S5 Ep14: The Bizarre, True Story of Aimee Semple McPherson, Part One: Aimee! Aimee! Aimee!
Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan
Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan
4.1 • 10K Ratings
🗓️ 11 September 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
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Summary
"Strange and Unexplained" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab & Three Goose Entertainment and is a journey into the uncomfortable and the unknowable that will leave you both laughing and sleeping with the lights on. You can get early and ad-free episodes on the Grab Bag Patreon page.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, what is the road to success paved with? |
| 0:12.0 | Even if one's goal is holy and righteous, how long does it take fame and fortune to divert us? |
| 0:19.1 | Once the money starts rolling in, can we ever truly remember who we |
| 0:23.5 | once were? Welcome to Strange and Unexplained with me, Daisy Egan. When I was maybe 14 years old, |
| 0:32.5 | I was in a workshop of a musical about Amy Semple McPherson, which was not, incidentally, the musical about |
| 0:38.4 | Amy Semple McPherson that ended up on Broadway and flopped in 2012. |
| 0:43.4 | I don't remember a single thing about the one I was in, except there was one scene in a |
| 0:47.4 | revival tent, and Christopher McDonald, the guy who played Thelma's husband and Thelma in |
| 0:51.8 | it. I loved him. He was very funny. |
| 0:56.0 | Actually, in an odd way, the phenomenon of Thelma and Louise is similar to that of Amy Semple |
| 1:01.2 | McPherson. Both are stories of strong women declaring their independence from men. Sort of. |
| 1:08.7 | For Thelma and Louise, their cages were built by loveless marriage, dead-end jobs, |
| 1:13.6 | and being a woman in America in the late 20th century, with men who controlled and didn't appreciate them. |
| 1:20.2 | Amy, on the other hand, thought she was building a palace around herself, when in truth, |
| 1:25.2 | with each brick of the empire she built, she was sealing herself |
| 1:28.9 | into a cell. In both stories, the women have to take extraordinary measures to gain their freedom, |
| 1:35.8 | and both stories end tragically. Though perhaps aspects of Thelman Louise haven't aged tremendously |
| 1:43.6 | well, spoiler alert, but it says a lot |
| 1:46.2 | about where we were as a culture that our great feminist empowerment tome told us the only way |
| 1:52.0 | to happiness is to literally drive off a cliff. It was well written, well acted, and had a young |
| 1:58.1 | Brad Pitt who we all hated to see Leave, but love to watch Walk Away. |
| 2:03.3 | Whereas the Broadway musical about Amy Semple McPherson was, well, first of all, a musical produced in part by Amy's own church, Red Flag, |
... |
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