MIND CONTROL

MIND CONTROL

For our season finale, I am going to step into the unknown recesses of the mind, especially my own. I’ll share my upsetting brush with a self-actualization program that taught me that life is empty and meaning when I was ten-years-old. I’ll give a partial history of psychology’s changing ideas about how we think about thinking. Then we’ll look at the Cold War beginnings of this concept called brainwashing when American POWs suddenly became communist sympathizers, and how the US government tried their hand at the same thing. After that, we’ll check out the human potential movement and the new age philosophies that helped influence the Manson Family’s murders. Moving into the 1970s, we’ll follow a kidnapped heiress turned domestic terrorist, and see how the mass deaths at Jonestown influenced her fate. We’ll meet the man who invented cult deprogramming, paid for by families to abduct their wayward loved ones back. At the close, I’ll share more about my modern-era spiritual journey and how it’s informed my own mental health. Does life have meaning? Who knows, and who cares. Come hang out for more more special episode, and let’s get weird, man. American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Produced and edited by Clear Commo Studios Research and cowriting assisted by Riley Smith Co-Produced by Miranda Zickler Show art by Roache Voice Acting by Will Rogers Become a Patron for extra episodes, interviews, and videos monthly! Follow American Hysteria on social media: Twitter: @AmerHysteria Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episoder(287)

JINGLES pt. 1 with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'

JINGLES pt. 1 with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'

We all contain within us the many cheesy tunes of catchy capitalism that marked our childhoods, those hyper-memorable earworms that, depending on your age, feel like an invention of the 90s, of the 80...

9 Feb 1h 24min

A Cult by Any Other Name with Joseph Laycock

A Cult by Any Other Name with Joseph Laycock

Joseph Laycock is the author ofThe Penguin Book of Cults, and for this episode we discuss how our culture thinks of and reacts to what we oftentimes incorrectly identify as cults. His book delves into...

2 Feb 1h 8min

The Art of (Psychological) War with Annalee Newitz

The Art of (Psychological) War with Annalee Newitz

Annalee Newitz is the author of Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind, which traces the way disinformation, propaganda, and violent threats have evolved from military weapon...

26 Jan 1h 19min

Celebrity Clone Conspiracies  with 'No Such Thing' Podcast

Celebrity Clone Conspiracies with 'No Such Thing' Podcast

For this collaboration with the podcast No Such Thing, we covered the tales of nefarious forces secretly replacing famous people with clones. We’ll learn about different clone conspiracies and their o...

19 Jan 58min

JESUS TOAST

JESUS TOAST

A grilled cheese sandwich, a tortilla, an auto loan company building, a cinnamon roll, and a forkful of spaghetti are just a handful of the places that images of religious figures have miraculously ap...

12 Jan 1h 7min

Party (and Panic) Like It's 1999 with Ross Benes

Party (and Panic) Like It's 1999 with Ross Benes

Ross 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...

29 Des 20251h 8min

Mall Santas pt. 2 with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'

Mall Santas pt. 2 with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'

In 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 an...

22 Des 20251h 38min

Mall Santas pt. 1 with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'

Mall Santas pt. 1 with Sarah Marshall of 'You're Wrong About'

For 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...

15 Des 20251h 25min

Populært innen Samfunn

rss-spartsklubben
giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
konspirasjonspodden
aftenpodden-usa
alt-fortalt
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
popradet
rss-henlagt-andy-larsgaard
wolfgang-wee-uncut
grenselos
synnve-og-vanessa
frokostshowet-pa-p5
min-barneoppdragelse
rss-dannet-uten-piano
fladseth
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
relasjonspodden-med-dora-thorhallsdottir-kjersti-idem
rss-frekvens-med-anine-olsen
opptur-med-annette-og-ingeborg