TALKING TO THE DEAD

American Hysteria

W!ZARD Studios

Society & Culture

4.4 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2019

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For the season two premiere, we are exploring the rich American history of Spiritualism, a massive 80-year trend of popular culture lasting from the Civil War to the Jazz age in which mediums began speaking to, and then speaking for, the spirits of the dead. A sudden craze of magical, fun, gross, and sexy parlor room séances swept the nation, materializing during the awe-inspiring age of invention and scientific inquiry. But the movement also had a political side; for the first time women were given a voice for social and political change, a voice that just happened to be channeled from beyond the veil. How they used that otherworldly voice, however, was both revolutionary and problematic, much like the progressive movements we experience today. American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Produced and edited by Clear Commo Studios Research assisted by Riley Smith 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

Transcript

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0:00.0	On this season, we'll be exploring our bizarre beliefs, unfounded fears, and fantastical thinking, how they shape our psychology and culture, and how much of our past we can find in the present.
0:19.9	I'm your host, Chelsea Weber Smith, and this is American Hysteria.
0:25.1	I am now going into a trance.
0:28.3	My trance is wearing off. I think you better hang up now.
0:31.6	Please manifest yourself in any way possible.
0:34.9	Lift the table, moving around on it.
0:37.3	In the name of humanity and love, if there is communication from the great... any way possible, let the table moving around on it.
0:42.2	In the name of humanity and love, if there is communication from the great beyond,
0:44.3	come through with the audience.
0:48.3	You're moving it.
0:49.2	No, not.
0:50.2	You're moving it.
0:51.2	Would you just quiet?
0:52.5	I'm trying to concentrate here.
0:53.8	And I'm not moving it. You're just quiet? I'm trying to concentrate here, and I'm not moving it.
0:56.0	You're a movie.
1:02.7	I'll start this season with a confession that might ruin any skeptics' credibility that you've generously bestowed on me.
1:05.4	Myself, my mother, and my granny have always been prone to witnessing the supernatural,
1:10.0	and I have to admit, I kind of do believe
1:11.9	in ghosts. My childhood and teendom were dotted with unexplained events and what seemed like
1:17.1	weird communications, and I felt uniquely connected to this spirit world, sometimes more so than the
1:22.9	material one. At 16 years old, I was assigned the most obligatory of high school projects, the job shadow,
	...

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