{"id":111349,"date":"2021-10-07T13:50:37","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T20:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=111349"},"modified":"2026-03-03T14:56:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T22:56:38","slug":"the-fourth-peoples-temple-podcast-review","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=111349","title":{"rendered":"The Fourth Peoples Temple Podcast Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

In what has become a regular feature of the jonestown report<\/em>, the following is the 2021 review of podcasts dealing with Jim Jones and Peoples Temple. This edition covers podcasts from Paranoid Planet, Vice Extremes, Silent Command, The Worldview Clash Class, BBC Heart & Soul, and Transmissions from Jonestown. Reviews from previous years can be found for 2020<\/a>, 2018<\/a>, and 2017<\/a>. To learn more about podcasts in general, I refer you to a primer<\/a> written in 2017.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s podcasts run from standard interviews to deeply experimental audio diaries. The good news is that none of these podcasts need to shamed. They all offer something positive for listeners. Be warned that some of these podcasts were aiming for longest podcast episode ever.<\/p>\n

And now, in no particular order.<\/p>\n

Paranoid Planet episodes <\/strong>3.4A<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>3.4B<\/strong><\/a>, and <\/strong>3.4C<\/strong><\/a> (March & April 2021)<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you like to hear the views of this website\u2019s editor, Fielding McGehee, you\u2019re in for a treat. Two of these three episodes constitute four hours of Fielding. It\u2019s a lot to take in, but there are some noteworthy moments. In the first episode, prior to the interview itself, the host reads an impressive essay that touches on a multitude of topics: Russia\u2019s Church of the Last Testament whose beliefs and practices are similar to Jim Jones and Peoples Temple, a history of the Stanford Prison experiment and, discussions on how group dynamics, paranoia, and conspiracy thinking can lead to people in power abusing people with no power. In episode two, after selections from the Peoples Temple album, He\u2019s Able <\/em>are played, there is a serious debate about usage of the words \u201ccult\u201d and \u201cbrainwashing\u201d. (The host persisted in using those terms in episode three, so I guess he wasn\u2019t convinced by Fielding\u2019s arguments.) The other notable discussion here is of a handful of conspiracy theories, most of which are analyzed and dismissed due to lack of evidence. There was one conspiracy \u2013 that Jonestown was a big marijuana farm which had to be destroyed, as well as the people on it \u2013 that Fielding had never heard of.<\/p>\n

Episode three is more shambolic. The hosts posit that people who believe they are victims of conspiracies will often spin their own conspiracies. For example, Jim Jones\u2019 personal nurse, Annie Moore certainly believed that government agencies such as the CIA, FBI, and IRS, were trying to destroy Peoples Temple, but in Jonestown, she believed in a conspiracy to poison Jim\u2019s milkshakes. Other examples are provided, including some from the host\u2019s own life experience in Kennedy conspiracies circles.<\/p>\n

Vice Extremes: S2E1, <\/strong>\u201cEscaping a Cult\u201d<\/strong><\/a> (February 2020)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a 45-minute interview with Vernon Gosney, and I think it\u2019s the best I found this year (even though it was aired in 2020) simply because of Gosney. He talks about his childhood, his wife\u2019s death, and the events of November 18 in a way that is touching but never maudlin. As an example: Gosney was severely wounded at the Port Kaituma airstrip and hospitalized for several weeks. When his father, uncles, and brothers finally came for his release, they were armed. After all, they had heard the feverish speculation of post-November 18 \u201chit squads.\u201d The story is both is funny and heartfelt.<\/p>\n

I have always admired Gosney\u2019s ability to sum things up, and he does it here again. Towards the end, when asked about red flags he saw before Jonestown, he discusses how he convinced himself to stay in Peoples Temple by comparing it to falling madly in love and making excuses for someone\u2019s behavior because you\u2019re still holding on to that beautiful dream of the relationship. \u201cIn groups like this,\u201d he says, \u201cthey take what is acceptable to a certain line, and they move it just a little bit, and then they move it a little bit.\u201d Gosney was a gifted, insightful storyteller, and I will miss hearing from him in documentaries and other projects. Mahalo nui loa.<\/p>\n

Silent Command 94: <\/strong>Hurry, My Children: A Jonestown and Peoples Temple Audio History<\/a> (November 2020) <\/strong><\/p>\n

This was truly inventive. Mike Applestein created an audio diary to tell the story of Peoples Temple using only the archive of recovered tapes and one outside source. Sermons, interviews, phone calls, recorded broadcasts, selections from He\u2019s Able<\/em>, and other snippets are woven together; it is not<\/em> just a collection of \u201ccrazy Jim\u201d moments. The sound quality varies because of the sources used here, and there are gaps because of the lack of recorded materials before 1966, but don\u2019t let that stop you. There are intimidating phone calls made by Temple spokesman Mike Prokes. Another features an anonymous caller attacking Lester Kinsolving. Dr. Larry Schacht shows up in one of the White Night rehearsal tapes. Perhaps the most poignant one is a sad call between a mother and daughter whose relationship has clearly fractured because of Peoples Temple.<\/p>\n

The best segment includes selections from the death tape interspersed with recordings from shortwave radio calls being made to the Embassy in Georgetown. You hear Jones talking about how someone on the plane is going to shoot the pilot, then you get a recording that there might have been a shooting at the airstrip. You hear Jones talking about laying down our lives, then a recorded phone call of embassy personnell trying to figure out who Mr. Frazier is and what it means that the children are going to see him. It\u2019s chilling.<\/p>\n

The podcaster\u2019s discussion of the program and his listing of sources appears\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Worldview Clash Class: <\/strong>Search for Peoples Temple<\/strong><\/a>; six episodes February & March 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn this series, we look at the Peoples Temple Movement from a biblical Worldview…\u201d Those words made me excited: finally, a podcast that will systematically go through Jones\u2019 theological beliefs about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, sin, salvation, etc. and then refute or confirm using Scripture. And it started out that way. Jason Burger\u2019s first episode analyzes Jones\u2019 preaching skills, that he preached with Scripture, with authority, and about the issues of the day. It concludes that Peoples Temple was distinct from other groups and movements.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the second episode with Fielding discusses how Jones twisted Scripture and denigrated the Bible while simultaneously using it to support and lift himself over the members.<\/p>\n

The remaining episodes never really kept up. Two interviews with Hue Fortson and with David Parker Wise \u2013 both former associate pastors of the Temple \u2013 and another episode that attempted to provide a visit to a Peoples Temple meeting with lots of audio clips, were interesting and informative, but I couldn\u2019t see how they tied to a biblical analysis of Jones or Peoples Temple. The last episode does examine some of Jones\u2019 claims and refute them, but it feels like an afterthought.<\/p>\n

BBC Heart & Soul: Jonestown: From Socialism to Slaughter (Part 1, 12\/4, 2020<\/a>) & (Part 2, 12\/11 2020<\/a>)
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Originally broadcast on BBC World Service, this two-part program explores \u201cintimate questions of faith and spirituality\u201d from around the world. Most of the other episodes I looked at in this series seem to explore current events, so I am not sure why they covered a 42-year-old event, other than maybe because the problem of messianic leaders is always ongoing? It\u2019s never discussed how this fits into today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n

BBC reporter Erin Martin brings a unique perspective, in that she was born in to and spent several years in COBU (Church of Bible Understanding), a group that is very similar to Peoples Temple. She does inject thoughts about the similarity between the experiences of people in the Temple and what she went through.<\/p>\n

One thing that did bother me is that, in this program she states that she finds the word \u201ccult\u201d is not helpful, but she used it as the title of her own show in 2018-2019, Cult Talk with Erin Martin<\/em> which focused on the experiences of other COBU survivors. Maybe she feels comfortable using the label for her own experience but does not push it onto others? Thankfully, she does spent time here demonstrating, with quotes, that people do not join a cult. They join a family or an organization whose goals they believe in.<\/p>\n

The basic Peoples Temple story is presented along with warning signs that Martin points out along the way. These warning signs are paired with segments of interviews with Tim Carter, Leslie Wagner-Wilson, Jordan Vilchez, Stephan Jones, Vera Washington, and Fielding McGehee, as well as old recordings from the Peoples Temple archives.<\/p>\n