The Trailer Park Rules
by Michelle Teheux
 
review by Julie Carpenter






​For many people, the lives of the poor are opaque. Even those who have experienced poverty or lived around the edges of it, often don’t look back if they manage to escape. Fear keeps only one eye open so the middle class and rich see only the “poor choices” made by those who can’t “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and not the system that could easily subsume almost anyone—no matter how much they have in the bank—in a moment. The reality is too frightening to take in, so we look the other way. We blame. We assure ourselves that this could never happen to us.

Julie and Jarad discuss the Netflix series, The Fall of the House of Usher, continuing our exploration of whether justice can be achieved in this lifetime. In this episode, we talk about the set up and framework for the show and note the massive number of Poe references, and where we think the show corresponds with Poe's themes and vibes, and where it might diverge.
Along the way, Jarad admits to past crimes, which surprisingly incriminate Julie as well. 
Listen here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2315889/episodes/17255030-the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher-the-long-dark-shadow-of-hell

Review of The Finest Cigarette
By Ahmad Al-Khatat
Review by Julie Carpenter
​
​The Finest Cigarette is another book of distilled love and longing, terror and tenderness
by poet Ahmad Al-Khatat. The poems hover between pain and fragile beauty, haunted
by tragedy and war, reaching for a transcendant love, often collapsing into compulsions
that deaden the pain of life.

Julie and Jarad discuss the trickster nature of the devil in folklore and why you better read the fine print if you make a deal with him. Jarad introduces some folklore about witches and offers to buy Julie a cowbell. Also some weird frogs and St. Augustine get thrown into this weird, witchy brew. 

Listen here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2315889/episodes/17245150-the-devil-at-the-crossroad-plus-more-cowbell-and-toads-from-hell

In which:
Julie and Jarad fall down a super deep borehole right into Hell. 
We discover that we have listeners besides that one crow by Jarad's apartment.
Jarad finds hard evidence that Julie is actually Lilith.
Satan has digestive issues and a hole in the ceiling.
Listen here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2315889/episodes/17207115-can-you-dig-a-hole-to-hell-and-will-the-devil-have-to-renovate

Jarad asks Julie about his favorite Things Get Weird in Whistlestop story, The Bite.  What happens when you make fairies mad? Things get weird. Also we learn that it's always best to go where the moon is happy.
If you haven't read the Whistlestop stories, this episode does have a few spoilers. We will have an audio recording of the story up by the end of the week if you'd like to listen to that first. Things Get Weird in Whistlestop is available through any of your favorite bookstores, an e-book is also available.

Listen here- https://www.buzzsprout.com/2315889/episodes/17120040-the-bite-when-fairies-attack

Julie and Jarad go back on the timeline to the point where people started to say, "Hey! Life isn't fair. Wouldn't it be cool if there was some way to make it fair after we die?"

Come for the scenery, Jarad's incessant whining, and the discussion about how every idea gets ruined by power hungry chaos goblins - even Hell. 
Listen here- https://www.buzzsprout.com/2315889/episodes/17037390-went-on-a-field-trip-to-tartarus-and-all-i-got-was-this-lousy-t-shirt

Nosferatu, Appetite in an Ugly Fur Hat
Perdition City Station Podcast, Ep. 8. 

​Today is the day! After much thrashing and much suffering, the podcast Perdition City Station is off and running. Co-hosted by Julie Carpenter and Jarad Johnson, this podcast primarily explores hell, its history and impact on our culture, de-constructing Evangelicalism, with a few weird and uncanny ideas that keep the co-hosts up at night.
Jarad Johnson is a writer, editor, cat lover, and cryptid that currently haunts the Maine woods. A lifelong reader and deeply spiritual person, Jarad brings a perspective to the podcast that doesn’t operate within Christian framework. Mostly though, he’s there to annoy Julie and lead the conversation off topic and onto whatever tangents come to mind. 
Julie Carpenter is the Author of Things Get Weird in Whistlestop, and the upcoming novel The Last Train Out of Hell. She is a writer and narrative weaver who grew up in a very evangelical church in Tennessee. She has a fascination with Hell in all its aspects and just can’t get over talking about her breakup with her former religion. (Insert eye roll here). Sadly, she is the only one who can be trusted to keep this train on the tracks. I suggest you all hang on and buckle up. Wait a minute…there are no seat belts on this train. Never mind. Just enjoy the ride. If you can.