Elon Musk says he just wants “secure borders.” But is that really what his politics are about? In this episode of Axis Live, Brad Onishi breaks down Musk’s explosive interview with The Economist, where he accused its editor of being a “traitor to the West.” Brad explains why this language signals something much larger than immigration policy: the rise of Western civilizationalism, a political movement uniting Christian nationalists, authoritarian populists, tech elites, and the global far right

In this Sunday interview, Leah Payne speaks with Dr. LeRone Martin, author of Young King: The Making of Martin Luther King Jr., about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. before he became the civil rights icon we know today. They explore King's teenage years as an agnostic, his struggles with racism and academic challenges, his love of basketball, and the parents, teachers, mentors, and communities that helped shape his faith, intellect, courage, and commitment to justice. Dr. Martin reveals the y

Brad Onishi and Dan Miller explore the American right’s furious reaction to Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and what the controversy reveals about race, representation, gender, sexuality, and the politics of “Western civilization.” From outrage over Black actors and queer representation in contemporary adaptations to the right’s insistence that certain stories, traditions, and cultural identities belong exclusively to white people, the conversation examines why the boundaries of “the West” are c

In this special episode, I’m sharing the prologue to my forthcoming book, American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy, which will be published on September 15, 2026. The story begins with my own experience as a teenager in evangelical Christianity—and with the way my understanding of Jesus, America, and the role of Christians in public life has changed over the past three decades. From the “missional” church movement of the 1990s to the rise of Christian nat

How much love is enough? In this episode of It’s In the Code, part of the series “Questions I Wasn’t Supposed to Ask in Church,” we examine one of the most influential teachings in conservative Christianity: that Christians must love God or Jesus more than anyone and anything else. What happens when this teaching becomes an impossible demand? Drawing on a listener’s powerful experience, we explore the connection between the love of God, religious trauma, Christian deconstruction, and the damagin

Thinking out loud. It's what I do now. lagatascratch@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices