Andrew brings back Annika Brockschmidt, friend of the pod, German historian and expert on American Christian nationalism. One year after her first appearance in the inaugural episode, Annika tells Andrew how the US is doing on its slide toward authoritarianism/fascism. A wide ranging and surprising conversation. 

Brockschmidt is a journalist, scholar, and author of Amerikas Gotteskrieger: Wie die Religiöse Rechte die Demokratie gefährdet (roughly translated as “America’s Godly Warriors: How Religious Right Endangers Democracy”). 

Annika’s socials: Instagram Bluesky

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The Trump regime is arresting journalists, raiding their houses, assaulting citizens, murdering people in the streets, and more, but we’re fighting back. Minnesota is leading the way, judges are freeing people illegally arrested, including 5-year-old Liam Ramos, Texans in deep red Tarrant County are voting blue, and more.

Adam Serwer’s Atlantic article “Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong” is here.

Judge Biery’s opinion in the Liam Ramos case can be read here.

Looking for books for self-care?

• My Books to Make you Rethink Everything List at Bookshop.org
• My favorite NON-FICTION Reads of 2025: https://bookshop.org/lists/andrew-s-favorite-nonfiction-reads-2025 
• My favorite FICTION Reads of 2025: https://bookshop.org/lists/andrew-s-favorite-fiction-reads-2025 

More self-care: Come Cruise the Caribbean with Andrew: http://freethoughtcruise.com/

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The Trump Regime and Bondi’s DOJ are going after anti-ICE protesters who protested in a church that has an ICE Pastor (it’s a thing). The FACE Act is the newest talking point and prosecution point for the regime. What is the FACE Act? Why was it passed? How is it being used against these protesters? Andrew explains it all. But first, the regime altered photos of the arrest of the protester in deliberately cruel ways. 

The Guardian article with the photo tool

NAACP lynching stats

Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is here and on my Books to Make you Rethink Everything List at Bookshop.org

Hemant Mehta’s article, “The anti-ICE protest at a Minnesota church was a justified rebuke of the pastor's cruelty.” 

The text of the FACE Act is here.

Trump pardons FACE Act violators by lying about “anti-Christian bias”

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The entire Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is going to hear oral argument on two cases involving laws that force public schools to display a version of the Ten Commandments drafted by politicians who think they know better than parents. Andrew examines the basis for these law: the claim that the Ten Commandments are foundation of American law and government. 

Here’s a link to some screenshots of the Google NGram graphs that I mentioned.

Here’s the full text of Thomas Jefferson’s letter to James Fishback (Draft), 27 September 1809, at the National Archives.

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There’s a lot to catch up on after a vacation, but self-care these days is important. After diving into the horrific ICE shooting in Minnesota and the US military assault on Venezuela, Andrew explains how he survived 2025: Books. Books are a big part of the reason. Andrew goes over some of his favorite reads of 2025 (fiction and non-fiction). Full lists appear below. 

Slate article on prosecuting ICE officers: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/01/is-minneapolis-ice-shooter-immune-state-prosecution-supreme-court.html 

Come Cruise the Caribbean with Andrew: http://freethoughtcruise.com/ 

Andrew’s Favorite NON-FICTION Reads of 2025: https://bookshop.org/lists/andrew-s-favorite-nonfiction-reads-2025 

Andrew’s Favorite FICTION Reads of 2025: https://bookshop.org/lists/andrew-s-favorite-fiction-reads-2025

• Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus content every Monday - and all the benefits from Straight White American Jesus: bonus content on Mondays, bonus episodes every month, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1000-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/
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Purity Culture has devastated Americans for decades but Erica Smith has been helping people shed the shame and disinformation around sex and purity. Andrew and Erica delve into the harm of purity culture—it’s racism, bigotry, obsession with virginity—but also talk about how people can recover and find their true self and live healthy, happy, sexual lives. Purity Culture is a Christian Nationalist ploy to breed more straight, white American Christians. 

Pre-order Erica Smith’s book The Purity Culture Recovery Guide: The Shame-Free Sex Education You Deserve today (and tell your library to get a copy too!)

Erica Smith’s website is here.

Her Instagram is here.

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Rob Boston has been fighting Christian Nationalism for nearly 40 years. This week, he retires from Americans United for Separation of Church and State. A role model and mentor for Andrew, Rob and Andrew talk about what Rob’s learned over his decades of work and why he has hope for the future. 

Support Rob’s legacy and Americans United here.

Get Rob’s books (while supporting your local bookstore) here.

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Andrew begins with some good news out of Oklahoma and a Christian Nationalist meltdown; he talks about Rob Reiner’s God + Country documentary and Trump’s reaction to Rob and Michele Singer Reiner’s murder. Then, Andrew wonders about Trump and Steven Miller’s real reasons for targeting Venezuela, especially in light of recent reporting and their dabbling with the Alien Enemies Act. Plus, the joy of the Vanity Fair article on White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and the accompanying photo spread. 

Part 1 of Vanity Fair’s masterpiece

Reuters’ investigation of 600 employees purged post-Kirk

WaPo reporting on Steven Miller’s wish for war with Mexico becoming a potential war with Venezuela.

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Andrew has been on the road preaching the gospel of church-state separation in houses of worship. But first, we begin (and end) with a remembrance of Christopher Hitchens, who died on Dec. 15, 2011. Then Andrew breaks down why, even as an atheist, traveling around the country and giving talks in synagogues and churches is important. Monte Mader joined Andrew in Nashville and the event has Andrew thinking (link coming later). Andrew also muses about Nick Fuentes’s answers to Piers Morgan and about how modern masculinity can look a lot like high control religions. 

Andrew’s Medium story about Hitchens, with photos of the books: https://medium.com/@AndrewLSeidel/christopher-hitchens-was-an-inspiration-but-he-was-no-christian-ef15eacc9349  

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You’ve heard a lot about WHAT Pete Hegesth is doing in the Caribbean and whether it amounts to war crimes; but nobody’s talking about WHY. Why are Trump, Hegesth, and others in this regime so willing to thumb their nose at things like the Geneva Conventions? Why are they willing to even come close to the line on things like war crimes? Andrew dives in and gives you the answer. Plus, Andrew takes a look at the Supreme Court’s decision on Texas’s gerrymandered maps, the biblical essay from Oklahoma, and more. 

Read the Washington Post investigation of the war crimes here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/11/28/hegseth-kill-them-all-survivors-boat-strike/ 

Read Brian Kaylor’s important piece “Pentagon Preachers Proclaim a Lord of War”: https://publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/pentagon-preachers-proclaim-a-lord 

For the best write up of the Oklahoma University situation, check out Hemant Mehta’s post on it: https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/she-turned-in-a-bible-sermon-instead

• Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus content every Monday - and all the benefits from Straight White American Jesus: bonus content on Mondays, bonus episodes every month, ad-free listening, access to the entire 800-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/
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