“Immortality is not merely about ‘not dying.’” Mark Roosien on @bryan_johnson, Russian cosmism, and eternal life. bit.ly/4iiDlfm

Democrats and religious people. "Oh my God, there are that many of them?!" Here we see democrats are not always antagonistic towards religious people, sometimes they're just ignorant. Could Democrats ever "get religion" again? @shadihamid @MichaelRWear comment.org/podcasts/have-pr…

Watch/listen to our full ZEALOTS AT THE GATE episode on the Democratic Party's religion problem: comment.org/podcasts/have-pr…

Me on Democrats and the racialization of Islam: "You have people like Zohran and Abdul who are very openly and outwardly Muslim but it’s interesting the way their Muslimness is represented. When you think about Zohran, we don’t actually know a lot about the content of his faith or how practising he is or what he actually believes. It seems that Muslimness has become almost like a racial identity, that it’s evidence of being a marginalized group. It's no longer a theological category. And I know that frustrates some people, but Zohran is so popular and so successful that people are largely okay with that trade-off. I think Abdul is interesting because he is definitely quite practising, and we know that Islam has been an important part of his life. But again, it doesn’t come out really fully. And I think there’s a lot of reticence for even these openly Muslim candidates to talk about the content of their faith, especially when it comes to social issues. Abdul has had major opportunities to say things on trans athletes in women’s sports. He went on Fox News and was asked a question about that, but he punted. Democrats are so careful about not offending constituencies that even when they might have socially conservative values, they don’t actually express them. And I think there’s a real bind there. Like, can you be a fully fledged member in good standing of the Democratic Party and sound off conservative notes on LGBTQ issues? It’s not clear that you really can."

“We cannot long for our true home, or even move toward it together in friendship, if we have no experience now of home or of friendship.” bit.ly/4gWyv84

“Instead of desiring to control the outcome of an encounter—whether through affirmation, assimilation, conversion, or persuasion—we can ask: Who am I as I stand before the other, and who is this complex person before me?” bit.ly/4zrzmnG

“Treat your work like a gift. If you don’t put it out into the world, it won’t change it.” David Chang, Erin Shaw, and Tiffany Thompson on surrender and the creative life. bit.ly/4yyUasU

“This most nourishing of arts can attract some of the world’s most vampiric people.” Gregory Thompson on what restaurant kitchens reveal about control. bit.ly/4i8Sh0S

“The visionaries who first launched the college in 1959 knew that it would always be contingent, provisional, mortal.” Craig Mattson on the closing of Trinity Christian College. bit.ly/4hYc1os

“Russian cosmism sounds strikingly modern, but its spiritual instincts are ancient.” Mark Roosien on Nikolai Fyodorov and Silicon Valley’s dream of immortality. bit.ly/4iiDlfm

When you premise men and women's equal dignity on their interchangeability, it will always feel fragile (because it's based on a falsehood). But if you acknowledge asymmetry, and can't appeal to an isomorphism, our equal value to be rooted in something outside ourselves...

This was a fascinating conversation with the Obama campaign's director of faith outreach @MichaelRWear on whether progressives can "get" religion. We debate whether Talarico, Abdul, and Zohran represent a new kind of religious Democrat. Is there hope? comment.org/podcasts/have-pr…

As @michaelrwear explains here, the election of Donald Trump rendered the term "values voter" obsolete. Republicans could no longer claim the moral high ground. And progressives realized that they didn't have to cede that ground to conservatives.

Me on Democrats and the racialization of Islam: "You have people like Zohran and Abdul who are very openly and outwardly Muslim, but it’s interesting the way their Muslimness is represented. When you think about Zohran, we don’t actually know a lot about the content of his faith or how practising he is or what he actually believes. It seems that Muslimness has become almost like a racial identity, that it’s evidence of being a marginalized group. It's no longer a theological category. And I know that frustrates some people, but Zohran is so popular and so successful that people are largely okay with that trade-off. I think Abdul is interesting because he is definitely quite practising, and we know that Islam has been an important part of his life. But again, it doesn’t come out really fully. And I think there’s a lot of reticence for even these openly Muslim candidates to talk about the content of their faith, especially when it comes to social issues. Abdul has had major opportunities to say things on trans athletes in women’s sports. He went on Fox News and was asked a question about that, but he punted. Democrats are so careful about not offending constituencies that even when they might have socially conservative values, they don’t actually express them. And I think there’s a real bind there. Like, can you be a fully fledged member in good standing of the Democratic Party and sound off conservative notes on LGBTQ issues? And it’s not clear that you really can."

Watch/listen to our full ZEALOTS AT THE GATE episode on "holy feminism" here: comment.org/podcasts/holy-fe…

Can Islam be "feminist"? The short answer is yes. @Hadia_Mubarak breaks it down for us. Gender egalitarianism is something many Muslims have lost but it can be reclaimed.

As @LeahLibresco explains, there can be "asymmetry" between men and women (women bear children, men don't for example) but that doesn't negate their equality in dignity. Full conversation here: comment.org/podcasts/holy-fe…

He ultimately grew to be “more at ease with Thérèse of Lisieux and Charles de Foucauld than with Dostoevsky and Soloviev.” comment.org/the-gentrificati…

“What the transhumanists of Silicon Valley fail to recognize is that biological immortality is not a terribly interesting goal.” Mark Roosien on transhumanism and the meaning of immortality. bit.ly/4iiDlfm