Flipping Tables

I cried a lot of tears when we lost Dolly and also writing this script. WHAT A LEGACY!This week on Flipping Tables, we celebrate the life, love, and legacy of Dolly Rebecca Parton. We will cover her childhood of growing up in poverty, her iconic music career, movies, books and most of all- her generosity. Dolly could have been a billionaire and chose to help people instead giving upwards of $600 million dollars throughout the course of her life. Dolly was an example of how to be superstar who was known most of all by her love. Sources: Full source list on patreon.com/montemaderAnderson, E. J., et al. (2020, December 17). Safety and immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-1273 vaccine in older adults. New England Journal of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2028436ABC News. (2026, March 13). Dolly Parton shares health update at 2026 Dollywood park opening. https://abcnews.com/GMA/Culture/dolly-parton-shares-health-update-2026-dollywood-park/story?id=131063621ABC News. (2026, August 25). Dolly Parton's family shares her final message amid news of her death. https://abcnews.com/GMA/Family/dolly-partons-family-shares-final-message-amid-news/story?id=135948668ABC News. (2026, August 26). Dolly Parton's legacy of giving: Inside her decades of philanthropy. https://abcnews.com/GMA/Culture/dolly-partons-legacy-giving-inside-decades-philanthropy/story?id=135947174Afar. (2020). New Nashville mural highlights Dolly Parton's Black Lives Matter quote. https://www.afar.com/magazine/nashville-mural-highlights-dolly-partons-black-lives-matter-quoteAmerican Eagle Foundation. (n.d.). Dollywood. https://eagles.org/dollywood/American Songwriter. (n.d.). Behind the major financial risk Porter Wagoner took when RCA signed Dolly Parton. https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-major-financial-risk-porter-wagoner-took-when-rca-signed-dolly-parton/American Songwriter. (n.d.). The first song Dolly Parton wrote at age 5 with the help of her mother, "Little Tiny Tassel Top." https://americansongwriter.com/the-first-song-dolly-parton-wrote-at-age-5-wrote-with-the-help-of-her-mother-little-tiny-tassel-top/American Songwriter. (n.d.). On this day in 1975, Dolly Parton released one of her most underrated (and controversial) career hits—banned by radio over one single lyric. https://americansongwriter.com/on-this-day-in-1975-dolly-parton-released-one-of-her-most-underrated-and-controversial-career-hits-banned-by-radio-over-one-single-lyric/Appalachian Regional Commission. (n.d.). Education in Appalachia. https://www.arc.gov/about-the-appalachian-region/the-chartbook/education-in-appalachia/Appalachian Regional Commission. (n.d.). High-poverty counties in Appalachia, 1960 and 2019–2023. https://arc.gov/map/high-poverty-counties-in-appalachia-1960-and-2019-2023/Appalachian Regional Commission. (n.d.). Income and poverty in Appalachia. https://www.arc.gov/about-the-appalachian-region/the-chartbook/income-and-poverty-in-appalachia/Appalachian Regional Development Act. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved August 29, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Regional_Development_ActAxios Nashville. (2026, August 27). Dolly Parton's philanthropy extended far beyond books. https://www.axios.com/local/nashville/2026/08/27/dolly-parton-philanthropy-donationsThe Bargain Store (song). (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved August 29, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bargain_Store_(song)Billboard. (n.d.). A timeline of Dolly Parton's good deeds. https://www.billboard.com/lists/dolly-parton-good-deeds-timeline/Billboard. (2024, November 15). Dolly Parton's brother David Parton dies. https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/dolly-parton-brother-david-parton-dies-obituary-1235831296Billboard. (2026, July 27). Dolly Parton's older brother Coy "Denver" Parton dies at 82. https://www.billboard.com/music/country/dolly-parton-brother-coy-denver-parton-dies-1236304122/

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”- Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to FreedomNelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born July 18th, 1918 in Mvezo, Transkei, into the Madiba clan of the Thembu royal house. His father, a chief, was stripped of office by a colonial magistrate for refusing to answer to colonial authority. Raised after his father's death as ward of the Thembu regent, he underwent Xhosa initiation at sixteen and took the name Dalibunga. He was expelled from Fort Hare in 1940 for a student boycott, fled an arranged marriage to Johannesburg, and qualified in law.He joined the ANC in 1943 and co-founded its Youth League, pushing the organization from petitions toward mass action. He served as Volunteer-in-Chief of the 1952 Defiance Campaign and opened South Africa's first Black law firm with Oliver Tambo. After the 1960 Sharpeville massacre and the banning of the ANC foreclosed legal protest, he went underground and co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe, the movement's armed wing.Arrested in 1962 and tried at Rivonia, he opened his defense from the dock in 1964, calling a free and democratic society an ideal he was prepared to die for. He received life imprisonment and served 27 years — most of it on Robben Island as prisoner 466/64, breaking limestone in a quarry that permanently damaged his eyes, denied leave to bury his mother and his eldest son. He refused conditional release in 1985, answering that a prisoner cannot negotiate.Freed in 1990, he steered negotiations through near-civil war, shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. de Klerk, and became president in May 1994 after the first non-racial election. His single term produced the 1996 Constitution and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He stepped down in 1999, in a region where liberation leaders rarely did.The unfinished business was economic: the Freedom Charter's redistributive commitments were traded away, land reform stalled, inequality endured. He admitted his government moved too slowly on HIV/AIDS, then spent his last years campaigning on it. He died 5 December 2013, aged 95.References Boehmer, E. (2008). Nelson Mandela: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press. Chikane, F. (1988). No life of my own: An autobiography. Skotaville. Frankel, P. (2001). An ordinary atrocity: Sharpeville and its massacre. Yale University Press. Gevisser, M. (2007). Thabo Mbeki: The dream deferred. Jonathan Ball. Gordimer, N. (1990). My son's story. Bloomsbury. Kathrada, A. (2004). Memoirs. Zebra Press. Lodge, T. (2006). Mandela: A critical life. Oxford University Press. Madikizela-Mandela, W. (1985). Part of my soul went with him (A. Benjamin & M. Benson, Eds.). W. W. Norton. Madikizela-Mandela, W. (2013). 491 days: Prisoner number 1323/69. Ohio University Press. Mandela, N. (1964). Statement from the dock at the opening of the defence case in the Rivonia Trial, Pretoria Supreme Court, 20 April 1964. Mandela, N. (1994). Long walk to freedom: The autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Mandela, N. (2010). Conversations with myself. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Mandela, N. (2018). The prison letters of Nelson Mandela (S. Venter, Ed.). Liveright. Meredith, M. (2010). Mandela: A biography (rev. ed.). PublicAffairs. Sampson, A. (1999). Mandela: The authorised biography. HarperCollins. Steinberg, J. (2023). Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a marriage. Alfred A. Knopf. Suttner, R. (2008). The ANC underground in South Africa, 1950-1976. Jacana. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa. (1998). Report (Vols. 1-5). Juta. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa. (1997). Special hearing: Mandela United Football Club, Johannesburg, 24 November - 4 December 1997. Umkhonto we Sizwe. (1961). Manifesto, 16 December 1961.

**Get episodes ad free and support the show at patreon.com/montemader**We've been hearing a LOT of red scare language lately, this time- directed at China. Tennessee gubernatorial hopeful Marsha Blackburn, released a campaign ad smashing fortune cookies so that we could know she would be tough on China (ok Marsha). So WHY does China have beef? It turns out, China has a very good reason to resent and distrust the UK and its rogue stepchild, the United States. In the 19th century, Britain needed Chinese silk, porcelain, and tea and China needed nothing Britain made. The trade deficit was embarrassing. And while Britain kept spending money, China kept getting richer. So the British East India Company found a solution: flood China with opium grown in colonized India (using forced labor and leaving people in abject poverty of course). As China fell to addiction the silver that purchased the opium funneled through the East India Trading Company and into the British governments coffers. By the 1830s, an estimated 12 million Chinese people were addicted. Silver was flowing out of China to pay for the drug, destabilizing the entire economy. When the Chinese government saw the population hollowing out in real time, they seized and destroyed 1,400 tons of British opium in 1839. Britain declared war under the guise of free trade, national honor and to protect it citizens and property. It was actually to protect its drug trade and poison China. The military mismatch was obscene. British gunships dismantled Chinese coastal defenses built for a different era. China had no answer for industrial-age firepower. The 1842 Treaty of Nanking forced China to pay Britain the equivalent of billions in reparations (for the drugs Britain had illegally smuggled into their country), hand over Hong Kong, and open five ports to foreign control. Britain had gone to war for the right to keep selling heroin to a country that was begging it to stop.A second war followed in 1856 had the same results but added granting legal immunity from Chinese law on Chinese soil. For breaking laws like, smuggling drugs. The Chinese call this the beginning of the "Century of Humiliation." A sovereign civilization was militarily forced to accept mass addiction as a trade term. China was flooded with drugs intentionally, brutalized with war, robbed and told they were in the wrong. They have a DAMN good reason to distrust the west, and most of us, never hear this story. Sources: (full list on patreon) CDC/National Center for Health Statistics. (2026). Drug overdose death statistics https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htmDikotter, F., Laamann, L., & Zhou, X. (2004). Narcotic culture: A history of drugs in China. University of Chicago Press.Fay, P. W. (1975). The Opium War, 1840-1842: Barbarians in the Celestial Empire University of North Carolina PressGladstone, W. E. (1840). The Gladstone diaries (M. R. D. Foot & H. C. G. Matthew, Eds., Vol. 3). Oxford University Press.Gordon, C. G. (1860). Letters from China [Primary source correspondence]. In D. C. Boulger, The Life of Gordon (1896). T. Fisher Unwin.Hanes, W. T., III, & Sanello, F. (2002). The Opium Wars: The addiction of one empire and the corruption of another. Sourcebooks.Hansard. (1840, April 8). War with China: Adjourned debate. Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 3rd ser., vol. 53, cc. 818-920.Hansard. (1870, May 10). East India (opium revenue). Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 3rd ser., vol. 201, cc. 489-512.Lin, Z. (1839). Letter to Queen Victoria [Primary source document]. In S. Y. Teng & J. K. Fairbank (Eds.), Lovell, J. (2011). The Opium War: Drugs, dreams and the making of China. Picador.Platt, S. R. (2018). Imperial twilight: The Opium War and the end of China's last golden age. Alfred A. Knopf.Porter, J., & Jick, H. (1980). Addiction rare in patients treated with narcotics. New England Journal of Medicine, 302(2), 123. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM198001103020221

Birth control has a long history in America. In colonial times, people relied on withdrawal, herbal remedies, and homemade barriers, though few spoke about it openly. During the 1800s, condoms became more practical after Charles Goodyear learned to vulcanize rubber in 1839, and diaphragms and douches came into use as well. This progress met resistance. In 1873, the Comstock Act made it a crime to send contraceptives or information about them through the mail, treating the subject as obscene and pushing it out of public view.The movement took shape through Margaret Sanger. She opened the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn in 1916 and gave the practice its name. Her organization eventually became Planned Parenthood. The legal walls came down slowly. A 1936 court ruling weakened the Comstock restrictions and allowed doctors to prescribe contraceptives.The turning point came in 1960, when the FDA approved the first birth control pill. The Pill gave women far more control over their own lives and became a defining part of the decade that followed. The courts soon caught up. In Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965, the Supreme Court ruled that married couples had a right to use contraception. In 1972, Eisenstadt v. Baird extended that right to unmarried people.The years after brought more options: the IUD, hormonal implants, and emergency contraception such as Plan B, which later became available over the counter. In 2010, the Affordable Care Act required most insurance plans to cover contraception at no cost, a rule that drew legal challenges over religious objections.Contraception is still a subject of political debate. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, questions returned about the privacy rulings that once secured the right to birth control, and its future remains uncertain.References (full list on patreon)Avery, B. Y. (1991). Empowerment through wellness. Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, 4(1), 147–154.Baker, J. H. (2011). Margaret Sanger: A life of passion. Hill and Wang.Balmer, R. (2021). Bad faith: Race and the rise of the religious right. Eerdmans.Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 573 U.S. 682 (2014).Center for Constitutional Rights. (2021, February 1). Black liberation archives, week 1: Fannie Lou Hamer taught us. https://ccrjustice.org/home/blog/2021/02/01/black-liberation-archives-week-1-fannie-lou-hamer-taught-usChristianity Knowledge Base. (2005). Contraception. https://christianity.fandom.com/wiki/ContraceptionColorado Department of Public Health and Environment. (2017). Taking the unintended out of pregnancy: Colorado’s success with long-acting reversible contraception.Commonwealth Fund. (2025, December 16). Overview of federally funded contraceptive programs. Issue Briefs. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2025/dec/overview-federally-funded-contraceptive-programsD’Emilio, J., & Freedman, E. B. (2012). Intimate matters: A history of sexuality in America (3rd ed.). University of Chicago Press.Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022).Eisenberg, M. L., & Lipshultz, L. I. (2010). Estimating the number of vasectomies performed annually in the United States: Data from the National Survey of Family Growth. Journal of Urology, 184(5), 2068–2072. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.juro.2010.06.117Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972).Franks, A. (2020, July 28). Margaret Sanger’s extreme brand of eugenics. America Magazine. https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/07/28/margaret-sangers-extreme-brand-eugenics/Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965).Guttmacher Institute. (2023). Contraceptive use in the United States [Fact sheet]. https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/contraceptive-use-united-statesGuttmacher Institute. (2025, September). The right is waging a quiet war on contraception. Jones, R. K., & Dreweke, J. (2011). Countering conventional wisdom: New evidence on religion and contraceptive use.

In last week's episode, I had a LOT of questions around "How did we even get here?" "How did women get written into this system that way?" "Why are women buying into this movement?" "WHY WOULD WOMEN AGREE TO GIVE UP THEIR RIGHT TO VOTE?"Quick note: take the repeal of the 19th Amendment seriously. It serves two purposes: 1. To normalize it so when they come for it, it doesn't sound as crazy as it used to. 2. By shifting the Overton window, when they propose other parts of their agenda, it sounds less crazy and sets off fewer alarm bells. So I wanted to do a two-part series about how women were written out of authority and a few rungs down the ladder of hierarchy in the church and in Christian Nationalism but also the history of how propaganda was weaponized against faith communities to build the power system we see happening. We have to know it and name it to fight back. And if you are a person of faith you have to be vocal about reclaiming it. In this episode, we go through the invention of virginity, the need to control reproduction to control wealth. The history of female leadership in the church, how it was intentionally translated out of the Bible in order to justify removing women from leadership and subjugating them. And the 20th century push of the weaponization of wedge issues against feminism, abortion, and gay rights to help people defend racism and school segregation. I hope that you enjoy! Full source list on patreon.com/montemaderSources: Primary Documents and Legal Records • Treaty of Tripoli (1797), Article 11. Ratified unanimously by the U.S. Senate, June 7, 1797. Full text, Avalon Project, Yale Law School. • Jefferson, Thomas. The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth (the Jefferson Bible), c. 1820. Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Primary source. • Public Law 84-274, "Under God" added to the Pledge of Allegiance. Signed June 14, 1954. • Public Law 84-851, "In God We Trust" established as national motto. Signed July 30, 1956. • Bob Jones University v. United States, 461 U.S. 574 (1983). Supreme Court ruling. • Reagan, Ronald. "Evil Empire" speech, March 8, 1983, National Association of Evangelicals, Orlando, FL. Reagan Presidential Library. • Southern Baptist Convention resolutions on abortion, 1971, 1974, 1976. Available through SBC Historical Commission archives. Patristic and Early Church Sources • Socrates Scholasticus. Historia Ecclesiastica (Church History), Book VII, Chapter 15, c. 439 CE. English translation, NPNF (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers) Series. • Damascius. Life of Isidore (fragments), c. early 6th century CE. Names Cyril in connection with Hypatia's death. • John of Nikiu. Chronicle, Chapter 84, c. 690 CE. Pro-Cyril secondary source. • Tertullian. De Cultu Feminarum (On the Apparel of Women), c. 204 CE. • Chrysostom, John. Homilies on Romans, Homily 31 (on Romans 16:1-4). • Augustine of Hippo. De Genesi ad Litteram (The Literal Meaning of Genesis), c. 401-415 CE. • Council of Laodicea (363-364 CE), Canon 11. • Pope Gregory I. Homily 33 on the Gospels, 591 CE. The sermon conflating Mary Magdalene with the sinful woman of Luke 7. On Biblical Scholarship and the Pastoral Epistles • Ehrman, Bart D. Forged: Writing in the Name of God — Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We — 37 —Flipping Tables — “Divine Protection… For Men” Think They Are. HarperOne, 2011. • Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament. Doubleday, 1997. • Johnson, Luke Timothy. The First and Second Letters to Timothy. Anchor Yale Bible, 2001. • Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. NICNT, Eerdmans, 1987. (Interpolation argument for 1 Corinthians 14:34-35.) • Epp, Eldon Jay. Junia: The First Woman Apostle. Fortress Press, 2005. On Women in the Early Church • Gupta, Nijay K. Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church. InterVarsity Press, 2023.

Thank you to the patrons who make this possible! patreon.com/montemaderWhen everything feels impossible (and lately at times it has) when power concentrates, institutions bend, and the news is a daily gut-punch, we're told that joy is irresponsible. That real resistance has to be grim all the time or you aren't doing it right. Thats not true. Joy. Art. Music. Song. Are all integral components of resistances that change the course of history. In this (almost) two-hour episode, lets traces ten stories across 2,000 years of human history where people under siege, during empire collapse, fascist occupation, genocide, and authoritarian rule, chose joy anyway. Not as escape but as the most radical act available to them.From enslaved gladiators who built a free community on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, to early Christians throwing communal dinner parties in Roman catacombs, to Parisian workers running a utopian government for 72 days before being massacred, to Jewish fighters holding a Passover Seder the night before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began (and more): this episode is a historical time traveling journey in how joy functions as survival, identity, and resistance network. I hope it encourages me the way it encourages you. It's only when we remember the joy of living that we find the courage to resist. Recommended Books for further reading if these stories inspired you: Spartacus Barry Strauss, The Spartacus War (Simon & Schuster, 2009) Aldo Schiavone, Spartacus (2013)Early Christians & the Catacombs Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (Harper & Row, 1987) The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas, trans. Maureen Tilley (Fortress Press)Paris Commune John Merriman, Massacre: The Life and Death of the Paris Commune of 1871 (Basic Books, 2014) Louise Michel, The Red Virgin: Memoirs of Louise Michel, ed. Bullitt Lowry & Elizabeth Ellington Gunter (1981)Harlem Renaissance David Levering Lewis, When Harlem Was in Vogue (Knopf, 1981) Langston Hughes, The Big Sea (1940) Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942) Alain Locke, ed., The New Negro: An Interpretation (1925)Danish Rescue of the Jews Bo Lidegaard, Countrymen (Knopf, 2013) Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem (Viking Press, 1963)Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Samuel D. Kassow, Who Will Write Our History? (Indiana University Press, 2007) Israel Gutman, Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Houghton Mifflin, 1994) Emanuel Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto (McGraw-Hill, 1958)Víctor Jara & Nueva Canción Joan Jara, Victor: An Unfinished Song (Jonathan Cape, 1983) Peter Kornbluh, The Pinochet File (The New Press, 2003)The Singing Revolution Mart Laar, The Power of Freedom (2010) The Singing Revolution, documentary (2006, dir. James & Maureen Castle Tusty)The Velvet Revolution Michael Žantovský, Havel: A Life (Grove Press, 2014) Timothy Garton Ash, The Magic Lantern (Random House, 1990) Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless (1978)Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Marguerite Bouvard, Revolutionizing Motherhood (Scholarly Resources, 1994) Rita Arditti, Searching for Life (University of California Press, 1999) CONADEP, Nunca Más (Eudeba, 1984) Horacio Verbitsky, The Flight (The New Press, 1996)Sources list available on Patreon: patreon.com/montemader

In March 2026, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stood before a Pentagon worship service and prayed for "overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy", calling for the eternal damnation of America's enemies. Military commanders across every branch have been reported, in over 200 formal complaints, telling troops the Iran war is "God's plan" and that Trump was "anointed by Jesus" to trigger Armageddon. Benjamin Netanyahu has quoted 1 Samuel 15:3, the command to destroy the Amalekites, sparing "neither man nor woman, infant nor ox" to justify Israeli military operations.This is what happens when political leaders weaponize faith to sanctify violence. And it has been happening for 1,700 years.From Constantine's battlefield vision in 312 CE and the subsequent murder of philosopher Hypatia by a Christian mob, through Augustine's just war doctrine that gave state violence a Christian vocabulary, to Charlemagne's massacre of 4,500 Saxon prisoners at Verden for refusing baptism. We cover the First Crusade's Rhineland pogroms, where Jewish mothers drowned their children rather than see them forcibly baptized, and the Jerusalem massacre of 1099, where chroniclers described blood reaching horses' knees. We examine the Albigensian Crusade's destruction of Béziers, where the papal legate reportedly said "Kill them all, God will know his own," and the witch trials that followed, killing up to 60,000 people (80% of them women) using Heinrich Kramer's Malleus Maleficarum as theological cover.We also cover what this history did specifically to women, a thread that runs unbroken from Tertullian calling women "the devil's gateway" in 200 CE, through the rape of nuns during the Fourth Crusade's sack of Constantinople, to the sexual violence documented in California's Spanish mission system, to the girls in Native American boarding schools whose hair was cut, languages stolen, and bodies abused under church-run federal contracts.The only thing more dangerous than a tyrant, is one who believes God gave them permission.SOURCESAugustine, The City of God, c. 413–426 CETertullian, De Cultu Feminarum, c. 200 CESocrates Scholasticus, Historia Ecclesiastica, c. 439 CE (murder of Hypatia)Annales Regni Francorum (Charlemagne / Verden massacre)Barbero, Alessandro — Charlemagne: Father of a Continent, UC Press, 2004Chazan, Robert — European Jewry and the First Crusade, UC Press, 1987Mainz Anonymous and Solomon bar Simson Chronicle (Rhineland massacres, 1096)Raymond of Aguilers, Historia Francorum (Jerusalem, 1099)Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus Miraculorum, c. 1220 (Béziers)Nicetas Choniates, Historia, c. 1206 (Fourth Crusade / Constantinople)Brenon, Anne — Le vrai visage du catharisme, Loubatières, 1988Kramer, Heinrich — Malleus Maleficarum, 1487 (ed. Mackay, Cambridge UP, 2006)Levack, Brian — The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, Routledge, 4th ed., 2016Cuneo, Michele de — Letter of October 28, 1495, trans. Samuel Eliot MorisonDíaz del Castillo, Bernal — True History of the Conquest of New Spain, c. 1568Hassig, Ross — Mexico and the Spanish Conquest, U of Oklahoma Press, 2006Pedro Pizarro — Relation of the Discovery and Conquest of Peru, c. 1571Stannard, David — American Holocaust, Oxford UP, 1992Kamen, Henry — The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision, Yale UP, 1997Jouanna, Arlette — La Saint-Barthélemy, Gallimard, 2007Parker, Geoffrey — The Thirty Years' War, Routledge, 1997Regan, Donald — For the Record, Harcourt Brace, 1988 Maurice, Jean-Claude — Si vous le répétez, je démentirai (Bush / Gog and Magog)NPR — "Netanyahu's references to violent biblical passages raise alarm," Nov. 7, 2023U.S. Dept. of the Interior — Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report, 2022Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada — Final Report, 2015Johnson v. McIntosh, 21 U.S. 543, U.S. Supreme Court, 1823Vatican Statement repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery, March 30, 2023

Apologies for the lateness of the post, our dashboard encountered a technical difficulty that showed my podcasts didn't exist and had to be fixed before an upload could happen. Thanks for your patience. After being at Montgomery last weekend I wanted to do a deep dive into what I never learned as a kid. What led to the Civil Rights movement, its danger, its courage. Part one takes us through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and part two takes us beyond. SOURCESU.S. Congressional Records, Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866 (Memphis Massacre testimony)FBI Files on the murders of Medgar Evers, Emmett Till, and the Mississippi Burning case (MIBURN) — available through FOIA requests and the University of Mississippi's Mississippi Digital LibraryMississippi State Sovereignty Commission Records — Mississippi Department of Archives and History (publicly available since 1998)Department of Justice Civil Rights Division records and case filesNAACP Anti-Lynching Campaign Records — Library of CongressCongressional Record, Senate filibuster of the Civil Rights Act, March–June 1964Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63 (1988). Simon & Schuster.Branch, Taylor. Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963–65 (1998). Simon & Schuster.Branch, Taylor. At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965–68 (2006). Simon & Schuster.Berman, Ari. Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America (2015). Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Anderson, Carol. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide (2016). Bloomsbury.Anderson, Carol. One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy (2018). Bloomsbury.Du Bois, W.E.B. Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880 (1935). Harcourt, Brace.Garrow, David J. Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1986). William Morrow.Hamer, Fannie Lou. The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To Tell It Like It Is (2011). University Press of Mississippi.Lewis, John, with Michael D'Orso. Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (1998). Simon & Schuster.Litwack, Leon F. Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow (1998). Knopf.Marable, Manning. Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction and Beyond in Black America, 1945–2006 (2007). University Press of Mississippi.McAdam, Doug. Freedom Summer (1988). Oxford University Press.McWhorter, Diane. Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama — The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution (2001). Simon & Schuster.Payne, Charles M. I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle (1995). University of California Press.Stevenson, Bryan. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (2014). Spiegel & Grau.Tyson, Timothy B. The Blood of Emmett Till (2017). Simon & Schuster.Wells-Barnett, Ida B. Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892). New York Age Print.Wells-Barnett, Ida B. A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States (1895). Donohue & Henneberry.Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (2010). Random House.Woodward, C. Vann. The Strange Career of Jim Crow (1955). Oxford University Press.Honey, Michael K. Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign (2007). W.W. Norton.Mlinar, Zeljko, et al. Memphis Sanitation Strike Archives — Memphis Public Library Special CollectionsTucker, David M. Memphis Since Crump: Bossism, Blacks, and Civic Reformers, 1948–1968 (1980). University of Tennessee Press.Wright, Sharon D. Race, Power, and Political Emergence in Memphis (2000). Garland Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649 (1944)Boynton v. Virginia, 364 U.S. 454 (1960)Browder v. Gayle, 352 U.S. 903 (1956)Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013)United States v. Price et al. 383 U.S. 787 (1966)

Three decades before the White House, Ronald Reagan was being assembled in plain sight. This episode traces the apprenticeship most highlight reels skip: the New Deal Democrat who became FBI informant "T-10," the B-list actor who turned a corporate speaking tour into a political movement, and the lapsed Midwestern kid who would one day broker the marriage of the Republican Party and white evangelical America.In postwar Hollywood, where Reagan, as Screen Actors Guild president, simultaneously fed names to the FBI and lent SAG's institutional cover to the blacklist. His October 1947 HUAC testimony was polite; the private file was not. Careers ended on the strength of "fraternal" reports.Then in 1954, General Electric Theater, and eight years on the GE plant circuit under Lemuel Boulware, the hardline VP who handed Reagan a reading list of Hayek and Hazlitt and turned his pep talks into a portable free market gospel. Corporations were buying preachers and performers to sell their "anti-union, low regulation" gospel. By 1962 GE had cut him loose, but "The Speech" was finished and in 1964 it launched Goldwater and, with him, Reagan himself.Finally, the wedding of cross and capital. Reagan, never a churchgoing adult, became the indispensable broker between corporate donors and a politically homeless evangelical electorate. In Dallas, August 1980, he closed the deal with one line: "I know you can't endorse me, but I want you to know I endorse you." That coalition outlived him still runs our country. In Part 2 we talk about the longterm staggering impact of Reaganomics. ReferencesBalmer, R. (2021). Bad faith: Race and the rise of the religious right. Eerdmans.Cannon, L. (2000). President Reagan: The role of a lifetime. PublicAffairs.Crespino, J. (2007). The new right and the southern strategy. Journal of Southern History, 73(4), 895–924.Critchlow, D. T. (2005). Phyllis Schlafly and grassroots conservatism: A woman’s crusade. Princeton University Press.Dochuk, D. (2011). From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain‑folk religion, grassroots politics, and the rise of evangelical conservatism. W. W. Norton.FitzGerald, F. (2017). The evangelicals: The struggle to shape America. Simon & Schuster.Hancock, A. (2004). The politics of disgust: The public identity of the welfare queen. New York University Press.Kohler‑Hausmann, J. (2017). Getting tough: Welfare and imprisonment in 1970s America. Princeton University Press.Kruse, K. M. (2015). One nation under God: How corporate America invented Christian America. Basic Books.Levin, J. (2019). The queen: The forgotten life behind an American myth. Little, Brown and Company.Mittelstadt, J. (2005). From welfare to workfare: The unintended consequences of liberal reform, 1945–1965. University of North Carolina Press.Nadasen, P. (2005). Welfare warriors: The welfare rights movement in the United States. Routledge.Nickerson, M. M. (2012). The Reagan administration’s response to the gender gap. Journal of Policy History, 24(1), 115–140.Perlstein, R. (2020). Reaganland: America’s right turn 1976–1980. Simon & Schuster.Reagan, R. (1986, February 15). Radio address to the nation on welfare reform [Speech transcript]. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/radio-address-nation-welfare-reformRich, C. G. (2020). The “welfare queen” goes to the polls: Race‑based fractures in gender politics. Georgetown Law Journal, 108(4), 1–67.Shilts, R. (1987). And the band played on: Politics, people, and the AIDS epidemic. St. Martin’s Press.Sick, G. (1991). October surprise: America’s hostages in Iran and the election of Ronald Reagan. Times Books.Troy, G. (2009). The great communicator: Media and the Reagan image. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 39(3), 458–470.Unger, C. (2024). Den of spies: Reagan, Carter, and the secret history of the treason that stole the White House. Mariner Books.Wilentz, S. (2008). The age of Reagan: A history, 1974–2008. HarperCollins.

Resource packet mentioned in podcast: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JHWbiYVQ4sD5gX-o0yHC-5hXnY1KPf0kBvw2rZSJfiE/edit?tab=t.0For ad free episodes, bonus content and "where did we get the Bible?" series sign up at patreon.com/montemaderWe have all seen the photos and videos of Gaza the last two years. We have heard the stories. We have watched politicians deflect and people say "but October 7th!!". But there's a story that spans far beyond October 7th. There is a series of decisions that decimated a region and crushed the vulnerable under the thumb of the powerful. How did we get here? what is the history that led to this point? To help talk about his heartwrenching story, we welcome Dr. Daniel Bannoura. Daniel is a Palestinian theologian and podcaster. He is a professor at the University of Notre Dame, where he received his PhD degree in Qur'anic Studies. He’s also the Director of Public Engagement at the Bethlehem Institute of Peace and Justice, and host of “Across the Divide”, a podcast that provides a space for thoughtful conversations about Palestine-Israel through the lens of faith and peacemaking.Recommended Reading: 100 Years War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

This Episode is brought to you by Ground News, subscribe for 4o% off their vantage plan at groundnews.com/monteWhy do institutions built on moral authority so often become safe harbors for predators? Abuse scandals within religious institutions are recurring patterns with shared structural causes. This episode breaks down why churches, regardless of denomination, repeatedly find themselves at the center of abuse cover-up stories, and why victims so often find themselves silenced.We walk through several prominent cases that have made headlines in recent years spanning Catholic dioceses, evangelical megachurches, and independent ministries examining the common threads: delayed reporting, internal investigations kept away from civil authorities, institutional loyalty placed above victim care, and the "forgiveness" framework weaponized to shut down accountability.Then we go deeper into the structural question: hierarchy itself. When authority flows unidirectionally downward challenging a leader becomes spiritually dangerous for members. Whistleblowers risk not just reputation but community, belonging, and in some traditions, their eternal standing. This creates near perfect conditions for abuse to go fester and grow.SourcesBaptist News Global. (2026, March 21). The Southern Baptist Convention did not get played. https://baptistnews.com/article/the-southern-baptist-convention-did-not-get-played/Barr, B. A. (2021). The making of biblical womanhoodChen, Y. (2024). Ecclesiastical abstention or judicial abdication? The First Amendment and clergy sexual abuse. Yale Law & Policy Review, 42(1), 1–58.CrossPolitic Studios. (2026, March 17). How the SBC got played [Documentary film]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/XNQk2y8cUJYDu Mez, K. K. (2020). Jesus and John WayneFreyd, J. J. (2022). Institutional betrayal and institutional courage. In L. S. Brown & E. Pantalone (Eds.),Guidepost Solutions. (2022). Report of the independent investigation: The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee’s response to sexual abuse allegations and an audit of the procedures and actions of the Credentials Committee. https://guidepostsolutions.com/sbc-ec-investigation/Hess, R., & Hess, J. (1989). A full quiver: Family planning and the lordship of Christ. Wolgemuth & Hyatt.Ingersoll, J. (2015). Building God’s kingdom: Inside the world of Christian Reconstructionism. Oxford University Press.Joyce, K. (2009). Quiverfull: Inside the Christian patriarchy movement. Beacon Press.Klein, L. K. (2018). PureKvam, K. E., Schearing, L. S., & Ziegler, V. H. (Eds.). (1999). Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim readings on Genesis and gender. Indiana University Press.MinistryWatch. (2022, February 15). Former plaintiffs in Bill Gothard abuse lawsuit hit back at Institute in Basic Life Principles’ statement to NBC News. https://ministrywatch.com/MinistryWatch. (2025, August 1). TX Supreme Court rules against Bill Gothard and the Institute for Basic Life Principles. https://ministrywatch.com/Netflix. (2022). Our father [Documentary film]. Blumhouse Productions.North, G. (1996). Crossed fingers: How the liberals captured the Presbyterian ChurchPortugal, T. (2023). Donor Deceived: Doctor donor fraud cases. https://donordeceived.org/Pride, M. (1985). The way home: Beyond feminism, back to reality. Crossway Books.Provan, C. D. (1989). The Bible and birth control. Zimmer Printing.Recovering Grace. (2014). Firsthand accounts of sexual harassment and abuse at IBLP. https://www.recoveringgrace.org/Right to Know. (2023). Fight fertility fraud now: State and federal legislation tracker. https://righttoknow.us/fertility-fraud-laws/Silliman, D. (Director). (2023). Shiny happy people: Duggar family secrets [Documentary series]. Amazon Studios.Stewart, K. (2020). The power worshippersType Investigations. (2016, January 8). New charges allege rape by prominent religious leader. https://www.typeinvestigations.org/Worthen, M. (2013). Apostles of reason

This episode is brought to you by Ground News. Get 40% off their vantage plan by subscribing at groundnews.com/monteLike many of you, I watched a viral video of a gorgeous woman walking through her house, opening her Bible to Matthew 25 and reading the passage on "the least of these". This was in response to a TikTok comment of someone lashing out at Jen because she (the commenter) "was maga and loved Jesus". After calmly reading the Bible, Jen simply says "sounds pretty liberal to me" and ends the video. That simple video caused MAGA to call Jen's job where she works as an OB Nurse to get her fired, reported her online and tried to call her licensing board to get her nursing license revoked! Because she read the Bible and they didn't like it. She even had to have private security when she spoke at a conference. And that is how I met a kind, compassionate, funny, loving lady who shares my alma mater. We talk about our journey's through faith, Liberty, growth, change, and what it means to love your neighbor.

This episode is brought to you by Ground News. Subscribe for 40% off their vantage plan at groundnews.com/tables. Project MKUltra was a secret research program run by the Central Intelligence Agency beginning in 1953 during the Cold War. Its goal was to explore methods of mind control, interrogation, and psychological manipulation, partly out of fear that rival nations like the Soviet Union were developing similar techniques.The program funded dozens of experiments at universities, hospitals, and prisons. Researchers tested drugs such as LSD, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, electroshock, and other methods to see whether human behavior and memory could be controlled. Many subjects were not informed they were part of experiments, and some were exposed to powerful drugs without consent.The program remained secret until the 1970s, when investigations by the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities revealed the experiments. Much of the documentation had already been destroyed on orders from CIA director Richard Helms.MKUltra became one of the most controversial intelligence programs in U.S. history and led to new oversight of intelligence agencies and stricter ethical rules for human experimentation.Sources available by request at [email protected]