The answers to those questions have always been a mixed bag. When we started Kitchen Table Cult, there were not mainstream reporters talking about Christian Dominionism, the Seven Mountains Mandate, about homeschooling as a tool for control and child abuse. Since we started recording in 2018, there’s been an influx of books, podcasts, and journalism covering the angles that we discuss, and doing it well. We’re so glad to see that, and it’s a relief in some ways because covering this material is emotionally draining for both of us and it’s good to feel like there’s less urgency to talk about these stories because we know that qualified reporters, historians, and academics are on the beat now. Like, we didn’t have to cover Ruby Franke because other people had it handled–and it was a relief to not retrigger ourselves with the graphic descriptions of child torture.

At the end of this season we’re closing up shop, and this is a post explaining why. The above is half the story. The rest of the story is a little more complicated and our feelings on the decision are more layered as a result. 

After Shiny Happy People came out last summer, we had some interest from a big network in buying us out and relaunching us. We explored this opportunity fully, taking time out of our regular recording routine to work on developing sample episodes and a pitch for a version of the show that would be somewhat scripted, robustly produced by a really talented producer (who was a joy to work with), and would be formatted as more traditional reportage. We learned so much during this six month process, and it stretched us in ways that felt really exciting. We got better, we got input, we had a glimpse of what this could look like with full-time resources and focus. 

There’s a version of this story where we got the no from the network and decided to throw ourselves into doing this full-time, hustling to make that higher quality product with just our own resources and the patreon support, staying independent. But in reality, we’re faced with some limitations that are impossible to ignore, and with our higher standards for what we can make, those limitations feel like a clear signal to call it now rather than chasing burnout in pursuit of a bigger audience and higher quality coverage.  

We’ve been doing this for the love of it while keeping our day jobs, which has been tricky. When we started this, Kieryn was living in the US and our time difference was 3 hours, and I was in grad school and had a lot of free time. Now, I have a full time job and am finishing writing my memoir and book proposal with my agent’s help, and both of those take a lot of my energy before I even begin to focus on Kitchen Table Cult stuff. Kieryn is in Berlin and has been working less on their own projects and working more on podcast stuff, but at a 6/7 hour time difference and to the detriment of their own ability to integrate by participating in social events in the evenings. Instead of hanging out with new friends and making art, they’re working on TikToks and recording late at night with me. If we were content to just do a low-res chat show, this would be fine, but we aren’t and it’s become rather unsustainable. 

And then there’s the whole mess of the business side of it, which was complex but fine before Germany became part of the equation, but German taxes really punish freelancers and it ultimately means that we’re operating close to a loss. 

So here’s the plan: we will finish up Season Six as planned, and we’ll throw in a few of the sample episodes we worked on and you’ll get to see some of the work that went into those. We’ll stop taking Patreon payouts this month, so you won’t be charged for June or July, and in July we’ll have our last episodes air.

Kitchen Table Cult the show will be finished, but we’ll keep the lights on for the archive and the Slack, and maybe we’ll do a couple one-off episodes in the future as we feel like it. Or maybe not. But what we will do is a Zoom book club that will be irregular, featuring author guests and chatting about the same kind of books we’ve been covering a lot on the show this year. Those will be live and maybe we’ll put them on YouTube afterwards so y’all can enjoy asynchronously.

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We’re also continuing to focus on our archival work around what we’ve come to informally call the “Bad Books Shelf”–a collection of primary sources that we have in paper copy and are working to slowly digitize, as copyright allows, for the use of researchers and reporters covering Christian Dominionism and the beliefs that built that community. This project will have a formal name at some point and we’ll be sharing more about that in the months to come. If you have primary source materials you want to donate, please reach out!

The past six years have been heavy, emotionally and existentially, as Christian Dominionism and fascism have come to dominate the news cycle and the discourse online. But with the community that has gathered around the show, in Slack and in person and elsewhere, we’ve felt bolstered and encouraged to know how many of you are out there doing the daily small work to educate your peers and family and make your communities better, safer places for queer ex-fundies to thrive, for homeschooled kids to know that they have a future, and for traumatized ex-cult members to heal. You are all making the world better and witnessing that is so healing. Thank you for being chosen family, for your support and encouragement, for putting in the effort to grow and heal and share that with others. 

An extra huge and heartfelt thanks to Alex Steed, who agreed to manage us and was a vital part of shepherding us through this whole process with grace and good humor. He’s a gem.

With love and gratitude,

Eve and Kieryn