Tim Talks Politics

I’m really excited about today’s podcast. What happens away up there on Capitol Hill where laws are made, hearings are held, and legislators debate? Away from the headlines, behind closed doors, and in the many offices that house the members of Congress and the committees they sit on an army of congressional staffers labor away at the detailed work of legislation. This podcast gives you, the liste...

In this episode, we do what I have often done on the podcast and that is to take an important document, read through, and I offer my thoughts and comments on how to understand it. I talk about chronology and context a lot in my newsletter, and it’s for moments like this that chronology and context become important tools in our analytical tool belts. The chronology of US-Iran relations creates the...

In this episode, Matt Anderson and I discuss the rhetorical and political difficulties of maintaining a consistent pro-life position in a conservative political milieu divided on questions of IVF and recent court ruling related to abortion pill access. We then explore the strategic and tactical approaches the emerging wings of the pro-life movement are taking as distinct “reformer” and “radical” c...

One of the more surprising developments in American politics in 2026 is the rift in American conservatism between those who are supportive of President Trump’s war with Iran and those adamantly opposed to it. Stranger, and scarier, still, is an anti-Israel component of the opposition camp that comes uncomfortably close to antisemitism. In this podcast, Stephen Mansfield and I revisit our earlier d...

On the podcast today, I’ve brought back a returning guest and one of the leading American voices on the Kurds, New York Times bestselling author Stephen Mansfield. Stephen has worked closely with the Kurdish diaspora in America, and has traveled in Kurdistan. There are few people in America that are better positioned to talk about the Kurds, their history with the US, and their potential role in a...

Rod Dodson, hedge fund manager, global risk expert, and fellow Substacker is back on the podcast today to talk about the war with Iran and its strategic implications. In particular, Ron and I delve into what strategic objectives ought to be in a conflict like this one that pits a global superpower against a middle power that sits astride a global trade artery. e discuss the dynamics of alliance po...

It’s not every day that you get the former Deputy Chief of Staff for US Air Force Central Command lined up to talk about the war in Iran, but that’s what you folks have today! You’ve heard Matt Van Hook on the podcast before to talk about everything from Abraham Lincoln to Operation Midnight Hammer, and if you’ve listened to those shows you know Matt’s a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel. That...

This is a rebroadcast of one of my earliest podcasts (apologies for the rough audio) because I think the content is more important than ever. Namely, the historical context of US-Iran relations pre- and post-1979 revolution has largely been ignored in conversations and debates surrounding Operation Epic Fury. As readers of my newsletter know, I truly believe that chronology and context are critica...

Mark Hall returns to the podcast to discuss the reemergence of Christian nationalism as a topic of interest to the Washington media. Mark and I review some of his work on White House-appointed advisory boards related to religious liberty and how that ties in to (or doesn’t) the conversation on Christian nationalism. We then pivot to breaking down a recent survey by PRRI that seems to have contribu...

It’s a panel discussion on the podcast today as Dr. Scott Waller, Dr. Matt Van Hook and Dustin Steeve rejoin the podcast to unpack the arguable normal first year of Trump 2.0 despite the consequential vibes. Bottom line, despite movement on key campaign promises with measurable results, Waller notes that the Trump administration’s first year is something of a “normal” presidency, and Van Hook make...

You’d think that with all the power moves Trump is making on the international stage (Greenland, Venezuela, Iran, etc.) the publication of the administration’s National Security Strategy in December of 2025 would’ve been the source of much public attention. Unfortunately, mainstream media largely overlooked the document with much of the analysis relegated to the foreign policy community. That’s al...

US Air Force Academy professor Dr. Kerry Chávez is back on the show to pick up where we left off in our last conversation: the ethical considerations, quandaries and pitfalls surrounding drones, AI, and other emerging tech in their military applications. While a lot of attention has been focused on armed drone use in war zones, there’s a whole realm of military application that drones and emerging...

We’re back for 2026 and another season of the Tim Talks Politics Podcast .  2025’s end of year project, The Kirk Effects , was wonderful and worthwhile, but it did draw my attention away from the international sphere before taking that holiday break. Now, as we enter 2026, the world is in flux in a way few thought possible just last month. Before we dive into conversations on Venezuela, Iran, Gree...

A short message wishing you all a "Merry Christmas" as I take a slightly earlier intended Christmas break. Subscribe to Tim Talks Politics ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ on Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for the full show notes (30% off for podcast listeners)!

They say politics is downstream from culture, but what is culture downstream from? My guest today would say culture is downstream from worldview - one’s governing assumptions of morality and ultimate reality. And that’s why she’s on the podcast today. My guest is writer, actress, and comedian Zena Dell Lowe. Our conversation covers a wide array of topics related to culture and the ideas, people an...

In this episode of The Kirk Effect , Dr. Wilsey and I explore the broader historical and cultural context of Kirk’s work. Dr. Wilsey explains that in many respects, Kirk’s evident Christian faith and rhetoric is not an anomaly in American public life. In fact, it’s something of a throw back to a not so distant past when the intersection of faith and politics in America produced a rich cultural exc...

In this episode of The Kirk Effect , Representative David Eastman of the Alaska state legislature and I discuss his experience of attending the memorial service for Charlie Kirk. The memorial service lasted for over five hours, was attended by hundreds of thousands, and raised a lot of questions about the interaction of American Christianity with politics. As a Christian who serves in an elected o...

What did Charlie Kirk see in America’s youth that drove him on to college campuses to discuss, debate, and advocate for conservative ideas in a largely hostile environment? Kirk wasn’t shy about why he so purposefully engaged young people: They were the future. But this wasn’t necessarily a manipulative political project. For Kirk and many others working with America’s young people, it was a missi...

My guest today is Isela Becerra, a longtime TPUSA member, and one of my Political Science students at Biola University. I asked Isela on the podcast to share about her involvement and experience in TPUSA. One of the biggest surprises to me following the Charlie Kirk assassination was to discover the expansive work of Turning Point. In the course of this discussion, an even bigger surprise emerged,...

Biological twins are about as demographically similar as one can get. So, it was rather surprising to me to find that social media algorithms fed Josh and Jeremy Matlock very different content related to Charlie Kirk. As we discuss in this episode of The Kirk Effect, taking a closer look at Charlie Kirk’s words and work after his assassination required both Josh and Jeremy Matlock to adjust their...

In this discussion, Stephen and I explore some of the early evidence of a possible “Charlie Kirk effect” on the growth of Christianity in America and discuss the upsides and downsides of using statistical data to try to understand what’s happening in American Christianity in the wake of Kirk’s death. From the broad social implications of Kirk’s work and assassination, Stephen and I pivot to discus...

In this episode, I introduce The Kirk Effect , a podcast miniseries exploring the impact of Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA on American faith and politics.  In this episode, I frame the main issues I’ll be exploring around a basic thesis: Charlie Kirk’s death and its immediate fallout signaled a major shift in American political culture. Just what that shift means for American faith and politic...

My guest today is former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Democrat strategist Joel Rubin who publishes The Briefing Book on Substack and is the author of the forthcoming book Making Sense of the World: How Democrats Can Win Again on Foreign Policy . Joel is the definition of a career public servant having spent much of his career serving at every level of government from city council to the...

In a polarized age of rapid technological advances that increasingly seem to pull us apart and turn us inward, the need for a robust civics education seems more important than ever, but most of the public discussion descends into hand wringing.  My guest today suggests that the framework for a strong civics education and pathway towards virtuous citizenship not only exists, but it’s relatively sim...

We dive deeper into an ongoing exploration of the implications of new technologies on national security with a barnstorming tour of the cyber domain with cybersecurity expert Byron Tomes. In this episode, Byron and I explore his unique journey into cybersecurity and national security, and the incredibly interesting and varied career he has had along the way. While we do explore the nuts and bolts...