The Welcome to Spirits podcast, a boosy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore.

Every week we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world.

I'm Amanda.

And I'm Julia. And we are joined by a podcaster oft requested and finally fulfilled as a guest on this show.

It's Chelsea Weber Smith. Chelsea, welcome to spirits. Oh, I'm so excited to be here. I love any

urban legend, kindred spirit that I can talk to at length. So I

really appreciate being asked to come on. I am so excited. You are here. And for those who might not

know a little bit about your podcast, can you give us the elevator pitch why they should listen

to American hysteria? Yeah, we cover what we call American fantastical

thinking. So definitely urban legends. That's my favorite thing to do. But we also do moral

panics, sometimes conspiracy theories, and even like crazes, lots of hoaxes, just any time that Americans have been duped in some way or have believed in something that perhaps is at least partially untrue.

And then we more so examine how those narratives have come to be instead of whether they're true or false.

So we're more interested in kind of the sociology of

fantastical thinking and how that intersects with politics and anything, you know, around

psychology. That's what we do. And it's a lot of fun. We try to have fun with it, but it can get

pretty dark as well. Well, I think like a lot of the stuff that you have covered on the podcast stuff like

Haunted Dolls and Urban Legends, Conspiracy theories, that kind of stuff is really up the

alley of our listeners 100%. But then there's also topics that you've covered where I was like,

I think any, I almost said, blue-blooded, red-blooded American,

but like I think anyone who had lived through these crazes would have some interest in,

like Beanie Babies was something that I was like, whoa, that's not something I would ever think

would come up on a podcast that also does urban legends and, you know, moral panic and satanic panic stuff. And also,

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