Tim Talks Politics

My guest today is Isela Becerra, a longtime TPUSA member, and one of my Political Science students at Biola University. I asked Isela on the podcast to share about her involvement and experience in TPUSA.

One of the biggest surprises to me following the Charlie Kirk assassination was to discover the expansive work of Turning Point. In the course of this discussion, an even bigger surprise emerged, which was Isela making me aware of Turning Point’s different organizational units and functions. This critical organizational detail of Kirk’s work has largely been ignored or obfuscated in the public discourse....

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Biological twins are about as demographically similar as one can get. So, it was rather surprising to me to find that social media algorithms fed Josh and Jeremy Matlock very different content related to Charlie Kirk. As we discuss in this episode of The Kirk Effect, taking a closer look at Charlie Kirk’s words and work after his assassination required both Josh and Jeremy Matlock to adjust their initial impressions of Kirk. 

Also in this discussion, we talk about how Josh and Jeremy have observed and navigated the Kirk Effect in their respective congregations. The brothers are both pastors of churches in different states that have very different profiles, which is a good reminder that America is a big country with a diverse population, even among people of the same faith, which has a big impact on how they engage national events at the local level.

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In this discussion, Stephen and I explore some of the early evidence of a possible “Charlie Kirk effect” on the growth of Christianity in America and discuss the upsides and downsides of using statistical data to try to understand what’s happening in American Christianity in the wake of Kirk’s death.

From the broad social implications of Kirk’s work and assassination, Stephen and I pivot to discussing how a society should remember public figures after they’ve died and what the shape and tone of that discussion says about the relative health of our body politic.

We close the conversation on the virtues of courage and friendship and how Charlie Kirk provides an excellent example of those virtues in action.

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In this episode, I introduce The Kirk Effect, a podcast miniseries exploring the impact of Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA on American faith and politics. 

In this episode, I frame the main issues I’ll be exploring around a basic thesis: Charlie Kirk’s death and its immediate fallout signaled a major shift in American political culture. Just what that shift means for American faith and politics is what I’ll be trying to understand in conversation with a diverse set of guests over the next several episodes ranging from professional historians to students, pastors to elected officials. 

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My guest today is former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Democrat strategist Joel Rubin who publishes The Briefing Book on Substack and is the author of the forthcoming book Making Sense of the World: How Democrats Can Win Again on Foreign Policy.

Joel is the definition of a career public servant having spent much of his career serving at every level of government from city council to the Department of State.

When I talk about this podcast being about “government, citizenship and America’s place in the world,” Joel’s one of those guys who lives, works, writes, and thinks about all three of those elements of politics and their interactions. In this conversation, we hit all three.

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In a polarized age of rapid technological advances that increasingly seem to pull us apart and turn us inward, the need for a robust civics education seems more important than ever, but most of the public discussion descends into hand wringing. 

My guest today suggests that the framework for a strong civics education and pathway towards virtuous citizenship not only exists, but it’s relatively simple to deploy… if colleges will get on board.

Eric Adler is a professor and the Classics Chair at the University of Maryland. Today on the podcast, we discuss Eric’s work writing advocating for a classically-informed retrieval of the humanities in America’s institutions of higher education. Dr. Adler views this project as critical to renewing both civility and civics in the US, and we explore both the historic debates surrounding the development and decline of the humanities in American higher education as well as the future possibilities, educational and civic, or its renewal.

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We dive deeper into an ongoing exploration of the implications of new technologies on national security with a barnstorming tour of the cyber domain with cybersecurity expert Byron Tomes.

In this episode, Byron and I explore his unique journey into cybersecurity and national security, and the incredibly interesting and varied career he has had along the way.

While we do explore the nuts and bolts of the cyber domain and the emerging role of artificial intelligence in that, this is as much a conversation about personal growth and development as it is about the topic itself.

This is a particularly useful conversation for students and young professionals who may be intrigued by the topics of cyber defense, AI, and national security, but who may be intimidated by the (false) assumption that they need to be a computer scientist in order to contribute to the field. 

What Byron’s story, and the stories of the last three guests on the show, demonstrate is that combatting emerging threats in new domains is not just the province of technologists. Those concerned with the public good and a nation’s moral compass also have a role to play.

DISCLAIMER: Byron’s views are his own and do not represent the views and policies of his employer, the state of California, or the US Federal Government.

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The space domain has long been looked to as the “final frontier,” inspiring by hope and dread depending on what kind of sci-fi you like. And while space in both fiction and nonfiction is a source of deep wonder and interest to people as they contemplate the future, it's very, very, VERY relevant for those individuals and organizations tasked with keeping America safe from adversaries in the present.

My guest today spends a lot of his time thinking about the space domain and its interaction with other domains of national security. Jim Borders is a chief intelligence engineer at the MITRE Corporation, one of several Federally Funded R&D Centers (FFRDCs) spread across the country who are tasked with helping the government anticipate and prepare for the future.

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I am excited to bring this conversation to you all today! Kerry Chavez is an exceptionally sharp scholar at the United States Air Force Academy working on research related to national security and future tech. While she has published quite a bit looking at the use of drones and their effect on the battlefield, her work has also taken her into the realms of AI, quantum computing and a bunch of other fascinating topics.

In this wide ranging discussion, Kerry introduces us to some of the major developments and debates surrounding emerging and disruptive technologies in the national security realm. We discuss the use of drones by non-state actors and the geopolitical implications of that development, Kerry briefs us on quantum computing and its potential impact on intelligence and operational security, and work to separate fact from fiction or reality from hype on a lot of these technologies. 

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Joseph Eptstein, newly minted Director of the Yorktown Institute’s Turan Research Center, returns to the podcast for a barnstorming tour of the Middle East. Joseph was last on the show at the very end of 2024 to discuss the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. In the first six months of 2025, we’ve seen significant developments in almost every major conflict in the region. From renewed Israeli offensives in Gaza to Operation Midnight Hammer to the rush to rehabilitate Syria as a member of the international system to the possibility of a Kurdish peace, and the expansion of the Abraham Accords, the region is very, very, very fluid right now.

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