Episodes

April 2, 2024

Bonus Ep. 3: That Time Brad Was a Fisher of Fish

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus content most Mondays, bonus episodes every month, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ On this two-hour bonus episode, Brad and Dan are joined by Brad's former ministry partner and friend of 25 years Jason Thompson. They recount an absurd, whimsical, and somehow instructive story of flinging fresh fish at a wall with teenagers in order to build the Kingdom of God. From the...
April 1, 2024

Not Just Evangelicals: The Christian Nationalism Problem in Mainline Christian Spaces

+ Bonus Content: Conspiracy Theories and the Baltimore Bridge Disaster
March 30, 2024

Weekly Roundup: Trump Endorses Bible Days Before Easter

+ Embryos Get Life Insurance in South Carolina
March 27, 2024

It's In the Code Ep. 92: "A Biblical House of Cards"

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus content most Mondays, bonus episodes every month, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ In this final episode exploring the idea that the Bible is without error, that it is “inerrant,” Dan looks at what happens if this doctrine is abandoned. The doctrine of inerrancy appears as a key foundation supporting high-control religion’s house of cards. When that foundation is remove...
March 25, 2024

John Birch Society x Today's GOP

Conspiracy, Resentment, Racism, and Christian Nationalism
March 20, 2024

It's In the Code Ep. 91: "So Much for the Holy Spirit"

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ High control Christian communities often claim that the Bible is without error, that its teachings are absolute, and that if we read our Bibles we can learn about God for ourselves. But is that how it really works? What if, instead, claims that the Bible speaks with “inerrant” authority are actually mechanisms of religious cont...
March 19, 2024

The Wannabe Warlord Leading the US Into Christendom + Bonus Content

Bonus Content: The Society for American Civic Renewal x John Birch Society
March 13, 2024

It's in the Code Ep. 90: "Direct Relationship with God"

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ One of the effects and purposes of the doctrine that the Bible is “without error” is to provide assurance that when we read it, we have unmediated access to divine teachings. But do we? Can the Bible provide the kind of “immediate” access to God this doctrine promises? In this week’s episode, Dan talks about why this isn’t poss...
March 11, 2024

The Age of Insurrection w/ David Neiwert

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ From a smattering of ominous right-wing compounds in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s, to the shocking January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, America has seen the culmination of a long-building war on democracy being waged by a fundamentally violent and antidemocratic far-right movement that unironically calls itse...
March 9, 2024

Weekly Roundup: State of Disunion - Contraceptive Nationalism and the Innocent White Christian Woman

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ Brad and Dan begin by discussing the State of the Union speech by Pres. Joe Biden and the GOP response by Sen. Katie Britt (AL). They analyze the theatrics of the civic ritual - and how the chamber has turned into something more like the comments section on a YouTube video than a stately affair where all three of our branches o...
March 7, 2024

It's In the Code Ep. 89: "Believe It Or Not"

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ When someone says they “believe” that the Bible is “inerrant” (without error), what do they mean? What does it mean to “believe” something in this way? Is believing the Bible is without error the same thing as “believing” that there are 24 hours in the day or that we perceive the sun to rise in the east? Are there different way...
March 5, 2024

Bonus Ep. 2: That Time Brad Told You About Eternal Torment at Lunch

Brad tells cringy stories from his teenage years in order to make a point: Christian conservatives often start arguments by saying that everyone has a worldview, so everyone is religious. If you don't worship God, they say, then you worship yourself or something else. Brad and Dan decode and refute this argument, while telling hilarious stories from the past. They also answer a ton of AMA questions. Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-e...
March 4, 2024

Brynn Tannehill on Civil War, Trump, and the Violence Ahead in 2024

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ What happens if Trump wins? If he goes to jail before the election? If Biden wins, but the House GOP won't certify the election? Brad goes through all these scenarios with Brynn Tannehill, author of American Fascism: How the GOP is subverting democracy. Brynn Tannehill is a Naval Academy graduate, former naval aviator, author, ...
Feb. 29, 2024

It's In the Code Ep. 88: "The Bible is Historically Flawless"

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ Christian inerrantists, those who claim that the Bible is literally “without error,” often present this as a “historical” doctrine. That is, they often claim that the view that the Bible is without error is the result of historical investigation, that the historical claims of the Bible have been tested against real history and ...
Feb. 26, 2024

Talking to Red-Pilled Friends and Loved Ones with Dr. Steven Hassan

Brad welcomes Dr. Steven Hassan to discuss strategies for talking to red-pilled relatives who have gone down the rabbit holes of MAGA-ism, Q-Anon, and other forms of high-control religion and conspiracy. The author of the Cult of Trump and Combating Cult Mind Control, Dr. Hassan was member of the notorious Unification Church in the 1970s. Dr. Hassan experienced firsthand the devastating effects of undue influence and coercion. His escape from the church and subsequent recovery process inspired h...
Feb. 24, 2024

Weekly Roundup: Embryos are People Now?

Brad and Dan begin by discussing the shocking decision from the Alabama Supreme Court proclaiming embryos to be human beings. They dissect the legal, philosophical, theological, and political dynamics of the ruling - and breakdown the Christian nationalism baked into the opinion written by Chief Justice Tom Parker. They then turn their attention to Oklahoma, where a non-binary teen died days after being attacked by a group of classmates in a school bathroom. Finally, they look to Tennessee whe...
Feb. 21, 2024

It's In the Code Ep. 87: "With All Apologies"

The doctrine of inerrancy isn’t convincing philosophically, theologically, or factually. Yet it remains a cornerstone of belief within a conservative Christian circles. What explains its persistence? In this episode, Dan begins exploring this issue by suggesting that the doctrine of inerrancy, despite all of its intellectual failings, speaks to a deeply felt need within a particular kind of religious adherent, and that this is one significant reason it persists. Check this week’s episode to hear...
Feb. 19, 2024

Dan Partland - Director of God and Country + (Bonus Content)

Brad's interview with Dan Partland, director of God and Country, a new documentary that examines Christian nationalism in the United States. Based partly on Katherine Stewart's The Power Worshippers, it includes many prominent voices speaking out against Christian nationalism - Andrew Whitehead, Jemar Tisby, Andrew Seidel, Anthea Butler, and many more. Brad speaks with Dan about what drew him to this project, what he learned about the threats Christian nationalism poses to democracy, and why it ...
Feb. 16, 2024

Moscow Mules: Trump. Nato. Putin. MAGA Mike. Tucker Gets Tuckered.

Brad and Dan begin by discussing Trump's comments on NATO and how they reflect eight years of Putin transforming the American Right's view of America's role in the world. This leads to an extended discussion of Mike Johnson and his reticence to send support to Ukraine without a border deal, even though that is what the Senate sent him. Democrats turned the table, perhaps, on the immigration issue - but at a cost. Then there is Tucker Carlson, parading around Moscow . . . Subscribe for $5.99 a m...
Feb. 14, 2024

It's In the Code Ep. 86: "The Last Line of Defense"

What do those who insist that the Bible is inerrant, literally “without error,” do if they’re finally confronted with contradictions or errors in the biblical text that no one can plausibly explain? Does this lead them to abandon the doctrine? Do they finally have to give in to the evidence of the text they themselves claim as an authority? No! Instead, they marshal one, final, ultimate defense of an inerrant Bible. What is it? Check out this week’s episode and Dan will tell you! Subscribe for ...