Drunk Ex-Pastors

In this week's Politics Block we share some firsthand experience of how broken our health care system is in this country, and then we hear from a listener with some push-back against our coverage of Bill Maher's experience having dinner with Trump at the White House.

In this week's Culture Block we continue our discussion about the five albums that have had the greatest personal impact on our lives, albums that we have listened to from start to finish more often than any others.

In our Religion Block we address a question from a patron about balancing an admiration of the Catholic Church with a healthy and Exilic suspicion of Empire. We then launch into another segment of "Pastor Jack's Off," during which we laugh at Pastor Jack Hibbs's attempt at explaining Good Friday. 

In DXP's Politics Block we discuss the historic polling about Trump's performance after his first 100 days in office, as well as how trustworthy and helpful polling such as this is.

In this week's Culture Block we discuss the five albums that have had the greatest personal impact on our lives, albums that we have listened to from start to finish more often than any others.

In this week's Religion Block we listen to Pastor Jack Hibbs's report of the death of Pope Francis, discussing the former's insistence on the pope being born again as well as the connection between the papacy and the Exile/Empire paradigm outlined in our last Religion Block. Jason then addresses some questions from our patrons about the issue of Sola Scriptura.

In this week's DXP Politics Block we discuss Bill Maher's recounting of his visit to the White House and spending a few hours with his mortal enemy, Donald Trump. We reflect on Maher's surprising (even to him) account of Trump's behavior and overall demeanor, as well as the question of whether he should have accepted the invitation in the first place.

In this week's DXP Culture Block we discuss the new film, The Sinner, which made Christian frustrated (not because he didn't like it, but because he didn't like it as much as the glowing reviews made him expect to). Then we turn our attention to the heroic, unprecedented, and death-defying trip that some celebrities took to space for eleven minutes or something.

In this week's Religion block of Drunk Ex-Pastors Jason sets forth a broad paradigm for looking at religion and Christian themes: Exile/Empire. We unpack the meanings of these categories and see how they apply to common themes found in evangelicalism such as dogma, canon, and essentials/non-essentials.

In this episode of DXP we dive into the tariffs discussion, pointing out their usefulness within the context of a fully-orbed commitment to American workers, while doubting their utility in isolation from such a plan. We also highlight the irony of so-called Leftists praising free trade agreements. 

With this episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors we are trying out a new format! In this first of three weekly blocks we focus on culture, and specifically the sexual assault and rape case against English comedian and political commentator Russell Brand. We reflect on the odd nature of the timeline of events leading to the charges being filed, as well as the challenging nature of these types of cases (especi...

In this episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors we continue our trip down memory lane, highlighting the movies we have seen that have had a big impact on our lives. We focus on the years 2007 to the present day, chatting about Interstellar, Whiplash, About Time, Midnight in Paris, and lots of others.  

In this episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors we continue our trip down memory lane, highlighting the movies we have seen that have had a big impact on our lives. We focus on the years 1998 – 2007, chatting about the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Notebook, Garden State, and lots of others.

We begin this episode with some banter about the Lakers game that Jason took his dad to, and then we continue our respite from all things political and divisive by discussing the movies that most impacted us. This week we go from 1987-1997, talking about such films as Say Anything, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, and Good Will Hunting — sharing what we were going through at the time we saw them, how the...

In this episode we take a much-needed break from politics and dedicate the majority of the episode to taking a walk down Movie-Memory Lane. We begin the year we each saw our very first movie in a theater (1977), and then list the films we remember seeing, why we enjoyed them, and how they impacted us. We make it to 1987, and will pick up from there in our next episode.

In this episode of DXP we hear from Christian about his latest visit to the ER, and Jason shares his final update on his mom. We discuss the Oscars and the issue of celebrity culture more broadly, wondering if the time of rich entertainers lecturing the public is finally over. We discuss the show Severance, and then hear from a caller about whether Trump dehumanizes immigrants.

We begin this episode of DXP by discussing Taylor Sheridan, and his shows Yellowstone and Land Man in particular. Christian shares what he has learned from Ancestry.com, and then gives us an Oscar update. We talk about the book Blind Spots, and then hear from a caller asking for clarity on our segment about Jon Stewart and the so-called fascism that so many are worried about.

We begin this episode with a discussion about various Oscar-nominated films, hardly any of which Jason has heard of. We briefly discuss the drama surrounding Blake Lively and the side effects of Ozempic, and then turn our attention to whether or not people on the right regret their vote for Trump. We touch on DOGE, Gaza, and USAID, and then hear from Jon Stewart about the dangers of perpetual over...

In this episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors we talk about the fact that "fundamentalist" is not an inherently religious posture, but can be applied to politics as well. We discuss the film Emilia Perez, which critics love but audiences don't (presumably because every single one of them is a transphobe). We hear from a caller about his frustration over the mispronunciation of words, and play another voicem...

We begin this episode in the middle of a conversation about the blockbuster trade that the Lakers just pulled off, and quickly pivot to Elon Musk's "Nazi salute" during the presidential inauguration party, discussing whether or not Musk is actually a Nazi or just thinks they're cool. We listen to Bishop Budde's exhortation to Trump about being merciful to the downtrodden, and then springboard to t...

We spend most of this episode discussing the recent (but temporarily suspended) TikTok ban. We lay out why TikTok is unique and important and what might be the impetus behind the government's desire to ban TikTok. We discuss the "TikTok refugees" fleeing to RedNote, another social media platform actually owned by China, and the unfettered access it gives Americans into daily Chinese life and cultu...

We kick off this episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors with an update about the health of Jason's mom (or lack thereof), which springboards into a discussion of death and how we cope with it. We talk about the Los Angeles fires and the public's reaction to wealthy people losing their homes, and then discuss the current state of political discourse and its partisan, tribal character. We conclude by reading t...

In this episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors we catch up on some listeners' voicemails. We discuss the issue of campaign promises and whether they reveal candidates' actual intentions, or if they're only generic indicators of their ideology. We talk about the intertwining of democracy and violence, expressing serious suspicion about whether the former is ever possible without the latter. Lastly we explore...

In this episode of DXP Christian forces Jason to take an online test without knowing what exactly is being tested. We discuss the recent extradition of folk hero (*I meant for folk hero to have a strikethrough*) vigilante Luigi Mangione, and wonder aloud whether his "manifesto" will ever be made public, as well as the disproportionate response to his actions compared to those whose crimes do not s...

In this episode of DXP we discuss the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson by Luigi Mangione, as well as the latter's new status as an internet folk hero. We talk about the anniversary re-release of the film Interstellar, which leads to the recent appearance of mysterious drones over New Jersey and other cities. We address Trump's joke about Canada becoming our 51st state, and then weigh...