In today's episode I talk to Jason Kirk, author of the novel Hell Is a World Without You. If you ever wanted to know what it was like to be a hormonal evangelical teenage boy in the late-90s/early oughts (or want to revisit your mindset if you were that teenage boy), this is the book for you. This is a fun conversation. You can purchase the book through your local bookseller, via Post Ev Post's bookshop.org page, or via this Amazon link if you are in the Kindle ecosystem. Subscribe to Jason's...

This is a re-release of my October 2022 interview with author Becca Andrews about her book No Choice: The Destruction of Roe v. Wade and the Fight to Protect a Fundamental American Right. I was reminded of the importance of this book and others like it after reading a Wired article titled "‘In 24 Hours, You’ll Have Your Pills’: American Women Are Traveling to Mexico for Abortions." These are the lengths people who need reproductive care must go to in a post-Roe world. Becca's book details the...

Today I'm talking to Sarah McCammon, NPR political correspondent and author of The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church. We talk about her personal experiences within white evangelicalism as well as how that informed her role as a journalist covering the 2015-2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump, as well as how media coverage of religion & social life has changed since then. You can purchase her book, and support this show, by purchasing it from...

This week I'm joined by Matthew Sheffield from Flux. We discuss Mormonism & evangelicalism, his experiences in right-wing media, and the 2024 election. It's a broad-reaching conversation that I hope you enjoy. Follow Matthew's work at Flux, including the podcasts Theory of Change, Doomscroll, and So This Just Happened. Links: I appeared on Theory of Change last October, check it out here. We discuss the findings from this CNN article re: the SC GOP primaries and Matthew's piece about...

This week I'm re-releasing my conversation with Beth Allison Barr, author of the book The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth. I'm joined by two guest co-hosts, Emily Autenrieth and Laura Agase. The theology and practice of complementarianism in conservative Christian circles has shaped the lives of millions of women. For over a century, it has oppressed women and become a requirement for involvement and belonging in conservative churches. Dr. Barr's...

Today's guest is Lenny Duncan, author of the new book Psalms of My People: A Story of Black Liberation as Told through Hip-Hop. This is a wide-ranging conversation, and I can't wait for you to listen. This conversation is another entry in my new series, The Good Books. A new feed should be available soon. To support this show, head over to postevangelicalpost.com and subscribe for free or $5/month. The site is currently hosted on Substack, but I am exploring options to move to a new...

Hello, 2024! Today I'm overjoyed to share my conversation with Kevin Garcia about their new book, What Makes You Bloom: Cultivating a Practice for Connecting with Your Divine Self. This book is all about establishing new spiritual practices after leaving rigid fundamentalism, and I hope you check it out after listening to our chat. This episode has a longer intro explaining the multiple hiatuses in 2023, finishing my manuscript, my plans for a new show called The Good Books, and updates about...

This week's guest is is Dr. Laura Anderson, author of the book When Religion Hurts You: Healing from Religious Trauma and the Impact of High-Control Religion. We talk about the definitions of trauma and abuse, what drew her to this work, the importance of embodiment, and more. Find all the ways to follow Laura online at https://drlauraeanderson.com/ Support this podcast with a subscription to The Post-Evangelical Post newsletter. Subscribe for free or upgrade to $5/month or $50/year to get...

It's been a minute--well, more than a minute. Almost 4 months. Glad to be back to share this interview with Matthias Roberts, author of the new book Holy Runaways: Rediscovering Faith After Being Burned by Religion. We talk about Matthias' story, the language we use to describe our experiences, 'progressive fundamentalism,' and the reality of ~ the slippery slope ~. Let me know what you think - email me at [email protected] Learn more about Matthias's work at...

Happy Pride, everyone! I'm re-releasing this 2021 interview with Erin Green and Paul Southwick of The Religious Exemption Accountability Project. CW: this conversation includes discussion of sexual and gender discrimination and other forms of abuse. We talk about how LGBTQ+ students are treated by college administrations, how LGBTQ+ students end up at religious colleges, the history of religious colleges resisting civil rights, and why a formal legal challenge is important. In March 2021,...

This week I welcome R. Scott Okamato back to the show to discuss his book Asian American Apostate: Losing Religion and Finding Myself at an Evangelical University. We talk about his life as a professor at an evangelical college, the classroom experience, pushing back against Whiteness as an Asian American man, and how he found community on and off campus. Scott is also the host of the Chapel Probation podcast. Blake was a guest! Check out Scott's prior appearance on Exvangelical. Buy Scott's...

In this short episode, I talk about some of the books I'm reading right now. I wrote about them earlier this week for Post-Ev Post. The books discussed: Asian American Apostate by R. Scott Okamoto. Bookshop | Amazon The Flowering Wand by Sophie Strand Bookshop | Amazon Finding the Fool by Meg Jones Wall Bookshop | Amazon The Heartland by Kristin L. Hoganson Bookshop | Amazon Exvangelical is a production of The Post-Evangelical Post, LLC and a member of Irreverent Media Group. Support the...

In this episode, I catch up with Holly Laurent from MEGA, the satirical improv show about a fictional megachurch. We last spoke in 2019, and a lot has changed since then. We talk about improv, comedy & satire, and the upcoming MEGA spinoff, The Rise and Fall of Twin Hills. Find out more about MEGA at their website. Support this show via a subscription to The Post-Evangelical Post. Subscribe for free or upgrade to $5/month or $50/year to get ad-free podcast feeds and more. Exvangelical is...

New interviews are recorded and being planned, but not ready to be published. Various other commitments in life have taken precedent. In lieu of an interview, I'm publishing an audio version of an essay I wrote called "On Public & Private Griefs" last fall on The Post-Evangelical Post. Thanks for listening. Exvangelical is a production of The Post-Evangelical Post, LLC. The Post-Evangelical Post is a newsletter about belief, technology, and society--with a focus on US white...

In this episode, I interview Gloria Beth Amodeo, author of the memoir God's Ex-Girlfriend: A Memoir about Loving and Leaving the Evangelical Jesus. We talk about her college-age conversion to evangelicalism through Cru, how purity culture and gender norms are enforced, and much more in this wide-ranging conversation. Support Gloria Beth Amodeo & Exvangelical by buying her book from The Post-Evangelical Posts's bookshop.org page - or if you prefer ebooks, from my Amazon affiliate...

This week’s guest is Lenny Duncan, author of the new book Dear Revolutionaries: A Field Guide for A World Beyond the Church.  In this brief talk, Lenny and I discuss church, the thought leader industrial complex, and more. A couple notes: we had a short window to talk, and I captured as much as I could during that time. You may hear some occasional sounds in the audio including from some bangles Lenny was wearing; I think it adds to the ambience personally, but your mileage may vary.  Buy...

In this short episode, I talk about producing 200 episodes of this show: how it started, where it's been, what might be next. A new interview episode will be posted this week. Exvangelical is a production of The Post-Evangelical Post, LLC. Support this work via a subscription at $5/month or $50/year at postevangelicalpost.com. Benefits include ad-free podcast feeds, supporter-only podcast & writing, and Discord access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support...

In this episode from 2020, I chat with Anne Helen Petersen about her book Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation (Amazon, Bookshop). We discuss her spiritual & religious background, her viral essay on BuzzFeed that led to this book, how the way we use social media contributes to burnout, how our economic systems fail us, and more.  You can follow Anne on Twitter @annehelen and subscribe to her newsletter, Culture Study. Follow Blake on Twitter @brchastain, Instagram...

IN this chill conversation with return guest Kevin Garcia, I talk to them about what we should expect from community, how online communities don't reflect the ones we might have left, and how this balances out with our desire for personal autonomy after leaving unhealthy communities. We get into it. It's fun. Follow Kevin on Instagram: @thekevingarcia. Support this show via a $5/month subscription to The Post-Evangelical Post. Exvangelical is a production of The Post-Evangelical Post,...

Listeners, come see me w/ Brad Onishi of Straight White American Jesus & Tim Whitaker of The New Evangelicals in Philly on 2/11/23! Get tickets here and use code 50 at checkout to get 50% off! It's an archival episode! In September 2021, I spoke with Meghan O'Gieblyn, author of the new book God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning. We talked about her time at Moody Bible Institute, experiencing 9/11 on a Christian campus, the similarities between...

In this episode, I speak with Teddy Wilson from Radical Reports about his experience covering the radical right. We talk about how important language is when identifying and discussing various groups, the transnational nature of nationalist movements, what we know about the Brazil insurrection so far—and finally, how “progressive” movements can respond to the rising tide of anti-democratic groups. Follow Teddy on Twitter: @reportbywilson Come see Blake, Bradley Onishi of Straight White...

Over at The Post-Evangelical Post, I've been writing about fictional religions for subscribers. As I wrote on 1/3/23: "When your faith of origin is also the origin of a grievous wound, there’s an odd solace to be found in knowingly made up things. Fiction, the old adage goes, is a lie that tells the truth—and there’s a lot of truth to be found in fictional religions." This is an audio version of an essay published this week, "The Comfort of Fictional Religions: The Sensayers of Terra Ignota."...

Happy new year, everyone - the first guest of 2023 is a return guest, Bradley Onishi. Brad is co-host of the Straight White American Jesus podcast and author of the new book: Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism—and What Comes Next. Our conversation starts discussing just 10 words, just 2 sentences, from the first chapter of Brad's book: "I should have known better," and "I could have been there." "There," in this context, is the Capitol Riot. This is a good...

This is an audio version of my latest essay published at The Post-Evangelical Post: The Vibe Shift That Was Foretold Came, & Twitter Did Not Survive It. Back in February, a time that feels much farther away than a mere 10 months ago, The Cut published an essay called “A Vibe Shift is Coming. Will any of us survive it?” It was a piece meant to get people talking, and it did. It featured a lot of coast-centric media bubble trendspotting talk mingled with pandemic lockdown introspection. But...