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a collage featuring Du Mez, a white woman with blond-brown hair wearing glasses, a red blouse and dark blue sweater; the cover of Jesus and John Wayne is a deep-bluish-purple color with orange text and features a pair of golden pistols in front of a white Christian cross
Portrait by Deborah K. Hoag / W.W. Norton & Company

The 21st Show

‘Jesus and John Wayne’ author Kristin Du Mez on how white evangelicals came to embrace Donald Trump

How did Evangelical Christians come to not only vote for Donald Trump, but embrace him as a heroic figure? Historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez says it was a long time in coming, and that Trump is not a betrayal of evangelical values, but a fulfilment of them. We’ll talk with Du Mez ahead of delivering the annual Thulin Lecture this week in Urbana.

a toad sits on a bed of dried tropical foliage; its skin is dark green on the back and fades to yellow on the sides; it has black spots all over and a light-colored belly
Jan Paul Zegarra/USFWS (Public Domain)

The 21st Show

Central Illinois zoo helps save Bad Bunny’s favorite toad

If you are among the tens of millions of people who caught Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, you might’ve noticed a moment when the jumbotron featured a toad. Turns out it’s the Puerto Rican Crested Toad, which is native to the island and an endangered species. It’s also the subject of conservation efforts at the Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington. We’ll talk with them about their work on Bad Bunny’s favorite amphibian.
 

an hourglass has run out of time; in the background the sun is low to the horizon
Adobe Stock

The 21st Show

Meet the doulas who help at the other end of life

You might’ve heard of doulas — usually women who support other women in getting through the process of childbirth. But there are also doulas whose work focuses on the opposite end of our lifespans. They’re called death or end-of-life doulas. We’ll talk with two of them about their work.

Darnell Lamont Walker is based in Georgia and Michigan; his new book is Never Can Say Goodbye: The Life of a Death Doula and the Art of a Peaceful End. Kim Burgess was a nurse practitioner before becoming nn end-of-life doula. She's with Comforting Transitions in O'Fallon, Illinois.