Ezra Institute Podcast for Cultural Reformation

On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Pastor Nate Wright speaks with Dr. Ted Fenske, retired cardiologist and Ezra Institute fellow, about a Christian approach to the making and taking of life. They discuss declining fertility, the ethical concerns surrounding IVF and embryo selection, Canada’s growing use of medical assistance in dying, and the church’s role in caring for people who are suffering and vulnerable. Dr. Fenske also reflects on medicine as a calling to serve and comfort, the importance of family and patient advocacy, and how Christians should think about public justice.

On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Joe Boot is joined by Dr. Jeff Ventrella, Ezra Institute Fellow for Jurisprudence, to examine the ideas shaping the new right. They explore how legitimate concerns about cultural decline can give way to racial identity politics, tribalism, historical revisionism, and an increasing reliance on state power—often borrowing the methods of the very leftist movements they oppose.

Moving beyond political reaction, Joe and Jeff make the case for a response rooted in Scripture, the lordship of Christ, and the kingdom of God. Join us as they consider why lasting cultural renewal requires more than seizing power, and why Christian unity must rest in Christ rather than ethnicity or political allegiance.

We're continuing our series of interviews with the Fellows of the Ezra Institute. This week we're going back to a conversation Dr. Joe Boot recorded with Ezra Fellow Jeff Durbin at Apologia Studios in Phoenix.

They ask whether Christianity and the West are doomed. Joe argues that the West's moral collapse isn't a warning of God's judgment but the judgment itself, and that it's also an hour of opportunity for the faithful. They cover the political implications of Christ's kingship, God's covenant dealings with nations, the Marxist attack on the family, and the West's "culture of death." Joe also explains why a faithful remnant can still plow in hope.

Politics seems to reach into every part of life, even as trust in government continues to erode. How should Christians respond without retreating from public life or expecting politics to solve everything?

On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Pastor Nate Wright speaks with Ezra fellow Professor Zane Richer about the crisis in modern political thought. They examine the false choices Christians are often asked to make, the proper role of government, and why Scripture must shape the questions we ask as well as the answers we give.

Their conversation offers a call to patient, faithful work: raising families, strengthening churches, developing Christian political thought, and building institutions that can serve future generations.

The Puritans are often caricatured as grim, joyless and disconnected from modern life. In reality, they offered a rich and deeply practical vision of the Christian faith—one that applied the lordship of Christ to the heart, the home, the church, our work and the wider culture.

Nate Wright is joined by Ezra Institute Fellow Jacob Tanner to explore what Christians today can learn from figures such as John Owen, John Bunyan, William Perkins, Richard Sibbes, Jeremiah Burroughs and Samuel Rutherford. They discuss the mortification of sin, joyful contentment, faithful pastoral ministry, resistance to tyranny, the Christian’s vocation and the Puritan hope for the transformation of society through the gospel.

What does it mean to think Christianly about economics? Dr. Joe Boot is joined by Ezra Institute Fellow David Bahnsen to explore how Scripture shapes our understanding of work, wealth, capital, markets, debt, and human flourishing.

Beginning with the creation mandate, they discuss work as an essential part of humanity’s God-given calling—not a necessary evil—and explain how capital and labour can work together to cultivate creation and serve others. They also examine the dangers of socialism, state intervention, consumer debt, class resentment, and the growing hostility toward productive enterprise.

Finally, David offers practical principles for building wealth faithfully: rejecting covetousness, embracing productive work, living within our means, creating more than we consume, and seeking not merely to survive, but to thrive for the glory of God and the advancement of his kingdom.

In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Joe Boot is joined by Dr. Stephen Lloyd and Paul Garner of Biblical Creation Trust to discuss the importance of biblical creation for understanding the Christian faith and the gospel. They explore the relationship between creation and redemption, the historical Adam, the origin and meaning of death, and the challenges posed by theistic evolution. They also consider how abandoning a biblical doctrine of creation can affect the church’s understanding of Scripture and the coherence of the biblical story.

The conversation then turns to the wider implications of creation for Christian engagement with contemporary culture, including questions of human identity, gender, sexuality, artificial intelligence, and the nature of scientific knowledge. Joe, Stephen, and Paul discuss the need for Christians to recover a confident and intellectually rigorous engagement with science, developing positive models of creation that take both biblical revelation and the evidence of the natural world seriously. At the heart of the discussion is the conviction that creation is not merely the backdrop to redemption, but a foundational part of the Christian worldview and the gospel itself.

In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Joe Boot and Pastor Nate Wright reflect on this summer’s Worldview Youth Academies and the importance of equipping young Christians to think and live biblically in every area of life. They discuss how rigorous teaching, personal mentorship, Christian fellowship, and practical discipleship are preparing the next generation to serve Christ faithfully in their families, churches, vocations, and communities.

They also respond to a recent media article portraying the Ezra Institute and public Christianity as extremist and politically dangerous. Joe and Nate address its claims, explain why biblical Christianity cannot be confined to private belief, and contrast political coercion with the transforming power of God’s Word. At the heart of the conversation is the foundational Christian confession that Jesus Christ is Lord over all things—and that faithfully living under his lordship is not extremism, but Christianity.

What happens when a society rejects its Christian foundations? Nate Wright is joined by Dr. David Haskell to discuss his new book, Christ or Collapse: The Case Against Godless Government. Drawing on extensive sociological research, Dr. Haskell makes the empirical case that Christian beliefs produce stronger families, greater generosity, higher social trust, and flourishing nations. They also explore the myth of government neutrality, the consequences of abandoning Christian principles, and why Christians must confidently bring biblical truth into public life.

In the final episode of this series, we explore why Christians can face the future with confidence rooted in Christ’s victory. Cultural reformation begins with worship, repentance, discipleship, and obedience—and grows through ordinary faithfulness in families, churches, schools, workplaces, and communities. The calling is not to change everything tomorrow, but to reject withdrawal and despair, bring every area of life under Christ’s reign, and build faithfully for generations to come.