Strange Country

Strange Country
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Strange Country

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.

  1. MAR 13

    The Real World

    This is a true story. Of two strange podcasters picked to podcast in an attic about a strange country. Find out what happens when Beth and Kelly stop being polite and start getting real about The Real World, the reality show that created the blueprint for all other reality shows. Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources:  Arthur, Kate. “Looking Back At "The Real World: San Francisco," The Show That Changed The World.” Buzzfeed, 7 January 2014, https://www.buzzfeed.com/kateaurthur/real-world-san-francisco-pedro-zamora-rachel-campos.   Chaney, Jen. “Every White Person Should Watch This Week’s The Real World Homecoming.” Vulture, 19 March 2021, https://www.vulture.com/2021/03/the-real-world-homecoming-rebecca-kevin-racism-fight-episode.html. Cohen, Randy. "Real World. Not." The New York Times Book Review, 12 July 1998. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A150174908/STND?u=nysl_sc_ahs&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=0add2ee3. Accessed 22 Feb. 2025. Gatollari, Mustafa. “The Real World Cast Members Who Have Died.” Distractify, 24 June 2024, https://www.distractify.com/p/real-world-members-who-have-died. Accessed 21 February 2025.   Heldman, Breanne L. “Eric Nies Reflects on Life After The Real World: 'My Life Is Filled with Angels and Demons.'” People.com, 24 February 2021, https://people.com/tv/eric-nies-life-after-the-real-world/. Accessed 22 February 2025.   Nussbaum, Emily. Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV. Random House Publishing Group, 2024. O'Connor, John J. "Review/Television; 'The Real World,' According to MTV." New York Times, 9 July 1992. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A174928194/STND?u=nysl_sc_ahs&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=0a1bbe5a. Accessed 20 Feb. 2025. Roberts, Michael. “The Unreal World | Music | Denver.” Denver Westword, 14 March 1996, https://www.westword.com/music/the-unreal-world-5056129. Accessed 17 February 2025. Shales, Tom. “MTV’s ‘The Real World’ needs to, like, get real.” San Antonio Express, One Star ed., 5 June 1992, p. 26. NewsBank: America's Historical Newspapers, https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=EANX-K12&req_dat=0FA0729FAB9D3500&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Aimage%252Fv2%253A10EEA20F1A545758%2540EANX-K12-16DE61B4872929B2%25402448779-16DE257513777099%254025-16DE257513777099%2540. Accessed 20 Feb. 2025. Wallace-Wells, Benjamin (November 18, 2003). "Reality Killed the Video Star". The Washington Monthly. Archived from the original on March 24, 2006. Wickman, Kase. “Sean Duffy From The Real World Is Trump's Latest Cabinet Pick. Yep.” Vanity Fair, 19 November 2024, https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/sean-duffy-from-the-real-world-is-trumps-latest-cabinet-pick?srsltid=AfmBOopQpcPd7CaQppFbaXcvMwJ-FZX_J2BL142NZWfOdNXIErmPpest.

    1 hr

  2. FEB 27

    Candid Camera

    Smile, you’re listening to a podcast about Candid Camera. Created by Allen Funt, Candid Camera was America’s first prank reality show. A case could be made that this show is responsible for the reality television trend that led to a con man being packaged as a “successful businessman” and is now pranking America as prez. Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about this pioneering show whilst smiling through their tears. Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands. Cite your sources:   “Candid Camera | Television Academy Interviews.” Television Academy Interviews |, 1997, https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/candid-camera. Accessed 26 January 2025.   Engle, Harrison. “Hidden Cameras and Human Behavior—An Interview with Allen Funt.” ida, 1 October 2000, Hidden Cameras and Human Behavior—An Interview with Allen Funt.   Flagler, J.M. “Student of the Spontaneous.” The New Yorker, 2 December 1960, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1960/12/10/student-of-the-spontaneous.   Funt, Allen, and Philip Reed. Candidly, Allen Funt: A Million Smiles Later. Barricade Books, 1994.   Miller, Robert Nagler. “Q&A: The keeper of ‘Candid Camera’s’ zany TV legacy.” The Jewish News of Northern California, 12 July 2018, https://jweekly.com/2018/07/12/qa-the-keeper-of-candid-cameras-zany-tv-legacy/. Accessed 6 February 2025.   Nussbaum, Emily. Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV. Random House Publishing Group, 2024.   Perry, Gina. “Stanley Milgram and Candid Camera.” Gina Perry, 10 April 2012, https://www.gina-perry.com/2012/04/10/candid-camera/. Accessed 6 February 2025.   Saxon, Wolfgang. “Allen Funt, Creator of 'Candid Camera,' Is Dead at 84.” The New York Times, 7 September 1999, https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/07/arts/allen-funt-creator-of-candid-camera-is-dead-at-84.html. Accessed 25 January 2025.   Stewart, Travis. “How “Candid Camera” May Have Destroyed America.” Travelanche, 16 September 2020, https://travsd.wordpress.com/2020/09/16/how-candid-camera-may-have-destroyed-america/.

    1h 9m

  3. FEB 6

    Plants Know What You Think About This Podcast

    Well Dash Hounds, if you are still out there listening and tuning in, we are thankful. Listening is an act of love. Love brings joy, and joy is a form of resistance. So sit back this week and learn how Kelly and Beth are getting through the hard times naturally. Of course with everything that seems good, be cautious. Nature is such a healer until it isn’t. And it’s just you and your houseplant whose picking up on your negative vibes and blaming you for everything. Confused? So are we. Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands. Cite your sources, dude Eells, Josh. “He Talked to Plants and They Talked Back.” New York Times, 21 December 2017, https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/news/the-lives-they-lived/2013/12/21/cleve-backster/. First, Elsa. “The Secret Life of Plants.” New York Times, 30 December 1973, https://www.nytimes.com/1973/12/30/archives/the-secret-life-of-plants-by-peter-tompkins-and-christopher-bird.html. Fitzgerald, Sunny. “The Secret to Mindful TRavel: A Walk in the Woods.” National Geographic, vol. October, 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/forest-bathing-nature-walk-health. McEvoy, Patrick. “Courage, Memory and Voice: A Review of Monica Gagliano's Thus Spoke the Plant.” Ecological Citizen, https://www.ecologicalcitizen.net/pdfs/v04n1-13.pdf. Schreiber, Dan. The Theory of Everything Else: A Voyage Into the World of the Weird. HarperCollinsPublishers, 2023. Stempel, Jonathan, and Husch Blackwell. “Apple to pay $95 million to settle Siri privacy lawsuit.” Reuters, 2 January 2025, https://www.reuters.com/legal/apple-pay-95-million-settle-siri-privacy-lawsuit-2025-01-02/. Accessed 20 January 2025.

    48 min

  4. JAN 23

    Strange Country Ep. 291: David Starr Jordan

    Since we heard America was “being made great again” or something, we decided it was time for Strange Country to return. This time, cohosts Beth and Kelly tackle the story of David Starr Jordan, noted ichthyologist and first president of Stanford University, who definitely was a eugenicst but not certain a murderer. He did cover up Jane Stanford’s murder by poison so there’s that. That’s not good, right? We don’t know because it seems laws are meaningless now. Yay, America!?! Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands. Cite your sources, or not, who cares nothing has meaning Flores, Gilbert. “Did Philanthropy Kill Jane Stanford?” Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, 31 October 2022, https://blog.philanthropy.indianapolis.iu.edu/2022/10/31/did-philanthropy-kill-jane-stanford/. Accessed 18 January 2025.   “A History of Stanford – Stanford University.” Stanford University, https://www.stanford.edu/about/history/. Accessed 2 January 2025.   Miller, Lulu. Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life. Simon & Schuster, 2020.   Peacock, Chris. “Stanford will rename campus spaces named for David Starr Jordan and relocate statue depicting Louis Agassiz.” Stanford Report, 7 October 2020, https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2020/10/jordan-agassiz.   White, Richard. Who Killed Jane Stanford? A Gilded-Age Tale of Murder, Deceit, Spirits and the Birth of a University. WW Norton, 2022.   Wolfe, Susan. “Who Killed Jane Stanford?” STANFORD magazine, September/October 2003, https://stanfordmag.org/contents/who-killed-jane-stanford. Accessed 2 January 2025.

    1 hr

  5. 10/24/2024

    Ed Gein

    It’s the spooky season, and this episode is a doozy and an oozy, as in the oozing of decomposing bodies. Ed Gein, the inspiration behind characters Norman Bates, Leatherface and Buffalo Bill, is the topic of today’s Strange Country. Cohosts Beth and Kelly have an especially important PSA before you press play: Don’t eat while listening. Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands. Cite your sources: Bloom, John. “They Came. They Sawed. – Texas Monthly.” Texas Monthly, November 2004, https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/they-came-they-sawed/. Accessed 11 October 2024.   Dimitropoulos, Stav. “Serial Killer Ed Gein Was a 'Model Patient' After Being Incarcerated for His Gruesome Crimes.” A&E, 11 January 2018, https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/serial-killer-ed-gein-was-a-model-patient-after-being-incarcerated-for-his-gruesome-crimes. Accessed 12 October 2024.   Hanneman, Joe. “A Look Back at the 'Plainfield Butcher,' Grave Robber Ed Gein.” The Hanneman Archive, 4 November 2014, https://hannemanarchive.com/2014/11/04/plainfield-butcher-ed-gein/. Accessed 6 October 2024.   Keller, Robert. Unhinged: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, the Butcher of Plainfield. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017. Accessed 6 October 2024.   Piccotti, Tyler. “Ed Gein: Biography, Murderer, Grave Robber, 'Monster' Season 3.” Biography (Bio.), 17 September 2024, https://www.biography.com/crime/ed-gein. Accessed 6 October 2024.   Sutton, Candace. “The mother of the most depraved serial killer of all time.” NZ Herald, 24 October 2020, https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/who-was-the-mother-of-the-most-depraved-serial-killer-of-all-time/T75XZ2O7K7AGAP5LBGPKDKHVV4/. Accessed 12 October 2024.

    51 min

  6. 10/03/2024

    Night of Terror

    Hey Dashhounds, it's our favorite month for creepy tales at Strange Country! October brings warmish temperatures at night, hot sunny days, hurricanes with power that you have never seen before, and the uncomfortable feeling of politics gone wrong--rarely landing with a woman in charge. Today Beth and Kelly bring you the story of the Night of Terror. Enjoy! Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands. Cite your sources, dude: Deuel, Nathan. “Book Prize winner Stephanie Jones-Rogers on women slave owners.” Los Angeles Times, 17 April 2020, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-04-17/female-slave-owners-independent-brutal-stephanie-jones-rogers. Accessed 22 July 2024. Jones Rogers, Stephanie. They Were Her Property. https://archive.org/details/they-were-her-property-white-women-as-slave-owners-in-the-american-south-pdfdrive/page/205/mode/2up. Kell, Gretchen. “Unmasked: Many white women were Southern slave owners, too.” Berkeley News, 25 October 2019, https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/10/25/white-women-slaveholders-q-a/. Accessed 22 July 2024. “Madame LaLaurie | The story of Delphine LaLaurie, of New Orleans.” Ghost City Tours, https://ghostcitytours.com/new-orleans/haunted-places/lalaurie-mansion/madame-lalaurie/. Accessed 22 July 2024.

    42 min

  7. 09/12/2024

    Talking Dolphins

    The 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: GRECO, JOANN, and Benjamin Franklin. “The Psychonaut You Never Heard Of – The Pennsylvania Gazette.” The Pennsylvania Gazette, 20 June 2017, https://thepenngazette.com/the-psychonaut-you-never-heard-of/. Accessed 12 August 2024.   Greenwood, Arin. “What It Means To Say A Dolphin Committed Suicide.” HuffPost, 13 June 2014, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dolphin-commits-suicide_n_5491513. Accessed 14 August 2024.   Houghton, Gerard A. “John Lilly.” The Guardian, 5 October 2001, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/oct/05/guardianobituaries.highereducation. Accessed 14 August 2024.   Jones, Tom, et al. “The Ketamine Secrets of 'Ecco the Dolphin.'” VICE, 16 March 2015, https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-ketamine-secrets-of-segas-ecco-the-dolphin-347/. Accessed 14 August 2024.   Kabil, Ahmed. “Meet the psychedelics-obsessed scientist who wanted to learn dolphins' language.” Medium, 28 November 2016, https://medium.com/timeline/neuroscience-doctor-drugs-lsd-c17d5e84c653. Accessed 14 August 2024.   Rapp, Joshua. “Just How Intelligent Are Dolphins?” Discover Magazine, 26 March 2021, https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/just-how-intelligent-are-dolphins. Accessed 13 August 2024.   Riley, Christopher. “The dolphin who loved me: the Nasa-funded project that went wrong.” The Guardian, 8 June 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/08/the-dolphin-who-loved-me. Accessed 14 August 2024.   Schreiber, Dan. “Will We Ever Speak Dolphinese?” The Theory of Everything Else: A Voyage Into the World of the Weird, HarperCollinsPublishers, 2023, pp. 161-173.

    56 min

  8. 08/08/2024

    Free Town Project

    New Hampshire seemed like the perfect state to start a libertarian utopia. No sales or income tax, aversion to governmental interference and the motto “Live free or die.” But for residents of Grafton, it soon became un-BEAR-able. Do you see what I did there because I don’t. Join Strange Country cohosts Beth and Kelly as they share this remarkable tale of libertarian hijinks from the book A Libertarian Walks into a Bear by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling. Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands. Cite your sources: Austin, Elizabeth. “Libertarians Took Control of This Small Town. It Didn't End Well.” Washington Monthly, 30 August 2020, https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/08/30/libertarians-took-control-of-this-small-town-it-didnt-end-well/. Accessed 27 July 2024.   Barry, Dan. “What Is the Free State Project?” The New York Times, 15 July 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/15/us/politics/nh-free-state-project.html. Accessed 30 July 2024.   Bookman, Todd. “Libertarian activist sentenced to 8 years in prison for role in cryptocurrency money laundering scheme.” NHPR, 2 October 2023, https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2023-10-02/libertarian-activist-sentenced-to-8-years-in-prison-for-role-in-cryptocurrency-money-laundering-scheme. Accessed 30 July 2024.   Hongoltz-Hetling, Matthew. A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (and Some Bears). PublicAffairs, 2020.   Malone, Clare. “What Does Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Actually Want.” The New Yorker, 5 August 2024, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/12/robert-f-kennedy-jr-profile-presidential-campaign.   “Pastor Killed in Fire at 200-Year-Old Grafton Church.” nhpr, 14 January 2016, https://www.nhpr.org/post/pastor-killed-fire-200-year-old-grafton-church.   Sullivan, Adam. “Judge settles dispute over fire-ravaged church in New Hampshire.” WCAX 3, 2 May 2019, https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Judge-settles-dispute-over-fire-ravaged-church-in-New-Hampshire-509395891.html.   Sullivan, Adam. “New life for New Hampshire church destroyed by fire.” WCAX 3, 21 August 2019, https://www.wcax.com/content/news/New-life-for-New-Hampshire-church-destroyed-by-fire-557778101.html.

    1 hr
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3.4
out of 5
174 Ratings

About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Strange Country
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2025
  • Episodes
    293
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2017 Strange Country Podcast
  • Show Website
    Strange Country

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