Thank you for downloading Assignment from the documentary podcast on the BBC World Service.
We all know who the tech bros are, those latte-sipping geeks in Silicon Valley.
But have you heard of the ortho bros?
After the Covid pandemic, I was told that young American men,
tired of what they saw as excessive wokeism,
are converting to Orthodox Christianity in record numbers, fasting for days on end,
reading theological books and adorning themselves with Orthodox crosses.
We wanted to find out why.
So Linda Presley and I hit the road in Texas. 160 yards, arrive at your destination.
Gosh, like, this is really extraordinary.
We're coming up to big sandstones at a mansion with Roman colonnades.
Looks like it could be the setting for a Victorian period drama or something out of a Jane Austen novel.
And it's got a big star, the lone star of Texas, over the portico.
Nothing looks very orthodox here.
There's a statue of a girl clutching a red lily, very skimpily clad.
Hello.
A powerfully built, bald-headed man in a cassock steps out of his pick-up truck,
the sun bouncing off the large gold cross on his chest.
This is Father Moses Macpherson, and we're in the open countryside just north of Austin.
We're going to build the church out here.