Shows
Point of LearningThe First 100 Daze with Jonathan Rauch
At some point during my video call with Jonathan Rauch on April 9th, 2025, it began to dawn on me that my planned release date for this episode would be on or around the 100th day of the second Trump Administration. It also occurred to me that I could not be speaking with someone better qualified to throw into vivid relief some of the dimensions of what this means. An expert on government, Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has written nine books and hundreds of articles and essays—often on policy, but also on to...2025-05-011h 07
The Permanent ProblemChristianity and democracy, with Jonathan RauchWhile the formal separation of church and state is a vital element of America's constitutional order, the success of our long-running experiment in self-government has always depended on a healthy interdependence between republican freedom and religious faith. So argues Jonathan Rauch in his new book Cross Purposes: Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy. "In American civic life, Christianity is a load-bearing wall," writes. "When it buckles, all the institutions around it come under stress, and some of them buckle, too."On this episode of The Permanent Problem podcast, Rauch joins host Brink Lindsey to discuss secularization and the ra...2025-04-2358 min
The Holy Post664: An Atheist Says America Needs Jesus with Jonathan RauchDonald Trump launched a global trade war because he thinks America’s trade deficit makes us “losers,” but does he even understand what a trade deficit is? Phil introduces a new segment full of statistics that make Kaitlyn and Skye groan. And they discuss David Brooks’ new article in The Atlantic, which compares this moment in U.S. history to the era of Andrew Jackson, and offers hope for what may come after MAGA. Skye interviews Jonathan Rauch about his new book, “Cross Purposes.” Rauch, an atheist, says his antagonism toward Christianity changed when he came to see how vital it is...2025-04-091h 27
Keen On AmericaEpisode 2481: Jonathan Rauch on The Resistance to Trump 2.0Has Signalgate triggered a credible resistance movement to Trump 2.0? Brookings scholar and Atlantic columnist Jonathan Rauch isn’t particularly optimistic. He discusses the emerging resistance from law firms, media, and some religious groups, while expressing concern about Trump potential defiance of Supreme Court orders. Rauch observes that the opposition to Trump’s authoritarianism remains fragmented, but believes that eventually counter-organization will develop, though he remains uncertain whether it will happen quickly enough to be effective.Five Key Takeaways from the Rauch Interview* Patrimonial Governance: Trump's administration operates on what Rauch describes as a patrimonial model wher...2025-03-2935 min
Faithful PoliticsWhy Democracy Needs Christianity: A Conversation with Jonathan RauchHave a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.comIn recent years, American Christianity has undergone a profound transformation—and it's reshaping the foundations of our democracy. In this episode, we talk with Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy. A self-described atheist, Jew, and gay man, Rauch argues that liberal democracy has long depended on the moral framework Christianity provides—and that its collapse is fueling political dysfunction, extremism, and civic decay. Together with h...2025-03-251h 05
The Good FightJonathan Rauch on the Politicization of ChristianityYascha Mounk and Jonathan Rauch also discuss patrimonialism in the United States.
Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow in the Governance Studies program at the Brookings Institution and a member of the Persuasion Board of Advisors. His latest book is Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy.
In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Jonathan Rauch discuss the decline of religion and its impact on society, the long-term future of religion in America, and why patrimonialism is the best frame for understanding the Trump administration.
Please do listen and spread the word about The Good Fight.
If you have...2025-03-1251 min
The Good FightJonathan Rauch on the Politicization of ChristianityYascha Mounk and Jonathan Rauch also discuss patrimonialism in the United States.Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow in the Governance Studies program at the Brookings Institution and a member of the Persuasion Board of Advisors. His latest book is Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy.In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Jonathan Rauch discuss the decline of religion and its impact on society, the long-term future of religion in America, and why patrimonialism is the best frame for understanding the Trump administration.2025-03-1255 min
The Vital CenterReevaluating Christianity’s bargain with democracy, with Jonathan RauchJonathan Rauch would seem to be an unlikely defender of American Christianity. The eminent author, Brookings senior fellow, and Atlantic magazine contributing editor is a gay Jewish atheist — “I won the marginalized trifecta,” he observes — who grew up deeply suspicious of Christianity and its potential for (and past history of) oppression. As he describes in his recent book Cross Purposes: Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy, his attitude began to change at college, when his freshman year roommate was a Christian believer who exemplified the best aspects of the religion. But Rauch also came to appreciate that as the country...2025-03-041h 03
The Jim Rutt ShowEP 287 Jonathan Rauch on the Epistemic CrisisJim talks with Jonathan Rauch about the ideas in his book The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth. They discuss the epistemic crisis, Plato's Theaetetus, Trump & propaganda techniques, the Constitution of Knowledge as a framework for epistemics, the "marketplace of ideas" metaphor, the reality-based community, the personal-institutional spiral, the social funnel of knowledge, social media's impact on epistemics, advertising vs subscription models, meme space pollution, the anti-vax movement, the importance of free speech to the gay rights movement, recommendations for defending truth, supporting institutions, speaking out against misinformation, maintaining viewpoint diversity, and much more.
Episode Links
The Constitution of Kno...2025-02-281h 37
Good FaithJonathan Rauch: An Atheist Rethinks Secular & Christian America What is the hidden influence of Christianity in American society—and what happens if it disappears? Host Curtis Chang sits down with Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and author of Cross Purposes: Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy, to explore how Judeo-Christian values have shaped democracy and what their decline means for our political and social landscape. They discuss the rise of fear within the evangelical church, political polarization, and make the case for Christian virtues as a stabilizing force at the heart of the American republic. Whether you’re a believer or a skeptic, it’s...2025-02-2744 min
Conversing with Mark LabbertonChristianity and Secularism in America, with Jonathan Rauch”I grew up thinking that Christianity was basically cruel and hypocritical.” “The core teachings of Jesus align very well with the core teachings of James Madison.” “That's why we need Christianity. It's not because we don't have reason to fear. It's because we do.” —Jonathan Rauch, from the episode We’re at a crossroads, where Christianity and secularism in America are both operating at cross-purposes, and both need a critical reassessment of their role in democratic public life. In his new book, Jonathan Rauch “reckons candidly with both the shortcomings of se...2025-02-1857 min
Commonwealth Club of California PodcastJonathan Rauch: The Christianity-Democracy Break UpThe crisis of American Christianity has become a crisis for democracy, says award-winning journalist Jonathan Rauch. A lifelong atheist, he is warning that the waning of the church in this country is tied to the waning of our democracy.What happens to American democracy if Christianity is no longer able, or no longer willing, to perform the functions on which our constitutional order depends? In his provocative new book Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy, Rauch reckons candidly with both the shortcomings of secularism and the corrosion of Christianity....2025-02-161h 02
The Origins Podcast with Lawrence KraussJonathan Rauch:Jonathan Rauch is one of the clearest thinkers writing today about the philosophical and sociological interconnections between democracy and science, as detailed in his last book, The Constitution of Knowledge, about which we had a fascinating podcast discussion a year or two ago. When I heard his newest book was due to appear this month, I was eager to have him back on. This new book, Cross Purposes, Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy was released yesterday. It was a surprising take on the subject. Rauch is an atheist, a Jew, and homosexual, so one might have ex...2025-02-052h 09
9natree[Review] The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 (Jonathan Rauch) SummarizedThe Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 (Jonathan Rauch)
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These are takeaways from this book.2025-02-0310 min
Talkin‘ Politics & Religion Without Killin‘ Each OtherJonathan Rauch: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with DemocracyIn this episode, we welcome back Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. Jon joined us to discuss his new book, Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy.
We dive deep into the intersection of faith, democracy, and civic engagement (that's our jam!), exploring how American Christianity has shifted in recent years and what that means for the future of our democracy. We also discuss the aftermath of the 2024 election, the rise of political tribalism, and the role of faith in shaping a more just and stable society....2025-02-031h 30Talkin‘ Politics & Religion Without Killin‘ Each OtherJonathan Rauch: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with DemocracyIn this episode, we welcome back Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. Jon joined us to discuss his new book, Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy.
We dive deep into the intersection of faith, democracy, and civic engagement (that's our jam!), exploring how American Christianity has shifted in recent years and what that means for the future of our democracy. We also discuss the aftermath of the 2024 election, the rise of political tribalism, and the role of faith in shaping a more just and stable society....2025-02-031h 30
Beyond PoliticsJonathan Rauch on Christianty's Broken Bargain with DemocracyCross Purposes: The Broken Connection Between Christianity and American Democracy
Matt Robison explores the relationship between Christianity and American democracy with Brookings scholar and Atlantic author Jonathan Rauch. They discuss the themes of Rauch's new book, Cross Purposes, which argues that the health of America's political and religious institutions are deeply intertwined. The conversation delves into the decline of Christianity's influence, the rise of secular substitutes, and the problematic blend of religion with partisan politics. Rauch also highlights the potential model of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as a way forward for American Christianity.
00:00 Introduction: Christianity...2025-01-2852 min
Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps"How the Church can Defeat Trumpism" with Jonathan RauchWhite, conservative, evangelical American Christians helped to bring Donald Trump to power. Their political activism is turbo-charged by populist right-wing "post-liberals" who believe traditions like civility and pluralism are passé -- people including entertainers like Tucker Carlson and Curtis Yarvin, as well as intellectuals like Sohrab Amari, Patrick Deneen and Rod Dreher. These "post-liberals" are correct in some of their criticisms of modern America but wrong in their solutions, argues today's guest, Jonathan Rauch. And who's best-placed to defeat them? Paradoxically, this atheist Jew argues: the Evangelical Church. Rauch has spent his li...2025-01-271h 30
Derate The HateChristianity's Role in a Virtuous and Prosperous Democracy... DTH Episode 247 with Jonathan RauchSend Wilk a text with your feedback!Christianity's Role in a Virtuous and Prosperous DemocracyI’m thrilled to welcome back a guest who is both a brilliant thinker and someone I deeply respect, even though we often disagree politically—Jonathan Rauch.Jonathan is a senior fellow in the Governance Studies program at the Brookings Institution, a contributing writer for The Atlantic, and the author of several thought-provoking books, including Kindly Inquisitors and The Constitution of Knowledge. Some of you might remember when he joined me back in January 2023 to talk abou...2025-01-2250 min
Voices In My Head (The Rick Lee James Podcast)Cross Purposes with Jonathan Rauch -Episode 569 - Voices In My Head (The Rick Lee James Podcast)Cross Purposes with Jonathan Rauch -Episode 569 - Voices In My Head (The Rick Lee James Podcast)
Joining me today is Jonathan Rauch, an award-winning journalist, author, and public intellectual whose work has shaped critical conversations on politics, culture, and religion.
Jonathan’s latest book, Cross Purposes: Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy, courageously and thought-provokingly examines the challenges facing American Christianity today. With declining church attendance, a rise in political polarization, and questions about religion's role in a liberal democracy, Jonathan offers a fresh perspective, arguing that Christianity can and must b...2025-01-0835 min
The Final ServiceJonathan Rauch on the Limits of MAGA and TrumpOne theme was consistent throughout this election year: the assertion that democracy was under threat. Throughout the year, Jonathan Rauch weighed in on whether democracy is waning, and how the Republican party could build a future without Trumpism.Jonathan Rauch joins Ray Suarez to discuss Trump's reelection, and how he feels today about the health of our republic. This is our final episode of On Shifting Ground. Thank you for all your support over the years. We'll miss you.Guest:2025-01-0226 minThe Final ServiceJonathan Rauch on the Limits of MAGA and TrumpOne theme was consistent throughout this election year: the assertion that democracy was under threat. Throughout the year, Jonathan Rauch weighed in on whether democracy is waning, and how the Republican party could build a future without Trumpism.Jonathan Rauch joins Ray Suarez to discuss Trump's reelection, and how he feels today about the health of our republic. This is our final episode of On Shifting Ground. Thank you for all your support over the years. We'll miss you.Guest:2025-01-0226 min
Keen On AmericaEpisode 2283: Jonathan Rauch's six key moments of 2024Time waits for no one. As 2024 winds down, what are the key moments of a year that perhaps overpromised and underdelivered? According to the Brookings scholar Jonathan Rauch, six events in 2024 captured the year’s zeitgeist. There’s the November election and the tumult in the Middle East, of course. Then there’s the ongoing lawfare between Trump and the legal establishment as well as the Supreme Court’s creeping power. But Rauch ends his summary of 2024 more positively, finding two examples - one from the public sector, the other from private enterprise - suggesting that America can, ind...2024-12-251h 03
The Zac Clark ShowExpert Interventionist Shares Secrets Behind 1,000+ Successful Interventions | Jonathan RauchWhen you hear the word “intervention,” you might picture the chaotic scenes from TV shows like Intervention. But as Certified Intervention Expert Jonathan Rauch explains, interventions aren’t about chaos—they’re about connection, preparation, and healing.
In this episode of The Zac Clark Show, Zac sits down with Jonathan, who has led over 1,000 successful interventions, to discuss how reframing interventions as family meetings can reduce stress and create a path toward recovery. They dive into the critical role of family support, preparation, and education in addressing substance use disorders (SUD), alcohol use disorders (AUD), and mental health cha...2024-12-1051 min
Keen On AmericaEpisode 2246: Jonathan Rauch on the catastrophic ordinariness of contemporary AmericaSo was November 5 a moral catastrophe signaling the death knell of American liberalism or just another election in the turbulent history of American democracy. According to the Brookings scholar Jonathan Rauch, the Trump-Harris election was both. On the one hand, Rauch argues, wearing his unashamedly liberal cap, November 5 was a moral catastrophe for the future of American democracy. But, on the other, slapping on his Brookings analyst’s cap, Rauch celebrates November 5 as an ordinary election. I suspect the double capped Rauch is onto a singular thing here. There is a feeling of catastrophic ordinariness about America right now. It...2024-11-1746 min
Keen On AmericaEpisode 2134: Jonathan Rauch on Reinventing Liberalism in the 21st CenturyI was at the Liberalism for the 21st Century conference last week in DC where I bumped into an old friend and KEEN ON regular Jonathan Rauch. A Brookings Fellow and prolific author, Rauch is amongst America’s most thoughtful commentators on the contemporary crisis of liberalism and the rising popularity of “post-liberalism”. So, in the wake of Trump’s choice of JD Vance, a politician who has openly embraced the “post-liberal” moniker, I caught up with Rauch to get his take on a liberalism for the 21st century. Does John Stuart Mill’s classic 19th century theory of individual rig...2024-07-1932 min
Understanding CongressDoes Congress Still Suffer from Demosclerosis? (with Jonathan Rauch)The topic of this episode is, “Does Congress still suffer from Demosclerosis?"My guest is Jonathan Rauch, the author of the classic book, Demosclerosis: The Silent Killer of American Government (Times Books, 1994). Jonathan is a fellow at the Brookings Institution, and the author of numerous books, including The Constitution of Knowledge (Brookings Institution Press, 2021), and Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought (University of Chicago Press, 2014).I first read Demosclerosis nearly 30 years ago, when I was a graduate school student. I was rifling offerings outside the Strand Bookstore in Manhattan, and the book’s titl...2024-06-0330 min
The Shape of DialogueThe Constitution of Knowledge with Jonathan Rauch - The Shape of Dialogue #26https://www.jonathanrauch.comJonathan Rauch was brought to New Zealand by the Free Speech Union for a speaking tour in May 2025. See here for more information about the Free Speech Union - https://www.fsu.nzJonathan Rauch is a highly acclaimed American journalist and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. He has written eight books, including the renowned Kindly Inquisitors, which defends free speech and robust criticism, even when it's racist, sexist and highly offensive. Jonathan writes for many of the world's leading publications, including the New York Times, The Atlantic...2024-06-0347 min
Free Speech Union's Podcast"Why Free Speech is the Only Safe Space for Minorities" with Jonathan RauchListen to Jonathan Rauch’s talk, “Why Free Speech is the Only Safe Space for Minorities,” which he delivered to our audience in Christchurch. It is a powerful talk about the dire need for free speech in the fight for equality.“Minorities are always better off in a society that protects hate speech than in a society that protects us from hate speech.” - Jonathan RauchFor more information about Jonathan, https://www.brookings.edu/people/jonathan-rauch/For more information about the Free Speech Union, www.fsu.nzSupport the showhttps...2024-05-2945 min
Not My Generation13 - Jonathan Rauch Says America Should Apologize to Gay PeopleIn this episode, Emily and James visit with Jonathan Rauch of the Brookings Institution and Dr. Aaron Bachhofer, professor of history at Rose State College. We discuss Jonathan's recent article in the Atlantic Magazine over the failure of the U.S. to acknowledge and apologize for its mistreatment of members of the LGBTQ+ community.Jonathan and Aaron provide some history as to what Jonathan calls "America's truest and purest experiment in genuine totalitarianism." They also discuss some of the current efforts by some to push back against the equality gains the LGBTQ+ community has had over the...2024-03-1555 min
Derate The HateKill Our Errors Instead of Each Other... DTH Episode 193 with Jonathan RauchSend Wilk a text with your feedback! In the bustling marketplace of ideas, distinguishing truth from misinformation requires a nuanced approach that combines critical thinking, evidence-based analysis, and an openness to diverse perspectives. Engaging in conversations with individuals holding differing mindsets is crucial in this process. Interacting with a variety of opinions fosters a more comprehensive understanding of complex issues and challenges one's assumptions. Constructive dialogue not only exposes individuals to alternative viewpoints but also encourages the scrutiny of arguments, enabling a more informed evaluation of the information presented. By actively participating fully & fearlessly in curious conversations w...2024-01-1056 min