 50-year-old woman, you should just STFU. Because if you did decide to speak truth of any sort you would likely be accused of witchcraft. That’s what happened to Goody Garlick of Easthampton (originally one word), NY. Enjoy Goody…
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Strange Country Ep. 263: The Curious Case of Natalia Grace
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What is the youngest age a child can live on her own? In this episode, Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss the absolutely bonkers documentary “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace” that premiered this year on Investigation Discovery. An Indiana couple petitioned a court to have their adopted child re-aged from 9 to 22 so she could be remove…
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Strange Country Ep. 262: The Mattachine Society
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Twenty years before the Stonewall Uprising, another group fought for rights for LGBTQ Americans. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss The Mattachine Society, a group that sought dignity and respect for LGBTQ during a time when being gay was criminalized. Luckily things are chill now. Oh wait. Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousa…
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Strange Country Ep. 261: Purity Culture
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You know how every little girl dreams of the day her dad signs a pledge promising to keep her vagina penis-free until she marries. Wait, you don’t? Well, sit back, slap on your purity ring, superglue your legs together and get ready for a Strange Country episode on purity culture. Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands Beaty, Katelyn. “O…
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Strange Country Ep. 260: History of Smiling
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Hey Readers! You know, you look a little tired. Maybe you should. . . smile? While you’re at it, take a listen to Beth and Kelly as we learn the history of the smile. You will learn that Kodak had more to do with why we smile for the camera and don’t look as miserable as we are. Smiles are a funny thing or are they? Are they really a creepy thing? …
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Strange Country Ep. 259: James Arthur Ray
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What is the main PSA of Strange Country? Trust your gut. Especially when self-proclaimed gurus tell you to suck it up inside a blistering hot sweat lodge. On this episode, cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss James Arthur Ray, another self-help platitude-spilling grifter, who hawked the law of attraction and The Secret, repackaged as Harmonic Wealth ™. H…
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Strange Country Ep. 258: Pellegra
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Hey Readers! Who has pellagra?? Would you know if you did? Don’t worry you won’t get it. But you will learn on this episode what pellagra was, why it killed 100,000 Americans, and took many dedicated hours to figure out the cure. Thank you for always listening and wondering alongside our stories. Why is it that Beth talks abut the taint so much? Th…
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Strange Country Ep. 257: Waco Siege Part 5
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We have finally reached the end of the Strange Country siege of covering the Waco Siege. In the final episode, cohosts Beth and Kelly discuss the aftermath of Waco and how the dots can be connected to such awfulness like Oklahoma City bombing and the Jan. 6 insurrection. Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: Benson, E…
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Strange Country Ep. 256: Waco Siege Part 4
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We’re almost there, gentle dash hounds, to the end of our siege. In part 4 of Waco, Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about the 51-day standoff between the FBI and the Branch Davidians that ended disastrously. Cite your sources: Benson, Eric. "At Bible Study With David Koresh's Last Followers." Texas Monthly (TX), sec. Religion, 26 Mar. 2…
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