Pod Only Knows

Fredrick Brennan is the creator of the anonymous image board site 8chan, and a former free speech absolutist.

His well-documented early adult life changed that, specifically after he moved to the Philippines after an entrepreneur named Jim Watkins offered Brennan the opportunity to turn the fledgling 8chan into a major platform. Jim and his son Ron would eventually exert more and more control over 8chan, and 8chan itself soon became home to the Q account, which began on 4chan and is widely considered, at least in its 8chan incarnation, to have been controlled and written by Ron.

Brennan would eventually flee the Philippines after Jim Watkins coerced officials to put a warrant out for his arrest for what’s called cyberlibel – essentially, the crime of lying about a person on the internet.

Since his return to the US, Brennan has become an outspoken critic of 8chan, QAnon in particular, and conspiracy theories in general. He has also spent much of his time pursuing another passion for which he has great talent – developing open-source fonts.

In light of the news that Elon Musk is trying to buy Twitter, John spoke to Brennan about the complicated issue of free speech on the internet, the cult-like devotion of many political extremists, especially on the right, to a kind of extremist form of free speech...and what would happen if Elon Musk bought Twitter.

The modern UFO phenomenon - that of flying discs, gray aliens, middle of the night abductions, and international government conspiracies - has persisted in the background of American culture for more than 70 years. And many have attempted to shed light on the "reality" (or unreality) of it central claims.

And all of have failed.

But these stories and the real-time modern mythmaking they represent cannot be ignored, in part because they tell us so much more about the world we find ourselves living in than the whether or not we are alone in the cosmos.

This element of UFO lore is the basis of Toby Ball's terrific podcast Strange Arrivals, soon to enter its third season. John spoke to Toby about what shaped modern UFO lore, what claims of alien encounters tend to have in common, and, finally, whether The X-Files can more accurately be credited with shedding light on this cultural phenomenon or, rather, if it is responsible for fueling its worst impulses.

You can find Strange Arrivals here.

Toby Ball's website is www.tobyball.com

Mike Rothschild, author of the acclaimed 2021 book The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything, is set to publish his follow-up, Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories, in September.

The book covers the history of the antisemitic conspiracy theories surrounding the Rothschild (to whom Mike is not related) family and how they set a new model for framing Jewish people as responsible for major world events.

Mike joined Kelly and John to discuss the book, its title (a joking reference to a conspiracy theory concerning wildfires and satellites once voiced by congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene), why someone with his last name would want to get into this ine of work, and why antisemitism often isn't really about religion at all.

You can preorder Jewish Space Lasers here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/733925/jewish-space-lasers-by-mike-rothschild/

You can learn more about Mike and his work at his website: https://themikerothschild.com/

Mike is on Twitter @rothschildmd

When you work in religious studies, sometimes you get to work on really cool subjects, like Dr. Shaily Patel, who works on magic.

For centuries, magic had been an integral part of religion. So much so, in fact, that it's hard to really see it as a separate category.

So when did we start removing magic from religious practice and putting into the wands of boy wizards and teenage witches, or the hands of bearded old men? Why is magic a Vegas act instead of Church liturgy?

The short answer is Christianity.

The long answer is what Kelly and John invited Shaily on to talk about this week.

Shaily Patel is an assistant professor of early Christianity at Virginia Tech. She earned her Ph.D. from The University of North Carolina in 2017 and holds master’s degrees from Vanderbilt Divinity School and The University of Chicago.

You can find her on Twitter @vox_magica

What does the Bible say about abortion?

Well, if you're supposed to be living in a free, secular democracy, it shouldn't matter. And yet here we are, in the year 2022, in a supposed free, secular democracy, and somehow it does.

The short answer is this - the Bible does not teach life begins at conception (or rather it specifically teaches that it does not begin at conception) and has nothing to say about restricting abortions. The long answer is even more complicated and interesting, and so John explained it to frequent HTB guests, Jess Collins and Mike Manzi.

Resources for helping others in need of abortion care and learning more about your own options:

• abortion.cafe - collection of abortion resources
• shoutyourabortion.com - campaign to normalize abortion
• donations4abortion.com - donate to support abortion funds by state
• secure.actblue.com/donate/supportabortionfunds - donate to the national network of abortion funds (donations split between 80+ abortion funds)
• usow.org/repro/volunteer - list of abortion clinics across the country that need volunteers
• dontbanequality.com - language for companies to use to stand against the ruling
• plancpills.org/ambassadors - early abortion access pills you can store in your cabinet
• prochoice.org - abortion access hotline
• natalist.com/products/early-pregnancy-test-strips - buy early pregnancy test strips
• plannedparenthood.org/learn/birth-control - get info on types of birth control
• choice.crd.co - collection of these above links and more, managed by @starplanes (DM them on twitter to add more)
• guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/abortion-policy-absence-roe - abortion policy by state as of June 1, 2022