Jonestown - The Monster | 125
Don’t drink the Kool-Aid. We’ve all heard it, heck most of us have said it. An anachronism from the 80's that has come to simply mean to not completely buy into an idea whether good or bad. But the roots of the phrase are so much more severe…so much more frightening. Whether it be by their own hand or forcibly – these poor souls died in the steaming jungles of Jonestown, Guyana at the order of their leader. A maniacal, drug addicted cult leader named Jim Jones. In this first of two episodes we explore the man responsible. How could one man hold that much power over his followers? What would compel a man to ask almost 1,000 people to lay down their lives? Are monsters born monsters or do they turn into them? We dive into all of those light questions this week. Plus, Conspiracy Bot grows his business as people are actually buying his product (we don’t know who), Joe Peck is back on the show for the 2nd week in a row (we don’t know how), and Kevin Crispin makes his triumphant return with special guest Chris Marcum (we don’t know why). All of that and more on the podcast that wasn’t at Jonestown, but one of our favorite albums is Sam’s Town - Hysteria 51.
Special thanks to this week’s research sources:
Research Assistant – Raymond Walden IV
Books
Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People | Tim Reiterman
Videos
Return to Jonestown- Survivors revisit site 40 years after the tragedy | Sunday Night
Jonestown: Life and Death of Peoples Temple | Documentary
Jonestown: Paradise Lost | Documentary
A People's Temple Meeting With Jim Jones - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUE5OBwDpfs
Websites
Encyclopedia Britannica - https://www.britannica.com/event/Jonestown-massacre
Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown
Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones
The Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/17/an-apocalyptic-cult-900-dead-remembering-the-jonestown-massacre-40-years-on
Time - http://time.com/longform/jonestown-aftermath/
Rolling Stone - https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/jonestown-jim-jones-bodies-memorial-756320/
Rolling Stone - https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/jonestown-13-things-you-should-know-about-cult-massacre-121974/
Biography -https://www.biography.com/people/jim-jones-1036760
PBS - https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/jonestown-bio-jones/
ThoughtCo – https://www.thoughtco.com/jim-jones-and-the-peoples-temple-1779897
Alt Jonestown – https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=14026
Intro Music:
Nervous Piano – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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