{"podcast":{"title":"The Michael Shermer Show","slug":"the-michael-shermer-show-444422","podcast_index_feed_id":444422,"rss_url":"https://sciencesalon.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/6/3/e/3/63e344572bed54e488c4a68c3ddbc4f2/The_Michael_Shermer_Show_logo_2023.jpg","author":"Michael Shermer","episode_count":631,"summary":"The Michael Shermer Show is a series of long-form conversations between Dr. Michael Shermer and leading scientists, philosophers, historians, scholars, writers and thinkers about the most important issues of our time.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-12T18:19:28.702187+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-michael-shermer-show-444422"},"episode":{"title":"How Christianity Made America—and How America Remade Christianity","slug":"how-christianity-made-america-and-how-america-remade-christianity","published_at":"2026-04-11T17:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-michael-shermer-show-444422/how-christianity-made-america-and-how-america-remade-christianity","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-michael-shermer-show-444422","url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/sciencesalon/mss600_Matt_Sutton_2026_04_11.mp3","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/sciencesalon/mss600_Matt_Sutton_2026_04_11.mp3?dest-id=513978","summary":"Why does religion still dominate American politics when so many other wealthy democracies secularized long ago? In this episode, Michael Shermer talks with historian Matthew Avery Sutton about the long relationship between Christianity and American power. From the Puritans to Lincoln, from the Scopes trial to the Religious Right, from slavery to same-sex marriage, this conversation tracks how religious belief has shaped the country, and how politics keeps reshaping religion in return. Matthew Avery Sutton is the Claudius O. and Mary Johnson Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of History at Washington State University. His new book is Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity .","meta_description":"Why does religion still dominate American politics when so many other wealthy democracies secularized long ago? In this episode, Michael Shermer talks wit…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":5482,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-michael-shermer-show-444422/episodes/how-christianity-made-america-and-how-america-remade-christianity/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-michael-shermer-show-444422/how-christianity-made-america-and-how-america-remade-christianity.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}