Spooky season isn't over yet! The one and only @josephlaycock.bsky.social joins @johnbrooks.bsky.social and @kellyjbaker.bsky.social in a follow-up to our last episode where we discuss the cultural impact of THE EXORCIST Here or wherever you get podcasts!

Happy Halloween! Our old friend @mjcressler.bsky.social joins us as @johnbrooks.bsky.social finally gets @kellyjbaker.bsky.social to watch THE EXORCIST. We talk Catholics, horror, demons, and curses in history's weirdest Christmas release! Here or wherever you get podcasts!

Friend of the @podonlyknows.bsky.social pod here, hyping this fun convo. I could talk #TheExorcist for days, especially with these two brilliant and beautiful humans. 😈🖤

Happy Halloween! Our old friend @mjcressler.bsky.social joins us as @johnbrooks.bsky.social finally gets @kellyjbaker.bsky.social to watch THE EXORCIST. We talk Catholics, horror, demons, and curses in history's weirdest Christmas release! Here or wherever you get podcasts!

We're back tomorrow with more spookiness as we talk to @mjcressler.bsky.social about THE EXORCIST!

Oh God, I am knee deep in my own work on white Christian nationalism this morning because I want to sound like I know what I'm talking about when I talk to a reporter. Y'all, I have been researching this stuff for 19 years. Imposter syndrome is a jerk.

Happy Halloween! For our first spooky season episode, @johnbrooks.bsky.social and @kellyjbaker.bsky.social talked to Darryl Caterine about the paranormal and the religious in America! Here, or wherever you get podcasts. www.cageclub.me/darryl-cater...

No new episode this week due to scheduling challenges, but we're going back to back for the next two Tuesdays. In the meantime, please enjoy this episode from last Halloween on the Salem Witch Trials. Here or wherever you get podcasts!

Bad news for fan favorite recurring POK character Ryan Walters!!! 😬😬😬

It's Taylor Swift Album Week! (Or so John is told) This week, @kellyjbaker.bsky.social and @johnbrooks.bsky.social talk about the Christian right's obsession with Taylor-as-TradWife, Pete Hegseth's love of massacres, and bid a sad farewell to recurring character Ryan Walters!

It's Taylor Swift Album Week! (Or so John is told) This week, @kellyjbaker.bsky.social and @johnbrooks.bsky.social talk about the Christian right's obsession with Taylor-as-TradWife, Pete Hegseth's love of massacres, and bid a sad farewell to recurring character Ryan Walters!

Coming up TOMORROW on Pod Only Knows, we (okay, just Kelly) celebrate the new Taylor Swift album by asking the question: Why the fuck is the Christian right so incapable of being even a tiny bit normal about Taylor Swift? Subscribe to POD ONLY KNOWS wherever you get podcasts!

Given recent events, we have decided not to release a new episode this week. Instead, we are re-releasing our conversation with Lerone A. Martin from February, in which he discusses his book The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover (which seems pretty relevant right now)

For *waves around at America* reasons, we are not releasing a new episode this week, but will rerelease our episode with Lerone A. Martin about his book THE GOSPEL OF J. EDGAR HOOVER tomorrow & will be back in 2 weeks. In the meantime, if you don't want to wait & haven't heard it already, it's here

The best thing about doing this show is the number of reps who see that it's a show about religion, pretend they have listened to it, and send us an email asking us to book their client who wrote a book about how Christians are being persecuted in America or how TDS should be in the DSM.

This was a great experience! Glad to get a chance to talk about Dobson and his legacy. Thanks @kellyjbaker.bsky.social and @johnbrooks.bsky.social for inviting me.

(Sorry about the audio on this one!) @kellyjbaker.bsky.social and @johnbrooks.bsky.social were delighted to have @hildelstephens.bsky.social talk to us about the life and legacy of the late James Dobson. Here or wherever you get podcasts!

This week, @kellyjbaker.bsky.social and @johnbrooks.bsky.social talked to @vox-magica.bsky.social about 2024's thriller HERETIC Atheists! Mormons! Monopoly! Radiohead! Creepy Hugh Grant! It's all here! Here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

TOMORROW! @johnbrooks.bsky.social and @kellyjbaker.bsky.social welcome @vox-magica.bsky.social to talk about HERETIC! Subscribe now wherever you get podcasts.

We're back! Catching up on a busy summer, we look at the Ryan Walters porn scandal, the DHS posting Nazi shit, and the right's outrage over Woke Superman. Here or wherever you get podcasts!

Wittenberg Barnes and Noble, 1517

Had a blast talking to Kelly and John, once you start thinking about the intersection of mad studies and religious studies it is a seductive cocktail

We talked to @dranamorphosis.bsky.social about the intersection of mad studies and religious studies in his fascinating book Acute Religious Experiences. Listen here or wherever you get podcasts!

EVERY UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT: well surely the smartest kid at MY college, according to a system that we have valorized for years for ranking intelligence, will not be able to accurately identify and describe an ongoing genocide. oh FUCK!!!

This week, @johnbrooks.bsky.social and @kellyjbaker.bsky.social are joined by @profdolfi.bsky.social to talk religion, capitalism, and goats in "Severance" Listen here or subscribe and listen to Pod Only Knows wherever you get podcasts!

Have a listen to insightful commentary about the first American pope!

The week on @johnbrooks.bsky.social and @kellyjbaker.bsky.social talk about the new pope, why MAGA and the TradCaths are (rightly) treating Leo XIV's election as an attack on them, and PRRI's survey of voters after the first 100 days of Trump 2.0. Here or wherever you get podcasts.

This week, John talked to Annika Brockschmidt (@ardenthistorian.bsky.social) about how the American Christian Right is understood in Europe, Pete Hegseth's tattoos, and more. Find it here or where you get podcasts. (Kelly was out prom dress shopping. She'll be back next time!)

This week, @kellyjbaker.bsky.social and @johnbrooks.bsky.social talk about Lord of the Flies, Yellowjackets, and The Hunger Games, and how our understanding of allegory and political and religious allusion often shifts with the realities of the day. Here or wherever you get podcasts.

John wrote about Lord of the Flies, a book he used to hate, why people get it wrong, and why it's so painfully relevant right now.

I wrote about Lord of the Flies, a book I used to hate, why people get it wrong, and why it's so painfully relevant right now.

Our friends @ardenthistorian.bsky.social and @tlecaque.bsky.social wrote a really important piece about the context of the latest move in Hegseth's ongoing project of turning himself into the Christian Nationalism version of Guy Pearce in MEMENTO.

Kelly is back from her various travels and John can ALMOST talk again. So we're back! We discuss the MAGA assault on higher ed, the weaponization of antisemitism by a bunch of antisemites, and Georgetown making a religious freedom argument to defend DEI Here or wherever you get your podcasts

The media is quite bad at articulating what Elon Musk is really up to. We're here to help! WARNING: The mere act of listening to this episode may condemn you to eternal torment. Also, an update on Pope Watch 2025 and Paula White! Here or wherever: SPOTIFY: bit.ly/3D3lUiE APPLE: bit.ly/3XpYPgV

Since some people were asking, I adapted a short section from my MA thesis into the blog, in which I explain my case for Paul as a Q Influencer:

I hate how relevant this is. Kelly and I talked about Simulation Theory - a thing Elon Musk definitely believes in - in light of the 25th anniversary of The Matrix last year. More to come on this next week, but we republished an edited version of it to the feed until then.

We will be bringing up some of the other very weird shit that guides Elon Musk's worldview this week (and John will attempt to articulate Roko's Basilisk to Kelly) But - because it's somehow relevant now - he's a primer on Simulation Theory from last March.

If you're unfamiliar with Chris Kluwe (@chriswarcraft.bsky.social), we're temporarily republishing a conversation John had with him on his former show 4 years ago in which he discusses his activism and his commitment to social justice (as well as his novel "Otaku", which is great!)

This week, @marika.bsky.social joins @johnbrooks.bsky.social and @kellyjbaker.bsky.social to talk through the right-wing's obsession with Tolkien and what it says about "Lord of the Rings" Available here or wherever. Spotify: bit.ly/411XQEK Apple: bit.ly/4hGWmqy

This week, @kellyjbaker.bsky.social and @johnbrooks.bsky.social talk to Lerone Martin about his timely and prescient book The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism Here or wherever you listen: Spotify: bit.ly/3CLaqjl Apple: bit.ly/4aNqxJK

Everything is terrible! Well, ALMOST everything! You know what's not? @jasonkirk.fyi's wonderful novel HELL IS A WORLD WITHOUT YOU. Kelly and John talk to Jason about that (and tell him how wonderful it is) and more! Here or wherever: Apple: bit.ly/4jrvLPg Spotify: bit.ly/40hAB92

Excellent episode in Anthony Comstock, of the Comstock Act Can’t wait for the episode on Victoria Woodhull!

This week, @johnbrooks.bsky.social tells @kellyjbaker.bsky.social all about Anthony Comstock, the 19th century Christian zealot and giant weirdo whose ghost is about to haunt your life. Here or wherever you get podcasts: Spotify: bit.ly/409Zzaq Apple: apple.co/4258psH

Tomorrow! Get to know the dead weirdo who's about to be ALL UP IN YOUR BEDROOM! 😃

Did Charles Dickens really "invent" Christmas? No But that doesn't mean there aren't interesting reasons behind that claim! @kellyjbaker.bsky.social and @johnbrooks.bsky.social are joined by Victorianist @khandozo.bsky.social to talk all about it! SPOTIFY: bit.ly/4fAWJB8 APPLE: bit.ly/4fGQDzi

Tomorrow, we take a closer look at a claim that has been gaining traction in recent years for a variety of reasons: Did Charles Dickens really "invent" Christmas? @kellyjbaker.bsky.social and @johnbrooks.bsky.social are joined by the wonderful @khandozo.bsky.social for a little Christmas special!

No new episode this week as Kelly is away, but enjoy this reissue of one of our favorites as Sara Cleto & Brittany Warman of @carterhaughschool.bsky.social talk to @kellyjbaker.bsky.social and @johnbrooks.bsky.social about Christmas ghost stories. APPLE: bit.ly/4g6xoQA SPOTIFY: spoti.fi/4ix09az