Podcast
Talkin‘ Politics & Religion Without Killin‘ Each Other
Hosted by Scan Media, LLC · EN
Politics and Religion. We’re not supposed to talk about that, right? Wrong! We only say that nowadays because the loudest, most extreme voices have taken over the whole conversation. Well, we‘re taking some of that space back! If you’re dying for some dialogue instead of all the yelling; if you know it’s okay to have differences without having to hate each other; if you believe politics and religion are too important to let ”the screamers” drown out the rest of us and would love some engaging, provocative and fun conversations about this stuff, then ”Talkin‘ Politics & Religion Without Killin‘ Each Other” is for you!
40episodes
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And Then What? || The fight was the answer. There is no "and then."
3d ago00:18:18Tap to summarizeTwo minutes. Real impact. Leave a review: lovethepodcast.com/politicsandreligion What if the outrage itself is the addiction? In this solo episode, Corey Nathan draws on scripture, neuroscience, Dr. Seuss, and two very personal stories to ask a harder question than who’s right: are we more hooked on the fight than committed to what the fight is supposed to be about? From a son’s vaccine hesitancy to a buddy who loves Pete Hegseth, Corey makes the case that the heavy lift of staying in the room with people we deeply disagree with isn’t just good manners. It’s the whole ballgame. Calls to Action ✅ If this conversation resonates, consider sharing it with someone who believes connection across difference still matters. ✅ Subscribe to Corey’s Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com ✅ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen: lovethepodcast.com/politicsandreligion ✅ Subscribe to Talkin’ Politics & Religion Without Killin’ Each Other on your favorite podcast platform. ✅ Watch the full conversation and subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion Connect on Social Media Corey is @coreysnathan on all the socials… Substack LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter Threads Bluesky TikTok Thanks to our Sponsors and Partners Thanks to Pew Research Center (pewresearch.org) for making today’s conversation possible. Proud members of The Democracy Group Hard conversations, conducted with honesty and care. That’s the whole project.
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Prophecy, Power, and the Algorithm — with Carissa Véliz of Oxford's Institute for Ethics in AI
6d ago01:06:36Tap to summarize“Often predictions try to pass as descriptions of the world or facts when actually they are something like power plays in disguise.” — Carissa Véliz Reviews are the lifeblood of independent podcasts. If TP&R belongs in more people's ears, here's how you make that happen: Apple Podcasts: Rate & Review on Apple Spotify: Rate on Spotify When a tech executive declares that AI will transform everything, are they describing the future, or commanding it? Carissa Véliz, Associate Professor at Oxford’s Institute for Ethics in AI, argues that prophecy and prediction have always been instruments of power, from the Oracle of Delphi to the algorithm in your pocket. In her new book Prophecy, she traces how surveillance and prediction became the twin original sins of digital technology, why predictions are never facts, and what philosophy offers as an antidote. It’s a conversation that is as timely as it is ancient. Calls to Action ✅ If this conversation resonates, consider sharing it with someone who believes connection across difference still matters. ✅ Subscribe to Corey’s Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com ✅ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen: lovethepodcast.com/politicsandreligion ✅ Subscribe to Talkin’ Politics & Religion Without Killin’ Each Other on your favorite podcast platform. ✅ Watch the full conversation and subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion Key Takeaways Predictions are never facts. They can be educated guesses, wishful thinking, warnings, or veiled commands — but the future is unwritten. The moment someone presents a prediction as inevitable, that’s a signal worth interrogating. Surveillance and prediction are the two original sins of digital tech. They work in sync: data is gathered to predict behavior, and prediction is used to influence it. The pattern is ancient — a lion watches its prey before it hunts — and the data economy runs on the same logic. AI is the ultimate prediction machine. Machine learning does one thing: project patterns from past data onto an unknown future. The big assumption baked into every model is that the past looks like what’s coming. It often doesn’t. Philosophy arose as an antidote to prophecy. Ancient Greece was obsessed with divination. Philosophy was the countermovement — grounded in facts and logic rather than manipulation. That critical stance is exactly what we need now when tech executives make proclamations that get reported as news. Predictions about people are different from predictions about things. When you predict rain, the clouds are unbothered. When you predict a person’s failure, you shape their fate. Carissa’s call: when predictions about human beings are necessary, make them at the population level, not the individual. Increase your serendipity. The more we let algorithms decide what to watch, who to meet, and what to read, the more constrained we become. Talking to strangers, reading widely, and taking a walk without a destination are small acts of resistance with real consequences. About Our Guest Carissa Véliz is a writer, keynote speaker, and Associate Professor at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford. Her work spans AI ethics, privacy, business ethics, and public policy. She advises companies and governments around the world, serves on the board of the Proton Foundation, and is a member of UNESCO’s Women for Ethical AI. She is the author of Privacy Is Power and her new book Prophecy. Her TED Talk, Beware the Power of Prediction, is available on YouTube. Links and Resources Prophecy — www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/759692/prophecy-by-carissa-veliz/ TED Talk: Beware the Power of Prediction (YouTube): www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS4wHmKtH-Q Connect on Social Media Corey is @coreysnathan on all the socials… Substack LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter Threads Bluesky TikTok Thanks to our Sponsors and Partners Thanks to Pew Research Center (pewresearch.org) for making today’s conversation possible. Proud members of The Democracy Group The future is unwritten. How we get there is up to us.
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A Thousand Miles Away: I Never Really Got Off That Bike
1w ago00:12:02Tap to summarizeSometimes you're in a room full of people you love — and all you can hear is the wind. May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This episode is a solo one — no guest, no debate, no conversation across political or religious difference. Just Corey, a piece he wrote in the middle of some darkness, and the motorcycle he never really got off. "A Thousand Miles Away" is an essay about Bipolar disorder, about the particular loneliness of being a million miles from the world even when your body is present in it, and about the cultural and religious messages that told him to keep his mouth shut about all of it. It's also about what has helped — meditation, neuroplasticity, and the odd grace of still being on the road. The full essay is on Corey's Substack. If it lands for you — or for someone you love — he'd be glad to hear from you. Calls to Action ✅ If this conversation resonates, consider sharing it with someone who believes connection across difference still matters. ✅ If you or someone you know is struggling, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7. Call or text 988. ✅ Subscribe to Corey’s Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com ✅ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen: ratethispodcast.com/goodfaithpolitics ✅ Subscribe to Talkin’ Politics & Religion Without Killin’ Each Other on your favorite podcast platform. ✅ Watch the full conversation and subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion Key Takeaways The aloneness isn't metaphor. Being a thousand miles away while your body moves through an ordinary day — brushing teeth, running meetings, cleaning the kitchen — is a specific, describable experience. Naming it matters. "What do you have to be depressed about?" is the wrong question. Suffering doesn't have an income threshold. The cultural reflex of tallying someone's blessings in response to their pain doesn't help. It silences. Religious communities can do real harm here. The diagnosis of "a sin issue, not a depression issue" is a failure of pastoral care with real consequences. Faith and mental health are not competing explanations. Practices matter. Meditation, neuroplasticity, building new neural pathways — these aren't cures, but they shift the ratio. More good seasons than bad is worth something. Shared memory runs deep. The weight of inherited trauma — pogroms, displacement, the unspoken cost of survival — shapes how families receive (or refuse to receive) a descendant's pain. That inheritance is real, even when it's used against you. Thanks to our Sponsors and Partners Thanks to Pew Research Center (pewresearch.org) for our ongoing partnership. Proud members of The Democracy Group Connect on Social Media Corey is @coreysnathan on all the socials… Substack LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter Threads Bluesky TikTok Civic life starts with showing up. Sometimes that's enough — just staying on the road.
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The Forrest Gump of Danger Zones - Thomas Mangine // West Point · Army Intelligence · Financial Crimes Expert · Jersey Kid!
2w ago01:47:54Tap to summarizeSome kids from Jersey go down the Shore. Tom Mangine went to West Point, then to the Balkans, then Haiti, then Africa, then Chile — and somehow managed to be on the ground every time history got loud. Reviews are the lifeblood of independent podcasts. If TP&R belongs in more people's ears, here's how you make that happen: Apple Podcasts: Rate & Review on Apple Spotify: Rate on Spotify Thomas Mangine grew up in Manalapan, New Jersey — Springsteen country — and went on to spend three decades doing work most of us only encounter in spy thrillers. A West Point graduate, U.S. Army officer, intelligence professional, and financial crimes investigator, Tom has worked across six continents and visited 87 countries. He has tracked money for terrorists, investigated organ trafficking and corruption in professional sports, advised major financial institutions on predictive compliance, and taught financial crime investigation to military and civilian professionals across dozens of countries. He is a certified instructor with both the Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists (ACFCS) and the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS). This one’s a little different. Tom is a high school buddy, and we hit record in the middle of a conversation that had already started. What followed was nearly two hours of stories, insights, and the kind of frank talk you only get from someone who has no reason to perform for a camera. Calls to Action ✅ If this conversation resonates, consider sharing it with someone who believes connection across difference still matters. ✅ Subscribe to Corey’s Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com ✅ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen: ratethispodcast.com/goodfaithpolitics ✅ Subscribe to Talkin’ Politics & Religion Without Killin’ Each Other on your favorite podcast platform. ✅ Watch the full conversation and subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion Key Takeaways From Manalapan to the world’s pressure points. Growing up in a central Jersey town full of World War II veterans, Holocaust survivors’ grandchildren, and teachers who took their students seriously shaped Tom’s sense of civic obligation well before West Point entered the picture. The community you grow up in sets the frame for what you think is worth doing. Arabic, Kuwait, and the value of obscure skills. Tom chose to study Arabic at West Point when almost no one else was. Within a year, Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait and suddenly everyone wanted to know who spoke Arabic. The lesson: depth in an unfashionable area compounds. What George H.W. Bush actually understood. Tom’s instructor at West Point, Colonel Richard Augustus Norton — a Vietnam vet who had also served in Lebanon and learned both Farsi and Arabic — explained to his cadets exactly why the first Bush did not drive to Baghdad. Occupying it would have meant a decade of entanglement. A decade later, Tom watched those predictions come true in real time. Learn what normal looks like before you can spot abnormal. From a South African tracker teaching Tom to read an empty watering hole as a threat indicator, to Secret Service agents training currency detection by feel rather than scanner, to teaching financial crime investigators to recognize patterns before they see violations — this is a through-line of Tom’s entire career. Predictive compliance versus retroactive compliance. When Tom moved into the private sector at the Bank of Montreal, his boss Andy Hoffman wanted something the financial industry rarely did: get ahead of problems instead of responding to them. Tom’s military intelligence background — built on anticipating failure before it happens — turned out to be exactly the right preparation. Bureaucracies eat good work. Tom spent two years writing threat assessments in Haiti, working 90-hour weeks, only to have a naval vessel show up with a 2003 report because his updates had been lost in the system. The same pattern repeated across Afghanistan, Ukraine, Belarus, and elsewhere. Institutional memory is not a given. Someone has to fight for it. Being open to learning is harder than it sounds. Tom has trained professionals ranging from 20 to 55 years old across dozens of countries. The single hardest thing to teach is not technical knowledge. It is the willingness to actually revise what you already believe. About Our Guest Thomas J. Mangine is a West Point graduate, retired U.S. Army officer, and financial crimes and risk management expert with three decades of experience across the military, diplomatic, and private sectors. He has deployed to Bosnia, Haiti, Africa, Chile, and beyond, and has trained financial crime investigators and national security professionals in dozens of countries. He is a certified instructor with ACFCS and ACAMS. Links and Resources Connect with Tom on LinkedIn: Thomas J. Mangine Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists (ACFCS): acfcs.org Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS): acams.org Joint Special Operations University (JSOU): jsou.edu Connect on Social Media Corey is @coreysnathan on all the socials… Substack LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter Threads Bluesky TikTok Thanks to our Sponsors and Partners Thanks to Pew Research Center (pewresearch.org) for making today’s conversation possible. Proud members of The Democracy Group Jersey produces fighters, dreamers, and people who show up. Tom Mangine is proof. Now go talk some politics and religion with gentleness and respect.
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The Pledge | Repossession
3w ago00:12:04Tap to summarize"Saying the pledge now isn't capitulation. It's repossession." Reviews are the lifeblood of independent podcasts. If TP&R belongs in more people's ears, here's how you make that happen: Apple Podcasts: Rate & Review on Apple Spotify: Rate on Spotify For 15 years, Corey stood during the Pledge of Allegiance without putting his hand on his heart or saying the words. It wasn't apathy, and it wasn't a performance. It was a conviction, rooted in Scripture and a genuine question: is this a pledge I can actually make? Then something shifted. In this solo episode, Corey traces the journey from that first awkward moment of awareness at a local business meeting, through the Book of Daniel, to a spring morning in 2026 — and explains why starting to say the pledge again isn't a concession to anyone. It's a reclamation. Calls to Action ✅ If this conversation resonates, consider sharing it with someone who believes connection across difference still matters. ✅ Subscribe to Corey’s Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com ✅ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen: ratethispodcast.com/goodfaithpolitics ✅ Subscribe to Talkin’ Politics & Religion Without Killin’ Each Other on your favorite podcast platform. ✅ Watch the full conversation and subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion Key Takeaways Ritual deserves examination. Standing and reciting from muscle memory is different from making a conscious pledge. The distinction matters. The flag and the republic are not the same thing. One can be weaponized; the other is the idea worth pledging to. Corey's return to the pledge came from finally separating the two. January 6th is not an abstraction. Men with the flag draped across their backs as a cape, the pole weaponized against police officers — those are photographs of specific people committing a specific desecration. That image clarified something. Reclamation, not capitulation. Words like conservative, Christian, liberty, and freedom have been sloganized and shouted as weapons. They belong to a tradition, not to the people who've hijacked them. Same goes for the pledge. The grammar of the pledge matters. Read without the unwritten, hypnotic pauses, the pledge isn't to a flag. It's to the republic for which the flag stands. That's a pledge worth making. Thanks to our Sponsors and Partners Thanks to Pew Research Center (pewresearch.org) for making today’s conversation possible. Proud members of The Democracy Group Connect on Social Media Corey is @coreysnathan on all the socials… Substack LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter Threads Bluesky TikTok Go talk some politics and religion. With gentleness and respect.
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Caesar or Jackson? Jeffrey Rosen on the Constitution, the Founders, and What’s at Stake Today
3w ago01:07:18Tap to summarize“For Jefferson, Hamilton is not a hated enemy to be opposed or destroyed, but a respected adversary to be debated with. And that is the spirit we have to get back to today.” — Jeffrey Rosen Jeffrey Rosen is one of the most respected constitutional scholars in America — CEO Emeritus of the National Constitution Center, professor of law at George Washington University Law School, contributing editor at The Atlantic, and the author of nine books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Pursuit of Happiness and The Pursuit of Liberty. In this conversation, Rosen traces the Hamilton–Jefferson rivalry from the founding era to the Roberts Court, asks whether the current administration looks more like Caesar or Andrew Jackson, makes the case that deep reading may be the last best hope for democracy, and previews his forthcoming biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It is the kind of conversation that reminds you what civic discourse, at its best, can actually look like. Calls to Action ✅ If this conversation resonates, consider sharing it with someone who believes connection across difference still matters. ✅ Subscribe to Corey’s Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com ✅ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen: ratethispodcast.com/goodfaithpolitics ✅ Subscribe to Talkin’ Politics & Religion Without Killin’ Each Other on your favorite podcast platform. ✅ Watch the full conversation and subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion Key Takeaways Caesar or Jackson? Rosen frames the central question about the current administration: is this a Caesar who subverts the separation of powers and rules by whim rather than law, or a Jackson-style populist who attacks elites and large institutions but ultimately operates within the constitutional system? The distinction, Rosen argues, matters enormously. The Hamilton–Jefferson divide is still very much alive. The debate between liberal and strict construction of the Constitution did not begin with originalism. It began with the bank. Hamilton argued Congress could imply powers beyond what’s enumerated; Jefferson said no. John Marshall sided with Hamilton, and that fault line runs directly through today’s Supreme Court. The pursuit of happiness meant something very different to the Founders. For Jefferson, Madison, and their classical sources, happiness was not about feeling good. It was about being good — cultivating temperance, prudence, courage, and justice, and using reason to moderate unproductive emotions like anger, envy, and fear. Social media is Madison’s nightmare. Madison designed a system of deliberative slowness. Social media’s “enraged to engage” business model is the precise opposite. Rosen adds that AI compounds the problem by presenting a single probabilistic version of truth rather than fostering the clash of competing ideas that the Enlightenment depended on. Brandeis offers a way out of the left–right impasse. Suspicious of both big government and big business, and committed to industrial democracy and worker ownership, Louis Brandeis remains the historical figure who most persuasively bridges the divide between libertarians and progressives. Opposed in life as in death. Hamilton and Jefferson spent careers savaging each other. Yet after Hamilton’s death, Jefferson placed a bust of Hamilton across from his own at Monticello. That image — honored adversaries, not enemies — is the model Rosen believes the country desperately needs to recover. About Our Guest Jeffrey Rosen is President and CEO Emeritus of the National Constitution Center, a professor of law at George Washington University Law School, and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. He is the author of nine books, including The Pursuit of Happiness, The Pursuit of Liberty, and Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet. His essays and commentary have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, and on NPR. He also served as an advisor for Ken Burns’ The American Revolution on PBS. His forthcoming biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is part of the Yale Jewish Lives series. Links and Resources National Constitution Center - constitutioncenter.org GW Law - www.law.gwu.edu Jeffrey Rosen on X - @RosenJeffrey Connect on Social Media Corey is @coreysnathan on all the socials… Substack LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter Threads Bluesky TikTok Thanks to our Sponsors and Partners Thanks to Pew Research Center (pewresearch.org) for making today’s conversation possible. Proud members of The Democracy Group Now go talk some politics and religion — with gentleness and respect.
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Will the Midterms Even Matter? | Corey Nathan with Michael Baranowski on The Politics Guys
3w ago00:56:54Tap to summarizeMost of us are going to be disappointed. The question is whether that disappointment has to mean paralysis. Corey Nathan recently joined Michael Baranowski on The Politics Guys for a conversation that refuses to offer easy comfort or easy despair. The 2026 midterms are the jumping-off point: what's likely, what's actually at stake, and whether a Democratic wave would change much of anything. But the conversation goes deeper than the electoral map. Structural incentives, uncompetitive districts, the filibuster, the parliamentary rulebook, and the question of where, if anywhere, the green shoots of real democratic renewal are actually growing. This feed drop brings that conversation to the TP&R audience. Calls to Action ✅ If this conversation resonates, consider sharing it with someone who believes connection across difference still matters. ✅ Subscribe to Corey’s Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com ✅ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen: ratethispodcast.com/goodfaithpolitics ✅ Subscribe to Talkin’ Politics & Religion Without Killin’ Each Other on your favorite podcast platform. ✅ Watch the full conversation and subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion Key Takeaways The wave may come, but the players mostly stay the same. Structural analysis of the 2026 midterms suggests Democrats have a strong shot at the House and an outside chance at the Senate. But more than 90% of incumbents survive any given cycle, so even a wave election doesn't reset the cast of characters or their incentives. Investigations matter, but so does whether Congress actually does its job. A Democratic House would have subpoena power and majority-staffed committees. The more important question is whether that translates into substantive accountability or just performance. Competitive elections have made compromise harder, not easier. When one party holds power for decades at a stretch, half a loaf looks good. When every election is winnable, the incentive shifts to demonization and the next cycle. The hyper-competitive era since 1994 has structural roots that don't vanish with a change in majority. The green shoots are at the state and local level. Cross-partisan collaboration is visible in places like Santa Clarita, where a Republican city council member and a Democratic congressman are working together on local infrastructure. Organizations like Future Caucus are documenting exactly this kind of millennial and Gen Z cross-partisan energy. One conversation at a time is not a consolation prize. Incremental, constitutionally grounded change is not a failure of ambition. It is, as Corey puts it, what the founders actually promised future generations. The broccoli booth in the candy store still matters. About Michael Baranowski and The Politics Guys Michael Baranowski is a political scientist and the host of The Politics Guys, a podcast committed to honest, nonpartisan political analysis. He brings an institutionalist's eye to American politics and a refreshing willingness to follow the evidence wherever it leads, including to conclusions neither side particularly wants to hear. Links and Resources The Politics Guys - politicsguys.com The Context Podcast - kettering.org/thecontext Connect on Social Media Corey is @coreysnathan on all the socials… Substack LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter Threads Bluesky TikTok Thanks to our Sponsors and Partners Thanks to Pew Research Center (pewresearch.org) for making today’s conversation possible. Proud members of The Democracy Group Democracy is not a spectator sport.
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A WEAVE Conversation | Jaime Encinas on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), Breaking Cycles, and Wheeling to Healing
4w ago00:58:36Tap to summarizeHe held a knife to his father's throat and felt, in that same moment, something he could only call love. That paradox — and the lifelong journey it set in motion — is what this conversation is about. Jaime Encinas is an entrepreneur, author, and spiritual leader whose life has been shaped by trauma, healing, and the hard work of breaking cycles. Founder of Wheeling to Healing and a fellow with WEAVE: The Social Fabric Project, Jaime brings a rare combination of personal testimony and practical framework to the question of how we repair — ourselves, our families, and our communities. In this conversation, we explore Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), the science of trauma, the meaning of forgiveness, and why the most powerful thing we can offer another person is simply to see them. Calls to Action ✅ If this conversation resonates, consider sharing it with someone who believes connection across difference still matters. ✅ Subscribe to Corey’s Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com ✅ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen: ratethispodcast.com/goodfaithpolitics ✅ Subscribe to Talkin’ Politics & Religion Without Killin’ Each Other on your favorite podcast platform. ✅ Watch the full conversation and subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion Key Takeaways From "what's wrong with you" to "what happened to you." The ACEs framework — developed through research on adverse childhood experiences — reframes dysfunction not as a character flaw but as a response to trauma. That shift in question changes everything about how we approach healing. Cycles of violence are made to be broken. Jaime traces his father's cruelty to his grandfather's — and to the deeper legacy of colonization. Understanding the origin of pain doesn't excuse it. But it opens the door to compassion, and ultimately to forgiveness. Presence is a practice. From Meisner technique to contemplative prayer, Jaime has spent a lifetime learning to be still — and argues that our capacity to truly see one another depends on it. "See me" is the deepest human ask. Whether it's a child to a parent, a neighbor to a stranger, or a person experiencing homelessness to a passerby — the need to be truly seen cuts across every divide we face. Heaven might be here. Jaime's theology is grounded and immediate: the sacred shows up in moments of genuine encounter — washing a father's feet, walking beside a daughter in recovery, hugging someone on the street. About Our Guest Jaime Encinas is the founder of Wheeling to Healing, an organization dedicated to educating communities about the science of trauma and offering practical pathways toward healing. He is the author of two books drawn from that work and has spent decades as an educator, activist, and spiritual leader working with vulnerable communities. Jaime is a fellow with WEAVE: The Social Fabric Project, an Aspen Institute initiative that supports local leaders working to repair social trust. Links and Resources Wheeling to Healing - www.amazon.com/Wheeling-Healing-Broken-Heart-Bicycle/dp/194605402X Take the ACEs Quiz - www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/03/02/387007941/take-the-ace-quiz-and-learn-what-it-does-and-doesnt-mean WEAVE: The Social Fabric Project - weavers.org Connect on Social Media Corey is @coreysnathan on all the socials… Substack LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter Threads Bluesky TikTok Thanks to our Sponsors and Partners Thanks to Pew Research Center (pewresearch.org) for making today’s conversation possible. Proud members of The Democracy Group Go talk some politics and religion — with gentleness and respect.
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The GFY Vote: Trumpism, Progressive Overreach, and the Democracy We Say We Care About
Apr 2400:22:54Tap to summarizeFor a significant plurality of those who voted for Donald Trump in 2024, it all really comes down to one thing. Owning the Libs. So what price is anyone willing to pay for that? The question "at what cost" doesn't belong to one side of the aisle. In this solo episode of TP&R Uninterrupted, Corey Nathan turns the lens on both Trump loyalists and progressive purists, arguing that the price of performative politics is being paid by everyone. Drawing on the More in Common "Beyond MAGA" study, real conversations with friends and family who took the GFY vote in 2024, and the electoral evidence from Virginia and New Jersey, Corey makes the case that civic renewal requires something harder than winning arguments: it requires welcoming people back in without making them confess their sins first. Calls to Action ✅ If this conversation resonates, consider sharing it with someone who believes connection across difference still matters. ✅ Subscribe to Corey’s Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com ✅ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen: ratethispodcast.com/goodfaithpolitics ✅ Subscribe to Talkin’ Politics & Religion Without Killin’ Each Other on your favorite podcast platform. ✅ Watch the full conversation and subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion Key Takeaways The GFY vote is real, it's personal, and it's persuadable. Corey traces how years of condescension, finger-wagging, and political shaming drove thoughtful people — including his own son and a close Latino friend — not toward Trump's policies, but toward a defiant rejection of the people lecturing them. Understanding that pathway is the first step toward reversing it. The math makes the reluctant right the ball game. The More in Common "Beyond MAGA" study identifies the Reluctant Right as roughly 20% of Trump's 2024 coalition — more than 15 million voters. In a country where House districts are decided by 333 votes, that's not a rounding error. It's the margin. Progressive overreach has a price tag too. The same "at what cost" question Corey puts to Trump loyalists applies to the activist left. Performative purity tests, canceling the insufficiently orthodox, and demanding ideological confession before welcoming people into the coalition aren't just annoying — they're losing strategies with receipts. Loyalty to Trump has an itemized bill. From Pam Bondi's congressional hearing burn book to Marco Rubio's Oval Office silence while Zelensky was demeaned, Corey walks through the specific transactions made by people who had everything to lose. These aren't rhetorical questions. They're the same question, applied to people who answered it in public. The Buckley model points the way forward. What the pro-democracy coalition needs to do is what William F. Buckley did with the Birchers: marginalize the voices making the coalition unelectable, and when someone from the reluctant right shows up at the party, say come on in, the water's warm. Links and Resources More in Common — Beyond MAGA: Understanding the Full Spectrum of Trump Voters Hidden Tribes Study — More in Common: Hidden Tribes of America Connect on Social Media Corey is @coreysnathan on all the socials… Substack LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter Threads Bluesky TikTok Thanks to our Sponsors and Partners Thanks to Pew Research Center (pewresearch.org) for making today’s conversation possible. Proud members of The Democracy Group Honest conversation across difference is harder than it looks. It's also the only thing that works.
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You Can't Have the I Without the We | Brian Hooks of Stand Together
Apr 2101:07:54Tap to summarize"We're living in this collective illusion where the extremes are mischaracterizing who we are as a people." More than 70% of Americans — across every demographic — say their deepest aspiration is to contribute to the lives of others. Most of them think they're alone in that. They're not. Brian Hooks, Chairman and CEO of Stand Together, joins the show to make the case that the country's most urgent challenge isn't changing who people are. It's giving them permission to be who they already want to be. Calls to Action ✅ If this conversation resonates, consider sharing it with someone who believes connection across difference still matters. ✅ Subscribe to Corey’s Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com ✅ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen: ratethispodcast.com/goodfaithpolitics ✅ Subscribe to Talkin’ Politics & Religion Without Killin’ Each Other on your favorite podcast platform. ✅ Watch the full conversation and subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion Key Takeaways You can't have the I without the We. Hooks challenges the framing that pits individualism against community. Drawing on Abraham Maslow's concept of synergy, he argues the selfish and the selfless aren't in tension — when they merge, you get a flywheel of progress rather than a zero-sum fight. We're living a collective illusion. Neuroscientist Todd Rose's research reveals that most people privately want to contribute to their communities — but assume they're outliers. That self-silencing lets a loud minority misrepresent the country's character. Naming the illusion is the first step to dissolving it. The challenge isn't persuasion. It's permission. Hooks argues Americans don't need to be convinced to be better citizens — they need social permission to act on values they already hold. When people see someone just like them doing it, they follow. Frederick Douglass as a North Star for coalition-building. Hooks returns repeatedly to Douglass's vision of the Declaration as "saving principles" — not yet fulfilled, but aspirational in a way that can hold very different people together. Shared direction, not agreement on everything, is what makes diverse coalitions work. Stop picking a side. Start building policy coalitions. Stand Together learned the hard way that partisan politics leads to being taken for granted. Americans for Prosperity now pursues a policy-coalition strategy — working with Republicans and Democrats alike, and holding both accountable. It's hard to hate up close. Whether it's StoryCorps' One Small Step project or Stand Together's work in 1,300 communities, the pattern holds: when people work side by side on real problems, the tribal labels fade fast. Don't debate online. Go grab a beer. About Our Guest Brian Hooks is Chairman and CEO of Stand Together, a philanthropic community of more than 700 business leaders and philanthropists working to remove the barriers holding people back. He is also President of the Charles Koch Foundation and the Charles Koch Institute. Stand Together works with over 1,000 professors, tens of thousands of K-12 teachers, 200+ community-based organizations, and millions of grassroots activists. Hooks is co-author (with Charles Koch) of Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World. Links and Resources Stand Together: standtogether.org Be the People: bethepeople.org Connect on Social Media Corey is @coreysnathan on all the socials… Substack LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter Threads Bluesky TikTok Thanks to our Sponsors and Partners Thanks to Pew Research Center (pewresearch.org) for making today’s conversation possible. Proud members of The Democracy Group The exhausted majority is waiting for permission to show up.
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