216 | Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made with Kristin Kobes Du Mez
Listen to Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made with Kristin Kobes Du Mez on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Your player of choice
In this episode of Wild & Waking, I’m joined by New York Times bestselling author and historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez to discuss her new book, Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made. Kristin reveals how the seemingly harmless products, stories, aesthetics, and slogans consumed by generations of women carried deeply embedded ideas about femininity, domesticity, capitalism, race, religion, and political power—and how white Christian women were not merely shaped by this culture, but helped create and sustain it.
Together, we trace the surprising connections between positive thinking, prosperity theology, multilevel marketing companies, Christian consumer culture, and the expectation that a “good” woman should remain beautiful, grateful, submissive, and endlessly optimistic.
We explore how these systems offered women belonging, identity, influence, and community while also making that belonging conditional—and why doubt, anger, grief, questions, and conversations about systemic injustice were so often dismissed as personal failures or dangerous negativity.
We also examine how nostalgia, sentimental imagery, performative domesticity, and idealized white womanhood have helped make Christian nationalism feel safe, wholesome, and politically neutral. This conversation holds the complexity of women who were constrained by patriarchal systems while also participating in their preservation, offering context for the grief, reckoning, and identity reconstruction that come with religious deconstruction.
Kristin’s work invites us to see more clearly what shaped us, reckon honestly with what we helped create, and begin asking: Is this who we want to be… and what do we want to build instead?
Meet Kristin:
Kristin Kobes Du Mez is a New York Times bestselling author and Professor of History at Calvin University. She is currently a Senior Democracy Fellow with the Public Religion Research Institute. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame, and her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Religion News Service, and Christianity Today, and has been interviewed on NPR, CBS, and the BBC, among other outlets. Her most recent books include Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation (2020), and Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made (September 2026).
In this episode, Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made with Kristin Kobes Du Mez, we cover:
How white Christian women shaped American religion, culture, consumerism, and politics
The hidden history behind the “Live Laugh Love” version of white Christian femininity
The cultural and political messages embedded in Christian books, music, radio, movies, and lifestyle products
The surprising connections between Little House on the Prairie, prairie fiction, libertarian economics, and conservative values
How New Thought, positive thinking, evangelical Christianity, and prosperity theology became intertwined
Why positivity became a measure of spiritual maturity—and how doubt, anger, grief, and questioning were treated as personal failures
The “good Christian woman” ideal of beauty, submission, domesticity, gratitude, and self-sacrifice
How multilevel marketing companies such as Amway, Mary Kay, and LuLaRoe mirrored the structure and power dynamics of evangelical churches
Why MLM culture became especially influential among white Christian women seeking income, identity, purpose, and community
How belonging within evangelical communities can feel deeply loving while remaining conditional upon loyalty and conformity
The role women played in policing other women and preserving patriarchal religious systems
How Christian consumer culture moved beyond churches and Christian bookstores into Walmart, Target, Amazon, and mainstream American life
The relationship between farmhouse decor, Hallmark nostalgia, influencer culture, tradwives, and idealized white domesticity
The difference between the realities of rural life and the performative tradwife aesthetic sold online
How nostalgia for an imagined, morally pure past can fuel authoritarianism and Christian nationalism
The symbolic role of white womanhood within patriarchal visions of the Christian family and Christian America
How the gospel of positivity discourages conversations about systemic racism, structural inequality, and racial justice
Why religious deconstruction often involves grief, isolation, identity loss, and the rebuilding of an entire worldview
How women can reckon with their complicity in harmful systems without losing compassion for themselves or others
The power of cultural history to help us understand what shaped us—and decide what we want to build instead
If this conversation sparked something for you, share it with a friend who might need it too.
Make sure to follow or subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode, and come connect with us on Instagram—our DMs are always open for your reflections and questions.
Connect with Kristin:
Learn more about Kristin and her work at kristindumez.com
Explore and preorder Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made
Subscribe to Kristin’s newsletter, Du Mez Connections
Connect with Emily:
Stay connected and keep up with my latest updates, podcast episodes, and personal growth insights:
Instagram: @emilyreuschel
Facebook: Emily Reuschel
LinkedIn: Emily Reuschel
Email List: join here
Website: www.EmilyReuschel.com
Emily is a speaker, facilitator, and host of the Wild & Waking podcast, creating spaces for women to unravel conditioning, reconnect to their truth, and rise in alignment with who they’re becoming.
Resources & Links:
Sign up here to get the inside scoop to my book writing journey!
Book me as a speaker for your next event – email inquiries to emilyreuschel@gmail.com or schedule a call here
Wild & Waking – Produced by Jill Carr Podcasting | Learn More
Related Episodes:
About Wild & Waking:
Wild & Waking is more than a podcast—it’s a sacred return to who you’ve always been.
This space is for the woman standing at the edge of everything she’s outgrown. The one who’s checked all the boxes, followed all the rules, and still feels the quiet ache for something more honest. More alive. More hers.
She’s begun the unraveling—of roles, expectations, identities that no longer fit. She’s remembering the voice beneath the noise, the rhythm beneath the hustle, the truth beneath the performance. She’s reclaiming her joy, her intuition, her fire. And she’s rising—not as a version of who she was told to be, but as the truest expression of who she already is.
Hosted by soul expansion coach Emily Reuschel, Wild & Waking is for the spiritual entrepreneurs, coaches, rural changemakers, and conscious leaders dismantling old paradigms and creating new ways of living, leading, and becoming. Through raw conversations, deep reflections, and embodied wisdom, we explore what it means to awaken a life of abundance, authenticity, and purpose.
This is for the woman who holds both sacred rage and radical joy. Who moves with reverence for the seasons of her life. Who isn’t afraid to break cycles, speak truth, and dismantle what no longer serves—not to destroy, but to create. To rebuild a world rooted in the celebration of difference, the beauty of nuance, and the power of sovereign, embodied leadership.
If you’re ready to come home to yourself—fully, fiercely, and without apology—welcome.
We’ve been waiting for you.
Share the Love!
If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it! Your support helps us reach more people who are ready to heal and grow.
Comments