Done in a Day: ‘In God We Lust’ looks at how a pool boy brought down Jerry Falwell Jr. and exposed his corruption within Liberty University
In all of the craziness that was 2020, some news definitely slipped through the cracks of our collective psyche. But, not this story. We’re talking about the sensational and scandalous exposure (no pun intended) of Jerry Falwell Jr., President of Liberty University, eldest son of Jerry Falwell Sr. and heir to his Evangelical empire. And it came in the form of a “pool boy.” And “In God We Lust” is making sure we know all about it.
Had this been anyone else, besides maybe a few high-ranking government officials, this wouldn’t have been a story. But for the man who ruled Liberty University with an iron and pious fist, this was against everything he claimed to stand for. Not only did it lead to his departure from his own father’s university, but it resulted in Liberty University opening an investigation into his financial and real estate entanglements with the school.
“In God We Lust” is seven episodes about the scandal that brought down the president of Liberty University. Episodes are just 30- to 40-minutes long, which means you can hear how a “pool boy” pulled the thread that unraveled the lives of Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife, Becki Tilley.
Recommended this week in Podsauce’s “Done In A Day” segment, you’ll be hard-pressed to turn off “In God We Lust.” Hosted by Brooke Siffrinn and Aricia Skidmore-Williams, they bring all the humor of their main Wondery podcast, “Even The Rich,” to their first miniseries, diving deeper into a scandal than ever before.
The pool boy, who does in fact have a real name, Giancarlo Granda, met the Falwells at a Miami Beach hotel in 2012, and for six years, he claimed to have sex with Becki Tilley while her husband watched. This podcast brings us back to the start of that relationship and delivers us the founding principles of Liberty University. There’s the basic Evangelical morals: no smoking, no drinking, and no drugs. But, it gets a little weirder, with rules like no violent video games, no movies with anti-Christian messages, no bikinis, and “no sexual relations outside of a biblically ordained marriage between a natural-born man and a natural-born woman.”
Complete with interviews from students who were at Liberty University under Falwell’s reign, “In God We Lust” dives deep into this story. They interview alum who were students when Falwell Jr. endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2016 and censored the Liberty University student newspaper from printing negative articles about Trump. Falwell Jr. went from being a rock-star, god-like figure as the school’s president to a corrupt and greedy man who had only gotten so far in his life thanks to his father.
As dissent grows on campus towards the Falwells, and Falwell Jr. only digs himself into deeper, more corrupt holes, “In God We Lust” tracks it all. In the last episode, you’ll even hear from Kevin Roose, a Brown University student and reporter who went undercover for a semester at Liberty University, and wrote a book about what he learned. Hear all of this and more with “In God We Lust.”
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