This Fire

This Fire

SEX. DRUGS. SATANISM. This Fire is looking back at every episode of Fire By Nite, a Christian teen variety program released during the height of the Satanic Panic™ of the late 1980s/early 90s. Join hosts Steve and Alec as they discuss dated sketch comedy, demonic influence on our nation's youth, and of course the ever looming threat of communism.

Episodes

May 8, 2026 53 mins
What do Jesus, internet censorship, an Israeli cyber security firm, AI slop for kids, and a reality show exploiting unhoused people have in common?
 
Today on This Fire we take a look at the wild world of faith based telecoms, and discuss whether these “accountability” focused services are simply helping Christian customers walk their walk, or…if they have more nefarious goals in mind…

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This Fire is taking an in depth look at Fire...
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NINETEEN-EIGHTY NINE a number, another summer. (Get down) Batman is dominating the box office, the dulcet tones of Kim Boyce are blasting from every car stereo, as the Satanic Panic and fear over the “jungle rhythms” of modern pop and rock music weigh heavy on the parents of America.
 
Today on This Fire we ask the tough questions, and investigate whether the Christian Contemporary Music of the late 1980s POISONED a generation of you...
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Today on This Fire we’re a direct democracy, as we let YOU choose what we tackle for the next installment of our Profiles in Christian Nationalism series…and you chose…the 2026 propaganda documentary MELANIA (all caps)…

Join us as we spend an afternoon in hell, re-tracing the First Lady’s 20 days leading up to the 2025 inauguration. Visiting her dress designer…making former president Jimmy Carter’s funeral all about herself…and then...
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This month on This Fire, we’re looking at the May 1989 episode of Fire By Nite: “Why Good People Go To Hell”. A primer on the fear, uncertainty, and doubt instilled in a generation of young Christians who accepted Jesus as their personal lord and savior, but still couldn’t help but wonder “Am I REALLY going to heaven?…You sure about that Clark?”

PLUS, terrifying mimes (and pirates) as Christian ballet fantasia Toymaker’s Dream takes...
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This month on This Fire, we’re looking at the April 1989 episode of Fire By Nite: “Idols in Your Life”, as we explore just how Evangelical Christians warned themselves about the pitfalls of worshipping false idols…and then promptly fell into a decades long pattern of electing them into office.

PLUS, the return of Christianity’s own American Idol: The man, the myth, the MAGA entertainer in the making - CARMAN! 

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This Fire is takin...
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December 30, 2025 39 mins
Join us for a look back at the last 3 years of Fire By Nite musical guests as Steve and Alec finalize the very first THIS FIRE MIXTAPE.
 
We’re sequencing, we’re toasting, we’re roasting, and above all we’re giving up props to the tunes that made 1986-1988 such a watershed time for the CCM industry. If you’re in the mood for an upbeat and SHOCKINGLY free from snark episode of This Fire, you’ve come to the right place!
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This week on a very special bonus episode of This Fire, we take a break from our analysis of Fire By Nite, and instead sidestep into the world of faith based programming aimed at the elementary school set, as we embark upon the first episode of our brand new sub-series ‘This Fire: Kids Klub’!!

And on this maiden voyage into early childhood centric content, we look at the pilot episode of co-host Alec’s favorite walking, talking, Bib...
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Tis the season, and you know what that means. Warm glass of eggnog, the yule log burning in the fireplace, and of course ‘This Fire’ playing in your headphones as you try and avoid problematic family members at your holiday get together.

And this year Steve and Alec have a doozy for you, as they explore the 1989 Christmas classic: Turmoil in the Toybox 2. Your guide to the DEMONICALLY INFLUENCED toys and games your child might ask f...
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Hey bruh, it’s time to get radical for Christ, as This Fire looks at the March 1989 episode of Fire By Nite - “Finding Your Place In God”.

We got skateboarding for Jesus. Stand-up comedy for Jesus. Going to 3rd world countries for Jesus. Anything you want? We got it. Anything you wanna do? Do it. (Editors Note: As long as its for Jesus.)

Everyone’s got a role to play in the body of Christ, what appendage will you be?
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When we tell you this episode has everything, trust we mean EVERYTHING. Jesus, Satan, a French speaking Mother Mary, a man and a woman using allegations of ritual abuse to mask the fact that they’re clearly having an affair.
 
That’s right! This week we get back to the root of our evil, and FINALLY polish off seminal Satanic Panic tome: Michelle Remembers, on this extra special SUPER-SIZED episode of This Fire!
 
CONTENT WARNING: This ...
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October 16, 2025 84 mins
Picture this. It’s 4pm, on a sleepy May 1989 afternoon. You just got home from school, you want to settle in for some Duck Tales, but your mom flips the channel for her daily dose of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
 
Only on this episode, Oprah’s not talking to the celebrity of the day about their new movie, or to some self help guru turned author. Nope, today she’s detailing grizzly murders, baby sacrifice, generational Satanists, and the p...
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October 6, 2025 116 mins
SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!!

Its time to learn the RIGHT and WRONG way to beat yourself up, as this month we take a look at the February 1989 episode of Fire By Nite: “Why Feel Guilt?”
 
Youth groups often get accused of breaking kids down, demolishing their self esteem, so that they can be built back up in the image of God (or…maybe just the image of whichever church they were at’s youth pastor). But here, Blaine and crew let us know that i...
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September 16, 2025 105 mins
This week, we’ve officially stared into Fire By Nite long so long, that Fire By Nite has started to stare BACK, as we welcome to the show Clarence Stanley himself…the one, the only, Chris Theis!!
 
Our conversation runs the gamut, from the origin of Fire By Nite itself, to CCM music videos shot in irradiated desert towns, to the time the FBN production crew brought a Satanic Bible to set!
 
You DON’T wanna miss this one!
 

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This Fire ...
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Teen Mania Ministries. From the very start it’s been a through-line of our survey of Fire By Nite, and one that will be there til the bitter end of FBN’s run in 1994.
 
In light of a certain recent docuseries, we felt there was no better time to have our first (but certainly not last) conversation focusing on Teen Mania’s influence on the broader Gen-X/Millennial Youth Group culture; and what better place to start than with someone w...
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This week, it’s a whole NEW YEAR as Steve and Alec take a look at the January 1989 episode of Fire By Nite, titled “In the World, Not of the World”.
 
About 10 years before NOTW would become a clothing brand that defined fashion for a generation of adolescent believers, Blaine and crew would reveal the SHOCKING truth of our extra-terrestrial origins, letting FBN’s teen audience know that when you are a Christian, you truly are 'Not O...
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We’re back with another break from our regularly scheduled programming as we take a look at the state of pop music in 2025, and how the CCM industry has struck back, influencing the very mainstream it used to so desperately ape. With the dulcet tones of KLOVE all over the Billboard Hot 100, Steve and Alec are here to make sense of it all and figure out why all of a sudden mainstream audiences are so enthusiastically embracing the n...
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June 22, 2025 122 mins
It’s a real Family Feud on today’s episode of This Fire, as the Fox Bros. take a look at 2 chilling tales of interpersonal conflict, watching the December 1988 episode of Fire By Nite: “Strife! Who Needs It?!”

It’s Family vs Family. Friend vs. Friend. The Church vs. Itself!
 
Ever wondered why the evangelical world can be SO good at suppressing anything remotely resembling conflict in the church body, that it lets it fester until ine...
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We’re channel surfing this week as we take a break from our usually scheduled programming, and find ourselves in late October of 1988, as we watch The Geraldo Rivera Special: Devil Worship - Exposing Satan’s Underground.
 
While Fire By Nite was serving up the Satanic panic to teens already in the fold, we discover what the panic looked like to a mainstream audience, broadcast in PRIMETIME on NBC.
 
Folks - this special was seen in the...
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April 10, 2025 158 mins
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and we feel......well, not great tbh……thanks for asking!
 
This month we time travel to November of 1988, and return to the battlefield of the end times, as Blaine and crew decide to turn up the rapture anxiety dial to 11, on this very special episode of Fire By Nite - ‘These Last Days’.
 
This episode’s got it all! DeGarmo & Key! Live (well…in 1988) updates from Israel! A wild, non-canonica...
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On today’s episode of This Fire, we’re switching things up a bit, and profiling the blondest grifter on the block. That’s right it’s our new White House Faith Office head, Paula White!
 
Join us as we chart Paula’s rise to political prominence. From her humble beginnings preaching out of a tent, all the way to her political zenith as a hyper-wealthy property gospel televangelist that now finds herself working out of 1600 Pennsylvania...
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