Episodes

The debate over whether America was founded as a Christian nation has endured for more than two centuries, but what does the historical record actually say? In the final installment of this series, Blake, Marshall, and Mike revisit the evidence, challenge some of the most persistent myths surrounding the American Founding, and examine what the Founders believed about Christianity, government, and religious freedom. Drawing together the evidence from across the series, they separate fact from fiction and ask what the Founding generation actually intended when it came to religion, government, and the identity of the United States. Is America a Christian nation? The answer is more complicated and more fascinating than either side of the debate often admits.

History remembers the Founding Fathers. It often forgets the revivalists. Between the Revolution and the modern era, a series of religious awakenings swept across America, changing not only how people worshiped, but how they understood the nation itself. In this conversation, Blake guides Marshall and Mike through the Great Awakenings, tracing the origins of evangelicalism, fundamentalism, and ideas that many now assume have always been part of American Christianity. If today's religious l...

What were the personal religious beliefs of Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, George Mason, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, and what role did they see for religion in the United States? Why did Mason and Madison disagree on the "toleration" of religious beliefs? These questions (and others) arise as Blake leads the second part of our discussion of what selected Founding Fathers held as their religious beliefs, what they thought about the role of religion in personal morality and civic society,...

What were the personal religious beliefs of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, and John Adams, and what role did they see for religion in the United States? Blake leads a discussion of what selected Founding Fathers held as their religious beliefs, what they thought about the role of religion in personal morality and civic society, how they sought to achieve civic tranquility through religious freedom, and how that played in role in forging the disunited coloni...

Is the United States of America truly a Christian nation? Was it founded to be so? History has the answer! Blake, Marshall, and Mike break down the origins of each of the 13 original American colonies. We ask and answer the big questions: why they were founded, who contributed to the development, and, most importantly for this series, the religious affiliations (and lack thereof) carried by settlers and pilgrims, and the weight of the different churches in the New World.

Was America founded as a Christian nation? Some say yes, some say no, and the real answer is more complex than you might think. Blake takes the reins as the leader of this series, discussing the role (or in some cases, perhaps, the lack thereof) of Christianity in the establishment of the colonies, the founding of the nation, and the early evolution of the United States. In this premiere episode, Blake, Marshall, and Mike start with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and from...

Marshall, Blake, and Mike wrap up the "Tea, Drugs, and Jesus" series with a review of how the United States misunderstood China in various ways at various times during the history of relations between the two countries between the late 18th century and 1972, as well as what broader themes of misunderstanding recurred throughout that history. They then discuss how the United States continues to misunderstand China today, and how it similarly misjudges the motivations, behaviors, and actions of ma...

When Chinese "volunteers" intervened in the Korean War in 1950, American relations with the People's Republic of China fell into an icy abyss from which they did not emerge until President Richard Nixon made his momentous decision to transform world politics by visiting Beijing in 1972. In the United States, the "loss" of China to what Americans thought of as monolithic "world communism" led during the intervening two decades to the "Red Scare," the "Lavender Scare," blacklisting, and growing U....

Marshall, Blake, and Mike engage in a wide-ranging discussion of American policy disputes over what to do about China after World War II. President Truman, Secretaries of State George C. Marshall and Dean Acheson, Madame Chiang and her family, General Claire Chennault, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, the CIA, the domino theory, the American idea of monolithic “international communism,” and anti-colonial nationalist movements in Southeast Asia all play roles as Marshall lays out three options U.S. pol...

Mike walks us through the complex situation in China in the aftermath of World War II, with armed Japanese operating in the country, Soviet forces occupying Manchuria, and the Nationalist and Communist Chinese resuming their civil war with one another. The decisive phase of the civil war ensues, culminating in the Communist takeover of mainland China and the Nationalist retreat to Taiwan. Marshall then leads our discussion of the efforts of American leaders, including President Truman and Secret...

Mike again leads us in our narrative of how America continued to fall short of its goals for China in World War II during the second half of the war. We meet General Claire Chennault of 'Flying Tigers' fame, whose ideas for how to fight in China contradict those of his bitter rival, General Joseph Stilwell, but gain favor with Chiang Kai-shek and Madame Chiang and, for a while, with Franklin Roosevelt. Ultimately, the war in China ends in frustration for America, and Mike, Marshall, and Blake di...

Mike leads our discussion of the American experience in China during World War II. Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin Roosevelt, and General “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell are the central figures in this episode, which explores many aspects of the war's often-overlooked China-Burma-India Theater and introduces us to the Flying Tigers, the Burma Road, Merrill’s Marauders, and the “Over the Hump” cargo flights from India to China. Roosevelt’s postwar goals for China, differing advice FDR gets as to how to handle C...