Talkin‘ Politics & Religion Without Killin‘ Each Other

In this roundtable discussion, we're joined by two friends of the pod, Lori Adams-Brown of A World of Difference and Will Wright of Faithful Politics . We discuss what we got right (and wrong) about the Midterms? What does it all mean for our Democracy? And we begin to take a look ahead to the coming legislative session as well as to 2024. Lori Adams-Brown is a combination of international speaker...

Robert Draper is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and National Geographic Magazine. He is the author of several books, including the New York Times bestseller, Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush and his latest book Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind . In this episode we explore a number of pressing questions: What are some characteris...

Which states are the bellwethers in the upcoming election? Which states will give the clearest indication of the direction of the House and Senate? Who is showing up to vote that pollsters weren't expecting? And how will those voters who aren't considered "likely voters" change the results? How does a firm like Decision Desk HQ gather the information needed to make election calls as quickly as the...

What is an "Evangelical Entrepreneur"? There is a long history of Evangelical Entrepreneurs in this country. We trace a long line of leading figures from the likes of Dwight L. Moody to Billy Sunday to Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell to Paula White and Robert Jeffress. Are there common themes and grievances in the messages of these leaders that we're still hearing today? What are some of the hallma...

We're joined by Lincoln Project Sr. Advisor Stuart Stevens and cover a lot of ground. What have been the 2 dominant genes of the Republican Party going back to post-WWII? And which one won? What does the guy who got more Republican politicians elected than just about anybody think of the state of the Party? What was the 2016 election really about? What are all the baseless claims of election fraud...

Hopefully this conversation with Reverend Dr. Jacqui Lewis will be as much of a gift to you as it was for me. We explored some deep questions like, What was the failure of the people of Israel around the time of Yeshua ben Yosef? Is our own generation also failing Jesus as Messiah? What does it mean to be a "drum major for peace"? What is the church's culpability in racism? What is ubiquitously Go...

If you're a political junkie like me, this conversation will knock your socks off! Joe Trippi and Mike Madrid, one long time Democratic strategist, one long time Republican strategist discuss how DEMOCRACY IS ON THE BALLOT (and how 67% of BOTH Republicans and Democrats believe this). We also get into how candidates who have huge scandals (clears throat... did someone say "Herschel Walker"?) are ab...

In this conversation with Catherine Manfre, author of the new book Not There Yet: Living Through Egypt, Love and Uncertainty , we discuss how 9/11 shaped Catherine and changed the course of her life; the importance of being an ally against bigotry even in moments when no one else is watching; how to confront prejudice in more productive, persuasive ways; strong women leaders in Egypt who lead thei...

In this conversation with Reed Howard of the Millennial Action Project we discuss his experience as a millennial who identified as a Republican but then had to figure out how he could move forward in his party in the age of Trump; going to divinity school to study why evangelical voters were so drawn to Donald Trump; the perils of making politics one's religion; how elite level communications tell...

Christy Smith is campaigning to represent CA27 in the U.S. House of Representatives. The current Congressman, Republican Mike Garcia won the district in 2020 by 333 votes out of over 340,000 that were cast. Yet Mike’s voting record and public statements while in office have represented only the most extreme MAGA fringe and not the entirety of this very purple district.  In this conversation with C...

This is a bonus TP&R episode of Freedom Road Podcast with our friend and colleague Lisa Sharon Harper and her guest the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III .  Listen in as Lisa Sharon Harper and Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III do this deep dive on the meaning of and the hunger for the unfettered right to vote in the United States of America. Freedom Road Podcast  brings together national faith leaders, advocates, and f...

Peter Wehner is a contributing editor at The Atlantic and contributing writer to the New York Times  which is where he wrote a column in January of 2016 that he would not be voting for Donald Trump under any circumstances. Pete is also the author of The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump . Earlier in his career, Pete worked in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrat...

With Danielle Moodie , we get into a range of pressing topics. Lots of politics and culture but also a dash of religion such as how Danielle connects with a higher power without needing to go to a specific place or read a specific text. We also discuss the importance of recognizing systemic failures and being a part of the "democracy perfection marathon"; how Danielle's not asking people to deny t...

In this lively and fun dialogue, this week's guest, Timber Hawkeye shares why Buddhism attracted him most - that is, Buddhism didn't pretend to have answers. We discuss how to have conversations with people who see things differently than we do; how "to love more people, not less"; the concept of where we get the foundation of our moral ethical structure and, as Timber said, "I don't care if you g...

In this special episode, Lori Adams-Brown and Corey talk a great deal about Lori and her husband Jason's experience with spiritual abuse while working at Echo Church under Pastor Andy Wood. In an astonishing turn of events, Wood was hired as Rick Warren's successor at megachurch Saddleback. (To this date, Saddleback has not reversed - one could say "repented of" - their decision to hire Andy Wood....

Much of our conversation with Dr. Paul D. Miller is about his recent book THE RELIGION OF AMERICAN GREATNESS: WHAT'S WRONG WITH CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM . Over the course of our talk, we do a deep dive into the very definition of Nationalism and Christian Nationalism; the difference between tribal evangelicalism and biblical Christianity; how jazz was used as an example by Rich Lowry of National Revi...

Danny Cevallos is a legal analyst for NBC and MSNBC and co-founder of the law firm Cevallos & Wong, LLP . He focuses his practice in the areas of state, federal, and territorial criminal defense and civil litigation. Danny also handles wrongful conviction and malicious prosecution cases; he has handled a number of high profile cases in the federal, state, and territorial courts, ranging from white...

Miles Taylor served in the White House, initially in the George W. Bush administration and then later during Donald Trump’s presidency. He was brought into the Department of Homeland Security as a Senior Advisor to General John Kelly and then became Chief of Staff of that Department under Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Miles is also known as “Anonymous” - the writer of the infamous New York Times OpE...

Ali Noorani is a Fellow at the Arizona State University Social Transformation Lab and the new program director for U.S. Democracy at the Hewlett Foundation and author of “There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration” and his new book “ Crossing Borders: The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants .” Previously, Ali served as presid...

Rick Wilson , co-founder of The Lincoln Project , knows today's Republican Party better than just about anyone from having run GOP campaigns for decades. But Rick was an early and vocal critic of Donald Trump which ultimately cost him a great deal in the Trump era. He also co-founded @ProjectLincoln to help defeat Trump in 2020. We discuss all that as well as how TLP addressed the problems that we...

Will Saletan, writer for  THE BULWARK , came in for a conversation about a range of issues including what's really important; how the scientific method compares with our political way of behaving; how traffic rewards the wings; the culture of authority; recognizing our biases; the proclivity of deploying rhetoric in bad faith; the significance of what's happening in Ukraine; why he made the move f...

Lisa Sharon Harper is Founder of Freedom Road , a consulting group which leads trainings all around the globe that increase clergy and community leaders’ capacity to organize people of faith toward a just world. Ms. Harper is a critically acclaimed author of several books including her latest, Fortune: How Race Broke My Family and the World and How to Repair It All , which we discuss in this episo...

This is a bonus TP&R episode of Faithful Politics with our good friends Josh Burtram and Will Wright when they interviewed Amanda Carpenter of The Bulwark . Gaslighting is a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality. Enter former-President Trump. Over the last four years, America has been under the influence of a person who seemingly gra...

Susan Del Percio is a highly accomplished political strategist and crisis communications consultant who is a political analyst for MSNBC as well as a contributor to Know Your Value - Mika Brzezinski's initiative that is helping women to grow their career, form healthy habits and reach their full potential. Susan is also a regular on one of our favorite podcasts Politicology . Appointed as a Specia...

In the 2nd part of our conversation with Jonathan Rauch, we do a deeper dive into his timely, ground breaking book THE CONSTITUTION OF KNOWLEDGE: A DEFENSE OF TRUTH . We discuss its goals of peace, freedom and knowledge; why authoritarians hate the Constitution of Knowledge; how to diagnose and resist the ills of disinformation and cancel culture; the effects of cancel culture such as "the spiral...