In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer
Conversations with the Artists, Authors, Activists, and Change-Makers Who Are Shaping Our World Today.
Episodes
277 episodes
Atima Omara Asks "What Happens When Democrats Refuse to Learn?"
Frank Schaeffer talks with political strategist and author Atima Omara about her new book The Instigators and the deeper failures shaping American politics today.They discuss race, religion, Trumpism, Project 2025, Kamala Harris...
Michael O. Emerson on Race, White Evangelicalism, and Christian Nationalism
Frank Schaeffer talks with sociologist Michael O. Emerson about the updated edition of Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America.They discuss why racial division inside white evangelical culture h...
Elise Ann Allen on Pope Leo XIV, Friendship, Humanity, and Moral Leadership
Frank Schaeffer talks with Vatican journalist Elise Ann Allen about her new biography of Pope Leo XIV and why the new pope has already become such an important moral figure for many people around the world.Elise was the first journalist ...
America 250 and the Return of Christian Nationalism with Keri Ladner, PhD
A conversation about power, fear, nationalism, and the rewriting of American history.Keri Ladner joins Frank Schaeffer for a conversation about the rise of Christian nationalism and the mythology surrounding America’s founding.The...
Jonathan Tepper on Grief, Addiction, Empathy, and Growing Up Missionary
Jonathan Tepper joins Frank Schaeffer to discuss his memoir Shooting Up: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Addiction.The conversation explores growing up in Madrid during the AIDS crisis, missionary life among heroin addicts, the loss of Jona...
Exploring A Writing Marriage with Lori Carlson-Hijuelos
I haven’t been this struck or fallen in love this fast with a book in my life. I started reading it to my wife and couldn’t stop.I don’t usually react to books this way. I picked this one up, got a few pages in, and went upstairs to get ...
Tia Levings on "I Belong to Me" and the Long Work of Healing Religious Trauma
I talked with Tia Levings about what it’s like to come out of a world that shaped you completely and what happens after you leave; not just the belief system, but the habits, the fears, the voice in your head that doesn’t feel like yours.
The Myth of Good Christian Parenting
Frank talks with Marissa Franks Burt and Kelsey Kramer McGinnis, authors of The Myth of Good Christian Parenting, about evangelical parenting, obedience, spanking, authority, and...
Why Tolkien Still Matters with Professor Michael D.C. Drout
Frank Schaeffer speaks with Professor Michael D.C. Drout about Tolkien’s work and why it continues to resonate.They explore themes of loss, beauty, and moral clarity, and talk about how Tolkien’s writing reflects the reality that everyth...
Melissa Duge Spiers: You Don’t Leave a High-Control Religion. Not Really.
I joined Melissa Duge Spiers to talk about her upbringing in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and what it means to leave a high-control religious system.We talked about the structure of that world and how it shapes identity, behavior, an...
How Did We Get This Lost? With Becky Garrison
Frank Schaeffer talks with Becky Garrison about the deeper cultural forces shaping our moment.They discuss economic insecurity, media collapse, masculinity, and the rise of charismatic leaders.The conversation moves through religi...
Keri Ladner on American Dominion and the Rise of Dominionism
Keri Ladner joins Frank Schaeffer to discuss her book American Dominion: The Rise and Radicalization of a New Christendom.They talk about how dominionist theology moved fr...
Matthew Davis on Mount Rushmore and the Histories We Don’t Tell.
This is a conversation with writer Matthew Davis about Mount Rushmore and the story beneath it. What begins as a discussion of a monument turns into something more personal and more complicated. We talk about the Black Hills, the Lakota, broken...
Leah Libresco Sargeant on The Dignity of Dependence
Leah Libresco Sargeant and I talk about something simple that we spend a lot of time avoiding.We are not autonomous.We talk about women’s bodies, pregnancy, and the way those re...
Amplified: What Happens When America Exports its Culture Wars?
I sat down with filmmaker Mike Sheridan to talk about his documentary Amplified: The Exportation of the Culture Wars
Healing Yourself Before Raising Your Children with Dr. Terence Lester, PhD
This conversation with Dr. Terence Lester begins with his journey from dropout to doctorate, but it quickly becomes something deeper.We talk about growing up with fear, living through trauma, and making the choice not to pass that pain o...
Gaslighting For God: Becky Garrison on Spiritual Narcissists, MAGA, and What Comes Next
In the first hour we get into spiritual narcissism, not as an abstract idea but as something that shapes real communities and does real damage. We talk about MAGA as a kind of cult identity, Trump as a case study in personality-driven power, an...
Where Snowbirds Play: Palm Beach, Power, and the Choices That Define Us
I sat down with Gina Goldhammer to talk about her novel Where Snowbirds Play, which is set in 1991 at what she describes as the end of the golden age of Palm Beach, a world of wealth, influence, and powerful people living inside their ...
Dr. Warren Farrell: From The Boy Crisis to Role Mate to Soulmate; Fixing Modern Relationships
Dr. Warren Farrell: From The Boy Crisis to Role Mate to Soulmate; Fixing Modern RelationshipsWhat Men, Women, and Modern Coupling Are Getting WrongIn this candid conversation, I sit down with Dr. Warren Farrell to explore the cult...
“Scratch” by Kate Cohen | Why Making Things Is a Radical Act
Writer Kate Cohen joins Frank Schaeffer to talk about her new Substack “Scratch,” a project devoted to the things we make that keep us human.From cooking and sewing to carpentry and farming, Cohen explores how working with our han...
Marianne Leone: Catholic Guilt, Italian Fire & Becoming Bold
Marianne Leone joins Frank Schaeffer to discuss her novel Christina the Astonishing, growing up Italian-American under Irish Catholic nuns, religious trauma, losing faith after h...
My Conversation with Andrew Lownie, The Author Who Brought Down The House of York
In this revealing Conversation, I speak with historian, publisher, and author Andrew Lownie about his investigation into Prince Andrew, the aura of untouchable royal privilege, and the culture that allowed secrecy to fester and rot. We explore ...
Too Precious to Lose: Jason G. Green on Obama, His Grandmother, and the Work of Community
Jason G. Green joins me to discuss his memoir Too Precious to Lose. We talk about his years serving President Obama, the lessons he learned from his grandmother, and why community, not chaos, must shape America’s future._____
America’s Best Idea: Randall Balmer on Church, State & Christian Nationalism
Historian and ordained Episcopal priest Randall Balmer joins Frank Schaeffer to discuss his powerful new book, America’s Best Idea. Together they explore the true history of church-state separation, the myth of America as a Christian n...
Furious Minds: The Intellectual Engine Behind Trumpism with Laura K. Field
Why the MAGA movement is far smarter, and far more dangerous, than liberals want to admit.Political theorist Laura K. Field joins me to expose the philosophical, religious, and institutional ideas driving the MAGA New Right. From elite C...
