Christian Nationalism, Free Speech and Gen Z | Tess Sumner

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"Evidence is most powerful when it's paired with empathy."

What is it like to come of age when politics has never felt calm? Tess Sumner has spent her entire adolescence inside a permanent sense of political crisis, and she has turned that into advocacy. In this episode, James speaks with Tess Sumner, a Harvard student and humanist writer, about her article "When Christian Nationalism Becomes Public Policy" and what the fight over church and state looks like to the next generation.

We discuss how student accountability gets reframed as "religious discrimination", why so many young people feel exhausted and cynical about democracy, how the threat of doxxing and backlash quietly polices free expression, and why Tess believes humanism has a genuinely hopeful offer for Gen Z.

About the guest

Tess Sumner is a student at Harvard University studying government and English, and a youth advocate from New Hampshire focused on child welfare policy and church-state separation. A former intern with the American Humanist Association, she wrote the widely shared article "When Christian Nationalism Becomes Public Policy" for The Humanist.

In this episode

What a University of Oklahoma essay controversy reveals about how accountability gets reframed as religious discrimination

Coming of age in permanent political crisis: why many in Gen Z feel exhausted, cynical and unsure what a functioning democracy looks like

How the threat of doxxing and backlash quietly polices free expression, and what humanism offers as a response

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: meet Tess Sumner