Today, the state of religion in America and the state of America.

Perhaps you've heard the news.

America is experiencing a religious revival and it's concentrated among young people who are

flocking back to church.

From the economist, quote, the West hascking back to church. From the economist, quote,

the West has stopped losing its religion.

From the Washington Post, quote,

why Catholicism is drawing in Gen Z men.

From Reuters, quote,

Catholicism spreads amongst young Britons

longing for something deeper

and from the Wall Street Journal,

quote,

a church's campaign to teach lost boys how to be men.

Big if true, as they say.

Since the early 1990s, the share of Americans who say they have no religious affiliation has been skyrocketing.

This group is somewhat confusingly called nuns, N-O-N-E-S, which is a homonym for nuns, N-U-N-S, which describes, of course, extremely religious people. I don't know who came up with this word. I think it's a bad one, but it is a term of art, and so we're all stuck with it. In any case, the story of religion in America has been the rise of

the N-O-N-E-S nuns for decades, which makes it a big deal if that trend line, the long secularization

of America, has hit the pause button. But as today's guest, Ryan Burge tells us, the secular

pause in America is much stranger than it initially

looks. And the forces behind today's weird religious revival, including the rise of new churches,

the conflation of Christianity and the Republican Party, and the divergent ideologies of old and young

...