1819 News: The Podcast

Jason Cherry, pastor, writer, and New Trinity Foundation chairman, discusses building a Christian STEM college in Huntsville. He recounts a church planted during the 2020 shutdowns, explains why Huntsville is fertile ground for faith-based higher education, and explores the divide between engineers and poets. The conversation also examines siloed universities, Plato’s mathematical gateway, scientific innovation, and the institutions needed to shape the city’s future.

Michael Clary, founding pastor of Christ the King Church and author of Loser Theology, challenges evangelical passivity. He unpacks spectator spirituality, the doormat doctrine, and white flag Christianity, then explores courage, authority, family, politics, and Christian civilization. Clary also shares his shift from “careful” ministry to bold leadership and outlines disciplines for high-agency faith.

A new health initiative examines Alabama’s hospital funding, residency programs, international medical graduates, and reimbursement disparities with neighboring states. Personal responsibility takes center stage through a dramatic weight-loss journey and a frightening family medical emergency. The discussion also explores Alabama’s lack of sidewalks, questions surrounding DEI-linked funding, and the call for courage in Christian public life.

Zach Carter, a Huntsville pastor, church planter, and scholar of American religious history, explores how explosive growth is reshaping the city. He compares Huntsville with Colorado Springs, examines post-Christian migration and the church-planting gap, and discusses discipleship, Christian education, historic worship, cross-denominational cooperation, and cultivating faith across generations.

On October 1, HB 580 takes effect. It strips Alabama's faculty senates of the power they have spent decades accumulating and gives universities a process to review tenure and remove faculty with cause. Auburn moved first and didn't wait. The University of Alabama, whose faculty senate Apryl Marie Fogel calls the most ideologically captured in the state, is keeping theirs. Bryan Dawson sits down with Fogel, who directs the 1819 News Center for Education, for the full picture: what a faculty senate actually is, why presidents and trustees have spent years deferring to them, and what happens on the campuses if nobody uses the authority the legislature just handed them. They also cover the property rights fight the whole state is watching. Finn Church, a Shelby County landowner, just won a temporary injunction against Alabama Power in an eminent domain case that drew John Rich and national attention. And a bill the legislature thought was routine now means a right of way across a man's driveway can be leased out to telecom companies he never agreed to. "The things that tie your hands in one instance somehow don't exist in the second instance. Topics Tackled Finn Church wins a temporary injunction against Alabama Power in Shelby County Data centers, NDAs and the secrecy problem: why the process is making people angrier than the projects Why the legislature can move in days when it wants to and in years when it doesn't The Homewood police staffing fight and what it says about municipal priorities HB 580: what a faculty senate is, what it controlled, and what changes October 1 Why Auburn moved first, and why Alabama, Troy and others are keeping theirs Post-tenure review, the three laws already being violated, and what happens when one professor actually gets fired The UA School of Social Work, and a DEI advocate promoted to associate provost Connect Apryl Marie Fogel on X: https://x.com/aprylmarie Her work at 1819 News: https://1819news.com/author/apryl.marie   #Alabama #AlPolitics #HigherEd #HB580 #FacultySenate #PropertyRights #EminentDomain #DataCenters #BackTheBlue #1819News

Billy Graham said one of the next great movements of God would be by believers in the marketplace. The men in this episode have spent twenty years proving he was right. Bryan Dawson sits down with the team behind The Lions Den, a Birmingham event best described as a Christian "Shark Tank." Companies from Africa, Asia, South America and right here at home present their business case to a panel of successful Christian businessmen who grill them on profit, social impact, creation care, and the one most organizations skip: the spiritual bottom line. This is the "trade, not aid" argument in practice. A bakery in a South African township that opened doors no missionary could open. A cheese factory and dairy in Moldova that grew from three employees to thirty and kept fathers from leaving the country to find work. A fried chicken chain, a bank and an IT company in Sierra Leone, the eighth poorest country on earth. A factory owner in China who says his ministry runs from eight to five. "There are ten to twenty times more business owners than there are pastors. What's going to change America and the world is business owners stewarding their companies in a way that has impact." TOPICS TACKLED: Why the sacred and secular divide has convinced Christian businessmen they are second-class citizens The quadruple bottom line: profit, social, spiritual, and creation care "Trade, not aid," and why starting businesses beats shipping rice Sierra Leone, Moldova, South Africa, China: what happens when a job replaces a handout How to measure spiritual impact in a business without turning it into a sales pitch Why pursuing the spiritual bottom line tends to produce the social one, and not the reverse The Lions Den format, who should attend, and what happens at the Professional Summit   THE LIONS DEN, OCTOBER 14-16, BIRMINGHAM: Tickets and details: https://www.thelionsden.us/tickets Event listing: https://businessasmission.com/resources/the-lions-den/  X / Twitter: https://x.com/bhmtld Promo Video: https://vimeo.com/1225717422?fl=pl&fe=sh Venue: The Harbert Center, 2019 4th Avenue North, Birmingham, AL 35203. Schedule: Wednesday, October 14: Professional Summit supper, 6:00 PM.  Thursday, October 15:  Professional Summit, approximately 8:00 to 4:00, with a luncheon featuring Peter Greer of HOPE International.  Main Lions Den event, 4:00 to 6:00.  Friday, October 16: accredited investor session, 8:00 to 12:00.   1819 NEWS Website: https://1819news.com  Support the mission: https://1819news.com/give  Bryan Dawson on X: https://x.com/Bryan1819News   #BusinessAsMission #TheLionsDen #FaithDrivenInvestor #KingdomBusiness #Birmingham #Alabama #ChristianBusiness #TradeNotAid #Entrepreneurship #1819News

A mother in Massachusetts strangled her three children. Her trial ended in a mistrial. A fundraiser tied to the case has now passed $1.2 million, with the goal raised to $3 million. Seth Gruber says none of this should surprise anyone. "All she's done is apply the pro-abortion ideology this side of the womb." Bryan Dawson sits down with Gruber, founder of The White Rose Resistance and author of The Last Stand: Christ or Chaos, The War For The West, for a hard conversation about why the family is the engine of civilization, why the left has understood that better than most pastors do, and why a gospel that stops at personal salvation leaves a culture defenseless. From Tom Holland's "Dominion" to Simone de Beauvoir's admission that women could not be trusted to choose motherhood freely, this is the argument that Christian civilization is not a bonus feature of the faith. It is the thing being fought over.   Topics Tackled Why the natural outworking of the gospel is the building of a civilization, not just individual conversions Tom Holland, "Dominion," and the agnostic historian's case that the West runs on borrowed Christian capital The Lindsay Clancy case, the mistrial, and what the reaction revealed on both the left and the right What the founders of modern feminism said out loud about destroying the family Simone de Beauvoir: "We cannot allow women to make that decision, because too many of them will choose it" Why the fiercest early opponents of women's suffrage were married American women JD Vance, family policy, and whether the right is willing to use power to rebuild the home The Last Stand: a documentary and book on Christian resistance, and how to host a screening   CONNECT WITH SETH GRUBER: The Last Stand film, host a screening: https://thelaststand.com/film/  The Last Stand book: https://thelaststand.com/book/ The White Rose Resistance: https://thewhiterose.life  Seth Gruber: https://sethgruber.com X / Twitter: https://x.com/sgruber91   #SethGruber #TheLastStand #WhiteRoseResistance #Christendom #ChristianCivilization #ProLife #Family #CultureWar #Alabama #1819News

Army Ranger. Two combat tours. Youth pastor. State senator. Talk radio host. CNN contributor. And now the top federal prosecutor in Alabama’s largest federal district.   Bryan Dawson sits down with Phil Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, for the full story: the troubled kid who got shipped overseas to live with his father and met Christ in a youth choir in London; the reserve officer who was among the first Alabamians on the ground in Afghanistan after 9/11; the law student who came home from war and had to sue the Alabama State Bar to sit for the bar exam; and the day a lieutenant changed the convoy route for no reason he could explain and a car bomb went off on the road they were supposed to be on.   Five years ago, Phil and Bryan were launching Rightside Radio and 1819 News out of the same building, betting that Alabama could become an outpost of freedom. This is the story of what God did with that bet.   “Personnel is policy.” When the nomination came, Phil said no. Here’s what happened next.   Watch the full conversation with Bryan Dawson and U.S. Attorney Phil Williams.   Subscribe to 1819 News, like the video, and share this episode with someone who needs to hear what God can do with a life.   Topics Tackled • Fitting square pegs in round holes: an army kid, a broken home, and the structure that saved him • Afghanistan and Baghdad including the route change that stopped a convoy from driving into a car bomb • Ranger School and the lesson: “When you want to quit, that’s your mind, not your body” • Suing the Alabama State Bar after a combat deployment cost him his ethics exam score • The 2010 Senate class, 136 years of one-party rule, and voting to cut their own pay • From Rightside Radio to CNN, making the conservative case in hostile rooms • Turning down the U.S. Attorney nomination, and the phone call that changed his mind   Connect With Phil Williams • U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Alabama: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndal • X / Twitter (personal, from his Rightside era): https://x.com/SenPhilWilliams • Rightside Radio archive (Rumble): https://rumble.com/c/c-1625445 • His years of work at 1819 News: https://1819news.com/author/PhilWilliams      #PhilWilliams #USAttorney #Alabama #NorthernDistrictOfAlabama #ArmyRanger #RuleOfLaw #Veterans #RightsideRadio #AlabamaPolitics #1819News

Pastor Rich Lusk of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and a leader in classical Christian education, challenges the idea that schools are neutral. He explores who has authority over children, how American education became secular, and why “paideia” means shaping an entire worldview. The conversation examines Christian schooling, cultural renewal, and King Alfred’s model for rebuilding civilization.

What does the future of the Alabama Republican Party look like? On this episode of 1819 News: The Podcast, host Bryan Dawson sits down with Alabama Republican Party Chairman Scott Stadthagen for a wide-ranging conversation about the future of the GOP, engaging the next generation, voter turnout, election integrity, and the fight to close Alabama’s party primaries. Stadthagen shares the story of his journey from House Majority Leader to ALGOP Chairman and explains why he believes conservatives must focus on creating a generational impact. Dawson and Stadthagen discuss Project Future Generation, an initiative aimed at bringing young Alabamians into the Republican Party and developing the next generation of conservative voters and leaders. They also tackle: • Why Alabama’s voter turnout is far too low • The growing political engagement of Gen Z • Project Future Generation and its plans for young conservatives • Why Stadthagen wants to close Alabama’s party primaries • Election integrity and voter fraud enforcement • Building Republican strength in local races • The importance of sheriffs, school boards, county commissioners and other local offices • The new conservative leadership emerging across Alabama • Bridging the gap between the Alabama Republican Party and Republican legislators • What it will take for Republicans to win—and continue winning—in Alabama With a new generation becoming increasingly engaged in politics, Stadthagen believes the Alabama GOP has an opportunity to build something much bigger than the next election cycle. Watch the full conversation with Bryan Dawson and ALGOP Chairman Scott Stadthagen. Subscribe to 1819 News, like the video, and share this episode with someone who cares about the future of Alabama.