Futility Closet

After a severe fever in 1776, Rhode Island farmer's daughter Jemima Wilkinson was reborn as a genderless celestial being who had been sent to warn of the coming Apocalypse. But the general public was too scandalized by the messenger to pay heed to the message. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of the Public Universal Friend and the prejudiced reaction of a newly formed nation. We'll also bid on an immortal piano and puzzle over some Icelandic conceptions. Intro: When identical images of a tower are placed side by side, the towers appear to diverge. In 2002, Erl E. Kepner patented a one-sided coffee mug. Sources for our feature on the Public Universal Friend: Paul B. Moyer, The Public Universal Friend: Jemima Wilkinson and Religious Enthusiasm in Revolutionary America, 2015. Herbert Andrew Wisbey, Pioneer Prophetess: Jemima Wilkinson, the Publick Universal Friend, 1964. Catherine A. Brekus, Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740-1845, 2000. Michael