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Like many of you, I watched a viral video of a gorgeous woman walking through her house, opening her Bible to Matthew 25 and reading the passage on "the least of these". This was in response to a TikTok comment of someone lashing out at Jen because she (the commenter) "was maga and loved Jesus". After calmly reading the Bible, Jen simply says "sounds pretty liberal to me" and ends the video.
That simple video caused MAGA to call Jen's job where she works as an OB Nurse to get her fired, reported her online and tried to call her licensing board to get her nursing license revoked! Because she read the Bible and they didn't like it. She even had to have private security when she spoke at a conference.
And that is how I met a kind, compassionate, funny, loving lady who shares my alma mater. We talk about our journey's through faith, Liberty, growth, change, and what it means to love your neighbor.

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My grandma Ena was a pilot and they were her favorite stories to tell. I am sure its no surprise that I grew up with Amelia Earhart as one of my heroes. The woman who flew so that my grandma could fly.

She vanished into the sky—and into one of the greatest mysteries of the modern age.

In this episode, we fly into the world of Amelia Earhart, a woman who refused to stay grounded, refused to stay compliant and traditional in a time when society expected her to. She became record-breaking aviator and one of the most famous women in the world. The first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. A symbol of independence, grit, and relentless ambition.

But Earhart wasn’t just chasing records—she was chasing the edge of possibility itself.

In 1937, she set out on a daring attempt to circumnavigate the globe, navigating thousands of miles over open ocean with only the tools and technology of her time. Somewhere over the vast Pacific, near a tiny speck called Howland Island… she disappeared.

No confirmed wreckage. No distress call that told the full story. Just silence.

In this episode, we’ll trace her rise from a curious, rebellious girl to one of the most famous pilots in history and then dive headfirst into the theories, investigations, and unanswered questions that have kept her story alive for nearly a century.

And we will take a brief flyover to meet the Night Witches of the USSR's air service.

This episode is to celebrate Women's History month with women who paved a runway for those who would come later!

Rachel Hartigan, Lost: Unsolved Mysteries of Amelia Earhart and the Bermuda Triangle

Susan Butler, East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart

Doris L. Rich, Amelia Earhart: A Biography

Mary S. Lovell, The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart

Candace Fleming, Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

Ric Gillespie, Finding Amelia: The True Story of the Earhart Disappearance

Elgen M. Long and Marie K. Long, Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved

Mike Campbell, Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last

Fred Goerner, The Search for Amelia Earhart

Vincent V. Loomis, Amelia Earhart: The Final Story

Les Kinney, Amelia Earhart: Beyond the Grave

Theodore G. Tharpe, Crash and Sink: The Salvage of the Earhart Electra

National Geographic Society, “Amelia Earhart Biography and Disappearance”

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, “Amelia Earhart”

Library of Congress, “Amelia Earhart Papers”

FBI Records: The Vault, “Amelia Earhart”

TIGHAR (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery), “Amelia Earhart Project Research”

U.S. Navy Historical Center, “Earhart Search Operations 1937”

PBS American Experience, Amelia Earhart

History Channel, “Amelia Earhart Disappearance Theories”

This episode is brought to you by Ground News. Subscribe for 40% off their vantage plan at groundnews.com/tables. Project MKUltra was a secret research program run by the Central Intelligence Agency beginning in 1953 during the Cold War. Its goal was to explore methods of mind control, interrogation, and psychological manipulation, partly out of fear that rival nations like the Soviet Union were developing similar techniques.

The program funded dozens of experiments at universities, hospitals, and prisons. Researchers tested drugs such as LSD, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, electroshock, and other methods to see whether human behavior and memory could be controlled. Many subjects were not informed they were part of experiments, and some were exposed to powerful drugs without consent.

The program remained secret until the 1970s, when investigations by the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities revealed the experiments. Much of the documentation had already been destroyed on orders from CIA director Richard Helms.

MKUltra became one of the most controversial intelligence programs in U.S. history and led to new oversight of intelligence agencies and stricter ethical rules for human experimentation.

Sources available by request at [email protected]

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The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was a 40-year medical experiment conducted by the United States Public Health Service in Macon County, Alabama to observe the natural progression of untreated syphilis in Black men.

Beginning in 1932, researchers recruited about 600 poor African American sharecroppers—399 who had syphilis and 201 who did not. The men were told they were being treated for “bad blood,” a local term used to describe various illnesses. In reality, they were not given proper treatment, even after Penicillin became the widely accepted cure for syphilis in the 1940s. Instead, doctors deliberately withheld treatment so they could study how the disease damaged the body over time.

Participants were misled about the nature of the study and were subjected to painful procedures such as spinal taps while being told they were receiving medical care. Many men died from syphilis or related complications, infected their wives, and children were born with congenital syphilis.

The study continued until 1972, when a whistleblower, Peter Buxtun, exposed it to the press. Public outrage led to congressional hearings, a class-action lawsuit, and major reforms in medical research ethics, including stricter informed consent requirements and oversight by institutional review boards.

In 1997, Bill Clinton formally apologized on behalf of the U.S. government to the surviving participants and their families. The scandal remains one of the most infamous examples of unethical human experimentation in American history and contributed to long-lasting distrust of the medical system among many African Americans.

Sources available by request [email protected]

Another crossover episode from my true crime podcast Highway to Hell because of its relevance to whats going on today. If you are a true crime and travel fan please check us out wherever you listen to podcasts.

After his sweetheart deal in 2008, Epstein was able to reintegrate into life and maintain his trafficking ring without any loss in wealth, associations or connections.

This episode tracks his life and dealings from 2008 to his death in 2019, the aftermath of his cruelty, the arrest and trial of Ghislaine Maxwell and the recent release of the Epstein files.

As of now, no man involved with Epstein and his human trafficking has been arrested in the US

Sources

The source list is way too big for the show notes but is available upon request at [email protected]

Thank you to my patrons for your continued support of the show. Subscribe for ad free episodes at patreon.com/montemader.

A sticky sweltering Tennessee courtroom in 1925 would change the course of Christian conservative perception of "persecution" for the next 100 years. Tennessee's passage of the unconstitutional Butler Act in March of 1925 was fertile soil for a challenge by the ACLU who offered to represent any teacher prosecuted under the law. It was also prime opportunity for the ailing town of Dayton to draw in some much needed publicity to stimulate a strangled local economy.

John T Scopes, a substitute biology teacher would stand trial for teaching evolution from the state approved textbook. The prosecution was led by William Jennings Bryan, lawyer and presidential nominee and the defense was led by Clarence Darrow, the greatest defense attorney of his time. A Christian nationalist judge refused any testimony or experts for the defense and in a desperate move Darrow called prosecutor Bryan to the stand. The interrogation of literal interpretations of the Bible would not win the case, but it would cast Christian conservatives opposition to science into humiliation across the country. Journalist HL Mencken would exacerbate the embarrassment by mocking the "backwoods" people nationwide.

The humiliation didn't change them, it changed their strategy. They decided Christians in the US were being persecuted, formal education was the enemy and they withdrew from society and began to found their own institutions that would lead to Christian colleges, media platforms, conglomerates, PACS, and production agencies. The rhetoric of Christian persecution would fuel the rise of the radical right, the moral majority and the neo nazi platforms we see today.

Sources:

Armaly, M. T., & Enders, A. M. (2022). The sources and consequences of Christian nationalist victimization rhetoric. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 8, 1–15. 

Armaly, M. T., & Enders, A. M. (2023). Experimental evidence on persecution narratives and violence. Political Behavior, 45(2), 345–367.

Burke, K. J., & Hadley, H. (2025). Christian nationalism and educational policy in the United States. National Education Policy Center.

Darrow, C. (1904). The Resistible Rise of Democracy. Public lecture, later reprinted in Darrow's collected writings.

Du Mez, K. K. (2020). Jesus and John Wayne: How white evangelicals corrupted a faith and fractured a nation.

Ginger, R. (1958). Six days or forever? Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes.

Halbrook, P. N. (2015). The Scopes Trial in educational perspective [Master's thesis, North Carolina State University]. NC State Libraries. 

Hart, R. P. (2016). H. L. Mencken and the mythology of American journalism. American Journalism, 33(4), 432–450.

Jones, P., & Cooter, A. (2024). White Christian nationalism after January 6. Middlebury Institute, CTEC Research Series.

Larson, E. J. (1997). Summer for the gods: The Scopes trial and America's continuing debate over science and religion.

Larson, E. J. (2005). Understanding the Scopes Trial 100 years later. Vanderbilt Law Review, 78(2), 571–590.

Marsden, G. M. (1980). Fundamentalism and American culture. Oxford University Press.

Mencken, H. L. (1925). Newspaper dispatches from the Scopes Trial. Reprinted in Pierce, J. K. (2000). The Scopes Trial. American History Magazine.

Moore, R. (2001). The lingering impact of the Scopes Trial on high school biology textbooks. BioScience, 51(9), 790–796. 

Perry, S. L. (2025). Secularism, sorting, and Americans' political knowledge. Social Forces, 103(2), 835–857.

Pierce, J. K. (2000). The Scopes Trial. American History Magazine.

State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, 154 Tenn. 105 (1927).

State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, Trial Transcript (1925). Reprinted in Famous Trials Project.

Whitehead, A. L., & Perry, S. L. (2020). Taking America back for God: Christian nationalism in the United States. Oxford University Press.

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Lets examine the birthplace and ideological architecture behind Project 2025 and the modern conservative movement driving it, tracing its roots through theology, institutional strategy, and political power . What is framed as a “Second American Revolution” is not merely transition planning but a coordinated effort to concentrate executive authority, weaken democratic safeguards, and embed a hierarchy-first moral framework into federal governance. We walk through the founding and evolution of The Heritage Foundation its key figures such as Paul Weyrich, Edwin Feulner, Kevin Roberts, Paul Dans, and Roger Severino, and analyzing how theological commitments to natural order and authority have been translated into policy blueprints.

Lets explore the projected human impact of Project 2025. We outlines how proposed changes would affect undocumented immigrants, people of color, the unhoused, women seeking reproductive care, people living in poverty, LGBTQ communities—especially trans individuals—and Indigenous nations. Across issue areas, it identifies a recurring pattern: civil rights reframed as bias, equality recast as disorder, and harm justified as restoration. Policies targeting health care access, environmental protections, voting rights, labor standards, and social safety nets are presented not as isolated reforms but as part of a coherent effort to shrink democracy until it no longer obstructs a predetermined moral hierarchy.

But people are pushing back morally, legally, and politically. Leaders such as Reverend William Barber II, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Women’s Law Center, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, LGBTQ advocates, and Indigenous organizers, and highlight counter-visions rooted in pluralism, shared power, and inherent rights. RESIST.

American Civil Liberties Union. (2023). Project 2025: Threats to constitutional governance and civil rights [Issue brief]. American Civil Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.org
Arendt, H. (1969). On violence. Harcourt, Brace & World.
Barber, W. J., II. (2018). The third reconstruction: How a moral movement is overcoming the politics of division and fear. Beacon Press.
Bendix, R. (1977). Nation building and citizenship: Studies of our changing social order. University of California Press.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2018). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in America (5th ed.). Rowman & Littlefield.
Brugge, D., deLemos, J. L., & Oldmixon, B. (2016). Exposure pathways and health effects associated with chemical and radiological toxicity in Indigenous communities. Environmental Health Perspectives, 124(8), 1232–1240. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP.1509889
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (2019). Work requirements do not cut poverty, evidence shows. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. https://www.cbpp.org
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (2021). How immigration enforcement harms children and families. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. https://www.cbpp.org
Critchlow, D. T. (2007). The conservative ascendancy: How the GOP Right made political history. Harvard University Press.
Davis, J. (2022). How the public administrative state became the enemy [Conservative legal and policy commentary on the “administrative state,” 2016–2022].
Feagin, J. R. (2013). Systemic racism: A theory of oppression. Routledge.
Feulner, E. J. (1986). The conservative vision. The Heritage Foundation.
George, R. P. (1999). In defense of natural law. Oxford University Press.
Gorski, P. S., & Perry, S. L. (2022). The flag and the cross: White Christian nationalism and the threat to American democracy. Oxford University Press.
Goss, R. E. (2009). Queering Christ: Beyond Jesus acted up. HarperOne.

Metro Surge in Minneapolis brought with it horror and conflict. Civilians and US citizens were killed, migrants were abducted without warrants, legal observers were tear gassed, people were held in extended detainment without help. Federal officers murdered without investigations, the DOJ and DHS broke federal law without any recourse and it left people wondering "what can I legally do?". It's also become progressively more important to understand how our immigration system works in the US, how its flawed and what all of our rights are.

Daphne Delvaux, is a former immigration attorney and now educator who helps people know their rights and understand how the system works. She is also an immigrant herself and shares her story of going through the system in the US, one that denied her the first time because she and her husband chose not to mix finances. Here she tells her story, teaches us about our rights and gives us some hope and gentle mothering towards the end. Something I desperately needed.

Today we explore the radicalization of young men. How do authoritarian movements especially capitalize on men and bend them to their will?
How does a kind, average boy grow up to be ordered to kill and say "I was just following orders"? Why do particularly conservative men buckle so quickly under perceived "more masculine" authority?
The reality is that there are a lot of reasons. And they are the same reasons that men are living in a system that makes them feel lonely, invisible, unable to access emotions, and kills them young.
Today we explore patriarchal systems, how the narrowing of masculinity rips humanity out of the hands of men. And how movements like the Nazis were able to weaponize disenfranchised, disappointed, and angry men and transform them into weapons of genocide.

Sources:

Browning, Christopher R. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. HarperCollins, 1992.

Browning, Christopher R. Remembering Survival: Inside a Nazi Slave-Labor Camp. W. W. Norton, 2010.

Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.

Welzer, Harald, Sabine Moller, and Karoline Tschuggnall. Myth of the German Comradeship: The Wehrmacht and the Politics of Memory. Cambridge University Press.

Welzer, Harald. Perpetrators: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide. Princeton University Press, 2015.

Bloxham, Donald. Genocide on Trial: War Crimes Trials and the Formation of Holocaust History and Memory. Oxford University Press.

Koonz, Claudia. The Nazi Conscience. Harvard University Press, 2003.

Koonz, Claudia. Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, the Family, and Nazi Politics. St. Martin’s Press, 1987.

Neitzel, Sönke, and Harald Welzer. Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing, and Dying. Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. (Based on secretly recorded conversations of German POWs)

Biddiscombe, Perry. The SS Hunter Battalions: The Hidden History of the Nazi Resistance Movement 1944–45. Tempus.

Biddiscombe, Perry. Werwolf!: The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement, 1944–1946. University of Toronto Press.

Lower, Wendy. Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.

Heinemann, Isabel. “Rasse, Siedlung, deutsches Blut”: Das Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt der SS und die rassenpolitische Neuordnung Europas. Wallstein Verlag.

Bartov, Omer. Hitler’s Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and War in the Third Reich. Oxford University Press, 1991.

Bartov, Omer. The Eastern Front, 1941–45: German Troops and the Barbarisation of Warfare. Palgrave.

Fritz, Stephen G. Frontsoldaten: The German Soldier in World War II. University Press of Kentucky, 1995.

Manstein, Erich von. Lost Victories. Zenith Press.
(Primary source memoir; ideological but useful for studying mindset)

Himmler, Heinrich. Posen Speeches (1943). Primary documents; available in English translation via Holocaust Research Project / Nizkor / German Federal Archives.

Yad Vashem Archives. Testimonies of perpetrators and victims, Einsatzgruppen records, postwar interrogation files.

Lifton, Robert Jay. The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. Basic Books, 1986.

Staub, Ervin. The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence. Cambridge University Press.

Bandura, Albert. Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm and Live With Themselves. Worth Publishers, 2015.
(Not Nazi-specific but foundational for understanding perpetrator psychology)

Kelman, Herbert. “Violence Without Moral Restraint.” Journal of Social Issues.

Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Penguin, 1963.

Rees, Laurence. The Nazis: A Warning from History. New Press, 1997.

Rees, Laurence. Auschwitz: A New History. PublicAffairs, 2005.

Haffner, Sebastian. Defying Hitler: A Memoir. Picador, 2003.

Snyder, Timothy. Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning. Crown, 2015.Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. Basic Books, 2010.

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When I scheduled this talk with Odessa, one of Nashvilles staunchest activists, I had no idea what was about to unfold in Minneapolis with the shooting of Alex Pretti just 5 days after we recorded this session. I think this conversation could not have landed on a more relevant time if I had tried.

Odessa Kelly is a Nashville native, organizer, and political activist focused on racial, economic, and social justice. She was born and raised on the East Side of Nashville in a working-class community facing poverty, substance abuse, and gun violence. Kelly graduated from Tennessee State University with a degree in Business Administration and later earned a Master’s in Public Service from Cumberland University.

She spent nearly 14 years working as a civil servant for Metro Nashville’s Parks & Recreation Department, including leading the Napier Community Center, where she worked directly with youth and families. Witnessing systemic inequities and the impact of policy decisions on her community pushed her toward broader community organizing work.

In 2016, Kelly co-founded Stand Up Nashville, a grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to fighting for economic equity, affordable housing, workers’ rights, and community benefits from local development. Under her leadership, the group won Nashville’s first community benefits agreement with a major soccer stadium project, securing commitments on living wages, affordable housing, and childcare supports.

Kelly has been honored with several awards, including the National Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Award, a National Courage Award, and Nashville Scenes Activist of the Year for her work advancing justice for working people and marginalized communities.

As a mother of two and a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church, she has also run for public office. In 2022, Kelly was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, campaigning on expanding economic opportunity, housing justice, and representation for working families.

Her activism and platform emphasize lived experience, community empowerment, and challenging systems that leave working-class people behind. And now she meets with us to tell us how to carry that legacy forward.