Who Am I?

Ryan Burge is an associate professor (beginning in August 2023) of political science at Eastern Illinois University, where he also serves as the graduate coordinator. He has authored over thirty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters alongside four books about religion and politics in the United States. He has written for the New York Times, POLITICO, and the Wall Street Journal. He has also appeared in an NBC Documentary, on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, as well as 60 Minutes which called him, “one of the country’s leading data analysts on religion and politics.” He has served as a pastor in the American Baptist Church for over twenty years and has been married to his wife Jacqueline for over sixteen years. They have two boys.

Why subscribe?

To get a look at politics and religion in a way that is not really been available before. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you know that I do my level best to not be biased in one way or another. I try to present the world the way that it exists in the data. I don’t cater to liberals or conservatives. I just try to tell the truth. I have grown fond of telling audiences, “If this data makes you angry — good. If this data makes you feel happy — good.”

When I see my subscriber count climb, that gives me the encouragement to write another post. That’s doubly true when someone decides to support this kind of work by being a paid subscriber.

After writing on Substack for a while now I realized how freeing it is. I don’t need to pitch editors. I don’t need to find a “news peg” to hang my data stories on. Instead, I just get to write what I’m curious about. I make these graphs anyway - why not share them with readers?

The current schedule is Monday and Thursday. Expect a few graphs and some words. Probably not any fully formed ideas. In fact, I will probably use this forum to throw up some trial balloons about what people what to know more about. There will be typos and poor sentence structure. Honestly, I write most of the words for these posts in thirty minutes or less and rarely go back to read over my work.

What do paid subscribers get?

Most of the written content will be free, a handful of posts will be for paid subscribers only. The voiceovers for each piece will be for paid subscribers, as will the ability to comment. Also, after three months of being first published on Substack each post goes behind the paywall, as well.

Paid subscribers get access to the entire archive.

If you are a pastor/priest/imam/rabbi/denominational leader or just work in religious ministry, I am happy to give you a discount code for 20% off an annual subscription. Just send me an email.

If you are a teacher, you can also get an annual subscription for $40 by clicking this link:

https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/subscribe?coupon=b24f93bf