Flipping Tables - Monte Mader

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59. Ronald Reagan Part 2: Reaganomics May 18, 2026

Show notes

We met the carefully curated Ronald Reagan in part 1. We saw the Hollywood grin, the borrowed cowboy myth, the astrologer in the basement, the informant and the corporate lackey. In Part 2, we follow the money. The sale of a new economic dream for Americans during a time of desperate stagflation, unemployment and uncertainty. And what it sold has cost this country more than any single presidency in modern American history.

Reaganomics was pitched to Americans as common sense. The government takes too much, thats the problem. Taxes on "job creators" choke the economy, corporations are going to run if you tax them you know. Cut taxes, slash regulation, trust the market — and a tide of prosperity will lift every boat. Cut off the welfare queen and free the small business owner. Trust the rich. Trust the men in suits who already had everything to know what was best for the woman scrubbing the floor at the hospital. He sold it the way only Reagan could, with a tear in his eye, a flag behind him, and a story about a Cadillac driving welfare cheat in Chicago who statistically did not exist.

In this episode, we trace what actually happened next.

The top income tax rate fell from 70 percent to 28 percent. The estate tax was gutted and capital gains were slashed. Corporate rates collapsed. All the ways the wealthiest among us make wealth were unleashed while the rest of us stayed tethered, shouldering more than our share of the burden. Union membership crashed from one in four American workers to roughly one in ten. Wages stopped tracking productivity. The federal minimum wage was frozen in time. Wall Street was deregulated, manufacturing was offshored, and the bottom half of the country watched its share of national wealth fall from 4 percent to barely 2.5, while the top 1 percent's share doubled. All while the national debt tripled. The mental health system was hollowed out, causing homelessness to explode. And every Republican economic platform since has been some version of do that again. Even Democratic leaders have allied themselves with this ideology in some way.

We also dismantle the lie at the heart of it all, that spending on people is waste. Because every credible economist who has actually run the numbers has found the opposite. Every dollar invested in SNAP generates up to $1.80 in economic activity. Every dollar spent on early childhood education returns $7 to $12. Public transit returns roughly $4 to $1. WIC saves $3 in future Medicaid costs for every dollar it spends. Universal preschool, paid family leave, Medicaid expansion, infrastructure, these aren't handouts. They are the highest-return investments any government can make. The math has been clear for forty years. We were just told not to look.

Reaganomics were one expensive lie for the American people. In this episode we talk about why we bought it, who profited, who's still paying — and what this country would actually look like if we ran the numbers instead of the mythology.

58. Ronald Reagan Part 1: The Marriage May 11, 2026

Show notes

Three decades before the White House, Ronald Reagan was being assembled in plain sight. This episode traces the apprenticeship most highlight reels skip: the New Deal Democrat who became FBI informant "T-10," the B-list actor who turned a corporate speaking tour into a political movement, and the lapsed Midwestern kid who would one day broker the marriage of the Republican Party and white evangelical America.

In postwar Hollywood, where Reagan, as Screen Actors Guild president, simultaneously fed names to the FBI and lent SAG's institutional cover to the blacklist. His October 1947 HUAC testimony was polite; the private file was not. Careers ended on the strength of "fraternal" reports.

Then in 1954, General Electric Theater, and eight years on the GE plant circuit under Lemuel Boulware, the hardline VP who handed Reagan a reading list of Hayek and Hazlitt and turned his pep talks into a portable free market gospel. Corporations were buying preachers and performers to sell their "anti-union, low regulation" gospel. By 1962 GE had cut him loose, but "The Speech" was finished and in 1964 it launched Goldwater and, with him, Reagan himself.

Finally, the wedding of cross and capital. Reagan, never a churchgoing adult, became the indispensable broker between corporate donors and a politically homeless evangelical electorate. In Dallas, August 1980, he closed the deal with one line: "I know you can't endorse me, but I want you to know I endorse you." That coalition outlived him still runs our country. In Part 2 we talk about the longterm staggering impact of Reaganomics.

References

Balmer, R. (2021). Bad faith: Race and the rise of the religious right. Eerdmans.

Cannon, L. (2000). President Reagan: The role of a lifetime. PublicAffairs.

Crespino, J. (2007). The new right and the southern strategy. Journal of Southern History, 73(4), 895–924.

Critchlow, D. T. (2005). Phyllis Schlafly and grassroots conservatism: A woman’s crusade. Princeton University Press.

Dochuk, D. (2011). From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain‑folk religion, grassroots politics, and the rise of evangelical conservatism. W. W. Norton.

FitzGerald, F. (2017). The evangelicals: The struggle to shape America. Simon & Schuster.

Hancock, A. (2004). The politics of disgust: The public identity of the welfare queen. New York University Press.

Kohler‑Hausmann, J. (2017). Getting tough: Welfare and imprisonment in 1970s America. Princeton University Press.

Kruse, K. M. (2015). One nation under God: How corporate America invented Christian America. Basic Books.

Levin, J. (2019). The queen: The forgotten life behind an American myth. Little, Brown and Company.

Mittelstadt, J. (2005). From welfare to workfare: The unintended consequences of liberal reform, 1945–1965. University of North Carolina Press.

Nadasen, P. (2005). Welfare warriors: The welfare rights movement in the United States. Routledge.

Nickerson, M. M. (2012). The Reagan administration’s response to the gender gap. Journal of Policy History, 24(1), 115–140.

Perlstein, R. (2020). Reaganland: America’s right turn 1976–1980. Simon & Schuster.

Reagan, R. (1986, February 15). Radio address to the nation on welfare reform [Speech transcript]. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/radio-address-nation-welfare-reform

Rich, C. G. (2020). The “welfare queen” goes to the polls: Race‑based fractures in gender politics. Georgetown Law Journal, 108(4), 1–67.

Shilts, R. (1987). And the band played on: Politics, people, and the AIDS epidemic. St. Martin’s Press.

Sick, G. (1991). October surprise: America’s hostages in Iran and the election of Ronald Reagan. Times Books.

Troy, G. (2009). The great communicator: Media and the Reagan image. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 39(3), 458–470.

Unger, C. (2024). Den of spies: Reagan, Carter, and the secret history of the treason that stole the White House. Mariner Books.

Wilentz, S. (2008). The age of Reagan: A history, 1974–2008. HarperCollins.

57. Where Do We Go From Here? With Crystal Dawn May 04, 2026

Show notes

In this deeply personal episode, Crystal Dawn opens up about the slow, often invisible process of religious deconstruction. Raised inside a tight-knit faith community where belief wasn't just a doctrine but the architecture of every relationship, Crystal walks us through the cracks that started as questions and widened into a chasm she could no longer pretend wasn't there.

Crystal Dawn is a writer and content creator shedding light on the patriarchal systems of harm within evangelical culture. Her experiences growing up a pastor’s daughter, as well as her own deconstruction journey, give her a unique lens… one she blends with research and history to give language to what many people experience in coming out of those spaces. She is currently at work on her first book, forthcoming in 2027.

Follow Crystal Here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crystaldawnalchemy4/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/CrystalDawnAlchemy

Website: www.crystaldawnalchemy.com

56. The Years of War on Palestine with Dr. Daniel Bannoura Apr 27, 2026

Show notes

Resource packet mentioned in podcast: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JHWbiYVQ4sD5gX-o0yHC-5hXnY1KPf0kBvw2rZSJfiE/edit?tab=t.0

For ad free episodes, bonus content and "where did we get the Bible?" series sign up at patreon.com/montemader

We have all seen the photos and videos of Gaza the last two years. We have heard the stories. We have watched politicians deflect and people say "but October 7th!!". But there's a story that spans far beyond October 7th. There is a series of decisions that decimated a region and crushed the vulnerable under the thumb of the powerful. How did we get here? what is the history that led to this point? To help talk about his heartwrenching story, we welcome Dr. Daniel Bannoura. Daniel is a Palestinian theologian and podcaster. He is a professor at the University of Notre Dame, where he received his PhD degree in Qur'anic Studies. He’s also the Director of Public Engagement at the Bethlehem Institute of Peace and Justice, and host of “Across the Divide”, a podcast that provides a space for thoughtful conversations about Palestine-Israel through the lens of faith and peacemaking.

Recommended Reading: 100 Years War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

55. 70,000 Sermons: How Corporate America Bought the Pulpit Apr 20, 2026

Show notes

This episode is brought to you by ground news. Get 40% off their Vantage plan by using groundnews.com/montemader

That feeling you get at 11pm on a Tuesday as you crawl into bed after another long day. You've been moving nonstop since you got up and theres a gnawing guilt you can't quite shake. That you haven't done enough, you should be doing more, working harder. That feeling has a 400 year history. Born on a ship off the coast of Massachusetts in 1630, preached from a Puritan pulpit, secularized by Benjamin Franklin, bolted to a factory wall, and then deliberately and expensively marketed to you by a public relations firm hired by General Motors.

The message wanders through the mill towns where clergy were quietly put on the company payroll to preach that strikes were sins against God; through the Gilded Age sermons of Henry Ward Beecher telling starving railroad workers that bread and water was enough; through the jaw-dropping story of Spiritual Mobilization, a corporate-funded operation that distributed pre-written anti-union sermons to seventy thousand American ministers during the New Deal era. The Protestant pulpit, for a generation, was a subcontractor of the American boardroom.

But it's also a story of the people who fought back and the saga ends with a powerful question "What if rest itself is the most radical act left available to us?"

References: full list at patreon.com/montemader

Bowler, K. (2013). Blessed: A history of prosperity gospel. Oxford University Press.

Carnegie, A. (1889). Wealth. The North American Review, 148(391), 653–664.

Carter, H. W. (2015). Union made: Working people and the rise of social Christianity in Chicago. Oxford University Press.

Cotton, J. (1641). The way of life. Printed by M. F. for L. Fawne and S. Gellibrand.

Dochuk, D. (2011). From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain folk religion, grassroots politics, rise of evangelical conservatism. W. W. Norton.

Federici, S. (2004). Caliban and the witch: Women, the body, and primitive accumulation. Autonomedia.

Franklin, B. (1904). Advice to a young tradesman. In A. H. Smyth (Ed.), The writings of Benjamin Franklin (Vol. 2).

Franklin, B. (1909). The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. P. F. Collier & Son.

Fraser, N. (2016). Contradictions of capital and care. New Left Review, 100, 99–117.

Gilman, C. P. (1898). Women and economics: A study of the economic relation between men and women as a factor in social evolution. Small, Maynard & Company.

Grant, H. J. (1936, October). Conference report. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.

Han, B. C. (2015). The burnout society (E. Butler, Trans.). Stanford University Press.

Harvey, D. (2005). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University Press

Hersey, T. (2022). Rest is resistance: A manifesto

Kruse, K. M. (2015). One nation under God: How corporate America invented Christian America.

Machen, J. G. (1933). The Christian view of man. William B. Eerdmans.

Osborn, I. (2008). Can Christianity cure obsessive OCD? A psychiatrist explores the role of faith in treatment. Brazos Press.

Petersen, A. H. (2020). Can’t even: How millennials became the burnout generation. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Phillips-Fein, K. (2009). Invisible hands: The businessmen’s crusade against the New Deal. W. W. Norton.

Price, D. (2021). Laziness does not exist. Atria Books.

Rodgers, D. T. (1978). The work ethic in industrial America, 1850–1920. University of Chicago Press.

Rose, J. (2001). The poverty of virtue: The ethical foundations of American welfare reform. Journal of Religious Ethics, 29(2), 247–272.

Sutton, M. A. (2014). American apocalypse: A history of modern evangelicalism. Harvard University Press.

Suzman, J. (2020). Work: A deep history, Stone Age to the age of robots. Penguin Press.

Tawney, R. H. (1926). Religion/rise of capitalism. John Murray.

Winthrop, J. (1838). Model of Christian charity. In Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society (3rd series, Vol. 7, pp. 31–48). (Original work delivered 1630)

54. Sacred Silence: The Church And Abuse Apr 13, 2026

Show notes

This Episode is brought to you by Ground News, subscribe for 4o% off their vantage plan at groundnews.com/monte

Why do institutions built on moral authority so often become safe harbors for predators?

Abuse scandals within religious institutions are recurring patterns with shared structural causes. This episode breaks down why churches, regardless of denomination, repeatedly find themselves at the center of abuse cover-up stories, and why victims so often find themselves silenced.

We walk through several prominent cases that have made headlines in recent years spanning Catholic dioceses, evangelical megachurches, and independent ministries examining the common threads: delayed reporting, internal investigations kept away from civil authorities, institutional loyalty placed above victim care, and the "forgiveness" framework weaponized to shut down accountability.

Then we go deeper into the structural question: hierarchy itself. When authority flows unidirectionally downward challenging a leader becomes spiritually dangerous for members. Whistleblowers risk not just reputation but community, belonging, and in some traditions, their eternal standing. This creates near perfect conditions for abuse to go fester and grow.

Sources

Baptist News Global. (2026, March 21). The Southern Baptist Convention did not get played. https://baptistnews.com/article/the-southern-baptist-convention-did-not-get-played/

Barr, B. A. (2021). The making of biblical womanhood

Chen, Y. (2024). Ecclesiastical abstention or judicial abdication? The First Amendment and clergy sexual abuse. Yale Law & Policy Review, 42(1), 1–58.

CrossPolitic Studios. (2026, March 17). How the SBC got played [Documentary film]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/XNQk2y8cUJY

Du Mez, K. K. (2020). Jesus and John Wayne

Freyd, J. J. (2022). Institutional betrayal and institutional courage. In L. S. Brown & E. Pantalone (Eds.),

Guidepost Solutions. (2022). Report of the independent investigation: The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee’s response to sexual abuse allegations and an audit of the procedures and actions of the Credentials Committee. https://guidepostsolutions.com/sbc-ec-investigation/

Hess, R., & Hess, J. (1989). A full quiver: Family planning and the lordship of Christ. Wolgemuth & Hyatt.

Ingersoll, J. (2015). Building God’s kingdom: Inside the world of Christian Reconstructionism. Oxford University Press.

Joyce, K. (2009). Quiverfull: Inside the Christian patriarchy movement. Beacon Press.

Klein, L. K. (2018). Pure

Kvam, K. E., Schearing, L. S., & Ziegler, V. H. (Eds.). (1999). Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim readings on Genesis and gender. Indiana University Press.

MinistryWatch. (2022, February 15). Former plaintiffs in Bill Gothard abuse lawsuit hit back at Institute in Basic Life Principles’ statement to NBC News. https://ministrywatch.com/

MinistryWatch. (2025, August 1). TX Supreme Court rules against Bill Gothard and the Institute for Basic Life Principles. https://ministrywatch.com/

Netflix. (2022). Our father [Documentary film]. Blumhouse Productions.

North, G. (1996). Crossed fingers: How the liberals captured the Presbyterian Church

Portugal, T. (2023). Donor Deceived: Doctor donor fraud cases. https://donordeceived.org/

Pride, M. (1985). The way home: Beyond feminism, back to reality. Crossway Books.

Provan, C. D. (1989). The Bible and birth control. Zimmer Printing.

Recovering Grace. (2014). Firsthand accounts of sexual harassment and abuse at IBLP. https://www.recoveringgrace.org/

Right to Know. (2023). Fight fertility fraud now: State and federal legislation tracker. https://righttoknow.us/fertility-fraud-laws/

Silliman, D. (Director). (2023). Shiny happy people: Duggar family secrets [Documentary series]. Amazon Studios.

Stewart, K. (2020). The power worshippers

Type Investigations. (2016, January 8). New charges allege rape by prominent religious leader. https://www.typeinvestigations.org/

Worthen, M. (2013). Apostles of reason

53. Meeting the Enemy with Deeyah Khan Apr 06, 2026

Show notes

I feel very confident in saying that this is quite possibly the most important, powerful, and for me, inspiring interview I've ever done. This one is on the longer side but it is worth every minute. I could have done a series with Deeyah.

Deeyah Khan is a BAFTA– and two-time Emmy Award–winning documentary filmmaker known for her deeply empathetic and unflinching storytelling. Her work explores some of the most urgent and polarising issues of our time, including extremism, violence against women, racism, inequality, and social exclusion.

Over the course of her career, she has spent years engaging directly with individuals involved in violence and extremist movements. Her documentaries feature jihadists, convicted anti-abortion terrorists, as well as current and former white supremacists and armed militia groups in the United States. Through these encounters, she seeks to understand the human stories behind radicalisation and division.

In addition to her filmmaking, Deeyah is the founder of Fuuse, an independent media and arts production company. In 2016, she was appointed UNESCO’s first Goodwill Ambassador for artistic freedom and creativity.

Born in Norway to Muslim immigrant parents, Deeyah’s experience of navigating multiple cultures informs her creative vision. This perspective brings a distinctive emotional honesty and humanity to her work, shaping films that not only challenge audiences, but also foster connection, deeper understanding and dialogue.
I encountered Deeyah's work in her documentary "White Right: Meeting the Enemy" and it is TRULY transformative. She sat in rooms with white supremacists I'd be nervous to sit in and she did it with fierceness, determination, courage and love. And some of those men left the movement due to her influence. She is a rockstar and I can't wait to share this story with you.

62. The Least of These- With Jen Hamilton Mar 30, 2026

Show notes

This episode is brought to you by Ground News. Get 40% off their vantage plan by subscribing at groundnews.com/monte

Like many of you, I watched a viral video of a gorgeous woman walking through her house, opening her Bible to Matthew 25 and reading the passage on "the least of these". This was in response to a TikTok comment of someone lashing out at Jen because she (the commenter) "was maga and loved Jesus". After calmly reading the Bible, Jen simply says "sounds pretty liberal to me" and ends the video.
That simple video caused MAGA to call Jen's job where she works as an OB Nurse to get her fired, reported her online and tried to call her licensing board to get her nursing license revoked! Because she read the Bible and they didn't like it. She even had to have private security when she spoke at a conference.
And that is how I met a kind, compassionate, funny, loving lady who shares my alma mater. We talk about our journey's through faith, Liberty, growth, change, and what it means to love your neighbor.

61. Women Who Fly- Amelia Earhart Mar 23, 2026

Show notes

This episode is brought to you by Ground News. You can get 40% off their Vantage plan and stay up to date with all the news by going to groundnews.com/tables

My grandma Ena was a pilot and they were her favorite stories to tell. I am sure its no surprise that I grew up with Amelia Earhart as one of my heroes. The woman who flew so that my grandma could fly.

She vanished into the sky—and into one of the greatest mysteries of the modern age.

In this episode, we fly into the world of Amelia Earhart, a woman who refused to stay grounded, refused to stay compliant and traditional in a time when society expected her to. She became record-breaking aviator and one of the most famous women in the world. The first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. A symbol of independence, grit, and relentless ambition.

But Earhart wasn’t just chasing records—she was chasing the edge of possibility itself.

In 1937, she set out on a daring attempt to circumnavigate the globe, navigating thousands of miles over open ocean with only the tools and technology of her time. Somewhere over the vast Pacific, near a tiny speck called Howland Island… she disappeared.

No confirmed wreckage. No distress call that told the full story. Just silence.

In this episode, we’ll trace her rise from a curious, rebellious girl to one of the most famous pilots in history and then dive headfirst into the theories, investigations, and unanswered questions that have kept her story alive for nearly a century.

And we will take a brief flyover to meet the Night Witches of the USSR's air service.

This episode is to celebrate Women's History month with women who paved a runway for those who would come later!

Rachel Hartigan, Lost: Unsolved Mysteries of Amelia Earhart and the Bermuda Triangle

Susan Butler, East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart

Doris L. Rich, Amelia Earhart: A Biography

Mary S. Lovell, The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart

Candace Fleming, Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

Ric Gillespie, Finding Amelia: The True Story of the Earhart Disappearance

Elgen M. Long and Marie K. Long, Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved

Mike Campbell, Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last

Fred Goerner, The Search for Amelia Earhart

Vincent V. Loomis, Amelia Earhart: The Final Story

Les Kinney, Amelia Earhart: Beyond the Grave

Theodore G. Tharpe, Crash and Sink: The Salvage of the Earhart Electra

National Geographic Society, “Amelia Earhart Biography and Disappearance”

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, “Amelia Earhart”

Library of Congress, “Amelia Earhart Papers”

FBI Records: The Vault, “Amelia Earhart”

TIGHAR (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery), “Amelia Earhart Project Research”

U.S. Navy Historical Center, “Earhart Search Operations 1937”

PBS American Experience, Amelia Earhart

History Channel, “Amelia Earhart Disappearance Theories”

60. MKULTRA and the Pursuit of Mind Control Mar 16, 2026

Show notes

This episode is brought to you by Ground News. Subscribe for 40% off their vantage plan at groundnews.com/tables. Project MKUltra was a secret research program run by the Central Intelligence Agency beginning in 1953 during the Cold War. Its goal was to explore methods of mind control, interrogation, and psychological manipulation, partly out of fear that rival nations like the Soviet Union were developing similar techniques.

The program funded dozens of experiments at universities, hospitals, and prisons. Researchers tested drugs such as LSD, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, electroshock, and other methods to see whether human behavior and memory could be controlled. Many subjects were not informed they were part of experiments, and some were exposed to powerful drugs without consent.

The program remained secret until the 1970s, when investigations by the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities revealed the experiments. Much of the documentation had already been destroyed on orders from CIA director Richard Helms.

MKUltra became one of the most controversial intelligence programs in U.S. history and led to new oversight of intelligence agencies and stricter ethical rules for human experimentation.

Sources available by request at info@montemader.com

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