# The Choice (S4E1): Season 4 Opens, John the Baptist's Beginning and End

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/badlands-media-5934327/the-choice-s4e1-season-4-opens-john-the-baptist-s-beginning-and-end
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/badlands-media-5934327/the-choice-s4e1-season-4-opens-john-the-baptist-s-beginning-and-end.md
Podcast: [Badlands Media](https://stenobird.com/podcast/badlands-media-5934327)
Published: 2026-05-28T17:59:43+00:00
Episode link: https://badlandsmedia.podbean.com/e/the-choice-s4e1-season-4-opens-john-the-baptists-beginning-and-end/
Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/j9qijejzskcbwxaa/The_Choice_1_9iy3p.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/badlands-media-5934327/episodes/the-choice-s4e1-season-4-opens-john-the-baptist-s-beginning-and-end
Duration seconds: 6292

## Resource

Ghost and Ashe in America kick off season four of The Chosen with the gut-wrenching first episode, which bookends John the Baptist's entire life in a single hour. The hosts open with a hard look at why elections are fake, why the Republican Party is the actual enemy, and why John in Herod's court is a warning about what happens when you let government distract you from the man you were supposed to be walking with. Then they walk through the whole arc: Mary's visit to Elizabeth, the baby leaping in the womb, the dance training of Salome, Herodias using her own daughter to stay comfortable in her sin, and John laughing on the way to his beheading because he is on his way to a wedding banquet. Along the way: Wesley Huff debating Billy Carson, Eric Larson's slivers and glances method applied to how the showrunners present Herod, the laundry scene as a metaphor for sin, Judas wanting to take up a collection and how that becomes the modern 501(c)(3) church, and a renewed appreciation for the Catholic church holding its ground while the Protestants crumble.

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## Transcript

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