Straight White American Jesus

Peter Thiel says that if you're evil, maybe you're actually good. Brad Onishi (author of American Caesar) and Matthew D. Taylor (author of The Violent Take It by Force) break down the viral clip: what Thiel means by "bad" versus "evil," why he frames progress as an all-or-nothing choice, and how his Antichrist theology, technological accelerationism, and contempt for the "mimetic sheeple" shape his influence on J.D. Vance and the tech right.Then Rev. Mara Richards Bim, a Baptist pastor and plaintiff in the lawsuit against Texas's Ten Commandments classroom law, joins to explain why she calls the Texas version sacrilegious, how teachers and principals are resisting, and what gives her hope.Timestamps0:00 Intro1:11 The Thiel clip and first reactions4:16 Thiel's worldview: progress and the "middle class compact"9:51 The hubris of deciding for eight billion people11:37 Monarchism, mimetic desire, and Silicon Valley15:04 The Pope, AI, and the one-world-government argument17:03 Why Thiel rejects Hegel19:38 Why it matters: Thiel and J.D. Vance24:15 Decoding "bad," "evil," and "good"29:24 Thiel's Nashville Antichrist lectures32:09 Rev. Mara Richards Bim on the Texas Ten Commandments lawsuit57:03 Reason for hopeIf you enjoy our work, please subscribe.Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief.https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.comBooks mentioned:📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/e...📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/...Live events:Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com... 🔗 axismundi.uswww.quo.com/SWAJ - Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 monthswww.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on The Sunday Interview, Brad revisits a conversation with sociologist of religion Paul Djupe (Denison University) on two ideas shaping the current political moment: the myth of the persecuted Christian and the inverted golden rule. Djupe unpacks the data behind the persecution narrative — a claim that has intensified under the second Trump administration through initiatives like the Anti-Christian Bias Task Force and the White House Faith Office, and that spiked further after Charlie Kirk’s assassination — and explains how it functions to fuel a persecution complex, particularly among white Christians. He also names something Brad argues is missing from most discussions of the right’s turn against empathy: an “inverted golden rule,” where the instinct to preempt perceived aggression — do unto others before they do unto you — replaces the biblical mandate to do unto others as you’d have done to you. If you enjoy our work, please subscribe. Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief. 🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.com Books mentioned: 📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/ 📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9798341900370/Defying-Tyrants Live events: 🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom’s Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09-16/reading-bradley-b-onishi Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/the-american-caesar-book-tour 🔗 axismundi.us www.quo.com/SWAJ - Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription! Discussion about this episode Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Does God change his mind? CAN God change his mind? The traditional theological answer to both of these questions is “no.” But what if the answer is “yes”? Why would this represent such a threat to high-control religion and traditional Christian teaching? Check out this week’s episode to find out! If you enjoy our work, please subscribe.  Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief.  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/axis-daily-brief/id1896931494 🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.com Books mentioned: 📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/ 📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9798341900370/Defying-Tyrants Live events: 🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom's Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09-16/reading-bradley-b-onishi Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/the-american-caesar-book-tour 🔗 axismundi.us www.quo.com/SWAJ -  Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months  www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew Taylor is joined by historian and former CIA Africa analyst Holly Berkley Fletcher (author of The Missionary Kids) to unpack why the religious left — unlike the ideologically cohesive religious right — has long struggled to translate its diverse coalition into electoral power, and why faith-forward Democratic candidates like Adam Hamilton and James Talarico may be changing that calculus in this year’s midterms. Later, they’re joined by Julia Curlee, a 20-year CIA veteran and former presidential daily briefer who was forced out of the Trump administration after being publicly outed as a “trans Biden holdover,” for a candid and unsparing assessment of the state of the world — from the failing Iran negotiations and a fraying alliance system to Russian influence operations and the dismantling of the national security apparatus meant to guard against them. If you enjoy our work, please subscribe. Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief. If you enjoy our work, please subscribe.  Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief.  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/axis-daily-brief/id1896931494 🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.com Books mentioned: 📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/ 📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9798341900370/Defying-Tyrants Live events: 🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom's Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09-16/reading-bradley-b-onishi Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/the-american-caesar-book-tour 🔗 axismundi.us www.quo.com/SWAJ -  Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months  www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this Sunday interview, Annika Brockschmidt talks with journalist and podcaster Michael Edison Hayden about his new book, Strange People on the Hill, which follows what happened when Peter and Lydia Brimelow, the couple behind the white nationalist site VDARE, bought a castle overlooking the tiny tourist town of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. Hayden explains who the Brimelows are and how VDARE helped push the "great replacement" narrative into mainstream American politics. He also explains why he made the town, not the Brimelows, the center of the book, and how the arrival of VDARE and the national tensions of 2020 fractured neighbors, businesses, and friendships. The two discuss the toll of covering the far right on journalists' health and relationships, the physical and psychological strain of the beat, and Hayden's argument that MAGA is now the dominant ideology in American culture even though it is unpopular. Subscribers get a bonus segment on what comes next for the Brimelows and VDARE, including the New York Attorney General litigation, the mystery of the donors behind the castle purchase, and whether the castle can be sold. You can find Hayden on the Posting Through It podcast with Jared Holt and on Bluesky, and Strange People on the Hill is out now. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/michael-edison-hayden/strange-people-on-the-hill/9781645030607/ If you enjoy our work, please subscribe.  Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief.  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/axis-daily-brief/id1896931494 🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.com Books mentioned: 📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/ 📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9798341900370/Defying-Tyrants Live events: 🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom's Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09-16/reading-bradley-b-onishi Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/the-american-caesar-book-tour 🔗 axismundi.us www.quo.com/SWAJ -  Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months  www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices