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  • #54 - James Dobson (1936-2025) with Hilde Lovdal Stephens (SORRY ABOUT JOHN'S AUDIO!!)

    #54 - James Dobson (1936-2025) with Hilde Lovdal Stephens (SORRY ABOUT JOHN'S AUDIO!!)
    2025/09/02
    James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family and author of many popular books about "Christian parenting", died in late August at the age of 89. Dobson's death was celebrated by many ex-Evangelicals of a certain age who were raised in part or in total by Dobson's teaching and methods. He leaves behind a complicated and questionable legacy, including a generation of ex-Evangelicals who despise him and credit him for ruining their lives on the one hand, and an Evangelical movement that seems to have moved past him on the other. Joining Kelly and John to talk about the life and times of James Dobson is Hilde Løvdal Stephens, a professor of English at the University of Southeastern Norway. Her first book, Family Matters: James Dobson and Focus on the Family’s Crusade for the Christian Home, was published by the University of Alabama Press in 2019. You can find her on Bluesky @hildelstephens (NOTE: At about the 15 minute mark, John's audio goes crackly. We did our best to make it as listenable as possible! Our apologies to all. We'll do better next time!)
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    1 時間 4 分
  • #053 – Heretic (2024) - with Shaily Patel

    #053 – Heretic (2024) - with Shaily Patel
    2025/08/19
    Heretic was released in theaters in 2024 and quickly developed something of a cult fandom, especially among religion nerds. Starring Hugh Grant in a rare villainous dark turn, Heretic tells to story of two young Mormon missionaries, Sister Paxton and Sister Barnes, who find themselves forced to defend their faith (and their lives) against the human manifestation of dickish online atheist bros. Whether of not Heretic is a good movie about religion is open to debate (and we take that up here), but unlike other religious horror, it pulls its thrills from a very unique source and its writers did their homework, painting faith and believers in three dimensions while not endorsing either, and showing the folly of hyper-rationality at the same time. Shaily Patel, one of our earliest guests, rejoins us to talk about a movie she describes as one she both loves and hates. You can find her on Bluesky @vox-magica.
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    1 時間 22 分
  • #052 – At Last, A Woke Superman!

    #052 – At Last, A Woke Superman!
    2025/08/05
    We're back, and we're catching up on the things we missed this summer: Woke Superman, Ryan Walters' porn crisis, the DHS's weird fascism Twitter posts, and more! Kelly tells us about her surgery and recovery. John talks about his trip and getting a ridiculous amount of poison ivy on him. And they both talk about how Ryan Walters, the notorious Christian Nationalist in charge of Oklahoma schools, got caught with porn. Also, there's a new Woke Superman! James Gunn pisses off the right by deciding to make a Superman movie where Superman in an immigrant who cares about non-white people! It's very radical and disturbing! Plus: Epstein, and how it's now cool for you to convert the person in the next cubicle to Christianity if you work for the government. Links to the pieces discussed in this episode: Siri Dahl vs. Christian Nationalism With its ‘Homeland Heritage’ Campaign Trump’s DHS is Leaning Sharply into ‘Blood and Soil’ Ideology DHS’s ‘Homeland Heritage’ Campaign Highlights Danger of Innocence Myths of a White Christian America
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    1 時間 4 分
  • #051 – Acute Religious Experiences - with Richard Saville-Smith

    #051 – Acute Religious Experiences - with Richard Saville-Smith
    2025/06/10
    This week, Richard Saville-Smith joins Kelly and John to talk about his book Acute Religious Experiences – Madness, Psychosis, and Religious Studies, which was published by Bloomsbury in 2023. Saville-Smith is an independent researcher who focuses on the intersection of madness, mental disorders, and acute religious experiences, from a mad studies perspective. He earned his PhD in Philosophy and Religious Studies from the University of Edinburgh in 2020. They discuss the relatively little-known academic field of mad studies - which seeks to destigmatize and depathologize the concept of madness - and how the fields of psychiatry and religious studies, often operating in conflict with one another, have distorted our understanding of the authenticity of acute religious experiences like the ones described in the lives of Joan of Arc or Jesus. Richard is on Bluesky @dranamorphosis
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    59 分
  • #050 - Severance - The Church of Keir

    #050 - Severance - The Church of Keir
    2025/05/28
    Apple TV's Severance wrapped its long-awaited 2nd season recently and left us with more answers than questions. But some answers! We (sorta) know what Severance is really all about, and we (sorta, maybe) know what Lumon is up to now! So while we wait the ungodly eternity for Severance to return, John and Kelly invited scholar Niki Dolfi on to talk about the cults, religious allusions, identity, and goats. Niki Dolfi researches Christian Nationalism and white supremacy (among other things) and explores the intersection of religion and popular entertainment. She enjoys British television and is longtime Whovian Niki is on Bluesky @profdolfi
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    1 時間 14 分
  • #049 – Our Pope Watch Has Ended

    #049 – Our Pope Watch Has Ended
    2025/05/13
    Last week, the Catholic Church absolutely shook the world by electing Robert Prevost - an Augustinian from Chicago - Pope Leo XIV, making him the first ever American pope. Immediately, MAGA lost their collective minds, calling Leo XIV a woke Marxist and an anti-Trump liberal. Leo XIV's election was, without question, a statement by the Church directed squarely at MAGA and Donald Trump, but so many questions remain about what happens next. Kelly and John share their thoughts about the selection of Prevost, what it means that he chose the name Leo XIV, and why this way well serve as a check against Trump's fascism and persecution of immigrant communities. They also take a look at some of the findings from the Public Religion Research Institute's findings from their survey of Americans following Trump's first 100 days. John's thoughts on Leo XIV or available on our blog. The PRRI surveys we discuss on the episode can be found here and here
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    1 時間 7 分
  • #048 – Annika Brockschmidt

    #048 – Annika Brockschmidt
    2025/04/29
    This week, author and journalist Annika Brockschmidt joins John to talk about the perception of the American Christian Right in Europe, the possibly intentional downplaying of Christian Nationalism in Trump 2.0, and Pete Hegseth's tattoos. Annika Brockschmidt studied History, German Studies, and War and Conflict Studies in Heidelberg, Durham and Potsdam. She is a freelance journalist and author, Worked for the capital city studio of German public-broadcaster ZDF and produces the podcasts “Kreuz und Flagge” And “Feminist Shelf Control”. She is senior correspondent for Religion Dispatches and writes for example for German daily newspaper Tagesspiegel, German online magazine Zeit Online, Frankfurt-based daily Frankfurter Rundschau, Swiss online magazine Republik, and German cross-regional weekly Der Freitag. Her Book “Amerikas Gotteskrieger. Über die Macht der Religiösen Rechten in den USA” (American Holy Warriors. The Power of the Religious Right in the USA) was a bestseller in 2021. Annika is on Bluesky @ardenthistorian.bsky.social
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    1 時間 2 分
  • #047 – Rethinking "Lord of the Flies" in the age of MAGA

    #047 – Rethinking "Lord of the Flies" in the age of MAGA
    2025/04/15
    William Golding's 1952 novel Lord of the Flies is one of those books most of us of a certain age were forced to read in high school and pretty much universally hated. Often presented as a bleak meditation on human nature, Lord of the Flies certainly isn't that. But why were its real themes - the destructive nature of colonialism, the inconsistency between the ideals of democratic nations and their actual values, and how and why fascists tend to rise the top - so routinely overlooked for so long? Here, we suggest it's because Lord of the Flies is a book so obvious and unsparing in its symbolism it can really only be appreciated when its themes are playing out in front of us. As they are right now. With abandon. In this episode we also talk about how the Showtime series Yellowjackets helps illuminate why Lord of the Flies needs to be understood allegorically, as well as how fascism is depicted in another popular dystopian work involving teenagers killing each other, The Hunger Games. John's essay on Lord of the Flies can be found on our blog here: Lord of the Flies is more relevant now than ever
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    1 時間 2 分