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Don't Know Much About with Naya Lekht
Don't Know Much About is a podcast hosted by Dr. Naya Lekht, a scholar and educator with a PhD from UCLA in Russian Literature. Each episode unpacks a contentious topic — from antizionism and Soviet history to Jewish identity and contemporary geopolitics — through rigorous research, personal stories, and candid conversations with leading thinkers. Clarifying the complex, one conversation at a time.
Don't Know Much About with Naya Lekht
"The Church Fathers' Trick, 2000 Year Later" with Kile B. Jones
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What happens when a scholar of religion turns his critical eye on the very ideas he once championed? On this episode of Don't Know Much About, Naya Lekht sits down with writer Kile B. Jones, a man who once embraced the ideologies that fuel modern antizionism, and who has since became one of the clearest voices writing and speaking against it.
Kile holds two master's degrees in Religious Studies from Boston University. A longtime bridge-builder, he has created interfaith programs and projects including "Interview an Atheist at Church Day," and founded and edited the Claremont Journal of Religion at the Claremont Colleges. His work has appeared in publications spanning philosophy, religion, and society, including Philosophy Now, The Humanist, Free Inquiry, and The Routledge Guide. He currently writes at The Inverted World on Substack.
The conversation opens with the story of Kile's encounter with his one-time hero, Noam Chomsky, then dives into the questions that forced him to re-examine postcolonialism and Marxism. In one of the episode's most striking moments, Kile reveals that many academics don't actually deny that Jews come from Israel; they simply draw a line between those ancient Jews and the Jews of today. Naya immediately connects the dots to a chilling historical parallel: the era of antijudaism, when church fathers and theologians distinguished between the "good Jews" of the Bible and the "traitorous" Jews living among them who rejected Christ.
A dynamic, eye-opening conversation — not to be missed.
Clarifying the complex. Step into my classroom.