This Fire

I stumbled across this looking for podcasts about the Satanic Panic. These guys cover it, for sure - they devote episodes to Geraldo Rivera and Oprah Winfrey’s notorious “EXPOSING SATANISM!” specials and core SP texts like Michelle Remembers. But the core of the podcast is an episode-by-episode review of Fire By Night, an evangelical variety show for teens from the ‘80s. As one can expect, the material they cover is cheesy and amusing - the “show within a show” sitcom Family First especially provides some entertaining moments. However, there is an underlying darkness to the Fire By Night proceedings. You hear kids being recruited to lobby their schools to let kids pray, to go on mission trips to “bring Christ to other countries,” to think of themselves as “in this world but not of this world,” and you know you are listening to the groundwork of Christian Nationalism being laid (which the hosts call out). It lays bare the bones of a certain strain of Alt-Right mindset. The Fox brothers are excellent presenters - witty, insightful, and respectful of the original performers, while also very much calling out liars, hypocrites and the untalented (they have NO time for disgraced “Christian comic” Mike Warnke). The show is solidly entertaining and even provides food for thought. Please, give this podcast a shot. You might not think you need it in your life, but you definitely do.

As someone who grew up in the late 80s and early 90s in the evangelical church, I got my fill of Fire By Night. It would be easy to mock this stuff for the low hanging fruit that it is, but This Fire is smart and funny in a way that avoids easy swipes. I got here thanks to recommendations from fellow Knowledge Fight wonks. I was looking for podcasts that have the same unique vibe as KF, and this is it!

Elite podcast

I stumbled into learning about Fire by Nite and this podcast is an excellent companion piece as I watch the episodes. Thanks for casting a light onto a pretty obscure show and the concern over the satanic panic. Keep up the great work!