Vacation Bible School Podcast

Mar 12 2024 602
Vacation Bible School Podcast artwork

Jason Kirk, Emily Kirk, and friends are finding the Bible is so much better and weirder than we were taught as church kids. Story by story, we're having fun learning history, religion, literature, mythology, and the amazingly weird stuff. All are welcome! Perfect five-star rating on Apple Podcasts! Contact us at [email protected], if you like! (Sure, it's long! Copy and paste like Matthew did the Gospel of Mark!)

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SOLOMON, the fake-deep pharaoh (with Wes Howard-Brook)

Mar 12 2024 72 mins  
We are so freaking back. We're joined by Seattle University professor emeritus Wes Howard-Brook, author of works like Come Out My People: God's Call Out of Empire in the Bible and Beyond, to discuss: King Solomon wasn't actually all that wise ... ... and the cutting-a-baby story isn't about what a great guy he was. In fact, the Bible's authors meant for us to

DAVID & BATHSHEBA: The discourse (with April Ajoy)

Jul 13 2023 87 mins  
Hello! Let's sprint through a big (but action-packed) portion of the Book of Samuel and then focus on the story of King David and Bathsheba. Almost everything you've ever heard about this story has nothing to do with what's actually in the Bible, but what else is new? Around the 40-minute mark, we're joined by creator April Ajoy (of TikTok, Instagram, the Evangeli

DAVID & JONATHAN: Biased toward love (with Mason Mennenga)

Apr 10 2023 98 mins  
We're back in the Book of Samuel, starting in chapter 18, where giant-killer David meets Israel's other war hero, Prince Jonathan. To quote Taylor Swift, sparks fly. Platonic sparks, your Sunday school teacher assures you. There's a case these two were just extremely affectionate political allies. That case has been made, and we're not very interested in it. Inte

DAVID VS GOLIATH: Are we the baddies? (with Andrew Whitehead)

Dec 20 2022 97 mins  
Samuel chapter 17! We've reached a Bible story everybody PRETTY MUCH knows, though there are still lots of fun details. It wasn't a slingshot, for one thing! Goliath is the Statue of Liberty of Michael Jordans, David is Mr. Have It Both Ways, and King Saul's descent into madness ramps up right now!  Emily is mostly concerned with whether this Philistine-Israelite war is cruel

KING SAUL: Himbo Boss Baby vs. Dungeon Master Dick Cheney

Sep 12 2022 56 mins  
Samuel 7-16! The Bible contains a LOT of genres. Uh-oh, you're now in the middle of a Machiavellian historical novel about Derek Zoolander!  Time for our regular installment of Which Part Of This Story Will White Christian Americans Try To Contort Into Propaganda For White Christian America?  Does this episode include weird math, exaggerated war stuff, confusing prophet

SAMUEL: "The Messiah" and the golden hemorrhoid rats

May 30 2022 48 mins  
We're entering a whole new chunk of the Bible, and it might be a surprise chunk! Why we're now in Samuel instead of Ruth, the book that's up next according to Christian Bibles!  Yet another barren womb! As always, when the Bible reuses a story, the variations are everything!  The Bible's first usage of "the messiah" is a fine time to talk about how poorly the average Chr

JUDGES: Righteous invasion of Ehud (with Jon Bois)

Mar 01 2022 123 mins  
It's time to bring on the internet's beloved Jon Bois to discuss: The Bible's best story book so far, if you have the non-exploding stomach for it: Judges. Meet Ehud, the left-handed sphincter-bursting assassin! Homeschool middle school during the end of the world! Christian culture stuff like Carman, MxPx, Five Iron Frenzy, James Dobson, Amy Grant, Creed, DC Talk, and comic Bible

JOSHUA: Jericho was an inside job

Feb 03 2022 57 mins  
WAR DADS AND LADY WAR DADS ASSEMBLE. It's a new Bible section!  Joshua is the dude version of LIVE LAUGH LOVE, but also somehow the most feminist book yet.  Rahab, the Bible character whose job is most ignored by church, and also a military mastermind.  THE WALLS OF JERICHO: pretty cool, but mostly for reasons besides those made up by Sunday school, Carman, and Joel

DEUUUTERONOMY: Actually super important and mostly really good??

Nov 30 2021 85 mins  
The final book of the Torah, the one we NEVER talked about in church, actually ... kinda rules at times?  In the story, at the edge of Canaan, Moses reframes everything that's happened to this point, retconning the horrors of Numbers and synthesizing the Bible's competing God ideas into one coherent theology that more or less works for everyone on earth (except the despicable

NUMBERS: Maybe the Bible's worst book!

Sep 13 2021 62 mins  
The fourth book of the Bible! As always, remember the Bible has been written, edited, and interpreted by LOTS of people, and we're under no obligation to treat its angriest voices as definitive of the entire thing.  The actual story resumes! Things are finally happening!  Numbers gives us phrases like "wandering in the wilderness," "land of milk and honey," and "eww girl