Halloween didn’t start with candy, costumes, and haunted houses. Long before pumpkins glowed on porches, the night belonged to bonfires, monks, and saints. In this deep-dive episode,we trace the story of October 31st—from the Celtic festival of Samhain, to the medieval church’s vigil of All Hallows, to Luther’s hammer on the church door, to the immigrant streets of America.

Along the way, we’ll see how the saints once claimed Halloween, reshaping it from a night of fear into a night of hope. And we’ll ask the deeper question that has haunted every version of Halloween across history: What do we do with death?

This isn’t just history, it’s theology, culture, and the gospel colliding in one unforgettable night.

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The Jesus People and the Electric Guitar

In the late 1960s, no one expected a revival to break out among America’s hippies. They were supposed to be lost to drugs, protests, and free love. Instead, they found Jesus, on beaches, in coffeehouses, and through songs strummed on battered guitars.

This is the story of the Jesus People movement: baptisms in the Pacific surf, barefoot worship circles, and music that rewired the soundtrack of Christianity. From Larry Norman’s rock anthems to the rise of Calvary Chapel and Vineyard, the Jesus People reshaped the church in ways still felt today.

It’s a tale of rebellion and renewal, wildfire passion and messy fallout, irony and legacy. A countercultural revival that became the very establishment it resisted.

If you’ve ever sung worship with a guitar, joined a seeker-friendly church, or streamed Hillsong, Bethel, or Elevation, you’re living in the world the Jesus People built.

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“Amazing Grace” may be the most famous hymn ever written — sung at funerals and protests, in cathedrals and stadiums. But its origins are stranger, darker, and more powerful than most people realize. Born from the pen of John Newton, a former slave trader turned pastor, the hymn’s journey from an obscure English parish to a global anthem of hope is a story of sin, redemption, and the surprising ways theology goes viral. In this episode, we trace how a simple song crossed oceans, fueled revivals, was adopted by enslaved communities, and became the soundtrack of the Civil Rights Movement. It’s the story of how one man’s confession became the world’s hymn.

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In the 1800s, a quiet Augustinian friar in a monastery garden uncovered the laws of heredity, decades before anyone knew what DNA was. His name was Gregor Mendel, the “godfather of genetics.” This episode explores how his faith shaped his science, why his work was ignored in his lifetime, and what his story teaches us about hiddenness, legacy, and the fingerprints of God in creation.

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What comes to mind when you picture the devil? Horns. A pitchfork. Red tights.

But that image isn’t biblical, it’s medieval.

In this episode, Jordan traces the surprising story of how one saint’s imagination, a few desert monks, and centuries of theater and art gave Satan his face. From serpents in the catacombs, to horned hybrids borrowed from Pan, to the booming devils of mystery plays, this is how evil got branded.

The devil you know today? He’s less Scripture and more stagecraft. And that may be his greatest trick of all.

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In 1925, a small-town courtroom in Dayton, Tennessee became the stage for one of the most famous trials in American history. The “Monkey Trial” wasn’t really about Darwin, evolution, or even a $100 fine. It was about dignity.

When Clarence Darrow grilled William Jennings Bryan on the witness stand, the courtroom laughed. Newspapers printed cartoons of monkey-preachers. And in that laughter, evangelicals—who had once stood at the center of American life, suddenly felt mocked, humiliated, pushed to the margins.

This episode tells the real story of the Scopes Trial: not as science vs. faith, but as a turning point in cultural psychology. It was the moment American evangelicals shifted from confident insiders to defensive outsiders. From mainstream to subculture. From leading the nation to building a world of their own.

Nearly a century later, we’re still living in its shadow.

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Empire of Relics: When Bones, Blood, and Bread Became the Currency of the Sacred

What happens when faith turns material? In the Middle Ages, relics were more than devotional objects, they were power. The finger of a saint could draw pilgrims across Europe. A vial of blood could bankroll a cathedral. A splinter of the “true cross” could legitimize an empire.

In this episode, we step inside the strange economy of holiness: where churches competed for body parts, kings went to war over bones, and ordinary believers risked everything to touch a fragment of the sacred.

Was it faith or fraud? Devotion or desperation? By the end, you’ll see how relics shaped not only medieval spirituality but the very map of Europe itself.

If you thought crypto was volatile, wait until you hear about the black market for saints’ teeth.

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We all picture angels with white feathers, halos, and harps, but the Bible never describes them that way. In Scripture, angels show up as messengers, warriors, and servants of God’s will but never as winged ornaments. So where did the wings come from?

This episode traces the surprising history of how angels grew wings: from the throne guardians of Isaiah and Ezekiel, to pagan gods like Nike and Hermes, to Byzantine mosaics, medieval theater, and Renaissance masterpieces. Along the way, we’ll see how desert monks reshaped the devil, how mystery plays fixed wings into the popular imagination, and how art from, Gislebertus to Botticelli to Bosch sealed the image we still carry today.

By the end, you’ll discover the fascinating truth: angels don’t need wings to carry God’s message. The real story is stranger and more awe-inspiring than the myths we’ve inherited.

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In the 16th century, a bitter, dark drink swept into Europe from the Muslim world and panic followed. Priests called it “the invention of Satan.” Rumors claimed it fueled heresy, addiction, and political unrest. Some feared it might even replace wine in Christian life.

The controversy reached the Pope himself. What happened next would transform coffee from a suspicious foreign vice into the drink of choice for priests, scholars, and theologians, and turn coffeehouses into the “penny universities” of the Christian world.

This is the strange, true story of how a hot cup of controversy became a catalyst for conversation, culture, and even the Church’s mission.

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Rome, 897.

On a gray January day, the streets of the Eternal City fill with bakers, monks, and merchants, all walking toward the Lateran Basilica. Inside, beneath flickering candles and the scent of incense, a corpse sits on the papal throne. What follows is one of the strangest trials in church history: a pope on trial months after his death.

This is the story of the Cadaver Synod. A mix of political revenge, theological controversy, and public outrage that forced the Church to answer a question still relevant today: Does the validity of a sacrament depend on the holiness of the person who gives it?

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