Behind the Bastards

There’s a reason the History Channel has produced hundreds of documentaries about Hitler but only a few about Dwight D. Eisenhower. Bad guys (and gals) are eternally fascinating. Behind the Bastards dives in past the Cliffs Notes of the worst humans in history and exposes the bizarre realities of their lives. Listeners will learn about the young adult novels that helped Hitler form his monstrous ideology, the founder of Blackwater’s insane quest to build his own Air Force, the bizarre lives of the sons and daughters of dictators and Saddam Hussein’s side career as a trashy romance novelist.

Part Three: Jerry Falwell: Founder of the Religious Right

Part Three: Jerry Falwell: Founder of the Religious Right

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 11:00

Part Three: Jerry Falwell: Founder of the Religious Right

Listen to Episode

Copyright © 2022 iHeartPodcasts

Read Episode Transcript

Hello, I'm Erica Kelly from the podcast Southern Fried True crime, and if you want to go from podcast fan to podcast host, do what I did and check out spreaker from iheart. I was working in accounting and hating it. Then after just 18 months of podcasting with Spreaker, I was able to quit my day job. Follow your podcasting dreams, let's break or handle the hosting, creation, distribution, and monetization of your podcast. Go to spreaker.com. That's spreaker.com. Hey there, it's Ebony Monet, your co-host for the San Diego Zoo's Amazing Wildlife podcast. In this special episode, we're speaking with Doctor Jane Goodall about the fascinating journey that led to her impactful behavioural discoveries on chimpanzees. It wasn't until one of the chimpanzees began to lose his fear of me, but I began to really make discoveries that actually shook the scientific world. Survive on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Bobby Bones from the Bobby cast. We are Nashville's most listened to music podcast in depth interviews with your favorite country artists, plus the biggest songwriters and producers in Nashville, all from the comfort of my own home so it gets a little more laid back. They're sharing stories behind the biggest songs in country music and personal stories that you will not hear anywhere else. So if you love country music, I think you will love this podcast. Listen to the Bobby cast. On iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcast. What's emotionally abusing my audience. I'm Robert Evans, the host of the show where I emotionally abused my audience. Is that a good intro, Sophie? It's the honest one. It's the honest one. That is what this show is about. And I love being technically honest. Like, last episode, I promised that I was not going to throw any more bagels, but then our wonderful sound guy, Chris, handed me an English muffin, which also fits in my sling. So I am going to throw an English muffin at some point this episode. I'm way less angry about that than I was about that moldy bagel. Yeah, there's no mold. This is a solid English muffin. I'm gonna have to eat it after. Yeah, I was gonna say don't be wasteful. You have to eat it. You. Keep the entire thing I will after I throw it. Great. Maybe slightly before I throw it. Pieces of it. You have a little bit piece of it to Anderson. I can give a little piece and I might just come close enough to him that he's able to get it himself. Yeah, we clarified this. Anderson's a woman. How dare you, woman? I am sorry for misgendering Anderson. But in my defense, dogs are incapable of caring about gender Anderson. It's one of their best traits. I should just be with her leg up so dogs are post gender. All dogs are both male and female. Like I said, she does pee with her life. Exactly. Her name is Anderson. We could learn a lot from dogs, namely about peeing everywhere. Anderson doesn't pee everywhere she could. Classy, broad. There's nothing not classy about peeing wherever you want. In a lot of ways, that's the classiest thing you can do. We are really off on a tangent here that is not productive for the show. Nothing to do with your topic, nothing to do with my topic. I sent this one out because I'm perfect. That was a smart play because if I wasn't cancelled before. I'm just just barreling towards cancellation. So today we're gonna talk about Jerry Falwell junior and Liberty University. Now this is gonna run on a different week than our other Falwell episodes because we're talking about a different Falwell. But we are recording this just minutes after the last one. So you have had a full Falwell dose. How you feeling? So might you be full well? I say we call it a day. That's probably the so cancelled yeah, it happens really quick, very quickly and yet does not change what we're doing at all, which really actually does get to the core of what cancel culture actually is. People declare you cancelled and then nothing happens. Cool. In our previous two episodes on Jerry Falwell Senior, I think I was pretty clear in my opinion, that he was a ***** ** ****. His life made the world a worse place, and we'd be better off if his dad had accidentally shot him when he was pranking one of his friends. However, I should acknowledge that there are some things about him you have to grudgingly respect. For one thing, he built a legitimately impressive and expansive organization that grew from a small Church of 70 into an empire that spoke for millions and organized an entirely new political bloc that now dominates American politics. That's impressive, even if it's ******. You also have to acknowledge that Jerry Falwell was a true believer. He was deeply consistent throughout his life, and everything we know about his personal life suggests that he lived in a consistent manner with his terrible values. And that's not good. But you might argue it's better than pushing all of those same terrible agendas and, say, getting wasted at nightclubs in Miami. Which is the story we're about to. I was gonna say is was that foreshadowing? That is foreshadowing. That is for shadowing. Jerry Lemon Falwell Junior was born on June 17th, 1962. So we got another cool middle name he got. He got the lemon. You love me that? Yeah. Yeah. Well, otherwise he wouldn't be a junior. If you give different middle name, then you're not a junior, right? I don't know how that works. I think that's junior law his parents sent to private schools in and around Lynchburg so he could be raised in a world of God and without black people around, rather than the world of Satan. In 1971, he watched from the vantage point of a Pew at the Thomas Rd. Baptist Church while his father explained to the congregants his plan to start a Christian university in Lynchburg. Jerry Senior explained that the new college would produce champions for Christ. Jerry Falwell Junior would one day become the master of that institution, but first he was a student there. After graduating from Lynchburg Christian Academy, he attended Liberty University starting in 1980, the same year the moral majority began its massive push for the election of Ronald Reagan. From what I can find, Jerry Falwell junior did not have his father and grandfather's appetite for mean spirited pranks, so that's a plus. I mean, I wonder how many times as a child you have to see your dad like wild and out by like. Shooting some people or thinking run someone over cats or yeah, pretending to run people over where you're like, you know what? I'm gonna decide not to be much of a prankster. Now he he he never got to see his granddad, so he didn't mean he never saw the cat feeder. It's crazy. Like when you're reading a whole book about Jerry Falwell, you don't notice some of these things. But in retrospect, the fact that anyone would call murdering someone's cat and feeding it to them a prank is so ****** that's not a break. Like that is a seriously demented psychologically unsound. Yeah, that's crime evidence that somebody is probably chopping up like people in their spare time. They're they're. One one more cat away from just the people. ******* wild. Now, Jerry Falwell junior got his bachelor's degree in religious studies and history. After acquiring a letter of recommendation from Senator Ted Kennedy, of all People, Jerry Junior was accepted to the University of Virginia School of Law. Again, I thought that was for Liberty University. I'm like, isn't that his dad's school? Why did he even need a recommendation he wanted to go to? That makes sense, I guess. And again, as with Ted, Kennedy was with all these guys, mostly what they care about is that they're all rich. So even if they have political disagreements, they'll do a solid for their rich friends, kids. So that's nice. Cool, cool. Jerry Junior's brother Jonathan took a different path. From the beginning, he was more drawn to religion than his brother. Jonathan became an ordained reverend. He took over his father's position leading the Thomas Rd Baptist Church. While Jerry Junior has inherited the bulk of his dad's empire and passion for direct political involvement, Jonathan has kept strictly to religion. He did not endorse Donald Trump alongside his brother in 2016. That's a small mercy. That's a small mercy. Prior to his death in 2007, Jerry Falwell senior had laid out his plans for the inheritance of his empire of faith, and I'm going to quote now from a massive article on the fall wells in Politico by Brandon Ambrosino, himself a Liberty University grad. His two sons, Jerry Junior and Jonathan, had each inherited different aspects of their father's persona. For Jerry Junior, the elder of the two by four years, it was the stomach for partisan politics, ability to throw an elbow, and savvy to court influential friends. For Jonathan, it was the calling, the ministry, his easy way with people and charisma as a public speaker. Jerry Junior would preside over Liberty University and Jonathan would lead Thomas Rd. Baptist Church. So that's cool. And from a financial perspective, this seems to have been a great call. When Falwell junior took over the college, it had assets of roughly $259 million. Ten years later, it heals assets worth more than $2.5 billion and is now worth more than $3 billion. So that's cool. Wow. I mean, you gotta give it to him. He's better at business than Donald Trump was. Yeah. But it's like, isn't such a huge part of being a good Christian is like giving to the poor. How are you going to get all the way to 3 billion? Well, there's really different attitudes on that within the faith. So there's the people who are like in the rich community, community of rich Christians, where it's like, no, the more money you accumulate, that's God's blessings that you're accumulating. And so. Jerry Falwell is that's how blessings work. You just pile them all up. At least that's consistent with their attitudes towards AIDS. Yay, what a wonderful. Belief system for lucky. So cool. Yay. So now I bet you're wondering what did what did what did Jerry Falwell junior do to increase the value of his university by so much in such a short period of time? I was thinking that you wondering if there was anything gross and shady there? Yeah, yeah. I was wondering that much of Liberty University's growth has been due to growth in online students under Falwell Junior's reign. There are now 95,000 kids across the country taking Liberty University courses from their homes, so that's good. Hmm, hmm, no. I mean, if I know one thing, it's that online universities are never scammy, are never literally just scams. It's true, yeah? And we're going to talk about that in a second. But before we talk about that, I want to talk a little bit about Falwell Junior's wife, Becky. Oh my God, with an early literally met married to Becky with an eye. Yeah, there's a little heart over that eye. I can feel it and I can, I will. I know in my bones that she has had a lot of issues with a lot of waiters and waitresses and talked to a lot of managers in her day. Yeah, now. And part of why I know this is not about to read next his wife, Becky, is considered by many close to the family to have taken on a major role in managing the university since Jerry Senior's death, one former school official told Ambrosino, writing for Politico. Until Big Jerry, that's what they called him, died. You wouldn't have known Becky if she walked up and slapped you. Big Jerry dies, and all of a sudden, if you're walking down the hall and you didn't greet her right, you're fired. This official shared a 2012 e-mail from Becky to four school executives. In the e-mail, she complains about a school employee who complained on Facebook that the university didn't have enough parking spaces. Someone needs to talk to this girl, Becky wrote. I don't think that we allow employees to post negative remarks about liberty. Wow, real Nazi kind of flair. Yeah. And apparently the employee ended their employment there not long after. She spoke to the manager and she got him fired. Yeah, yeah. But Becky's complaint sparked an almost immediate call to the employee at the employee's home at 9:00 PM because she complained about not enough parking. Now, what a *****. That's gonna be fairly minor compared to what else we're talking about today, but it's just so petty that I felt compelled to point it out. Now, in another article published by a former student in the news advance talked about sort of how the culture on Liberty University's campus has changed since Jerry Falwell Senior's death. Its title Inside Liberty University's culture of Fear. It's a good title. The author, Will Young, was formerly the editor in Chief of Liberty University School newspaper the champion. He claims he instantly. Got in trouble during his first week there. His crime was noticing that his school's Police Department didn't publish a daily crime log online. He called the Virginia Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators to ask if this was against the law. The University Police Department found out and complained to his boss, who yelled at him, he writes. This wasn't exactly a rude awakening. I'd spent the previous three years watching the university administration, led by President Jerry Falwell, Junior meddle in our coverage revised controversial op EDS and protect its image by stripping damning facts from our stories. Still, I stuck around. I thought that if I wrote with discretion and kept my head down. I could one day win enough trust from the university to protect the integrity of our journalism. I even dreamed we could eventually persuade the administration to let the champion go, independent from its supervision. I was naive. Instead, when my team took over that fall in 2017, we encountered an oversight system that required us to send every story to Falwell's assistant for review. Any administrator or professor who appeared in an article had editing authority over any part of that article. They added and deleted whatever they wanted. Falwell called our newsroom on multiple occasions to direct our coverage personally, as he had a year. Earlier, when weeks before the 2016 election, he read a draft of my column defending mainstream news outlets and ordered me to say who my plan to vote for or refused on ethical grounds. So Falwell told me to insert the author refused to reveal which candidate he is supporting for president at the bottom of my column. That's so stupid. That's cool, right? Yeah. You love the intellectual honesty and the freedom of speech. I mean, it really has ******* Nazi propaganda qualities. Yeah, I mean it. It's it is consistent with the. Family line of hating freedom of speech and not being able to stand anybody saying anything bad about you. I guess that is passed down in the genes and pranks apparently aren't. So we've learned a lot about genetics today. Will eventually quit the school paper, and the School of Communication did not replace him with a new editor in Chief. Instead, they changed the champion to a faculty run paper, taking control for content direction entirely away from the students. Future journalists at Liberty University were forced to sign an NDA forbidding them from talking about editorial or managerial direction, oversight decisions, or information designed as privileged or confidential. The NDA also makes student journalists acknowledge that they are privileged to get thoughts, opinions, and other statements from university administration. We're so lucky that they'll talk to us. Yeah, that's cool. So obviously Will is a student with an axe to grind. But his experience is gel very clearly with the reporting of numerous other journalists, as well as complaints of students and alumni. He and others paint a picture of Liberty University as a sort of evangelical dictatorship of higher learning. Which is super neat, I think. Dealership of higher learning? Yeah, yeah, sounds dreamy. Yeah, where the entire university is just an extension of Jerry Falwell Junior's personality and pocketbook. That sounds like a good thing for a school to be. Sounds like a good education. I'm glad they don't have to pay taxes. Yeah, that would be crazy. Yeah, if they had to pay taxes. Well, because they're in a political, religious constitution that demands their writers publish who they only flattering things. Yeah. Now, a lot of the changes in the culture of Liberty University are believed to have something to do with what has made the school so enormously profitable since Jerry Junior took over the massive growth of their online education program. By 2015, Liberty University was the second largest provider of online. Education in the United States, second only to the University of Phoenix. I was gonna guess Phoenix was leading. Yeah, it's #1, #2's liberty you. The school can largely thank the federal government for the money that it's gotten on. As a result of this, by 2017, Liberty Students received more than $772 million per year from the Department of Education. It ranks 6th in federal aid nationwide. The vast majority of Liberty University's wealth comes from taxpayer dollars. Yeah, and they don't have to pay taxes, and that's good. You guys feel good about your where your taxes are going? I feel great about it. They need a billion dollars a year. It's not upsetting at all. Flint, MI doesn't need clean water. Clean water. But Liberty University needs $772,000,000 to discriminate against students. Yeah, a variety of types of yeah, it's it's cool, super cool, and consistent. Some people find it uncomfortable or downright bad that a school which bans its students from supporting homosexuality, swearing, and even drinking off campus receives federal money. But as we all know, evangelical Christians in America don't have to obey the same rules as the rest of us. And that's fine. It's fine. Everybody's happy with us. That's what Jesus was for. That's what Jesus was for. Massive inequality. He was a big fan of inequality. I mean, I would say that was his platform trickle down economics he was a big fan of. Right, yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember when Jesus was like, oh, I'll turn 1 fish. Well, you know what? I'm just going to take this one. Gonna take this fish. It's gonna eventually trickle down to the really hungry. I'm gonna throw some bones at y'all. Someone of you's gonna get an eye, a fish eye, and you will be ******* happy with it and you will be my second in command. Jesus. So uh online courses have become the primary money generating engine behind Liberty University. They have more than 300 phone recruiters working from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM calling students from lists they get from sites like Best Colleges online. In an article breaking this down, the New York Times noted there is such a race to get to customers before the University of Phoenix and other rivals that the prospective students sometimes marvel at how little time has elapsed. Just a handful of minutes between they're providing their information on a website and the call coming from Liberty Liberty's tax filings show that in 2016, the university paid Google 16. .8 million for admissions leads generation, in other words, advertising liberty to those searching online for degree options. The recruiters work under intense pressure. According to several former Luo employees I spoke with, they get no more than 45 seconds between calls, and sometimes managers override even that short break. There are no formal quotas. A federal regulation that went into effect in 2011 forbids them. But as one former employee put it, the highly motivated goal is for each recruiter to sign up 8 new students a day, multiply to Class 300 cubicles. That is 2400 per day. 45 seconds between calls. I mean, honestly, that's downright leisurely. Yeah, was even complaining about exactly blobs. So it sounds like it's just like a big MLM kind of situation. Yeah, it's akin to that certainly. I mean, it's yeah, it's not an MLM, but what do they call it when it's just like. A farm? Yeah, it's a diploma mill. Yeah, yeah. It's a diploma mill masquerading as a religious institution so it doesn't have to pay taxes on the hundreds of millions of dollars it gets from taxpayers. But the particularly aggressive sales call thing? Yeah, that's like its own thing, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's like telemarketing. Yeah. Yeah, that's like crazy that it's so high pressure. Yeah, well, they're ******* Glengarry Glen Ross thing, these people. Yeah, yeah. To get them into debt so that like, to get them into taxpayers subsidized debt to the school for a degree. Which. Spoilers. Is not worth a whole lot, but you know it is worth a whole lot. Sophia, our goods and services, yes. But, uh, cute letters say good. I did let her say good. I like it. I gave it up. I'm Robert Evans, host of behind the ********. And, you know, as part of my practice for this show, I have to go through a lot of books to learn about all these terrible people I teach you about. And, you know, I spend time on the road, I spend time at the gym. I wouldn't be able to do all of the research I do if it weren't for audiobooks and audible. They make it easy to get informed and learn while you're listening, so you can do it wherever you happen to be. And right now, for a limited time, you can get three months of audible for just 695 a month. That's more than half off the regular price, and you're going to get two audible originals. And one audiobook, absolutely free when you sign up. And if you want a recommendation from me, try the court of the Red Tsar, which is one of the very best books written about Joseph Stalin. The audiobook is engaging and fun and, you know, 27 1/2 hours, so you'll have a lot of time to do bench reps or whatever while you listen. So if you want to try out audible for 695 a month, you can go to audible.com/behind or just text behind to 500 500thatsaudible.com/behind or text behind. To 505 hundred. We're back. Are you waving that? I am waving threateningly, waving an English muffin. It's attached to a sling, though. I'm excited. So if he's excited, proud, too excited, and proud on with the episode. Of course, you don't sign up new students at that kind of rate without fudging or obscuring a few facts. This is we would what you were getting a little bit, Sophia 2 recruiters told the times that they were ordered to quote the university's cost on a per credit basis instead of per course. Instructors are also urged to not push students on how good their grades were in high school, and GPA over .5 is enough to qualify you for Liberty University .5. You even have to be conscious to get that no point .5 is like if you guess on literally everything, including the essay, you'll you'll get a .5. The good news for those D students is that liberties online courses are not exactly famous for their rigor. From the New York Times. People know it's kind of a joke and don't learn that much from it, Dustin Wall, a senior from South Dakota, told me. Use Google when you take your quiz and you don't have to work as hard. It's pretty obvious, Liberty says using Google during quizzes or exams is cheating. Wow yeah. The Times reporting suggests that recruiters have even started obscuring the schools Christian orientation in order to suck in more sweet tax dollars. I mean students quote 2 recruiters also said they were told not to mention liberties Christian orientation until people agree to apply when this fact is made clear in the user agreement they sign online. It also becomes clear at the moment that the recruiters sign up students for the first class is typically an orientation class and three required Bible studies classes. Students often can't transfer credits for these courses to other colleges, which deters many from dropping out. So if you're keeping track, this school, which is funded primarily by taxpayer dollars, trick students into signing up without knowing that they're joining a Christian university, and then they try to leave a devalue, it doesn't transfer anywhere, so they can't really go. And then there's mandatory Bible classes that are paid for again with taxpayer dollars. This is cool. ****. Now, this all obviously has not made me Miss Trump University. You know, there was a university. Ohh you knew what you were getting with Trump University? Yeah, a picture with a cardboard cut out of Donald Trump and nothing else. I missed them. I miss them too. Now, Liberty University's teachers are not all happy with the state of affairs that has changed because it used to be a somewhat actual say. There's teachers because it really doesn't seem like it. That seems to be the administration's attitude too. There's teachers. We thought this scam just ran itself after we suckered you into getting in. That is. Yeah, well, we'll be getting a quote from Jerry Falwell junior that's basically that. See, most teachers like to know that they work for a well respected. University rather than a profit mill with very little to no educational benefit. But Liberty University is ranked in the lowest 1/4 of national universities by U.S. news and World Report. It lags behind Brigham Young University, a religious college that at least delivers an education. Low quality online courses might be one reason for this. Another is probably the university's outright hatred of its teachers. Only the law school at Liberty University even offers a 10 year track. This allows Jerry Falwell junior to enact an extreme degree of control over his faculty because he can fire. Absolutely anyone. However, this also makes it difficult to draw incompetent teachers. Chris Galmer, a former English professor, provides additional explanation for this treatment. When I was there at faculty meetings, the commentary was that online was funding the school while they were trying to just break even on the residential side, and it was understood that on the online side they were making a killing. Boy cool sounds like a real school to me. In his interview with the New York Times, Falwell Junior admitted that the faculty had complained initially about the growing importance of online classes. He told them the big victory was finding a way to tame the faculty. We really started making money when we ******* teams. What are they ******* tigers? What is going on? Yeah, yeah, he's you gotta tame the faculty. Otherwise they're going to complain about the fact that you aren't delivering an education to your students. Ohboy those pesky faculty. Jerry Falwell Junior's decision to endorse Donald Trump in the 2016 election was deeply controversial, both for the students and the teachers. According to Will's write up, the school's methods became even more aggressive after Falwell endorsed Donald Trump early that year, according to multiple current and former faculty members. The closer you get to the President's office, says a former history professor, Brian Melton, discussing a chilling effect at the school, the worse it becomes. Falwell staff now operates masterfully to squash challenges to his views and his rise in national political influence, so that's good. That's scary as well. Yeah, this March, Falwell Junior attended the signing of an executive order by President Trump on college free speech. Ohh my big advocate of college free speech. Ohh, the irony is truly too much. Yeah, the guy who brought the school's paper under his direct personal control is invited by President Trump to watch the signing of a bill that I'm sure will protect free speech. It hurts. Yeah, and the PBS News hour appearance after he claimed that his college was inclusive of all ideas, unlike all those evil liberal universities. As evidence for this, he pointed out that Liberty University invited President Carter to deliver its 2018 commencement address and had Bernie Sanders speak in 2015 at a mandatory assembly. These things did happen, but Falwell neglected to mention some other things, like the fact that in 2009 it withdrew funding and recognition for the College Democrats Club. Mark Hine, the SVP of student affairs, said this was because the Democratic Party defends abortion and supports the LGBT agenda. So that's good after the bloody 2016, reminiscent of. Dad yeah, he the apple did not fall far from the tree. That is also poop and not apples. And the apples are also poop. Yes, the apples are also poop. After the deadly 2017 Unite the right rally in Charlottesville, you know this is gonna go. Good place for an intro like that. The Liberty Student Government Association attempted to issue a statement of solidarity with Heather Heyer, the murdered anti fascist activist. In response to this, the SGA's president refused to release the statement because it would have meant sending it to Jerry Falwell junior first. And they really didn't think he was going to be on board with sympathizing with a woman murdered by a Nazi. Ohh God. Well, they're probably not wrong about that. That's why I said. Oh God. When Falwell Senior died, the idea was that Jonathan Falwell would act as the moral compass for Liberty University while his brother handled the finances, and Jonathan is still the school's vice chancellor for spiritual affairs. But the evidence suggests that he has been largely sidelined at the university. 1 Liberty official told Brandon Ambrosino writing for Politico quote Jerry never removed Jonathan, he just kind of pushed him aside. He bought all of the Thomas Rd Baptist Church Properties, Liberty Christian Academy, Jonathan's building at the airport, and a couple of others. Jonathan complained but never stood up to Jerry because he knew. They controlled the purse strings. It seems like a healthy family. Jonathan seems sad as hell. I think Jonathan is kind of sad as hell. Yeah. I'd like to know what he does every day. Cry, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Terrible family. Yeah. It seems like a bummer of a family. And Falwell Junior has done some strange things with his control of those purse strings thinks his father would not have approved of. One of these things was the $4.7 million purchase of a South Beach hostel in Miami, FL. Doesn't sound. I don't know. Christian and decent? No, but it actually sounds like a pretty sweet, hostile, very gay friendly, situated directly above a liquor store with a bar where you could bring your own alcohol. It's what I'm saying. How could they have possibly allowed this? Well, that's that's a fun little story. It listed its rules as no soliciting, fundraising, politics, salesman or religion. It was written inside the hostel. That's fun. Owned by Jerry Falwell junior, it was billed as a great place for people around the world. Come and get wasted and pre party before hitting the Miami strip. So this is this is so confusing yeah? The farewells bought the hostel but mysteriously gave me 25% stake in its profits to one John Carlo Granda. Now Mr Granda is most often described as a pool boy and reporting on this that you'll find he is a handsome, muscular young man in his mid 20s. The nature of his relationship to the fowells is unclear, but he seems to have accompanied them on numerous trips. Some evidence suggests that he was present with the follows during the taking of some racy photos of Jerry Falwell Junior's wife Becky. So that's interesting. Well, wait, yeah. What's the suggestion here? The suggestion is that Jerry Falwell, junior, his wife Becky, and this pool boy had an ongoing threesome thing happening and then they bought this guy a hostile and gave him a 25% stake in the profits and let him manage it. A gay friendly hostile. I was hoping that's what you would. That's kind of seems like what's happening. That is delicious now, but hot pool boy is how he's described. He's usually just described as a pool. Wait, but you said he was hot. He's definitely hot. Oh yeah, no, you look him up. He's he's he's scrumptious. I definitely pictured the guy from Legally Blonde. To what I'm talking about. Ohh yeah, yeah, like the guy she's into. That's stupid looking. Look him up John Carlo granda. He's a good looking guy. Doing it, yeah. That's so freaky. I love it. Yeah, it's it's it's pretty fun. Didn't think Becky had it in her, yeah. A lot of people know what Becky had in there because these pictures have gone pretty racy. Yeah, pretty racy. Now the fall wells deny that there are any racy photos. Well, that's not quite what he says. In an interview with the Todd Starnes radio show, Jerry Falwell junior said there are no compromising or embarrassing photos of me. But Becky? But Becky? Yeah. Three photographs of Becky have been seen by the Miami Herald. They are images of her in various states of undress. It is not known who took the photos or when they were taken, and the Herald has not given the photographs and therefore has not been able to authenticate them independently. But two of the photos appear to have been taken at the Falls Farm in Virginia and 1/3 at the Chica Lodge, where they were known to spend a lot of time with John Carlo Granda. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they freak. Go now when these photos leaked out, I mean, who do you get to help you if you need to, like, recover some racy photos of your wife? Larry Flint? No. Michael Cohen. Oh my God. That took a turn. Yeah. He was a longtime friend of the foul, well, family. And they hired him to clean up the evidence of these, these sexy photo sessions. Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. From Politico. Longtime listener. First time. Dollar would love to clean this up for you. No, he'd known them a while. Yeah, long time. Liberty officials close to Falwell told me that the university president has shown or texted his male confidants, including at least one employee who worked for him at liberty, photos of his wife, and provocative and sexual poses at liberty. Falwell is very, very vocal about his sex life in the words of 1 Liberty official, a characterization multiple current and former university officials and employees interviewed for this story support in a car right about a decade ago with the senior university official who has since left liberty. All he wanted to talk about is how he would nail his wife, how she couldn't handle his penis size and stuff like that. This former official, recalled Falwell, did not respond to questions about this incident more than simply talking about it with employees about his wife in a sexual manner. On at least one more occasion to Falwell shared a photo of his wife wearing what appeared to be a fringe made costume, according to a longtime Liberty employee with first hand knowledge of the image and the fallout that followed. This is amazing. This sounds like a healthy working environment, right? I think it's the kind of working environment that what Joaquin Phoenix provided, right? Yeah, super safe. You get a bit picture of John. Carlo Granda pulled up. I mean, I I looked at it. They don't. Where are the pictures of of him and Becky? Where do I find that? I mean, Michael Cohen cleaned him up. I'm just gonna say I can't find them. Yeah, I just wanted. I just want to look at that handsome pool boy. I mean, let me see. There he is. OK. Yeah. Not bad. Yeah, bad. He looks better in that picture where fall was wearing the purple shirt. Seems like a fun Miami party. Now. Iris cleaning a pool. Oh my God. Amazing. Great Photoshop. So that French made picture that Jerry Falwell junior accidentally sent to an employee had been intended to be sent to Ben Crosswhite, Becky's personal trainer, as a thank you for helping her get in the better shape. Another possible thank you to Ben Crosswhite was the sale of a sizable fitness center on the Liberty University campus to bin for wildly less than its market value. Liberty University. Insists that there was nothing untoward or sketchy about this arrangement, so that's cool also. I love that. He bragged about having a *** **** which is exactly how you know he does not have a *** ****. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was bragging to random can handle it. My wife can't take my **** ****. It's like, that's OK. Will you sign these payroll forms? Yeah, they're like, can can my son have a scholarship university? Once I finish telling you about how my wife cannot take this monster hog, I'm. Hold on. Hold on. My real, my, my railing, my wife story is not over. Where are you going? Don't you want to hear about me ******* my wife, who's also your boss? Becky, get in here and help me tell the story about nailing you. So I'm ******* my wife, and I mean ******* my wife when the poor boy comes in and we buy him a hostel on the Miami strip. The only person that could take my penis that's not my wife is Jean Harlow. Jean Carlo at the pool. Have you met Jean Carlo? Jean Carlo, get over here. That's my impression of of Jerry Falwell, junior at work of Jerry Falwell junior during like a business, like a media staff meeting. Yeah. So we got to talk about how our students are doing on the the, the the how our bar exam acceptance rate is going. But first. Let's talk about ** **** also. But you, he would bring in slides and yeah, I don't know how this got in here. Oh no. You had a slide made of your wife and a friend. A French maid outfit. I don't know how this got in here. This is crazy. Who's that muscular guy in the picture? Is that the same guy who owns that hostile that our school bot? You know what's better than? A hostile secretly owned by a Christian extremist cult. Products. Mint Mobile offers premium wireless starting at just 15 bucks a month. And now for the plot twist. Nope, there isn't one. Mint Mobile just has premium wireless from 15 bucks a month. There's no trapping you into a two year contract. You're opening the bill to find all these nuts fees. There's no luring you in with free subscriptions or streaming services that you'll forget to cancel and then be charged full price for none of that. For anyone who hates their phone Bill, Mint Mobile offers premium wireless for just $15.00 a month. Mint Mobile will give you the best rate whether you're buying. Or for a family. And it meant family start at 2 lines. All plans come with unlimited talk and text, plus high speed data delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. You can use your own phone with any mint mobile plan and keep your same phone number along with all your existing contacts. Just switch to Mint mobile and get premium wireless service starting at 15 bucks a month. Get premium wireless service from just $15.00 a month, and no one expected plot twists at mintmobile.com/behind. That's mintmobile.com/behind. Seriously, you'll make your wallet. Very happy at Mint Mobilcom behind. Now a word from our sponsor that our help. If you're having trouble stuck in your own head, focusing on problems dealing with depression, or just, you know can't seem to get yourself out of a rut, you may want to try therapy. And better help makes it very easy to get therapy that works with your lifestyle and your schedule. A therapist can help you become a better problem solver, which can make it easier to accomplish your goals, no matter how big or small they happen to be. So if you're thinking of giving therapy. Try better help is a great option. It's convenient, accessible, affordable, and it is entirely online. You can get matched with a therapist after filling out a brief survey, and if the therapist that you get matched with doesn't wind up working out, you can switch therapists at any time when you want to be a better problem solver therapy can get you there. Visit betterhelp.com behind today to get 10% off your first month. That's better helpp.com/behind. Better help calm behind. My name is Erica Kelly and I am the host and creator of Southern Freight true crime. There are so many people that just have no idea about some injustices in the world and if you can give a voice to them you can create change. To be able to do it within podcasting is just such a gift. I believe it was 18 months after I got on with speaker that I was making enough that I could quit my day job. It was incredible. Always felt like an ambassador for speaker. But that's because I'm passionate about podcasting. It's really easy to use. I always tell people I am so not tech. Took me 5 minutes to get comfortable with spreaker, and when I find a new friend that has an incredible show, I want them to make money. I want them to be able to do what I did. Follow your podcasting dreams. Let's break your handle the hosting, creation, distribution, and monetization of your podcast. Go to spreaker.com. That's spreaker.com. Get paid to talk about the things you love. Spreaker from iheart. We're back, we're back and. I think I'm going to try and throw this English muffin now before we get back into Jerry Falwell junior. All right, now this muffin is a little bit smaller than the bagel holder, so I don't know how it's going to work. Yeah. I mean, that was honestly just you flinging it with your hands. I was basically just me flinging it with my, but I appreciated it. Thank you. I did not. I mostly appreciated that it didn't hit me or Sophie or Anderson or Anderson. It's not in here. Yeah, she's in there she is. That's how good of a dog she is. She's that big shocking me. She's either here or not here. I never know which. She never reacts. Throwing things. Actually, sometimes. I don't know. She's here, in here. So it's like short, short. Schrodinger's Anderson. Not don't you won't be talking about. Dodgers cats are on the falls because the skin and feed you that ******* cat. You wanna be cool if you like through the English muffin and then it just hit you in the face. That would be hilarious. That was what I was hoping was that I am happy and not that good at using my next time. Next time. Fingers crossed I'm gonna practice. So yeah, this Falwell's family's current sketchiness is as complicated as it is infuriating, and the recent rash reporting on the family seems to reveal compelling proof that whatever their public commitment to evangelical politics, the family has left their godly roots well behind. On July 19th, 2014, Swedish DJ John Dahlback performed at a Miami Beach nightclub named Wall. Which is interesting, because you remember the Wall gang from earlier now. Photographs taken that night show Falwell junior sons Jerry and Trey. Both in attendance with their wives. Tray. ******* tray, tray, tray. They're both pictured drinking now, considering that their father runs and they work for a school that bans both Coed dancing and alcohol. Those pictures were considered deeply embarrassing that the Falwell Clan Liberty staffers told the author of that Politico article that Falwell Junior went to, John Gauger, the head of IT, to deal with the problem, quote. Longtime Liberty officials described Gaucher as a sort of fixer for Falwell, a man promoted because he would do what? While I asked him without complaint, but Gauger is more than just a university employee since 2009 sub. Since 2009, Gasher is also run Red Finch LLC, an online business he founded that specializes in search engine marketing and does lucrative contract work for liberty. Tax records show liberty paid red pinch $123,950 during 2016 for what sources described as a search engine recruitment for online students to the university. Redfin's online work for the school goes beyond typical SEO marketing and an e-mail from August 2013 obtained for this article. Falwell asked Gauger to defend him in the comments section of a local news article that Falwell felt reflected. They're negatively on him, Falwell emailed Gauger the exact wording to post. I'm having my red Finch guys blow this right up right away, Garcia responded. I'll tell you how it goes. Now. That's all silly, right? But here's where it gets really ******* infuriating. Because if you've heard of Red Finch at all outside of the context of Liberty University, that's because Red Finch LLC is the company that Michael Cohen hired to rig online polls in Donald Trump's favor in 2015 and 16. Whoa, guys. You wrote a computer script to vote constantly for Trump in exchange for $50,000. That $50,000? That's cheap. That's just it wasn't a big job. But this means here's what's infuriating to me. Not this, not that he could ask for more money for a job like that. No, no, no, no. As a freelancer, I'm in fury. You just want a collective bargain to get him more money. No, it's that the $50,000 he got came from Falwell money. Falwell money comes from federal taxpayer money. Taxpayer money. So the taxpayers paid for John Gauger to influence polls in Donald Trump's favor in 2015 and 16. That's so ****** **. Yeah, that that's that's. Really frustrating. In multiple reports from multiple outlets, Falwell's management of Liberty University has been described as dictatorial and fundamentally abusive, 1 senior university official told a journalist from Politico. We're not a school, we're a real estate hedge fund. We're not educating, we're buying real estate every year and taking students money to do it, another stated. It's a dictatorship. Nobody craps at the university without Jerry's approval. In July of 2012, Falwell told university executives that his son, Trey, would be starting a new company to manage properties at the school, including the shopping center. This might represent what's known as a breach of duty of loyalty to the nonprofit, as it could be seen as Falwell junior, enriching his son at the expense of giving the school's property a qualified manager. But it's fine. It's just fine for this to happen. Which is cool. Falwell Junior has also put his support for President Donald Trump above the health of his students and his ethical responsibilities as the manager of a nonprofit religious institution. In 2017, he invited the President to deliver the school's commencement address. Now, this is fine, and happens regularly with a number of schools. But. Jerry Falwell Junior also had Liberty University start selling a line of Trump branded shirts and hats commemorating the event, Becky Falwell wrote in an e-mail thread. I want to make sure that we have a lot of options available to purchase. It's great advertising for liberty to be on products with Trump's name, she added in a later message. I spoke to Michael Cohen and he said to make sure any shirts we buy are made in America. He loved the designs. The school ended up printing shirts that looked almost exactly like official Trump campaign merchandise, including the words making America Great again 1 degree at a time. Well, yeah, it's possible these shirts are a violation of the school's 501C3 status, since they might be seen as political advertising, but there's no inclination that Falwell junior gives a **** about this or that anything will be done about it. Who's going to prosecute him? Who's going to prosecute him? Nobody cares when these guys break the rules. Hmm. Nope. From Politico, Falwell has become known as a Trump loyalist who is willing to put his and his school's reputation on the line to defend the president from any critic and Trump, Falwell said in 2017 evangelicals have found their dream president. When asked by the Washington Post late in 2018 if there were anything President Trump could do that would endanger the support from you or other evangelical leaders, Falwell said no. And in May 2019 tweet about the Mueller investigation, Falwell appropriated the language of reparations for descendants of slaves to argue that Trump's term should be lengthened. I now support reparations. Trump should have two years added to his first term as payback for the time stolen by this corrupt, failed coup. Yeah, I just think it's neat that both Jerry Falwell and Jerry Falwell junior have appropriated the language of, in Falwell's case, abolitionists, and in Jerry Junior's case, the reparations movement to support their own political ********. That's neat, yeah, and also kind of a hilarious. Defeat of their own ideology. Yeah. You know, yeah. To like be borrowing by borrowing and being very kind. It's like with quotation marks. I mean, stealing by stealing something from somebody that you don't even respect, you're just giving credence to the fact that they are valuable and have ideas and and that all your value and merit and all you do is just steal it and appropriate it to your own end and then you still maintain your superiority. It's just kind of hilarious. Yeah. Yeah, it's. Unself aware that is moral hermit crabbing. Except for I like hermit crabs and I do not like the fall wells. Jerry Falwell Junior is considerably more positive in his words to the President than he has been in emails writing about his own students. Earlier in September 2019, Reuters published an article based on leaked emails from Falwell to his faculty. The title exclusive? Falwell blasted Liberty student as ******** police chief as halfwit in emails. Wow, yeah. Reuters interviewed or reviewed several dozen emails which painted a pattern of intense disrespect for the people who attend liberty and work there. Here are some examples. Ronald Sons, the Dean of the engineering school was a bag of hot air. Who couldn't spell the word prophet? Falwell wrote in 2011. Richard he thinks that's like a sick burn. I think he does. It's not, though it's definitely not. Richard Hinckley, the campus police chief, was 1/2 wit and easy to manipulate and shouldn't be allowed to speak publicly. Hinckley couldn't be reached for comment. On the account probably of how half would he was too much of a ******* half went to talk to the Press of Kevin Keyes, then liberties associate athletics director, Falwell wrote in 2012. Only get Kevin involved in something if you want it to not work. Why would you hire that guy? Like, why would you let that guy have a position at your school if that's what you say about it? It's so great. Up until very recently, only an idiot would hire Kevin. Only a ******* moron. I am his employer, I am his employer, and I regularly show him pictures of my wife naked. Get in there. Show him your ***. You don't deserve to be here. Up until very recently, Falwell Junior has been allowed to get away with this behavior due to the sheer terror everyone else at liberty seems to hold for him, one current university employee told Politico. Everybody is scared for their life. Everybody walks around in fear. This what a cool place to learn. What a cool place to learn. This employee only agreed to speak to Politico after buying a burner phone because they were afraid that Falwell Junior is monitoring their communications. Holy **** yeah. Yeah, it's a real dictatorship over there. Sounds pretty great. I love that he's an advocate for free speech at schools. Now, the good news is that all this bad behavior has finally percolated out into the wider world, and activist Christian Group Faithful America has launched a petition to force the Virginia Attorney General and the IRS to open criminal investigations into Jerry Falwell Junior. They have received over 15,000 signatures so far. Earlier this month the Washington Examiner, a very right wing news website, published an editorial simply titled Jerry Falwell Junior needs to Go. And on September 13th, after several of these damning articles dropped, 200 Liberty students protested on campus. At least 60 of them demanded an investigation into the school's president and his administration. So that's good. Maybe something will happen. They've put so much time has passed. Yeah, he made billions of dollars stealing taxpayer funds and giving people worthless degrees in exchange for. Money that should have gone to infrastructure? Yeah, like it's like doubly terrible because you both wasted all those tax dollars and then all of these kids wind up in horrible debt for no benefit. It's pretty cool. And they don't get educated and they don't get educated. And then the money goes to rigging polls online in favor of Donald Trump. Yeah, this is. And buying that hostel a lose lose situation, except for Jean Carlyle, Jean Carlo, Carlos crushing it, and I assume some like European backpackers. Had a great, like, great State summer break in Miami. Yeah, yeah, they're also winning. So, well, thanks, Sofia. How you feeling? I mean, a lot better than after you've invited me to talk about dead babies. You ******* hours. Way less dead babies. Even sure, I feel positive. Like leaving. It's just a weird feeling. Normally I leave here and I want to like, curl up into a ball and die. Well, I will find another dead baby story to tell you. I am not afraid of that being untrue. Yeah, it it it's is going to happen. I just gotta find another real good baby murderer. Like, that's part of the trouble is. Yeah, that that is part of the trouble. It's just hard to find a good baby killer these days. That's not a challenge, listeners. Don't be like, you know what? I'll give Robert something to talk about. If you know someone who killed a lot of babies, reach out to us on Twitter. What? Stop influence. He just loves canned Sylvania. He loves it there. It's, you know what it is, is it's the mild falls. Well, there's no such thing. It's all only one temperature in Kansas, Sylvania, and it's just unbearably hot. Who's your new roommate? Because manafort? Yeah, it's you, Manafort. He didn't even get cancelled. I mean, he just got imprisoned. Then how is he in Pennsylvania with you? Well, I guess I would say he didn't get cancelled because he actually faced consequences and the people in cancel evania really don't. Yeah, I guess that's true. Yeah. Hmm. I don't know. Maybe that little observation moved you up to a higher level of Pennsylvania. Now I'm. I'm bunking with. No, we already did a Louis CK joke. I can't think of anyone else who's been cancelled. Yeah, I think that's there's a lesson in there somewhere. Well, Sophia, you want to plug your plegables? Sure you guys can find me on Twitter and Instagram at the Sofia SOFIYA and on my podcast private parts unknown, Courtney Kozak so podcast about love and sexuality around the world and 4:20 Day fiance. My podcast about 90 day fiance with miles Gray. And you can find me in Pennsylvania, performing at the Comedy Cellar I opened for Michael Richards. I thought of another one. Yeah, thank you for you you this website behindthebastards.com Twitter at ******** pod Instagram the same as the Twitter and T-shirts at public. What it well, Sophie Oh yeah, if you buy T-shirts at public, I will use them to purchase a hostel in Miami Beach. The poor boy from my pool boy. But I won't keep it a secret. I I will. I will. You will be proud of Rejean Tarlow. I am. I am very proud. Jean Carlo's the only one in the story I actually am proud of. It's true. He really knows how to ratchet up just being the third guy in a threesome. It just seems like a person in the threesome. Into some actual real estate, into owning a hot Co, owning a hostel in Miami Beach. That's a weird flex, but I'm. I'm in it. I mean, I feel like your choices are one of two things. Either liberty. University taxpayer dollars go to fund like fraudulent polls that support Donald Trump's candidacy. Or they go to Jean Carlo. And I know that I would rather Jean Carlo, Jean Carlo by a mile. So buy some T-shirts, support Jean Carlo, listen to the worst year ever where we'll try to get John Carlo on as a guest. He actually really fun, yeah, yeah. If you know someone who's had a threesome with the farewells, tell him to hit us up. Episodes done. Hello, I'm Erica Kelly from the podcast Southern Fried True crime, and if you want to go from podcast fan to podcast host, do what I did and check out spreaker from iheart. I was working in accounting and hating it. Then after just 18 months of podcasting with Spreaker, I was able to quit my day job. Follow your podcasting dreams, let's break our handle the hosting, creation, distribution, and monetization of your podcast. Go to spreaker.com. That's spreaker.com. Hey there, it's Ebony Monet, your co-host for the San Diego Zoo's Amazing Wildlife podcast. In this special episode, we're speaking with Doctor Jane Goodall about the fascinating journey that led to her social discoveries on chimpanzees. So four whole months, the chimps ran away from me. I mean, they take one look at this peculiar wide ape and disappear into the vegetation. In wildlife on the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your podcasts, hey y'all, it's Caroline Hobby hosted get real with Caroline Hobby interviewing the most fascinating people in Nashville and beyond. I talked to artists, I talked to the wives of artists. I talked to women entrepreneurs who have created businesses who are moms, who juggle a million hats and do it all. Each episode will leave you inspired, feeling like you can accomplish your own dream and calling listen to new episodes of get Real with Caroline Hobby every Monday on the Nashville. Podcast network available on iHeartRadio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcast.