This is the home of the blue collar football player. If anyone has ever considered you too short, too slow or too weak to compete in the greatest game in the world, than this podcast is for you. Learn every tip and trick there is take your game to the next level.
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George Mahoney Podcasts
American Hysteria explores how fantastical thinking has shaped our culture – moral panics, urban legends, hoaxes, crazes, fringe beliefs, and national misunderstandings. Poet-turned-podcaster Chelsey Weber-Smith tells the strangest stories from American history and examines the forces that create the reality we share, and sometimes, the reality we don't.
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Recovery, mental health, pop culture, food & more all through the lens of humorist & storyteller Sean Paul Mahoney! One topic, once a week, one host.
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Episode #332: My Biggest Mistakes and Year-End Reflections From 2025
1:15:26
1:15:26
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1:15:26In this episode, I perform a reflection of 2025 ... dissecting the following questions. 1. What did I change my mind about? 2. What gave me energy? 3. What drained my energy? 4. What should I do more of ... and less of in 2025? 5. Who were my boat anchors this year? 6. What were my biggest wins? 7. What were my biggest misses? 8. What did I learn t…
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Party (and Panic) Like It's 1999 with Ross Benes
1:08:34
1:08:34
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1:08:34Ross Benes is the author of the book 1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times. Together we revisit what popular culture was like at the turn of the millennium and how things like Juggalos, professional wrestling, boy band rivalries, nü-metal, Jerry Springer, teen movies, the tech bubble, and the fear of the end…
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Mall Santas pt. 2 with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'
1:38:54
1:38:54
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1:38:54In part two of our two-part series, I show Sarah a more radical side of the American Mall Santa. I tell her stories of how, in some cases, the character transformed into a symbol of societal change and guerrilla protest, from the ladies who had to take his bearded place during WWII, to the Black Santa revolutionaries of the Civil Rights Movement, t…
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Mall Santas pt. 1 with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'
1:25:48
1:25:48
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1:25:48For this two-part holiday special, I tell Sarah Marshall all about the history of the American mall Santa Claus from the 1800s into the present day. For part one, we will learn about the eccentric men who created the look and vibe of the department store Kris Kringle, mass producing a jolly army of Santa proxies to whom kids could disclose their he…
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Jelani Cobb is the Dean of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism and the author of the new book Three or More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025 which he is here to talk with me about today. Since the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement over a decade ago, Jelani has been reporting on the most consequential events from the fr…
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The Rocky Horror Picture Show with 'This Ends At Prom'
1:28:06
1:28:06
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1:28:06In honor of my favorite movie's 50th anniversary, I wanted to share an episode about The Rocky Horror Picture Show with all of you unconventional conventionalists, one that I recently recorded with my friends BJ and Harmony Colangelo for their fantastic coming-of-age film podcast, This Ends at Prom. Subscribe to This Ends At Prom wherever you get y…
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Listen Now: American Scandal | The West Memphis Three
8:02
8:02
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8:02On May 5, 1993, three 8-year-old boys were brutally murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas. The tiny local police department launches an investigation but finds little physical evidence to lead them to a suspect. Eventually, outside pressure pushes them to charge someone with the killings, whether or not the evidence supports their conclusions. America…
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THE MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE (rewind)
53:33
53:33
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53:33Brace yourselves, we are marching along with the Macy's Parade to learn about the chaos energy that has always animated this cultural institution, from its explosive balloon disasters to its surprisingly unruly origins. Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content Or subscribe to American Hysteria on …
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The Devil We Know with Sarah Marshall
1:28:44
1:28:44
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1:28:44Sarah Marshall of You're Wrong About joins me to wade back into the tall tales that devil-spawned the friendship we have today. In honor of her brand new podcast miniseries from the CBC called The Devil You Know about the past, present and future of the Satanic Panic, we 'll check out some never-before-heard satanic cult source material from newsp…
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Disneyland’s Disastrous Opening Day with Riley Swedelius-Smith and Miranda Zickler
1:17:32
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1:17:32Our associate producer (and my brother) Riley Swedelius-Smith is here to tell our producer Miranda Zickler and me about the chaotic opening day of The Happiest Place on Earth way back in 1955. We’ll learn about the many quirks of Walt Disney, the events that unfolded as he tried to build his ludicrous dream, and how everything went down when it was…
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Bot Farms and the Troll Toll with Perry Carpenter
1:14:14
1:14:14
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1:14:14Have you ever wondered if the person you are arguing with in a social media comment section is really a person at all? Perry Carpenter is a cybersecurity expert, author of FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions, and host of The Faik Files podcast. I asked Perry to explain the phenomeno…
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Bloody Mary...Bloody Mary...Bloody Mary...For our Halloween special, we are going to trace the history of the slumber party ritual known as Bloody Mary in which a young summoner stands in the dark in front of a mirror to call up a dangerous, blood-soaked witch-woman. By looking at the Victorian era occult divination games of girls, the many cemeter…
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Spontaneous Human Combustion with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'
1:42:08
1:42:08
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1:42:08Sarah Marshall is here to teach me about the confounding phenomenon of Spontaneous Human Combustion in which a person is found almost totally incinerated with no explanation, seeming to have burst into flames from within. From the Victorian era to the modern day, we will look at historical cases and modern explanations to try to separate fact from …
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This is a rerelease of our 2023 Halloween special about the 12 Ft Skeleton Halloween craze and the strange history of our relationship to skeletons, both real and fake, stretching back hundreds of years. On 10/14 you can hear me on You're Wrong About covering Midnight Ghost Shows! I am doing a new series over on Patreon and Apple+ called Dispatches…
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Horror Movie Curses with 'What Went Wrong' Podcast
1:32:38
1:32:38
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1:32:38What Went Wrong hosts Chris Winterbauer and Lizzie Bassett join me to tell the stories of three allegedly cursed horror movies and the unexplained events that befell the cast, crew, and sometimes even audiences. Were these films really possessed by dangerous, otherworldly energy? Or are we dealing with social conditions, marketing gimmicks, and saf…
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Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark with Liz "Cosbrarian" Gotauco
1:06:56
1:06:56
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1:06:56For this episode, I get schooled on the history of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, the children's horror book series that terrified 80s and 90s kids with its repurposed urban legends and folklore as well as genuinely terrifying illustrations. Liz Gotauco (AKA Cosbrarian), the creator of the F*cked Up Fairytales series, talks with me about how th…
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The Kennedy Curse with George Civeris
1:17:20
1:17:20
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1:17:20George Civeris is the host of the comedy podcast Straightiolab as well as a new podcast called United States of Kennedy that explores our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty and the ways that this family has continued to shape American life for decades. For this episode, George lays out the tale of the Kennedy Curse through a handful of t…
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Houdini's Afterlife with Sarah Marshall and Tim Harford
1:06:48
1:06:48
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1:06:48Tim Harford is the host of the podcast Cautionary Tales which recently put out a series on the most famous magician of all time, Harry Houdini. For this episode, Sarah Marshall of You’re Wrong About joins me as co-host to discuss with Tim the Victorian religion-turned-public spectacle known as Spiritualism, the wonderfully gullible Sir Arthur Conan…
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This is a rerelease of our 2021 episode. In 2017, YouTube Kids was embroiled in a major scandal when it was discovered that a dark underbelly of inappropriate cartoons, computer animations, and live action videos were lurking just under the surface of the supposedly safeguarded app. With themes of injections, sexuality, violence, scatology, and muc…
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Introducing: Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes
8:10
8:10
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8:10From Jonestown to Heaven’s Gate, to the Octopus Murders and the Waco Siege, the world is full of deception, manipulation, and destruction. Listen to Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes every Wednesday as we explore the real people at the center of the world’s most shocking secrets and nefarious organizations. Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crim…
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The Disturbing World of Mobile Game Ads with 'Panic World' Podcast
1:17:36
1:17:36
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1:17:36Warning: REALLY WEIRD EPISODE. On social media and YouTube, bizarre, shocking, disgusting, creepy, and confusing animated ads for simple mobile games have popped up over the last few years. In collaboration with the guys from the Panic World podcast, we watch (and describe) some of the freakiest ads I have found over time, analyze the advertising p…
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Dear Chelsey and Ask Sarah Marshall
1:13:34
1:13:34
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1:13:34In the spirit of American advice columnists Dear Abby and Ann Landers, I am joined by Sarah Marshall of the podcast You’re Wrong About to give our own unique advice to some of the funnier questions sent in to Dear Abby and Ask Ann Landers from the 1950s to the early 2000s. Get some of our new merch at americanhysteria.com, all profits go to The Sam…
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Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren, also known as Dear Abby, were newspaper advice columnists answering questions and printing statements from their 100 million readers from the 1950s to the early 2000s. The flamboyant, eccentric women behind the columns, Eppie Lederer and Popo Phillips, had a fiery rivalry as they fought for the top spot of the adv…
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This is a bonus episode from our subscribers-only podcast Hysteria Home Companion. Our associate producer (and my brother) Riley Swedelius-Smith is here to tell us the absolutely wild and little-known story of how news of the Titanic shipwreck traveled to shore as the tragedy was all unfolding. We can use your support right now! Become a Patron…
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In this episode, we announce the 2025 F.R.E.A.K Award Winners Need a simple way to lose weight, fight off sickness, and sleep better ... check out Bon Charge Infrared Saunas HERE and use Promo Code MAHONEY for 15% off. Want …
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This is a bonus episode from our subscribers-only podcast Hysteria Home Companion. I share the history of an 80s urban legend with our producer Miranda Zickler, one about a dangerous video game that appeared in Portland arcades with possible links to the mysterious government agents known as the Men in Black and then disappeared without a trace. B…
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Not Just a Phase: Goths Through History with Christine Laskowski
1:15:14
1:15:14
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1:15:14Christine Laskowski shares her research into how an ancient barbarian people known as the Goths came to represent everything from edgy Hot Topic fashion and the band Joy Division to the Notre Dame cathedral and Flannery O'Connor's writing. Christine is the host of the podcast T&J, a limited series about 6th century Byzantium. Listen to the T&J podc…
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The Imaginary Gods of ChatGPT with Journalist Miles Klee
1:00:04
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1:00:04Miles Klee is the author of a recent Rolling Stone article titled People Are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies which tells the stories of ChatGPT users who have come to believe that their chatbot is a sentient spiritual being. For this episode, Miles and I discuss the experiences of these ChatGPT worshippers, why the chatbot’s answ…
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Episode #330: Jimmy Uske ... 2025 Toughman Champ
1:19:52
1:19:52
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1:19:52In this episode, I dissect the 2025 Toughman with (The Champ) Jimmy Uske. Listen as we discuss ... How we changed his training prior to the event Why he chose to go 8th on game day What was the ONE THING that made him obsessed with winning it all Need a simple way to lose weight, fight off sickness, and sleep better ... check out Bon Charge Infrare…
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Episode #329: How To Get A Drunk Person To Calm Down
31:27
31:27
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31:27In this episode, we will dissect: The value of questioning everything Why mastery in one thing has a "compound effect" How to get a drunk person to calm down Need a simple way to lose weight, fight off sickness, and sleep better ... check out Bon Charge Infrared Saunas HERE …
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The FBI's White Christian Nation with Lerone A. Martin
1:23:34
1:23:34
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1:23:34Lerone A. Martin is the author of The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism . For this episode, Lerone explains how the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover, colluded with religious authorities to shape the soul of America throughout the 20th century. We’ll see how this revamped version of American …
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Every scandal begins with a lie. But the truth will come out. And then comes the fallout and the outrage. Scandals have shaped America since its founding. From business and politics to sports and society, we look on aghast as corruption, deceit and ambition bring down heroes and celebrities, politicians and moguls. And when the dust finally settles…
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Staring at the Sun on LSD with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'
1:22:40
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1:22:40Have you ever heard the urban legend about the group of hippie college students that went blind while staring at the sun during an LSD trip? This tale became a very powerful anecdote in the 1960s as politicians tried to regulate the spread of acid spread across college campuses. For this episode, Sarah Marshall of the podcast You’re Wrong About jum…
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Episode #328: What Matters More Than Skill ...
25:31
25:31
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25:31In this episode, we will dissect: How Not To Ruin An Apology How To Leverage Your Weirdness What Matters More Than Skill Need a simple way to lose weight, fight off sickness, and sleep better ... check out Bon Charge Infrared Saunas HERE …
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The Call is Coming From Inside the House with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'
1:31:03
1:31:03
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1:31:03You've probably heard the urban legend called the Babysitter and the Man Upstairs or at least know the idiom it inspired: “The call is coming from inside the house.” Sarah Marshall of the podcasts You’re Wrong About and You Are Good joins me as I share some new ideas about where this tale came from, focused on an epidemic of obscene phone calls in …
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Episode #327: How The "Hyper-Productive" Meditate
38:20
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38:20In this episode, we will dissect: How The "Hyper-Productive" People Meditate The Fastest Way To Get In A Better Mood The Unintentional Benefit of Removing Clutter Need a simple way to lose weight, fight off sickness, and sleep better ... check out Bon Charge Infrared Saunas HERE …
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Have you ever heard the urban legend about the babysitter who takes LSD and accidentally bakes a baby in the oven believing it to be a raw turkey? For this Urban Legends Hotline episode, we will explore the possible origins of and the meaning behind this piece of 1960s folklore. Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes a…
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Episode #326: How To Build A "Gorilla" Grip
21:05
21:05
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21:05In this episode, we will dissect: How To Build The Grip of a Gorilla Why Simplicity is the Highest Form of Sophistication What Defines You More Than What You Say or What You Believe Need a simple way to lose weight, fight off sickness, and sleep better ... check out Bon Charge Infrared Saunas …
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Context Clues: Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's High
51:21
51:21
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51:21This episode will give some extra context for our upcoming urban legend episodes: The Hippie Babysitter and the Baby Roast, The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs, and the one where the college students go blind staring at the sun on LSD. We use excerpts from our episodes: Fangirls (2022) Suburbia (2020) Mind Control (2019) Become a Patron to support…
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Episode #325: The "Suffering" I Choose ...
48:13
48:13
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48:13In this episode, we will dissect: How To Not Overcommit Things you should never put in writing Need a simple way to lose weight, fight off sickness, and sleep better ... check out Bon Charge Infrared Saunas HERE and use Promo Code MAHON…
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Happy Pride month to all who observe! This is a rerelease of one of our favorite episodes. Over the last ten years, Gender Reveal Parties have exploded, figuratively and literally. Parents, communities, and social media followers alike can witness the moment that parents and families find out the sex of their future baby, but lately, these parties …
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In this episode, we will dissect: How To Develop Your Imagination How To Leverage Mistakes Into Opportunities Need a simple way to lose weight, fight off sickness, and sleep better ... check out Bon Charge Infrared Saunas HERE and use Pro…
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Episode #323: There Is Always A Better Way
36:56
36:56
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36:56In this episode, we will dissect: The best words to use when changing a habit The beauty and the curse of the quest for perfection Need a simple way to lose weight, fight off sickness, and sleep better ... check out Bon Charge Infrared Saunas HERE …
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The Last Prison Rodeo with Journalist Adam Mahoney
57:35
57:35
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57:35Since 1965, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola, has held an incredibly popular public event known as the Prison Rodeo where incarcerated men participate for cash prizes in contests so dangerous they have been banned from the professional rodeo circuit. Adam Mahoney is a reporter at Capital B and the author of a recent article ti…
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Mayhem! at the Minecraft Movie with BJ Colangelo
1:14:26
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1:14:26Over the last couple months, groups of Minecraft fans have been making TikTok videos of themselves wrecking havoc in theaters across the nation when their favorite moment of the new Minecraft movie plays. Culture writer and co-host of the podcast The Ends at Prom, BJ Colangelo, teaches me about wtf is going on and together we try not to moral panic…
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Lost Boy Larry with Producer Miranda Zickler
1:09:58
1:09:58
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1:09:58In 1973, mysterious communications from a young boy came over CB radios in the Southwest, leading to a massive search and rescue mission that generated far more questions than answers. For this episode, I tell American Hysteria Producer (and co-host of our subscribers-only podcast Hysteria Home Companion) Miranda Zickler about the dubious case now …
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Episode #322: Why You Need A Friend With A Boat ...
29:48
29:48
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29:48In this episode, we will dissect: The benefits of having a friend with a boat The true definition of forgiveness Need a simple way to lose weight, fight off sickness, and sleep better ... check out Bon Charge Infrared Saunas HERE and use Prom…
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In 2009, the news reported live as a six-year-old boy careened through the air at 7,000 feet trapped inside a homemade balloon craft. Millions tuned into the harrowing saga, but once the balloon finally hit the ground, no little boy was found inside. Details then emerged that seemed to indicate it was all a hoax created by a family as part of a PR …
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In this episode, we will dissect: The key difference between a giver and a taker The beauty of "Just Showing Up" Need a simple way to lose weight, fight off sickness, and sleep better ... check out Bon Charge Infrared Saunas HERE and use Promo …
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New Context: Gang Accusations and Initiations
1:50:52
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1:50:52Right now we are seeing accusations of gang associations used to to justify abducting immigrants off the street and sending them to either US detention centers or the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador with no due process. We have included a new introduction for this rerelease of our two part Gang Initiation series from 2024 in hopes that …
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