Episode 6: Sullied By Monotheism

Details, credits, errata: Episode 6, Sullied by Monotheism, is written by Sam Thielman and Alissa Wilkinson, produced by Sam and distributed by Alissa, with our very special guest, Lyz Lenz. Lyz is an Iowan affected by the derecho, a storm about the strength of a category 2 hurricane, and would be grateful if folks who have either time or money to give would check out a recent piece of hers at the Cedar Rapids Gazette, where she is a columnist, that itemizes ways to help people left homeless, hungry, and without water or power by the storm.And for folks who just like Lyz generally, check out her columns at the Gazette and her books God Land and Belabored, both of which are certain to be of interest to folks who like our podcast. Sam knows Lyz from CJR, where she regularly pantsed some of the worst people in media just by being ladylike at them. Her Alan Dershowitz and Tucker Carlson interviews are especially choice.Our film this week is Fox’s CinemaScope extravaganza The Story of Ruth, a film we found by Googling “sexiest biblical epic.” It lives up to the hype although not in the way you’d expect: This one is For the Ladies in a very real way, with a lot of guys in really short tunics battling it out for the affection of the most alluring Moabitess in the wheat field. Sam is basically the laugh track to this episode, because Alissa and Lyz have a lot to say about Biblical Womanhood.Episode art for Sullied by Monotheism is Rembrandt van Rijn’s Ruth (c. 1643); dude also did a Boaz, if you’re interested. The biblical book of Ruth was one of Rembrandt’s favorite stories and his wife was the model for her; he himself was the model for Boaz. He also did a lovely cartoons from the story itself that is worth looking at. We’ve included the fantastic “Legends of Ruth” title card mentioned on the pod at our website for those of you who want to click over and check it out.Our theme song is Louis Armstrong and His Hot 5’s Muskrat Ramble, made freely available by the Boston Public Library and audio engineering shop George Blood, LP through the Internet Archive. The Story of Ruth is copyright 1960 20th Century Fox. Brief audio clips are used herein for review purposes. All other content is copyright 2020 Sam Thielman and Alissa Wilkinson. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yammpod.substack.com