In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer

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:...

Frank Schaeffer speaks with Professor Michael D.C. Drout about Tolkien’s work and why it continues to resonate. They explore themes of loss, beauty, and moral clarity, and talk about how Tolkien’s writing reflects the reality that everything meaningful comes with a cost. The conversation also touches on teaching, younger readers, and how grief shapes the way we understand stories. _____ LINKS The...

I joined Melissa Duge Spiers to talk about her upbringing in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and what it means to leave a high-control religious system. We talked about the structure of that world and how it shapes identity, behavior, and relationships. Melissa talked about generational trauma and how it lives in the body, not just in memory. We talked about sexuality, repression, and the ways pe...

Frank Schaeffer talks with Becky Garrison about the deeper cultural forces shaping our moment. They discuss economic insecurity, media collapse, masculinity, and the rise of charismatic leaders. The conversation moves through religion, power, and the growing divide between men and women. At the center is a difficult question: how a society loses its way, and whether it can find it again. LINKS htt...

Keri Ladner joins Frank Schaeffer to discuss her book American Dominion: The Rise and Radicalization of a New Christendom . They talk about how dominionist theology moved from the fringe into mainstream politics, and how that shift helped shape events like January 6th. Keri also shares her personal story and how it changed the way she understands faith. This is a conversation about belief, power,...

This is a conversation with writer Matthew Davis about Mount Rushmore and the story beneath it. What begins as a discussion of a monument turns into something more personal and more complicated. We talk about the Black Hills, the Lakota, broken treaties, and the way history keeps showing up in the present whether we’re comfortable with it or not. Matthew isn’t trying to argue a point. He’s trying...

Leah Libresco Sargeant and I talk about something simple that we spend a lot of time avoiding. We are not autonomous. We talk about women’s bodies, pregnancy, and the way those realities don’t fit a culture built around control and choice. We talk about the idea that a good life is one where everything is chosen, and why that breaks down the moment someone depends on you. And we come back, again a...

I sat down with filmmaker Mike Sheridan to talk about his documentary Amplified: The Exportation of the Culture Wars . It looks at something we don’t often stop to think about. Not just what’s happening in America. But what America is doing to the rest of the world. Mike traces how our culture wars, our politics, our media habits, even our tone, are showing up in places like Ireland. And what that...

This conversation with Dr. Terence Lester begins with his journey from dropout to doctorate, but it quickly becomes something deeper. We talk about growing up with fear, living through trauma, and making the choice not to pass that pain on to your children. Terence shares what it means to sit on a refrigerator in protest of hunger, and why food is about more than survival. We also talk about faith...

In the first hour we get into spiritual narcissism, not as an abstract idea but as something that shapes real communities and does real damage. We talk about MAGA as a kind of cult identity, Trump as a case study in personality-driven power, and how prosperity gospel culture helped prepare the ground for all of it. We also get into religious trauma and why, at least for me, institutional Christian...

I sat down with Gina Goldhammer to talk about her novel Where Snowbirds Play , which is set in 1991 at what she describes as the end of the golden age of Palm Beach, a world of wealth, influence, and powerful people living inside their own closed social orbit. Let me just say this plainly. This is a terrific novel. I love it. What drew me in is not just that setting, but what happens inside it, be...

Dr. Warren Farrell: From The Boy Crisis to Role Mate to Soulmate; Fixing Modern Relationships What Men, Women, and Modern Coupling Are Getting Wrong In this candid conversation, I sit down with Dr. Warren Farrell to explore the cultural and psychological forces reshaping modern relationships. Why do couples who genuinely love each other struggle to stay in love? Why does criticism from a partner h...

Writer Kate Cohen joins Frank Schaeffer to talk about her new Substack “Scratch,” a project devoted to the things we make that keep us human. From cooking and sewing to carpentry and farming, Cohen explores how working with our hands connects us to the material world and to each other. In a culture dominated by algorithms, automation, and AI, these acts of making may be more important than ever. T...

Marianne Leone joins Frank Schaeffer to discuss her novel Christina the Astonishing , growing up Italian-American under Irish Catholic nuns, religious trauma, losing faith after her father’s death, The Sopranos, and why bold girls survive institutions built to silence them. _____ LINKS https://marianneleonecooper.com/ Christina the Astonishing _____ I have had the pleasure of talking to some of th...

In this revealing Conversation, I speak with historian, publisher, and author Andrew Lownie about his investigation into Prince Andrew, the aura of untouchable royal privilege, and the culture that allowed secrecy to fester and rot. We explore the Epstein scandal’s wider implications and the monarchy’s uncertain future in a world that demands transparency. Now that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has b...