On this podcast, we explore fantastical thinking, moral panics, urban legends, conspiracy theories,

hoaxes, and crazes, examine the forces that shape our culture, and tell the stories that

create the realities we share, and sometimes the realities we don't.

I'm your host, Chelsea Weber-Smith, and this is American hysteria.

I feel like someone was behind the eyes watching you.

He did not just say that.

Behind those big blue eyes are predators tracking your child's every move.

My name is Talking Angela, and this is my app.

No one else is here but me.

Talking Angela made her fashionable, feline debut in late 2012 as a part of the early boom

of iOS apps and games, many of which featured chatbots that you could speak to and who would

speak back to you.

Angela was a fashion-obsessed, classy teenage white cat with big blue, disney-fied eyes,

who spent her days luxuriating at a hip-perusion cafe.

She was a digital friend to other animated AI animals, like Talking Ben the Dog, Talking

Gina the Giraffe, and Talking Tomcat, who I found out is actually our subject's long-term

boyfriend.

Talking Angela was the newest of these chatbots put out by a company called Outfit 7 Limited

that boasted over 1.5 billion downloads of their various applications.

Talking Angela alone was downloaded 57 million times by 2014.

This is my local cafe hangout, Koutur Cafe.

Can you guess what attracted me to try it out?

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