Meeting Mary Magdalene again for the first time

06/10/21 • 59 min

Sophie Strand writes wild and glorious essays that upend everything we think we know about our myths, legends, stories, and beliefs. Maybe Jesus isn’t who we’ve been told he is. Maybe Mary Magdalene is far, far more important in the story. Maybe we’ve been so bamboozled by patriarchal religion that we don’t even know who she is anymore. Or what her name is.

In this rich conversation, Sophie unravels story after story about The Magdalene and brings her alive in her own time—a time when her people and her land were ravaged by the Roman Empire. Then, Sophie invites us to come along as Magdalene flees, but not to where you’ve been told. This is the Magdalene, you’ve never met before.

Previous Episode

What if Queen Jezebel wasn’t a jezebel after all

Thanks to the bible story, Jezebel’s name became a slur that strikes terror in a woman’s body. Being called a “Jezebel” smears a woman as slut, harlot, whore. But how did that happen? Because there’s not one word in the bible about Jezebel being unfaithful. She and her husband Ahab, the king of Israel, were married for 30 years and had 1 daughter and 2 sons. So how did her name become the worst thing a woman can be called?

Guest Allison Charron is the 9th great-granddaughter of Susannah Martin North, who was hung as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Who better to bring the first witch in The Return of the Witches Jeanne d’Arc Pilgrimage to life?