Episode notes
Can you find your way out of the maize? The corn maze has become an enduring attraction of the American autumnal experience, seen at touristy family farms next to pumpkin patches and haunted houses. But what are the historical roots of this iconic living puzzle? Sarah guides the eternally-lost Chelsey Weber-Smith through the twists and turns of the corn’s corridors and reveals the hidden architects that walk behind the rows. More Chelsey Weber-Smith: www.americanhysteriapodcast.com Mr. Jeff's Labyrinth Typology Hand Out: https://www.labyrinthos.net/Labyrinth%20Typology.pdf The Labyrinthos…
Podcast
You're Wrong About
Sarah Marshall · History · English
Sarah is a journalist obsessed with the past. Every week she reconsiders a person or event that's been miscast in the public imagination.
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28 Oct 2025 · 41 min
Introducing: The Devil You Know with Sarah Marshall
Listen now to the first episode of Sarah's new 8-part series with CBC Podcasts, The Devil You Know. In the 1980s and 90s, Satan and his followers were accused of brainwashing children, sacrificing babies, and infiltrating North American society on a massive scale — yet these thousands of alleged Satanists were nowhere to be found. In this all new series, host Sarah Marshall explores the tangled web of the Satanic Panic, in a journey that will take you everywhere from Victoria, B.C. to rural Kentucky to San Antonio, Texas. This is a show about the people who experienced the panic in real-time…
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14 Oct 2025 · 1 hr 44 min
Midnight Ghost Shows with Chelsey Weber-Smith
What do you get when you combine a horror movie audience, a spiritualist séance, and a haunted house attraction? Beginning in the 1930s and lasting into the 1960s, midnight ghost shows were ghoulishly chaotic, wonderfully campy 4D theater performances that accompanied the scary movies of the era, beloved by a mostly-teenage audience who often became a part of the show themselves. Schlocky showman Chelsey Weber-Smith tells Sarah about how magicians-turned-ghostmasters used paranormal parlor tricks, gory skits, and marketing gimmicks to create a new form of vaudevillian dark comedy. As horror…
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30 Sep 2025 · 1 hr 11 min
The Auralyn with Blair Braverman
Are you a survival pessimist or a survival optimist? Blair Braverman surprises Sarah with a harrowing, heartening, and sometimes hilarious tale of love and endurance in the face of certain death, but you’ll have to listen to find out the seemingly impossible circumstances our subjects had to overcome. Digressions include Sarah’s flight simulation skills, David Goggins' morning routine, and the best way to design your character in The Oregon Trail computer game. More Blair Braverman: Blair's new picture book, "The Day Leap Soared" Advice for Sarah from Blair Blair on Instagram More of Blair's…
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16 Sep 2025 · 1 hr 19 min
Samantha Smith vs. the Cold War with Maris Kreizman
Who really ended the Cold War, Ronald Reagan or a ten-year-old girl? Eighties correspondent Maris Kreizman joins us for a heartfelt conversation about America’s Youngest Ambassador, Samantha Smith, a child who wrote a letter to Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov in hopes of cooling nuclear tensions. Then, Andropov wrote back. Maris and Sarah discuss the burden we place on the youth to “change the world” while simultaneously scolding them for their naivety. Digressions include the millennial urge to cut up plastic soda can rings, Christina Applegate’s SNL infomercial, and an important…
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19 Aug 2025 · 1 hr 21 min
The Insanity Defense with Mackenzie Joy Brennan
What do John Hinckley Jr. and a jazz age tuberculosis patient have in common? Legal correspondent Mackenzie Joy Brennan takes Sarah through some of the strange cases that helped make—and break—the insanity defense in America. Our story includes a woman who carried her (alleged) victims’ bodies around in a suitcase, and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan—carried out with the intention of impressing a young Jodie Foster. More Mackenzie Joy Brennan: http://www.mkzjoybrennan.com More You're Wrong About: Bonus Episodes on PatreonBuy cute merchYWA on Instagram Sarah's other show, You…
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16 Jul 2025 · 1 hr 4 min
Pee-wee Herman Part 2 with Jamie Loftus
In the second part of our series, pop culture historian Jamie Loftus takes us through the meteoric rise of Pee-wee Herman and the withering of Paul Reubens' world as dubious allegations surface that threaten to turn a beloved children’s character into a real life villain. Jamie tells us about his struggle to reconcile the character of Pee-wee with the real Paul Reubens, and how his longtime friendships became his sanctuary until the very end. Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of explicit materials involving minors More about Jamie Loftus: https://www.jamieloftus.xyz/ Support…
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30 Jun 2025 · 1 hr 8 min
Pee-wee Herman Part 1 with Jamie Loftus
What’s today’s secret word? Paul Reubens spent years bringing to life one of America’s most beloved characters, Pee-wee Herman, an icon of joy for weirdos of all ages. In the first of this two part series, Pee-wee superfan-turned-historian Jamie Loftus lets us into the playhouse for a journey through Paul’s early life and art school days, his collaborations and relationships, and the beginnings of a kind of fame that would blur the line between character and creator. More about Jamie Loftus: https://www.jamieloftus.xyz/ Support You're Wrong About: Bonus Episodes on PatreonBuy cute merchWhere…
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11 Jun 2025 · 1 hr 25 min
The Hitler Diaries with Adrian Daub
What happens when you’re just a little too good at forging the diaries of Adolf Hitler? And why did so many people want to read them? In 1983, the West German news magazine Stern bought sixty volumes of forged journals and held a press conference to announce their publication. This week, Adrian Daub of podcasts In Bed With the Right and The Feminist Present is here to tell us all about what would be the publishing hoax to end all hoaxes…if only the book in question wasn’t so boring. More about Adrian Daub:https://www.adriandaub.com/ More about the Hitler Diaries (German language podcast):…
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24 May 2025 · 1 hr 16 min
Coyotes! with Lulu Miller
Who is out there behind the howling midnight parties in the distance? For generations we have coexisted in varying degrees of rivalry, conflict, and admiration with the North American canine known as the coyote. From pre-colonization to our modern backyards, through the wild west and the streets of San Francisco, award-winning NPR science reporter and YWA Maligned Animal correspondent Lulu Miller takes our pack on a journey toward a better understanding of these resilient creatures.*EDITOR'S NOTE: Lulu Miller would like to submit a correction to her statement that Ronald Reagan put a band on…
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7 May 2025 · 1 hr 8 min
Inventing the Teenager with Harmony Colangelo
Where did all these teens come from? Harmony Colangelo, co-host of This Ends at Prom, is here to explain how, before Americans got to worry about what teenagers were up to, we first had to decide what they were—and how a boom in postwar educational films taught a generation of adolescents what not to do.Skipper Learns a Lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8kJzBJrOkU1950 Family Date: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8kJzBJrOkUMore about Harmony Colangelo:https://www.instagram.com/veloci_trap_torSupport You're Wrong About:Bonus Episodes on PatreonBuy cute merchWhere else to find…
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