The Delve

What happens when a professor of religion wades into TikTok and starts saying, “Jesus is disappointed. Do better”?

In Part 1 of this two-episode series, Chalin sits down with Dr. Kevin Carnahan—Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Central Methodist University and co-editor emeritus of the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics—to talk about what he does all day: untangling bad theology, half-remembered Bible verses, and full-blown religious conspiracy theories.

They get into how religion is being weaponized online, why certain misreadings spread so fast, and what’s really going on when people use faith to push political or cultural agendas. Kevin explains how he thinks about “debunking” as a person of faith, the difference between honest questions and manipulative claims, and why calling out misinformation can actually be an act of care.

If you’ve ever heard a wild religious take on social media and thought, there’s no way that’s right… right? — this episode is for you.

(This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Part 2 dives deeper into ancient texts, plural “gods,” and what happens to faith when you admit the Bible has a history.)

Is science “just another opinion”? In a world of confidence-soaked hot takes, conspiracies, and “do your own research” culture, it can start to feel that way. In this episode of The Delve, Chalin sits down with physicist and TikTok science creator Dr. Blitz to unpack what science actually is — and what it isn’t.

They dig into why real science builds on doubt, not certainty; how to tell the difference between healthy skepticism and denialism; why so many people feel personally attacked by changing evidence; and what to do when a friend or family member goes all-in on bad science online.

If you’ve ever felt caught between blind faith in “experts” and total distrust of institutions, this conversation is a field guide for staying curious, grounded, and intellectually honest in an information ecosystem that rewards the exact opposite.

https://www.instagram.com/blitzphd

https://www.youtube.com/@blitzphd

https://www.tiktok.com/@blitzphd

Iran has lived through revolutions, crackdowns, and the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising — but the story isn’t over. In this episode, Chalin talks with human rights activist Zolal Habibi about life inside a system built on fear, why the recent protests changed the regime’s calculations, and how the internet became a weapon and a lifeline. They trace the arc from the 1953 coup to today’s theocracy, unpack the debate over the exiled crown prince, and ask what meaningful support from the outside world should actually look like.

To learn more about how to get involved please visit these sites:

maryamrajavi4change.com

ncri-iran.org

iranfreedom.org

oiac.org

In the wake of the U.S. mission that removed Nicolás Maduro from power and sent him to stand trial abroad, millions of Venezuelans have poured into the streets in celebration while much of the Western left has erupted in outrage over oil, sovereignty, and process. Meanwhile, some estimates suggest 8–9 million Venezuelans have already been driven from their homes in one of the largest displacement crises on earth.

In this Season 9 opener, Chalin revisits a conversation he recorded back in 2020 with “Jesús,” a young Venezuelan whose name has been changed for his safety. Speaking from exile, Jesús walks us through what daily life under Maduro actually felt like—empty shelves, broken institutions, fear in the streets, and the slow shattering of any belief that peaceful pressure would work.

We use his story to tackle the hard question almost everyone is dodging: when every non-violent tool has failed, what do we owe people living under sustained political terror?

Our Substack: The Delve Notes

Season 9 of The Delve is here.

This season, host Chalin Askew goes after the people and systems that quietly — and not so quietly — run our lives. From science and faith to freedom, work, masculinity, and the rise of the tech lords, each Friday we take one big question and pull it apart with people who actually know what they’re talking about.

If you’ve ever looked around and thought, “Is this really happening?”, Season 9 is for you.

Start here with the trailer — and follow The Delve so you don’t miss what’s coming next.

In this December Revamp, Chalin revisits his conversation with Andrew Yang about why American politics keeps rewarding the loudest extremes—and how we can redesign the system itself. They dig into democracy reforms like ranked-choice voting, open primaries, and independent redistricting, and explore how these changes could dial down polarization by giving more power to exhausted-but-engaged voters in the middle.

Yang also reflects on AI, the future of work, and what it means to build a political movement that’s actually oriented toward the long term instead of the next outrage cycle. If you’re tired of choosing between “lesser evils” and want to understand concrete ideas for a saner democracy, this episode is a roadmap.

More about the Forward Party: https://www.forwardparty.com

Across the United States, school districts and public libraries are under pressure to quietly remove books about race, gender, and LGBTQ+ lives. Behind every “book challenge” is a real person forced to decide whether to cave to censorship or fight back.

In this revamped episode, Chalin speaks with Brooky Parks, a librarian who was disciplined and sidelined simply for putting inclusive books on the shelves. Brooky walks us through what actually happens inside a district when a book is targeted, how coordinated these campaigns really are, and what it cost her—personally and professionally—to push back.

Together, they explore how communities can organize, what legal protections exist, and why access to stories is a frontline issue for democracy, not just education. This conversation is both a case study and a playbook for anyone who wants to resist book bans in their own backyard.

What if the economy wasn’t measured by how much we produce, but by how well we actually live?

In this episode, Chalin sits down with economist and Ecological Economics lecturer Michael Mezzatesta to rethink capitalism from the ground up. They unpack why traditional growth-at-all-costs economics is colliding with climate limits, explore ideas like a well-being economy and degrowth, and ask whether we should cap extreme wealth at the top. From overconsumption and inequality to finding happiness with “enough,” this conversation offers a clear, hopeful look at what a more sustainable, fair economic system could actually look like—and what it would take to get there.

Drones have quietly moved from the margins of U.S. foreign policy to the center of modern warfare. From covert strikes in Yemen and Pakistan to “drug boat” operations in the Caribbean and drone-dominated battlefields in Ukraine, the promise of “precision” has collided with the reality of civilian death, legal grey zones, and almost no public accountability.

In this Delve Revamp, Chalin sits down with Scott Shane, former New York Times national security reporter and author of Objective Troy: A Terrorist, a President, and the Rise of the Drone. Together, they trace how Washington came to rely so heavily on drones, why civilian casualties are so hard to count—and even harder to prevent—and what the Anwar al-Awlaki case reveals about targeted killing, citizenship, and executive power.

If you’ve ever wondered whether drones actually make us safer—or simply make war easier to wage at a distance—this conversation is a bracing primer on the ethics, law, and human costs of remote warfare.

As debates in Washington heat up over the fate of Afghan refugees in the United States, Afghanistan has once again slipped into the news cycle as a political talking point—rather than a human reality.

In this revamp of one of our most powerful conversations, Chalin Askew speaks with Dr. Nadia Hashimi—pediatrician, novelist, activist, and Afghan-American—to slow things down and look beyond the headlines. Together, they unpack what actually happened on the ground as the Taliban returned to power, how Afghan women and girls are navigating a future that shrank overnight, and what daily life looks like now for families caught between war, displacement, and broken promises.

Nadia helps us understand why so many Afghans risked everything to evacuate, what they’re facing in exile, and what moral and political obligations countries like the United States still have to those who trusted them.

This episode is a reminder: before “refugee policy” is a talking point, it’s a story about people—and what we decide they are worth.