Pod Only Knows
Kelly J. Baker and John Brooks
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Top 10 Pod Only Knows Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Pod Only Knows episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Pod Only Knows for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Pod Only Knows episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
04/25/22 • 56 min
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.
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04/11/22 • 83 min
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
2 Listeners
05/09/23 • 61 min
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
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#003 - Magic's a Messy Bitch - with Dr. Shaily Patel
Pod Only Knows
06/06/23 • 69 min
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
1 Listener
07/04/22 • 77 min
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
1 Listener
05/23/23 • 66 min
This week, Kelly and John talk to Dr. Megan Goodwin about the importance of getting religious studies out to the public and the challenges and tools for doing so.
Dr. Goodwin is the co-host of the podcast Keeping it 101: A Killjoy's Introduction to Religion. Her formal expertise is in issues of gender, sexuality, race, politics, and American religions. She is the author of the 2020 book Abusing Religion: Literary Persecution, Sex Scandals, and American Minority Religions as well as the forthcoming Cults, Inc.
Here she talks to your hosts about her journey into religious studies, why people should care about religion (even if they aren't religious), how her podcast works to demystify religion and make it more accessible, and why she calls Kelly "Kellsworth".
You can find out more about her here: https://www.megan-goodwin.com/
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#005 - Is July 4th a Religious Holiday?
Pod Only Knows
07/04/23 • 60 min
This week, Kelly and John take on July 4th and ask if it's possible to wrestle it away from the darker side of American history as well as its increasingly Christian Nationalist connotations.
Even though (or maybe because) America is not, in fact, a Christian nation and has no official religious identity, is July 4th a religious holiday? Has the project of state that (purportedly) guarantees freedom of religion and keeps the government (purportedly) independent of any religious affiliation actually made American history and its icons objects of religious devotion?
Also this week: The good news is dogs and Bears. And we spend too much time on Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA".
Plus, we talk about how where you are in America often reflects what you're actually celebrating on Independence Day, we bring up Robert Bellah's 1967 article "American Civil Religion", that time Thomas Jefferson tried to take all the miracles out the New Testament, and the fact that most of the founders were deists.
And we somehow make no references to the 1996 movie, while Kelly attempts to accurately employ the phrase "go to bat for".
1 Listener
#3.5 - Rolling Stone's Alex Morris: On how we go to the end of Roe (and what happens next)
Pod Only Knows
06/20/22 • 47 min
Rolling Stone senior writer Alex Morris returns to the show to talk to John about the impending decision to overturn Roe (which may well have been handed down by the time this episode releases).
Morris has written extensively about the American evangelical movement and the conservative movement, and her work as also looked at they way those two forces have combined to stage an assault on reproductive rights.
To her, the end of Roe comes as no surprise, but how and why, exactly, American evangelicals were able to play a successful long game to overturn Roe and begin chipping away at abortion, reproductive, and LGBTQ+ rights may not be as clear.
She and John discussed some of the misconceptions about the religious angle, the key players, the success of propaganda campaigns, and why in taking on a new fight it is essential to know what the real obstacles are.
Links to Alex's work can be found at her website: alexmorris.net
You can find her on Twitter at @AlexMorrisNY
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#3.7 - The Georgia Guidestones (RIP)
Pod Only Knows
07/18/22 • 63 min
As of July 6th, 2022, the Georgia Guidestones are, alas, for now, no more.
The weirdly aesthetically pleasing, mysterious, and ultimately just bizarre landmark that became northeast Georgia's biggest tourist attraction quickly became a flashpoint for conspiracy theorists and just run-of-the-mill Satanic Panickers since their creation in 1980.
But sometimes around 4 AM on July 6th, an explosion destroyed one of the stones, and the remaining stones were torn down over safety concerns.
Were they intended as advice for the human who survive the inevitable (by 1980s logic) nuclear holocaust and/or population bomb? Or maybe the 10 Commandments of the Anti-Christ? Were they - as Alex Jones believes - an act of hubris from the New World Order, funded by Ted Turner, openly announcing their plans for global depopulation? Or were they a prank?
John promised Jess Collins, who visited the Guidestones a year ago, he'd do a show about the Guidestones, and this seemed like the right time. They explore the clues that may reveal the true identity of their pseudonymous creator, "R. C. Christian", discuss the lasting appeal of this weird landmark, its strange religious elements, and ask whether the Guidestones will rise again.
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Weekend Chit-Chat Episode #1 - The Middle Way
Pod Only Knows
05/27/23 • 44 min
In the first weekend episode, John bring Kelly the topic of the Buddhist teaching of The Middle Way.
One of the first breakthroughs in Siddhartha's journey to become the Buddha, the Middle Way reminds us that in order to be successful in our quests, we must center ourselves in moderation. This means avoiding the pitfalls of thinking in terms of extremes - that the answer to our problems is probably not ever the opposite of whatever caused them.
As a society, and as a culture, we suck at this. And, worse, we tend to confuse the wisdom of this teaching with an endorsement of centrism, contrarianism, or moderation for moderation's sake.
And as two people who tend to take on more than they can handle and are very bad at considering their own mental well-being, your two hosts consider where they might learn from the Buddha's insights here as well!
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FAQ
How many episodes does Pod Only Knows have?
Pod Only Knows currently has 150 episodes available.
What topics does Pod Only Knows cover?
The podcast is about Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality and Podcasts.
What is the most popular episode on Pod Only Knows?
The episode title '#3.1 - The Truth Is Out There - with "Strange Arrivals" host Toby Ball' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Pod Only Knows?
The average episode length on Pod Only Knows is 65 minutes.
How often are episodes of Pod Only Knows released?
Episodes of Pod Only Knows are typically released every 7 days, 1 hour.
When was the first episode of Pod Only Knows?
The first episode of Pod Only Knows was released on Mar 1, 2020.
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