The Cult of Dolly Parton

If you thought conversion therapy disappeared sometime around low-rise jeans and flip phones, you'd be very, very wrong. This week, Amanda and Reese are joined by Timothy S. Rodriguez (@timothy.s.rodriguez), author of Conversion Therapy Dropout, to expose one of the most dangerou ...  Show more

She's blonde. She's patriotic. She's wearing a Bible verse on her T-shirt while telling immigrants to go back where they came from. She's voting for Trump. This week we're revisiting our episode on The Cult of Women for Trump, with a new introduction reflecting on how much this m ...  Show more

There are few celebrities more beloved than Dolly Parton. In her decades-long career, she’s cultivated loyalty with her fans by always being true to her roots. But before she was the musician we know and love today, Dolly was just a poor girl in rural Tennessee with a song in ...

Dolly Parton might be the last thing Americans agree on. In this episode, we talk to ⁠Will Bonfiglio⁠, the WashU lecturer behind a wildly popular college course on Dolly, about how the country icon became a cultural unifier across politics, class, gender, and generations. From Do ...  Show more

In this intensely divided moment, one of the few things everyone still seems to agree on is Dolly Parton—but why? That simple question leads to a deeply personal, historical, and musical rethinking of one of America’s great icons. Join us for a 9-part journey into the Dollyverse. ...  Show more

This Friday, we’re talking about the deification of Dolly Parton, or, as we like to call her, Saint Dolly. Her new release Rockstar comes out today – a 30-track rock album that features duets with artists such as Paul McCartney, Sting, Elton John and Stevie Nicks on cover version ...  Show more