I see the legacy of those daytime talk shows all around us, even though the original

impetus that gave us that style of communication is a has been and will never be what

it used to be.

As we get ready to count down to 2026, after a surreal year dominated by new heights of political trash content, let's travel back to a time when the trash

belonged to the people. For this episode, I am joined by Ross Benish, author of the book 1999,

The Year Low Culture Conquered America and kick-started our bizarre times.

Together, we revisit the year of Our Lord 1999 and discuss what popular culture was like at the turn

of the millennium and how things like juggalo's, professional wrestling,

boy band rivalries, new metal, Jerry Springer, teen movies, the tech bubble, and the fear of the

end of the world predicted the uncanny hyper-reality we find ourselves in today. I'm your host, Chelsea Weber Smith, and this is

American hysteria. I am so excited to be going down memory lane today into what I think is probably my personal

favorite year of popular culture for better and for worse. And I am just really excited to do this

with you, Ross. Thank you so much for being here. Hey, it's great to be here.

Awesome. So you wrote this really fascinating book called 1999, the Year of Low Culture, Conquered

America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times. And as soon as I heard that title, I was like, yes, we've got to get Ross on the show.

So we're going to be talking about all things 1999 today and how it sort of predicted some of the places that we find ourselves today.

And I would love to just start by asking you, Ross, why 1999? Why did you decide to put so much

effort into understanding this particular year? Well, I noticed a lot of things in our national

politics and just in our culture in recent years that would harken back to crazy stuff that I

consumed in the 90s, whether it was like the K-Fabe of Trump era or

the collectible stuff that was going with NFTs reminded me at Beanie Babies.

There was just like a handful of those moments that made me go back and re-examine the 90s.

...