The Final Service

Jan 02 2025 150 ep. 32 mins 10
The Final Service Podcast artwork

Church membership in the U.S. has fallen off a cliff and pastors across the country are trying to save their congregations from shrinking to zero. Why have so many people left Christianity and can pastors do anything to save their churches from dying?

RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


Jonathan Rauch on the Limits of MAGA and Trump

Jan 02 2025 26 mins  
One theme was consistent throughout this election year: the assertion that democracy was under threat. Throughout the year, Jonathan Rauch weighed in on whether democracy is waning, and how the Republican party could build a future without Trumpism. Jonathan Rauch joins Ray Suarez to discuss Trump's reelection, and how he feels today about the health of our republic. This is

Ambassador Michael McFaul: Ukrainians May Fight On, Even with a Trump/Putin Deal

Dec 30 2024 27 mins  
In less than three weeks, Donald Trump will be back in the White House, and we’re waiting to see what he will tackle on Day One. On the campaign trail, Trump promised he’d end the fighting in Ukraine on January 20th. The war is nearing its third anniversary, and there are few signs an end is in sight. Russian president Vladimir Putin has recently signaled he’s ready to com

Why You’re Probably Not Going to Church this Christmas

Dec 23 2024 52 mins  
100,000, that’s the estimated number of Protestant churches that will close in the U.S… not by 2050, but five years from now. What some scholars are calling “The Great De-churching” is already well under way, and the exodus is accelerating. This week, Ray Suarez speaks with Ryan Burge, professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, about why non-religious

Overuse of Antibiotics and the Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance

Dec 19 2024 24 mins  
When bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines, it makes infections harder to treat. This increases the risk of disease spread, severe illness, and death. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) leads to deaths, high health treatment costs, and economic and livelihood losses. Jennifer Cohn, Director, Global Access at Global Antibiotic

Denier-in-Chief: The Threat of Trump and RFK, Jr’s Health Policy

Dec 16 2024 28 mins  
Third party candidate, Robert Kennedy, Jr., played an out-sized role in the 2024 presidential election. Trump said Kennedy would have “a big role in health care” if he were re-elected. And on November 14th, Trump announced RFK, Jr. would be nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. More than 75 Nobel laureates have urged the US Senate to deny Kennedy, be

Millions of Deportations? Just How Tough Trump Might Get on Immigration

Dec 09 2024 53 mins  
One issue where President-elect Trump hammered home the differences between his plans and those of Kamala Harris was immigration. For a decade, the public has been increasingly worried about the number of people turning up at the southern border, the number of people seeking asylum in the US, and perhaps more quietly, about the changing face of America. Ray Suarez spoke with Ted

Ian Bremmer on What to Expect from Trump 2.0

Dec 02 2024 53 mins  
Donald Trump has successfully defied the political odds for almost a decade – largely because of his unpredictability on the campaign trail. But when it comes to his foreign policy, Trump is anything but unpredictable. If we take him at his word, some analysts believe Trump will inflame economic tensions with China, pull the US out of NATO, and hand Ukraine over to Vladimir Putin

Yascha Mounk on How To Save Diverse Democracies

Nov 25 2024 53 mins  
Diversity has often been seen as the United States’ defining strength – but today, some Americans see it as a threat. And this isn’t new. Throughout history, differences of religion, ethnicity, and origin have driven states around the world to war, violence, and extreme division. However, German-American political scientist Yascha Mounk says this isn’t the only path. On

Mike Madrid: Latino Voters and the Working Class ‘Tectonic Shift’

Nov 18 2024 53 mins  
In 2020, Latinos became the second largest ethnic voting group in the United States, and the fastest-growing segment of the swing states in the 2024 Presidential Election. The results of Election Day are clear: Donald Trump gained with working class Americans, and particularly Latino men, delivering him a decisive victory. Ray Suarez speaks with Mike Madrid, author of The Lat

Steve Schmidt: Trump’s Victory is a Disaster for the Democratic Party

Nov 11 2024 40 mins  
According to Steve Schmidt, if you want to understand how the Democrats failed against Donald Trump in 2024, then you have to go back to Joe Biden not stepping aside earlier. In a candid, raw conversation, Ray Suarez speaks with Steve Schmidt, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, and host of The Warning, about how Donald Trump built a new multicultural, working class coalition, an