Weekly Roundup: A Battle of Fonts and Freedoms: Analyzing Trump’s Authoritarianism and Growing Unpopularity
Brad and Dan return to unpack another week of chaos, contradictions, and creeping authoritarianism in American politics. They open with what seems like a small story but carries outsized symbolic weight: the State Department’s decision to ditch Calibri and return to Times New Roman. It’s a font change driven not by aesthetics but by politics, […]
Special Episode: When We All Get to Heaven Ep 1
In this special episode of ‘Straight White American Jesus,’ the host introduces the podcast series ‘When We All Get To Heaven,’ which chronicles the history of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco during the AIDS epidemic. The series, produced by Lynn Gerber and available on Slate, uses an archive of 1200 cassette tape recordings […]
It’s in the Code ep 172: “Projecting Enemies”
Josh Hawley argues that “man’s mission” is to combat evil. Defining men in this way makes evil necessary, and it transforms every political, social, and cultural disagreement into a moral conflict of cosmic significance. In this episode, Dan shows how this leads Hawley to distort the “modern culture” and “liberals” he opposes. He also looks […]
Olivia Nuzzi, Mormon Wives, and the Death of Democracy
Brad is joined by Alan Elrod, CEO and founder of the Pulaski Institute, for a wide-ranging conversation about what happens to democracy when entertainment values replace empathy. They start with the Olivia Nuzzi scandal and what it exposes about journalistic ethics, voyeurism, and the public’s fascination with watching someone fall apart in real time. From […]
Weekly Roundup: Cultural Crusades: From Hegseth’s Boat Attacks to Oklahoma’s Classrooms
Brad and Dan return with a packed Weekly Roundup that cuts through the noise of culture war headlines to get at what is really happening in American politics and religion this week. They start with the bizarre story dominating Congress: alleged Venezuelan narco boats, U.S. military strikes, and the growing scrutiny around Pete Hegseth’s involvement. […]
It’s in the Code ep 171: “A Man Like God”
Josh Hawley builds his account on masculinity and manhood on the idea that men are created in God’s image and, as such, are his representatives on earth. But what is Hawley’s God like? What kind of God does Hawley worship? Who is this God that is the pattern for human manhood? In this episode, Dan […]
National Guard Shooting Reveals the Right’s Dangerous Western Supremacy
Brad takes a hard look at the American right’s response to the recent shooting of two National Guardsmen in Washington, DC, and shows how the rhetoric around the tragedy signals a shift from overt Christian nationalism to something even broader and more dangerous: Western supremacy. He traces how this worldview draws from older ideas about […]
SWAJ Rewind: Give Thanks
This week Dan talks about the popular praise and worship song, “Give Thanks With a Grateful Heart.” What is the message of this song? Written as a song of solace and hope, how does it also express an attitude that denies the reality of the things about this world and our places in it that should change? […]
Weekly Roundup: Kristi Noem Implicated, Erika Kirk’s Love Language, and Bill McKibben on the Tragedy of American Christianity
Brad and Dan are back from the American Academy of Religion conference in Boston and kick off this episode with some love for the folks they met there before diving into a wild week in American politics and religion. They start with the viral moment between Erika Kirk and JD Vance at a TPUSA event, […]
Pulitzer Winner on How the End of the Cold War Created MAGA Populism
Brad Onishi sits down with Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Starr to dig into his new book, American Contradiction, and the idea that the United States is less a shining city on a hill and more a city built on a fault line. Starr traces how the nation’s promise of liberty has always coexisted with exclusion, […]
Short Weekly Roundup: Donald Trump is the Anti-Christian President
In this episode of ‘Straight White American, Jesus,’ Brad Oishi discusses the Trump administration’s paradoxical treatment of Christianity. Highlighting the arrest of Christian clergy during a protest at the Broadview immigration facility, Oishi critiques the administration’s selective support for certain Christian ideologies while persecuting others. He explores the historical prominence of Evangelical Christianity in American […]
It’s in the Code ep 170: “Order, Chaos, and Evil”
[CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains references to, and discussion of, death by suicide]. In this episode, Dan begins exploring what Josh Hawley calls “a man’s battle.” Hawley argues that what defines men, what gives them purpose, is fighting and confronting evil, and maintaining order in the face of chaos. But what exactly does this mean? […]
