A man who refused to acknowledge his own childhood claimed he was literally God, and built a movement around that claim. This episode traces the evolution of the preacher known as Father Divine and his International Peace Mission movement.

We examine how a gardener likely named George Baker erased his origins, absorbed New Thought philosophy, and engineered a closed-loop parallel economy that provided food, housing, and integrated community during the Great Depression and Jim Crow segregation.

• The "John Doe alias God" lunacy trial that legitimized him
• Free community banquets as tangible proof of his divinity
• The judge's sudden death that supercharged his mythology
• Becoming Harlem's largest property owner through cash-only businesses
• The reincarnation claim used to explain his wife's death and remar ...