Extremely American

Extremely American host Heath Druzin returns to Moscow, Idaho to give a talk about Christian nationalism and how American theocrats are now closer than ever to getting positions of power at the highest echelons of government.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

A panel discussion with Christian leaders from across the political spectrum who are concerned about the rise of Christian nationalism. They talk about why they see the movement as antithetical to the teachings of Jesus Christ and the undertones of bigotry they see in Christian nationalism.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Heath and Jimmy travel to the Creation Museum, a kind of theme park dedicated to the idea that the Bible's creation story is literally true and that the earth is 6,000 years old. So-called young earth creationism is a fundamental idea in Christian nationalism and one that could threaten the very foundations of scientific research if it ever becomes government policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Heath and Jimmy travel to Kentucky to attend a kind of Christian nationalist festival in the shadow of a six-story replica of Noah's Ark. The gathering brings together leading Christian nationalist thinkers from around the country to compare notes on how to turn America into a theocracy.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Christian nationalists are trying to take over the country one church and one school at a time. They have a blueprint for how to gain influence community by community and they are playing the long game.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Critics of Christ Church and Christian nationalism say the emphasis on women submitting to men fuels an underbelly of abuse. Emilie Paige Dye is an abuse survivor and she details what happened to her at a fundamentalist school and why she thinks her case was swept under the rug.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Helen Shores Peters starts to break with the patriarchy, but the patriarchy isn't done with her. And her change of heart leads her into a fight for her kids.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Helen Shores Peters was a true believer in patriarchal Christianity. She learned to be submissive to men in a fundamentalist school, got married at 20 and lived the life of an obedient wife for years. But eventually things started going terribly wrong.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Doug Wilson has gone from small town preacher to a leader in America's Christian nationalist movement. Along the way he's been equally good at attracting congregants and controversy. He's never been shy about weighing in on divisive issues, but his take on slavery nearly got him chased out of town.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Christ Church is taking a novel approach to increasing their influence in Moscow. So far, they don't have the numbers to win elections, but they do have one resource: money. So the church and its members are buying up large swaths of the town. That's putting a lot of locals on edge.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the season 2 premiere of Extremely American, we meet Pastor Doug Wilson who leads Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. His vision for the small college town? He wants to claim it for Jesus. And that's just the start. He and his allies want to make the whole country an explicitly Christian nation.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Christian nationalist movement wants to make America a theocracy — a government under Biblical rule. Christ Church, embedded in a small, rural Idaho college town, is quickly gaining influence and political interest — but how did we get here? In the second season of Extremely American, host Heath Druzin spent a year inside the movement to understand their stark vision for America's future.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Extremely American host Heath Druzin and reporter James Dawson break down the results of the Idaho and Ohio primaries where several characters from the podcast faced voters, and the larger meaning for far-right movements in America.

This week's bonus episode is a conversation with Extremely American creator and host Heath Druzin about militias and other far-right movements. It was originally a Twitter Spaces hosted by NPR and Boise State Public Radio.Don't worry, it's not a recap of the podcast but rather a look forward with Heath, investigative journalist Dina Temple-Raston and extremism researcher Cristina López G.It's a wide-ranging discussion about where the movements are headed, their outlook with Donald Trump out of office, how online recruitment is changing the face of these groups, and the sometimes unintended effects of anti-extremism strategies, like de-platforming.

The Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial captured militias' attention like no other criminal case in recent memory.For them, Rittenhouse embodied the way they see themselves: protectors, keeping their communities from anarchy at the end of a rifle. His acquittal was seen as vindication for them and a green light to continue self-styled armed security.That worries a lot of people. But what's more worrisome is the celebration of the killings at the heart of the case. The country is starting to get more comfortable with political violence and the Rittenhouse case might be just the beginning.

Former federal prosecutor Mary McCord is trying to put militias out of business and she's got their attention. She's working on a national strategy to get prosecutors and law enforcement to enforce anti-militia laws she says are on the books in every state. And it's already starting to work. She won a lawsuit against militias who came to the deadly White supremacist Unite The Right rally in 2017. And now she's suing a New Mexico Civil Guard militia for their role in an Albuquerque protest that turned violent and ended with a protester shot.Bryce Provance, who led the militia, at the protest thinks the consequences could be dire.“Oh, I think it'll completely abolish any sort of militia.”

Jennifer Ellis has lost friends and received threats in her fight to get the Idaho GOP out of the grips of an increasingly far-right ideology. But she's no liberal – she's a conservative rancher who knows her way around firearms and has been a behind the scene player in GOP politics for years. Now she's trying to pull her party back from its increasing coziness with militias, anti-vaxxers and other far-right groups.Her activism is part of a growing cohort of anti-extremism groups around the country that have increased as once-fringe views have started seeping into mainstream politics. Ellis and other anti-extremist activists have an uphill battle in ruby red Idaho, but they're fighting and winning some battles. And no battle could be bigger than the upcoming election.

Way up in the Northern Rockies there's a sort of mythical 51st state. It's called the American Redoubt and it encompasses Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and parts of Oregon and Washington. Adherents to its philosophy believe in a kind of theocratic limited government utopia, one with lots of guns.Alex Barron is the movement's self-appointed “bard” and his rhetoric has all the violence of a Shakespearean tragedy.“What are you willing to kill for?” he asks a crowd of far-right activists wondering about where the line should be when responding to the government with force.Redoubters like Barron talk about their movement like evangelists and in a way they are – they are recruiting people to move there, live off the grid and run for office. And it's working – they are reshaping their communities in Idaho and surrounding states, and as far as they're concerned, those who disagree can leave.

J.R. Majewski was in Washington D.C. the day of the Capitol insurrection, hoping to see millions of U.S. votes thrown out to overturn the presidential election of Joe Biden. Now he wants your vote, at least if you live in Ohio between Cleveland and Toledo.Majewski has also dabbled in the baseless QAnon conspiracy but redistricting means he may have a chance to unseat the longest-serving woman in Congress, Democrat Marcy Kaptur. The partisan redrawing of election maps also means there's more Majewskis out there. People who would have been fringe candidates in the past now have a chance to gain power at the polls.

When Idaho Gov. Brad Little left the state in April 2019, his second in command wasted no time asserting her authority as acting governor.Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin gathered members of a prominent militia outside the Idaho capitol and administered an oath similar to one taken by new U.S. troops.This was just the latest move for the far-right, militia-adjacent politician.She led a full-on rebellion against the state's pandemic measures and became a fixture at rallies of the paranoid conspiracy group The John Birch Society. She even sent a Facebook post of encouragement to a militiaman imprisoned for pointing a rifle at federal agents.McGeachin is leading a kind of anti-government government and now she and her allies are making a play to take over.

People's Rights started as a poorly-attended meeting in a drafty Idaho warehouse. But anti-government activist Ammon Bundy has grown his network to more than 30,000 people nationwide, ready to mobilize and fight the government on a moment's notice — a kind of militia on-demand.

The modern militia movement started, in part, in Lee Miracle's living room. In 1994, a bunch of guys incensed about the deadly government sieges at Ruby Ridge, Idaho and Waco, Texas gathered there. They talked about what they would do if the government came knocking on their door and agreed, they'd want backup. In this episode, Heath goes to Michigan, where Lee Miracle still runs his Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia nearly 30 years later.

The hubbub began on once-sleepy South Whidbey Island, Washington in 2020, and it began in the unlikeliest of places: a local grange hall. A militia group, the Washington III Percent, quietly took over the small, agriculture-centered community center and started shutting everyone else out. Then they took aim at local schools, where students were demanding more inclusion for LGBTQ+ students and students of color.It's a small but revealing skirmish in the larger culture war militias and other far-right groups have been spearheading: taking aim at local elections that fly far under most people's radars — like school boards — to reshape their communities in their unyielding right-wing mold.

Eric Parker went to a ranch in Nevada, pointed his rifle at federal agents, then beat the feds in court. It made him a folk hero in the militia movement. And he's worked hard to soften the image of his militia. Instead of fighting the government, he's become an increasingly powerful political force pulling the state GOP even farther right. Now he's after a new title: state Senator in Idaho.

In episode one, Heath camps out at a militia training with camouflage-clad recruits shooting guns and practicing first-aid deep in the woods. The leader of the group explains why he shows up armed with his guys to tense protests like the deadly showdown in Charlottesville, Va. We shine a light on what's motivating people in the militia movement and their chilling outlook for the future.

Extremely American will take you inside militias and other far-right groups that are trying to remake America in their absolutist image.