Mike Rothschild, author of the acclaimed 2021 book The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything, is set to publish his follow-up, Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories, in September.

The book covers the history of the antisemitic conspiracy theories surrounding the Rothschild (to whom Mike is not related) family and how they set a new model for framing Jewish people as responsible for major world events.

Mike joined Kelly and John to discuss the book, its title (a joking reference to a conspiracy theory concerning wildfires and satellites once voiced by congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene), why someone with his last name would want to get into this ine of work, and why antisemitism often isn't really about religion at all.

You can preorder Jewish Space Lasers here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/733925/jewish-space-lasers-by-mike-rothschild/

You can learn more about Mike and his work at his website: https://themikerothschild.com/

Mike is on Twitter @rothschildmd

Next week, we release the first official episode of Pod Only Knows. But to ease the transition from Hard to Believe, Kelly and John took some time to explain the idea and format of the new show and to let listeners get to know them both a little better.

This final official Hard to Believe episode is a bit of a personal indulgence - I have been listening to Garry Stevens’ History in the Bible podcast for years. In fact, when we bought a house a couple years ago, this was my official “packing” podcast.

Garry’s show is unique among history (and especially religious history) podcasts, in that he comes in with no pretense of objectivity and looks at the subject through the lens of a secular humanist without an axe to grind. 

He presents the material with a rare mix of clarity, warmth, and humor. 

I’ve wanted to have him on since my first season, but could never really figure out the right time. As fate would have it, History in the Bible is ending its 8-year run in the next few months, so it seemed like a good place to end my podcast too.

Thanks for listening over the last few years, and I hope you enjoy the show's next chapter as it morphs into Pod Only Knows in two weeks. We know we've enjoyed making it so far!

-John

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Garry's website: https://www.historyinthebible.com/

Hey Hard to Believe listeners - big news!

As of May, Hard to Believe will be coming to an end...but neither I nor the feed will be going anywhere!

Instead, I'll be joined by a new co-host, the wonderful Kelly J. Baker, and a slightly new angle, as we take our experiences working in the field of religious studies and focus more specifically on that topic.

The format is changing, but if you liked the content of Hard to Believe, I promise you will like this too.

So after a couple final episodes of Hard to Believe in April, the feed will automatically switch over to the new show and new title Pod Only Knows, and subscribers will automatically be subscribed to the new show.

We'll be releasing new episodes every other Wednesday, along with special bonus episodes and one-offs appearing on occasion and a regular monthly episode featuring Kelly and me discussing the big religion stories of the month.

We have some really awesome guests and topics already in store, and we're really excited to bring it all to you.

And finally, thank you so much for listening to Hard to Believe. It's been really fun having you along for that project, and I hope you'll stick with me and support and appreciate this new venture as well!

-John

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