Perspectives: The Podcast

Host of Perspectives: faith, science, politics & life. I ask the questions others dodge and bring the receipts. Nashville.

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

@Republicans

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

@HazelLiaqa4848 I can see her dirty pillows

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

@realannapaulina

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

@TifaAuntie @SenKatieBritt

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

@SenKatieBritt

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

X is where the argument starts. Substack is where I show my work: the sources, the data, and the parts that don't fit in a post.

Free, straight to your inbox, and no algorithm deciding whether you see it.

https://t.co/0Thagysd19

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

@patriot_prin077 Loved her.

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

Tennessee has the weakest LGBTQ+ legal protections of any state in the country. That isn't my opinion. https://t.co/n9E2y5k3WL's 2026 report gave Tennessee the lowest law score in the nation, an F, and 47th place overall.

In practice, that means Tennessee has no statewide protections against LGBTQ+ discrimination in employment, housing, or public accommodations. Drive north into Illinois and you have them. Same country, same Constitution, different rights.

Now the skeptic's footnote, because a ranking is only as good as its math. If Tennessee has the worst laws, why is it 47th and not 51st? The other half of the score comes from FBI hate crime data, and the method penalizes states whose police agencies don't report. Tennessee reports at a fairly high rate: 145 of its 175 agencies, about 83%. So a state can climb this ranking partly by reporting more completely. That isn't a scandal. It's a reminder that every composite ranking is a stack of weighting choices.

None of that changes the core finding. The law score is the part a legislature controls, and Tennessee's is dead last.

The question I put to listeners in this episode: should your civil rights depend on which side of a state line you live on? Federalism is supposed to let states experiment. When the experiment is whether you can be fired for who you are, the state line starts to look like a closet door.

Full episode: https://t.co/vYHHHsVwIL

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

@realannapaulina Florida Voters: please virtually throat punch this cunt on November 3rd… FFS. Elect someone who will represent YOU in Washington, DEFINITELY not this attention-grabbing fleabag.

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

@CobbStevenJ @realannapaulina Bot say what?

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

@KatieZacharia

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

@DanielSprarc From your mouth to god's ears.

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

@SenatorBanks @SecRubio @RepBrandonGill Worth noting: in June the Supreme Court held in Trump v. Barbara that children born here to parents present unlawfully or temporarily are citizens under the 14th Amendment. A statute can't override a constitutional ruling. A permanent ban would take an amendment, not an act.

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

@Brcremer The data backs up the worry. PRRI's 2025 50-state survey (22,000+ adults): 11% of Americans are Christian nationalism adherents and 21% are sympathizers. That's roughly a third of the country, and a majority of Republicans. It isn't fringe anymore.

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

@engineers_feed The catch with "no pumps": every transit sends roughly 50 million gallons of fresh water from Gatun Lake out to sea. That's why the 2023 drought forced traffic cuts and why a priority slot sold for $4M this spring. The 2016 expansion locks recycle about 60% of their water.

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

Listen: https://t.co/1uH6vHbErb

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

In 1975, Loren Cunningham (YWAM) and Bill Bright (Campus Crusade) said they'd received the same vision: Christians should shape seven spheres of society. It started as an evangelism strategy. It didn't stay one. A thread on the Seven Mountain Mandate.

[Perspectives: The Podcast @ShaneBurkett]

The question isn't whether Christians belong in public life. They do, like everyone else. The question is whether "capture the institutions" is compatible with a pluralist democracy. Full episode below.