Tokens with Lee C. Camp: Recent Episodes
Tokens Media
The Tokens Podcast, hosted by Lee C. Camp, dares to do theology in public, around supposedly non-theological topics like society and politics, whether (or how) to be happy, habits and human flourishing; and music, books, the arts, and poetry. We refuse to be overbearing, while also not pretending like most people don’t care about faith, theology, and the traditions that form us. We promise to be non-partisan – neither right nor left nor even necessarily religious. This is another way of saying we commit to extending hospitality to those with divergent voices and convictions, welcoming poets and authors, theologians and activists, scientists and educators, musicians and writers and even politicians.
This is our unabridged interview with Eddie Glaude.
Why are there different narratives around race in the United States?
Some believe that the US is a “shining city on a hill” which stands as a beacon of truth and justice in the world. But those paying attention to the country’s inner conflicts - most notably its violent, graphic history of deep-seated racism - sense some major contradictions in such a narrative. To use the famous words of James Baldwin, such idealism is “The Lie” that the country has been trying to preserve since its inception.
In this episode, Dr. Eddie Glaude discusses his book Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, which calls for a reckoning for the people and institutions responsible for perpetuating “The Lie,” and offers hopeful counter-truth that he believes can help us reform and reset after the wrongs that have been done.
Show Notes Similar episodes:
- The Architect of the American Civil Rights Movement: James Lawson
- Doing Justice Alongside MLK and Rosa Parks: Dr. Fred Gray
- Tuskegee, Healthcare, Justice: Quincy Byrdsong
Resources mentioned this episode:
- Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie Glaude
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Does religion make you happier?
These days, many of us are prone to see religion as an artifact of pre-scientific humanity, full of non-scientific claims. For that reason, religion often gets written off as having no measurable value for everyday life. But what if the so-called goods of religion could be studied?
In his most recent book How God Works, psychologist David DeSteno, suggests that religion has indeed been studied in this way, and that the results could change the way religion is viewed in the public sphere. In this episode, we hear from David as he discusses the ways the world’s great religious traditions line up with cutting-edge psychological and neuroscientific findings - in other words, the ways in which religion leads to a longer, happier, healthier life.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- The Power of Being Known: Curt Thompson
- What Hath Christianity to do with Psychology?: Mark McMinn
- The Power of Sabbath Rest: Judith Shulevitz
- Seven Ways to Ruin Your Life: Rebecca DeYoung
- Resources mentioned this episode
- How God Works by David Desteno
- How God Works Podcast
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
This is our unabridged interview with Johnnyswim.
What is it like to be a famous musical duo, on the road all the time, and married with kids?
That’s the life of Amanda Sudano and Abner Ramirez, more widely known as folk-pop band Johnnyswim, whose eclectic life is put on full display in their two reality television shows, “The Johnnyswim Show” and “In the Kitchen with Abner + Amanda.” Amanda's mother was the legendary Disco Queen Donna Summer; meanwhile, Abner's family experienced the intense political turmoil of 20th century Cuba, emigrating to the United States in the Mariel Boatlift in 1980.
In this exclusive interview, they discuss everything from family history, to touring life, to activism and faith. Plus, we include their musical performance from a No Small Endeavor show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
Show Notes:
-
Similar episodes
- Actor and Activist: Martin Sheen
- Why The New Respects Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
- Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk: Eugene Cho
-
Resources mentioned this episode
-
Johnnyswim’s Website
- “Ring the Bells” live performance at the Ryman
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
What is it like to be a famous musical duo, on the road all the time, and married with kids?
That’s the life of Amanda Sudano and Abner Ramirez, more widely known as folk-pop band Johnnyswim, whose eclectic life is put on full display in their two reality television shows, “The Johnnyswim Show” and “In the Kitchen with Abner + Amanda.” Amanda's mother was the legendary Disco Queen Donna Summer; meanwhile, Abner's family experienced the intense political turmoil of 20th century Cuba, emigrating to the United States in the Mariel Boatlift in 1980.
In this exclusive interview, they discuss everything from family history, to touring life, to activism and faith. Plus, we include their musical performance from a No Small Endeavor show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
Show Notes:
-
Similar episodes
- Actor and Activist: Martin Sheen
- Why The New Respects Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
- Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk: Eugene Cho
-
Resources mentioned this episode
-
Johnnyswim’s Website
- “Ring the Bells” live performance at the Ryman
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
This is our unabridged interview with Oliver Burkeman.
In an age full of life hacks, self-help books, and productivity gurus, many of us only end up busier and more stressed than we were before. What if there’s a better way to live a full, fruitful life?
"The world is bursting with wonder,” says Oliver Burkeman, “and yet it's the rare productivity guru who seems to have considered the possibility that the ultimate point of all our frenetic doing might be to experience more of that wonder."
In this episode, he discusses his New York Times Bestselling book 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, dispelling many contemporary ideas about productivity, and instead suggesting a wonder-fueled, counterintuitive method for flourishing in the world.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes:
- Seven Ways to Ruin Your Life: Rebecca DeYoung
- The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: John Mark Comer
- The Power of Sabbath Rest: Judith Shulevitz
- Resources mentioned in this episode
- A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Raymond Kelly
- Catherine Andrews, "Why You're Going About Recovering from Perfectionism All Wrong"
- Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
In an age full of life hacks, self-help books, and productivity gurus, many of us only end up busier and more stressed than we were before. What if there’s a better way to live a full, fruitful life?
"The world is bursting with wonder,” says Oliver Burkeman, “and yet it's the rare productivity guru who seems to have considered the possibility that the ultimate point of all our frenetic doing might be to experience more of that wonder."
In this episode, he discusses his New York Times Bestselling book 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, dispelling many contemporary ideas about productivity, and instead suggesting a wonder-fueled, counterintuitive method for flourishing in the world.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes:
- Seven Ways to Ruin Your Life: Rebecca DeYoung
- The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: John Mark Comer
- The Power of Sabbath Rest: Judith Shulevitz
- Resources mentioned in this episode
- A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Raymond Kelly
- Catherine Andrews, "Why You're Going About Recovering from Perfectionism All Wrong"
- Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
This is our unabridged interview with Charles Strobel.
On August 6th, 2023, at the age of 80, Charles Strobel, affectionately known as Charlie, left us. Today, we revisit our 2020 interview with him. A true Nashville icon, he was once hailed as "Tennesseean of the Year." As a Catholic priest and the visionary behind Room In The Inn, a Nashville-based non-profit dedicated to offering hospitality, education, community, and employment to those experiencing homelessness, Charlie's impact was immeasurable.
Join us in this special episode where he shares captivating anecdotes from his life, recounting his journey from living among the homeless to founding a shelter for them. He candidly discusses his battles with depression and the transformative power of therapy. Incredibly, he opens up about his journey to forgive the individual who took his mother's life.
Charlie's existence epitomized the essence of a well-lived life, making him an extraordinary example to us all. As we mourn his passing, let's celebrate the legacy he leaves behind.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Ending Violence Through Forgiveness: Azim Khamisa
- Burying 250 Friends: Greg Boyle on Community Amidst Gang Violence
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Room In The Inn
- Charlie’s Obituary
- Transcription Link for Abridged Episode
- PDF of Lee's Interview Notes
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On August 6th, 2023, at the age of 80, Charles Strobel, affectionately known as Charlie, left us. Today, we revisit our 2020 interview with him. A true Nashville icon, he was once hailed as "Tennesseean of the Year." As a Catholic priest and the visionary behind Room In The Inn, a Nashville-based non-profit dedicated to offering hospitality, education, community, and employment to those experiencing homelessness, Charlie's impact was immeasurable.
Join us in this special episode where he shares captivating anecdotes from his life, recounting his journey from living among the homeless to founding a shelter for them. He candidly discusses his battles with depression and the transformative power of therapy. Incredibly, he opens up about his journey to forgive the individual who took his mother's life.
Charlie's existence epitomized the essence of a well-lived life, making him an extraordinary example to us all. As we mourn his passing, let's celebrate the legacy he leaves behind.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Ending Violence Through Forgiveness: Azim Khamisa
- Burying 250 Friends: Greg Boyle on Community Amidst Gang Violence
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Room In The Inn
- Charlie’s Obituary
- Transcription Link
- PDF of Lee's Interview Notes
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is our unabridged interview with Elise Hu.
What is beauty, and what role should it play in our lives?
Beauty has long been seen as one the three “transcendentals” (along with truth and goodness) which have been valued at all times, in all places, by all cultures. But these days, the word “beauty” is often equated with standards of bodily presentation that, in an increasingly globalized and technological world, are reachable only by extreme measures of constant labor or cosmetic surgery.
In this episode, Elise asks the question we’re all thinking: is that version of beauty good for us? She discusses her experience in a beauty-obsessed Korean culture, its effects on both women and men, and what a healthy relationship with beauty might look like.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- The Price of the Pursuit of Pleasure: Anna Lembke
- Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk: Eugene Cho
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Flawless by Elise Hu
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link for Abridged Episode
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is beauty, and what role should it play in our lives?
Beauty has long been seen as one the three “transcendentals” (along with truth and goodness) which have been valued at all times, in all places, by all cultures. But these days, the word “beauty” is often equated with standards of bodily presentation that, in an increasingly globalized and technological world, are reachable only by extreme measures of constant labor or cosmetic surgery.
In this episode, Elise asks the question we’re all thinking: is that version of beauty good for us? She discusses her experience in a beauty-obsessed Korean culture, its effects on both women and men, and what a healthy relationship with beauty might look like.
- Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- The Price of the Pursuit of Pleasure: Anna Lembke
- Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk: Eugene Cho
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Flawless by Elise Hu
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is our unabridged interview with Tish Harrison Warren.
Does pluralism result in discrimination? Must one choose a political side, either on the Left or the Right? And how can an ordinary life be an exceptional one?
These are all questions involving dichotomies that are commonly presented to us in our culture. But Tish Harrison Warren, an ordained Anglican priest and columnist for the New York Times, sees such dichotomies as false, and has spent her own life’s work breaking them down in whatever ways she can.
In this episode, Tish discusses her experience as a campus minister in the midst of controversy at Vanderbilt University, what it’s like holding convictions while under fire from both sides of the political spectrum, and her award-winning book Liturgy of the Ordinary.
Show Notes:
-
Similar episodes
- Kristin Du Mez Sits with David French
- Dorothy Day: Traditional, Radical, Christian
- “What Could Possibly Produce Someone with a Soul That Shallow?”: Stanley Hauerwas
-
Resources mentioned this episode
- Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren
- Tish’s website
-
Tish’s New York Times column
-
PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
-
Transcription Link for Abridged Episode
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Does pluralism result in discrimination? Must one choose a political side, either on the Left or the Right? And how can an ordinary life be an exceptional one?
These are all questions involving dichotomies that are commonly presented to us in our culture. But Tish Warren, an ordained Anglican priest and columnist for the New York Times, sees such dichotomies as false, and has spent her own life’s work breaking them down in whatever ways she can.
In this episode, Tish discusses her experience as a campus minister in the midst of controversy at Vanderbilt University, what it’s like holding convictions while under fire from both sides of the political spectrum, and her award-winning book Liturgy of the Ordinary.
Show Notes:
-
Similar episodes
- Kristin Du Mez Sits with David French
- Dorothy Day: Traditional, Radical, Christian
- “What Could Possibly Produce Someone with a Soul That Shallow?”: Stanley Hauerwas
-
Resources mentioned this episode
- Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren
- Tish’s website
-
Tish’s New York Times column
-
PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
-
Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is our unabridged interview with Angela Duckworth.
What do Olympic athletes, world-class artists, elite academics, and successful business executives have in common?
Ivy League psychologist Angela Duckworth has spent her career researching this question, closely studying those folks at the top of their respective fields who are considered “high achievers.”
Surprisingly, it turns out talent is not the answer. Neither is genius. “The common denominator,” she says, “is grit.”
In this episode, she explains what she means by “grit,” discusses why it is such a crucial determinant for success, and offers highly practical methods for developing grit in one’s own life.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Time Management for Mortals: Oliver Burkeman
- What it Takes to Live a Good Life: Meghan Sullivan
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Grit by Angela Duckworth
- Character Lab
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link for Abridged Episode
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What do Olympic athletes, world-class artists, elite academics, and successful business executives have in common?
Ivy League psychologist Angela Duckworth has spent her career researching this question, closely studying those folks at the top of their respective fields who are considered “high achievers.”
Surprisingly, it turns out talent is not the answer. Neither is genius. “The common denominator,” she says, “is grit.”
In this episode, she explains what she means by “grit,” discusses why it is such a crucial determinant for success, and offers highly practical methods for developing grit in one’s own life.
Show Notes:
-
- Similar episodes - Time Management for Mortals: Oliver Burkeman - What it Takes to Live a Good Life: Meghan Sullivan
-
Resources mentioned this episode
- Grit by Angela Duckworth
-
Character Lab
-
PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
-
Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is Part II of our unabridged interview with Parker Palmer.
“Things didn’t come together vocationally for me until I was 50.”
Now 84 years old, Quaker writer, speaker, and activist Parker Palmer has much to say about living a good life. And in his experience, a good life is often hard-won and counterintuitive.
In this episode, Parker covers a lot of ground, offering wisdom gleaned from a life lived at attention to the makings of a good life. He tells about his experience seeking and finding vocation, discovering how a rich life entails the embrace of paradox, and living through two major bouts of depression which gave him an increased attention to life’s small things.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Actor and Activist: Martin Sheen
- Author of The Shack: William Paul Young
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer
- The Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link for Abridged Episode
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is Part I of our unabridged interview with Parker Palmer.
“Things didn’t come together vocationally for me until I was 50.”
Now 84 years old, Quaker writer, speaker, and activist Parker Palmer has much to say about living a good life. And in his experience, a good life is often hard-won and counterintuitive.
In this episode, Parker covers a lot of ground, offering wisdom gleaned from a life lived at attention to the makings of a good life. He tells about his experience seeking and finding vocation, discovering how a rich life entails the embrace of paradox, and living through two major bouts of depression which gave him an increased attention to life’s small things.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Actor and Activist: Martin Sheen
- Author of The Shack: William Paul Young
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer
- The Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link for Abridged Episode
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“Things didn’t come together vocationally for me until I was 50.”
Now 84 years old, Quaker writer, speaker, and activist Parker Palmer has much to say about living a good life. And in his experience, a good life is often hard-won and counterintuitive.
In this episode, Parker covers a lot of ground, offering wisdom gleaned from a life lived at attention to the makings of a good life. He tells about his experience seeking and finding vocation, discovering how a rich life entails the embrace of paradox, and living through two major bouts of depression which gave him an increased attention to life’s small things.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Actor and Activist: Martin Sheen
- Author of The Shack: William Paul Young
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer
- The Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is our unabridged interview with Judith Moskowitz.
Stress, they say, is a silent killer.
It sometimes feels as if our culture, all the way down to its very economic and social structures, is oriented toward increasing stress levels. Then add the challenges of various common life events–death of a loved one, losing a job, going through divorce – and sooner or later, overwhelming stress seems to come for us all.
But might there be a way for us to flourish when stress hits us?
Social psychologist Judith Moskowitz has dedicated her life’s work to answering this question. In this episode, she shares her findings after years of studying those who are dealing with acute stress, and describes why finding small ways to increase “positive emotion” can be a crucial tool for navigating one’s stress.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Self-Compassion: Kristin Neff
- Gretchen Rubin: The Happiness Project
- Resources mentioned this episode
- It’s All Good Here
- Happify
- Self Compassion by Kristin Neff
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link for Abridged Episode
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Stress, they say, is a silent killer.
It sometimes feels as if our culture, all the way down to its very economic and social structures, is oriented toward increasing stress levels. Then add the challenges of various common life events–death of a loved one, losing a job, going through divorce – and sooner or later, overwhelming stress seems to come for us all.
But might there be a way for us to flourish when stress hits us?
Social psychologist Judith Moskowitz has dedicated her life’s work to answering this question. In this episode, she shares her findings after years of studying those who are dealing with acute stress, and describes why finding small ways to increase “positive emotion” can be a crucial tool for navigating one’s stress.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Self-Compassion: Kristin Neff
- Gretchen Rubin: The Happiness Project
- Resources mentioned this episode
- It’s All Good Here
- Happify
- Self Compassion by Kristin Neff
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is our unabridged interview with Gretchen Rubin.
What does it take to be happy?
Our show is often over-academic in its approach to such questions. But what if there was a way to discover answers that work without bothering too much about definitions, drawn-out studies, and the search for a one-size-fits-all objectivity?
In other words, what if the path to happiness includes some personal experimentation, fueled by good old fashioned trial and error?
In this episode, Gretchen Rubin describes what she called “The Happiness Project,” a year-long process of trying various highly practical methods of increasing her happiness: joining book clubs, giving warm hellos and goodbyes, learning one’s own sleep preferences, reducing clutter, and trying every flavor of ice cream. “Spoiler alert,” she says. “It did make me happier.”
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- What it Takes to Live a Good Life: Meghan Sullivan
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
- Neglected Sense Quiz
- The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
- Life in Five Senses by Gretchen Rubin
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link for Abridged Episode
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What does it take to be happy?
Our show is often over-academic in its approach to such questions. But what if there was a way to discover answers that work without bothering too much about definitions, drawn-out studies, and the search for a one-size-fits-all objectivity?
In other words, what if the path to happiness includes some personal experimentation, fueled by good old fashioned trial and error?
In this episode, Gretchen Rubin describes what she called “The Happiness Project,” a year-long process of trying various highly practical methods of increasing her happiness: joining book clubs, giving warm hellos and goodbyes, learning one’s own sleep preferences, reducing clutter, and trying every flavor of ice cream. “Spoiler alert,” she says. “It did make me happier.”
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- What it Takes to Live a Good Life: Meghan Sullivan
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
- Neglected Sense Quiz
- The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
- Life in Five Senses by Gretchen Rubin
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is our unabridged interview with Rainn Wilson.
Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica… and spirituality?
Rainn Wilson is known for playing beloved misfit, paper salesman, and beet farmer Dwight Schrute on the hit TV show The Office. But in Hollywood, he’s known for being a bit of a misfit in another way… he frequently talks about religion in public.
Recently, he wrote a book called 'Soul Boom' in which he calls for a spiritual revolution. “We've thrown the spiritual baby out with the religious bathwater,” he says, “but spiritual ideas helped transform my life and made my life better, and the stakes have never been higher.”
In this episode, he discusses his upbringing in the Bahá'í faith, how his career as an actor and comedian in Hollywood took a dire toll on his mental health, and how a return to spirituality gave him the tools to begin living a happy, flourishing life.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Actor and Activist: Martin Sheen
- The Road to Character: David Brooks
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Soul Boom by Rainn Wilson
- Laughing Matters Documentary
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link for Abridged Episode
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica… and spirituality?
Rainn Wilson is known for playing beloved misfit, paper salesman, and beet farmer Dwight Schrute on the hit TV show The Office. But in Hollywood, he’s known for being a bit of a misfit in another way… he frequently talks about religion in public.
Recently, he wrote a book called 'Soul Boom' in which he calls for a spiritual revolution. “We've thrown the spiritual baby out with the religious bathwater,” he says, “but spiritual ideas helped transform my life and made my life better, and the stakes have never been higher.”
In this episode, he discusses his upbringing in the Bahá'í faith, how his career as an actor and comedian in Hollywood took a dire toll on his mental health, and how a return to spirituality gave him the tools to begin living a happy, flourishing life.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Actor and Activist: Martin Sheen
- The Road to Character: David Brooks
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Soul Boom by Rainn Wilson
- Laughing Matters Documentary
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is our unabridged interview with Judith Shulevitz
Why would anybody want to practice Sabbath?
Over a decade ago, Judith Shulevitz wrote a book called 'The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time.' Before most of us had smartphones and remote jobs, she was calling attention to the troubling trajectory of an increasingly productivity-focused western culture. In a few years, she argued, we would simply be working all the time.
Her prediction, it seems, has come true. The ramping up of 24/7 industry, news, and entertainment has created a baseline busyness unlike any in human history. But what if it’s doing more harm than good?
What if, to live a good life, we need to rest, even if it comes at a cost?
In this episode, Judith discusses how we got here, and why the ancient practice of Sabbath might help us re-establish a healthy relationship to time and to each other.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: John Mark Comer
- The Price of the Pursuit of Pleasure: Anna Lembke
- Man Shall Not Live by Profit Alone: Jay Jakub
- Time Management for Mortals: Oliver Burkeman
- Resources mentioned this episode
- The Sabbath World by Judith Shulevitz
- The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link For Abridged Episode
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why would anybody want to practice Sabbath?
Over a decade ago, Judith Shulevitz wrote a book called 'The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time.' Before most of us had smartphones and remote jobs, she was calling attention to the troubling trajectory of an increasingly productivity-focused western culture. In a few years, she argued, we would simply be working all the time.
Her prediction, it seems, has come true. The ramping up of 24/7 industry, news, and entertainment has created a baseline busyness unlike any in human history. But what if it’s doing more harm than good?
What if, to live a good life, we need to rest, even if it comes at a cost?
In this episode, Judith discusses how we got here, and why the ancient practice of Sabbath might help us re-establish a healthy relationship to time and to each other.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: John Mark Comer
- The Price of the Pursuit of Pleasure: Anna Lembke
- Man Shall Not Live by Profit Alone: Jay Jakub
- Time Management for Mortals: Oliver Burkeman
- Resources mentioned this episode
- The Sabbath World by Judith Shulevitz
- The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is our unabridged interview with Azim Khamisa
How do you forgive the man who killed your son?
In 1995, Azim Khamisa’s only son Tariq was shot and killed while delivering a pizza. The killer was a 14-year-old gang member named Tony Hicks, and due to a recent change of law in the state of California, Tony was tried as an adult and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
But instead of responding with a call for outrage or revenge, Azim did the unthinkable: he forgave his son’s killer, fought for his release, then gave him a job.
“My interpretation of this tragedy was that there are victims at both ends of the gun,” he says. In this episode, he tells the full story of how he uses his experience to help end youth violence, even recruiting his son’s killer to join in the work. It is one of unimaginable grief, staunch faith, and unwavering compassion.
Show Notes:
- Similar Episodes
- Forgiving My Mother’s Murderer: Sharon Risher
- Burying 250 Friends: Greg Boyle on Community Amidst Gang Violence
- Resources mentioned this episode
- TKF.org
- AzimKhamisa.com
- Email Azim: azim@azimkhamisa.com
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link For Abridged Episode
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How do you forgive the man who killed your son?
In 1995, Azim Khamisa’s only son Tariq was shot and killed while delivering a pizza. The killer was a 14-year-old gang member named Tony Hicks, and due to a recent change of law in the state of California, Tony was tried as an adult and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
But instead of responding with a call for outrage or revenge, Azim did the unthinkable: he forgave his son’s killer, fought for his release, then gave him a job.
“My interpretation of this tragedy was that there are victims at both ends of the gun,” he says. In this episode, he tells the full story of how he uses his experience to help end youth violence, even recruiting his son’s killer to join in the work. It is one of unimaginable grief, staunch faith, and unwavering compassion.
Show Notes:
- Similar Episodes
- Forgiving My Mother’s Murderer: Sharon Risher
- Burying 250 Friends: Greg Boyle on Community Amidst Gang Violence
- Resources mentioned this episode
- TKF.org
- AzimKhamisa.com
- Email Azim: azim@azimkhamisa.com
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is our unabridged interview with Martin Sheen.
In this episode, Lee sits down with the former President of the United States…
At least, that’s how many listeners may know Martin Sheen, an award-winning actor known for his roles in Apocalypse Now and The Departed, and perhaps most famously for playing President Jed Bartlet in the hit TV series The West Wing.
But offscreen, Martin is perhaps best described as a committed Catholic with a beautiful conversion story, and an ardent peace activist who has been arrested over 60 times. In this episode, he tells his whole story, full of humor and grace, all the way from his childhood in Ohio to his acting career, his coming to faith, and much more.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- The Architect of The American Civil Rights Movement: James Lawson
- Taking the Beatitudes Seriously: John Dear
- Resources mentioned this episode
- The West Wing Cathedral Scene
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link For Abridged Episode
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episode, Lee sits down with the former President of the United States…
At least, that’s how many listeners may know Martin Sheen, an award-winning actor known for his roles in Apocalypse Now and The Departed, and perhaps most famously for playing President Jed Bartlet in the hit TV series The West Wing.
But offscreen, Martin is perhaps best described as a committed Catholic with a beautiful conversion story, and an ardent peace activist who has been arrested over 60 times. In this episode, he tells his whole story, full of humor and grace, all the way from his childhood in Ohio to his acting career, his coming to faith, and much more.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- The Architect of The American Civil Rights Movement: James Lawson
- Taking the Beatitudes Seriously: John Dear
- Resources mentioned this episode
- The West Wing Cathedral Scene
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is the unabridged Interview of Lee's conversation with Kristin Du Mez and David French.
What happens when one of the country’s most outspoken critics of white male Christian political conservatism sits down with… well, a white male Christian political conservative?
The answer: a really great conversation about politics, culture, and the desperate need for hospitality in the digital age.
“With the decline of traditional media, everything's a competition for clicks,” says Kristin Du Mez, author of New York Times bestseller Jesus and John Wayne. She’s joined by David French, senior editor for the Dispatch and contributing writer to The Atlantic, to discuss their roles as public cultural commentators, how they choose their battles, how they deal with criticism, and the hard work of critiquing one’s own tribe in the age of political tribalism.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Jesus and John Wayne: Kristin Du Mez
- Conservatism Without Trumpism: David French
- Is Conservative Christianity Anti-Intellectual?: Molly Worthen
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Du Mez
- Tim Alberta's Atlantic article - 'How Politics Poisoned The Evangelical Church'
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription of abridged episode
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What happens when one of the country’s most outspoken critics of white male Christian political conservatism sits down with… well, a white male Christian political conservative?
The answer: a really great conversation about politics, culture, and the desperate need for hospitality in the digital age.
“With the decline of traditional media, everything's a competition for clicks,” says Kristin Du Mez, author of New York Times bestseller Jesus and John Wayne. She’s joined by David French, senior editor for the Dispatch and contributing writer to The Atlantic, to discuss their roles as public cultural commentators, how they choose their battles, how they deal with criticism, and the hard work of critiquing one’s own tribe in the age of political tribalism.
Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Jesus and John Wayne: Kristin Du Mez
- Conservatism Without Trumpism: David French
- Is Conservative Christianity Anti-Intellectual?: Molly Worthen
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Du Mez
- Tim Alberta's Atlantic article - 'How Politics Poisoned The Evangelical Church'
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is the unabridged interview with Greg Boyle.
How do you reteach love to a community that society has deemed unloveable?
In the 80s and 90s, the city of Los Angeles was ravaged by what is now known as the "decade of death," a period of unprecedented gang violence, peaking at 1,000 killings in 1992 alone. It was in the midst of this unrest, fear, and finger-pointing that Father Greg Boyle became pastor of the poorest Catholic parish in the city, in order to live and work among gang members.
This eventually led him to start Homeboy Industries, which is now the largest gang-member rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world. In this episode, he tells some breathtaking stories, offering wisdom from a life lived in community with those who society neglects: “You don't go to the margins to make a difference. You go so the folks at the margins make you different.”
- Show Notes:
- Taking the Beatitudes Seriously: John Dear
- The Power of Being Known: Curt Thompson
- The Facts of Life: Pádraig Ó Tuama
- Similar episodes
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Homeboy Industries website
- Tattoos on the Heart by Greg Boyle
- Barking to the Choir by Greg Boyle
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How do you reteach love to a community that society has deemed unloveable?
In the 80s and 90s, the city of Los Angeles was ravaged by what is now known as the "decade of death," a period of unprecedented gang violence, peaking at 1,000 killings in 1992 alone. It was in the midst of this unrest, fear, and finger-pointing that Father Greg Boyle became pastor of the poorest Catholic parish in the city, in order to live and work among gang members.
This eventually led him to start Homeboy Industries, which is now the largest gang-member rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world. In this episode, he tells some breathtaking stories, offering wisdom from a life lived in community with those who society neglects: “You don't go to the margins to make a difference. You go so the folks at the margins make you different.”
- Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Taking the Beatitudes Seriously: John Dear
- The Power of Being Known: Curt Thompson
- The Facts of Life: Pádraig Ó Tuama
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Homeboy Industries website
- Tattoos on the Heart by Greg Boyle
- Barking to the Choir by Greg Boyle
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is our unabridged interview with Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream
- Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Peace, Justice, Ice Cream: Ben Cohen
- Man Shall Not Live by Profit Alone: Jay Jakub
- The Business of War: Justin Barringer
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Above the Law by Ben Cohen
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Similar episodes
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is business just for making money?
Famed economist Milton Friedman once argued in favor of such a view, and his economic theory has been the teaching basis for the last 50 years of American capitalism.
But Ben Cohen, co-founder of world-famous Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, thinks differently. In this episode, he discusses how he and Jerry found groundbreaking ways to go against the grain of the business world, giving away unprecedented amounts of profit, incorporating justice work into their company’s workflow, and speaking out in public against corruption. Also, economist Jay Jakub explains why profit-centered Capitalism is destined to fail, and what it might look like for a business to take a more holistic view of capital.
- Show Notes:
-
- Similar episodes - Peace, Justice, Ice Cream: Ben Cohen - Man Shall Not Live by Profit Alone: Jay Jakub - The Business of War: Justin Barringer
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Above the Law by Ben Cohen
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Our culture is brimming with wealth, upward social mobility, and endless access to massive hits of dopamine-fueled pleasure. So why are we still so unhappy?
Access to pleasure is greater than ever in industrialized nations, and yet those same nations are seeing frightening rises in depression, anxiety, and “deaths of despair". In this episode, Anna Lembke, author of New York Times bestseller 'Dopamine Nation,' discusses why a life of endless, fast-paced pleasure seeking always comes at a cost, and what might be done in the midst of such an epidemic.
- Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: John Mark Comer
- Similar episodes
-
- Resources mentioned this episode - Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke
- Lee's Interview Notes
- Anna Lembke
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Our culture is brimming with wealth, upward social mobility, and endless access to massive hits of dopamine-fueled pleasure. So why are we still so unhappy?
Access to pleasure is greater than ever in industrialized nations, and yet those same nations are seeing frightening rises in depression, anxiety, and “deaths of despair". In this episode, Anna Lembke, author of New York Times bestseller 'Dopamine Nation,' and John Mark Comer, author of New York Times bestseller 'The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry,' discuss why a life of endless, fast-paced pleasure seeking always comes at a cost, and what might be done in the midst of such an epidemic.
- Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- The Price of the Pursuit of Pleasure: Anna Lembke
- The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: John Mark Comer
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke
- The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer
- Lee's Interview Notes
- Anna Lembke
- John Mark Comer
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is the unabridged interview with David Hemenway.
After consistently eclipsing all other countries in the number of mass shootings per year, why is America still so obsessed with guns? And in the face of such a polarizing issue, what can be done to stop the killing?
“A lot of people think we have a violence problem, but it doesn't seem to be the case; but where we are different is in terms of guns,” says Dr. David Hemenway of Harvard University’s Injury Control Research Center. He makes the case for a public health approach which treats gun violence as an epidemic to be mitigated through practical long-term solutions.
- Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Taking the Beatitudes Seriously: John Dear
- Forgiving my Mother’s Murderer: Sharon Risher
- Guns, Economics, Public Health: David Hemenway
- God and Guns: Chris Hays and Carly Crouch
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Private Guns, Public Health by David Hemenway
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
- Similar episodes
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
After consistently eclipsing all other countries in the number of mass shootings per year, why is America still so obsessed with guns? And in the face of such a polarizing issue, what can be done to stop the killing?
“A lot of people think we have a violence problem, but it doesn't seem to be the case; but where we are different is in terms of guns,” says Dr. David Hemenway of Harvard University’s Injury Control Research Center. He makes the case for a public health approach which treats gun violence as an epidemic to be mitigated through practical long-term solutions.
In addition, Professors Chris Hays and Carly Crouch of Fuller Theological Seminary discuss their book 'God and Guns', examining the presumed correlation between American Christianity and support of gun ownership. To close, Diane Latiker shares what peacemaking might look like on the ground in the face of such bleak realities.
- Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Taking the Beatitudes Seriously: John Dear
- Forgiving my Mother’s Murderer: Sharon Risher
- Guns, Economics, Public Health: David Hemenway
- God and Guns: Chris Hays and Carly Crouch
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Private Guns, Public Health by David Hemenway
- God and Guns by Chris Hays and Carly Crouch
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
- Similar episodes
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What on God’s green earth does climate change have to do with living a good life?
To answer such a question, says author and professor Debra Reinstra, we must first ask a more basic one: what is the good life? “We have assumed that it is affluence and upward mobility,” she says, “but that good life is not sustainable.” If a good life is one of purpose and healing, then it is precisely the Western ideal of success that is eating away our ability to live good lives. In this episode, we discuss her book Refugia Faith, in which she makes the argument that “the created world is not just our grocery store and sewer,” and that to live a good life, we must care for the planet on which the good life takes place.
- Show Notes:
- The Most Polarized Issue in the United States: Katharine Hayhoe
- The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: Bill McKibben
- Hope in the Age of Climate Change: Chris Doran
- The Collapse of the Biosphere: Peter Harris
- Refugia Faith by Debra Reinstra
- Eaarth by Bill McKibben
- Great Tide Rising by Kathleen Dean Moore
- IPCC Reports on Climate Change
- A Rocha International
- Similar episodes
-
Resources mentioned this episode
-
PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The unabridged interview version of Lee's interview with John Dear
How do you live a good life in a world of 30 wars, 13,000 nuclear weapons, 4 billion people in poverty, racism, gun violence, child hunger, and catastrophic climate change?
This is the question posed by Catholic priest and activist John Dear. For years, Father Dear has taken part in peace movements alongside folks like Coretta King, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Desmond tutu. In this episode, he has some unbelievable stories that answer his question in a provocative way: “To do the good means to stop the killing. You cannot be a Christian and support war, or killing, or nuclear weapons. Jesus was totally non-violent; if you want to be a Christian, you have to be totally non-violent too.”
- Show Notes:
- The Architect of the American Civil Rights Movement: James Lawson
- The Business of War: Justin Barringer
- German Catholics and Hitler’s Wars by Gordon Zahn
- Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
- The Nonviolent Life by John Dear
- The Beatitudes Center
- John Dear’s website
- Similar episodes
-
Resources mentioned this episode
-
PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How do you live a good life in a world of 30 wars, 13,000 nuclear weapons, 4 billion people in poverty, racism, gun violence, child hunger, and catastrophic climate change?
This is the question posed by Catholic priest and activist John Dear. For years, Father Dear has taken part in peace movements alongside folks like Coretta King, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Desmond tutu. In this episode, he has some unbelievable stories that answer his question in a provocative way: “To do the good means to stop the killing. You cannot be a Christian and support war, or killing, or nuclear weapons. Jesus was totally non-violent; if you want to be a Christian, you have to be totally non-violent too.”
- Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- The Architect of the American Civil Rights Movement: James Lawson
-
The Business of War: Justin Barringer
-
Resources mentioned this episode
- German Catholics and Hitler’s Wars by Gordon Zahn
- Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
- The Nonviolent Life by John Dear
- The Beatitudes Center
-
John Dear’s website
-
PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes LINKS NEEDED
- Transcription Link LINKS NEEDED
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We wanted to rebroadcast our interview with Justin Jones. Recently Justin was one of two Black lawmakers in the Tennessee House who were expelled for breaking decorum. You can watch the video of the debate and vote to expel them here. Since Justin is now the national face of a movement to end gun violence and racial discrimination we thought our interview might help provide some context to the man in the headlines.
This is a rebroadcast from before the name change to No Small Endeavor when the show was called Tokens.
“Justice is what love looks like in public.” In this episode, Justin Jones discusses how his work for justice, particularly during a 62-day non-violent protest outside the Tennessee State Capitol, is itself an act of faith, steeped in self-denying love.
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What does one’s past have to do with their anger and anxiety in the present? What do our bodies remember that our minds don’t? And what do our brains want more than chocolate, sex, or a sports car?
Psychiatrist Curt Thompson discusses these questions from the perspective of both brain science and theology. A psychiatrist in private practice, Dr. Thompson has expertise in interpersonal neurobiology, and contends that a key to living a good life comes quite simply to this: “being known.” Lee and Curt discuss two of Curt’s books, “The Anatomy of the Soul” and “The Soul of Desire,” with conversation on trauma and anxiety, connection and community, and why people need each other to be fully themselves.
- Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- The Price of the Pursuit of Pleasure: Anna Lembke
- The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: John Mark Comer
- What Hath Christianity to do with Psychology? Mark McMinn
- The Soul of Shame: Curt Thompson
- Resources mentioned this episode
- The Anatomy of the Soul by Curt Thompson
- The Soul of Desire by Curt Thompson
- Being Known Podcast
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes (coming soon)
- Transcription Link
- Similar episodes
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
For all our modern so-called progress, global happiness levels have been consistently going down, especially in the richest and most developed countries. So what does it really take to be happy?
Since 1938, Harvard scientists have been closely studying the lives of over 700 individuals to answer that very question. In this episode, two of those scientists - Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz - discuss the surprising results of what is known as the “World’s Longest Study of Happiness,” and why they are consistently finding that meaningful relationships are the key to living a long, happy, flourishing life.
- Show Notes:
- Similar episodes
- Interview with Kristin Du Mez
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Robert Waldinger’s TED Talk
- WISER tool for relationships: Watch, Interpret, Select, Engage, and Reflect
- Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
- Similar episodes
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Christian culture in our day is full of superstars: authors, athletes, media personas, and even pastors with millions of followers and fans. Their success, and the devotion they receive, often rivals that of their secular counterparts. But what if such fame actually does more harm than good?
Today, Katleyn Beaty explores this question at length, discussing how Christianity became an arena for celebrity, and why a celebrity-based culture makes little room for the traditional Christian virtues of humility, poverty, and accountability.
Similar episodes
- Interview with Kristin Du Mez
Resources mentioned this episode
- Middlemarch by George Eliot
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We live in an age full of lifehacks, self-help books, and productivity gurus. But for all of the tips and tricks we adopt in order to squeeze every ounce of production out of our days, many of us only end up busier and more stressed than we were before. What if there’s a better way to live a full, fruitful life?
"The world is bursting with wonder,” says Oliver Burkeman, “and yet it's the rare productivity guru who seems to have considered the possibility that the ultimate point of all our frenetic doing might be to experience more of that wonder." In this episode, he discusses his New York Times Bestselling book 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, dispelling many contemporary ideas about productivity, and instead suggesting a wonder-fueled, counterintuitive method for flourishing in the world.
Similar episodes:
- Interview with Rebecca DeYoung
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Raymond Kelly
- Catherine Andrews, "Why You're Going About Recovering from Perfectionism All Wrong"
-
Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
-
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes https://www.
- Transcription Link https://www.
-
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
***This is the special release of the unabridged interview with American Civil Rights hero Reverend James Lawson. You can find the normal shorter produced version in our podcast feed.
The American Civil Rights Movement, like Gandhi's Indian Independence Movement, was famously set apart by its employment of non-violent resistance methods. But have you ever wondered how such a movement was possible on so large a scale?
In this episode, we are honored to have the man who Martin Luther King Jr. called friend, mentor, and the very conscience and architect of the Civil Rights movement: Reverend James Lawson. He discusses America’s past and present, and what it took to organize a whole population across the country to fight back without throwing a punch. “We started the public desegregation of the nation,” he says, “and we did it without hating anybody.”
- Show Notes:
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Fellowship Of Reconciliation (F.O.R.)
-
Rev. James Lawson’s Church Holman United Methodist
-
PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The American Civil Rights Movement, like Gandhi's Indian Independence Movement, was famously set apart by its employment of non-violent resistance methods. But have you ever wondered how such a movement was possible on so large a scale?
In this episode, we are honored to have the man who Martin Luther King Jr. called friend, mentor, and the very conscience and architect of the Civil Rights movement: Reverend James Lawson. He discusses America’s past and present, and what it took to organize a whole population across the country to fight back without throwing a punch. “We started the public desegregation of the nation,” he says, “and we did it without hating anybody.”
- Show Notes:
- Resources mentioned this episode
- Fellowship Of Reconciliation (F.O.R.)
-
Rev. James Lawson’s Church Holman United Methodist
-
PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What does it mean to live a good life, and how do we start?
On our show, we make it a habit of repeating our tagline: “Exploring what it means to live a good life.” But in this episode, we address the issue head-on like never before, with the help of Notre Dame Professor of Philosophy Meghan Sullivan. We discuss her book “The Good Life Method,” which gives helpful insight about the kinds of questions philosophers and theologians have been asking for millennia: What does it mean to pursue a life worth living? What sort of end ought we keep in mind in all our doing and living and being? And how might we get there?
- Show Notes:
- On Bullshit by Harry G Frankfurt
- William James’ essay “The Will To Believe”
- PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Author of The Shack, William Paul Young, joins us on this episode of No Small Endeavor. At age 50, William Paul Young wrote the New York Times Best-selling novel “The Shack.” It went on to sell 25 million copies and was turned into a major motion picture. 11 years prior, Paul’s wife discovered he was having an extra-marital affair. With nothing left to hide, he began a journey toward healing and wholeness: dealing with his being abused as a child, dealing with the toxic “snow covered dung” theology of his inherited religious tradition; and his quest for control of his own image-management and the world around him. Subsequently, he wrote “The Shack” at age 50 for his 6 kids to express to them the nature of what he calls “Divine Love”. Paul shares how love, grace, and healing only happen in the present moment, and share some highly practical life experience that can transform one’s most intimate relationships.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How do you forgive someone who committed unspeakable horror against someone you love?
In 2015, 21-year-old white supremacist, Dylann Roof, was welcomed into a bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Minutes later, he opened fire and murdered nine members of the church. At his trial, the family members of those killed got the chance to speak to Roof publicly, voicing their pain; and some, in the midst of such anguish, publicly forgave him.
But Sharon Risher, whose mother was shot and killed by Roof that day, was not immediately ready to forgive her mother's killer; for her, it was a long, hard road to forgiveness. Today, we discuss Sharon’s book entitled "For Such a Time as This: Hope and Forgiveness After the Charleston Massacre," which explores her journey of grief, healing, and grace after her mother’s murder.
Show Notes:
- Mentioned in this episode
- Sharon’s book “For Such a Time as This: Hope and Forgiveness After the Charleston Massacre”
- President Obama’s eulogy for the victims
-
Sharon’s NYT article “I Wish the Jury Had Not Sentenced My Family’s Killer to Death”
-
Lee's Interview Notes
- Transcription Link
Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com
Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium
See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy
Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book | Joy & the Good Life Course |Searching for the Pattern Course
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In honor of MLK day, we're once again airing our conversation with Martin Luther King's first lawyer Fred Gray. We hope this episode celebrates the progress made toward justice and reminds us of the work yet to be done. Dr. Gray tells stunning stories of his work as a civil rights lawyer standing before the supreme court on multiple occasions, and what it was like to stand beside MLK and Rosa Parks in the fight for racial equity - a fight, he is careful to note, that is still ongoing.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What do our brains want more than chocolate, sex, or a sports car? What does your memory of long past events have to do with the apparently unrelated arguments and anxiety you are experiencing these days? Psychiatrist Curt Thompson discusses these questions from the perspective of both brain science and theology. A psychiatrist in private practice, Dr. Thompson has expertise in interpersonal neurobiology, and contends that a key to living a good life comes quite simply to this: “being known.” Lee and Curt discuss two of Curt’s books, “The Anatomy of the Soul” and “The Soul of Desire,” with conversation on trauma and anxiety, connection and community, and what your memory of long past events has to do with the apparently unrelated arguments you are having many years later.
Books discussed in this episode:
Anatomy of the Soul: Surprising Connections between Neuroscience and Spiritual Practices That Can Transform Your Life and Relationships
The Soul of Desire: Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community
Want more from Curt Thompson in conversation with Lee? Check out our earlier podcast episode with Curt on Curt’s book The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe About Ourselves.
Additional NSE episodes of related interest:
The Price of the Pursuit of Pleasure: Anna Lembke
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: John Mark Comer
What Hath Christianity to do with Psychology? Mark McMinn
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The folk-pop duo Johnnyswim, comprised of married couple Amanda Sudano and Abner Ramirez, discuss their reality television shows, their public marriage, their radically different childhoods, and their opinions about Christianity in America.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why are there different narratives around race in America? Some Americans believe that we are a “shining city on a hill” a beacon of truth and justice for the world, but anyone with eyes can see that there are some major contradictions in that narrative. James Baldwin called this “The Lie” and we discuss it in great detail with Dr. Eddie Glaude and his book Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and its Urgent Lessons For Our Own. The book is a powerful reckoning with America’s ongoing failure to confront the lies it tells itself about race. So when justice never seems to come how can we begin again?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Does religion make us happier? David Desteno discusses his book How God Works, in which he makes the argument, backed by research, that the wisdom of the world’s great religious traditions lines up with recent psychological and neuroscientific findings about what constitutes a good, flourishing life.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The civil rights movement was led by a host of brilliant and courageous men and women, among their ranks the lawyer Dr. Fred Gray. He was MLK's first attorney, he successfully argued before the Supreme Court multiple times, and he was a close friend of Rosa Parks. Today, he shares those stories, along with his thoughts on the ongoing fight for equity in the United States.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What happens when one of the country’s most outspoken critics of white male Christian political conservatism sits down with a well-known white male conservative Christian political pundit? Find out, as Kristin Du Mez and David French discuss politics, culture, and the desperate need for hospitality in the digital age.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The inaugural episode of No Small Endeavor, in which Lee discusses the reasons behind the name change, the mission entailed by the new name, and the centrality of conversation, courage, and community.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The final episode of Tokens Show (in a way). Jason Eskridge, Michael Hicks, and Odessa Settles discuss their experiences with tokenism, and Lee reveals why, given such realities, the Tokens Show has decided upon a new name.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are many parenting styles doing more harm than good? Alfie Kohn discusses the surprising psychology behind the widely practiced reward/punishment model of raising kids, and why we should “work with” our children instead of trying to control their behavior.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“Justice is what love looks like in public.” In this episode, Justin Jones discusses how his work for justice, particularly during a 62-day non-violent protest outside the Tennessee State Capitol, is itself an act of faith, steeped in self-denying love.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What do bourbon, bluegrass, and the Bible have in common? Just ask the Billboard charting Hillbilly Thomists, a group of Catholic Dominican Friars, clad in white tunics and rosaries—playing bluegrass music. Their name, Hillbilly Thomists, is indebted to the Catholic Southern Gothic writer Flannery O'Connor whose mixture of morbidity and grace show up in their songs. We assembled at the Soultrain Sound Studio in Nashville, TN to hear about their vocation, what life is like on the road as occasionally touring musicians, and their many songs including one entitled “Bourbon, Bluegrass and the Bible”.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“Good conversations create personal closeness,” says Heather Holleman. “When you have good conversations, it could intervene in the loneliness epidemic.” Today, she discusses the many tried-and-true methods for becoming better conversationalists – a skill that just might be a central key to human flourishing.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“If we are to take heart from the really good things about American history, we have no choice but to reckon first with the dark sides of it,” says Bill McKibben, a prominent journalist, author, and activist. One of the most prominent of environmental activists and authors, McKibben also discusses racial justice, the economic impact of suburbanization, and the relation of the Christian church to social change in America.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are we as good as we think we are? Virtue theory suggests that things like compassion, honesty, and courage are the keys to living a good, happy life. But Christian Miller brings to light a troubling reality: though we all want to be virtuous, it turns out that it doesn’t take much to get us to forsake our values.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In a culture brimming with wealth, upward social mobility, and endless access to pleasure, why are we only becoming more anxious, depressed, and unsatisfied? Dr. Anna Lembke makes a claim many of us don’t want to hear, though we know to be true: “Every pleasure has a cost, and that cost is pain.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is friendship really a key to being happy? We often make our quest for human flourishing a solitary one, focusing on making changes in our personal mindsets and habits. Yet, much ancient and modern wisdom suggests that we cannot do it alone. In this episode, Andy Gullahorn, Gabe Scott, and Antsy McClain share stories and songs – full of high fives and trailer parks – that showcase the importance of deep friendship and community.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Might we all be happier if we stopped taking ourselves too seriously? Singer-songwriters Andy Gullahorn and Antsy McClain describe how humor can make us comfortable enough to be vulnerable with each other.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hymns are often sentimentalized in the American church, cast aside as merely retired songs with dated language, bearing no real appeal or relevance. But of course it may be that our old hymnals have some crucial things to say to us in our current cultural moment. This is the challenge I posed to Odessa Settles, Phil Madeira, and Leslie Jordan: find and perform some old hymns which might be both indicting and encouraging to the modern church, and to the world at large. Beautiful conversation and moving performances, taped at Nashville’s Sound Emporium.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bluegrass as “progressive”? Might bluegrass, supposedly the province of hillbilly white folks, be a great deal more than mere nostalgic banjo-picking and fiddle-playing? Music historian and professor Greg Reish explores the social consciousness of bluegrass along with legendary guitarist Bryan Sutton. They discuss the roots of bluegrass in African-American blues, as well as its cultivation of community, and attention to the plight of the poor. Plus, Bryan gathered a band of bluegrass greats at the Sound Emporium for five live most outstanding performances: Becky Buller, Stephen Mougin, Wes Corbett, and Missy Raines.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How music gives voice to people on the margins; how lament and hope co-exist in songwriting; and wondering what one is really supposed to do with “turn the other cheek,” all with Joy Oladokun. Plus, she performs five of her songs live from Nashville’s Sound Emporium.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The New Respects discuss racism, religion, and what it’s like to be musicians who don’t quite fit the music industry mold: a predominantly female, all-black, genre-bending family band. Taped at Nashville’s Sound Emporium, with live performances of five of their songs.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Instagram culture, internet extremism, the Seven Deadly Sins, the hard work of parenting, learning how to grieve, and much more. Plus, KS performs five beautiful songs live from Nashville’s famed Sound Emporium.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are the “seven deadly sins” merely a medieval-era reflection upon divine finger-wagging? Rebecca DeYoung explains why the “seven deadly sins” is better understood as a diagnostic tool which may instead facilitate a joyful and flourishing life.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Does evolutionary theory destroy morality? Barrett contends that evolutionary psychology might instead provide guidance toward practices of sociability, community, and love.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A helpful conversation with Suzanne Stabile on the Enneagram: what it is, what it isn’t, and why it can be a helpful tool for the flourishing of the self and the community.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Edith Hall offers timely commentary on the virtue ethics of Aristotle: and how contemporary society may be missing fundamental keys to living life well.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What do Christians get wrong about Jesus? Prof. AJ Levine discusses common mis-readings of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’s stance on societal and gender norms, and how “Christian Fragility” impedes one’s ability to listen and learn.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
David French discusses the culture of animosity in which he finds himself as a political commentator; what it’s like to critique conservatism as a conservative; and why he thinks America’s classical liberalism may yet be salvageable.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The commodification of almost everything is one fact of life in the late modern capitalist world in which we live in the west. But commodification even of war? Justin Bronson Barringer joins us to discuss the business of war and the US military industrial complex.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is Conservative Christianity necessarily opposed to reason? Dr. Molly Worthen discusses the history of Protestant Evangelicalism, and how this tradition has often been “perhaps the most preoccupied with squaring reason with their understanding of faith.” A complex and fascinating tale.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“I did not go to divinity school to become a pastor. I went to figure out how people could read the Bible and not do justice.” Janet Wolf recounts her experiences doing justice and advocacy work in the face of misogyny, poverty, and racism as the first female Methodist pastor in Lawrence County, Tennessee.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“People are not so afraid of holding a wrong opinion, as they are of holding an opinion alone,” says public theologian Dr. Russell Moore, paraphrasing Soren Kierkegaard. In light of his recent book The Courage to Stand, we discussed the dangers of waging debate for the sake of hostility; the immense value found in cultivating the virtues of courage, prudence, and humility; and why he believes that “only the crucifiable self can find the courage to stand.” And these are not merely academic matters for Russell, having himself experienced trying times of intense public scrutiny from colleagues, friends, enemies, and Donald Trump.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Marty Dodson is an acclaimed country singer-songwriter in Nashville. A number of years ago, he and his wife felt compelled to move from their home in Franklin, a wealthy and predominantly white suburb, to East Nashville, a historically black neighborhood which has been the site of much gentrification over the past few decades. When they moved in, they were instantly welcomed by Stephanie Knight, their new neighbor, and a long-time resident of East Nashville. Following the tragic murder of George Floyd, Marty and his wife were walking in their neighborhood when they stopped to talk to Stephanie. A long, tear-filled conversation culminated in Stephanie’s heartbreaking statement: “I’m scared for my boys… I just want them to come home.” It was this conversation that led Marty to start writing “Black Mothers,” a haunting song reminiscent of the Hebrew prophet’s plea for “justice to roll down like waters.” Today, their story, along with a performance of the song they wrote together.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“What should the right level of profit be for a corporation?” In this episode, Jay Jakub discusses why this question must be asked in order for a business to thrive, and how a more holistic approach to capitalism might be adopted to unlock a company’s full potential. And maybe help save the world.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A special episode reflecting on over a decade of Thanksgivings spent at Nashville’s historic Ryman auditorium, with some of our favorite performances, sketches, and memories which we’ve shared together.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Robert P. Jones discusses the ways his research has led to a shocking conclusion: “If you take your average white American, and you add Christian identity, they move up the racism index, not down.” And such a confession, he says, is a necessary starting point before there can be any reconciliation.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“Most people are too busy to live emotionally healthy and spiritually vibrant lives.” In this episode, John Mark Comer discusses the importance of taking seriously spiritual formation in a culture of noise and speed; why willpower cannot do what we want it to do; and practical ways we might find and live the good, the true, and the beautiful.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, the world's largest gang-member rehabilitation program, in one of our most beautiful interviews to date. “You don't go to the margins to make a difference. You go to the margins so that the folks at the margins make you different."
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What role might race play in today’s ever-increasing gaps of social and economic inequality? And what might we be able to do about it? In this episode, Dr. Andre Churchwell explains how a life of cultivated virtue and diversity might be necessary to equip us to address such issues of injustice.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What if the seemingly-opposite political forces of Left and Right are really two sides of the same philosophical coin? Patrick Deneen discusses the ways in which the modern West has taken for granted its long-held philosophy of Liberalism, and why this philosophy is starting to show signs of an inevitable failure.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“It has to be the joyful journey for justice,” says Ben Cohen, the world-famous “Ben” in Ben & Jerry’s. In this episode, we hear from Ben how starting an ice cream business has given him the means to do justice with hope and humor.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A special episode, taped in front of a live audience, in which Cyntoia Brown Long chronicles her experience leading to and within the Tennessee prison system, and the dramatic, at times hard-to-believe nature of the grace and providence which led to her coming-to-faith and ultimate release.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The X-CLUB, and the invention of the supposed war between science and faith, with astro-physicist and theologian David Wilkinson of Durham University.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What does the resurrection of Jesus have to do with climate change? Chris Doran discusses why a rightly-seen eschatological hope should necessarily drive Christians towards climate care.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ever wonder about “everybody getting a trophy” and the cult of self-esteem? Kristin Neff discusses the potential dangers of self-esteem—like bullying and narcissism—and the preferred practice of self-compassion.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“Health inequities started with slavery,” says Dr. Quincy Byrdsong in this episode on healthcare inequities. We discuss at length the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis trials, and the persistent issues in healthcare and social justice. We close with a personal conversation about his experience as an African-American man, and how he has emotionally and professionally navigated doing such work.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The US, says Harvard Prof. David Hemenway, does not have a “violence problem” in comparison to other high-income countries in terms of robbery, assault, or burglary. But we have much more homicide and gun-related problems: “A child in the United States is much more likely to be murdered with a firearm than children in these other countries: We are twenty-nine times higher.” From the perspective of public health, what practical helps might there be? Listener discretion is advised.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College Randall Balmer tells of a meeting in Washington, DC that changed the course of his academic career, and set him on an unexpected investigation: the Religious Right’s origins is not to be located in the issue of abortion. Instead, he concludes, the movement began “to defend racial segregation.”
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Poet Christian Wiman discusses doubt and faith; the role of poetry “when the world is burning”; ways in which being raised in west Texas made him the poet and person he is; how “destitution and abundance are two facets of the one face of God”; along with four poem recitations.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Not so sure about Christians touting second amendment gun rights? A discussion with the editors of God and Guns: The Bible Against American Gun Culture, who challenge the too-easy pro-gun rhetoric of many American Christians.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble,” said Congressman John Lewis. Leigh Nash and Matt Maher met for a song co-write honoring Lewis’s wisdom, hoping to speak to issues of race in America. Knowing their white perspective was not sufficient for an honest song, some awkwardness and vulnerability led to a request of their third co-writer Ruby Amanfu. That gave rise to their moving song “Good Trouble.” Includes live performance.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Conservative American Christianity insists we must not let the wider culture determine what we do, and yet we see that happening precisely in the patriarchy that characterizes much of American Christianity. So argues Dr. Barr, in her critique of the subordination of women in the church. Plus live satire from Tokens Show’s own Brother Preacher, aka Greg Lee. This and more, all playing off Dr. Barr’s book The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Eugene Cho is a Korean-born immigrant to the United States and now activist and author. We discuss his moving and distressing childhood experiences at age six; his journey to Christianity; and how both those realities have given him insight and possibilities for service to the world, as well as put him at odds with both the right and the left in America.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Psychiatrist Curt Thompson joins Lee to discuss his book The Soul of Shame. They discuss the mechanism of shame, how it impedes joy, connection, creativity and human flourishing; and how vulnerability subverts shame. Don’t just listen to this one. Take notes, and try it… But it’s not for the faint of heart.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In light of the recent rise of anti-Asian-American hostility and violence, we interview Dr. Karen Korematsu, daughter of famed civil-rights activist Fred Korematsu, the namesake of the infamous 1944 Supreme Court Case Korematsu v. United States. Mr. Korematsu, a Japanese-American and American citizen, refused to comply with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s executive order which would have forced his re-location to an American “concentration camp.” In addition, we talk to Korean-born activist Eugene Cho, on his moving experiences as an American immigrant. Plus, live musical performances by Buddy Greene and the Most Outstanding Horeb Mountain Boys.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
An interview with Angela Williams Gorrell, Professor of Practical Theology at Baylor University, and author of a new book entitled The Gravity of Joy: A Story of Being Lost and Found. Angela recounts her own experiences with the sudden, tragic, and nearly simultaneous losses of three family members; how America’s current crisis of despair can be traced and understood through suicide and addiction rates; and the surprising ways in which gateways to joy can be found in the midst of deep grief; plus, additional commentary from Angela’s former boss at Yale, Miroslav Volf, on the connection between joy and sorrow.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
An interview with Kristin Du Mez, Professor of History and Gender Studies at Calvin University and author of a provocative new book entitled Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. In light of the fact that 81% of white evangelicals supposedly voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, many have tried to make sense of how “family values voters” could have supported Trump. Du Mez, in contrast, claims that this support of Trump was not in contradiction to, but consistent with, the deeper values of American evangelical Christianity. Regardless of your politics, you will not find this an episode that leaves you without some emotion.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
An interview with Katharine Hayhoe, one of the leading climate scientists in the United States, and author of a soon-to-be-released book entitled Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. Katharine and Lee discuss the supposed dichotomy between evangelical Christianity and climate science; the truth about some common climate change myths; and how Katharine, as an evangelical Christian herself, receives hate mail and death threats on an almost daily basis, and yet sees Christians as the perfect people to care about stewarding their responsibility to look after creation.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
An interview with Peter Harris, Anglican clergyman and founder of the highly esteemed Christian conservation non-profit A Rocha International. Peter and Lee discuss why the political polarization of the climate crisis in the United States is more an accident of history than a theological necessity; the ways in which fundamental Christian orthodoxy supports ecological conservation; and how, the preservation, or decimation, of much of the biosphere is dependent upon the choices of evangelical Christians.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A frequent guest on Tokens Show, Audrey Assad joins Lee to discuss her new memoir Doubt Becomes Wonder: Embracing the Loss of Everything You Thought You Knew. They discuss healing from childhood wounds, and the consequent navigation of doubt; and Audrey’s experience as a woman in the church. PLUS: two live studio performances.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Drew Holcomb, whom the Rolling Stone recently called “one of Americana’s Most Popular Stars,” talks with Lee about his surprising road through academia to becoming a singer-songwriter; the tragic loss of his younger brother; and what it’s like to have courage and hope as a songwriter, artist, husband, and father in the midst of the current polarized cultural moment. PLUS! Live in-the-studio-performances of two of his most moving songs: “You Never Leave My Heart” and “Dragons.”
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bill Cavanaugh, professor of Catholic studies at DePaul University, discusses with Lee his recent provocative article entitled "Electing Republicans has not Reversed Roe vs. Wade. It's Time to Change Our Strategy." in which Bill shares some shocking realities which are being little discussed and appear to be little known about the abortion debates in America. In addition, Lee and Bill discuss Bill’s book Torture and Eucharist on the Pinochet regime in Chile, along with a brief discussion of Bill’s book Being Consumed, in which Bill both critiques naïve notions of the “free market” while not advocating state socialism as the only other alternative.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
An interview with Megan Barry, former mayor of Nashville. Lee and Megan discuss the tragic subject of addiction and how it led to the accidental overdose and death of her son Max; what it has been like to find hope and healing in both the midst and aftermath of such a tragedy; what there may be to learn, both personally and communally, about the various stigmas and statistics currently surrounding the issue; and the ways, both large and small, in which the current epidemic of addiction may be fought.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
An interview with Justin McBrayer, Professor of Philosophy at Fort Lewis College, Executive Director of the Society of Christian Philosophers, and the author of a new book entitled Beyond Fake News: Finding the Truth in a World of Misinformation. Lee and Justin discuss the current crisis of a world plagued with false information, made worse by new media and technology; some surprising ways in which we ourselves often contribute in oblivious fashion to such a crisis; and some practices which we may adopt to combat the spread, both within ourselves and within our larger communities, of fake news.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
An interview with justice-seeker Lindsey Glenn Krinks on her experience as an advocate for the incarcerated, the sick, and the homeless; what it has been like to be a woman interested in the male-dominated field of theology; stories she has lived as a co-founder of Open Table Nashville, a nonprofit which seeks to disrupt cycles of poverty; and her new book, Praying with Our Feet: Pursuing Justice and Healing on the Streets.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
An interview with Alister McGrath, esteemed professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford, and one of the world’s leading Christian apologists. Lee and Alister discuss one of the great modern dichotomies of our day: the supposed mutually exclusive choice between science and faith; why the teachings and writings of Einstein played a significant role in undermining McGrath’s own former atheism; and why adhering to a more holistic, incorporative view of science, religion, and philosophy may lead us to a better understanding of ourselves and of the world.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A special episode chronicling the capital punishment case of Pervis Payne, an inmate for over three decades on Tennessee’s death row; a similar story from former death row inmate Ndume Olatushani; and commentary from author and activist Shane Claiborne about the Christian church’s complex relationship with capital punishment. Plus musical performances by Buddy Greene, Sonya Isaacs, Vince Gill, and Odessa Settles.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Each year since 2008 we've spent the Sunday before Thanksgiving at Nashville's Historic Ryman Auditorium for an evening centered on gratitude and hospitality. This special episode of the Tokens Podcast reflects on over a decade of Thanksgivings spent at the Mother Church of Country Music with some of our favorite performances.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Naomi Shihab Nye is the author and/or editor of more than 30 volumes, the Young People’s Poet Laureate, and as we used to say in Alabama, the winner of more awards than you can shake a stick at. In this sort of wisdom-of-the-ages interview, Naomi discusses kindness, the joy which accompanies sorrow, paying attention, and living life large. She also shares two of her well-known poems: “Kindness,” and “Gate A4.”
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A personal, unreserved and wide-ranging interview with Country Music Hall of Famer Vince Gill. Lee and Vince discuss why Vince has been writing songs of late about teen pregnancy, racial animosity, and sexual abuse; Merle Haggard as Vince’s “north star”; the time Vince opened for KISS; his own temper and his journey in understanding that temper; his public confrontation of the Westboro Baptist Church, and a question about his high-profile marriage with Amy Grant. Vince performs “Molly Brown” and “Price of Regret” for us in the studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Diana Oestreich, a combat veteran of the Iraq war, had a “desert experience” precipitated by her sergeant’s orders in a 4.00 a.m. combat convoy safety briefing. We discuss that story and the unfolding of her remarkable experiences deployed to a combat zone, the exercise of a new kind of courage, and her new book entitled Waging Peace: One Soldier's Story of Putting Love First
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
An interview with Dr. Willie James Jennings, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale University, on his book The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race. Jennings argues that the medieval European colonialist Christian vision imagined the entire globe in terms of a racist imagination; and that the continue to reap the consequences to this day; and that the Christian tradition does, in fact, have resources to re-imagine a new sort of world.
LINKS:
Dr. Jennings’ book, The Christian Imagination
Tokens Online Master Course with Miroslav Volf, Lee C. Camp, and John Mark Hicks.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Stanley Hauerwas was once dubbed by Time Magazine with the moniker, “America’s Greatest Theologian.” This is ironic because he’s spent much of his life criticizing American Christianity. Join us for our evening with Stanley, a beloved, profane, beautifully grumpy theologian, as he shares about non-violence, the story of Billy Dick, and a brief commentary on Christians and Donald Trump. PLUS: Stanley Hauerwas makes his acting debut with a stand-up comedy with the Tokens Radio Players.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Irish poet, peace-maker and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama joins Lee for a discussion on practices of peace-making, including peace with oneself. They both discuss the great significance of John 21 for their own lives. And Pádraig shares readings from his poems “The Facts of Life,” “The Pedagogy of Conflict,” and “Shaking Hands.”
LINKS:
Padraig Books:
In the Shelter
Sorry For Your Troubles
Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community
Readings from the Book of Exile
Tokens Online Master Courses
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Loretta Ross is a black feminist, a human rights activist, and an advocate for most things for the American political left. But in a recent New York Times opinion piece, she argues that American culture is sick with calling out, cancelling, and virtue signaling. Co-host Lauren White joins Lee Camp for a provocative conversation sure to be simultaneously celebrated and criticized by both right and left, which prescribes “calling in”—a call for accountability with love—as a creative and productive way forward.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark McMinn, Professor of Psychology discusses the presumed antagonism between Christianity and psychology; the recent new research findings which posit a much larger ground of overlap; The surprising consensus between new findings in psychology and traditional Christian virtue theory; one of the common denominators in cases of psychosis and depression; and Lee discusses some of his own experience with depression.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Charlie Strobel is a sort of elder-statesman in Nashville, a Catholic priest, and founder of Room in the Inn. In a moving conversation with Charlie about some of his most important life moments, Lee and Charlie discuss loneliness and solitude; therapy and the opening of the self; receiving hospitality from the homeless as a boy; and the murder of Charlie’s mother. Charlie shares things regarding which he says “Nobody really knows this, but I guess, I don't know if I should say it, but, well…”
LINKS: - Tokens Courses: tokensshow.com/courses
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Host Lee C. Camp in a recap of season one, wandering hither and yon through the archives: on the burning of the world; the apparent irrelevance of poetry, song, and story; the importance of shutting up and listening; on the refusal to practice “othering”; and the deep need for humility as a social virtue.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Author and story practitioner travels to some of the globe’s most contentious socio-political locales. He’s convinced you cannot argue people into a new way of seeing the world, you can only story them into new ways of thinking. In this compelling episode, we hear some of the troubling and violent, yet nonetheless hopeful, stories he’s learned. And we reflect upon personal practices of peace-making, with others and with ourselves.
LINKS:
Link to Michael’s book
Master Course with Miroslav Volf
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Grammy and Dove Award winner Ashley Cleveland holds back little, and discusses major life lessons: from her adolescent “bad habit of behaving badly” through the storm of subsequent consequences and recovery; plus a conversation about the south and race, a horrifying murder, and Anne Lamott’s wisdom about what we do, and do not, have time for.
Links:
Master Course with Miroslav Volf
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
No theology of grumpiness here: Miroslav Volf (Professor of Theology, and Director of the Center for Faith and Culture at Yale University) sketches some initial direction for a Theology of Joy. Volf himself having suffered under a communist regime, and his father have imprisoned in a forced labor camp, he provides compelling possibilities for joy in some of the most difficult of circumstances. AND: Brother Preacher makes an (intrusive) appearance.
LINKS: - Master Course with Miroslav Volf (get 50% off with code VOLF50): https://www.tokensshow.com/courses - Book: Exclusion and Embrace, Revised and Updated: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation - https://amzn.to/2ZPPbqF - Book: For the Life of the World: Theology That Makes a Difference (Theology for the Life of the World) - https://amzn.to/2ZM9t46 - Book: Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World - https://amzn.to/32CD9CD - Book: Allah: A Christian Response - https://amzn.to/2OGBzrb
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ian Cron, host of the Typology podcast and author of The Road Back to You, discusses finding himself and helping others find themselves, through the gifts of both recovery and the Enneagram. Facing resentments, as well as one’s shadow side, turn out to be key practices in becoming more truly human.
LINKS:
Ian’s Podcast, Typology
Tokens Online Courses
Tokens 2020 Subscriptions
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What do you get when a woman from north Alabama, raised conservative in most every way, goes to a private Christian college, earns her master’s degree in literature from another Christian college, and then earns a PhD in theology from Divinity School? A Christian feminist, of course. Get a crash course on feminism, and learn why and how Christianity made Lauren Smelser White a feminist.
LINKS:
- Join Tokens in 2020 for our online shows and courses: www.tokensshow.com/2020
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jewish Vanderbilt Divinity school Professor of New Testament AJ Levine, self-described as a Yankee Feminist, joins Tokens to talk about two of her books; but more, how she once wanted to be the pope, what she does not like about liberal Christians, and a marvelous telling of the parable of the Good Samaritan.
LINKS: Amy-Jill's books:
The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus https://amzn.to/38mDY3d Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi https://amzn.to/3dP2gEm Update on Jameel McGee: Tokensshow.com/ac More about Tokens: Tokensshow.com/2020
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Andrew Collins, a white, dirty cop, falsifies his testimony. A black innocent man, Jameel McGee, gets sentenced to ten years in the Federal Pen. This is the story of the unanticipated consequences of a false-arrest gone bad, and then gone bad again.
LINKS:
Convicted: An Innocent Man, the Cop Who Framed Him, and an Unlikely Journey of Forgiveness and Friendship
Tokens 2020 Subscriptions
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In the only instance of a papal address to a joint session of Congress, Pope Francis heralded Dorothy Day as one of four Americans worthy of great emulation. Host Lee C. Camp interviews Martin Doblmeier on his new film about Dorothy Day, along with his work on two other American theologians and activists Reinhold Niebuhr and Howard Thurman.
EPISODE LINKS:
Pope Francis Address
Dorothy Day Film
Howard Thurman Film
Reinhold Niebuhr film
Tokens 2020 Subscriptions
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
New York Times columnist David Brooks reflects upon the major themes from his book The Road to Character, including the possibility of grace awakening the desire to live a better life, making commitments, mothers, and Saint Augustine. Lauren White joins Lee Camp for a first co-hosting stint.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Three very different accounts of hospitality: one entails sneaking across the border in the back of a pick-up truck. Another entails seeking out a Muslim imam to say some things after September 11. And a third entails a radical subversion of southern racism through the exercise of both medical expertise, and kindness. Our episode on hospitality comprises an interview with author Brian McLaren, a spoken word performance by Leslie Garcia, and an interview with beloved Nashville performer Odessa Settles.
LINKS:
Brian’s book: "Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World" - https://amzn.to/2ZKmcVj
Tokens 2020 Subscriptions: www.tokensshow.com/2020
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The supposed conflict between faith and science, as typified in the debate between fundamentalist Christianity and the theory of evolution, turns out to be hiding some skeletons in its closet. This episode explores some crucial unknowns, and breaks down some false dichotomies, in conversations on site of the famed Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee with Pulitzer prize-winning author Ed Larson and celebrated activist and author Rachel Held Evans (who tragically passed away in 2019), as well as an interview at Pepperdine University with Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.
Find links to videos and photos from our show at the Rhea County Courthouse, along with historical photos and other helpful links on the episode page at www.tokensshow.com/blog/s1e4
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A follow-up to episode three with a special performance of Marie Howe's poem, "Part of Eve's Discussion" set to music by composer Stephen Lamb. Vocalist is Cindy Morgan, Alicia Enstrom and Katelyn Westergard on Violin, Kristin Wilkinson on Viola, Nicholas Gold on Cello.
More about the Tokens Podcast at tokensshow.com/podcast
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Host Lee C. Camp interviews the MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Jerry Mitchell on his new book Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era. The conversation discusses Jerry’s anger, his quest for justice, and the manner in which Jerry’s faith drove that quest, contributing to convictions in 24 of those cold Civil Rights era murder cases.
LINKS: - Website episode page: https://www.tokensshow.com/blog/s1e1 - Jerry Book link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451645139/ref=as_li_tl?camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1451645139&ie=UTF8&linkCode=as2&linkId=a9e1e3e6aa2da672a65d67843ffabcc3&tag=tokensshow-20
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Host Lee C. Camp invents a phrase: the “sunk-suffering fallacy.” Borrowing from the economists’ sunk-cost fallacy, the sunk-suffering fallacy provides a potential explanation for why some Christians tend to be so horribly partisan. Is there any way out of such a mess? Lee wonders about such questions in his interview with former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam. Haslam reveals an almost jarring key to the kingdom of doing public service, and some virtues to live by.
LINKS: - Website episode page: https://www.tokensshow.com/blog/s1e1
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A strange conversion experience has happened to religion here in the Bible belt: once known as a key to social transformation, these days it’s more likely the mechanism of socio-political conservatism. So perhaps one of the key questions to living life well in our contemporary world is how to get troubled. Poetry, anyone? The unlikely possibility that poetry could do anything of the sort is explored by former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, and former NY State Poet Laureate Marie Howe, as they both claim the possibility that poetry can do a great deal of troubling of the waters, can provide a counter-spell to the hypnotizing forces of either social hostility or consumerism.
LINKS:
Tracy K. Smith book, “Life on Mars: Poems”
Tracy K. Smith book, "Wade in the Water: Poems”
Marie Howe book, ”What the Living Do”
Marie Howe book, “Magdalene: Poems”
Tokens 2020 Subscriptions
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Host Lee C. Camp divulges a professional lie: that he is, perhaps, not really an ethicist. And, that trying to be an ethicist is much less helpful to the public good than, perhaps, being a theologian. And, that he suspects that secularist critics of public theology are quite right, in some important ways. And, thus, a new podcast is born.
Join the email list at www.tokensshow.com/podcast
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.