Weekly Roundup: Talarico and the Pope vs. MAGA Christianity

Straight White American Jesus

Axis Mundi Media: Bradley Onishi + Daniel Miller

Politics, News

4.7 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2026

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Brad Onishi and Dan Miller discuss the Texas Senate race between Trump-backed Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico as a public theological contest between Christian authoritarianism and a Christianity centered on love of neighbor, noting Paxton’s scandals and the right’s misogynistic, transphobic attacks portraying Talarico as weak or deviant. They connect this politics of masculinity and domination to reports that Trump’s DOJ opened (or is attempting to open) a perjury investigation into E. Jean Carroll after Trump was found liable for sexual assault and defamation, framing it as retaliatory weaponization and hostility toward women who “won.” They also preview Axis Mundi’s expansion into live programming, then analyze Pope Leo’s first encyclical on human dignity amid AI, highlighting critiques of homogenization, efficiency-over-dignity, sanctified hatred, and Tolkien imagery, including a reframing of Nehemiah against MAGA wall theology. Subscribe for $3.65: ⁠https://axismundi.supercast.com/⁠ Subscribe to our free newsletter: ⁠https://swaj.substack.com/⁠ Order American Caesar by Brad Onishi: ⁠https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/⁠ Donate to SWAJ: https://axismundi.supercast.com/donations/new Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Axis Moondy
0:10.0	Blowing ad budget on metrics that look great till the CFO sees them.
0:18.0	That's bullspend, and marketers are calling it out in dashboard confessions.
0:23.6	I remember telling my boss it'll be good for the brand when leads were slow. Yeah, it wasn't.
0:29.6	Cut the ball spend. LinkedIn lets you target by company, job title and more. Advertise on LinkedIn.
0:36.6	Spend £200 on your first campaign and get a £200 credit.
0:39.7	Go to LinkedIn.com slash lead.
0:41.2	Terms and conditions apply.
0:44.2	Right, home from work, walk the dog, kids are back.
0:48.6	Mom!
0:49.2	Up the stairs for something.
0:52.0	Ugh, back down.
0:53.4	No idea what I went up for.
0:56.2	Mom, what's for dinner?
0:57.8	Chop, sizzle, done.
1:01.3	Hello Fresh can't slow life down, but it makes bringing everyone together around the table a whole lot easier.
1:07.3	So it's phones down, forks up.
1:09.7	Hello Fresh. Bring back dinner time.
1:12.8	Hello. Welcome to Straight White American Jesus. I'm Brad Onishi, author of American Caesar, founder of
1:19.4	Access Moody Media, co-host of this show here today with my co-host. I am Dan Miller, Professor
1:25.8	of Religion and Social Thought at Landmark College.
1:28.3	Glad to be with you, Brad.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 21 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Axis Mundi Media: Bradley Onishi + Daniel Miller, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Axis Mundi Media: Bradley Onishi + Daniel Miller and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.