When Naked Swimming was Required in Gym Class with Journalist Robin Washington

When Naked Swimming was Required in Gym Class with Journalist Robin Washington

Nope, it's not an urban legend! Today we are talking to journalist and filmmaker Robin Washington who, like a huge number of boys in high school between the 1920s and 1970s, was required to swim naked during gym class. Not only has Robin created documentaries like the PBS film You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow!, he is also a founder of the Alliance of Black Jews. But Robin is here to talk to us specifically about the trauma that was his 1970s high school swim class and a shocking experience once shared by millions of boys but long forgotten by the rest of America. Learn more about Robin's work at robinwashington.com Become a Patron to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content American Hysteria is produced and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Edited by Miranda Zickler Sound design by Clear Commo Studios Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episoder(291)

Listen Now: American Scandal | The West Memphis Three

Listen Now: American Scandal | The West Memphis Three

On 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 ...

26 Nov 20258min

THE MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE (rewind)

THE MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE (rewind)

Brace 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 surprisin...

24 Nov 202553min

THE DEVIL WE KNOW with Sarah Marshall

THE DEVIL WE KNOW with Sarah Marshall

Sarah 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 Dev...

17 Nov 20251h 28min

Disneyland’s Disastrous Opening Day with Riley Swedelius-Smith and Miranda Zickler

Disneyland’s Disastrous Opening Day with Riley Swedelius-Smith and Miranda Zickler

Our 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 ...

10 Nov 20251h 17min

Bot Farms and the Troll Toll with Perry Carpenter

Bot Farms and the Troll Toll with Perry Carpenter

Have 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 L...

3 Nov 20251h 14min

BLOODY MARY

BLOODY MARY

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 ...

27 Okt 20251h 3min

SPONTANEOUS HUMAN COMBUSTION with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'

SPONTANEOUS HUMAN COMBUSTION with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'

Sarah 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 int...

20 Okt 20251h 42min

12 Ft Skeleton (rewind)

12 Ft Skeleton (rewind)

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 yea...

13 Okt 20251h 3min

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