PODCAST · society
The Final Service
by Mateo Schimpf
Church membership in the U.S. has fallen off a cliff and pastors across the country are trying to save their congregations from shrinking to zero. Why have so many people left Christianity and can pastors do anything to save their churches from dying?
Episodes
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EP4. Stigma
A church in decline tries to reinvent itself, and its young members struggle with how to talk about Christianity. The Final Service is written and produced by Mateo Schimpf with additional writing and reporting from Ray Suarez. It's edited by Jarrod Sport with production support from Elize...
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EP3. Chicago
Julian Deshazier is a rapper and a pastor. That sounds like it would be appealing to kids from his old neighborhood on the South Side. But getting them to show up to church on Sundays isn't easy. The Final Service is written and produced by Mateo Schimpf with additional writing and reporting from...
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EP2. Little Lithuania
Christian Allyn is proud to be Lithuanian. So when he found out that the archbishop was going to close his Lithuanian church in Waterbury, Connecticut, he decided to step in. Can his appeal save St. Joseph’s Church? The Final Service is written and produced by Mateo Schimpf with additional…
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EP1. The Mayordomos
This is the first chapter in a four-part series about church closures in America. Lorraine Pacheco is the caretaker for a tiny church in an even tinier town in the eastern plains of New Mexico. As she gets older and her congregation shrinks, she’s starting to wonder if it will survive after she’s...
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Trailer
Notice anything about churches in America? In a lot of place they're boarded up. Converted to some other use. Or just abandoned. Reporters Mateo Schimpf and Ray Suarez go on a journey to find out why so many churches are closing, and whether pastors can do anything to save them.
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Jonathan Rauch on the Limits of MAGA and Trump
One theme was consistent throughout this election year: the assertion that democracy was under threat. Throughout the year, Jonathan Rauch weighed in on whether democracy is waning, and how the Republican party could build a future without Trumpism. Jonathan Rauch joins Ray Suarez to discuss...
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Ambassador Michael McFaul: Ukrainians May Fight On, Even with a Trump/Putin Deal
In less than three weeks, Donald Trump will be back in the White House, and we’re waiting to see what he will tackle on Day One. On the campaign trail, Trump promised he’d end the fighting in Ukraine on January 20th. The war is nearing its third anniversary, and there are few signs an end is in...
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Why You’re Probably Not Going to Church this Christmas
100,000, that’s the estimated number of Protestant churches that will close in the U.S… not by 2050, but five years from now. What some scholars are calling “The Great De-churching” is already well under way, and the exodus is accelerating. This week, Ray Suarez speaks with Ryan Burge, professor…
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Overuse of Antibiotics and the Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance
When bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines, it makes infections harder to treat. This increases the risk of disease spread, severe illness, and death. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) leads to deaths, high health treatment costs, and economic…
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Denier-in-Chief: The Threat of Trump and RFK, Jr’s Health Policy
Third party candidate, Robert Kennedy, Jr., played an out-sized role in the 2024 presidential election. Trump said Kennedy would have “a big role in health care” if he were re-elected. And on November 14th, Trump announced RFK, Jr. would be nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human...
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Millions of Deportations? Just How Tough Trump Might Get on Immigration
One issue where President-elect Trump hammered home the differences between his plans and those of Kamala Harris was immigration. For a decade, the public has been increasingly worried about the number of people turning up at the southern border, the number of people seeking asylum in the US, and...
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Ian Bremmer on What to Expect from Trump 2.0
Donald Trump has successfully defied the political odds for almost a decade – largely because of his unpredictability on the campaign trail. But when it comes to his foreign policy, Trump is anything but unpredictable. If we take him at his word, some analysts believe Trump will inflame economic...
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Yascha Mounk on How To Save Diverse Democracies
Diversity has often been seen as the United States’ defining strength – but today, some Americans see it as a threat. And this isn’t new. Throughout history, differences of religion, ethnicity, and origin have driven states around the world to war, violence, and extreme division. However,...
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Mike Madrid: Latino Voters and the Working Class ‘Tectonic Shift’
In 2020, Latinos became the second largest ethnic voting group in the United States, and the fastest-growing segment of the swing states in the 2024 Presidential Election. The results of Election Day are clear: Donald Trump gained with working class Americans, and particularly Latino men,...
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Steve Schmidt: Trump’s Victory is a Disaster for the Democratic Party
According to Steve Schmidt, if you want to understand how the Democrats failed against Donald Trump in 2024, then you have to go back to Joe Biden not stepping aside earlier. In a candid, raw conversation, Ray Suarez speaks with Steve Schmidt, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, and host of The...
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What the Hell Just Happened?
Election Day is over, and the results are clear: former president Donald Trump resoundingly defeated vice president Kamala Harris. We don’t have all the data, but a majority of US counties swung towards the Republicans. How did Trump gain new working class voters? And where does the Democratic...
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Last Look: Can We Trust the Polls?
We’ve finally reached November 5th, Election Day in the US, and a majority of Americans remain deeply pessimistic about the state of the nation. Throughout the year, we’ve talked to voters about the issues they care about in 2024, and we share their stories in this election special. We’ll revisit...
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Kara Swisher’s on Whether We Can Trust Tech Billionaires
Donald Trump’s anti-establishment message has galvanized tech leaders across the US, including in former Democratic Party stronghold, Silicon Valley. This American Life’s Zoe Chace speaks with our producer, Mateo Schimpf, about what happened when Michigan Republicans took his advice and actually...
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Musk is all in on Trump. What About the Rest of Silicon Valley?
During the 2024 presidential race, Donald Trump's campaign has been fueled by some surprising supporters… leaders in big tech. According to recent reporting from The New York Times, tech billionaires like Elon Musk have built a “shadow campaign” to put Trump back in office. WIRED’s Steven Levy...
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Will an “October Surprise” Decide the 2024 Election?
We're entering the final days of the 2024 presidential election, but a lot can change in a few weeks. Historically, several presidential contests have been upended in October. Coined the "October Surprise," for decades candidates have been tested at the finish line... and many have faltered. So...
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Living in Two Worlds
Refugees in California are generally protected from federal deportation under sanctuary and safe haven laws, unless they've been incarcerated. And in 2022, after serving 25 years for murder, San Quentin State Prison parolee Phoeun You was turned over to ICE, and deported to Cambodia. In this...
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Which Candidate Does Mexico Favor in November?
Immigration is once again a political football in the lead up to the 2024 Presidential Election, and while Congress stalled to address comprehensive border control measures, hundreds of thousands of migrants became pawns in a political game. The Washington Post's Eduardo Porter talks with Ray…
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SPECIAL LIVE EVENT: Will an “October Surprise” Shake-Up the Race?
We're entering the final days of the 2024 presidential election, but a lot can change in a few weeks. Historically, several presidential contests have been upended in October. Coined the "October Surprise," for decades candidates have been tested at the finish line... and many have faltered. In...
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A Year After October 7th, Is the Middle East Headed for War?
Monday, October 7, 2024 marks the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israeli territory. For a while, Israel's response to the violence supplanted the war in Ukraine in the headlines, but as the months dragged on, attention had largely turned away from Gaza. That all changed in…
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Is America Exporting Political Violence?
After the two recent assassination attempts on former president Donald Trump, it’s clear the United States has a problem with political violence. But in our history, several would-be assassins have attacked sitting presidents, so is there something different about these Trump shooters… and this…
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Tom Nichols: Attacking the President Attacks the Nation
The recent assassination attempts on former president Donald Trump were surreal for many. It's been almost a half-century since a US president was shot, but attacks on a sitting president aren’t new – Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan survived assassination attempts. What’s different is that violence...
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Can We Trust the Presidential Polls? A 2024 Election Special
Kamala Harris holds a national lead of three percentage points over Donald Trump. And as the polls following her recent debate performance continue to trickle in, that number is expected to grow. But can we trust the latest polls? This week, in our latest special election series, we talk with an...
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Anne Applebaum on Autocracy in America, and What’s at Stake in November
Anne Applebaum argues that autocracy is spreading to democratic states, and the reason why is that illiberalism is good international business. She warns the seeds of autocracy have already been sown in the United States, so how can we protect ourselves during another contentious presidential...
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Can Ukraine Hang On Until November?
In August, Ukrainian troops swept into Russia's Kursk region, and seized over 500 square miles of Russian territory. It’s the first time that Russia has been invaded since World War II. In Moscow, President Putin has relied on aid from China, Iran, and North Korea, but some analysts believe that...
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If it's ‘America First’, Who is American Enough?
Immigrants to America have always faced resistance, and have always—over time—assimilated and become vital parts of America. But in a political era of “America First'', what does it mean to be an immigrant in the 21st century? And who decides who is “American” enough? Ray Suarez has criss-crossed...
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In AI We Trust? A 2024 Election Special
In May, Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, presented a sprawling “road map” for regulating artificial intelligence. But tech experts have called the plan “pathetic”, and many critics believe Washington is out of touch. And California’s legislature will soon vote on a plan that would put...
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The Healthy Amount of Hooch
Earlier this century, reports indicated a little alcohol might even improve health. Moderation was the watchword. Those reports have been overtaken by a new generation of research which indicates the healthy amount of alcohol is no alcohol. But alcoholic beverages are deeply embedded in the…
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New Habits in Our Old Age
For the most part, the world has gone back to normal. We’re getting on planes… going to concerts… but many Americans haven’t changed their pandemic drinking habits. And this increased consumption trend is especially high for older Americans. In 2020, alcohol accounted for more than 11,000 deaths...
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Stuart Stevens: The Lincoln Project is Taunting Trump… And So is Kamala Harris
President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on July 21, and in the few weeks since, Vice President Kamala Harris has garnered enough delegates to become the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. Biden had trailed Trump in virtually every poll, but Harris has rallied the...
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How Cocaine Blew Through the Island of Peace
Ecuadorian journalist Jorge Imbaquingo says that his country used to be, “an island of peace.” But now it’s caught in the middle of Latin America’s bloodiest drug war. In our last episode, we heard about Ecuador’s historic vote to stop oil extraction in the Amazon. Today, we’ll hear about why its...
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Can Ecuador Keep its Oil in the Ground?
Last August, Ecuador passed a historic referendum that was more than a decade in the making. Oil accounts for roughly a third of the country’s exports, but Ecuadorians voted to stop extraction at a major production site deep in the Amazon. Since the vote, Ecuador’s “Keep It in the Ground”…
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Biden's Foreign Policy Legacy
Ray Suarez sits down with Dr. Timothy Naftali, senior research scholar at Columbia University’s SIPA, to examine Biden’s foreign policy legacy… and how country's around the world are preparing for a new US President in 2025. Guest: Dr. Timothy Naftali, senior research scholar at Columbia...
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Netanyahu's Gambling on Trump
A few weeks ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before the US Congress, and he showed no signal that his government is open to a ceasefire with Hamas. President Biden had hoped to broker an Israeli-Hamas peace deal before leaving office, but an attack from Hezbollah in the Golan...
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The Elites vs… the Elites?
Donald Trump’s anti-establishment message has galvanized tech leaders across the US, including in former Democratic Party stronghold, Silicon Valley. In the second half of our election special, we’ll hear from This American Life’s Zoe Chace about what happened when Michigan Republicans took his...
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Biden is Out, Harris is In: How DNC Donors Reset the Race
Since Joe Biden dropped out of the race, Vice President Kamala Harris raised hundreds of millions in small dollar donations. Harris has received endorsements from virtually every major Democratic Party leader, and her path to nomination – and command of the dnc campaign war chest – appears...
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Bye Bye Boomers, Hello Perennials
While many Baby Boomers have already left the workforce behind, almost half are considering coming out of retirement in search of a new purpose in life. Leading sociologist and business economist Mauro Guillén joins Ray Suarez to explain why the days of “OK Boomer” are coming to an end… and why…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Church membership in the U.S. has fallen off a cliff and pastors across the country are trying to save their congregations from shrinking to zero. Why have so many people left Christianity and can pastors do anything to save their churches from dying?
HOSTED BY
Mateo Schimpf
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Final Service have?
The Final Service currently has 155 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Final Service about?
Church membership in the U.S. has fallen off a cliff and pastors across the country are trying to save their congregations from shrinking to zero. Why have so many people left Christianity and can pastors do anything to save their churches from dying?
How often does The Final Service release new episodes?
The Final Service publishes regularly with 155 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The Final Service?
You can listen to The Final Service on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Final Service?
The Final Service is created and hosted by Mateo Schimpf.
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