Talkin‘ Politics & Religion Without Killin‘ Each Other

Latest Episodes:

BONUS EPISODE: Faithful Politics - Gaslighting America with Special Guest Amanda Carpenter Jul 04, 2022

Show notes

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 graduated from Gaslighting University with a Ph.D. in Alternative Facts. Whether Trump knows it or not, he is masterful in the art of gaslighting-jitsu. The guest this week may know a thing or two about being gaslit, as she has been the target of this Trump tactic, Amanda Carpenter joins Will and Josh to discuss her book, Gaslighting America: Why We Love It When Trump Lies to Us. They also discuss the future of the Republican Party, and how faith played a key role in her life during one of the most heinous acts perpetrated by the Trump campaign during 2016 primaries.
Amanda Carpenter is a political commentator for CNN and author of GASLIGHTING AMERICA: Why We Love It When Trump Lies To Us. Prior to CNN she was the Communications Director for Senator Ted Cruz and previously served as Senior Communications Advisor and Speechwriter to Sen. Jim DeMint.
For both senators, Carpenter crafted countless op-eds, speeches, talking points, briefing papers, jokes, press releases, tweets, Facebook posts, and other materials on a range of subjects before the United States Senate, including but not limited to economics, campaigns, healthcare, foreign affairs, and constitutional matters. Her work for them has been published in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and other outlets.
Roll Call featured her in a 2014 front-page profile, "Ted Cruz's Twitter Torrent: Outspoken GOP Aide Takes on Own Party" calling her "Capitol Hill's most-followed staffer" on Twitter with more than 56,000 followers.
In 2013, she led the creation of Cruz’s viral #MakeDCListen speech and campaign that pollster Frank Luntz said produced "the best political sound-byte of 2013.” In 2011, she was named by the Washington Post as one of the "Top 10 Capitol Hill Staffers to Watch."

https://www.faithfulpoliticspodcast.com/

https://www.thebulwark.com/author/amanda-carpenter/

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gaslighting-america-amanda-carpenter/1126314531?ean=9780062748003

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Susan Del Percio - Political Analyst and Republican Strategist, Prominent Critic of Trump and Trumpism; NBC News THINK and Know Your Value Contributor Jun 27, 2022

Show notes

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 Special Advisor to Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2014, she initiated and implemented communication strategies, and advised and developed policy initiatives. Susan also served as Deputy Commissioner in the Giuliani Administration prior to founding her firm in 2001 which serves private corporate clients, leading elected officials, political organizations and candidates as well as non-profits. Susan is also a Distinguished Lecturer at Emerson College where she received both her Bachelor and Master’s degrees.

In this conversation we cover a lot of ground including the sad decline of Rudy Giuliani as someone who worked for him when he was Mayor of NYC; how it was to go to work for a Democratic Governor after having been in Republican politics; her experience of being in New York on 9/11 and what it was like in the days and weeks after that historic day; what it cost her, as a longtime Republican strategist, to be an early critic of Donald Trump and Trumpism; we get into one of our favorite pods Politicology, of course; whether the GOP can be redeemed; and Susan gives some candid advice to Democrats for the 2022 midterms and beyond.

https://twitter.com/DelPercioS

https://www.msnbc.com/knowyourvalue

https://politicology.com/

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Jonathan Rauch (Part 2) - THE CONSTITUTION OF KNOWLEDGE: A DEFENSE OF TRUTH Jun 20, 2022

Show notes

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 of silence"; how, at its center, the MAGA movement is all about disinformation; and how to transform the world by planting the seeds of big ideas.

JONATHAN RAUCH, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, is the author of eight books and many articles on public policy, culture, and government. He is a contributing writer for The Atlantic and recipient of the 2005 National Magazine Award, the magazine industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. His latest book, The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth is a deep-diving account of how to push back against disinformation, canceling, and other new threats to our fact-based epistemic order. His writing has also appeared in many other publications including The Economist, Time, The New York Times, The New York Daily News, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, Slate, and others. Jonathan graduated from Yale University. He is the recipient of numerous national and international awards for his writing and has appeared as a guest on many television and radio programs. But perhaps most remarkably, he does not like shrimp!

www.jonathanrauch.com/about.html

www.theatlantic.com/author/jonathan-rauch/

www.brookings.edu/experts/jonathan-rauch/

https://www.brookings.edu/book/the-constitution-of-knowledge/

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TP&R Trailer Spring/Summer ’22 Jun 16, 2022

Show notes

Grateful to be able to talk about politics and religion without killin' each other!

www.politicsandreligion.us

twitter.com/TPandRPod

www.facebook.com/TPandRPod

www.instagram.com/tpandrpod/

www.linkedin.com/company/tpandrpod

www.tiktok.com/@tpandrpod

...and our host

twitter.com/coreysnathan

www.facebook.com/coreysnathan

www.instagram.com/coreysnathan/

www.linkedin.com/in/coreysnathan/

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JONATHAN RAUCH: Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Contributing Writer for The Atlantic (Part 1) Jun 13, 2022

Show notes

This is part 1 of our conversation with Jonathan Rauch. We had to have Jon back for a follow up because, as you'll hear, he's such a genuine, inquisitive fellow, he ended up asking Corey more questions than the other way around. We touch upon a number of big ideas like the existence of God; how the gospel of Jesus contrasts with the way a lot of self-professed Christians act; the trauma gay Americans have had to endure from Christians; Jon also talks about amazing Christians he's gotten to know and the concept of grace; and how we can make religion less stupid.

www.jonathanrauch.com/about.html

www.theatlantic.com/author/jonathan-rauch/

www.brookings.edu/experts/jonathan-rauch/

www.amazon.com/Constitution-Knowledge-Jonathan-Rauch/dp/0815738862/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0

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Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati - HOLLYWOOD TO THE HIMALAYAS: A JOURNEY OF HEALING AND TRANSFORMATION May 30, 2022

Show notes

In this conversation with Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, we discuss the "equation" we've been given to be happy and how unhappy that's left many of us; how she experienced a radical and seemingly impossible forgiveness; when religion gets it right; some of the core tenets of being Hindu; the power of a name; and the "groundwork and grand work" that Sadhviji is a part of among a number of other meaningful topics.

Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, PhD is a renowned spiritual leader in India. She is President of Divine Shakti Foundation, a charitable organization bringing education and empowerment to women and children. She is Secretary-General of Global Interfaith WASH Alliance, launched by UNICEF, the first alliance of religious leaders for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. Sadhviji is also Director of the world-famous International Yoga Festival. Originally from Los Angeles, and a graduate of Stanford University, Sadhviji has lived at Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh in the Himalayas for 25 years, where she gives spiritual discourses, satsang and meditation, and leads myriad humanitarian programs.

https://sadhviji.org/

www.facebook.com/SadhviBhagawatiSaraswati/

www.instagram.com/sadhviji/

www.youtube.com/channel/UCYY3tI53Jy5MUABaYGuSoEQ

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The Village Square: A nervy bunch of liberals and conservatives who believe that dialogue and disagreement make for a good conversation, a good country and a good time! May 23, 2022

Show notes

Today we're joined by Liz Joyner and Vanessa Rowse of the Village Square. Liz is the Founder and CEO and Vanessa is the Podcast Producer of their great podcast Village SquareCast.

We get into all kinds of important, timely topics including

how we're all living in this "high energy environment";
the "us vs. them dynamic" and what the solution is;
the value of actually getting together in person;
how the Village Square is able to get people of diverse views in the same venue together;
how the first casualty in this environment is nuance;
and being played by the "conflict entrepreneurs";
in addition to a lot more ground we cover.

The Village Square is a nonprofit organization devoted to building vibrant civil dialogue across partisan and ideological divides on matters of local, state, and national importance in communities across America. Founded in Tallahassee, Florida in 2006 after a contentious debate on a local issue, the Village Square builds social civic community in a 21st century revival of the old-fashioned American town hall. The Village Square offers a menu of cutting-edge civic engagement programs, many in partnership with local government.

https://tlh.villagesquare.us/

https://pod.link/1520059234

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Normalizing the Nonreligious with Kevin Bolling, Exec. Director of the Secular Student Alliance May 16, 2022

Show notes

Why are more and more young people leaving religion? Is religion the only way we can define our values? From what sources do nonreligious folks derive shared morals? We explore all these questions and much more, such as how the Secular Student Alliance is providing a point of connection for nonreligious students all over the country. We discuss secular and humanistic values, how SSA has been received on campuses, and of course we get into plenty of politics.

Kevin Bolling is the Executive Director of the Secular Student Alliance, an educational nonprofit and the only national organization dedicated to atheist, humanist, and other non-theist students. Kevin has served as the executive director of SSA since 2017 and has over 20 years of nonprofit leadership experience. His career has included over 10 years of student association management and on-campus program development from Los Angeles to Boston as well as serving in leadership positions with the California Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Foundation and the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles.

https://secularstudents.org/

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FOR GOD’S SAKE, SHUT UP! says Brian Kaylor, Pres. and Editor-in-Chief of Word and Way magazine May 09, 2022

Show notes

Brian Kaylor is the President and Editor-in-Chief of Word and Way (a Christian media company founded in 1896), he’s Associate Director of Churchnet and the host of an excellent podcast called Dangerous Dogma. Brian is also a prolific author, most recently of the books For God’s Sake, Shut Up!: Lessons for Christians on How to Speak Effectively and When to Remain Silent and Vote Your Principles: Party Must Not Trump Principles. Brian has a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Missouri, and serves the Baptist World Alliance as chair of the Communication Advisory Committee and chair of the Resolutions Committee. He is a board member for the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America and for the St. Louis Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Brian has also taught college courses in advocacy studies, political communication, research methods, and public speaking.

Brian and Corey discuss a number of pertinent issues including how pastors are having to conform with their parishioners politics; a daunting comparison - that would be surprising to some - between the faith of Barack Obama and that of Donald Trump; the nature of faith and the opposite of faith; and we also discuss the separation of church and state among a number of other topics.

http://briankaylor.com/about/

https://wordandway.org/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dangerous-dogma/id1570193355

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Rick Hanson, Ph.D. on the neuroscience of mindfulness, meditation and Buddhist practice, plus plenty of politics! May 02, 2022

Show notes

"There's a gap between the realistic possible and the actual...and what can we do about it?" That's a premise we explore with our renowned guest, Dr. Rick Hanson, across numerous domains from the very personal to the political. Along with special co-host Savannah Nathan, we discuss the scientific observations of the benefits of meditation; Buddhism as a psychology and not necessarily a religion; and the nature of the mind and how it works. We also get into plenty of politics from unique traits humans developed over millions of years to many of the problems that ail us today to a simple yet ambitious vision Rick has articulated in the 2100 Project.

Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a psychologist, Senior Fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and is a New York Times best-selling author of such impactful books including NeuroDharma, Resilient, Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha’s Brain, Just One Thing, and Mother Nurture. He’s lectured at NASA, Google, Oxford, and Harvard, and taught in meditation centers worldwide. An expert on positive neuroplasticity, his work has been featured on the BBC, CBS, NPR, on his podcast that he co-hosts with his son Forrest Hanson Being Well and other major media. He began meditating in 1974 and is the founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom.

Here are some helpful links:

www.rickhanson.net

www.rickhanson.net/being-well-podcast/

www.rickhanson.net/books/neurodharma/#order

www.wisebrain.org/wellspring-institute

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17439760.2021.2006759

https://www.positiveneuroplasticity.com/

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