Strange Country Ep. 175: Orgone Energy

Strange Country

Get out your cloudbuster and strap into your orgone accumulator because it's time to talk about the sexual electricity that courses through the sky. Psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich discovered this energy after studying specimens of milk steak under a microscope. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about Reich's claims that orgone could cure cancer and bone spurs and how it was snapped up by members of the Beat Generation so they could, well, beat off.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

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Folley, Aris. “Alex Jones Promotes Toothpaste He Claims 'Kills' Coronavirus; FDA Warns It's Fraudulent.” TheHill, The Hill, 12 Mar. 2020, thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/487149-alex-jones-promotes-toothpaste-he-claims-kills-coronavirus-as.

Kreidler, Marc. “Some Notes on Wilhelm Reich, M.D.” Quackwatch, 15 Feb. 2002, quackwatch.org/11Ind/reich/.

Louv, Jason. “The Scientific Assassination of a Sexual Revolutionary: How America Interrupted Wilhelm Reich's Orgasmic Utopia.” VICE, 15 July 2013, www.vice.com/en/article/mggzpn/the-american-quest-to-kill-wilhelm-reich-and-orgonomy.

“'My Life in Orgone Boxes': William Burroughs on His Sexual Science Experiments in OUI Magazine, 1977.” DangerousMinds, 30 Aug. 2016, dangerousminds.net/comments/my_life_in_orgone_boxes_william_burroughs_on_his_sexual_science_experiments.

Simon, Matt. “Fantastically Wrong: Why Is the Sky Blue? It's Packed With Sexy Energy, of Course.” Wired, Conde Nast, 26 Nov. 2014, www.wired.com/2014/11/fantastically-wrong-wilhelm-reich/.

Turner, Christopher. Adventures in the Orgasmatron: How the Sexual Revolution Came to America. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012.

Turner, Christopher. “Wilhelm Reich: the Man Who Invented Free Love.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 8 July 2011, www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/08/wilhelm-reich-free-love-orgasmatron.