Episode

The case for holy war

Podcast
Today, Explained
Published
Apr 20, 2026
Duration seconds
1565
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/257/traffic.megaphone.fm/VMP9948797108.mp3?updated=1776866313
Audio
https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/257/traffic.megaphone.fm/VMP9948797108.mp3?updated=1776866313
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/today-explained-663276/episodes/the-case-for-holy-war
Markdown
/podcast/today-explained-663276/the-case-for-holy-war.md

Actions

  • POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/today-explained-663276/episodes/the-case-for-holy-war/transcription-requests
    Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
  • GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/today-explained-663276/the-case-for-holy-war.md
    Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

Summary

The Secretary of Defense suggests the Iran war is blessed by God. The head of his church, Pastor Doug Wilson, agrees. Some call Wilson an extremist. He prefers Christian nationalist. Either way, he's no longer a fringe figure. This episode was produced by Hady Mawajdeh, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by David Tatasciore, and hosted by Noel King. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices