Can God be perfectly good and perfectly just and still send people to hell? What’s at stake with questions like these? How do adherents of high-control religion respond to questions like these? Check out this week’s episode to hear Dan’s discussion of why the doctrine of hell fundamentally calls God’s goodness and justice into question. 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 Disco

We're back with an interview featuring Katy Scoggin, director of the documentary Flood. The documentary is available on the PBS YouTube channel until 10/13/26 at this link: https://youtu.be/Zm8AhHLTbuI?is=qoqQSvDA_KJ2zAgx Learn more at floodmovie.com or by visiting the linktree: https://linktr.ee/floodmovie Support my work directly at blakechastain.com. Buy Exvangelical & Beyond: https://bookshop.org/a/11130/9780593717073 Buy books from other authors who have appeared on the show: https://bo

Brad Onishi on "American Caesar": Inside the Movement to End American Democracy Today is release day for Brad Onishi's new book American Caesar, and Matt Taylor sits down with him for a deep dive into the ideas inside it. Together they trace how three seemingly separate strands of the American right — Protestant Reconstructionism, radical traditionalist Catholicism, and Silicon Valley technocracy — are converging around a shared vision: an end to liberal democracy and the rise of an American str

Brad Onishi previews his new book American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy, out this week, and shares its audiobook introduction. He explains the book's central argument: an unlikely alliance has formed between Protestant reconstructionists, radical traditional Catholics, and Silicon Valley technocrats, united by five shared beliefs — hostility to liberalism, a post-libertarian embrace of strong government, rejection of democracy in favor of a strongman "

On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Brad breaks down Donald Trump's false claims about his experience that day, Rudy Giuliani's attacks on Mayor Zohran Mamdani for attending the memorial as a Muslim, and newly released documents showing NYC officials knew Ground Zero air was toxic but told the public otherwise. Then Brad welcomes former CIA officer Holly Berkley Fletcher to unpack how the "national malaise" of the 1990s — after the Cold War ended and the country turned inward — set the stage for 9/

The idea of “hell” is a central focus within conservative, high-control Christianity (with analogues in some other traditions as well). But what, exactly, is the teaching concerning hell? And where does it come from? Does the Bible actually teach what religious conservatives say it does about hell? If not, why do they teach it? Why is hell so central to their understanding of Christianity? And what happens if we ask uncomfortable questions about hell? Join Dan for this week’s episode to find out