IN THE 1937 hit song “Hooray for Hollywood”, the lines “Where anyone at all from Shirley Temple To Aimee Semple Is equally understood” are intriguing. Most of us probably know who Shirley Temple was. To learn about Aimee Semple, tune into the podcast 99% Invisible (SiriusXM) episode, released on 12 August, “Sister Aimee and the Birth of the Megachurch”.
Semple was a pioneer, a megachurch leader, a broadcaster, and a showwoman who incorporated Hollywood props and lighting into her services. She even had real lions and camels as sermon illustrations, which beats the Velcro figures that I had in Sunday school. She succeeded as a woman in a man’s world. She also took the Pentecostalism of the African American William Seymour, stripping out the racial-justice elements to create a version more palatable to white audiences. Then, at the peak of her powers, she was kidnapped — or was she?
From Hollywood heights to the belly of Blackpool, we meet James Parker, a cautionary tale, in the first episode of Coining It (Global Player), “Things Get Weird in Blackpool” (released on 30 September). He is a pauper who becomes a prince. He starts as an unkempt misfit in a damp flat, and ends up arranging to buy apartments in Dubai. It is a stunning tale of how he discovers a glitch in a website that he uses to mine for Bitcoin. He siphons off millions and starts living large. But, as for King Midas, things go very wrong. Be careful what you wish for.
On 15 October, we learnt about the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) on the podcast The News Agents (Global Player), in the episode “Are American Billionaires Trying to Reshape British Politics?” It features an interview with an investigative journalist who proposes that the ADF want to use Nigel Farage’s Reform UK as a Trojan horse to import stringent Christian conservative anti-abortion laws into the UK.
The group, which has a generational perspective, is determined to build connections with conservative Christianity in the UK to create a coalition that can gradually acquire a louder voice to reshape politics. This seems alarmist, and the interviewers are initially sceptical. A guest, Jane Bradley, however, speaks about the complacency and apathy of liberal Americans until Roe v. Wade was overturned. It is reminiscent of the metaphor about putting a frog in cold water and then heating it slowly.
If you prefer something a little cheerier, may I recommend Your Place or Mine with Shaun Keaveny (BBC Sounds). In the episode “Siobhán McSweeney: Camino de Santiago pilgrimage”, from 22 May 2024, Ms McSweeney, who played the nun in the TV series Derry Girls, speaks about her experience on the Camino.
This ancient Christian pilgrimage route transforms those who walk it. More than 400,000 do so every year, and the number is growing. Ms McSweeney is not religious, and yet she finds it hard to describe the transcendence, communal closeness, and deep connection to nature without using religious terminology. The podcast is heartfelt, funny, and moving. I have completed two days of the Camino myself. Maybe I will see you there.