In my second semester of grad school, I was properly introduced to Dr. Angie Maxwell. I had heard about her book The Long Southern Strategy and knew it would provide the political history that would help on the GOP side of my thesis.

It was such a delight to talk with Dr. Maxwell and really dive deep into the history of conservative politics and southern politics with her.

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Our theme song is "Apophenia" courtesy of Ross Christopher.

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I first heard about Robert P. Jones when he was interviewed on Fresh Air by Terry Gross. His book and this conversation were so instrumental in helping me articulate the points I was trying to make, and I was so grateful we could find some time to chat.

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Our theme song is "Apophenia" courtesy of Ross Christopher.

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It’s obvious that to have a podcast about Donald Trump, I needed to interview someone who has written extensively about Donald Trump. I was drawn to Gwenda Blair because she has not only written about Trump, but about both his father and his grandfather. The deep knowledge of what formed him made her a very appealing source to interview.

Because of the way the podcast came to be, much of our conversation was left on the cutting room floor. I’m excited to finally get a chance to share our full conversation.

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Our theme song is "Apophenia" courtesy of Ross Christopher.

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Early in my research I kept coming across the same name: Daniel K. Williams. As I was using key terms in searches for research, article after article with his name on it popped up. I cited two different articles as well as his book God’s Own Party in the research paper element of my thesis. And our conversation was really influential in providing greater detail for some of the bigger ideas and topics I was working on.

I interviewed Daniel K. Williams two different times for In His Name in February of 2021. Williams is a professor at West Georgia University and author of lots of books on the Christian Right.

There's a lot of name dropping and tangents in this conversation. If you need more context or a guide to get into your own rabbit holes on this subject, be sure to follow along with the Substack.

Our theme song is "Apophenia" courtesy of Ross Christopher.

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In 2008, I voted in my very first election. I didn’t quite realize how much of an impact the Pro-Life voting bloc played into Republican politics at the time. For a political party that was so opposed to abortion, why didn’t George Bush do anything about it in his 8 years in office? Or his father? Or Ronald Reagan?

I interviewed Randall Balmer for In His Name in February of 2021, who helps answer some of those questions. Balmer is a professor at Dartmouth College, a prolific author, and maybe one of the nicest guys I've ever chatted with.

There's a lot of name dropping and tangents in this conversation. If you need more context or a guide to get into your own rabbit holes on this subject, be sure to follow along with the Substack.

Our theme song is "Apophenia" courtesy of Ross Christopher.

If you aren't yet, follow me on Twitter.

The first interview I conducted for In His Name was with Yale University professor of sociology and religious studies Phil Gorski. As you'll notice with much of this series, we get in the weeds.

If you need more context or a guide to get into your own rabbit holes on this subject, be sure to follow along with the Substack.

Our theme song is "Apophenia" courtesy of Ross Christopher.

One of my favorite things about being a journalist is interviewing people. In the creation of my 3 part podcast, I got to interview several fantastic sources. And so after hearing from a few folks, I decided I would share those interviews with you all. And so I’m calling it The Deluxe Edition.

I’m sharing these in chronological order of when I conducted these interviews. Part of the process you’ll hear is that previous interviews inform how to better direct my questions.

These interviews will feel a bit looser than a traditional podcast I produce. You’ll hear rambling from me, digital stuttering from our Zoom interviews. But the conversation is not just me reading from a script or a list of questions. I learned so much from these conversations, and I hope you take something away from them as well.

Produced and created by Matthew Moore.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.