The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly of Storytelling | The Taxidermy of Hollywood

09/01/2025 2h 33min

Listen "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly of Storytelling | The Taxidermy of Hollywood"

Episode Synopsis

Survey Link https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdCCSj9URmUSo5YE8JyxCTDo0ESjUKZ7eZMD_SFwmbG10aAsw/viewform?usp=sharing
The Traditions of the Virgin Mary: https://youtu.be/9TkSiOBwo04
Critical Drinker video on Rings of Power: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kquNKboBtJw

Today, we venture into Hollywood. In this first of two parts, Dr. Jacobs uses the new Netflix movie about the Virgin Mary to explore the many pitfalls that Hollywood falls into when trying to create a movie for Christians. He’ll also get prescriptive. Who can fix these problems and how? 

All the links: 
X: https://x.com/NathanJacobsPod
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0hSskUtCwDT40uFbqTk3QS
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nathan-jacobs-podcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenathanjacobspodcast
Substack: https://nathanajacobs.substack.com/
Website: https://www.nathanajacobs.com/
Academia: https://vanderbilt.academia.edu/NathanAJacobs

00:00:00 Intro 
00:00:24 Take the survey 
00:02:57 The IP problem in Hollywood 
00:11:59 Hollywood, Faith, & Propaganda 
00:29:00 Hollywood doesn’t know how to make these movies 
00:41:41 Background on Dr. Jacobs and the Mary movie 
00:45:24 Choosing Protestant, Catholic, or the Orthodox versions of the Mary story
00:50:12 Mary and Joseph: To romance or not to romance? 
00:54:21 Mary’s early life in the temple 
00:57:39 The Netflix approach to Satan in their movie 
00:59:38 When writers rip off other writers 
01:04:42 Back to Satan in the movie 
01:06:32 Inexplicable story changes 
01:11:40 Filling in the gaps in biblical storytelling 
01:18:08 Honoring the worldview of the source material 
01:29:14 Girlbosses subverting the men 
01:35:59 Cringe :/
01:45:31 How to make a successful organically Christian movie 
01:55:30 The myth of secular neutrality 
01:59:35 Depth in storytelling (Tolkien vs. Lewis)
02:13:00 The Hollywood taxidermists 
02:26:04 Can Hollywood self-correct? 

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