Talkin‘ Politics & Religion Without Killin‘ Each Other

Can you be a Democrat and a Christian? For some of our friends in the church, the answer seems to be no.
Recorded live on Substack the Friday before Election Day, with two friends who host shows of their own: Lori Adams-Brown of A World of Difference and Will Chan Wright of Faithful Politics. We get into why candidates like James Talarico and Adam Hamilton have their faith questioned, why a handful of issues soak up so much of the church’s moral attention, and how Christians are doing on empathy. Then come the risky predictions: the House, a Senate lightning round, and whether the polls can be trusted. To close, we ask whether there’s a path forward for the church in America.
Calls to Action
✅ Rate and review the show: lovethepodcast.com/politicsandreligion
✅ Subscribe on Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com
✅ Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion
✅ Know someone who’s been told their faith doesn’t count because of how they vote? Send them this one.

About Our Guests
Lori Adams-Brown is a business and nonprofit executive and host of A World of Difference, a podcast about how our differences make us stronger. She grew up in Central and South America, worked in Indonesia and Singapore, and now leads in Silicon Valley tech.
Will Chan Wright is a U.S. Army veteran and co-host of Faithful Politics. For six years, he and Pastor Josh Burtram, a conservative, have shown that a progressive and a conservative Christian can talk faith and politics together.
Links and Resources
Lori on Substack: loriadamsbrown.substack.com
A World of Difference: aworldofdifferencepodcast.com
Faithful Politics: faithfulpolitics.us

Connect with Talkin’ Politics & Religion Without Killin’ Each Other
Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com
YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion
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Partners
Proud to be part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts examining what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.
“In toxic systems, the person who names the problem becomes the problem.” (Lori Adams-Brown)
Now go talk some politics and religion with gentleness and respect.
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“I’m Denver Riggleman, damn it. That can’t happen to me.” But it did. The man who’s spent his life fighting bullies is now figuring out how to win back the people he’s lost.
Denver Riggleman is back, and this time we did it live on Substack, a few days before the midterms. We start in Apartment A1 in Manassas, where a tiny eight-year-old got locked out of the house and threw his first punch. From there it’s the Air Force, the NSA, Congress, the January 6th Committee, and a distillery in the Blue Ridge Mountains where he says Trump voters tell him things over bourbon that they’d never say to a pollster. Then it gets personal: his mom, the friends who told him he was dead to them, and what it’ll take to build a bridge back.
Calls to Action
✅ Leave us a rating or review: lovethepodcast.com/politicsandreligion
✅ Subscribe on Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com
✅ Subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion
✅ Send this one to the person you’ve been meaning to call
About Our Guest
Denver Riggleman represented Virginia’s 5th District in Congress from 2019 to 2021 and later served as an adviser to the House Select Committee on the January 6th Attack. Before that, he was an Air Force intelligence officer who worked with the NSA and helped plan the first strikes in Afghanistan after 9/11. He’s the author of The Breach (with Hunter Walker). He and his wife Christine, the real master distiller, run Silverback Distillery in Afton, Virginia, and East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Married 37 years and counting.
Links and Resources
Denver’s Substack: substack.com/@denverriggleman
Denver on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@thebreachmedia
Denver on Bluesky: @denverriggleman
Denver on X: @Denver4VA
Silverback Distillery: www.sbdistillery.com

Connect with Talkin’ Politics & Religion Without Killin’ Each Other
Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com
YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion
Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, X, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn: @coreysnathan

Partners
Proud to be part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts examining what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.
“As much as I hate bullies, I don’t like being one.” Denver Riggleman
Now go talk some politics and religion with gentleness and respect.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Kevin D. Williamson says the saving grace of Donald Trump is that he’s stupid and lazy. And that’s just one of the things he says on this episode that will make somebody mad.
Kevin D. Williamson of The Dispatch joins Corey to talk about growing up in Lubbock, learning to write from Tom Wolfe and the back pages of National Review, and why his reporting method amounts to “send Kevin someplace he doesn’t belong.” Fresh off a week in the Rio Grande Valley and elsewhere in Texas covering the midterms, Kevin explains why Texas Democrats are courting a new constituency: normal people. Then the conversation turns to impeachment, corruption, Catholic and evangelical America, and why your politics shouldn’t be your religion.
Calls to Action
✅ Rate and review the show: lovethepodcast.com/politicsandreligion
✅ Subscribe on Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com
✅ Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion
✅ Share this episode with a friend who treats politics like a religion
Key Takeaways
Texas Democrats changed their slate. Outside of James Talarico, the party nominated boots-and-cowboy-hat Tejano candidates who talk about healthcare and gas prices instead of identity politics.
Corruption is becoming a kitchen-table issue. Kevin argues voters connect $6 diesel to the grifting they see from people in power, and it’s showing up in the polls.
Impeachment depends on the Senate. If Democrats win the Senate, Kevin expects impeachment plus a long run of oversight investigations, which he calls how the constitutional system is supposed to work.
Politics has replaced church for a lot of people. Bitter political tribalism has grown as participation in religious life has declined. If politics is your religion, Kevin says, you should try to fix that about yourself.

About Our Guest
Kevin D. Williamson is national correspondent at The Dispatch, where he writes the Monday newsletter Wanderland. He spent 15 years as a writer and editor at National Review, served as theater critic for The New Criterion, and is writer in residence at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. His books include The Smallest Minority: Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics among several others.
Links and Resources
thedispatch.com
Bordering on Sanity, Kevin D. Williamson, The Dispatch: thedispatch.com/newsletter/wanderland/texas-democratic-candidates-midterms-talarico-normal
Wanderland newsletter: thedispatch.com/newsletter/wanderland

Connect with Talkin’ Politics & Religion Without Killin’ Each Other
Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com
YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion
Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, X, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn: @coreysnathan

Partners
Proud to be part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts examining what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.
“If Christians believed their own dogma, the world would look different from the way it looks.” Now go talk some politics and religion with gentleness and respect.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Terms of Service with Future Caucus
A Vermont Democrat and a South Carolina Republican, both young parents in legislative leadership, on what it takes to raise small kids while serving in the statehouse.
Terms of Service is a limited series from Future Caucus and TP&R, hosted by Future Caucus CEO Layla Zaidane. People run for state legislature to serve their communities, then find the fine print. This episode brings together Rep. Mary-Katherine Stone (D-VT) and Rep. Brandon Newton (R-SC), assistant majority leaders in their chambers, on bringing a baby to the House floor, scheduling around daycare pickup, and why legislatures need people living through the issues they vote on.
This series is a partnership between SCAN Media and Future Caucus. Executive Producers: Future Caucus and Layla Zaidane.

CALLS TO ACTION
✅ Leave a rating and review: lovethepodcast.com/politicsandreligion
✅ Subscribe on Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com
✅ Watch and subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion

KEY TAKEAWAYS
The norms are built around the 90. When only 10 of 100 lawmakers have small kids, defaults like a 5 p.m. call get built for everyone else. In South Carolina, committee chairs now aim to wrap by 5 p.m., a change in culture rather than in the rules.
A baby on the floor lowered the temperature. Stone brought her son Salem to the Vermont House every day of session, starting 10 weeks postpartum. Colleagues from both parties thanked her, and she says it helped her bipartisan bill banning toxic chemicals in baby food.
Fixes for parents help everyone. Vermont lets members vote remotely in committee up to three times a session, and older members used it during flu season as much as parents did. Small changes like that make the job workable for anyone with something else going on.

ABOUT OUR GUESTS
Rep. Mary-Katherine Stone (D) represents Burlington in the Vermont House and serves as an assistant majority leader, first elected in 2022. She is an occupational therapist at the University of Vermont Medical Center.
Rep. Brandon Newton (R) represents District 45 in Lancaster County, South Carolina, first elected in 2016 at age 22. He serves as an assistant majority leader and teaches as a college professor. Host Layla Zaidane is president and CEO of Future Caucus.

LINKS AND RESOURCES
Watch on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@FutureCaucus
Future Caucus: futurecaucus.org

CONNECT WITH US
Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com
YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion
Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, X, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn: @coreysnathan

PARTNERS
Proud to be part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts examining what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.
Clarity, charity, and conviction can live in the same room. Yes, really.
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Two weeks out, Silver Bulletin's forecast gives Democrats a 75% chance to win the Senate. But as our guest reminds us, one in four chances happen all the time.
Corey sits down with Eli McKown-Dawson, senior elections analyst at Silver Bulletin, to look under the hood of the midterm forecast. They cover how polls get weighted, why a four-point lead can mean a 90% chance to win, and go state by state through the Senate map, from Texas and Maine to Kansas and Nebraska.

Calls to Action
✅ Leave a rating and review: lovethepodcast.com/politicsandreligion
✅ Subscribe on Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com
✅ Watch and subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion
✅ Share this episode with the friend who says the polls are always wrong

Key Takeaways
- Polls are snapshots, forecasts are probabilities. A poll captures opinion at one moment. The model combines polls with fundamentals and simulates the election many times.
- Not every poll counts the same. Silver Bulletin weights pollsters by track record, recency, and transparency, and adjusts for partisan house effects.
- The Labor Day shift was real. Once pollsters moved to likely voter models, the generic ballot went from about D+6 to D+9, reflecting Democrats' recent turnout edge.
- Candidates still matter. Maine is competitive mainly because of Susan Collins, and Ken Paxton's weaknesses help explain why Texas leans toward Talarico.
- Try to understand why people believe what they do. Eli's advice is to separate someone's politics from how you feel about them as a person, and to bring some intellectual humility.

About Our Guest
Eli McKown-Dawson is a senior elections analyst at Silver Bulletin, where he writes about polls, politics, and elections and develops polling averages and election forecasts. He previously contributed to YouGov's U.S. politics team.

Links and Resources
Silver Bulletin: www.natesilver.net
Eli on X: @emckowndawson
Votebeat, "Experts say the midterms could face challenges, but are less concerned than in the spring": www.votebeat.org/national/2026/10/15/fall-2026-election-expert-survey-troops-polls-seize-ballots-voting-fraud/

Connect with TRP&R
Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com
YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion
Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, X, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn: @coreysnathan

Partners
Proud to be part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts examining what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

"One in four chances happen all the time." – Eli McKown-Dawson

Now go talk some politics and religion with gentleness and respect.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.