New show this week 📻 frank.radio

The #AAR Journalism Awards honor the best in-depth reporting on religion in the categories of "Best In-Depth Newswriting" and "Best In-Depth Multimedia Journalism." Apply by March 9, 6 PM ET: aarweb.org/news/2026-jo...

Religion News Service (RNS) is seeking a full-time summer intern to cover religion in Texas through a unique editorial partnership with The Texas Tribune. The deadline to apply is Feb. 17 at 11:59 p.m. ET. religionnews.com/2026/01/15/a...

New show... listen here www.frank.radio/shows/old-ti...

After Bieber cut ties w/ Carl Lentz following scandal, Judah Smith "became the most powerful hypepriest left standing." @skestenbaum.bsky.social gives us an inside look at one of the few remaining modernity-spirited/open-minded, evangelical celebrity preachers: www.vulture.com/article/juda...

"Smith belongs to a generation of preachers who first came to prominence in the aughts. They formed a kind of cool-dude supergroup, promising at the time to shed the kitsch and conservatism of their televangelical forebears..."

Judah Smith made a name for himself by preaching a compassionate form of Christianity that attracted celebrities — most famously, Justin Bieber — looking for forgiveness for their missteps. Can that message still find an audience in the Trump era?

@skestenbaum.bsky.social's latest about Judah Smith, a West Coast Pentecostal celebrity in the lineage of Aimee Semple McPherson. Tons of keen observations & good lines here (my fave - "sloppy agape"): www.vulture.com/article/juda...

"It wasn’t really around when I was a young kid — that you could feel like you have a calling to A-list stars.” @skestenbaum.bsky.social profiles Judah Smith, and asks where the hypepriests of the 2010s fit into Charlie Kirk-style evangelicalism that succeeded them: www.vulture.com/article/juda...

NARRATIVE STORYTELLING, DIV 3 Honoring a single story told with literary flair. 🥇 1st Place: @mrdanzak.bsky.social 🥈 2nd Place: @skestenbaum.bsky.social 🥉 3rd Place: Staff, @bloombergbusiness.bsky.social 🏅 Honorable Mention: @wordbobby.bsky.social

For LA: a one-of-a-kind show this month, with demons, ghouls and much-needed deliverance… A special live reading, from my Harper’s story, with music, actors, puppetry, poetry, short film, and more Nihil & Friends present ART IS LIFE IS ART: RED HOT Variety Show! www.eventbrite.com/e/nihil-frie...

On messianic soundscapes, by @skestenbaum.bsky.social

Hollywood ugliness, a Beckett biopic, cult music, the sly devices of the English sentence, and an increasingly timely stand-up special — five Mentions from @izzyampil.bsky.social, Dimitris Passas, @skestenbaum.bsky.social, Tanner Stening, and @cryinmeehan.bsky.social www.thedriftmag.com/mentions/

A mini review from me in the new issue of @thedrift-mag.bsky.social… on a series of outré musical soundscapes made by a pyramid-loving, deity-channeling New Agey shaman www.thedriftmag.com/mention/issu...

I trekked up a crumbling California hill to sit under a crystal-studded pyramid and bask in the spacey, far-flung soundscapes of a New Age shaman… a (very) short culty music review of mine in the new issue

More storage digging

Going through the storage

Headed to San Diego? I’ll be at the American Academy of Religion meeting this weekend, speaking on three panels

Many have written about Mt. Juliet pastor Greg Locke's emerging mass deliverance ministry. But only @skestenbaum.bsky.social immersed himself in the Locke Media/Demon Slayers apparatus and came out with this eloquently written narrative for Harpers: harpers.org/archive/2024...

Headed to my alma mater (!) next week to deliver the annual Martin Lecture in Religion ✍️ If you’re in the Wheaton area, info here