The Jim Wallis Podcast

This week on Soul of the Nation, we bring you a conversation with Senator Chris Coons at Georgetown University. The event was part of the "Higher Calling" series hosted by the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown. In this conversation, Senator Coons, a Democrat from Delaware who earned a degree in ethics from Yale Divinity School, speaks candidly about his Presbyterian upbringing, confronting...

This week on Soul of the Nation we welcome the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest, editor at large of America magazine, consultant to the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication, and author of numerous books, including the New York Times bestseller Jesus: A Pilgrimage. His new book is called “Come Forth: The Promise of Jesus’ Greatest Miracle.” In this episode Father Martin shares his insights on th...

This week on the Soul of the Nation, we welcome Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, DC. Bishop Budde serves as spiritual leader for Episcopalians in the District of Columbia and Maryland, the first woman elected to this position. Bishop Budde is also the author of several books, including, “How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith.” In this epis...

In this live recording of Soul of the Nation, Rev. Jim Wallis and the Center on Faith and Justice hosted Harvard University political scientist  Steven Levitsky  for a discussion on his new book  “Tyranny of the Minority.”  In the book, Levitsky argues that authoritarianism threatens the foundations of the U.S. political system, which the Constitution prevents from becomin...

This week on Soul of the Nation, our host, Rev. Jim Wallis, engages in a profound conversation with climate advocate and author Kyle Meyaard-Schaap. Together, they explore the timely and pressing subject of climate change through the lens of faith and Christian values. Meyaard-Schaap, author of the thought-provoking book "Following Jesus in a Warming World: A Christian Call to Climate Action," del...

In this episode of Soul of the Nation, Rev. Jim Wallis and the Center on Faith and Justice host a conversation about Robert P. Jones' groundbreaking new book, "The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: And the Path to a Shared American Future." Delving deep into the history of white supremacy in America, Jones takes us on a journey back to 1493 and guides us through the examination of contemporary comm...

This week, Soul of the Nation welcomes Bill McKibben , an American environmentalist, author, and journalist who has written extensively on the impact of global warming. He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College and leader of the climate campaign group 350.org . In this episode, they discuss the historical and ongoing struggles for racial equity in America, shedding light on th...

This week on Soul of the Nation, our host Jim Wallis is joined by two of the country’s preeminent Christian leaders to celebrate and discuss the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, Interim President and General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, and the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Ch...

This week on Soul of the Nation features a public conversation with Rev Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary. In this Q&A moderated by Rev. Ebony Grisom of Georgetown University, Douglas explores the role of Black women in the church, discusses the importance of maintaining hope against what seems at times as insurmountable odds and lays...

Jim Wallis, the Founding Director of the Georgetown University Center on Faith, advocates spirituality and social change in America. Under Wallis’ leadership, Sojourners has had international acclaim as a group of Christians who work together to live a gospel life that integrates spiritual renewal and social justice. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at...

This week, Soul of the Nation welcomes Matthew Desmond, a sociologist at Princeton University whose research focuses on poverty in America. He is the author of four books, including “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City,” which won the Pulitzer Prize. Desmond’s new bestselling book is called “Poverty, By America.” In this episode, Desmond explains why the United States has more po...

This week on Soul of the Nation features a public conversation Jim Wallis had recently with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the role her Catholic faith plays in her public and personal life. The conversation was part of a new series called Higher Calling Jim just launched at the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University. During this conversation, Nancy Pelosi opens up about the...

This week on Soul of the Nation, we continue our series on White Christian Nationalism by welcoming Jack Jenkins to the podcast. Jenkins is a national reporter for Religion News Service (RNS) covering U.S. Catholics and the intersection of religion and politics. Earlier this year, Jenkins ventured west to northern Idaho to explore the rise of White Christian Nationalists staking up a claim in...

This week on Soul of the Nation, we continue our series on White Christian Nationalism by welcoming Rachel Kleinfeld to the podcast. Kleinfeld is a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program. Her work on troubled democracies facing problems such as polarized populations, violence, corruption, and poor governance bridges the United States and international cases. In the...

This week on Soul of the Nation, we continue our series on White Christian Nationalism by welcoming cultural sociologist Ruth Braunstein to the podcast. Braunstein is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut, where she is Director of Undergraduate Studies and Director of the Meanings of Democracy Lab, which studies the moral and cultural foundations of American democrat...

Jemar Tisby, a historian and author of "How to Fight Racism: Young Readers Edition," as well as several other books, joins the podcast to talk about his personal history with white evangelicalism, how he came to feel unwelcome in the tradition and how to talk to your kids about racism.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#...

This week on Soul of the Nation, we continue our series on White Christian Nationalism by welcoming pollster Robert P. Jones to the program. Jones is the president and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute, and the author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity . The Public Religion Research Institute takes the pulse of Americans each fall on a ra...

This week on Soul of the Nation we continue our series on White Christian Nationalism by welcoming Andrew Whitehead, one of the foremost scholars of the movement in the United States. Andrew is the lead author of Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States , and a sociologist at Indiana University–Purdue University in Indianapolis. Whitehead’s research on Christian nati...

Yale University sociologist and author Phillip Gorski explains how White Christian Nationalists wove together stories from the Bible to create a theological justification for white supremacy, how current economic and political conditions have created a perfect storm for White Christian Nationalism to thrive and why it is not just a fringe movement. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy a...

A political ideology is rising that distorts the Christian faith and America’s constitutional democracy — and poses dangers to both. This episode features an live event sponsored by Georgetown’s Center on Faith and Justice with: The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church; Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee; Dr. Samuel Perry, Associate Prof...

This episode is a recording of a TED-style talk Rev. Jim Wallis delivered this fall in Atlanta, Georgia. In it, Wallis talks about growing up in segregated Detroit as a young person -- and how crossing the color line educated him about the troubles and trials of Black life in America.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#d...

On this very special episode of The Soul Of the Nation , we revisit our conversation with best-selling author Heather McGhee which was recorded in July of 2020 during the aftermath of the George Floyd murder and the beginning of the onslaught of COVID-19. How did white people justify racism for so long in this country? Heather McGhee, talks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the legacy of racism in t...

In this very special episode of Soul of the Nation , we revisit our conversation with Robert P. Jones, from July 2020. Robert P. Jones, CEO and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute and the author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity , speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about how white American Christianity and white supremacy collaborate throughout our na...

E.J. Dionne, Jr. a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, and Georgetown University professor explains how universal voting could help alleviate some of the deeper problems plaguing our democracy, including voter suppression, rampant polarization and political apathy.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Not...

This week on the Soul of the Nation, Jim Wallis speaks to Mark Magana, founder and CEO of GreenLatinos, a network of Latino environmental advocates, about why more than 80% of US. Latino voters say the global climate crisis is their greatest–or one of their greatest–concerns. Jim and Mark also spoke about how unprecedented barriers are being erected to disenfranchise Latino voters in several key s...