Giday, I'm Gary Stevens.

And welcome to the third season of the History in the Bible podcast.

In this final season, I explore how the Jews and the Christians constructed new religions when they were sent spinning into the void after the destruction of the temple.

All of the history, about all of the books beyond the Bible.

This bonus episode is an indulgent exercise.

It's not for everyone.

You could call it a meta-bonus show or an extras show.

This time I present a behind-scenes look at the making of the history in the Bible.

If you aren't interested in that, well, further episodes will be published soon enough.

In this bonus, John Brooks of the Pod Only Knows podcast interviews me the genesis and making of my show.

It was his idea, but not mine, but I think it turned out pretty well.

This episode formed the last show of John's former podcast, Hard to Believe.

It is published here with Here's Kind Permission.

With his new podcast, Pod Only Knows, John is off to fresh ventures, along with Dr Kelly J. Baker.

They are both from the serious world of religious studies.

In their new show, they take a sometimes serious, sometimes irreverent, and always curious, look at the way religion shows up in our world.

Kelly and John invite other people from the wide and wild world of religious studies

to talk to them about why and how they do what they do

and why their work matters to us all. I commend it to you. Gary, welcome. I've long wanted to

have you on the podcast. And I thought this was a great time because I am sort of technically ending this show

and transitioning into something else.

And you, after many years, are threatening to end your show, are finally pulling the trigger.

...