702: Venezuela, Vanilla Ice, & the Church's Anxious Nerves with Sara Billups
The Holy Post
Phil Vischer
4.5 • 4.4K Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2026
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The new year began with a successful U.S. military operation to capture Venezuela's president. But the mission killed approximately 80 people and is being condemned by some American and international leaders as illegal. Esau McCaulley joins Phil and Skye this week to discuss the fallout from the operation. Was it legal? Was it moral? And what does it reveal about Trump's vision of America? Kaitlyn talks with author Sara Billups about her new book, "Nervous System," and how our age of anxiety is affecting Christians and the whole church. Also this week—the Trump administration celebrated the holidays with Christian memes, festive taunts, and "Ice Ice Baby."
Holy Post Plus:
Ad-Free Version of this Episode:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/147587950/
Bonus Interview with Sarah Billups:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/147498089/
0:00 - Show Starts
2:52 - Theme Song
3:13 - Sponsor - BetterHelp - This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/HOLYPOST and get 10% off your first month!
4:15 - Sponsor - Our Place - Go to https://www.fromourplace.com and use code HOLYPOST to get 10% off site wide on beautiful cookware!
5:23 - Christmas
7:35 - Trump Got Venezuela?
13:46 - What Does America Want to Be?
28:34 - Trump Administration's Christmas
36:10 - Optimism and America
44:50 - Sponsor - Poncho - If you've been looking for the perfect shirt—something breathable, fits great, feels even better, and stands out in a good way—give Poncho a try. Get $10 off your first order by using this link: https://www.ponchooutdoors.com/holypost
46:02 - Sponsor - Brooklyn Bedding - Use code HOLYPOST for 30% off sitewide for a great night's sleep! Go to https://www.brooklynbedding.com/holypost
47:04 - Sponsor - DripDrop - Fast hydration in 16 original flavors! Get 20% on your first order and use promo code HOLYPOST! Go to https://www.dripdrop.com
48:05 - Interview
50:28 - Why Write About Anxiety?
56:14 - Practicing Non-Anxiousness
1:02:40 - Lasting Effects of Fundamentalist Mindsets
1:09:17 - The Church as a Non-Anxious Presence
1:18:09 - End Credits
Links:
Nervous Systems: Spiritual Practices to Calm Anxiety in Your Body, the Church, and Politics by Sara Billups: https://amzn.to/3N0A60t
Holy Post website: https://www.holypost.com/
Holy Post Plus: www.holypost.com/plus
Holy Post Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/holypost
Holy Post Merch Store: https://www.holypost.com/shop
The Holy Post is supported by our listeners. We may earn affiliate commissions through links listed here. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Holy Post and happy New Year. |
| 0:03.0 | 2026 began with a successful U.S. military operation to capture Venezuela's president. |
| 0:08.5 | But the mission killed approximately 80 people and is being condemned by some American and |
| 0:13.1 | international leaders as illegal. |
| 0:15.6 | Today, Issa Macaulay joins Phil and me to discuss the fallout from the operation. |
| 0:20.6 | Was it legal? Was it moral? And what |
| 0:23.0 | does it reveal about Trump's vision of America? Then Caitlin talks with author Sarah Billups about her |
| 0:28.5 | new book, Nervous System, and how our age of anxiety is affecting Christians and the whole church. |
| 0:35.0 | Also this week, the Trump administration celebrated the holidays with |
| 0:38.6 | Christian memes, festive taunts, and Ice Ice Baby. One announcement before we jump into the episode, |
| 0:44.8 | I'm happy to report that I have finally finished writing my latest book, The World Born in You. |
| 0:50.2 | In fact, I wrapped up the last chapter right before Christmas. That means the entire book, |
| 0:55.0 | all seven chapters, is now available exclusively on Holy Post Plus. The World Born in You |
| 1:00.4 | is a series of letters I've written to my young adult kids about what it means to follow Jesus |
| 1:05.0 | in our post-Christian culture by looking at seven essential virtues that are all too rare and in some |
| 1:10.4 | cases rejected by the |
| 1:12.1 | modern American church. And along the way, I share a lot about my own story and faith formation. |
| 1:17.6 | It's by far the most personal book I've ever written. So if you want to read the book or listen to |
| 1:22.3 | the audio version, sign up for Holy Post Plus today and use the promo code book to get 20% off. You can do that at holypost.com. And again, use the promo code book to get 20% off access to everything we're doing at Holy Post Plus. Here is episode 702. Hey there. Welcome to the Holy Post podcast. I'm Phil Visher. I'm here with Skyjitaniatani. Hi, Sky. Hi, Phil. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you too. And I'm also here. You're not Caitlin. I'm definitely not Caitlin. You're not Caitlin. Yes. Isol McCauley. Thank you. Thank you for having me on the podcast. I'm like the pinch hitter. Whenever someone's out of town, I will pull up. Yeah. It's good to be here. Good to be here. |
| 2:02.4 | Yeah. Katelyn is at a conference. |
| 2:15.9 | I didn't even know. I didn't even find out till this morning. She was at a conference. I didn't either. Yeah. Did she sneak away to a conference and not tell us about it? What's going on, Mike? Is conference a code word for something? I don't think she snuck away. I think she did forget to tell us. |
| 2:18.6 | And they didn't say, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Phil Vischer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Phil Vischer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.