Wild Olive

Arts & Culture Podcasts

The Wild Olive Podcast brings you game-changing conversations about literature, culture, and the Bible. With co-hosts Jeanne Petrolle and Jennifer Bird, Wild Olive serves up idea-feasts: tasty insights about biblical texts and contemporary (or...

Location:

United States

Genres:

Arts & Culture Podcasts

Religion & Spirituality Podcasts

Description:

The Wild Olive Podcast brings you game-changing conversations about literature, culture, and the Bible. With co-hosts Jeanne Petrolle and Jennifer Bird, Wild Olive serves up idea-feasts: tasty insights about biblical texts and contemporary (or classic!) literature, with generous side-portions of cultural commentary and hearty laughter. One literature professor + one biblical studies professor = uncontrolled, out-of-bounds, untamed conversation: ideal listening for the post-evangelical, the spiritual-but-not-religious, the Bible-curious secularist, the free-thinking religionist, and the literary-but-not-stodgy! New episodes every other Friday!

Language:

English

Website:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2090487

Episodes

#66: American Lazarus with Joanna Brooks

2/13/2026

Wild Olive is back! Join Jeanne as she talks with literature scholar and Mormon influencer Joanna Brooks about the Lazarus tradition in early American literature. Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Duración:01:10:16

#65: The War Within Us with Prof. Liam Corely

11/14/2025

Jeanne talks with Liam Corely, a Professor, Scholar, Poet and Solider. Together they discuss his article "The "Jouissance" of Belief: Devotional Reading and the (Re)Turn to Religion" as well as how war and prose go hand in hand. Prof. Corely's article can be found here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44314029 Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Duración:00:52:54

#64: Mysteries of the Bible with Peggy Sturba

10/3/2025

Jeanne talks with Peggy Sturba, Visiting Asst. Professor of Honors at Coastal Carolina University and author of "‘That Which Remains: Memory, Identity, and Gothic Modernism in McCormack’s Solar Bones". Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Duración:00:47:56

#63: The Bible As A Survival Tool with Courtney Hitson

9/12/2025

Jeanne talks with Courtney Hitson! Together they discuss their spiritual origins, atheism and the work of Flannery O'Connor. Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:46:37

#62 Liberating The Bible with Jody Ondich

8/1/2025

Joining Jeanne this week is Jody Ondich, Professor of Philosophy at Lake Superior College! Together, they discuss the benefits of open text resources, humor in the bible and the choice of abstaining from religion. Read Jody Ondich's Book "Reading the Bible as Literature: a Journey" Here!: https://minnstate.pressbooks.pub/bible/ Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:36:11

#61: Reverend Doctor Yolanda Pierce

7/4/2025

Jeanne talks with Reverend Doctor Yolanda Pierce about the Chicago Black Renaissance, Poet Margaret Walker and Dr. Pierce's new book 'The Wounds Are the Witness' Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:01:09:36

#60: Christ & The Power of Coercion with Dr. Miranda Zapor Cruz

6/6/2025

Jeanne sits down with Professor Miranda Zapor Cruz. Join them as she explains the power of coercion, the modern combination of church and politics & why Christian Nationalism and the teachings of Christ do not go together. Professor Miranda Zapor Cruz's Book "Faithful Politics" available at these links: https://mirandazaporcruz.com/faithful-politics/ Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:53:48

S4 Episode 3: Dreams-- with Jennifer!

4/25/2025

Jennifer is back! --And joining in on this season's conversation of dreams in the bible! Joining us is citizen scholar, Luke Moss. Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:49:11

S4 Episode 2: The Dreamings of Abimelech

4/4/2025

Torrance Church - Dreamscapes of Divine Revelation: Unveiling the 21 Dreams In The Bible Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:32:07

S4 Episode 1: Dreams with Gen Z

3/14/2025

This week, Jeanne is joined by her Wild Olive colleagues (Matt, Klara & Luke) to discuss Levertov's poem "The Jacob's Ladder" and kick off this season's theme of "Dreams". Together they analyze dreams as they appear in the Hebrew Bible, specifically Genesis and Jacob's Dream at Bethel. Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:35:50

S3 Episode 19: The Sauciness of "Song of Songs"

2/28/2025

This week, Jennifer and Jeanne entertain ideas found in chapter nine of Jennifer's book "Marriage and The Bible" through analyzation of "Song of Songs" as love poetry, and a saucy one at that! DISCLAIMER: Technical difficulties on Jeanne's mic, apologies for sound quality! Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:41:15

S3 Episode 18: Four Scandalous Women (Not Including Us)

2/14/2025

Jeanne and Jennifer return! With them, they bring a new discussion on the four women who appear in the genealogy for Jesus; Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. Together, their stories give an insight into the biblical portrayal of femininity, motherhood and marriage. Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:37:57

Annunciation & Virginity

1/17/2025

Continuing our hiatus, we present an episode from season one as Jennifer and Jeanne dive deep into "The Annunciation" by Edward Muir. Pairing it with Luke Chapter 1, they discuss conception, purity, motherhood and how other interpretations can affect our understanding of the story. Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:37:15

Mrs. Lazarus & The Idea of Resurrection

1/3/2025

While Jeanne and Jennifer take a short hiatus for the next batch of episodes, hear an episode from our back catalog that relates to this seasons theme of "Marriage and the Bible"! This episode explore "Mrs. Lazarus," a poem by the Scottish poet Carol Ann Duffy. The poem remixes the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. As they engage the Gospel story alongside Duffy's poem, your hosts discuss the meaning of resurrection as a life-death-life pattern that appears in the Hebrew Bible, the Newer Testament and, metaphorically speaking, in life outside literature. Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:42:00

S3 Episode 17: Christmas Stories: One Birth, Two Accounts

12/20/2024

In the spirit of the holiday season, Jennifer and Jeanne discuss two different accounts of Jesus' birth. One from Luke, the other from Matthew in the New Testament. Together they analyze how these two separate tales have been blended together over time to create the story we think we know today. Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:39:03

S3 Episode 16: Why You Shouldn't Get Married (According to Paul)

12/6/2024

This week, Jeanne and Jennifer discuss the biblical concept of staying unmarried, celibate or widowed as outlined by Paul in 1 Corinthians. Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:35:51

S3 Episode 15: A Tale of Two Bathshebas

11/23/2024

It's an analyzation of two fascinating literary characters! Jennifer and Jeanne dissect the parallels between the Bathsheba, as found in The Book of Samuel, and her inspiration by the same name in Thomas Hardy's "Far From The Madding Crowd" (1874). Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:37:49

S3 Episode 14: The Power of The Name

11/8/2024

This week, Jeanne and Jennifer discuss the concept of labels, language and the power to use them, through the lens of Ursula K. Le Guin's short story "She Unnames Them". Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:32:35

S3 Episode 13: How The Suffragettes Took The Bible Back

10/25/2024

Jennifer is back! And this week, she and Jeanne discuss the significance and impact of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's "The Woman's Bible" (1895). Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:51:05

S3 Episode 12: Bechdel, Brides & The Bible

10/11/2024

Feminism and the Bible don't typically go hand-in-hand, but could they? This week, Jeanne discusses Christian feminism through depictions of women in the Bible and classic literature, as well as modern interpretations from notable feminist authors Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Alison Bechdel. Help support Wild Olive, Donate Here! Follow us here! Blog Instagram Facebook

Duración:00:17:24