"Was Mary a virgin?" Dan Miller unpacks the question in layers. First, the textual evidence: the Greek word parthenos and its relationship to the Hebrew alma; plus Mary's line in Luke 1:34, which together explain why the tradition reads her as a virgin. For Dan, the bigger question is why the claim matters theologically. He traces how it underscores the miraculous nature of Jesus' birth, how it ties female virginity to purity, and how the doctrine expanded into the perpetual virginity of Mary (b

Peter Thiel says that if you're evil, maybe you're actually good. Brad Onishi (author of American Caesar) and Matthew D. Taylor (author of The Violent Take It by Force) break down the viral clip: what Thiel means by "bad" versus "evil," why he frames progress as an all-or-nothing choice, and how his Antichrist theology, technological accelerationism, and contempt for the "mimetic sheeple" shape his influence on J.D. Vance and the tech right. Then Rev. Mara Richards Bim, a Baptist pastor and plai

This week on The Sunday Interview, Brad revisits a conversation with sociologist of religion Paul Djupe (Denison University) on two ideas shaping the current political moment: the myth of the persecuted Christian and the inverted golden rule. Djupe unpacks the data behind the persecution narrative — a claim that has intensified under the second Trump administration through initiatives like the Anti-Christian Bias Task Force and the White House Faith Office, and that spiked further after Charlie

Does God change his mind? CAN God change his mind? The traditional theological answer to both of these questions is “no.” But what if the answer is “yes”? Why would this represent such a threat to high-control religion and traditional Christian teaching? Check out this week’s episode to find out! If you enjoy our work, please subscribe. Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Dai

Matthew Taylor is joined by historian and former CIA Africa analyst Holly Berkley Fletcher (author of The Missionary Kids) to unpack why the religious left — unlike the ideologically cohesive religious right — has long struggled to translate its diverse coalition into electoral power, and why faith-forward Democratic candidates like Adam Hamilton and James Talarico may be changing that calculus in this year’s midterms. Later, they’re joined by Julia Curlee, a 20-year CIA veteran and former presi

In this Sunday interview, Annika Brockschmidt talks with journalist and podcaster Michael Edison Hayden about his new book, Strange People on the Hill, which follows what happened when Peter and Lydia Brimelow, the couple behind the white nationalist site VDARE, bought a castle overlooking the tiny tourist town of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. Hayden explains who the Brimelows are and how VDARE helped push the "great replacement" narrative into mainstream American politics. He also explains w