My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

517 - Two-Faced: John of God

January 29, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

🎙️ The Voices & The Context

The Format: Casual live interview on the true crime podcast My Favorite Murder, blending banter, personal anecdotes, and deep dives into a guest's project.
The Key Players:
- Hosts: Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff – longtime true crime comedy duo with infectious chemistry, riffing on podcast production, shy personalities, and bagel gifts.
- Guest: Martina Castro – co-founder of NPR's Radio Ambulante, head of Adande Media, creator/host of bilingual podcast Two Faced: John of God. Famous for award-winning multilingual storytelling; pitched this project in 2022 after years hunting international true crime gems.
The Vibe: Fun and excited with true crime thrills, cultural curiosity, and light-hearted host-guest rapport – like geeking out over a wild story at a party.

🗝️ Key Themes & Topics

The episode teases Martina's bilingual podcast (English/Spanish) launching Feb 4, 2026, unpacking a Brazilian healer's empire built on faith and fraud. Hosts geek out on production hurdles, while avoiding major spoilers.

Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.

Read Full Summary →

Free • No credit card required

Listen to Audio Summary Open in App

What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **🎙️ Introduction: Martina Castro**
2 (03:22) **Martina's Journey into Journalism and Producing**
3 (06:35) **Discovery and Appeal of the John of God Story**
4 (12:47) **Cultural Belief in Healers and Desperation**
5 (15:55) **The Two-Faced Nature and Enablers**
6 (19:20) **Growth of the Healing Empire**
7 (22:37) **Belief Systems and Placebo Effect**

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

This week, Karen and Georgia sit down with journalist, podcast producer and Adonde Media founder Martina Castro to talk about Exactly Right’s newest limited series, Two-Faced: John of God. They discuss how a Brazilian spiritual leader built a global following by claiming to perform miraculous medical procedures — and what happened when the truth behind his empire began to emerge.

Two-Faced: John of God premieres Wednesday, February 4th, with new episodes in both English and Spanish released every Wednesday. The six-episode limited series is produced by Exactly Right Media and Adonde Media.

Este podcast también está disponible en español — búsquenlo como Dos Caras: Juan de Dios.

Follow, rate and review Two-Faced: John of God or Dos Caras: Juan de Dios wherever you get your podcasts.

For our sources, please visit https://www.myfavoritemurder.com/episodes.

Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3UFCn1g.

Head to social media to share your favorite moments from this episode.

Instagram: instagram.com/myfavoritemurder

Facebook: facebook.com/myfavoritemurder

TikTok: tiktok.com/@my_favorite_murder

Watch full episodes of My Favorite Murder on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@my_favorite_murder

Send your hometown stories to [email protected].

Join the Fan Cult to access ad-free episodes of My Favorite Murder. Members also receive merch store discounts, exclusive audio and video content and more! Visit