Zealots at the Gate Archives

Our Latest Episode

September 28, 2026

57m

Can Trump Bomb Iran Into Democracy?

Matt and Shadi’s initiative, The Faith and Future of Democracy Initiative, is now housed at the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. The two sat down with the center director and Georgetown faculty member Nader Hashemi to discuss the current state of affairs in Iran. An expert on Iranian global politics, Hashemi brings […]

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About Zealots at the Gate

How do you disagree with substance, respect, and a spot of laughter? Is it possible for deep difference to be the uncanny glue of a free society, and not the spark for its conflagration? What does good-faith persuasion look like anymore?

Zealots at the Gate from Comment explores these questions through the friendship of two men: Muslim political thinker Shadi Hamid and Christian theologian Matthew Kaemingk. Through frank, unapologetic dialogue interrogating the future of democracy and the role of religion in North American cultural life, this is a conversation bent on charting out a new paradigm for navigating philosophical and even tribal difference with openness, good humour, and convicted humility.

HOST
Shadi Hamid
Shadi Hamid is a columnist at The Washington Post and Senior Fellow at the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
HOST
Matthew Kaemingk
Matthew Kaemingk is Professor of Public Theology at Theological University Utrecht and Senior Fellow at the Center for Public Justice. He also co-directs the Templeton Pluralism Fellowship.

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Can Trump Bomb Iran Into Democracy?

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