White Nationalism, MAGA, and the NAR: A Conversation with Adam James What a former NAR pastor and geriatric PT sees in Trump

Cults, Culture & Coercion with Dr. Steve Hassan

Dr. Steven Hassan

Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Education

4.7 • 843 Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2026

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

White Christian nationalism is not an abstract political concept. For Adam James, it was the air he breathed from birth. Adam, who goes by @epistemiccrisis on Instagram with well over 700,000 followers, grew up in the Pentecostal and charismatic church culture of Augusta, Georgia, was raised inside the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), served as a worship leader and helped plant a church that is still operating today. He is also a licensed physical therapist with fourteen years of geriatric home health care experience and holds a Doctorate in Physical Therapy (DPT). He has spent the last several years applying that dual expertise, as a former insider in authoritarian religion and as a clinician who works daily with elderly patients, to analyze what he sees happening at the highest levels of American government. I invited Adam to Cults, Culture & Coercion because the combination of his lived experience and professional training is genuinely rare, and the clarity he brings to both subjects is something my listeners need to hear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to another episode of cults, culture, and coercion, where we expose the
0:08.9	psychology behind extremist movements and destructive leaders, helping people make sense of
0:14.3	the chaos happening in politics today.
0:17.2	I'm your host, Dr. Steve Hassan.
0:19.9	But before we dive in, please subscribe, like this video, and share it.
0:24.4	Your support means so much to us to help our work reach more people and keep these conversations going.
0:31.1	Today, I'm excited to be talking again with Adam James of Epistemic Crisis, which I just checked before we recorded this, Adam,
0:42.1	and you have 695,000 followers on Instagram. You're a phenomenon. Adam, you are a licensed
0:51.6	physical therapist who's worked extensively with geriatric patients,
0:56.4	but very interestingly, you were raised in Christian nationalism and MAGA.
1:01.8	You were even a pastor of a Christian New Apostolic Reformation cult,
1:07.6	but you're really well known, most well known, as a health and political content creator.
1:13.8	Using your expertise on cognitive and physical decline, as well as your firsthand knowledge about
1:19.2	how Christian nationalist cults work, you've been sounding the alarm about Donald Trump's
1:24.5	administration as they attempt to cover up signs of all of his ailments.
1:29.6	Welcome, Adam, and thanks for joining me again.
1:32.8	And tell us about you and your background and your work, please.
1:37.4	Yeah, I'm born and raised in Augusta, Georgia, still live here now,
1:41.5	licensed physical therapist for the last 15 years.
1:45.2	The last 14 years have been in home health care with a, the vast majority of our patients
1:50.6	are geriatric.
1:51.6	They have the same chronic conditions that I believe the president also has.
	...

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