Pod Only Knows

Is 2+2=4 a matter of cultural perspective?

A year or so ago, a reply tweet from a teacher named Brittany Marshall, in which she argued that the idea of two plus two equaling four was cultural, went insanely viral.

Most of the ensuing discourse was unhelpful – largely right-wing reactionaries going on about how woke leftists want to CANCEL MATH.

But the argument raises some important questions worth exploring. Does, in fact, our culture misrepresent math in some fundamental way that ultimately does us a disservice? Or is math truly universal in a way that should bypass cultural lenses and belief systems? Are we training kids to believe math is something it isn't, and do they learn to hate math as a result?

John was inspired to take this up again when a listener reached out to suggest the broad topic of cultural bias in the language of math and science, and so he gave it some thought and reached out a mathematician who he thought could provide some insights - acclaimed mathematician Dr. Jonathan Farley.

Find Dr. Farley's website here.

In 1999, actor Gabriel Byrne weirdly made two very different movies involving the Catholic Church, conspiracies, and dramatically violent things happening as a result. And so we're going to talk about both of them!

Starting with Stigmata, a strange and often incoherent combination of Exorcist ripoff and long-form X-Files episode. The film did not do a lot for the careers of those involved - which is why Billy Corgan has yet to nab his Oscar for film score composition.

However, luckily, it didn't do much to harm to the career of its insanely over-qualified cast, either.

But it is, as John (a giant Byrne-Stan) discusses with Brian Rodriguez (of High School Slumber Party) and Joe Two (of 2 Fast 2 Forever) a worthwhile time capsule. Because 1999 was a year in which movies experienced a kind of collective convulsion - not unlike those experienced by Patricia Arquette's Frankie Paige - and emerged on the other side with exciting new possibilities of what a movie could do, stylistically and narratively, in the 21st century.

What is stigmata, actually? And why is Gabriel Byrne in this movie? And why is the Church hiding the true Gospel of Christ from us?? Find out, maybe!

TWITTER!

Joe: https://twitter.com/JoeyDe_

2 Fast 2 Forever: https://twitter.com/2Fast2Forever

High School Slumber Party: https://twitter.com/HSSlumberParty

For decades, evangelicals voters have been among the most active forces thwarting government action on the climate crisis. Has that started to change?

Alex Morris is a senior writer at Rolling Stone who often covers stories relating to the intersection of religion and culture. A Christian herself, she has been able to look at these issues with an insider's eye. She recently profiled several young evangelicals who have been rallying for climate action as a matter of religious faith.

John spoke to Alex shortly after the release of the dire IPCC report on the climate crisis to ask her if the tide is finally starting to turn against a movement that has long stood in the way of climate action.

Alex is on Twitter @AlexMorrisNY

You can find more of her work at her website: AlexMorris.net

The Klan is little more than a cultural joke at this point. Following its ill-fated attempts to gain public legitimacy by appearing on Donahue and Jerry Springer in the 1990s, the organization largely retreated to the internet. But there it metastasized and festered and eventually spawned new hate groups like the Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer.

The Klan remains the template for and spiritual common ancestor to all of America's white nationalist hate groups, and importantly it was and is, at its very core, a Christian movement.

In our first post-hiatus episode, John is joined by scholar and author Dr. Kelly J. Baker, whose book The Gospel According to the Klan remains one of the most important and authoritative texts on modern white Christian nationalism, to talk about the Klan, Jesus, MAGA...and zombies.

Dr. Baker is on Twitter @kelly_j_baker

You can buy The Gospel According to the Klan here, or wherever you get your books.