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Kitchen Table Cult Pod

Kitchen Table Cult Podkitchentablecult.com
Kitchen Table Cult unpacks all the things Kieryn and Eve learned at the kitchen tables of their childhoods in conservative Christian homeschooling families. Every week we take your questions and drill down on various topics about Quiverfull, the Religious Right, and our childhoods in high-demand groups (otherwise known as cults). We’re not surprised about the rise of Trump, Christian fascism, or evangelical white women voting for someone like Mike Pence, and we want to take you back through the beginning of it all to explain why.

Episodes

S6E12: Children's Rights and Parents' Wrongs

Kieryn and Eve discuss the German family who sought (and were temporarily-ish granted!) asylum in the US to be allowed to homeschool their kids because Germany takes the rights and education of Children seriously. Show notes: https://tinyurl.com/romeikenotes This episode was produced by the lovely Mary Steffenhagen!

Jul 18, 202451 min

S6E11: Usurping Democracy with Bureaucracy

Kieryn and Eve explain the updated policy agenda of the Christian right. We talk about the various tools Christian nationalists plan on using to usurp democracy regardless of who wins the presidential election this year. We dive into Project 2025, the little known and even less talked about Convention of States, and the bureaucratic mechanism at the crux of it all. Notes: Read Kieryn's reporting for prism - https://prismreports.org/2024/05/20/christian-nationalist-playbook-usurp-democracy/ This ...

Jun 27, 202441 min

S6E10: KTC x The Amendment with Errin Haines

Errin Haines of The 19th* News joins Kieryn and Eve to talk about the future of journalism, being a progressive Christian while covering the news, and the liberatory nature of Black Christianity in the US. Notes: https://19thnews.org/ https://19thnews.org/topics/podcast/ https://x.com/errinhaines https://www.instagram.com/emarvelous

Jun 14, 202451 min

S6E9: Apocalypse Child with Carly Butler

Kieryn and Eve talk with Carly Butler about her memoir, Apocalypse Child, what identity abuse looks like for homeschooled kids, and how it feels to reparent yourself while parenting children. Pre-order the book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/apocalypse-child-carly-butler/20702732?ean=9781773861326 Follow Carly: @carlymbutton everywhere

May 31, 202455 min

S6E8: Forager with Michelle Dowd

Kieryn and Eve chat with Michelle Dowd about her fascinating memoir, Forager. What it was like growing up in the family of a cult leader and how wild it is to get out into the real world after growing up in the woods. Check out Michelle's work and get the book! https://bookshop.org/p/books/forager-field-notes-on-survival-a-memoir-michelle-dowd/18759728 https://www.michelledowd.org/ https://www.instagram.com/michelledowdz/ https://mdowd.substack.com/ https://mdowd.substack.com/subscribe?utm_campa...

May 10, 20241 hr 5 min

S6E7: As Goes The South with Read Freely Alabama

Kieryn & Eve are joined by the organizers of Read Freely Alabama to discuss the attempt to censor LGBTQ materials in the Augauta-Prattville library and their efforts to protect the library as a community resource for everyone.

Apr 25, 202453 min

S6E6: We Are All The Public Library with Eddie the Librarian

What do censorship, homeschooling, intellectual freedom, and libraries have in common? We get into it today with Eddie Kristan about the fight libraries are seeing with parental-rights extremist groups trying to censor books and the impact that has on children's rights to access information. Show Notes: Institutions on the job: Freedom to Read Foundation (IF arm of the ALA): https://www.ftrf.org/ Emily Knox - Freedom to Read Foundation - [email protected] PEN American has been on the job: https:...

Apr 12, 202453 min

S6E5: Rift with Cait West

Eve and Kieryn chat with Cait West about her memoir, Rift, and what it's like to leave fundamentalist Christianity only to discover that the patriarchy is alive and well in the secular world and childhood pastors became politically active Christian Nationalists. **Find Cait and buy the book!!** https://bookshop.org/p/books/rift-a-memoir-of-breaking-away-from-christian-patriarchy-cait-west/20298441 https://www.caitwest.com/ https://www.instagram.com/caitwestwrites/ https://twitter.com/caitwestwri...

Apr 05, 202456 min

S6E4: Doing It For The Babies 2: IVF Bans and Mife

What is the future of the pro-life movement without simplistic messaging focused on Roe v. Wade to galvanize conservatives? The nuances of reproductive health science and privacy laws are up for debate, and the unity that the pro-life movement once relied on is fissuring under the pressure to rally support around the details. Banning IVF in Alabama was a deeply unpopular move by the courts, and this week SCOTUS is hearing oral arguments about a case centered on the 23-year-old status of FDA appr...

Mar 26, 20241 hr 5 min

S6E3: The Exvangelicals with Sarah McCammon

This week in the Book Club, Kieryn and Eve chat with Sarah McCammon about her upcoming book (March 19) the Exvangelicals! We talk about gatekeeping knowledge, rampant anti-intellectualism, and how changing your religious beliefs change your relationships. You can take the church kid out of the church but you can't completely take the church out of the kid. Follow Sarah: https://substack.com/@sarahmccammon https://www.instagram.com/sarahmccammon_journalist/ Buy the book! https://static.macmillan....

Mar 15, 20241 hr

S6E2: Devout with Anna Gazmarian

Kieryn and Eve are joined by Anna Gazmarian to discuss her debut memoir, Devout, which comes out on March 12, 2024. Growing up evangelical means growing up with shame much of the time. Add to that depression, anxiety, religious OCD, and bipolar, and you're in for a massive struggle of faith and self-worth. With Devout, Anna unpacks what worked and didn't work for her in her struggle to keep her faith in tact and get adequate treatment for the way her brain works. We discuss tolerating joy, thera...

Mar 01, 20241 hr 7 min

S6E1: Tradwives 2.0 Say Fuck Capitalism?

Eve and Kieryn discoverd the Stay At Home Girlfriend/Wife /Tradwife tiktoks and note their remarkable similarity to the Above Rubies and quiverfull mommy/daughter blogs from the 00s, but with a dash of late-stage capitalism dread as a twist. What's the motivation behind people outside of religion wanting to choose this? Listen to find out! Notes: https://www.aboverubies.org/images/stories/magazines/ARMagazine69.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_feminism https://politicalresearch.org/2...

Feb 17, 202458 min

S5E20: Mike Johnson Overview

Kieryn and Eve try to overview everything we know so far about Mike Johnson, explain the general concept of Covenant Marriage, and discuss his wife's humurous counseling practice. Instead of posting 4 pages of notes, here's one link: https://tinyurl.com/mikejohnsonktc

Nov 17, 202351 min

S5E19: Counting The Cost

Kieryn and Eve talk about Jill Duggar Dillard's book, Counting The Cost. How and why it felt different from Jinger's Becoming Free Indeed, and how difficult it is to escape high control environments when the stakes are so high. Also, for more info on Christian Zionism: https://kitchentablecult.com/2021/06/09/s3-e8-christian-zionism-with-amy-fallas-and-garrison-davis/ https://kitchentablecult.com/2021/07/22/s3-e11-christian-zionism-part-2-with-aidan-orly-and-marisa-siegel/ Get the book: https://b...

Oct 20, 202355 min

S5E18 The Woman They Wanted with Shannon Harris

Welcome to book club, where Shannon Bonne, formerly known as Shannon Harris, joins Kieryn and Eve to talk about the writing process for her book, The Woman They Wanted. Shannon talks about embodiment, freedom, and following the joy after spiritual abuse. Links: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-woman-they-wanted-shattering-the-illusion-of-the-good-christian-wife-shannon-harris/19561719?ean=9781506483160 https://www.shannonbonne.com/ https://open.spotify.com/artist/1mJjeRIIxjVT1FAcwlBLUk?si=7J7H4X...

Oct 06, 20231 hr 3 min

S5E17: Back To School Right-wing Extremism Edition

Eve and Kieryn chat about the right-wing extremist pivot to taking down all public education institutions. We've talked in prior episodes about radical right-wing groups taking over K-12 education, and today we explain dog whistles of "clasical liberal" education and how even well-meaning leftists are furthering the agenda to dismantle public universities and libraries. **Notes** https://time.com/6309612/christopher-rufo-public-universities-deceptive-essay/ https://www.city-journal.org/article/n...

Sep 07, 202351 min

S5E16: Disobedient Women with Sarah Stankorb

Kieryn and Eve sit down with Sarah Stankorb to talk about her book, Disobedient Women: How a Small Group of Faithful Women Exposed Abuse, Brought Down Powerful Pastors, and Ignited an Evangelical Reckoning. Covering the origins of the #ChurchToo movement (featuring some friends of the pod!) and how to approach telling stories involving religious trauma in a way that is healing. **notes** Buy The book (or a VPN sub then the book if you're in DE) https://bookshop.org/p/books/disobedient-women-how-...

Aug 25, 202356 min

S5E15: Fringe of the Fringe with Aaron and Christina Beall

Eve and Kieryn are joined by Aaron and Christina Beall to talk about their experience leaving the christian fundamentalist homeschooling movement and shining a public light on abuse. Read the WaPo article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/interactive/2023/christian-home-schoolers-revolt/ Follow Aaron & Christina: https://www.instagram.com/apostate_aaron/ https://www.instagram.com/christinabeally/

Aug 04, 202357 min

S5E14: Shiny Happy People part 2, with Cori Shepherd Stern

Kieyn and Eve chat with Shiny Happy People producer Cori Shepherd Stern about how the documentary was made and why it's important to tell stories this way. Follow Cori: https://www.instagram.com/girlseeksworld/ https://www.instagram.com/storyforceco/ https://twitter.com/girlseeksworld

Jul 14, 20231 hr 9 min

S5E13: Shiny Happy People

Kieryn and Eve are IN PERSON and talking about Shiny Happy People and the evolution of sharing their stories as they heal through trauma. Contribute to the CRHE fundraiser: responsiblehomeschooling.org/donate Tell Amazon you want a season two of Shiny Happy People!

Jun 30, 202348 min

S5E12: You're Not a Stepford Wife, Jing

Eve and Kieryn discuss Jinger's book Free Indeed, on disentangling (not deconstructing) christianity from the teachings of Bill Gothard, and share a bit about their paths out too. Show Notes: https://people.com/tv/duggar-family-prime-video-docuseries-shiny-happy-people-trailer-exclusive/ https://mxdarkwater.com/2016/01/03/preparing-a-visionary-daughter-to-do-hard-things-written-in-2010/ TikToks: https://www.tiktok.com/@bluepupboi/video/7221509868841340206 https://www.tiktok.com/@bluepupboi/video...

May 26, 202349 min

S5E11: Parental Rights Extremism Part 4 With Carmen & Sarah

Kieryn and Eve are joined by friends of the pod Carmen Longoria-Green and Sarah Jones to talk about the bit picture and the meaningful ways we can fight Parental Rights Extremism every day. Show Notes: https://www.foxnews.com/video/6324958910112 https://twitter.com/responsiblehs https://instagram.com/responsiblehomeschooling https://facebook.com/responsiblehomeschooling https://dayofthehomeschooledchild.org https://twitter.com/onesarahjones sarah.jones(@)voxmedia(.)com

May 05, 202348 min

S5E10: Parental Rights Extremism Part 3, A PAC is Born

In the third part of the deep dive into Parental Rights Extremism, Kieryn and Eve connect the organizational and funding dots between the orgs working on limiting children's education today to the organizations that started it all in the 1970s. Show Notes: https://dayofthehomeschooledchild.org https://www.motherjones.com/politics/1995/11/religious-right-6os-and-7os/ https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1981/05/18/a-disciplined-charging-army https://california.parentsrightsineducation.com/#menu2 ht...

Apr 27, 20231 hr 5 min

S5E9: Parental Rights Extremism Part 2

Hold on to your hats, Kieryn and Eve do a Deep Dive into the legal history of parental rights and what lays the groundwork for how children's rights are treated (or extremely not, as the case may be) in the US. Notes: https://web.archive.org/web/20150908152647/http://www.hslda.org/parentalrights/ https://parentalrightsfoundation.org/legal/parental_rights_tradition/ https://cite.case.law/wis/35/59/ https://casetext.com/case/people-ex-rel-sinclair-v-sinclair https://casetext.com/case/school-dist-n...

Apr 21, 20231 hr 6 min

S5E8: Parental Rights Extremism Part 1

The first in a multi-part series we've been teasing about all season. We talk about Parental Rights Extremism and how to effectively combat the rhetoric that is banning books from schools and trans children from being able to be themselves without ceding ground to the extremists. Children have rights, parents have responsibilities. Show Notes https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/03/anti-trans-transgender-health-care-ban-legislation-bill-minors-children-lgbtq/ https://nymag.com/intelligencer...

Apr 14, 202344 min

S5E7: Jesus is a P3n1s

Sometimes episodes write themselves and we have The Gospel Coalition to thank for this gem. If you're part of our Slack community you know what's coming, what you don't know is that now we have tshirts (and mugs). Swag: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/40377534-jesus-is-an-eggplant?store_id=862793 Further Reading: https://waterbrookmultnomah.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Beautiful-Union-Preview.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20230301170931/https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sex-wont-s...

Mar 10, 202344 min

S5E6: Wycliffe with Anna Olson

Eve and Kieryn chat with friend of the pod Anna Olson about the missionary and linguistic work of Wycliff --- one of the biggest bible translation/missionary organizations --- what they do, their influence on evangelism, and lack of transparency. Anna's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charis_channah/ Show Notes: https://trinityfi.org/investigations/just-how-broken-is-the-bible-translation-industry/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/kaipetainen/2013/03/06/the-big-business-of-wycliffe-bible-transl...

Feb 25, 20231 hr 4 min

S5E5: Hands of Doom with Jack Holloway

Kieryn and Eve are joined by Jack Holloway from The Heavens AKA, our intro/outro music, to talk about their book, Hands of Doom -- covering the religious connections in the lyrics of Black Sabbath songs. This is your reprieve before we dive into some heavy stuff, please enjoy! Playlist from the book: Apple music: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/hands-of-doom/pl.u-r2yBBDBF9dV7jX Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5P85tCA5rPwVOJpkZCK35C?si=mi8NwBcGQp6r-noWNWFsPw Youtube: https://youtub...

Feb 10, 202346 min

S5 E4: Coups The Planet with Annika Brockschmidt

Kieryn and Eve are joined by Annika Brockschmidt, author of Amerika's Gottskrieger and German reporter on the rise of Christofascism in the US to talk about where all these coups are coming from! We cover the recent attempted coup in Germany, how J6 is perceived outside the US, and the connections between far right extremists organizing coups across the planet. Grid Story https://www.grid.news/story/politics/2023/01/06/the-democrats-the-republicans-and-the-freedom-caucus-inside-the-rights-plans-...

Jan 20, 20231 hr 9 min

S5E3: Club Q with Eleanor and Rian

Eve and Kieryn chat with Eleanor Skelton and Rian about the impact of the Club Q shooting on Colorado Springs and the history and culture of Colorado Springs that gets missed in the mainstream coverage. Follow Eleanor & Rian: https://eleanorwritesthings.com/ https://www.tiktok.com/@eleanorwritesthings https://www.tiktok.com/@rian_myles Support for ClubQ victims: https://linktr.ee/atrevidabeerco 12/6 Announcement on ClubQ/ News After Recording: https://twitter.com/cspdpio/status/15987882904668282...

Dec 16, 20221 hr 4 min