Failed Iran Talks, Draft Registration, Orbán's Loss, and Revenge Addiction

The Bulletin

Christianity Today

News, News Commentary, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Christianity

4.4 • 586 Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2026

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Trump announced that the US will engage in a blockade of Iranian ports after Vice President JD Vance’s negotiations fell flat and Iran refused to curb its nuclear program. Then, The New York Times reports that the US government will begin automatically registering men ages 18-25 with the Selective Service System. And, Hungary’s far-right prime minister of 16 years, Viktor Orbán, was defeated by center-right candidate Peter Magyar. The Bulwark’s Mona Charen joins Clarissa Moll to discuss these headlines. Then, Clarissa sits down with researcher at Yale School of Medicine James Kimmel Jr to talk about how revenge mimics addiction in the brain. TO LEARN MORE: The Mona Charen Show Mona Charen’s Substack The Science of Revenge: Understanding the World's Deadliest Addiction--and How to Overcome It. GO DEEPER WITH THE BULLETIN: Join the conversation at our Substack. Find us on YouTube. Rate and review the show in your podcast app of choice. ABOUT THE GUESTS: Mona Charen is a syndicated columnist, the policy editor of The Bulwark, and the host of the podcast The Mona Charen Show. James Kimmel Jr. is a violence researcher, psychiatry professor, and author who explores the science of revenge, addiction, forgiveness, and violence. He identified compulsive revenge seeking as an addiction, and founded Revenge Anonymous, a 12-step program for recovering from revenge addiction. He is most recently the author of The Science of Revenge: Understanding the World's Deadliest Addiction--and How to Overcome It. ABOUT THE BULLETIN: The Bulletin is a twice-weekly politics and current events show from Christianity Today moderated by Clarissa Moll and with senior commentary from Russell Moore (Christianity Today’s editor-at-large and columnist). Each week, the show explores current events and breaking news and shares a Christian perspective on issues that are shaping our world. We also offer special one-on-one conversations with writers, artists, and thought leaders whose impact on the world brings important significance to a Christian worldview, like Bono, Sharon McMahon, Harrison Scott Key, Frank Bruni, and more. The Bulletin listeners get 25% off CT. Go to https://orderct.com/THEBULLETIN to learn more. “The Bulletin” is a production of Christianity Today Producer: Clarissa Moll Associate Producer: Alexa Burke Editing and Mix: Kevin Morris Graphic Design: Rick Szuecs Music: Dan Phelps Executive Producer: Erik Petrik Senior Producer: Matt Stevens Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Corey Whitehead from Christianity Today.
0:04.0	I thought my will and estate plan was complete until PhilanthraCorp showed me what I was missing.
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0:32.6	From Christianity today you're listening to The Bulletin, a podcast about the people, events, and issues that are shaping our world.
0:46.6	I'm Clarissa Mall.
0:48.2	This week, J.D. Vance heads to Pakistan, the U.S. Institute's automatic selective service registration, and Prime Minister
0:55.8	Victor Orban, loses in Hungary. The bulwarks Mona Sharon and I discuss these headlines, and
1:01.6	James Kimmel Jr. joins us to talk about the science of revenge. Welcome to the show.
1:17.6	Good morning, listeners. Welcome to our Tuesday roundtable, where we let you know what's catching our eye as the week begins.
1:22.7	Joining me today is commentator Mona Sharon of the bulwark. Mona, thanks for being here today.
1:28.7	Always a pleasure. Over the weekend, Vice President Vance traveled to Pakistan to negotiate with Iran.
1:35.2	Though the meetings lasted almost 21 hours, Mr. Vance left Pakistan without a deal, as Iran would not agree to curb its nuclear program.
1:38.0	The simple question is, do we see a fundamental commitment of will for the Iranians not
1:44.0	to develop a nuclear weapon, not just now,
1:46.1	not just two years from now, but for the long term. We haven't seen that yet. We hope that we
1:49.5	will. In response, President Trump announced that starting Monday, the U.S. will engage in a
1:55.2	full-scale blockade of Iranian ports. Mona, I know that hindsight is 2020, but did you see this coming?
2:02.7	Knowing what we know about Iran's nuclear ambitions, were these meetings just pageantry
2:07.3	from the start? There are a few problems with this approach, as I see it. So the first is
2:13.1	that Donald Trump doesn't do anything in the conventional way.
2:17.9	So he doesn't use diplomats to do diplomacy.
	...

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