Something Is Happening ... But Is It a Revival?

About this episode

The episode discusses the notion of revival in relation to Gen Z's religious engagement, featuring insights from guest Ryan Burge.

Every generation gets its revival story. In 1971, Time Magazine ran "The Jesus Revolution." In 1998, the New York Times wondered if evangelicals were "on the threshold of a huge spiritual revival." And in 2025, headlines screamed that Gen Z was flocking back to church, that young men were leading a religious resurgence, that Charlie Kirk's death had sparked mass conversions. On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy ask: Is any of it actually true? Spoiler alert: not really. We're joined by Ryan Burge, political scientist and religion data aficionado, who brings receipts. Turns out Gen Z is the least religious generation in American history. There's no male revival — just a female exodus. And, according to Burge, we're not so much seeing a conservative surge as a hollowing out of moderates as churches polarize along political lines. But anecdotes remain and there does seem to be something going on in Christian America — even if we wouldn't call it a revival. Guest: Ryan Burge is professor of practice at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. He writes at his substack "Graphs About Religion" and is the author of half a dozen books on…

People in this episode

Hosts: Katelyn, Roxy

Guest: Ryan Burge

Topics covered

• revival
• Gen Z
• religion
• church
• spirituality
• politics

Keywords

• revival
• Gen Z
• religious resurgence
• church attendance
• political polarization

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Time Magazine, New York Times

Books & works: The Jesus Revolution, The Vanishing Church: How the Hollowing Out of Moderate Congregations Is Hurting Democracy, Faith, and Us (Why the Culture Wars Led to Polarization and What We Can Do About It)

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