ASK A POLITICAL SCIENTIST Asks How Does Religion Affect Politics?

Ask a Political Scientist is a weekly comedy show about political science. Comedian and Political Science Professor Andrea Jones-Rooy, host of the popular NYC live political analysis and comedy show live Political Circus has brought her comedy and commentary online for the foreseeable future with Ask a Political Scientist. Jones-Rooy is joined by weekly guests to answer questions submitted by viewers concerning the politics affecting the pandemic response, the election, etc.

This week's topic: How does religion affect politics? Jones-Rooy will be joined by Dr. David Smith, Senior Lecturer in American Politics at the University in Sydney (yes, the one in Australia), and author of How America Compares (2020) and Religious Persecution and Political Order in the United States (2015). His current research focuses on the role of Pentecostal Christianity (one of the most vehement and earliest supporters of Trump) in the US, Australia, and other western liberal democracies. In addition to discussing things like when politicians can get away with calling things "miracles", David promises we can talk about anti-vaxxers, too.

Ask a Political Scientist can be found on NYC venue Caveat's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3b57CBtNx-cXPRdldkst7g. New episodes live-stream for free on Thursdays at 7PM Eastern Time. A donation link can be found at the link above. All proceeds go to Caveat which is currently closed to live shows due to the coronavirus.

Andrea Jones-Rooy holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan, a bunch of low self-esteem from years of doing standup comedy, and a series of physical injuries from decades of being a dancer and circus performer. She wields all these confusingly unrelated things at once in her monthly show at Caveat: Political Circus. When she's not doing that, she's the Director of Undergraduate Studies at NYU and the professor of their flagship course, Data Science for Everyone. She also consults and speaks with organizations about social & data science and previously contributed to FiveThirtyEight as a quantitative researcher. This video sums the whole thing up pretty well.