The Russell Moore Show

What if one of the greatest threats to democracy is not that people hate freedom, but that they get bored with it?

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For decades, political philosopher Francis Fukuyama has been asking a question that seems more urgent now than when he first posed it: What happens when people have peace, prosperity, and security, but still find themselves longing for something more? His landmark book The End of History and the Last Man explored the human desire for recognition, greatness, and struggle—and warned that those desires could eventually threaten the very institutions that made modern life possible. Now, in his new memoir, In the Realm of the Last Man, Fukuyama reflects on the ideas that shaped his life, the convictions he's reconsidered, and the political upheavals that have followed.

Russell Moore talks with Fukuyama about the surprising connections between religious faith, human nature, and the growing appeal of authoritarian politics. They discuss his family's experience of Japanese American incarceration during World War II, his father's work as a Protestant minister and civil rights advocate, and why some Christians have begun rejecting the religious liberty their predecessors fought to secure. They also consider why political movements increasingly promise the kind of meaning and purpose once found in religious communities, and what happens when the desire for greatness turns into a celebration of cruelty.

Along the way, the two of them explore the threats artificial intelligence poses to the dignity of work, the difference between democracy and liberal democracy, and whether Americans can recover a sense of shared purpose without manufacturing new enemies. 

Francis Fukuyama's books

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From the Moore to the Point newsletter: I can talk and write about transcendence and moral foundations and canonical coherence, but what really kept me Christian most is learning how to say, “I Love Jesus.”

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What happens when Christians become more afraid of losing political power than of losing their moral witness?

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The question of what American Christians should care about has become increasingly difficult to separate from the question of what their political tribes demand. This week, Russell welcomes back his friend Peter Wehner, a contributing writer at The Atlantic and former adviser in three presidential administrations. Drawing on two of Pete's recent essays (The Issues Christian Voters Are Neglecting, and What If AI Is the End of the World?), they consider why so many Christians have become selective in their moral concerns, how the culture wars can obscure the teachings of Jesus, and what happens when political identity begins to shape the way we read Scripture rather than the other way around.

But there's another kind of fear looming. As developers of artificial intelligence warn of its potentially catastrophic consequences, Russell and Pete turn to the question of how Christians should respond to threats they cannot control. What can C. S. Lewis teach us about living in the shadow of catastrophe? And how can churches prepare for a future that may be changing faster than anyone realizes? 

Moore and Wehner close with reflections on Johnny Cash, Columbo, and what a haunting music video can teach us about mortality, grace, and the hope of resurrection.

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From the Moore to the Point newsletter: What a Painfully Weird Movie Can Show Us About Lying and Liars

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What if everything we think we know about power is wrong?

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In a world captivated by political strongmen, military might, and the promise of technological salvation, the ancient prophet Isaiah offers a startlingly different picture of what happens when God comes to set the world right.

For Russell Moore, Isaiah has been one of the biblical books keeping him sane in unsettling times. And in his new book, Into the Heart of Isaiah (October 27), renowned biblical scholar N. T. Wright argues that the prophet's message is even stranger—and more hopeful—than many Christians realize.

Moore and Wright explore why Isaiah mocks the idols people trust, how money and military power can become objects of worship, and whether artificial intelligence might be creating idols of its own. They also take up a particularly contemporary question: What should Christians make of the claim that God raises up modern-day versions of Cyrus, the pagan king who delivered Israel from exile?

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From the Moore to the Point newsletter: Maybe now is the time to look at what we actually see around us: a culture that too often delights in cruelty and violence.

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Five years after The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast, have American churches learned anything about the dangers of celebrity, power, and spiritual abuse?

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When Mike Cosper released The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill in 2021, he thought he was telling the story of one church congregation and its charismatic, controversial pastor, Mark Driscoll. But the podcast reached far beyond those who knew anything about Mars Hill. It turns out the story of a Seattle megachurch had something to say about the ways we think about leadership, authority, and the things we're willing to excuse in the name of a good cause. Five years later, Driscoll is still drawing crowds, the evangelical celebrity machine is still running, and some of the questions the series raised seem more urgent than ever.

Russell welcomes Mike back to the show to ask what, if anything, has changed in the last 5 years. They talk about why churches continue to rally around leaders whose character should give them pause, how our ideas of success can distort the very meaning of pastoral ministry, and why the people who speak up about abuse so rarely receive the apologies they're owed. 

Mike also reflects on the people whose stories he told, the unexpected lessons he learned about grief and forgiveness, and why some who have been deeply wounded by the church still find themselves unable to walk away from Jesus. Ultimately, this isn't just about a church that collapsed more than a decade ago. It's about the kinds of churches we're building today—and what it might take to build something different.

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What if the most important questions people are asking about Christianity are no longer about whether it's true, but whether it can make sense of their lives?

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When Alister McGrath arrived at Oxford as a young atheist, he assumed Christianity was on its way out. He wasn't alone in that assumption. For much of the past century, the prevailing idea among intellectuals was that science and reason would eventually make religious belief obsolete. But McGrath ended up becoming a Christian, and over the decades since, he's noticed something interesting in his conversations with students. Where skeptics once came to him convinced that Christianity was intellectually indefensible, many now come wondering whether it might offer something that secularism hasn't been able to provide.

Russell Moore has been reading McGrath since he was a teenager, and his books have occupied a good deal of space in Russell's library ever since. A theologian, scientist, and one of the world's leading Christian apologists, McGrath has spent decades thinking about the relationship between faith and reason. His new book, Rethinking Christianity: A Thoughtful Guide to a Life-Changing Faith (out October 27), grows out of years of conversations with people trying to figure out what they believe and why. Together, Russell and McGrath discuss whether renewed interest in Christianity amounts to anything like revival, why artificial intelligence is raising questions about human dignity, and what Christians can learn from C. S. Lewis and the remarkable growth of Pentecostalism around the world.

It's a conversation about the limits of argument, the importance of empathy, and the possibility that the Christian faith offers not simply a set of answers but a place to belong.

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From the Moore to the Point newsletter: We ought to look around at places without keg parties or ketamine hits and ask where our own sense of solidarity is real and where it’s just another prelude to a coverup.

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What would we learn if we listened to the people who have left our churches?

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Emilee Hackney had never written a book before. She doesn’t have a substack or a social media following, nor does she write op-eds for the New York Times or The Atlantic. But her debut memoir, All That’s Unseen, has become a New York Times bestseller, was named a finalist for the 2026 Southern Book Prize, and had feature reviews in the Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and more. 

The topic? Appalachia, faith, poverty, and her journey from Virginia coal country to Harvard. 

Remarkably–despite having left the Christian faith as an adult–Hackney doesn’t speak poorly of the church, instead she remembers the beauty and freedom she experienced growing up in a Pentecostal tradition. And yet, she recounts the devastating failure of that same community when she found herself in an abusive relationship as a teenager engaged to an older man. 

Hackney’s story is indeed complex, but familiar for so many of us who once had genuine spiritual experiences in a church home, but were failed by that same community when it seemed to really matter. While some continue in the Christian faith despite the devastation, many choose to leave. You might know some of them. You might be one of them.

This shared experience is part of what drew Russell to Hackney’s story, especially with her tone of hospitality and high regard for a tradition in which she experienced great devastation. 

Emilee joined Russell from her office in Virgina, with a Dolly Parton poster peeking over one shoulder, and a Loretta Lynn poster above the other. Their conversation spreads from church hurt to class and belonging, even to parenthood. Through it all, Emilee resists the invitation to dilute or flatten Appalachia, her family, or even the church that wounded her into something easily dismissed. Instead, she asks what it might mean to see the people and places we think we already understand.    

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