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This episode is brought to you by Ground News. Subscribe for 40% off their vantage plan at groundnews.com/tables When I scheduled this talk with Odessa, one of Nashvilles staunchest activists, I had no idea what was about to unfold in Minneapolis with the shooting of Alex Pretti just 5 days after we recorded this session. I think this conversation could not have landed on a more relevant time if I had tried. Odessa Kelly is a Nashville native, organizer, and political activist focused on racial, economic, and social justice. She was born and raised on the East Side of Nashville in a working-class community facing poverty, substance abuse, and gun violence. Kelly graduated from Tennessee State University with a degree in Business Administration and later earned a Master’s in Public Service from Cumberland University. She spent nearly 14 years working as a civil servant for Metro Nashville’s Parks & Recreation Department, including leading the Napier Community Center, where she worked directly with youth and families. Witnessing systemic inequities and the impact of policy decisions on her community pushed her toward broader community organizing work. In 2016, Kelly co-founded Stand Up Nashville, a grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to fighting for economic equity, affordable housing, workers’ rights, and community benefits from local development. Under her leadership, the group won Nashville’s first community benefits agreement with a major soccer stadium project, securing commitments on living wages, affordable housing, and childcare supports. Kelly has been honored with several awards, including the National Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Award, a National Courage Award, and Nashville Scenes Activist of the Year for her work advancing justice for working people and marginalized communities. As a mother of two and a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church, she has also run for public office. In 2022, Kelly was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, campaigning on expanding economic opportunity, housing justice, and representation for working families. Her activism and platform emphasize lived experience, community empowerment, and challenging systems that leave working-class people behind. And now she meets with us to tell us how to carry that legacy forward.

I apologize this is late everyone, as you know this has been a really busy and tough weekend in the reporting/political realm. So excited for this conversation with a dear friend of mine, and one of my favorite voices in town. Kyndle Wylde is a Memphis born soul, blues and rock singer. You might recognize her as the winner of the 2024 CBS morning mixtape competition with a delicious soul version of "I Can See Clearly Now". She now performs and tours with Post Modern Jukebox and her cover of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" with them has over 1.6 million views. She also released her debut, self titled EP in 2025. But what you might not know, is that she was born and raised in a small Tennessee town. She was part of the family worship band in her grandfathers church and she had a long road of self discovery to find that not only she could be an artist but she wanted to. She shares the moment the church told her "walk the Damascus Road" and when she didn't, found the support system pulled out from her. But it turns out love, a dream, and slow unsteady steps to self discovery- can change your world.

This episode is brought to you by ground news. Subscribe for 40% off their vantage plan at groundnews.com/tables Viola Fauver Liuzzo was a 39-year-old white civil rights volunteer from Detroit who traveled to Alabama in March 1965 to support the Selma-to-Montgomery marches. On the night of March 25, while driving 19-year-old activist Leroy Moton back toward Selma, she was chased down U.S. Route 80 by a car of Ku Klux Klan members—Collie Leroy Wilkins Jr., William Orville Eaton, Eugene Thomas, and FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe. Wilkins fired a shotgun into Liuzzo’s car, killing her instantly; Moton survived by playing dead. The presence of Rowe, who had a history of participating in Klan violence while on the FBI payroll, sparked major controversy about what federal authorities knew and tolerated. Alabama first tried Wilkins for murder, but his initial trial ended in a hung jury, and a second all-white jury acquitted him despite Rowe’s eyewitness testimony. After the state failed to secure a conviction, the Department of Justice charged Wilkins, Eaton, and Thomas under federal civil-rights law (18 U.S.C. § 241) for conspiring to deprive Liuzzo of her civil rights. All three were convicted and received ten-year sentences, marking one of the earliest successful federal civil-rights prosecutions against white supremacist violence. In the aftermath, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover orchestrated a smear campaign against Liuzzo—spreading false claims about her character to deflect criticism of the FBI’s role in managing informants. Her murder and the federal response helped galvanize support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and later fueled congressional scrutiny of FBI conduct during the Church Committee investigations. Sources: James P. Turner, Selma and the Liuzzo Murder Trials: The First Modern Civil Rights Convictions. Mary Stanton, From Selma to Sorrow: The Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo. Gary May, Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy. Wayne Greenhaw, Fighting the Devil in Dixie: How Civil Rights Activists Took on the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama. Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–1963. Taylor Branch, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963–1965 Diane McWhorter, Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. J. Mills Thornton III, Dividing Lines: Municipal Politics and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma. Peter B. Levy, The Great Uprising: Race Riots in Urban America during the 1960s. U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (Church Committee Reports). FBI COINTELPRO Files (Declassified). U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division Archives on the Liuzzo Case. Federal Bureau of Investigation, The FBI and the Civil Rights Movement (archival materials). NAACP Records and Papers on Selma and Voting Rights. Civil Rights Documentation Project, Library of Congress. Eyes on the Prize (PBS Documentary Series) Home of the Brave (Documentary on Viola Liuzzo). National Civil Rights Museum, Viola Liuzzo Exhibits. Southern Poverty Law Center Archives on Ku Klux Klan Activity. John Lewis, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement. Lerone Bennett Jr., “Selma: The Road to Freedom,” Ebony Magazine Archives. Joseph Crespino, In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution. Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.. Tom Wells, The War Within: America’s Battle Over Vietnam (context on FBI surveillance). Adam Fairclough, Better Day Coming: Blacks and Equality, 1890–2000. David Carter, The Music Has Gone Out of the Movement (on federal infiltration of civil rights groups). United States v. Wilkins, Eaton, and Thomas (Federal §241 Trial Records).

Prepare to get angry. I unfortunately fell back into the bad habit of doom scrolling. And it was so discouraging to watch what happens online. The increased amount of abuse towards women, calling for them to not be able to vote, taking away resources for single parents (because sure, lets punish the parent who stayed), and the double standard of women's sexuality has been gut wrenching for me. Christmas Eve I read a book called "Witchcraft for Wayward Girls" by Grady Hendrix. I read it in one day. Now while its fiction, its factually based on what happened in homes for unwed mothers in the US- a grandchild of the Magdalene Laundries of Ireland. This double standard is so ingrained, so enmeshed in our culture and society and since the Dobbs decision, those homes - where so much abuse, fraud (gasp), coercion and trafficking happened, are now increasing in number. Women will never be free and equal if we acquiesce, if we cave, if we allow it, if we carry shame that was never ours to begin with. We shatter those standards by first learning about them and what they have done to the women before us. 1803 Offences Against the Person Act (Lord Ellenborough’s Act) 1828 Offences Against the Person Act 1837 Offences Against the Person Act 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, Sections 58–59 Infant Life Preservation Act 1929 Abortion Act 1967 (UK) Lane Committee Report, Report of the Committee on the Working of the Abortion Act (1974) Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) historical ethics reports Brookes, Barbara. Abortion in England, 1900–1967. Croom Helm. Fisher, Kate. Birth Control, Sex, and Marriage in Britain 1918–1960. Oxford University Press. McLaren, Angus. A History of Contraception: From Antiquity to the Present Day. Blackwell. Williams, Glanville. The Sanctity of Life and the Criminal Law. Irish Department of Justice. The Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalen Laundries (McAleese Report), 2013. O’Sullivan, M. The Irish Magdalene Laundries and the Nation’s Architecture of Containment. Manchester University Press. Smith, James M. Ireland’s Magdalen Laundries and the Nation’s Architecture of Containment. University of Notre Dame Press. Finnegan, Frances. Do Penance or Perish: A Study of Magdalen Asylums in Ireland. Oxford University Press. Luddy, Maria. Prostitution and Irish Society, 1800–1940. Cambridge University Press. Raftery, Mary & O’Sullivan, Eoin. Suffer the Little Children: The Inside Story of Ireland’s Industrial Schools. BBC Panorama investigative reporting on the Laundries Irish Times archives (historical reporting on Magdalene institutions) UN Committee on the Rights of the Child briefs on Irish institutional abuses Joint Oireachtas Committee hearings on institutional abuse Solinger, Rickie. Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade. Routledge. Fessler, Ann. The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade. Penguin. Kunzel, Regina. Fallen Women, Problem Girls: Unmarried Mothers and the Professionalization of Social Work, 1890–1945. Yale University Press. National Florence Crittenton Mission Archives Women’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, early 20th-century records on “unmarried mothers” Maza, Sarah. Work on U.S. adoption coercion practices Original court records from state maternity homes (various—primarily Minnesota, Tennessee, New York) Liberty Godparent Home archives, Liberty University (reporting, survivor testimony, investigative journalism) Liberty Lost podcast and transcripts (primary oral history from survivors) Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute reports New York Times investigative reports (1950s–1990s) on maternity homes and adoption coercion Senate Subcommittee hearings on adoption abuses (1970s–1980s) Social Security Bulletin archives on “Aid to Dependent Children” (ADC) and out-of-wedlock births

Patreon users get episodes always ad free at patreon.com/montemader What does real, REAL resistance look like? Tad Stoermer is a public historian, teacher, and author of the forthcoming book A Resistance History of the United States releasing June of 2026. His work dismantles the mythologies that pass for American history. He removes the curated nostalgia, moral evasions, and institutional silences that have long protected abusive power. That continue to protect that abusive power. From his website: "A Resistance History of the United States is a record of repeated fights against abusive authority, carried out by people who refused the lies used to justify it. Those battles have taken different forms: the women and men in Salem who would not confess to witchcraft, the Black Loyalists who seized their own freedom during the Revolution, and the Anti-Federalists who forced a Bill of Rights to limit nationalist power. It’s a tradition carried forward by people like Ona Judge and Henry David Thoreau, by the clandestine networks of the Underground Railroad, and by the violent resolve of John Brown and the Secret Six—resistance so disruptive it helped push the nation into civil war, and so ambitious it took the focus and will of the Radical Republicans to begin building a new republic from the ruins. A Resistance History of the United States uncovers these moments not as steps toward inevitable progress, but as a set of hard-earned lessons—a usable playbook for confronting the abuse of power in our own time. ad is one of the most widely followed public historians in the world here today to help us face what is to come. He is a currently a Visiting Scholar at the University of Southern Denmark’s Center for American Studies and a Lecturer in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He previously taught public history at Harvard, served as a public historian at Colonial Williamsburg, and was advisor for history content at C-SPAN.

Happy almost New Years Eve!!! Here on Flipping Tables we are going to end each year with an inspirational story. So here's one of my heroes. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi dissident whose life continues to challenge how faith responds to power, violence, and injustice. Raised in an intellectually rigorous, non-religious household, Bonhoeffer came to believe that Christianity was not merely a system of beliefs, but a call to costly, lived obedience—especially when moral clarity comes at personal risk. As Adolf Hitler rose to power, Bonhoeffer warned early that the church faced a defining test. When Christianity was fused with nationalism and racial ideology, he argued, the church had ceased to be the church. He became a key figure in the Confessing Church, opposing the Nazification of German Christianity and rejecting loyalty oaths to the Führer. His theological writings during this period—including reflections on “cheap grace” versus “costly grace”—confronted complacent faith that avoids sacrifice. Eventually drawn into resistance circles connected to the German military intelligence service, Bonhoeffer wrestled deeply with ethical responsibility in a world where evil left no clean choices. Arrested in 1943, he continued writing from prison, leaving behind letters and reflections that would later shape modern Christian ethics and political theology. Executed by the Nazis in April 1945, just weeks before the war’s end, Bonhoeffer’s life stands as a haunting reminder: faith that refuses to act in the face of injustice is no faith at all. Sources: Bethge, Eberhard. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography. Fortress Press. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Act and Being. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 2. Fortress Press. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Letters and Papers from Prison. Fortress Press. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Sanctorum Communio. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 1. Fortress Press. Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives). Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives) – Bonhoeffer family records. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Federal Agency for Civic Education), Germany. Cambridge University Press. The Cambridge Companion to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. John W. de Gruchy, ed. Chickering, Roger. Imperial Germany and the Great War. Cambridge University Press. Christian History Institute. “Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Timeline & Biography.” Clark, Christopher. The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914. Harper. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (DBWE), English Edition, Vols. 1–3. Fortress Press. Evans, Richard J. The Coming of the Third Reich. Penguin. Evans, Richard J. The Third Reich at War. Penguin. Fischer, Fritz. Germany’s Aims in the First World War. W. W. Norton. Fulbrook, Mary. A History of Germany 1918–2014. Wiley-Blackwell. German Reichstag Records, 1918–1923. Green, Clifford J. Bonhoeffer: A Theology of Sociality. Eerdmans. Herwig, Holger H. The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary. Arnold. Hobsbawm, Eric. The Age of Empire: 1875–1914. Vintage. Judt, Tony. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. Penguin. Keegan, John. The First World War. Vintage. Keynes, John Maynard. The Economic Consequences of the Peace. Harcourt. MacMillan, Margaret. Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World. Random House. Marks, Sally. The Illusion of Peace: International Relations in Europe 1918–1933. Palgrave. Marsh, Charles. Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Knopf. Metaxas, Eric. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Thomas Nelson. National Archives (UK). World War I diplomatic records. Overy, Richard. The Dictators. W. W. Norton. PBS. Bonhoeffer Timeline. Peukert, Detlev. The Weimar Republic. Hill and Wang. Stevenson, David. Cataclysm: The First World War as Political Tragedy. Basic Books. Strachan, Hew. The First World War. Oxford University Press. Treaty of Versailles (1919), full text. Union Theological Seminary Archives – Bonhoeffer Papers.

2025 has been a year of difficult conversations. It's been a year of angst, anger, and frustrating conversations. How do we continue to talk about the hard things, especially when we don't know how to get through to the other person? You've seen Anna Connelly online with her cheeky conversations with her "conservative cousin" talking about history, immigration, politics, government. She uses these disarming conversations to help prep people to hear an opposing perspective and to arm people to have these conversations themselves. (If you're home now and trying to figure out how to talk to family, maybe open your phone and watch a few). Anna shows us how to continue to show up with humanity, humor and humility. And she's brilliant at it. These conversations are needed now more than ever and all of us have the power to have them.

This episode is brought to you by ground news. Subscribe for 40% off their vantage plan at groundnews.com/monte Father Nathan Monk is a social justice advocate, author, and former Orthodox priest. He is the author of multiple non fiction books and novels including Russian Sleeper Cell and his 2015 hit Chasing the Mouse: A Memoir about Childhood Homelessness. ​Having experienced homelessness with his family during his teenage years, Nathan went on to become a priest in the orthodox church with a heart to serve the poor, the hungry and the outcast. Today we discuss his childhood, his call to ministry, why he eventually left and how he works and serves now. He's now a comedian, a member of the LGBTQ community and an activist still advocating for "the least of these".

This episode is brought to you by Ground News. Subscribe at groundnews.com/tables for 40% off their vantage plan. In this episode, we trace the extraordinary life of Malcolm X (1925–1965), born Malcolm Little in Omaha and shaped by racial terror, systemic oppression, and personal trauma. We explore his early years marked by the activism of his parents, the violent death of his father, and the institutional pressures that drove his mother into a mental hospital—forces that propelled him into a youth of hustling, street crime, and eventual imprisonment. From there, we follow Malcolm’s dramatic transformation behind bars through his encounter with the teachings of the Nation of Islam, his rise as its most electrifying minister, and his break from the movement after disillusionment with its leadership. The episode covers his pilgrimage to Mecca, where he embraced Sunni Islam and broadened his philosophy on race and solidarity. We conclude with his increasing global activism, his deepening threat to U.S. authorities and the NOI, and the circumstances leading to his assassination in 1965. This biographical journey highlights Malcolm X’s evolving worldview, his impact on the civil rights movement, and his enduring influence on Black liberation, human rights, and political thought in America. “I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”― Malcolm X Sources Malcolm X & Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) FBI Files on Malcolm X, declassified documents (FBI Records: The Vault) Papers of Elijah Muhammad, speeches and writings (Nation of Islam archival materials) Malcolm X Speeches: “Message to the Grassroots,” “The Ballot or the Bullet,” “Prospects for Freedom,” “Oxford Union Debate” (1964–1965) Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (2011) Louis A. DeCaro Jr., On the Side of My People: A Religious Life of Malcolm X (1997) Michael Eric Dyson, Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X (1995) James Cone, Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare (1991) Peter Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X (2nd ed., 1979/2011) Bruce Perry, Malcolm: The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America (1991) George Breitman, The Last Year of Malcolm X: The Evolution of a Revolutionary (1967) Herbert Berg, Elijah Muhammad and Islam (2009) Zachary K. Williams, Racial Realism and Malcolm X (Journal of Black Studies) The Journal of African American History – articles on NOI, civil rights, and Malcolm’s political development The Muslim World – studies on Malcolm X’s Islamic theology and Hajj transformation The Journal of Social History – analyses of Black nationalism and mid-century urban conditions Black Scholar – essays on Malcolm X’s ideological evolution Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society – research on Black radicalism and Malcolm’s global politics Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters (1988) — for civil rights movement context Peniel Joseph, Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour (2006) Karl Evanzz, The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X (1992) Karl Evanzz, The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad (1999) Clayborne Carson, Malcolm X: The FBI File (1991) C. Eric Lincoln, The Black Muslims in America (1961; updated editions) Claude Andrew Clegg III, An Original Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad (1997) Sohail Daulatzai, Black Star, Crescent Moon: The Muslim International and Black Freedom Beyond America (2012) Gadiel R. Del Orbe, “Malcolm X’s Global Human Rights Activism” Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, podcast and archival work featured in Who Killed Malcolm X? (2019) Les Payne & Tamara Payne, The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X (2020) NYC District Attorney’s Office, 2021 exoneration documents of Aziz and Islam COINTELPRO Records, U.S. Government declassified materials

When I was at the protests in DC a sweet girl came up to me and asked how to start talking when you're afraid and I worry I was too harsh. I said something along the lines of "you just have to start". We are past the point of being complicit in silence- and that doesn't mean that these conversations especially with family aren't hard. Starting can look like "If you continue to use racist and dehumanizing language I'm going to leave" and walking out of the room when they continue. There's so much power in a walk out. Starting can look like "I believe in loving and supporting people of all faiths, genders, sexuality and races and I'm not going to compromise on this." Starting can look like "Didn't Jesus say that loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself were the most important commands? Since when has love been demonizing, name calling and belittling people?" In this episode, which is by no means comprehensive, I talk about some of the big "trigger" issues we see with Christian nationalism and right wing movements. This will be one to save and re-listen to. It's a lot of information but on the first listen, just try to take one thing. This month will be a lot of calls, cards, family events. Take one thing at a time, one resistance at a time and one courageous push back at a time. You won't always get it right and thats ok. When you know deep down what you truly believe it gets easier and as you practice, it will become safe and you will become a safe space.

This episode is brought to you by Ground News. Subscribe at groundnews.com/tables for 40% off their Vantage Plan If you've seen the amazing ads on instagram from a soap company that is very openly ANTI fascist, yes the same ads I play the resistance fairy godmother, today you meet the owners. Trevor Silva and his wife Jennifer are the founders of My Cluck Hut, a no waste, inclusive, sustainable, "pay a freaking living wage" company. This is the story of how My Cluck Hut was born out of a desire to be the one who does better instead of waiting for everyone else to do it. And the protest we mention here is the on that happened in DC last weekend - thank you so much to everyone who attended!

This episode is brought to you by ground news. Subscribe at groundnews.com/monte This episode uncovers the hidden history and modern influence of The Family. A secretive religious–political network that has shaped American power since the 1930s. Founded by Abraham Vereide and built on the belief that God works through “key men,” The Family cultivated presidents, senators, foreign leaders, and global elites through private prayer circles, back-channel diplomacy, and the National Prayer Breakfast. We trace their role in anti-labor politics, Cold War foreign policy, international human-rights abuses, scandal cover-ups, and their deep connections to the Trump era, where “Jesus plus nothing” theology helped justify Christian nationalism and the erosion of church–state separation. Drawing from documented scholarship and investigative reporting, this episode reveals a movement that has remained influential precisely because it operates in the shadows. As always ad free and thank you for your support. Sources Sharlet, Jeff. The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. HarperCollins, 2008. Sharlet, Jeff. C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy. Little, Brown and Company, 2010. Kruse, Kevin M. One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America. Basic Books, 2015. Williams, Daniel K. God’s Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right. Oxford University Press, 2010. Dochuk, Darren. From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain-Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism. W.W. Norton, 2011. Gage, Beverly. The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror. Oxford University Press, 2009. Martin, William. With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America. Broadway Books, 1996. Callahan, Richard J. Jr. “The Invention of Corporate America’s Invention of Christian America.” The Marginalia Review of Books, 2020. Balmer, Randall. “The Religious Right and the Family Values Crusade.” Journal of Church and State, vol. 52, no. 3, 2010, pp. 370–394. Butler, Anthea. “Race, Religion, and the American Presidency: The Faith Factor.” Journal of American History, vol. 99, no. 1, 2012. Clark, Elizabeth A. “Invisible Hands and Divine Order: Theology and the Political Economy of American Fundamentalism.” Religion and American Culture, vol. 18, no. 2, 2008. The Washington Post archives on the National Prayer Breakfast (1953-present). The New York Times coverage of Doug Coe and Fellowship Foundation operations. Religion Dispatches (University of Southern California Annenberg) – multiple investigations into The Family’s political network. Guernica Magazine: “Christ Über Alles” interview with Jeff Sharlet. The Humanist: “The Family: More Gilead than Godly.” Encyclopaedia Britannica: “The Family (international religious movement).” Library of Congress Congressional Records on the National Prayer Breakfast (1953-1970s). Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton College – correspondence and records on Vereide and early ICL initiatives.

William Randolph Hearst was one of the most powerful and controversial figures in American media history — a man whose newspapers didn’t just report the news, but created it. Rising from the son of a wealthy mining family to the head of a sprawling media empire, Hearst revolutionized journalism through bold headlines, emotional storytelling, and sensationalism that came to define “yellow journalism.” His rivalry with Joseph Pulitzer ignited a circulation war that prioritized scandal over substance, blurring the line between truth and spectacle and forever changing how the public consumed information. But Hearst’s influence extended far beyond print. His newspapers helped fan the flames of the Spanish-American War, demonstrated the political might of mass media, and paved the way for today’s era of opinion-driven journalism. Though his empire eventually declined — and his life inspired Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane — Hearst’s legacy endures in every media outlet that trades outrage for engagement. His story is both a warning and a blueprint for the modern information age. Sources https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OrdIlOeSdw3i7lKSJNaBM-YcGUMS9qIUzfIMJloGKTA/edit?usp=sharing

Last summer here in Nashville, there were 8 neo-Nazi marches. What is social media’s role in fueling — or even enabling — political violence? How do algorithmic echo chambers, disinformation loops, encrypted organizing platforms, and the erosion of trust in institutions converge to create real-world harm? And what can be done to hold systems and actors accountable before the spiral becomes irreversible? To guide that conversation, we’re honored to have Timothy J. Heaphy with us. His vantage is rare: He’s been on the front lines of investigating two of the most consequential episodes of recent American unrest — Charlottesville in 2017 and the January 6, 2021 Capitol siege — and in his new book Harbingers: What January 6 and Charlottesville Reveal About Rising Threats to American Democracy, he tells both the story of how these events unfolded and the deeper dynamics behind them. Timothy Heaphy’s career spans decades of legal, prosecutorial, and public service work, giving him deep institutional insight and investigative experience. A graduate of the University of Virginia (B.A. and J.D., 1991), he spent over a decade as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., and later in the Western District of Virginia, handling a range of federal prosecutions. After moving into private practice, he was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2009 to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, where he oversaw major investigations into corruption, fraud, civil rights, and national security. Following his tenure, Heaphy returned to private practice and later became University Counsel at UVA. In 2017, he authored Charlottesville’s independent report on the “Unite the Right” rally, and in 2021, he was appointed chief investigative counsel for the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, directing its investigative and legal teams. He also founded The Fountain Fund, a nonprofit supporting reentry for formerly incarcerated individuals. Throughout his career, Heaphy has combined legal expertise, public service, and investigative leadership in some of the most consequential inquiries of recent years. In his book, Harbingers, Heaphy brings that rich background to bear on two momentous acts of political violence: the 2017 Charlottesville rally and the January 6 Capitol attack. He doesn’t just rehash the facts — he shows how he built investigative teams, how he sifted through communications, how he probed decision-making failures in law enforcement and government, and how social media and digital networks played roles in planning, mobilization, and escalation. In today’s episode, we’ll use Harbingers not just as narrative backbone, but as a portal into deeper inquiry: How did social media architectures and incentives — content moderation policies, recommendation systems, coordinated groups — intersect with extremist organization and violence? Where did institutions (local government, law enforcement, federal agencies) fail to anticipate or respond — and why? What are the paths forward for accountability, reform, civic resilience, and prevention? So let’s dive in, first by asking: when does online grievance cross the line toward violence — and what makes that line blur in 21st-century politics?

This episode is brought to you by Ground News. Susbscribe at groundnews.com/tables for 40% off their vantage plant. Please support this show by subscribing to patreon.com/montemader. Please leave a rating and review! Happy Halloween!!! In this episode, I am going to take you deep into one of the most bizarre and destructive moral panics in modern history — the Satanic Panic. From daycare witch hunts to heavy metal hysteria, the 1980s saw ordinary Americans convinced that the Devil had moved into their suburbs. Police were trained to spot pentagrams and candles as signs of ritual murder, therapists “recovered” memories of occult abuse, and media outlets like Geraldo Rivera and Oprah fueled the flames. Innocent people were imprisoned, reputations destroyed, and entire communities torn apart — all in the name of protecting children from imaginary cults. Lets explore how this hysteria culminated in the West Memphis Three case — three teenagers convicted largely for wearing black and listening to Metallica. Nearly two decades later, DNA evidence revealed what fear had obscured all along: there was no cult, no ritual, and no Satanic conspiracy — just a community so terrified of darkness that it created its own. But the story doesn’t end there. The same architecture of fear — hidden elites, child-trafficking conspiracies, and divine warfare — has found new life online through Pizzagate and QAnon. Monte connects the dots between the witch hunts of the 1980s and the algorithmic hysteria of the digital age, revealing how the Satanic Panic never really died — it just went viral. Through history, psychology, and media analysis, this episode asks a haunting question: Why do we keep needing a devil to blame? Sources & References: Pazder, Lawrence & Michelle Smith. Michelle Remembers (1980) Loftus, Elizabeth. “Creating False Memories.” Scientific American (1997) Victor, Jeffrey. Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend (1993) Lanning, Kenneth. “Investigator’s Guide to Allegations of ‘Ritual’ Child Abuse.” FBI Behavioral Science Unit (1992) Nathan, Debbie & Snedeker, Michael. Satan’s Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt (1995) Richardson, James T., Joel Best, & David Bromley. The Satanism Scare (1991) Barkun, Michael. A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America (2003) Argentino, Marc-André. “The QAnon Conspiracy Theory: A Security Threat in the Making.” The Conversation (2020) Zuckerman, Phil. “From Satanic Panic to QAnon.” Skeptical Inquirer (2021) Swami, V., Malpass, F., Havard, D., et al. “Metalheads: The Influence of Personality and Individual Differences on Preference for Heavy Metal.” “Extreme Metal Music and Anger Processing.” PubMed Central (PMC) “The Psychology of Scapegoating.” Psychology Today “The Cult Psychology of the Satanic Panic.” Get Therapy Birmingham “Moral Panics…” Southern Connecticut LibGuide “Lame Blame: Forgive the Scapegoat to Forgive Yourself.” Ernest Becker Institute “The Oldest Trick in the Book: Panic-Driven Scapegoating in History and Recurring Patterns of Persecution*