In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer

Frank Schaeffer talks with novelist Stephen O’Connor about We Want So Much to Be Ourselves , a novel exploring psychoanalysis, self-deception, and ordinary life during the rise of Nazi Germany. Stephen began writing the book in 2016, before Donald Trump’s first election. As he researched Hitler’s rise to power, he began recognizing parallels with contemporary American politics. Their conversation...

Caroline Bicks spent a year studying Stephen King’s personal archives, including early drafts of Carrie , The Shining , Salem’s Lot , Night Shift , and Pet Sematary . She was also able to do something rather extraordinary: bring what she found back to King and ask him about it. We talk about what those manuscripts reveal about King’s writing process, his extraordinary attention to language, his ch...

Shadi Hamid joins Frank to discuss Can Religion Save Democracy? , the book he co-authored with Christian theologian Matthew Kaemingk. Their friendship doesn’t depend on pretending their religious differences don’t exist. They disagree about some of the biggest questions a person can ask. That becomes the starting point for a larger conversation about democracy. Frank and Shadi talk about humility,...

Jennifer Breheny Wallace joins me to talk about her book Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose . We talk about her father and the way he made people feel seen, what she has learned from raising three children, why achievement alone isn’t enough, and what happens when the roles that once gave us meaning begin to disappear. We also talk about technology and AI and a question...

Frank Schaeffer talks with Professor Daisy Fancourt, author of Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives , about something many artists, parents, teachers, and grandparents have understood intuitively for years: art matters to our health. Daisy Fancourt has spent years studying how music, painting, literature, dance, theater, storytelling, and everyday creativity affect our minds and bodies...

Frank talks with novelist and creative writing professor April Reynolds about her novel The Shape of Dreams , set in East Harlem during the crack and AIDS epidemics of the 1980s. They discuss the changing experience of publishing and reading books, April’s childhood in South Dallas, the role of the Black church, the loss that helped shape the novel, and the difficult experience of writing about a...

Gretchen Sisson, author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood , joins me for a conversation about what adoption looks like when we begin with the experiences of mothers who relinquished their children. Many of the women Gretchen interviewed wanted to parent. Poverty, unstable housing, lack of child care, and other pressures often made that choice feel i...

Richard Bruxvoort Colligan has spent years living with, studying, singing, and rewriting the Psalms. What interests me is that he doesn’t turn them into easy answers. We talk about his book Dangerous Songs , his experience with severe depression, the strange honesty of Psalm 88, grief, gun violence, joy, gratitude, and the human need to know we are not alone. The Psalms have lasted because they te...

Frank talks with Dr. Craig Yorke, author of Steep: A Black Neurosurgeon’s Journey , about growing up in Boston, the fierce expectations of his parents, Harvard and medical school, race and colorism, his years as a neurosurgeon, and the family and community that eventually gave his life another measure of success. Craig describes his memoir as an attempt to understand whether the past incarcerates...

Frank talks with sociologists Michael O. Emerson and Glenn Bracey II about their book The Religion of Whiteness: How Racism Distorts Christian Faith . Their research asks why racial division remains so persistent within American Christianity. Their conclusion is unsettling: for many white practicing Christians, whiteness has taken on religious qualities of its own. They discuss Christians of color...

Frank Schaeffer talks with David Dault about his book The Accessorized Bible and the difference between treating the Bible as an object and living Scripture as a practice of responsibility and love. The conversation explores faith, conversion, institutional corruption, moral seriousness, Pope Francis, Cornel West, and what Christianity looks like when vulnerable people become the center of the sto...

Frank Schaeffer welcomes David Blumenthal and James Morone to discuss their book Whiplash: From the Battle for Obamacare to the War on Science. The conversation explores the Affordable Care Act, Operation Warp Speed, the COVID pandemic, political polarization, misinformation, and the role of presidential leadership during national crises. Together they examine why America’s health care debates hav...

Attorney Boz Tchividjian joins Frank Schaeffer for an honest conversation about abuse inside churches, institutional cover-ups, Christian nationalism, and the work of helping survivors seek justice. As Billy Graham’s grandson, Boz understands evangelical culture from the inside. As a lawyer, he has spent years holding institutions accountable when they fail the people they were meant to protect. T...

Professor Matthew Boedy joins Frank Schaeffer to discuss The Seven Mountains Mandate: Exposing the Dangerous Plan to Christianize America and Destroy Democracy. Drawing on both scholarship and personal experience, Boedy traces the evolution of Christian nationalism from the Religious Right to today’s political movement. Frank reflects on his own family’s place in that history and considers how ear...

Frank Schaeffer speaks with Maya Kornberg about her book Stuck: How Money, Media, and Violence Prevent Change in Congress . They discuss how Congress has been weakened by money, social media, political violence, understaffing, and decades of institutional neglect. This is a conversation about why Congress often fails, and why strengthening it may be one of the most urgent democratic tasks we face....

Frank Schaeffer talks with author and journalist Helen Benedict about her novel The Soldier’s House , the Iraq War, military trauma, refugees, and the hidden costs of American foreign policy. Helen shares how years of interviewing veterans and survivors shaped both her journalism and her fiction. Together they discuss women serving in combat zones, sexual violence inside the military, PTSD, immigr...

Frank talks with psychologist Paul Eastwick about the science of attraction, attachment, marriage, and long-term companionship. Drawing from his book Bonded by Evolution: The New Science of Love and Connection , Paul challenges the idea that relationships are mostly about status, dominance, or “mate value.” Instead, he argues that humans evolved for bonding, caregiving, emotional support, and mutu...

Frank Schaeffer talks with political strategist and author Atima Omara about her new book The Instigators and the deeper failures shaping American politics today. They discuss race, religion, Trumpism, Project 2025, Kamala Harris, media ecosystems, the Democratic Party’s blind spots, and the historic role Black women have played in defending democracy while rarely receiving full recognition or pow...

Frank Schaeffer talks with sociologist Michael O. Emerson about the updated edition of Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America . They discuss why racial division inside white evangelical culture has intensified over the last 25 years, how Christian nationalism reshaped American politics, and why churches often failed to confront segregation while other institution...

Frank Schaeffer talks with Vatican journalist Elise Ann Allen about her new biography of Pope Leo XIV and why the new pope has already become such an important moral figure for many people around the world. Elise was the first journalist to interview Pope Leo after his election and shares personal stories about their friendship, his years serving the poor in Peru, and the humility that continues t...

A conversation about power, fear, nationalism, and the rewriting of American history. Keri Ladner joins Frank Schaeffer for a conversation about the rise of Christian nationalism and the mythology surrounding America’s founding. They discuss the Religious Right, the Seven Mountain Mandate, January 6th, white extremism, and the growing influence of authoritarian politics inside evangelical culture....

Jonathan Tepper joins Frank Schaeffer to discuss his memoir Shooting Up: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Addiction. The conversation explores growing up in Madrid during the AIDS crisis, missionary life among heroin addicts, the loss of Jonathan’s younger brother, literature, homeschooling, faith, suffering, and the role empathy plays in shaping human life. Frank and Jonathan also reflect on Tolkien,...

I haven’t been this struck or fallen in love this fast with a book in my life. I started reading it to my wife and couldn’t stop. I don’t usually react to books this way. I picked this one up, got a few pages in, and went upstairs to get my wife so I could read it to her. I thought I’d read a page or two. I ended up reading fifty or sixty pages out loud before we had to get on with the day. I’ve n...

I talked with Tia Levings about what it’s like to come out of a world that shaped you completely and what happens after you leave; not just the belief system, but the habits, the fears, the voice in your head that doesn’t feel like yours. Her new book, I Belong to Me, is really about that part. Not just what happened to her, but how you put yourself back together after. We talked about complicity....

Frank talks with Marissa Franks Burt and Kelsey Kramer McGinnis, authors of The Myth of Good Christian Parenting , about evangelical parenting, obedience, spanking, authority, and the long shadow of family values politics. This is a personal conversation about a world Frank knew from the inside, and about what happens when fear and control are called faith. _____ https://www.marissaburt.com https:...