Molly Worthen

VIEW GUEST

Freelance Journalist | Professor of History — University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Molly Worthen is professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a freelance journalist. She lectures widely on religion and politics and teaches courses on North American religious and intellectual culture, global Christianity, and the history of ideas. She writes about religion, politics, and higher education for The New York Times and has also contributed to The New Yorker, Slate, The American Prospect, Foreign Policy, and other publications. She is the author of Spellbound, Apostles of Reason and The Man On Whom Nothing Was Lost.

SHOW MATERIALS

View All

Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump

Everyone feels it. Cultural and political life in America has become unrecognizable and strange. Firebrands and would-be sages have taken the place of...

Featured on: Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Learn More

Viewpoints

View All

June 9, 2026

Kerby Anderson

High and Low

If you look at the American economy, you see a high and a low. The stock market is at a record high, while consumer sentiment is at the lowest ever measured.

Listen

June 8, 2026

Kerby Anderson

Faith-Affirming Findings

Biblical archaeology seems to be going through a “golden age of apologetics.” One illustration is the fact that over the last two months I have had the privilege of interviewing three authors on their...

Listen

June 5, 2026

Kerby Anderson

Historical Ignorance

Years ago, a doctor wrote an article entitled, “What’s Keeping David McCullough from Sleeping?” This noted historian and award-winning author had trouble sleeping because he was worrying about what wa...

Listen