Russian Slap Fighting Devotionals and Biblical Archaeology
Kyle and Ethan from The Babylon Bee Podcast are joined by Kristin Oren who has served as a tireless writer, headline generator, and copy editor for The Babylon Bee. They talk about new Disney Plus show content warnings you should know about, read weird news and hate mail, and meditate upon the spiritual lessons to be gleaned from competitive Russian slap fighting. Kyle and Ethan also talk to Amanda Hope Haley about her new book, The Red-Haired Archaeologist Digs Israel, and how archaeology can help us better understand Bible times. Introduction Weird News Baby monitor catches boy's funny exchange with Alexa when he was unable to sleep Panasonic's Nicobo is a pricey robot cat that farts whenever it feels like it Man Builds amazing bird village during pandemic Philadelphia airport employs robot for contact-free food delivery California woman's new ID has photo of her wearing a mask 'Hot mom' claims Sacramento Catholic school expelled her children because of her online photos Puppy born in Oklahoma believed to be the first to survive with six legs Idaho woman dresses husband in 35 T-shirts for Guinness record Disney Plus Shows That Are Getting Warnings YouTube Devotional - Finding Biblical Inspiration In… SLAP FIGHTS Topic of the Week: Digging Around Israel Amanda Hope Haley talks about her new book, The Red-Haired Archaeologist Digs Israel, and how archaeology can help us better understand Bible times. Hate Mail Subscriber Portion Subscriber Update Mailbag Bonus Hate Mail Steve gives us his address and hopes we die in a camp. Subscriber Headlines of the Week Kristin answers the ten questions
In a world of fake news, we bring you up-to-the-minute factual inaccuracy and a heavy dose of moral truth.
With your hosts, Kyle Mann and Ethan Nicole.
This is the Babylon Bee.
Fake news you can trust.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to the Babylon Bee Weekly Podcast.
I'm Kyle Mann, editor-in-chief of the Babylon Bee, and I'm joined by my life partner.
Well, Corinne.
Metro LifeMate.
Ethan Nicole, creative director of the Babylon Bee.
I like saying my title.
I guess.
And we're also joined today by Kristen Oren.
Yeah.
Longtime fan, subscriber, and copy editor.
Yeah, she helped edit the Babylon Bee book a whole bunch in great detail.
Did you help with something else?
Did you help me with my book?
I did not.
Okay, I couldn't remember.
But I will help you with it.
You helped a lot.
You helped with, I know the articles on her page and stuff.
You're very helpful.
Thank you.
I try.
She's literally a Nazi, but a grammar Nazi.
Grammar Nazi.
The good kind of thing.
Grammar Nuts, just to be clear.
Yeah, a professional grammar Nazi.
Yeah.
And so she's here.
She's in town.
So we said, come on the podcast.
She's a longtime, devoted Babylon Bee listener, subscriber.
Yep.
And so we're like, hey, she's going to join us this week.
Co-host as we go through all our usual weekly stuff.
So let's do it.
So we got today we're going to do weird news.
Yeah.
Have we got a show for you?
Have we got a show for you?
We got weird news.
We got Disney Plus doing content warnings on a bunch of their shows.
We're going to go through and tell you all about that.
Crazy.
We got Russian slap fights.
So here at the Babylon B, we like to find connections to the gospel.
We like to find Christ figures and things.
Movie pictures, biblical inspiration.
Yeah, because a lot of things draw on the gospel story.
And what better place to find the gospel than in Russian slap fights?
We also have an interview with biblical archaeologist Amanda Hope Haley.
Oh, yeah.
And as always, organic, free range, non-GMO, hate mail.
Yeah.
But of course, you're missing out on the full show if you don't subscribe.
So subscribe to the Babylon.
Because you get bonus hate mail.
Bonus hate mail.
And subscriber headlines.
I assume we can let Kristen interview us or something in the hate mail.
Or not the hate mail, but the subscriber portion.
We'll do something crazy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And we'll ask Kristen the 10 questions, too.
Yeah, we'll ask her the 10 questions.
It'll be wild.
You already know what they are.
You have a leg up on all the other guests who have no idea.
All right, let's do some weird news.
This news is weird.
Baby monitor catches boy's funny exchange with Alexa when he was unable to sleep.
Her son woke up and said, Alexa, I need daddy.
Yeah, and she goes, what should I add?
And he says, daddy.
And then she says, I've added daddy to your shopping list.
Is there anything else?
And then he goes, no.
I'm curious what was put in the shopping list.
That's all I need.
So something was added.
Amazon provides fathers now.
Well, yeah, I mean, I don't know.
I don't know how the shopping list works.
Do you have Alexa?
We have Alexa here.
going to try it I assume it will just like put Alexa I don't think anybody has one.
We don't have one in here.
If you just shout, is that you?
Oh, and I have Alexa on my.
Is that how you find out?
I have the app.
Alexa, Siri.
I'll get Alexa too.
I got the app.
You can download the Alexa app, dude.
Yeah, I have because I use it on my.
Yeah, let's try it.
Alexa, I need daddy.
What?
What did it do?
brought this up the male parents are what I need daddy?
What?
Alexa, add daddy to shopping cart.
I need daddy.
Turbo's phones are going to be.
What the heck?
It's not working for me.
Maybe it's just in the UK.
It's like looked up some.
Yeah, that's like a.
The male parents are Tristan Thompson, Douglas Mouse, and Sir.
It's like making sense.
It's like I'm Googling something.
You might have to turn on the shopping function.
They turn it into a shopping function.
I'm scared of that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, you know.
All right.
Whatever.
All right.
Well, what's our next story?
Panasonic's Nikobo is a pricey robot cat that farts whenever it feels like it.
Oh, my goodness.
Is that all it does?
Well, Nakoba doesn't really do much other than wag its tail and turn around and blink its little eyes and talk a bit.
But oh, it also farts when the mood strikes.
It also looks more like a stuffed sock than a cat.
But it's very cute regardless.
Oh, it's like it looks like Japanese.
Yeah, it looks very Japanese.
That makes sense.
It just looks like a ball with ears.
It's all coming together now.
But it's got cameras inside of it and a microphone and stuff that's supposed to be so it can recognize you, but I assume that's so they can report you to the communist authorities.
Sure.
Yeah, see, in America, we consider this weird news.
In Japan, this is just news.
News, yeah.
This is just normal.
It's only $300 for a farting cat robot.
It's totally worth it.
Yeah.
That reports you.
It's like, uh-oh.
They're having a Bible study in their house.
Yeah.
Now, that's it.
Do you want to do one?
Our guests?
Oh, yeah.
The hem run three there.
Okay.
Man builds amazing bird village during pandemic.
Oh, this is cool.
Yeah, this isn't that weird, but it's more kind of just cool.
Like, you just look at the picture.
It's like this.
I wonder how many birds use it.
And do they use the jail?
Do they lock up?
There is a jail there.
There's some jailbirds in there.
Oh, it's kind of like an Old West Town look?
Yeah, they got like a...
That's cute.
Is there a hanging place?
Hangman's noose anywhere?
There's the saloon.
I don't even see a saloon in here.
Maybe that's what that.
Oh, yeah, that is a saloon.
There's a jail and then a saloon.
It's up there in the west wing.
Oh, there's a little patio for a cigar-smoking bird down there.
It's beautiful.
It would feel really cool to make that.
And then he's going to die someday, and his kids are going to be like, that's grandpa's bird city.
I think if you've got this in your backyard, there's a slightly higher chance that you're like an axe murderer.
Axe murderer?
Yeah.
Well, maybe.
I don't know.
Like, you might just speak at Little Cork.
Or more like, like I'm used to.
Like a BTK.
I'm guessing this person is over 60.
Right, because he can use his hands to do things.
Yeah.
And he's white.
Because I can relate.
I think it's cool.
No, I love it.
I've made like a small amount of things out of wood since I became of age and could afford my own tools of age, yeah.
There's a year when you can start.
It was really like once I owned a house, suddenly I had a garage.
I mean, we've talked about this before, but like I built my own medicine cabinet and stuff and have such pride every day I pull my toothbrush out of there.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying this guy's an axe murderer.
I'm saying that there's probably a 1% higher chance.
Crossover on the Venn diagram.
Yeah, the Venn diagram probably meets.
Because he could also build bombs and stuff.
He's that good at building stuff.
Yeah.
And it's just weird.
So Philadelphia Airport employs robot for contact-free food delivery.
Jita?
Jita.
A robot with a 40-pound capacity cargo band that delivers food to passengers waiting for their flights.
So you have to make a few trips to get me my food.
Because it's only a 40-pound capacity.
I guess.
That's it.
It just rolls around and gives people food.
This is the future.
This is the new normal.
This is robots.
I'm not sure I would want that food.
Would I?
You don't want robot?
Yeah, because it's not.
It's robot contact.
It's not no contact.
What if it was a cat robot that farted and delivered you food?
Yeah, it should farts at random and reports to the authorities.
It's just not going to fly.
California woman's new ID has a photo of her wearing a mask.
She waited for the DMV employee to let her know when it was time to take off her mask.
They never said anything.
Yeah, they never said anything.
And then they go, oh, oops, sorry.
So then she took it off and took a picture, but when she finally got the ID, it was the mask picture.
A similar thing happened to me.
I was at the DMV in Oregon, and the lady spoke very broken English, and she kept getting my name spelled horribly wrong.
She's like E-A-T-H-E-A-A-G-H-G-I-I-N, like crazy.
Like, no, it's just Ethan, E-T-H-A-N.
And like, she misspelled Nicole, my last name.
And like, I thought I had it.
I thought we were good.
And then when I got the license, it was just like insane.
Completely wrong.
Completely wrong.
So I just, I survived with it for like three years and I got in constant issues where it would, it was useless.
This is like people who have the mask in the profile picture.
Yeah.
That annoys me.
It does annoy me.
I mean, at first, maybe it was a little cute.
Like on the first few weeks, people were like, oh, we're in the mask.
Yeah, people wear it now because it's totally virtue single now.
Come on.
Especially how they look real pompous.
Yeah.
So, all right.
Well, Kristen, it's your turn.
Yeah.
Okay.
This is a good one.
Oh, nice.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Hot mom claims Sacramento Catholic school expelled her children because of her online photos.
She has an OnlyFans where she uses a hot mom persona.
And she said she started it as marriage fun.
Marriage fun.
That sounds like marriage fun.
They need some marriage fun.
Just start an online OnlyFans page.
Honey, I'm looking to spice things up.
She's probably.
And now they're making $150,000 a month.
Wow.
Crazy.
Well, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on there.
That is marriage fun.
Yeah.
Getting $150,000 a month is marriage fun.
That's definitely.
Oh, my goodness.
Yeah.
What?
I don't even want to know what those pictures are that are bringing in 150.
Her persona is flowerbed.
So she must be like a naughty creature or something.
We should bleep that so people can't look it up.
Oh, yeah.
Sorry.
So.
So I don't know, Patrick, do Patrick's are Catholic.
Do Patrick have some kind of issue with online nude photos of people at a Catholic school?
I mean, he just laughs.
I don't think the Baptist school would go for it either.
Well, I like that she's doing interviews and being offended by it.
And then she's, we're going to find a different Catholic school.
It's like, why do you have to be at a Catholic school if you're doing this?
I read this story earlier and somehow I missed that it was a Catholic school.
And I was like, oh, well, that makes sense.
Like, maybe your private school doesn't want your.
And then I'm like, oh, it's a Catholic.
I'm like, what is this even a story for?
Like, isn't this obviously something that you shouldn't be doing?
Your kids are in Catholic school?
I don't know.
Well, maybe they need to go to an Episcopalian school.
There you go.
They take them.
They're cool with that kind of stuff.
You know, non-Christian school.
What do they keep saying?
Puppy born in Oklahoma believed to be the first to survive with six legs.
Whoa.
What do you call that?
Is it like a dogapede?
What do you call that?
Yeah.
Sent it sexted.
The canine centipede.
I don't know.
Or like a.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know the science.
Oh, wow.
Six legs, two tails, two pelvic regions, two urinary tracts, and two reproductive systems.
Well, two urinary tracts.
What does that lead to that has two?
Maybe they just.
Never mind.
So how many legs does it lift when it goes wee wee?
It's like leg number three and four.
I don't know.
We'll find out.
When you hear people were born with like an extra arm, it sounds really cool.
Like, wow.
Yeah, you see it and it's like a dangling prop arm.
Yeah.
This does actually look like this.
It's real legs.
So I don't know.
Aren't there people born with extra arms?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like extra arm or extra.
I knew a girl that had an extra finger.
There was this girl in India that like was born with like, I think like extra legs and arms or something.
And they thought that she was like the reincarnation of one of their Indian gods.
Or is that wrong?
India?
So had like all these arms and legs.
And so like she could have had surgery to like deal with it.
They're like, no, no, you're the god Shiva Linga or whatever.
I don't know.
Wow.
I'm horrible at other religions.
Or is this evolution proof the dogs are evolving ahead of us?
It's proof of evolution for sure.
Wow, wow, wow.
That's what I say.
Do I have to read this one too?
Yeah.
Yeah, go ahead.
The Idaho woman dresses husband in 35 t-shirts for Guinness record.
Okay, so here's the thing.
That's pathetic.
Here's the thing.
It says David Rush, who has broken more than 150 Guinness records.
There's one guy that's probably not like super athletic.
Is he going to win the record for the most world records?
Who moves.
And it's just pointless.
Said he and his wife, Jennifer, previously attempted the same record in summer 2020, but despite managing to put on 32 shirts, their attempt was disqualified due to a requirement that each shirt be pulled to the waist all around the body.
Those are very rules.
This isn't just some willy-nilly thing.
But it is willy-nilly because they just made up that rule.
They just said, oh, you got to pull all the way to the waist.
Like, who's standing around?
That's putting a shirt on.
I feel like I could just go home and do this.
Yeah.
Well, okay, so it's 30.
Was there a time limit?
See, that's probably what it is.
I didn't look through the whole thing.
Yeah.
I just wanted to get you going.
There probably is a time limit.
I would think so.
I think so.
Because I've put on a shirt 35 times at least in my life.
I think, you know, we were talking about if I could break a world record.
I think.
This would be an easy one.
Oh, yeah.
35 shirts in 60 seconds.
That's the qualifier.
So that's like two.
So they had them all like laid out on the ground.
Yeah, ready to go.
And then they started, why couldn't you line them up so that they're like hanging around and then you just run through them?
Just dive.
Dive through the big group shirts.
They're all ready.
It's the way that you put on your kid, it's all scrunched up and ready with the three holes ready to go.
Could work.
Could work.
All right.
All right.
Well, let's look at some problematic Disney Plus shows.
Let's do it.
So Disney Plus slaps us a warning on a lot of stuff now.
It's mostly our older stuff because apparently Disney used to have this employee that made a lot of stuff that they have a lot of issues with.
So they've since parted ways with this guy.
His name is Walt Disney.
But so they just slap a warning on everything that he worked on.
Yeah.
Because it really doesn't align with their view of things.
Yeah, it's true.
But anyway, so they recently slapped the warning on the Muppet show because the Muppet Show has a lot of problematic things like Kermit the Frog talks like Jordan Peterson.
Yeah.
And he reminds you of Pepe, the frog.
He reminds you of Pepe.
And, you know, Miss Piggy is a pig, which is girl.
You know, women are pigs.
She's the best.
I like my speed.
And she's voiced by a man, which is...
Oh, really?
Yeah, that's horrible.
I wonder when Frank Oz is going to step down from voicing Miss Piggy.
I don't see that, but they don't have a problem with that.
Yeah, they don't have a problem with that.
Like men voicing women.
Yet.
It's only like these because I don't see women as like a protected class anymore.
They don't?
Well, that's the whole like Equality Rights Act is taking away women as a protected class.
They don't see women as an oppressed class anymore.
That actually feels like progress.
We can actually get to this point where we're like, all right, nobody's protected class now.
Let's just get over it.
Yeah, but they're just replacing it with new protected classes that are trampling on the rights of the previous.
Okay, this is supposed to be funny.
So here we go.
It's very complicated.
All right, we'll just do a quick rundown of some of the Disney Plus shows that are also going to be retrieving, receiving these content warnings.
So WandaVision is problematic, and it's got a content warning that it promotes 1950s patriarchal family structure, and it can often be incredibly black and white.
It can be like full episodes.
Just, yeah, no room for gray areas, just black and white.
Right?
Yeah.
There's a show called The Right Stuff, which they just warned the title contains the word the right, which is triggering for some viewers.
Oh, Big Hero 6.
I've never heard of it.
It's got like a giant fat white robot.
Yeah.
Promotes white male obesity.
Oh.
Go ahead.
Cars.
It's got, they use fossil fuels.
Exorbitant usage of fossil fuels.
Larry the Cable guy.
An exorbitant usage of Larry the Cable guy.
It was very problematic.
We've talked to him.
I'm still recovering.
Handy Manny perpetuates negative stereotypes that Mexicans are good at work, that white people suck at.
Sad.
You didn't even make Patrick laugh now.
It's tragic.
Isn't it weird, though?
It's like the handyman, and he's this little Mexican guy.
Is that a weird stereotype?
Is that okay?
No?
I don't know.
It seems politically incorrect to me in a weird way.
Because there was Bob the Builder for a while.
Yeah, because it's like this blue-collar job.
And then Handy Manny.
So people who work can't be Mexican now.
Well, they need to be, well, because you want to, you don't want to depict, you want to depict the world, your dream world, right?
So you should be like a revolutionary leader or something.
Congressman.
Yeah, the president.
And the word man in his name.
Anyway, we can move on.
Should it be Handy Woman-y?
Yeah, Handy Womany.
What's our next one?
Who's on?
Me?
I think, I think I just did that because it was a really long time.
Oh, is it me?
Winnie the Pooh.
Partial male nudity throughout and lack of racial diversity.
There's a lot of diversity, but it's just all animal.
Yeah, but when I worked on Veggie Tales, I was told that there were way too many white people in that show.
That is hilarious.
I remember you talking about that.
So this show gets the same note.
Like, where's all the ethnic diversity in Winnie the Pooh?
Yeah.
True.
Imagineering.
Yeah.
It depicts founder Walt Disney as a heteronormative cis white male with problematic views.
I heard they're working on a new documentary that will bring out, will show Walt Disney as he was meant to be.
Yeah.
He's a strong trans woman.
Yeah, because it just shows him like talking about Pacific Islander descent.
Oh my goodness.
It's a problematic narrative because it shows him working hard and then achieving something.
Exactly.
It's disgusting.
It's gross.
He's probably had attention to detail and he was a perfectionist.
Those are really white supremacists.
There's the dog whisperer that has graphic depictions and glorifications of dog slavery.
Sad.
The little mermaid uses offensive term mermaid instead of mer strong, independent person.
I can't read this.
You don't know the new word for woman is person who bleeds.
I know, but I can't actually say it.
It's so horrifying.
They have to say, person who bleeds and produces chest milk.
Yeah, that's a dangerous app because people can talk on there.
Yeah, and it can't be.
What did Rolling Stone?
Was it Rolling Stone or somebody?
The New York Times?
Oh, yeah, they said unfettered conversations.
Unfettered conversations.
Like, that's something people should be like, what?
People are talking unfettered?
Unfetteredly?
Do they stop when they're talking?
Like, wait a minute.
We're talking pretty unfettered right now.
Let's go get fettered.
Well, there was all these journalists.
Fetter up.
All these journalists from New York Times kept joining all the rooms to report on things people were saying.
And everybody keeps banning them and blocking them.
So then they're writing all these articles like, journalists are being blocked.
And everyone's like, great.
They're just mad that they're not allowed in the club.
That is excellent.
Very sad.
That's cool.
All right.
Okay, The Lion King reinforces patriarchal norms.
That's an obvious one.
I can't believe it.
It also says something up for a long time.
It also encourages people not to worry.
Which is sick.
And they should be happy, too.
Be happy.
Don't worry for the rest of your days.
It's got monkeys in it.
That isn't.
How are you ever going to create a revolt with that attitude?
Sad.
Jake and the Neverland Pirates promotes the barbaric concept of piracy.
You know, lots of toxic masculinity.
Very toxic.
They're always stealing gold doubloons.
The doubloons.
That's the balloons.
Which again promotes the alt-right Dogecoin.
Oh, that's okay.
Sleeping Beauty.
This probably already has a warning.
It depicts kissing without consent.
Disgusting.
I was talking about this, I think, with my wife the other day.
She's like, isn't it weird they just kiss these ladies that are lying in the forest or whatever?
Doesn't it happen in Snow White, too?
It's in Snow White and it's Sleeping Beauty, isn't it?
Yeah, it's very simple.
She bites the apple.
They just walk by and they're like, there's a woman.
I'm a kisser.
I'm a kisser.
And we're making fun of that, but that's funny to me.
I never thought about that before.
There was a because I remember there was a celebrity, I can't remember who it was, that said, I will not show my children these horrible movies that she's talking about.
Snow White, Sleeping Beauty.
I think she included Little Mermaid because the Little Mermaid goes through all this stuff because she's in love with this man.
She loses her voice and stuff.
In the original book, it's even worse.
Like her feet.
She can walk, but her feet feel like glass.
It feels like she's stepping on knives, it says, anytime she walks.
Because she wants this man's love.
The little mermaid, and then she turns into sea foam at the end.
Yeah.
It's a very dark ending.
Yeah.
She dies and turns into sea foam.
She comes like some kind of ghost.
Yeah.
I have actually never seen that movie.
I'm going to have to go watch it now.
The Little Mermaid?
Yeah, I missed it.
I think my daughter was older when it came out.
It's probably one of the first movies I saw in the theater.
Yeah, that was a big because I was the target audience.
Oh, wait a minute.
When did it come out?
Like 89 or young.
No, my kids weren't born yet.
So it was bad.
That time period.
Am I up?
I don't know.
Oh, I think it's me.
I think it's Kristen.
Aladdin.
A whole new world is man-splaining.
Isn't it?
I can show you.
Defending the whole world.
Oh, he's saying.
I can show you.
He's like, tell me, Princess, now, when did you last let your heart decide?
The whole thing is Aladdin explaining to her.
I can open your eyes.
That's what he says.
And she's like, she makes this decision.
I'm going to open my eyes.
Of a man.
No, she says she's gonna close her eyes and he goes, don't you dare close your eyes.
Close your eyes.
Yeah, that's so much problem.
That's abusive.
There's a toxic relationship there.
Uh, Captain America obviously obviously yeah, remember the Titans.
That sends a harmful message that races shouldn't be segregated.
That's very harmful, very harmful, very not woke yeah, and finally up, The glorification of old white men harmfully depicts a couple mourning the loss of an unborn fetus.
I also want to make sure that we had mentioned soul, the brand new one.
Does it also do that?
Well, what it does is it horrifically depicts the idea that before you're even born, before you're even conceived, that you have this soul and this whole personality and talents and traits and that you're actually a person.
But like, that's kind of sad.
Like in like a pre-heaven type thing.
Yeah, that's like a margin.
Yeah.
That's not really a Christian idea, though.
Well, God made you.
Yeah, but he made you like when you were conceived.
Yeah.
But I get what you're saying.
Yeah.
The soul holds value.
Well, I'm not saying it's a Christian movie.
The soul has value.
They're saying they're going one solution.
You're saying the soul has value apart from them.
They depict basically like you see these little souls jump into this tube or whatever and like they're going into become alive.
So it's the idea that like they're saying that this whole character that has all this meaning and personality, like they do all this pre-stuff in soul.
It's all about pre-life.
The whole movie is.
Oh, I see.
And then they go into life and then it's like how many of those things and then they're like, oh, abortion.
Yay.
That's really sad.
Maybe that'll be in the sequel.
Yeah.
The abortion.
Soul's a dark, gritty reading.
They ever tell the story about how I was weeping and up from the first, you know, the first few people.
It doesn't.
Yeah.
Well, my wife, every time.
My wife.
I took your wife, yeah.
I don't remember when up came out, but I think we had two kids at my side.
My wife probably didn't weep either, actually.
We went to the theater.
We're sitting there.
We were like, yeah, get popcorn.
I sit down and five minutes in, and I'm just like, my wife looks over and she starts laughing at me.
She's like, what are you doing?
I'm like, they can't have babies, Destiny.
They can't have babies.
She died also.
Yeah, but she can't.
It hit me hard.
Yeah.
All right, well, let's do our, let's go on to our Babylon Bee YouTube devotional.
Yeah.
So we find it important to draw, you know, meaning and spiritual growth and word Bible pictures.
From everything.
From everything.
Literally everything.
No content filter.
Yeah.
If it's content, we can drive a gospel connection.
We can wedge a gospel connection.
Challenge acceptance.
Yeah, bring it on.
So this week.
We're going to watch some Russian slap fights and see what the connection to the gospel is.
We're going to exegete some slap fighting.
Let's do it.
All right.
Okay, that was already, we're into it.
That guy, he clearly tatted up.
Oh, look at this guy.
Okay, that's Satan on the left.
So this guy on the right, what do you think happens to Satan in a slap fight when he's against Russian Jesus?
I think, I don't think all the cool tats helped him out.
Ah.
That guy jiggles a lot.
Is there anything about jiggling in the Bible?
Yeah.
He really is shaking with Ehub and he's much bigger.
Stand firm.
The Bible says to stand firm.
So let's pause right there and let's draw some application here.
So what are we seeing?
What did you guys get out of that from a spiritual?
Well, one thing that happens in the Old Testament is God is constantly talking about striking Egypt with plagues.
So that's just like slapping it really hard.
Yeah.
So the guy slapping represents like God's wrath.
Yeah.
And then Pharaoh is standing there with a hard heart.
A hard heart.
As he gets his jaw dislocated by God.
Into the next galaxy by a massive Russian, but God.
Is this 1 Kings 20, 37?
Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, the prophet found another man and said, strike me, please.
So the man struck him and wounded him.
I don't even know the context of that.
I'm amazed how many times the word strike is in the Bible.
I was looking this morning, and it's a lot.
So, yeah, but I mean, there's definitely parallels to turning your other cheek.
Yeah.
Because that's what they do the whole fight.
Oh, I see.
Let's watch some more and see if we can get more of a Christian application here.
They're speaking in a foreign language like the Tower of Babel, right?
Right.
That guy's arms.
I think he had some kind of surgery done.
That can't be real.
Is he like Leviathan?
Will they help him?
Oh, no.
He's like reverse Popeye.
It looks like his arms are pregnant.
Grotesque.
Okay, so let's see if the fat guy.
Yeah, so I'm really seeing a Dave and Goliath kind of situation.
I'm seeing a Christ figure here.
Okay.
The large man that's standing there.
It's like as a sheep before its shears was silent.
And he just stands and he takes the accusations and he's bearing the sin of the slap.
And then resurrects and slaps back.
And then resurrects and steps on the heel.
I mean, bites the heel of strikes the heel.
He steps on the snake's head.
He crushes the snake's head.
Crushes it.
It's a very, yeah.
Wow.
It's a very profound.
It's a very powerful gospel connection.
And I think the look he gives this guy before he slaps him is kind of like the look that Jesus probably was giving Judas at the supper when he knew Judas was going to backslap him.
What's the look?
Can you see?
Slap in the face.
Well, watch the guy in the blue shirt.
Watch the face.
Well, he's got a cross on his chest, too.
It's pretty obvious.
See, look at the way he stares.
He's like, I know you're going to betray me, Judas.
He's like, go ahead and do it.
It's not even going to hurt.
What you must do, do quickly.
And then.
And he's like, all right, you got your 30 pieces.
And Judas probably had a faux hawk, too.
Yeah, being honest.
Most likely.
Judas definitely wore a scoop neck like that.
In hindsight, it was obvious he was...
I hope that Jesus wins in this scenario, because...
Oh.
That's not exactly lined up with the illustration.
The noise.
All right, I probably shouldn't play clips too long already.
Well, all analogies will fall apart at some point.
This is just kind of they're drawing on gospel themes.
Right.
And putting them in here.
Exactly.
What do you think, Chris?
Did you draw anything out of that?
Are you edified?
The final judgment or something.
Maybe when hell is going to be like, that's good.
You just stand across the table.
That would be interesting for hell.
Like, you just have to stand there while Russian guys slap you for eternity.
Yeah.
And you slap back, but you can't.
You're the guy with the bleached blonde hair and the black eye contacts.
Yeah.
And a faux.
Yeah.
You definitely have a faux hawk in hell.
Everyone does.
All right.
Well, we hope you all can draw some encouragement out of this.
Yeah, well, there'll be more of that in our book releasing slap fight devotional.
Finding the gospel in slap fights, in Russian slap fights.
Look for it coming from Zondervan.
See you.
All right.
I think that hit everybody pretty hard.
Like a Russian like a giant meaty hand.
All right.
Well, now we're going to talk to Amanda Hope Haley, who's an archaeologist that digs in Israel.
Yeah.
You might even need to say that because we already introduced you.
Introduced it.
Hi, Amanda.
Thanks for coming on.
Thanks for having me.
You just got back from a temple in the jungle somewhere.
Something like that.
Yeah.
No, I'm like everybody else.
I've been locked down for the last year or so.
Can you do archaeology via Zoom or is that different?
No, it's not really a thing.
It's not like a drone.
Like drone arms.
I mean, you could, yeah.
Well, I mean, they are using drones for pictures and things like that.
But yeah, that would be nice.
Because the worst part about archaeology is all the squatting that you have to do and like in the dirt and the sweat and the heat and all of that.
If there's a way to avoid it, that'd be awesome.
Yeah, I hate squats.
Yeah, I've been hate squatting.
I could be an archaeologist for like 10 seconds.
Yeah, I have to build up to it.
I usually can't move for like days on end after we start.
Yeah, lots of bugs?
Is there a lot of bugs?
I mean, you've dug.
Where have you dug at?
I've only dug in Israel.
Just in Israel.
Any mosquitoes or anything like that?
I mean, how separable is it out there?
No, no.
Well, it's very dry climate out there.
So I don't remember mosquitoes being the issue.
Scorpions are a thing.
Wow.
Yeah.
And I remember yellow jackets this last time around, but bugs aren't that big a deal.
The giant camel spiders.
Did Snopes debunk that?
I can't remember.
There are some big spiders, but no, not mythic spiders.
No.
No murder hornets or anything like that.
No.
Not that I remember.
Or I mean, maybe I scared them away with my vicious troweling.
I don't know.
All right.
Well, we got that out of the way.
Yeah.
So what's a so describe what a dig is like for us?
I mean, in 2021, assuming, you know, not a Zoom dig, assuming when you get back to the dig site, describe what it's like.
I mean, is it just guys with shovels or what's it like in the modern age doing archaeology?
It's a lot more scientific, I think, than a lot of people expect.
I remember the first time that I went out there, I was like 23 years old and it was a group of graduate students and we were kind of in two groups.
There were those of us who really loved playing in the dirt, which, I mean, that's basically it.
And there were the others who had this one friend who his shirt just stayed pressed the entire time we were there.
He never seemed to get any dust on him whatsoever, which kind of amazed me.
And so I think he expected more of the movie experience where you go and everyone's in their like crisp, you know, white linen, that kind of thing.
And no, it's, you know, you're, you're in shorts and tank tops and hats.
And when you first get to a dig, if it's, if it's an established dig, then grids have been laid out.
And basically there are these giant holes in the ground that have been, you know, put into smaller squares that are charted off of GPS.
And you're assigned to a specific place.
And you have a person who's in charge of you, you know, telling you what to do.
And so it just, it kind of depends on the day and what they're trying to do.
If you're, if you're looking for something, if nothing is immediately on the surface, then you may spend a day with a pickaxe, just chopping down, chopping down, trying not to break anything that you might hit.
And then once you've gotten to a layer in the soil where there's a lot of material culture, then you switch to smaller tools like the trowel.
You do a lot of sweeping dirt off of dirt, which sounds and it feels just as insane as it sounds, honestly, but it's actually really necessary and effective so that you can see the different colors of grays and browns and stuff that all kind of meld together.
But yeah, it's sweeping and all that.
And then once you find something really intricate that you need to take out carefully, like say human remains or a really well-preserved artifact, then you switch to like the microscopic tools, the brushes and the little like air puffer things that I don't know what those things are like.
You know, you use it on babies in their noses, you know, those things, that kind of thing.
So those days are nice because you're, I personally enjoy the detail work.
I like getting down there and doing that.
But there's, there's the days of hard labor where you're just putting dirt into these, into these baskets that are made out of recycled tires.
They're called goofas and you fill them up and have to cart them off.
And by the time they're full, they weigh about 50 pounds each.
So, I mean, it's just, it's just constant.
Honestly, it's, it's just, it's heavy labor.
Dirt relocating.
Indeed.
Yes.
Yes.
And it goes, all goes into this huge pile by the end.
And then at the very end of the dig, all of that dirt is, then you could take all that dirt that you tried so hard to get out of there and fill sandbags with it.
And then you put it back down to basically cover up everything that you found during the season so that it'll it'll be protected from from the rains and stuff before the next year.
So it's kind of anticlimactic that way too, because you're like, I just spent six weeks getting all this dirt out of here and now I'm putting it back.
But it's it's for good cause.
So you're digging and digging and all this crazy brushing and moving dirt and hopefully any dirt that's not used is donated to the homeless or something.
And then what is the exciting thing you find?
You're like, it was worth it.
All the dirt moving.
I found it.
A lot of stuff that I can't talk about.
Chalice.
Yeah, you wish, right?
So I think everybody goes out there with just the movie idea that I'm going to find the Ark of the Covenant.
That's what everybody always asks me about is the Ark of the Covenant.
Have you found the Ark of the Covenant?
Who do you think it is?
Do you think it still exists?
Et cetera, et cetera.
Have you found the Ark of the Covenant?
I know.
I have not.
No, I haven't.
I can't talk about some of this stuff.
So maybe, maybe she can't.
Well, you know, blink twice if you found the Ark of the Covenant.
That was a one-wing.
I don't know.
She found the Ark.
It was in Pennsylvania.
Didn't you hear?
Hasn't the Ark been found like nine times?
It has.
It has.
It always means big news when it's found.
And then like, you know, once people come to their senses and realize it hasn't, like, that just kind of fades away.
But the one in Pennsylvania a few years ago really, really got me.
They said they found one in Pennsylvania?
They did.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's probably the same guys who are predicting the end of the world.
Yeah.
I feel like that's got to be somehow related.
I don't remember in the Bible where the ark landed like near Pittsburgh or somewhere.
Yeah, exactly.
Right.
Yeah.
And these are, I maybe I would say that it's, you know, it got there because of, I don't know, plate shifting or tectonic drift or something like that.
But I feel like the same people who found it probably also only think the earth is 6,000 years old.
So I just, I can't really put all that together.
Which it is.
And so, so you, but you find stuff that's like mundane everyday life stuff.
Yeah.
Like pottery or something.
Paperclips, pieces of pottery.
Yes.
Ancient paper clips.
There actually is a lot of ancient metal out there.
You have to get a tetanus shot before you go on a dig.
It is required.
I have an ancient metal band.
I'm sorry.
Sorry, it took me a second.
Okay.
Very nice.
Very nice.
But yeah, the pottery, the first day you get there, I mean, it's literally everywhere.
I mean, you're even walking out to the site.
I was at Telsham Ruin this last time and just walking out to the site, you just look down and on the paths we take every day.
It's just this ancient pottery shirts, just absolutely everywhere.
It's out of context.
It's not really useful.
But, you know, yeah, the first day you get there, you're down in the hole and you find your first piece of pottery and it's super awesome.
You're so proud of yourself.
And wow, this thing is, depending on where you're digging, you know, three, four, 5,000 years old.
Amazing and you put it in the bucket and you're so proud.
And then, after you've done that about 200 times that first day, you realize that every single piece of pottery that you find you then have to wash and catalog and you have to do all this processing of it afterwards, and so by the end you're like, oh man, it's a piece of stinking pottery.
You're just like chucking it toward the bucket at the end of the day.
I mean, unless it's like something nice and fancy.
Most of the time it's not.
It's just um, you know, just bits of blank pottery that.
So when archaeologists are going to get reassembled, when archaeologists dig up our culture, they're just going to find a bunch of like Starbucks cups and that'll be the equivalent, possibly there.
There was this awesome book that was released like in the late 70s, early 80s called Uh, Motel Of Mysteries, I don't know.
I I was exposed to when I was in The fifth grade and I fell in love with it, and I recently found another copy of it.
But the whole premise is that there's some sort of disaster and the United States is buried under um tons and tons of junk mail which, of course, that doesn't really hold up today, although I feel like i'm getting more junk mail these days.
It's like people are reverting back, but uh, so the whole thing is like these archaeologists going into like 1980s America and uncovering from all of the junk mail and finding a motel and the way they interpret all these really normal things.
Like this is a toy, you know, it's a toilet seat, and they're like this was an ancient headdress that you know people used in burial practices and all this kind of stuff and it's just, it's a funny spin on archaeology.
It makes you sit back and think like, are we putting too much thought and energy and effort into assigning meaning to all of these objects?
And that may be true for some things.
Yeah, that's the thing Chesterton talks about a lot.
He kind of mocks a lot of the uh, the way that they interpret like cave paintings and stuff.
Yeah, you know, they read into it so much because they apply their ideas to you know, prehistoric man is the key term is prehistoric.
There is no history there we don't know about.
Well, that's different in Israel.
There's some history there.
But anyway, I think that's fascinating, that idea that we we apply our culture and our ideas to that stuff.
We absolutely do.
And it's a shame, because I think that's what archaeology is actually trying to work against, at least the way I see it is.
Archaeology exists to to contextualize or to help us to better understand those time periods, so that, especially in biblical archaeology um, we take what we have learned about that time period and apply that to the bible, instead of seeing the bible or seeing those cultures through our own lenses.
And sometimes that doesn't always happen.
Um, it depends on how good the the archaeologist is at getting past their own, their own lenses and yeah, so what are some of the coolest things that like uh, as an archaeologist it doesn't have to be stuff you've found, but maybe you think the average person doesn't even know about that have been found, uh that are really interesting, especially from a biblical perspective, or not?
Um there's, there's a lot that's interesting to me, but I kind of geek out on this stuff.
Yeah um, I will say super recently um, it was well at least it was just in the news, like in the last week that down in the southern part of Israel, in the Negev region, they actually found uh fabric, Fabric from about 1000 BC.
So it would have been the time period when King David, King Solomon, when they were ruling, and it was fabric that had retained its natural purple dyes from back in the day.
And so archaeologists have known forever that purple dyes come from this one snail.
But this is the first time, as I understand it, that the fabric has actually been found and can actually be dated to that time period.
So, you know, that's that's really neat to be able to literally see what something looked like 3,000 years ago when, you know, when the Bible was happening, I think that's pretty awesome.
And then anything to me, you know, we laugh about finding the Ark of the Covenant because no one really knows where it is.
It was spirited off or it was destroyed by the Romans or there's so many theories out there as to what happened to it.
But the temple itself, of course, was destroyed in 70.
And while there's a lot of activity going around, going on around the Temple Mount, the temple itself is not going to be found because it was destroyed.
But there are so many other temples in the region from other cultures that have the same footprint that is described in the Bible.
And you can look at artifacts from other places that are geographically close and maybe, you know, were in existence at the same time as the temple and actually get an image of what Solomon's temple looked like.
We can actually visualize it.
Because when you're reading about, you know, all the qubits and all those strange words that don't always get translated all that clearly, to be able to go to a place like, well, until recently, there was a temple in Aindara in Syria.
And it, I mean, just you could look at it and you could imagine what Solomon's Temple looked like because it was, it was organized in the same way.
So those are the things that really get me excited.
When you find culture that makes you then go back to the Bible and go back to scripture and you just have an aha moment, like, I've been thinking of this all wrong.
This, that's, that's not, you know, we've been picturing this wrong.
I just think that's really cool.
And none of that's necessarily, you know, faith changing or anything, but those are those little moments where it's like, you know, okay, I understand the Bible a little better.
I understand God a little better.
Like, I don't know.
It just makes me feel closer to him.
Sure.
And what, I mean, what ways has archaeology either challenged or enhanced or just changed your understanding of things that you read in the Bible?
A lot of what I, what I just said, just being able to visualize it.
I think it's found.
I mean, I think I'm a visual learner and I'm probably not alone in that.
Even as a kid, I remember looking at the Bible and like, I'd always go to the back where there were the color maps and things like that.
And the text doesn't give us that.
And I've also been involved in a Bible translation project in the past.
And so I understand how difficult, even when you know the original languages, how difficult it can be to understand what the Bible is trying to convey because the ancient culture is so removed from what we experience as westernized modern Christians or postmodern Christians as the case maybe.
And so that's, it kind of bridges that gap, I guess, and helps me to just understand what the words of scripture actually say.
I mean, they're especially, I'm more of a Hebrew girl.
And when you're in the Old Testament, there are words that are used there that are never used anywhere else.
And, you know, translators are making their very best guess as to what they could possibly mean or how they should be interpreted.
And so when you find something actually physically, tangibly out there that illuminates, then yeah, that's, that's pretty awesome.
Is there anybody out there like, you know, because you're the Christian looking for biblical evidence?
Is there other religion guys out there like Scientologists looking for like alien bones or like is there like a Mormon out there looking for like elephant tusks or like anything like that out there?
Like they're looking for things for their for their scripture probably so and um no well no not at least I'm not a part of that.
Um there probably are people like that and even Christians.
I think a lot of a lot of Christians go out into the world into biblical archaeology looking for that one thing or looking for something to prove the Bible.
And that's that's actually really bad practice.
Like I am a Christian.
I believe the Bible.
I lead with that and anything you know that I that I write about or talk about.
But I try to kind of put that at the back of my mind when I'm actually digging and look at things clearly.
And so you want to go out there and find what's in the dirt.
And then if it if it happens to line up with scripture, then that's great.
But there's an old adage in archaeology.
I learned it early early on that, you know, if you go out looking for something, you will find it, whether you actually find it or not.
Like you will think you will find it and you will form a narrative under what, you know, around whatever is out there to make it fit what you were looking for.
And I mean, from childhood, when we're taught the scientific method and, you know, the way that you're supposed to want to form a hypothesis and go through all of these steps to, you know, to prove what you're looking for, you know, the whole idea is having a, you know, having a negative response at the end, even if you disprove what, you know, your hypothesis was to begin with, that is just as, if not more valid.
And so if you go into this exploration looking for that one thing and you find it, then I mean, that's, you may be finding something out of context.
It's not, yeah, I mean, it's, that's, it's just not good scientific practice.
And archaeology is a science.
That was a way more respectful answer to that question than I expected.
I don't know.
Stupidest question of the whole thing.
Dumb question.
Dumb question.
So your new book is about a two-week trip that you took to Israel.
And you got any cool stories about that?
That, yeah, that's part of it.
So I set off to write this book and I went and I dug for a few weeks.
And then at the end of it, my husband and my parents flew out and joined me.
And none of them had ever been to Israel before.
And the idea was we were just going to tour around the country and I was going to show them all these archaeological sites that I liked.
And I was going to write a book that was basically about these archaeological sites and these findings and how they illuminate the Bible.
And being there with my family who had, you know, this was their first time over there in that area and seeing things from their different perspectives in addition to my own sort of changed the book fundamentally.
And it's turned out to be more an exploration of, I mean, there's archaeology is huge in it.
It starts there, but it's really just about the culture of Israel, you know, as a whole.
And so we will go to different places.
And like, for instance, we went to, we got to go to Hebron, which is, it's the largest city in the West Bank.
And it is where the tomb of the patriarchs is.
So tradition would tell us that Abraham, Sarah, Joseph, you know, all their kids, kids and grandkids are all buried under there in the cave of Matpala.
And so we went there to visit that.
But then it was part of a dual narrative tour.
And so we got to have lunch with a Palestinian family and tour parts of the West Bank that Israeli citizens are not allowed to go into anymore.
In fact, Jews are not allowed to go there either.
And so we got to have these kinds of experiences.
what came clear was how inextricably linked life in Israel, in Israel and in Palestine, how it all is so just linked together with all the archaeology and the ancient history, the modern history, how all of it just kind of goes together.
And so that's kind of the turn that the book took.
And it's, you know, it's, yeah, it's an exploration of just the culture as a whole.
And hopefully so that we as Americans can understand not just, you know, our Bibles and our scripture better, but understand the lives of the people who are still living over there today.
You know, from here in America, people say they go to Israel.
And I just like, I don't know, like we know about all the conflict and stuff.
So we just think there's like bombs going off all the time and rockets flying everywhere.
So have you ever seen a bomb go off?
I had, well, I felt, I can't say I've seen, but I felt.
Yeah.
The first time I went over there, I dug in Ashkelon, which is, it's right on the coast of the Mediterranean.
It's 10 kilometers north of Gaza City.
And so Gaza rather regularly, and I mean on a weekly basis, is sending rockets into Israel.
It's just sort of a constant thing.
And I remember the first time we were there, the first time I was there, it scared me to death the first day because there were these big shakes and booms happening.
And I just kind of looked around and all the people who had, who were older than me and been before were like, no, no, no, it's okay.
It's the Israeli government.
Their military is practicing breaking the sound barrier over the Mediterranean.
And so every day at the same time, you get this huge boom.
And it was from the military exercises that were happening.
So you kind of got used to it.
And anytime I'd hear it, I'd kind of like look around, like, okay, is anyone else nervous?
No, we're fine.
Well, then the last day that I dug that year, there was a boom followed by like a big shake.
And I looked up and I looked to Larry Sager was the guy in charge of the dig.
He was my advisor and I loved him dearly.
And, you know, he looked worried.
And when he looked worried, I was like, oh, okay.
And so he ends up like collecting us.
And we went back to where we were staying a little bit, a little bit earlier.
But it's a very real thing.
And luckily, the rockets, the rockets that come out of Gaza don't do a lot of damage compared to other weapons.
But it's, yeah, it's kind of, it's a constant thing.
When we, when we went into Hebron, we took actually an armored city bus and I was sitting next to the window and you could see like the glass was like that thick.
I mean, it was so thick and you could see where it had been scarred in the past by some sort of bullets or something like grazing the window.
I mean, as people were going by, because it's, it's just, it's sadly, it's still a present reality out there.
Crazy.
Yeah.
Wild.
That is wild.
And I, I mean, I say it, it's, it feels very, very far from home.
But then like two Saturdays ago, I mean, David and I were sitting here.
It was 1:30 in the afternoon.
There was actually a shooting right out in front of our house.
So there's like bullets in my brick right now.
So it's, yeah, it's, it's a little bit closer to home than it used to be.
Yeah.
Wow.
Crazy.
Well, if you find any more stuff with the patriarchy involved, you should smash that.
Smash the patriarchs?
Yeah.
You have the opportunity.
That was a done.
We got to crush that history.
You don't have to respond.
We need the correct history.
You don't have to respond.
Yeah, you don't have to respond to that.
You don't have to give us the time to get.
All right.
Well, thanks for coming on, Amanda.
This is awesome.
Your book is here.
It's out.
The red-haired archaeologist digs Israel.
And it's out.
You're going to dig this book and you guys will dig it.
Hopefully.
That's a confident.
All right.
Well, thank you.
Awesome.
Thanks a lot, Amanda.
I'm Miss Adam Ford.
All right, the Babylon B, we always get hate mail.
Plentiful supply.
Every week, the truck pulls up, backs up to our office.
We say just put it in the back.
We recycle it.
Just dump them hate mail.
So today's hate mail comes from someone named Paul.
And Kristen gets to read it for us.
Oh, great.
That's Paul Voice.
All right.
I'll try.
I have unsubscribed from your list after reading your shameless tribute to Rush Limbaugh.
I used to think your site was even-handed.
What was he reading?
But lately.
But lately, your praises of Donald Trump, your excuses for traitor, Ted Cruz, and your praise of the king of hate speech, Limbaugh, I find I can no longer stomach your point of view.
Paul.
Sad.
Yeah, it really happened overnight because we were publishing a bunch of like liberal satire for just years.
And then all of a sudden I say, you know what?
Pivot.
Let's praise Trump.
Let's praise Limbaugh.
Let's praise the traitor, Ted Cruz.
Like, in what universe is Ted Cruz a traitor?
Like, even if you were like, he flew to Cancun or whatever.
Like, what?
What's that what it was?
That must be a traitor.
Does that make you a traitor?
You're a traitor in anything.
Well, if you're a Republican, you're a traitor at all.
Oh, maybe because he was, they say that he was like on Trump's side up until the January 6th riots or something.
He's a traitor.
I think it's maybe worth the time.
I'm not involved.
Anyway, well, sorry, Paul.
We'll try to be more, we'll try to do better and be more liberal for you.
Even-handed.
Let's do a quick, more liberal joke real quick.
Ted Cruz.
What an idiot.
What a traitor.
Traitor idiot.
What a traitor idiot.
Ted Cruz to open a new store called Traitor Ted's.
Called Traitors R Us.
Oh, I get it.
Trader Joe's.
I get it.
Took me a second.
Yeah.
I realized midway through the joke, it'd be weird if it was Trader Joe's because his name is Ted.
Yeah, Traitor Ted's.
Traitor Ted's.
Traitor Teds.
Yes.
Great.
We got you back.
And then in parentheses, because he's a traitor.
Let's publish it.
All right.
Well, we're going to go on to our subscriber lounge and go hang out in the subscriber lounge, get some bonus hate mail.
We're going to read mailbag stuff.
We're going to read subscriber headlines.
We're going to ask Kristen the 10 questions.
Well, you know what?
I saw on the podcast, we had a review and they asked, what is the value of the subscriber portion?
Like, how long is it?
What all do you get?
Because they're like on the fence.
So it said they can do the $5 a month.
So what do you think?
Subscriber portion is usually around 30 minutes.
It depends on the episode.
Sometimes it's a lot longer than that.
Sometimes it's a little bit shorter, but usually it's about 30 minutes.
We do a lot of interactive stuff where people send us mail and we'll respond to it and interact.
Subscribers at the premium level or higher get to submit headlines to the Babylon Bee that occasionally get published.
And we go through and we read the top submitted ones of the week.
We also read extra hate mail.
Yeah, one thing about the subscriber portion is we know it won't be on YouTube.
It just has a less chance of it being like taken and shared.
And so we are a little bit looser, especially with guests.
It's a little more chill.
And I find that the interviews really pick up there because people can kind of speak a little more freely.
We shouldn't ask our subscriber.
Yeah, what do you think?
So one of the things you guys didn't even mention that's one of the best things about being a premium subscriber.
Well, can you write, you can write comments if you're just a regular subscriber on the articles.
But the headline form, if you're a premium subscriber, also you can write comments on other people's headlines and reply to other comments.
And so there's you kind of you get to know people on there.
Yeah, there's a community that opens up, which is cool.
Yeah, a lot of fun.
It is.
And you've had some stories published, right?
I have.
Yeah, you're like one of our top headline submitters.
There are some people who've had more published than me, but I have definitely probably, I don't know if I'm submitted more headlines than anybody else, but I'm in the multi-thousands.
Wow.
I don't know.
But not multi-thousands.
Over a thousand.
Yeah.
All right.
Impressive.
So do it.
Join us.
Just try it for one month, five bucks.
You don't like it?
You can always listen to the testimonial from a happy, satisfied Babylon Bee subscriber.
That's right.
Yes.
Is it better than any other subscription you have?
Like Netflix?
Absolutely.
Anything you got.
Head and tails.
Way better.
Way more value.
I don't even think I have other subscriptions.
That's the only one you need, really.
She'd pay any amount.
Yeah.
How much would you pay a month if we raised the price?
Whatever it is.
Whatever it is.
Yeah.
It's worth it.
$10,000 a month.
You could subscribe at the Elon Musk tier, which now exists.
Yeah, that might be a little much.
Too much.
10,000.
Yeah.
All right, everyone.
Thanks for joining us.
And please join us in the lounge.
Yeah.
Coming up next for Babylon Bee subscribers.
One thing my parents did very well, and I think it's important to do is to encourage whatever they're interested in, even if you don't like it.
Find something that they love because then if you have something they love, that's a carrot to other, keeping the other behaviors in mind.
They know they might not be able to do it if they don't behave in other areas.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Oh, you like food?
Oh, you like playing the pitch.
You like playing the cello?
Break the cello.
Wondering what they'll say next?
The rest of this podcast is in our super exclusive premium subscriber lounge.
Go to babylonbee.com/slash plans for full-length ad-free podcasts.
Kyle and Ethan would like to thank Seth Dillon for paying the bills, Adam Ford for creating their job, the other writers for tirelessly pitching headlines, the subscribers, and you, the listener.