Pod Only Knows

The Mandalorian carries on a Star Wars tradition that dates back to its inception. As creator George Lucas once said of his creation, "I wanted to make it so that young people would begin to ask questions about the mystery."

But while the religion of the Jedi is incessantly fleshed out throughout Star Wars, that of the Mandalorians (specifically this Mandalorian) remains ambiguous and shrouded in secrecy.

To celebrate the launch of season 3 of The Mandalorian on Disney+, John and resident CageClub Star Wars superfan Mike Manzi discuss some of the religious traditions and ideas that are present in the series, explore what "The Way" actually means (beyond being a cool catchphrase) and ponder whether Din Djarin is actually more terrorist than warrior monk.

Follow Mike on Twitter @the_mikestir

The possibility of a Gladiator 2, a follow-up to Ridley Scott's Best Picture-winning 2000 Roman epic, has been a dream of many producers since Gladiator became an award-hording box office behemoth.

Unfortunately, doing so has always been a challenge, since its protagonist, Maximus, played in a Best Actor-winning performance by Russell Crowe, dies at the end.

So in 2006, Crowe reached out to his pal and fellow Aussie, the legendary gloom-rocker Nick Cave, to take a stab at writing a sequel that would somehow involve Maximus.

What Cave came up with is now the stuff of internet legend, and since Gladiator 2 (a sequel that takes place roughly 20 years after the original and will focus on young Lucius as a grown man as opposed to Maximus) is now officially scheduled for release in November of 2024, it felt like a good time to explore the wild and unlikely would-be sequel, Gladiator 2: Christ Killer.

This week, John is joined by High School Slumber Party's Brian Rodriguez and 2 Fast 2 Forever's Joe Two.

If you listen to my other show, 1999: The Podcast, you’ve already heard Amanda Moore on our Fight Club episode, in which she spoke a little bit about her experience as an undercover MAGA acolyte.

And you’re a regular listener of this show you’ve no doubt familiar with the ways in which conspiracy theories and antisemitism are virtually inextricable.

Recently that intersection has been thrust into the spotlight, ever since the world’s most visible and well-known conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, hosted the rapper Ye on his show, in which Ye notoriously professed his love for Hitler and Nazis while rambling on about the Jewish cabal in Hollywood out to destroy him (and presumably all of us).

The common link between Ye and Jones is Nick Fuentes, a young white nationalist influencer.

Exactly who is Nick Fuentes, and how seriously should we take him?

Amanda Moore recently wrote about Ye and Fuentes for Talking Points Memo, so John asked her to join him on the show to shed some light on the new ideology of antisemitism currently being marketed to Gen Z.

For the first episode of 2023, John spoke to Dr. Joshua Bowen. He’s an expert in the ancient near east and a regular on YouTube and podcasts, as well as the author of The Atheist Handbook to the Old Testament, which guides curious people with no personal faith investment through what the Old Testament actually says and how to understand it in context and as an historical artifact.

Here Dr. Josh talk about his former life as a fundamentalist, how research and critical thinking moved took him out of that belief system, and what often stands in the way of a real understanding of the Bible and who wrote it.

You can learn more about the work he does alongside his wife, Megan Lewis and how to support them and their work here:

Digital Hammurabi

Dr. Josh's book, The Atheist Handbook to the Old Testament, is available here in physical and digital form.

He is on Twitter @DJHammurabi1

This week, John invited Jenn Tisdale on to discuss Alexandra Dean’s incredible three-part documentary miniseries Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies. Whether you know everything or nothing about the Casey Anthony case, or if you think you know it all, you should watch Dean's documentary, as it is a textbook case on how to do true crime right.

While this show rarely touches on true crime (a space very much crowded in the podcast world), this felt like a worthwhile exception. Dean forces us to rethink a lot of our beliefs and assumptions not just about Casey Anthony herself but the entire media apparatus that decided on her guilt even when a jury acquitted her.

A side note – if you still need Christmas content from John, there is still something coming your way on 1999: The Podcast, which you can find here or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Shannon Foley Martinez spent four year as an active white supremacist. In the decades since, she has applied the lessons of her own life story to helping other escape hate. She speaks at schools and in the media about the channels through which hate groups recruit the vulnerable and how best to prevent young people from becoming susceptible to them in the first place.

She recently appeared in the terrific Peacock documentary I Love You, You Hate Me, a surprisingly thoughtful and insightful look at the culture of hatred directed at Barney the Purple Dinosaur in the 1990s and what it has to say about how hate spreads and festers, particularly in our own culture today.

Shannon joined John for a wide-ranging discussion that included Barney, 1990s advertising, her own life story, the mainstreaming of antisemitism, and, of course, unavoidably, Ye.

You can find her on Twitter @_Shan_Martinez_

You can help support her and her work on Patreon here

Dracula is one of the most iconic and recognizable fictional characters of all time, but his creator, Bram Stoker, remains far less famous. Stoker's life was full and fascinating, and it reveals some tantalizing clues as to the themes and ideas that permeate his most famous novel.

In this spoOoOktacular Halloween special, John welcomes back Dan Colón and Mike Manzi from our network's very own The Monsters that Made Us podcast, who also appeared on last year's episode on Mary Shelley and Frankenstein, to discuss the true story of Bram Stoker and his most legendary creation.

The talk about the truly mysterious elements of Stoker's biography, his personal struggles, and why the most pervasive of "facts" about Dracula - that he was based on Vlad the Impaler - may not be quite so true after all!

In this episode, John talks to a kindred spirit - someone you may know from YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, or elsewhere on the internet as the Heathen Queen.

She uses her internet platform to both dunk on bigoted Christian apologists and facilitate informative conversations with scholars about religion, the Bible, and history. John talks to her about her time as Christian fundamentalist, her deconstruction, and, frankly, just the nerdy religion stuff they’re both into.

You can find her on Twitter @queen0fheathens

On TikTok @queenoftheheathens

And on YouTube @HeathenQueen

Today, we explore some personal news!

Where has John been for the last month?

Well, to explain the answer to that question, he decided to engage in his least-favorite mode of podcasting - the solo talk!

This episode touches on some of the work he is currently doing researching the history of conspiracism and how it emerged into its current form, and sheds some light on what's ahead for the show (in short - it's not going away, but may well be a little wonky with scheduling...like today!)

Before we return in two weeks with new episodes, we're reposting this one from the summer of 2020. With the 230th anniversary of Columbus's voyages on the horizon, and the continued culture war waged over the holiday named for him, it seemed like a good opportunity to repost our episode featuring historian Kris Lane.

From July 2020:

Professor Kris E. Lane joins the show to discuss the legacy of Christopher Columbus and how we came to believe myths about the man that don’t square with history. I invited him on specifically because of the recent spate of protests that have resulted in the removal of statues of problematic historical figures, Columbus being perhaps the epitome of them all.

Prof. Lane holds the France V. Scholes Chair in Colonial Latin American History at Tulane University. Before arriving at Tulane, he taught Latin American History at the College of William and Mary.

He is a Fulbright scholar and author whose many books include Piracy in the Early Modern Era, Latin America in Colonial Time, and Potosi: The Silver City that Changed the World, which won the 2020 Bandelier-Lavrin Prize for Best Book on Colonial Latin America.