Can faith make you a monster? For the finale of Season 2, Mary and Bethany explore the motif of monster priests and the performance of faith. From The Exorcist to The Conjuring Universe to the recent series Midnight Mass, our discussion includes vampires, heroes, and the fine line between the demonic and the saintly.

Feeling bad and feeling sad. Bethany and Mary discuss institutionalized mechanisms of guilt and penance in the Catholic Church. We talk confession and reconciliation, and how they’re used as manipulation tactics and how they are mythologized in a litany of films and television shows from Scorsese to The Sopranos.

The history of Christianity is full of divinely endowed priests abusing their “God-given” powers. In this episode Mary and Bethany welcome the pod’s very first guest Robert Kolodny, cinematographer of the recently released documentary “Procession,” to discuss the making of the film and the Church in bad faith. *This episode includes mentions of sexual assault.

Bonus: Robert’s carefully crafted cinema syllabus relevant to this week’s topic is featured below.

• Corpus Christi (2019, Jan Komasa)

• Teorema (1968, Pier Paolo Pasolini)

• Little Sister (2016, Zach Clark)

• Diary of a Country Priest (1951, Robert Bresson)

• Dark Habits (1983, Pedro Almodóvar)

• First Reformed (2017, Paul Schrader)

• Ida (2013, Paweł Pawlikowski)

• Mother Joan of the Angels (1961, Jerzy Kawalerowicz)

• The Devils (1971, Ken Russell)

• Procession (2021, Robert Greene)

Bethany and Mary kick off a whole new season discussing one of the biggest trends of the last few years: God. What’s behind the recent uptick in Christian motifs and memes? “Hot Priest” attempts to answer this question by looking into the desirability of the out-of-reach clergymen and how this trope has made the rounds in pop culture for decades from The Thornbirds to Fleabag. Also included in Season 2 is a new segment: “Trad Catholic Corner,” a revue of ironic, unironic, and post-ironic religious influencers.

Extra Credit! This season's bonus episode explores Elizabeth Holmes: founder of Theranos, the defunct healthcare company that claimed to have invented an optimized blood test and scammed millions of dollars from powerful investors.

The season one finale is here and it's all about The Twilight Saga. From Wuthering Heights to Twilight, Bethany and Mary ponder: How did we get here? Where do we go from here? What is the fate of Gothic Literature?

Phantom of the Opera marks a major milestone in the history of Gothic literature, and Mary and Bethany discuss the end of genre. Topics covered are Broadway's longest-running musical, science vs. illusions, and Gothic aesthetics in the 20th century.

This week on Sad Girl Syllabus Bethany and Mary discuss Dracula by Bram Stoker, the iconic gothic novel that put vampires on the map. Topics covered are 19th century medicine and science, monsters, industrialization, and, of course, vampires.

In the pilot episode for the Sad Girl Syllabus podcast, Bethany and Mary begin their exploration of the "Wuthering Heights to Twilight Pipeline" with a deep dive into early Gothic Literature. Topics covered are ICYMI: Wuthering Heights, notable film adaptations, #gothlitvibes, and salacious Brontë family gossip.