From the producers of The Jim Wallis Podcast, here is Patriarchs — a six-part audio drama about the most consequential friendship in American history, the one between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. As we emerge from the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Patriarchs invites listeners into the founding era with dramatic force, historical depth, and moral honesty, asking not only how America began, but who paid the price and what kind of republic it became.

Written by award-winning playwright Jim McGrath and featuring Stacy Keach as Thomas Jefferson and Edward Gero as John Adams, the series opens in Philadelphia in 1776 and concludes on Independence Day in 1826. Every scene is drawn from real letters, speeches, and memoirs, bringing to life the friendship, rivalry, animosity, and reconciliation that shaped the early United States.

Along the way, Patriarchs also gives voice to Abigail Adams, whose letters cut through ego and ideology, and centers Sally Hemings not as rumor but as a speaking, thinking presence whose life illuminates the brutal realities of slavery and sexual exploitation in the founding generation. This is history as drama, but it is also history as reckoning.

Listen and subscribe to Patriarchs on your favorite podcast apps:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/patriarchs/id1896832143

https://open.spotify.com/show/033o4ZbOWxJjM3yHZ8cuBV

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1e3165a6-b42f-471a-b5c6-ede68b01dcbf/patriarchs

Please subscribe, rate, and review Patriarchs on your favorite podcast app so more listeners can discover the series and join the conversation.

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Jim Wallis speaks with Princeton professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr., author America, America: A New History of the New World, about the 250th anniversary of the United States and the nation’s ongoing struggle with race, democracy, memory, and truth.

Glaude argues that America has a “divided soul,” torn between its ideals and the reality of white supremacy, and that July 4th can only become meaningful if the country tells the truth about slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, immigration, and the long backlash against multiracial democracy. The conversation also asks what faith, prophetic imagination, and “blues-soaked hope” require now, especially in a time of authoritarian politics, white Christian nationalism, and attacks on voting rights, immigrants, and the truth itself.

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On this episode of the Jim Wallis Podcast, Jim Wallis speaks with Melissa Rogers, former executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships under President Obama, about the opening of the Obama Presidential Center and what it means for moral values, leadership, hope, democracy, and faith in public life.

Rogers describes the Center as a living work, not simply a museum, one that highlights dignity, empathy, bridge-building, religious freedom, and the importance of bringing people together across differences. The conversation also connects Obama’s legacy to current challenges, asking how courage, love, conscience, and the refusal to weaponize religion can guide the country forward.

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Jim Wallis talks with Ron Adams, longtime NBA coach for the Golden State Warriors, about how sports can unite or divide us in a polarized culture. Their conversation begins with the emotional power of the Knicks’ championship run and then moves into deeper biblical and ethical questions about community, identity, humility, sacrifice, and hope.

Ron Adams reflects on what makes teams truly connected, why great players still need one another, how sports teach acceptance of the neighbor, and why character matters as much as talent. The episode also explores the role of athletes in public life, the moral responsibility of fans and leaders, and how sports can either become a spectacle of aggression or a witness to the common good.

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On this episode of the Jim Wallis Podcast, Jim Wallis talks with David Beckmann, longtime anti-poverty leader, former president of Bread for the World, and author of Poverty Abolitionists, about why poverty is solvable, how faith communities can help end it, and why the Trump administration has created a major setback for low-income people in the U.S. and around the world.

Beckmann argues that progress against poverty is possible through political action, legislative advocacy, charitable work, cross-partisan cooperation, and a deeper theology of a forgiving God. He also explains how cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, foreign aid, and USAID are already hurting children, families, and vulnerable communities, and why Christians should treat poverty as a moral and political emergency.

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In this special re-release from Soul of a Nation, Jim Wallis shares a powerful address delivered at Villanova University on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, reflecting on King’s vision of the Beloved Community and the urgent work of crossing the lines that divide us. With stories from his own upbringing in Detroit and a call to confront racism as both a personal and structural reality, Wallis argues that faith must move beyond private belief into public witness.

Released in the season of Pentecost, this message takes on renewed meaning. Pentecost is the story of a Spirit that breaks through fear, language, and division, calling people into a wider community shaped by courage, truth, and justice; Wallis’s speech echoes that same call to build relationships across barriers and to imagine a multiracial democracy rooted in love.

As Wallis reminds us, the work is difficult, but not impossible. In a time of polarization and rising extremism, this episode invites listeners to consider what it means to be Spirit-led now—and how faith communities can help lead the way toward repair, redemption, and the common good.

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On this episode of the Jim Wallis Podcast, Jim Wallis speaks with Mark Labberton, pastor, theologian, and author of The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor, about what it means for Christians to say Christ Alone in a time of political pressure, Christian nationalism, and public religion.

Recorded on the eve of Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving, the conversation asks whether public rededication language reflects the teachings of Jesus or drifts into civil religion, false loyalty, and the temptation to bless the nation without naming its failures.

Jim and Mark also discuss: 

• Why loving your neighbor is costly, 
• Why evangelical Christians should resist tribalism and worship of nation or party, and 
• Why the church must become a “communion of unlike people” if it is to remain faithful to the gospel.

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On this episode of the Jim Wallis Podcast, Jim Wallis talks with Aaron Graham, pastor of The District Church and author of Unshakable Faith, on Ascension Day about what Jesus’ ascension means, why the Great Commission is not just about conversion but discipleship, and how Christians can live with courage, humility, and public faithfulness.

Jim and Aaron also discuss how the church can become a “school of formation,” why faith is personal but never private, and how believers can resist cultural drift, selective scripture, and the temptation to make Christianity comfortable rather than costly. The conversation closes with a prayer for listeners to find strength, hope, and the boldness to act in this moment.

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On this episode of the Jim Wallis Podcast, Jim Wallis speaks with Maria J. Stephan of the Horizons Project about the effectiveness of nonviolence in confronting political violence, repression, and authoritarianism. Horizons Project and partners have developed an entire training curriculum focused on political violence and how to make political violence and repression backfire. You can go to the Harnessing Our Power to Make Political Violence and Repression Backfire (HOPE) website  to learn more and to request trainings.

Jim and Maria discuss the recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting, America’s long history of assassinations and assassination attempts, and why political violence has no place in a healthy democracy.

Stephan makes a sustained case that nonviolence is not only more ethical and religiously grounded, but also more effective than violence in building durable change, shifting power, and making repression backfire.

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On this episode of the Jim Wallis Podcast, Jim Wallis talks with Maya Wiley, President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, about the Supreme Court decision that weakens the Voting Rights Act and threatens multiracial democracy. 

Wiley explains 

• how the ruling ignores both the law and Congress’s intent, 
• why it opens the door to voter suppression and racial dilution, and 
• what faith leaders and ordinary people can do to fight back.

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