Impossible Beauty: Recent Episodes
Melissa Louise Johnson
The brand of beauty we are so often sold is way too small. It divides and dis-integrates us. Melissa Louise Johnson is on a mission to re-discover authentic beauty. Not the counterfeit kind reserved for the toned and airbrushed, but a lasting kind of beauty. Eternal and sacred. Living and moving all around us. Join Melissa as she interviews men and women who exude internal and eternal beauty in order to reshape cultural scripts. It's time we re-discover what beauty truly is.
The truth is what our minds dwell on forms us. The stories and images we behold imprint themselves on us, shape who we become, and impact how we see the world. In this way, our imaginations are powerful. In today’s episode, Lanta Davis helps us better understand the power of our imaginations and how what we dwell on forms who are becoming.
Lanta Davis is professor of humanities and literature in the John Wesley Honors College at Indiana Wesleyan University and the author of Becoming by Beholding: The Power of the Imagination in Spiritual Formation. Her writing has appeared in Christianity Today, the Christian Century, Smithsonian Magazine, Plough, and Christ and Pop Culture. In my time with Lanta, she discusses the importance of training our imaginations, why the imagination is a ‘stamp for the soul,’ and how and why it’s important to allow beauty to shape our imaginations.
Lanta’s insights are fascinating and formational; I can’t wait for you to listen to our conversation.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
It seems like wellness influencers are everywhere these days: often touting diet and exercise habits, alongside a certain aesthetic, as the pathway to health and self-optimization. But what happens when this cultural trend gets conflated with Christian ideas, or as Kelsey McGinnis says it, when such ideas get “faith washed”?
Kelsey Kramer McGinnis is a writer, musicologist, and the co-author of The Myth of Good Christian Parenting: How False Promises Failed a Generation of Evangelicals. Kelsey is also a regular contributor to Christianity Today, where she reports on worship practices, the music industry, and church culture. She also teaches music, theology, and social justice as a lecturer at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa.
In my time with Kelsey, she shares research from her upcoming book, including what Christian diet and wellness culture is, its history, and how it can become problematic. We also discuss the rising prevalence of the fixation on ‘healthy eating,’ how certain Christian subcultures have adopted this trend, and when such a fixation might not be so healthy.This is such an important episode. I can’t wait for you to listen.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Emma Ward is a licensed marriage and family therapist who specializes in trauma and relationships, helping people name what they feel so they can heal what they carry.
Emma is an Irish immigrant, living in the U.S. for 12 years, who integrates theological depth into her clinical work. She helps clients move from emotional suppression to emotional honesty, all grounded in the transformative power of God’s love.
In my time with Emma, she shares how we are so often taught to fear, suppress, or spiritualize away emotions and how learning to feel is one of the most courageous things we can do. She also discusses why naming our emotions is so important, where she sees beauty in the work of emotional healing, and how love is central to all of it.
*Learn more about E-motion Monsters here.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
After turning 60, Deb Benfield began questioning societal messages around aging, vitality, and beauty, and quickly realized how many resources still centered weight loss and youth as ultimate goals. In response, she created what she couldn’t find: a framework for nourishing the body that honors inner wisdom, prioritizes quality of life, and embraces the full spectrum of aging.
Deb Benfield, M.Ed., RDN, LDN, RYT is a Nutrition Therapist, Registered Dietitian, and Body Image Coach with 40 years of experience helping people heal their relationship with food, movement, and their bodies.
In my time with Deb, we discuss her book, Unapologetic Aging: How to Mend and Nourish Your Relationship with Your Body. Specifically, she discusses harmful trends and limiting beliefs regarding ageism, diet and wellness culture, and body shame. She also shares recommendations for caring for our bodies in in this important life stage and reminds us that midlife and beyond holds the opportunity to emerge as your most authentic self.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
As we enter Holy Week, I can’t imagine a more appropriate conversation than the one I recently had with author and pastor, Donnie Berry. Donnie is an instructor of New Testament and biblical theology with Training Leaders International and the author of The Earth Will Be Filled: A Biblical Theology of the Glory of God.
In our time together, Donnie discusses the glory of God; a topic I’ve heard about for years but have not felt confident I’ve ever understood what it means. Donnie shares how understanding God’s glory can change the way we live and how the life, death and resurrection of Jesus reveals God’s glory. He also highlights the depths of Jesus’ self-giving love displayed on the cross, taking the brokenness we experience on himself to restore us to God and to our true humanity.
In my conversation with Donnie, I felt like I heard familiar topics in a new way, a way that spoke to areas of brokenness I’ve experienced recently. My hope is that the same might happen for you. May this conversation meet you where you’re at and may it bring you hope.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
It was an encounter with beauty that changed Winfield Bevins’ life. As a result, Winfield quit his job and founded Creo Arts, a non-profit that exists to bring beauty, goodness, and truth to the world through the arts.
Dr. Winfield Bevins is an internationally recognized author and artist. He is also an affiliate professor at several academic institutions and artist-in-residence at Asbury Theological Seminary, where he champions the integration of art, theology, and mission.
In today’s episode, Winfield discusses his latest book, entitled How Beauty Will Save the World: Recovering the Power of the Arts for the Christian Life. Specifically, he highlights a renewed longing for beauty and transcendence he’s noticed recently, both inside and outside the church, as well as a Renaissance of the arts in communities of faith. Winfield also shares what art teaches all of us, how beauty brings hope into the world, and why we are all invited to be missionaries of beauty.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
How might our days and conception of beauty change, if we started our morning with God, the author and origin of beauty itself? This is the exact topic we tackle in today’s conversation with Tara Beth Leach.
Tara Beth is an author, speaker, and the senior pastor at Good Shepherd Church in Naperville, Illinois. In today’s conversation, she shares about her latest book, The Great Morning Revolution: Daily Spiritual Practices for Meaningful Moments with God. Specifically, Tara Beth discusses how an invitation from God to connect with Him in the morning changed her life, rhythms, and perspectives amidst a desolate season of loss.
She also shares how connecting with God in this daily rhythm not only can make us more attentive to God, but can help us live into a truer understanding and experience of beauty. As Tara Beth says, “We were made to be in relationship with the most beautiful one of all.” May our mornings be an opportunity to connect with the One our hearts are made for.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Anna Rollins is the author of Famished: On Food, Sex, and Growing Up as a Good Girl. Anna’s debut memoir examines the rhyming scripts of diet culture and evangelical purity culture, both of which direct women to fear their own bodies and appetites.
Anna is an award-winning instructor who taught English in higher education for nearly 15 years, and her writing has appeared in outlets like The New York Times, Slate, Electric Literature, Salon, Joyland, and more. In today’s episode, Anna shares how societal messages around beauty and body image contributed to her struggles with disordered eating. We also discuss Anna’s research on purity and diet culture’s impacts on women’s relationships with their bodies and food, as well as how the concept of self-control might be helpfully framed as we enter the season of Lent.
My hope is that as we name and shed unhelpful theologies related to food and our bodies, we might find more freedom, healing, and wholeness.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Kids and teens these days face all kinds of stressors, including pressures around beauty and body image. In today’s episode I talk with Dr. Chinwé Williams all about the power of connection in building both emotional resilience and body image resilience in kids and teen.
Dr. Chinwé Williams is a speaker, best-selling author, and Licensed and Board-Certified therapist whose expertise includes child and adolescent development, women’s wellness, & anxiety and trauma management. In today’s conversation, we discuss Dr. Williams' most recent book, entitled Calm, Courageous, and Connected: A Parent's Guide to Raising Emotionally Resilient Kids. Specifically, she discusses how and why building emotional resilience is a relational posture, how she sees beauty and body image pressures impacting kids and teens, and the emotional impact of young people getting the message that their value comes from their appearance.
Dr. Williams' insights are both wise and encouraging. May you leave this conversation feeling empowered to see and connect more deeply with the young people in your life.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
On this week’s episode, we talk about current societal trends impacting women and girls, leading them to believe that they are always on show and that the way they look is the most important thing about them. Thankfully, we have a trusted companion to do so in Oona Hanson.
Oona Hanson is an educator and parenting coach. Through her writing, workshops, and private consultations, she supports families in raising kids who have a healthy relationship with food and their body. She has been featured in television programs, like Good Morning America, and her work has been featured in various publications, including People, USA Today, US News & World Report, Today, CNN, and The Washington Post.
In our time together, we unpack a recent article Oona wrote on her Substack, entitled, The Life of a Girl Who’s Always on Show: Help Your Daughter Navigate a World That’s Constantly Judging Her Looks. Specifically, we talk about the showgirl imagery in Taylor Swift’s latest album, how we might interact with the next generation around the prevalence of weight loss ads, and the recent TikTok, now banned hashtag, #skinnytoc.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
On this podcast, I am committed to helping listeners (and myself) understand beauty in its truest, most life-giving sense. And that is why I am so excited to start the new year with David Taylor as today’s guest.
David Taylor is a theologian, author, speaker, priest, and director of initiatives in art and faith. As Associate Professor of Theology & Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, he has lectured widely on the arts, from Thailand to South Africa. He has also written for The Washington Post, Image Journal, Theology Today, Worship, Religion News Service, and Christianity Today, among others. Additionally, in 2016 he produced a short film with Bono and Eugene Peterson, entitled Bono and Eugene Peterson: THE PSALMS.
In today’s episode, David not only gives us a behind-the-scenes look at his class on beauty at Fuller Seminary, but also shares his own biblically grounded understanding of what true beauty is. David also uncovers lies about beauty he sees at work in Western society, discusses how we might navigate aging in a broken world, and helps us see how we can know God in and through the arts. My hope is that this conversation will leave you feeling deeply encouraged, as you are reminded that true beauty is alive and at work in the world.
David's latest book: Naming the Spirit: Pneumatology Through the Arts
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Amidst the busyness of the Christmas season, it can be hard to take the time to slow down and contemplate the breadth and depth of Jesus’s birth. In today’s episode, Trillia Newbell helps us do just that.
Trillia is the author of numerous books, including Bible studies, children’s books, and non-fiction titles, such as her latest book:Behold, The Lamb of God Has Come: Celebrating the 25 Days of Christmas Together. Trillia also supports other writers as the Acquisitions Director at Moody Publishers.
In today’s conversation, Trillia invites us to reflect on the character and work of Jesus, as well as how the Christmas story helps us persevere in faith amidst a broken world. Trillia also helps us see why societal beauty standards are unhelpful and, instead, invites us to embrace the beauty of diversity. My hope is that this conversation may open your mind and heart anew to the beauty and hope that the Christmas season brings.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Amidst the inreasing pressures of beauty culture to run from any hint of aging, it makes sense that cosmetic procedures and skincare products are surging in popularity. And, yet I wonder if we might meet aging in a different way. And that’s where Joyce Rupp comes in.
Joyce Rupp is the author of numerous bestselling books, an international retreat leader, a conference speaker, was a volunteer with hospice for fifteen years, and is a member of the Servites or Servants of Mary community. In today’s conversation, Joyce helps us see aging from a more life-giving perspective and expands our view of what beauty is and what role it plays in our transformation. Joyce also shares about her own faith journey and how she persists in knowing God as good and beautiful amidst a very broken world.
May this conversation ground you in knowing a deeper beauty that is already present in you and all around you.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
In 2013, after 16 years of hospital and community work, Registered Dietician and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist, Jessica Setnick, closed her private practice to fulfill her mission of educating primary care professionals about eating disorders, dysfunctional eating behavior, and how to best promote recovery and prevention. In addition to speaking and authoring numerous publications, Jessica also mentors the next generation of eating disorder professionals through case consultation and supervision.
In my conversation with Jessica, she discusses how shame and fear-based messages in the health care field often make people's eating issues worse, as well as the normalization and prevalence of disordered eating behaviors in American society. Jessica also addresses recent food trends like orthorexia and clean eating and when trying to eat healthily becomes unhealthy.
In our conversation and in her work, such as in her Heal Your Inner Eater Workbook and workshop, Jessica helps all of us take a step back and evaluate what our food behaviors and beliefs are and if they bring us life.
These topics and Jessica's work are important for all of us who have been exposed to the inundation of diet and wellness culture; may this conversation help you find greater wholeness in your relationship with food and your body.
Link to handout on Orthorexia: Positive vs. Pathological Nutrition
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
On this podcast I seek to redefine beauty as “the life of God at work in us and all around us.” In today's episode, Courtney Ellis helps us experience the life of God at work in nature, specifically among birds.
Courtney Ellis is an author, speaker, pastor, and host of The Thing with Feathers Podcast. She holds a master’s degree in English literature from Loyola University, a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and alongside her husband, she pastors Presbyterian Church of the Master in Orange County, California.
In my time with Courtney, we discuss her latest book, Looking Up: A Birder’s Guide to Hope Through Grief. Courtney shares how birding can be a gateway to a deepening awareness of beauty in the world, how it can lead us to hope, and why she sees birding as a spiritual practice. In short, Courtney helps us see that birds remind us that God is at work all around us and that He is with us; all we have to do is look up.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Gretchen Andrew left Silicon Valley for the art world and now refers to herself as a “Search Engine Artist.” Gretchen uses her experience as a former computer scientist at Google and her artist training in London with Billy Childish to “hack systems of power with art, code, and glitter,” as she states it, and helps make invisible parts of technology visible. Her work has been featured in outlets such as The Washington Post, Fortune Magazine, CNN, The Los Angeles Times, and The Financial Times, among others.
In my time with Gretchen, we discuss her latest limited series, entitled Facetune Portraits: Universal Beauty, currently featured at The Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan. In this series, and in our time together, Gretchen helps us see how AI is shaping beauty standards, the pressures those standards create, and the resulting invisible scars of these developing technologies. Given the rapid pace and pervasiveness of these technologies’ impacts, this conversation is such an important one. I can’t wait for you to listen and learn more.
**Also, please know that at points this conversation includes some mature themes, in case you’d like to be mindful of when and where you listen to this episode.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Ellen Wildman decided she didn’t want to hate her body anymore. So, she set out on a journey to heal and change that relationship. In today’s episode, Ellen tells us about her journey of healing and self-acceptance and the book that she wrote as a result.
Ellen Wildman holds an MA in Biblical and Theological Studies from Denver Seminary and is the author of Single and Not Sorry and most recently, Already Whole: 90 Devotions for Being at Home in the Body God Gave You. In my time with Ellen, we discuss lies from beauty and diet culture that get in the way of partnering with our bodies, how we can shift from our bodies being a project or enemy to our partner, and what it means to be made in the image of God. As you listen to our conversation, may grace, healing, and wholeness infuse your relationship with your body as well.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
The tricky part about diet culture is that it oftentimes masquerades as health and wellness. Given that, in today’s episode, Leslie Schilling and I discuss and even debunk some of today’s most prevalent wellness trends.
Leslie Schilling is a registered dietitian, sports nutritionist, nutrition therapist, and the author of Feed Yourself: Step Away from the Lies of Diet Culture and into Your Divine Design. Leslie also served as a performance nutrition consultant for Cirque du Soleil®, is an expert contributor to U.S. News & World Report, and has been featured in media outlets like Health, Women's Health, Self, Pregnancy Magazine,Yoga Journal, The Huffington Post, and on HGTV.
In our time together, Leslie discusses the oftentimes disordered nature of clean eating, including her thoughts on Whole 30. She also gives important insight on increased fears regarding sugar consumption, as well as artificial dyes. As you’ll hear today, Leslie is an advocate for helping her clients, and people in general, find peace with food and their bodies. I hope that’s exactly what this conversation moves you toward today.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
After struggling with doubt for years, Zach Windahl committed to an intensive Bible study program in Australia that completely transformed his life and changed his thoughts on the Bible. Since then, he has written The Bible Study, which has since sold over 500,000 copies, and launched The Brand Sunday, a company that creates resources that help people engage with God’s Word. In short, Zach’s mission is to simplify the Bible so anyone – no matter their background – can understand it, apply it, and grow in their faith.
In today’s conversation with Zach, we dive into his new book, The Bible Simplified and discuss why and how the Bible is relevant to and transformational for modern readers, what the Bible teaches us about authentic beauty, and how Zach maintains belief in a good and beautiful God in a world so full of struggle and suffering.
I found this conversation to be so inspiring; I hope it is for you too.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Most often, this podcast focuses on struggles with beauty and body image among women. Today, however, I want to give us a glimpse into the widespread nature of struggles around food, exercise, and body image among men.
Eric Pothen is a Certified Eating Disorder Recovery Coach who works primarily with men and knows firsthand the journey of eating disorder recovery. In particular, Eric works with clients navigating eating disorder recovery, disordered eating, and body image struggles, helping them break free from the grip of food rules, body shame, and self-doubt.
In today’s conversation, Eric helps us better understand the differences between disordered eating and eating disorders, why men are often hesitant to seek help for struggles with food and body image, names some of the disordered trends he sees at work in our culture when it comes to food and body image, and gives us helpful reminders of how we might all work toward greater wholeness in these areas.
I can’t wait for you to listen in to this important conversation!
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
American culture is full of striving: hustling at work, pushing ourselves in the gym, working to be beautiful or good enough. In today’s conversation, I have the gift of talking with Kimberly Stuart about the concept of grace; how to apply it amidst our culture and why it’s entirely miraculous and worth revisiting.
Kim Stuart is the author of eight published novels, a speaker, a writing coach alongside author Bob Goff, co-leads writing retreats, and hosts two podcasts, For Real with Kimberly Stuart and The Writing Room. In today’s conversation, Kim shares about her latest book, Star for Jesus and Other Jobs I Quit: Rediscovering the Grace that Sets Us Free. In particular, Kim discusses what drew her to the topic of grace, how we might reframe perfectionism, what living a great story looks like, and how we can use our agency to redefine beauty in our lives.
This was such a fun and meaningful conversation; I can’t wait for you to listen!
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
When discussing the topic of true beauty, it’s also important to talk about the times when life isn’t so beautiful. In today’s discussion, with Michelle Keener, that’s exactly what we tackle.
Michelle K. Keener (PhD, Liberty) is an adjunct professor of Christianity at Houston Christian University, as well as associate research fellow with the Kirby-Laing Centre for Public Theology. She is also the director of discipleship for a growing church in Las Vegas and an award-winning novelist and devotional author.
In our time together, we discuss Michelle’s latest book, Comfort in the Ashes: Explorations in the Book of Job to Support Trauma Survivors. Michelle helps us see how we can be a loving, healing presence to those undergoing struggles, how the church can be more helpful and attentive to those undergoing or recovering from trauma, and what Job teaches us about the beauty of God amidst suffering.
My hope is that this conversation will help you feel less alone in any struggle you may be undergoing and, as Michelle says, may we experience God to be our place of refuge.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
About ten years ago, Elise Hu moved to Seoul, South Korea and took a deep dive into the world of K-Beauty culture. Elise is a journalist, podcaster, and the author of Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital. She is the host of TED Talks Daily, a co-host of Forever 35, a host-at-large for NPR, and the host of Accenture’s award-winning Built for Change podcast. She is also the co-founder of the podcast production company Reasonable Volume.
In today’s conversation, Elise opens our eyes to South Korea’s intense appearance expectations and how some of those same K-Beauty trends have now made their way into American culture. She discusses how the digital world is impacting beauty standards, including increasing the pressure on all of us to “optimize” our appearance, and how K-Beauty culture’s emphasis on flawless skin has made its way into Western beauty culture in significant ways.
Most importantly, Elise reminds us that beauty is so much bigger than societal standards and that our worth has nothing to do with our appearance. This is such an important episode; I can’t wait for you to listen!
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Do you ever struggle with fear or anxiety? In today’s episode, author and pastor, Naeem Fazal shares how beauty can help us overcome fear in our lives.
Naeem Fazal is the founding and lead pastor of Mosaic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is a Pakistani, born and raised as a Muslim in Kuwait. He came to the United States shortly after the Gulf War and had a supernatural experience with Jesus that changed the course of his life.
In our time together, Naeem shares about his unexpected and life-changing conversion experience, as well as about his new book, Tomorrow Needs You: Seeing Beauty When You Feel Hopeless. In particular, he discusses his belief that beauty is the antidote to fear, why we need to put fear on a leash, and how we can practically allow beauty to speak loudest in our lives.
This is such an inspiring episode; I can’t wait for you to listen!
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Bruce Herman is a painter, writer, speaker, and the author of Makers by Nature: Letters from a Master Painter on Faith, Hope, and Art. Bruce also taught studio art for nearly four decades at Gordon College and his art has been exhibited internationally and is in public and private collections worldwide.
In our time together, Bruce reminds us that, being made in the image of the Creator God, we have all been created to create. He also awakens us to the miracles all around us, discussing how God’s own being is revealed in the things He’s made. As a master painter, Bruce’s insights on beauty in the human face and figure, as well as in the world around us, are profound and distinct. I found this interview to be deeply inspiring; I hope it is for you as well.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Have you ever asked the question, “what is God’s will for my life?” or “does my life have purpose?” If so, today’s episode is for you. And, thankfully, I couldn’t think of a better conversation partner for these topics than Trevor Hudson.
Trevor Hudson is an ordained minister in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. After spending fifty years doing pastoral ministry in a local congregation, he now gives his time to lecturing, teaching, and writing in the areas of spiritual formation and spiritual direction.
In our time together, we discuss his latest book, In Search of God’s Will: Discerning a Life of Faithfulness and Purpose. Trevor shares practical ways to discern God’s personal will for your life, helping you to become the unique person God has shaped you to be, and ultimately allowing us the privilege of participating in the hope of the entire universe. In profound and inspiring fashion, Trevor reminds us of God’s nearness and active presence in our lives, as well as the true character and astounding love of God.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Rasa Troup, MS, RD, CSSD, LD, OLY is a Registered and Licensed Dietitian with over 20 years of experience. She also owns Rasa Nutrition where she helps clients create a healthy relationship with food. Rasa also competed in the Beijing Olympics and has served as a trusted voice regarding nutrition for various communities, including The Minnesota Vikings, The Minnesota Twins, The University of Minnesota Athletics, The Emily Program, and TRia Orthopedic, among others.
In our time together, Rasa shares about her own struggles with nutrition as a competitive athlete and Olympian. She also highlights common lies in the field of nutrition, such as certain bodies having more value (based on their size and shape), as well as health having a ‘look.’ Rasa also gives important insight regarding the recent rise in the use of GLP-1 medications, including potential dangers to be considered. Overall, Rasa demonstrates the importance of flexibility and non-perfection when it comes to nutrition and so helpfully reminds us that our bodies indeed do not need to be fixed.
Informed Consent for GLP-1 medications document discussed in this episode:
https://sizeinclusivemedicine.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/MSSI-GLP1-Informed-Consent-10.pdf
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
The truth is that our soul is always being formed by something. In today’s inspiring interview with Jennifer Tucker, she shares how Christian meditation on Scripture has formed her soul in profound ways. Jennifer Tucker is a bestselling author, artist, graphic designer, follower of Jesus, and an advocate for mental health.
In our time together, Jenn shares about her new book, Present in Prayer: A Guided Invitation to Peace Through Biblical Meditation. Specifically, she shares how mindfulness and Christian meditation have deeply shaped her, especially in recent seasons of struggle. She also helpfully reframes anxiety as an invitation to connect with God and shares how mindfulness and Christian meditation can help us redefine beauty. I can’t wait for you to listen to this episode!
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Each of us reflects a unique beauty in the world. In today’s episode, Dr. Merry Lin invites us into the process of embodying our truest essential self in the world.
Dr. Merry is a clinical psychologist, author, and podcaster with over 30 years of clinical experience. She is also the Executive Director of Dr. Lin & Associates where she leads a team of psychotherapists, leadership and life coaches and HR Management consultants.
In our time together, Dr. Merry shares about her latest book, Rebecoming: Come Out of Hiding to Live as Your God-Given Essential Self. She discusses what the essential self is, why it’s so important for us to uncover our essential self, and how it impacts the world around us when we do. Dr. Merry also shares how she sees societal beauty standards impacting women and how rebecoming our essential selves moves us more fully into experiencing true beauty.
God has created each of us with incredible artistry and creativity. This episode opens our eyes and hearts to see that unique beauty within ourselves and in the those around us.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Melanie Penn is a Nashville based songwriter at the crossroads of faith and culture. Melanie was a mainstay in the theatre scene in New York City for several years, most notably playing Sandy on the Broadway national tour of Grease!
After Broadway, Melanie transitioned to songwriting and has collaborated with Nashville producer, Ben Shive, on five albums, including the Immanuel project, detailing Melanie’s songwriting journey through the Christmas story.
In my time with Melanie, we discuss her transition from Broadway to songwriting, and the helpfulness of attending to our emotions in decision making and discernment. She also shares about the experience of losing her dad. In that discussion, Melanie reminds us of humanity’s need for rescue and the hope we celebrate this Christmas season. Also, amidst society’s fear-based messages around getting older, Melanie reframes aging as an opportunity to become more alive.
I can’t wait for you to listen to this inspiring conversation with Melanie Penn.
Melanie's song, More Alive.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Because of our unique identities, passions, and gifts, each one of us embodies a unique beauty in the world. Each of us is a limited edition. In today’s episode, international speaker, theologian, apologist, and author, Amy Orr-Ewing unpacks the beauty of authenticity and encourages us to find our own unique voice.
More specifically, Amy discusses her latest book, Lead Like the Real You: Wisdom for Women on Finding Your Voice, Pursuing God’s Calling, and Leading with Courage, sharing important insights on the uniqueness of leading as a woman at home, at work, or in ministry. She also dives into some of life’s big questions, including how she holds fast to the beauty of God amidst the brokenness of life. So, if you’re needing a reminder of your unique beauty or perhaps the goodness and beauty of God, this conversation is for you.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
I am so grateful to be welcoming Dr. Charlotte Markey back to the podcast today. Dr. Markey is a body image expert, professor of psychology and director of the Health Sciences Center at Rutgers University-Camden. She has authored several books, including her latest release, Adultish: The Body Image Book for Life.
Dr. Markey also writes monthly for U.S. News and World Report and Psychology Today, focusing on individuals’ eating behaviors, body image, and health. She has also been featured in and interviewed by The New York Times, The Economist, The Today Show, ABC News, Time Magazine, and Mens Health, among others.
In our time together, Dr. Markey shares how societal messages can influence body image and how body image is connected to mental health. We also discuss how diet culture currently presents as “health and wellness” and how an overemphasis on “healthy” or “clean eating” might not actually be good for our overall wellbeing. Dr. Markey also shares how changing our bodies doesn’t actually improve body image and presents us with practices to confidently inhabit our bodies.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Alastair Sterne’s invitation to joy was an unexpected one. Ironically, it was while struggling with depression that he started to pay attention to the full array of his emotions, including joylessness.
In this fascinating conversation with creative director turned pastor, Alastair Sterne, he discusses his latest book, Longing for Joy: An Invitation to the Goodness and Beauty of Life. Alastair is currently the associate pastor at Coastline Church in Victoria, British Columbia. In our time together, he talks about why joy can be so elusive, how we can hold joy alongside suffering, how joy connects us to God, and practical ways we can cultivate joy. Regardless of where you are emotionally today, Alastair’s insights are sure to inspire and encourage you.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
In a turbulent world filled with so much darkness, where and how can we find hope? Furthermore, what role might we play in embodying real hope in a very broken world. These are the kinds of questions I tackle on the podcast today with Tara Beth Leach.
Tara Beth is an author, speaker, and the senior pastor at Good Shepherd Church in Naperville, Illinois. Her most recent publication is a six-week Bible study entitled, Live in the Light: Radiating the Hope of the Letters of John. In our time together, Tara Beth shares about the important role the church plays in living out light and hope in a broken world. She also talks about how we might live in a grounded and authentic hope and what has inspired her in the belief that, in the end, light wins. Tara Beth also shares some important distinctives of authentic beauty, versus societal ideals she sees at work inside and outside of the church.
So, if you’re needing a reminder of what true beauty is or where hope might be found, this episode is for you.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
After having two miscarriages, followed by the sudden loss of her husband, Dawn Mann Sanders felt like it was the end of her world as she knew it. Dawn is a Bible teacher and author of When Your World Ends: God’s Creative Process for Rebuilding a Life.
In her book, and in today’s conversation, Dawn shares what she’s learned about rebuilding after significant loss, as well as what the creation story in the book of Genesis taught her about her own process of grief and rebuilding. If you’re looking for hope and purpose on the other side of loss, this conversation is for you.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
So often the fitness industry can feel intimidating, while messages around health and wellness can be confusing or fuel fear and anxiety. And that’s where Michael Ulloa comes in.
Michael is an online personal trainer and performance nutritionist. In his online platforms, and in his work with clients, Michael is calling nonsense on unhelpful or ill-advised fitness and nutrition messages. With a background in occupational therapy, he takes a holistic approach to client care, bringing lightness, balance, and joy to the fitness, health, and wellness space.
In my time with Michael, he talks about his own journey, falling prey to fitness content and struggling with body image, as well as the lies he sees at work in the fitness industry. He also discusses how he sees cultural beauty standards influencing the fitness industry and tips for navigating fitness and nutrition content. So, if you’re looking for clarity and balance in your journey with food and movement, this conversation is for you.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
After leaving her childhood home on the island of Bonaire in the Caribbean, author, slow-living guide, and podcaster, Jodi Grubbs, had assumed the rapid pace and hustle culture in the U.S. Soon, she realized that burnout had crept in, and God was inviting her to a return to the "island time" of her past.
In her book, Live Slowly: A Gentle Invitation to Exhale, and in today’s conversation, Jodi invites us to grasp a more sustainable approach to life, anchored by the pauses of spiritual practices and an openhandedness before God. Jodi desires to give us all permission to slow down, to see what we’re missing when we don’t slow down and shares practical ways to adopt more gentle life rhythms. She also kindly shares about more tender parts of her journey, such as learning to trust God again after losing her first husband.
If you’re ready to take a deep breath and settle into a slower, more intentional way of life, this conversation is for you.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Amidst the pressures and messages of diet and wellness culture, it can be hard to know how to help the next generation establish a healthy relationship with food. And that’s where Oona Hanson comes in.
Oona Hanson is an educator and parenting coach. Through her writing, workshops, and private consultations, she supports families in raising kids who have a healthy relationship with food and their body. Oona also worked as a Family Mentor at Equip, where she was part of a multidisciplinary care team treating children with eating disorders. She has been featured in television programs, like Good Morning America, and her work has been featured in various publications, including People, USA Today, US News & World Report, Today, CNN, and The Washington Post.
In our time together, Oona discusses what lies from diet culture she sees at work in the lives of the families she works with, how a focus on “healthy eating” can become harmful, myths and misunderstandings about eating disorders, and ideas on how to help kids and teens develop a life-giving relationship with food. If you’re looking for help walking away from diet culture and modeling something different for the next generation, this episode is for you.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Given the pain and suffering in the world, when life isn’t so beautiful, it can be hard to know how to interact and relate with God. In today’s episode, Dieula Previlon helps us see how leaning into our questions with God can bring about healing and transformation in our lives.
Dieula is a licensed professional counselor, ordained minister, certified life purpose coach, and the founder of the non-profit, ElevateHer International Ministries. ElevateHer works to empower women around the world to heal from trauma and become instruments for healing, peace and hope through large and small group trauma healing training.
In my time with Dieula, we talk about her new book, Does God See Me?: How God Meets Us in the Center of Our Trauma-Healing Journey. Dieula helps us see the importance of lament, why integrating hope is pivotal in the trauma healing journey and reminds us that we are indeed seen by God.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Words have the power to form us. And that has indeed been the case for author, youth pastor, and podcaster, Micha Boyett. In today’s conversation with Micha, she explains how living with the beatitudes, while raising her son with Down syndrome and autism, has deeply formed her.
In our time together, she talks about the Dream of God, a reality in which everything is defined by the love of God, and how that concept has shaped her. She also talks about a renewed understanding of what ‘blessing’ means and how we hold the tension of longing for the Dream of God, while living in a very broken world. In Micha’s latest book, Blessed Are the Rest of Us, she was invited into a new way of living in the world, a way of wholeness and flourishing that Jesus taught about. And in today’s conversation, she invites into that same way of living.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
In today’s conversation, I was blown away by how a popular therapy model demonstrates the image of God in each of us. More specifically, author and marriage and family therapist, Molly LaCroix, helps us see the relevance of the Internal Family Systems therapy model on the journey to healing and wholeness.
In our time together, we talk about her latest book,Journey to Shalom: Finding Healing, Wholeness, and Freedom in Sacred Stories. Molly helps us see the relevance of Biblical stories in our own lives, how our personal healing brings more wholeness in our relationships, and the God-given resources for resilience and healing that are innate in all of us. What I love about this episode is that it speaks to each person’s inherent beauty. I can’t wait for you to listen in.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
So often diet culture disconnects us from our bodies and from having a peaceful relationship with food. In today’s episode, I talk with registered dietitian and therapist, Alice Baker, MSRD CEDS-C LMHC LPC LDN, about shedding unhelpful beliefs from diet culture.
Alice Baker has over 27 years’ experience in the field of eating disorders. She currently sees clients in private practice as a dietitian and/or therapist, facilitates support groups, presents locally and nationally, and supervises new dietitians in the eating disorder field. In my time with Alice, we talk about the normalization of disordered eating in our culture, the infiltration of diet culture in the church, and how a non-diet approach is compatible with health. Thankfully, Alice also gives us some practical ideas on how we can move toward wholeness in our relationship with food and our bodies amidst diet culture.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Dr. Jason Nagata is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, and is an expert in eating disorders, particularly in boys and men. He has published over 300 articles in academic journals and serves as Senior Editor for the Journal of Eating Disorders, on the International Advisory Board of The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Adolescent Health.
In my time with time with Dr. Nagata, we consider the damaging effects of societal body image ideals among boys and men. We also discuss the lack of research and awareness regarding eating disorders in males, the increasing prevalence of eating disorders in general, the normalization of disordered food and exercise-related behaviors in athletics, and how social media plays into body image struggles and eating behaviors. According to Dr. Nagata, 2/3 of American teenagers want to change their bodies. In today’s episode, he helps us better understand food and body image-related struggles among boys and men. This is such an important episode; I’m so glad you’re here.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Joy Marie Clarkson has learned the art of seeing goodness, truth, and beauty in our midst and she helps us do the same.
In case you are new to Joy, she holds a PhD in theology from the University of St. Andrews and is the author of two books, Aggressively Happy and, most recently, You Are a Tree. She is also a research associate in theology and literature at King's College London and the books editor for Plough Quarterly.
In our time together, Joy shares about how teaching a course on the idea of beauty in Western Theology has shaped her views on topic, as well as her study of how art can prepare us for death. Joy also explains the power of the metaphors we use and how those metaphors shape us and our experience. In our discussion, and in her latest book, You Are a Tree, she helps us move away from impersonal, productivity-oriented metaphors to help us live into more life-giving and generative ways of being human.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Heather Creekmore is a podcaster, mom of four, body image coach, and author. In our time together, Heather describes what inspired her to write her latest book, The 40-Day Body Image Workbook, as well as why she’s so passionate about guiding women out of diet culture and into truth. Heather also describes what has helped her improve her own relationship with her body, she exposes lies associated with diet culture, and helps us reframe aging in a helpful way.
If you have ever struggled with body image or beauty ideals, my hope is that Heather’s story and authentic reflections will help you feel less alone and bring you greater freedom.
*This episode mentions eating disorder-related thoughts, behaviors, and symptoms. Please use your discretion when listening and speak with your support system as needed.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
In today’s episode I talk with Dr. Charlotte Markey about body image pressures impacting us and the next generation. Dr. Markey is a body image expert, professor of psychology and director of the Health Sciences Center at Rutgers University-Camden. She has authored several books, including The Body Image Book For Girls: Love Yourself and Grow Up Fearless, Being You: The Body Image Book for Boys, and the forthcoming Adultish: The Body Image Book for Life.
Dr. Markey also writes monthly for U.S. News and World Report, Psychology Today, as well as other publications, focusing on individuals’ eating behaviors, body image, and health. She has also been featured in and interviewed by The New York Times, The Economist, The Today Show, ABC News, Time Magazine, and Men's Health, among others.
In our time together, we talk about recent trends related to social media use and body image, how to build body confidence in ourselves and the next generation, as well as what’s behind the increasing rates of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders among males. Dr. Markey’s wisdom is a needed voice in our increasingly image-focused society. May we become thoughtful observers of these trends, so we can opt out of the messages and beliefs that don’t bring life.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
John Van Sloten is a Calgary-based writer, teacher, and pastor who is passionate about helping people engage God everywhere. Over the past ten years he has preached dozens of creation and Bible-based sermons on topics like radiation therapy, river hydrology, chemical catalysts, tree branches, human knees, and DNA repair mechanisms. John is a regular columnist with the Calgary Herald and his books include The Day Metallica Came to Church and Every Job a Parable. Over the past ten years, he has been awarded three John Templeton Foundation subgrants for preaching science, has been part of an Ambrose Seminary Science for Seminaries, and has been a Sinai and Synapses fellow.
In my time with John, we talk about his latest book, God Speaks Science: What Neurons, Giant Squid, and Supernovae Reveal About Our Creator. John teaches that we can not only learn about God through the Bible, but through creation as well. He shows us that God’s love and character can be known more deeply as we marvel at the complexities of His amazing creation. John also shares how his conversion to following God caused him to change his vocation, as well as about the new journey God is leading Him on. John’s heart for God and his ability to see him in all things is inspiring. My hope is that this conversation may awaken us all to experience God’s presence and work everywhere.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Diane Summers, MS, RDN, CD is the founder of Hope Nutrition Therapy and a nationally registered and state certified dietitian. Diane has treated the full spectrum of eating disorders and concerns since 2004, has been supervising eating disorder dietitians since 2009, and works with clients and consultees around the world. She is also a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and a Narrative Focused Trauma Care practitioner.
In my time with Diane, we talk about what diet culture is and how it impacts our relationship with our bodies, how diet culture impacts societal beauty ideals, and the prevalence of disordered eating. Diane also helps us unpack the topic of religious fasting during this season of Lent, including disentangling some unhelpful ideas often surrounding this practice. She also reminds us of the redemption and healing present in story work, as well as the richness that can come from growing older. Perhaps most importantly, Diane calls us back to the wild beauty that is innate in all of humanity, including you.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
In today’s episode, we consider how looking heavenward can breathe new life into the present. This consideration is not a practice of escapism, but an opportunity to take a step back to see the larger story of humanity, where we’ve been and where we’re headed.
Thankfully, today’s guest is a gracious and thoughtful guide. Amy Baik Lee is the author of This Homeward Ache: How Our Yearning for the Life to Come Spurs on Our Life today, a literary member of the Anselm Society Arts Guild, and a contributing writer at Cultivating Magazine and the Rabbit Room.
In our time together, Amy unpacks what she calls our homeward ache, those moments of beauty or peace that cause us to long for a world we haven’t yet experienced. In Amy’s view, these moments are piercing hints of heaven that reveal “the great promise of a coming restoration.” Amy helps us understand why this homeward ache matters, how it has altered every area of her life, and how it helps her live more fully in the present. As Amy explains it, Beauty is breaking into this world and someday (to paraphrase J.R.R. Tolkien) everything sad will come untrue; here and now we are invited to be a part of that work of restoration.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Felicia Wu Song is a cultural sociologist, speaker, and author who studies how social media and digital devices alter the family, community, and organizational life. Felicia has studied History, Communication Studies and Sociology at Yale, Northwestern, and University of Virginia and her expertise has been sought by organizations such as BioLogos, The Vatican, Notre Dame University, and Fuller Theological Seminary.
In my conversation with Felicia, we discuss her latest book, Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence and Place in the Digital Age. Felicia helps us better understand how social media is shaping our relationships, our understanding of beauty, and how we engage beauty. She also unpacks how we can engage digital technologies in ways that don’t feel all-consuming, as well as how we can help safeguard the kids in our lives from the negative impacts of social media. The truth is the technologies we engage are shaping us. Felicia helps us see how we can use our agency to mindfully participate in our soul’s formation amidst this current reality.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Kimberly Wilkerson believes in the power of language; how it impacts us and those around us. Kimberly is a speech language pathologist, as well as the founder of Token Clothing Co. At Token Clothing Co., Kimberly has fused her passion for language with her interest in fashion, to give women an experience that helps them overcome limiting beliefs and negative self-talk.
In our time together, Kimberly and I discuss the impact of our self-talk on our brains and bodies. Kimberly also shares about her process of discernment in starting Token Clothing Co., as well as what she learned about beauty when participating in the Miss America program years ago. As we move toward redefining beauty in our lives, it’s especially important to notice what messages we are believing about beauty and about our worth. My hope is that this conversation may not only help us become more aware of our self-talk, but also encourage us to speak words of truth and life over ourselves and others.
Free I AM printables page here:
https://www.tokenclothingco.com/pages/iam
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
With the start of the new year, we find ourselves in a season inundated with diet and fitness-related ads. We are being saturated with and sold the message that now is the time to change, reshape, or perfect our bodies or food intake.
My hope is that today’s guest will help us all detox from the current flurry of diet culture messaging and be reminded of the goodness of food and of our bodies. Lisa Diers is a registered dietitian nutritionist and certified yoga teacher who specializes in supporting eating disorder and body image recovery. Lisa has a combined over 20 years of experience in nutrition and yoga services and previously served as the National Nutrition and Yoga Director for a large national eating disorder treatment program.
In our time together, Lisa and I discuss the prevalence of disordered eating, as well as what a balanced relationship with food actually looks like. Lisa also explains how nutrition and yoga can be instrumental and complementary in reconnecting with our bodies, why “carbs” and sugar aren’t the fear foods diet culture makes them out to be, and offers guidance for those struggling with body image this time of year. My conversation with Lisa was like a breath of fresh air; I hope it is for you as well.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
In 2007, Kristi McLelland went to Israel and realized that God is better than she ever knew. After studying in Egypt and Israel in 2007, Kristi’s life took a turn, and she began leading biblical studies trips to Israel in 2008. Kristi is an author, professor at Williamson College, and a biblical culturalist who teaches the Bible in its historical, cultural context. Kristi’s most recent book is entitled, Rediscovering Israel: A Fresh Look at God’s Story in its Historical and Cultural Contexts. Kristi’s study trips to Israel, Italy, Turkey, and Greece, as well as her in-person and online resources position Westerners to discover the Bible within the Middle Eastern context in which it was written.
In my time with Kristi, we talk about what she experienced in Israel that helped her encounter the goodness of God in a new way. Kristi also talks about her reflections on the current situation in Israel, the relevance of the Bible in our lives today, why she believes the Bible is the greatest story there is, and how God is a God who sees his children and acts on their behalf. In this season when we reflect on the birth of Jesus, my hope is that this conversation may help us all enter more deeply into the reality of God’s nearness to humanity, and to each one of us.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Registered dietitian and author, Dana Sturtevant, believes that society has ruptured our relationship with food, movement, and our bodies. Food has become something to restrict and our bodies a project to tweak and “perfect.” But Dana believes it doesn’t have to be this way. She has spent more than 15 years helping people let go of chronic patterns of dieting and disordered eating and move into a more authentic, sustainable way to occupy and nurture their bodies.
Dana Sturtevant is the co-author of Reclaiming Body Trust: A Path to Healing and Liberation and the co-founder of the Center for Body Trust. In our time together, Dana discusses the origins of the Center for Body Trust, how diet culture so often gets in the way of trusting our bodies, how “health” has become an aesthetic, and how to engage joyful movement versus toxic fitness culture. Dana’s insights are fresh and freeing. My hope is that this conversation may help lead us into more connected and nurturing relationships with our own bodies.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
All too often these days, bread gets a bad rap. In many ways, diet culture has taught us to fear “carbs” in all forms. Today’s guest, however, helps us see bread in a new way. She not only invites us to see bread as a gift, but as a sacred reminder of God’s presence and provision.
Kendall Vanderslice is a professionally trained baker, speaker, and author, including her most recent title, By Bread Alone: A Baker’s Reflections on Hunger, Longing, and the Goodness of God. Kendall is the founder of the Edible Theology Project, an educational media project connecting the Communion table to the kitchen table. She holds a master’s degree in Gastronomy (Food Studies) from Boston University and a Master’s of Theological Studies from Duke Divinity School. Both personally and professionally, Kendall explores how God meets us in preparing food and sharing food with others.
In today’s episode, Kendall shares how she has come to love bread, how being a baker has shaped her faith, how what we do with our bodies shapes us spiritually, and how she has come to see food as a gift, after experiencing a disordered relationship with food. Kendall’s insights are fresh and important. May this episode open our eyes to the gift of food, the gift of our bodies, and how God is forming us and teaching us through all of it.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Deb Benfield has helped hundreds of women heal their relationship with food, eating, and their bodies in her 35-year career as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist. In her own aging journey, she became frustrated by how difficult it was to find well-researched advice on aging with vitality that was not related to managing weight or youthful appearance. In her group and one-on-one coaching, Deb works with middle-aged women and beyond to help them feel vital and free of culture’s stifling diet and movement rules.
In my time with Deb, she names and disproves unhelpful myths about the aging process, discusses the prevalence of disordered eating in middle-aged women and beyond, the energy that is available to us if we aren’t trying to white knuckle our bodies, and why elderhood is the time to emerge as our truest self. Deb Benfield’s work, perspectives, and approach regarding aging are important and powerful. My hope is that this conversation might help you shed unhelpful societal beliefs about aging, so you might walk into the aging journey with more freedom, confidence, and vitality.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Several months ago, The Atlantic reported that forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the past 25 years, representing the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history. In today’s episode, I talk with pastor’s kid turned pastor, Natalie Runion, about the trend of diminishing church attendance.
Natalie Runion is the author of Raised to Stay: Persevering in Ministry When You Have a Million Reasons to Walk Away, worship leader, and the former Pastor of Women and Creative Pastor of Family Ministry at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO. Natalie has also established the Raised to Stay community “for anyone weary of God’s people but longing to keep their faith in God.”
In my time with Natalie, we talk about how her experience in the church has led to her current work and ministry, the beauty that is possible in the church, as well as the lies about beauty she’s seen at work in women’s ministry. Perhaps most importantly, Natalie reminds us that despite the brokenness we sometimes encounter in the church, God’s steadfast beauty remains.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Donetta Floyd’s compassion and perspectives are so refreshing. When it comes to societal messages around food and our bodies, we can often be left with the feeling that we aren’t doing it right. In today’s episode, registered dietitian Donetta Floyd helps dispel unhelpful ideas and misconceptions regarding our relationship with food, our bodies, as well as Type 2 Diabetes.
Donetta is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who works with clients to help them find freedom in their relationship with food, using a Health at Every Size®, Intuitive Eating, and non-diet approach. In our time together, we talk about how Donetta became passionate about working from a non-diet approach, markers of disordered eating, and misconceptions about “health” having a certain look. Donetta’s thoughtful approach to holistic wellbeing is inspiring. My hope is that you leave this conversation feeling more peace in your relationship with food and your body.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Emmy Russell is a Nashville-based singer-songwriter who has been performing for the majority of her life. Touring on the road with her grandmother, country legend Loretta Lynn, Emmy started singing on stage at the age of two. Years later, Emmy sang with Willie Nelson’s son, Lukas, at her grandmother’s memorial. This special performance was nominated for Performance of the Year at the CMT Music Awards.
Most recently, Emmy released the song, “Skinny” with The Song House, detailing her struggle with an eating disorder. The song has received a warm reception and has been widely shared, getting over 300k likes on Instagram. In our time together, Emmy shares about her struggles with disordered eating, the pressures of image in the music industry, and how she’s moved toward healing in her own journey. Emmy’s song and authenticity are beautiful and courageous. She reminds us of the power of vulnerability in helping ourselves and others move toward healing.
*This episode mentions eating disorder-related thoughts, behaviors, and symptoms. Please use your discretion when listening and speak with your support system as needed.
Watch Emmy Russell's performance at The Song House here.
Watch the official music video for "Skinny" here.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Gaelynn Lea is a professional musician and sought-after public speaker. She has opened for numerous artists including the Decembrists, composed the music for Macbeth on Broadway, starring Daniel Craig, and her perspectives have been shared on outlets such as On Being With Krista Tippett and PBS NewsHour.
Having been born with Osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, Gaelynn has had to navigate the world differently. Such life experiences have shaped her perspectives in important in meaningful ways, including becoming an advocate for Disability Rights and Accessibility. In our time together, Gaelynn shares about the beautiful insight that disability can bring, as well as her passion for increased education about disability. She also discusses the transcendence of music, how she is able to hold life’s beauty and pain, and how she broke free from lies associated with societal beauty.
Gaelynn Lea is an incredibly talented musician, and she is so much more than that. She invites us all to take a deeper look at life, what it’s ultimately about, and the kind of beauty that is truly worth pursuing.
To watch Gaelynn's TED Talk, go here.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Societal notions of “beauty” and our relationship with our bodies and food have been deeply influenced by diet culture. Author and registered dietitian Christy Harrison defines diet culture as: “a system of beliefs that equates thinness, muscularity, and particular body shapes with health and moral virtue; promotes weight loss and body reshaping as a means of attaining higher status; demonizes certain foods and food groups while elevating others; and oppresses people who don’t match its supposed picture of ‘health’…It masquerades as health, wellness, and fitness.” (Anti-Diet, Christy Harrison, p. 7).
In today’s episode, I talk with registered dietitian, sports nutritionist, and nutrition therapist Leslie Schilling about the widespread impacts of diet culture, including in our schools, medical offices, and places of worship. Leslie recently released her second book, Feed Yourself: Step Away from the Lies of Diet Culture and into Your Divine Design. She has also served as a performance nutrition consultant for Cirque du Soleil®, an expert contributor to U.S. News & World Report, and has been featured in media outlets like Health, Women's Health, Self, Pregnancy Magazine, Yoga Journal, The Huffington Post, and on HGTV.
In my time with Leslie, she helps us unravel some of diet culture’s lies, including how its beliefs and practices have infiltrated the church. She also helps us see that thinness isn’t synonymous with health, our worth is not tied to our body size or what is on our plate, and that body diversity is divine. In so many ways, Leslie helps us name the lies of diet culture so we can fight back, live in freedom, and trust our body’s divine design.
Learn more about Leslie's book, here.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Grace Wabuke Klein has had her share of ups and downs. From fleeing Uganda under the reign of Idi Amin as a child to having her prayers to get married answered at the age of 42, Grace has had a full life. She has also learned, and now encourages others, that we can find purpose even in difficult days and seasons of waiting.
In her new book Flourish: Finding Purpose in the Unknown and Unexpected Seasons of Life, Grace gives a fresh perspective on the winter seasons we all go through, as well as practical steps to not just survive but to find purpose in the unknown and unexpected. Grace has empowered others in their leadership and spiritual growth as part of the pastoral leadership team at Faith Church in West Covina, California and now with her husband at focus412, a ministry that helps encourage church growth.
In my time with Grace, she explains how she remained connected to God during her own winter seasons of struggle, what has helped her establish deep roots of faith, and the lies about beauty she has had to shed over the years. Perhaps most importantly, Grace reminds us of our true identity and deep beauty; ultimately, as Grace says it, “we are a reflection of who God is on this earth.”
Learn more about Grace's book, here.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
Some of life’s greatest lessons come from unexpected teachers. For Lacy Finn Borgo, some of her greatest teachers have been children. In Lacy’s new book, Faith Like a Child: Embracing Our Lives as Children of God, Lacy invites us to consider what we might learn from children. Moreover, could welcoming our child selves draw us deeper into wholeness and our relationship with God?
Lacy Finn Borgo teaches and provides spiritual direction through Renovaré, Mercy Center Burlingame, Companioning Center, and with children at Haven House, a transitional facility for families without homes. She holds a doctor of ministry degree in leadership and spiritual formation and a certificate in spiritual direction from Portland Seminary. Borgo has also authored Spiritual Conversations with Children and the children’s book, All Will Be Well.
In our time together, Lacy and I discuss what we can learn from children and what it means to welcome our child selves. We also consider the importance of tending to childhood wounds, how to remain open to wonder amidst life’s griefs and brokenness, and why imagination is pivotal in the life of faith. This episode is filled with so much wisdom; I can’t wait for you to listen.
Learn more about Lacy's book, here.
Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
You never know where things will lead. For Grace Casper, a journal she began in elementary school has now become her new book, releasing this week entitled, Dear Parents: Notes from a Child of Divorce. Grace Casper is a writer, speaker, full-time elementary school librarian, and the host of the podcast, Divorce: What I Wish My Parents Knew. She graduated from Baylor University and now lives in Waco, Texas.
In my time with Grace, we talk about how her journal entries became a book and the important message she has for parents undergoing divorce or having undergone divorce. We also talk about the beauty of creativity and dreaming, and how we partner with God when we dream. Grace also discusses trends in social media she is noticing in her generation and the generation behind her, as well as powerful learnings from her relationships with those in the disability community. Grace’s work and words are inspiring, advocating for and encouraging families experiencing divorce and reminding us all of the power of unconditional love.
In honor of the release of my new book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, I have a special episode in store for you. I recently sat down to have a conversation with my literary agent, Don Pape. Don has been a champion of my book and its message for years now and I can’t thank him enough.
In our time together we talk about how Don ended up working in the publishing business, how he then became a literary agent, and the unique features of his company, Pape Commons. Also, in case the term “literary agent” is new to you, he/she basically represents a writer to promote and sell their work to a publisher. This conversation is a special one, as we talk about my heart and passion behind Soul-Deep Beauty, the need for this message amidst today’s media saturated culture, as well as some of the vulnerabilities and struggles that have come up along the way. I can’t wait for you to meet Don and to hear more about how Soul-Deep Beauty came to be.
When it comes to societal messages around beauty, we’ve all been swimming in toxic waters. On today’s episode, Christie Dondero Bettwy, helps us name some of the toxic beliefs and messages that we are being fed, so we might be freed from them.
Christie is the Executive Director of Rock Recovery in Arlington, Virginia. Rock Recovery is a Christian eating disorder therapy nonprofit where clients can access low-cost therapy and support groups. In our time together, Christie talks about her own recovery from a decades-long eating disorder, how her recovery story connects with her faith journey, and her passion for working at Rock Recovery. We also talk about how struggles with food, body image, and exercise may go unnoticed or undiagnosed because of how normalized disordered messages around food and body image are. Christie and I also name how such societal messages around food and our bodies impact all of us to varying degrees and she shares some fresh insights about body image. My hope is that as you listen today, Christie’s hard-won wisdom will ground you in truth, reminding you of the authentic beauty that is innate within you.
Catherine Claire Larson invites us to see beyond the surface of things; reminding us that each life is a miracle, and that parenting is actually soul formation.
Catherine is an author and the mother of six boys. Her most recent book is called, Watching in Wonder: Growing in Faith During Your Baby's First Year. Catherine has her masters in biblical studies and spent seven years writing with Chuck Colson for BreakPointradio, Christianity Today, and Newsweekonline. These days she writes to encourage moms, reminding them of the importance of their sacred role and work. Her devotional series invites moms and moms-to-be to see the wonder of new life and into a deeper relationship with God.
In my time with Catherine, we talk about wonder; what opened her up to embracing wonder in the world and how we might do the same. She also offers us fresh and life-giving perspectives on pregnancy and parenting and the importance of living with curiosity and in the present moment. If you are needing a shift in perspective, I invite you to this conversation that reminds us of the wonder of life itself.
“Whole,” “natural,” and “clean” are just some of wellness culture’s buzzwords. On the surface, wellness culture can be so enticing, perhaps seen as the pathway to optimal health and wellbeing.
In today’s episode, however, Christy Harrison unpacks some of the dynamics and potential dangers of wellness culture; helping us see why we should think twice before investing in a product or plan that seems too good to be true.
Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDS is a journalist, registered dietitian, and certified intuitive eating counselor. She’s the author of Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating and her most recent book, The Wellness Trap: Break Free from Diet Culture, Disinformation, and Dubious Diagnoses and Find Your True Well-Being. Christy is the producer and host of two podcasts, Rethinking Wellness and Food Psych, which help listeners think critically about diet and wellness culture and develop more peaceful relationships with food. Christy has written for publications including The New York Times, SELF, The Food Network, and many others. Her work has been covered in numerous outlets including The Washington Post, Health, and TODAY.
In our time together, Christy describes wellness culture as “a set of values that equates wellness with moral goodness and holds up certain behaviors and a certain type of body as the path to achieving that supposed goodness.” Along with describing wellness culture, Christy helps us see how wellness culture is the new guise of diet culture and how it differs from true wellbeing; including leading some people to disordered eating, unhelpful fixations, and potentially harmful behaviors. She also explains how “beauty” is used to sell wellness and gives us some ideas on how we can think critically about the ploys and products associated with wellness culture.
Elena Rossini noticed a disturbing trend; she observed a cross-generation epidemic of body dissatisfaction. Not only was the trend across generations but it was manifested in similarly distressing ways across diverse cultures.
Elena Rossini is an Italian film director, producer, editor and public speaker. Her work focuses on issues of social justice, media representation, and the empowerment of women and girls. Elena’s most notable film is the documentary The Illusionists, about the globalization of beauty ideals and the dark side of advertising. Rossini shot the film in eight countries, across four continents. The documentary has been featured in Vogue Italy, New York Magazine, NPR, FOX and NBC Baltimore, amongst others. Rossini has taken the documentary on tour, including some of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley (Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter) and at dozens of schools in the United States and Europe (most recently: Harvard University, University of Chicago, USC, UCLA, UC Berkeley).
In today’s episode, I have the honor of talking with Elena about themes from The Illusionists and her upcoming film The Realists. In our time together, we talk about the globalization and saturation of unrealistic beauty ideals and how such inundation is impacting us. She also discusses the connection she sees between the rise of social media and the current teen mental health crisis. Elena’s voice and message are pivotal in our media saturated world. She helps us pull off the blinders to see the agenda and dangers of popular beauty ideals, so we can direct our life and energies toward more meaningful, lasting endeavors.
Shame is that all-encompassing, embodied, sinking feeling that we are wrong or bad. It’s not just a sense of guilt over something we did, but the wrongness of who we are. And shame has all kinds of occasions to creep in; the perceived wrongness of our body, our relationships status, our parenting, our career, and the list goes on.
In today’s episode, Jasmine Holmes invites us to consider the influence shame has on our lives. Jasmine Holmes is a teacher and author, committed to centering black stories in history. She has written books such as Carved in Ebony: Lessons from the Black Women Who Shape Us and Mother to Son: Letters to A Black Boy on Identity and Hope. Jasmine’s latest book is called, Never Cast Out: How the Gospel Puts an End to the Story of Shame.
In my time with Jasmine, we talk about how scripts of perfectionism in Christian and popular culture can lead to shame. Jasmine also shares about her own journey of shame’s influence in her life and the transformation that took place when she opened space for Jesus to speak into those places where shame dwelled. Jasmine also gives us important ideas on how to notice and combat shame in our lives; ultimately reminding us that grace is stronger than shame. My hope is that this conversation might bring some light into our own corners of shame. And in those places, may the voice of grace speak loudest.
Cleere Cherry Reaves had an experience that changed how she viewed everything. When Cleere’s son was born three months prematurely, Cleere and her husband watched as their child fought for his life, developed, and began to thrive. In today’s episode, Cleere tells us the lessons she learned from that experience, how her faith was transformed, and why it inspired her to write the children’s book, The Miracle of You.
Cleere Cherry Reaves is the owner and creator of Cleerely Stated, an online boutique whose inspirational products can be found in retail stores all over the United States. She is also the author of three devotionals and the host of the growing podcast, Let's Be Cleere. Cleere’s mission is to help others see themselves and the world around them through the eyes of Jesus.
In our time together, Cleere reminds us to not miss the life we have, that the God of miracles is for us, and that his fingerprints are everywhere. As Cleere so helpfully puts it, what would it mean to live life looking for those miracles?
Amanda Held Opelt got a lesson in grief she never wanted. After a series of miscarriages, the loss of her grandma, and then her beloved sister, Amanda found solace in an unexpected place, in exploring ancient grief rituals in practices. In her first book, A Hole in the World: Finding Hope in Rituals of Grief and Healing, Amanda explores how such ancient grief rituals and practices can be a vessel for honest expression, communal connection, and even healing.
Amanda is an author, speaker, and songwriter. She writes about faith, grief, and creativity. She has spent 15 years serving in the non-profit and humanitarian aid sectors and lives in the mountains of Boone, North Carolina. This July, Amanda is releasing her second book, Holy Unhappiness: God, Goodness, and the Myth of the Blessed Life.
In my time with Amanda, we talk about the complexity of living in a world that can be both stunningly beautiful and so very broken. She helps us see the beauty of ritual and community and how loss has the potential to deepen our capacity for love, faith, and healing. She also helps us see how reading the Biblical narrative through the lens of grief, can open us to seeing God in new and transformational ways. Overall, Amanda bravely and authentically wades into the human experience, offering us so much compassion, hope, and hard-won wisdom.
In today’s episode, K.J. Ramsey reminds me that “We are held by this web of love,” the love of God and the love of others. Those words and others like it shifted something in me. Instead of having to nervously earn or find God’s love, it is a reality that always surrounds me. A reality I can rest in. A reality we can rest in.
K.J. Ramsey is a trauma-informed licensed professional counselor and is the author of three books, including her latest title, The Book of Common Courage: Prayers and Poems to Find Strength in Small Moments. K.J. writes at the intersection of theology, psychology, and spiritual formation to guide us in recovering the rhythm of resilience through nervous system regulation and the wonder of communion with God.
In my time with K.J. she talks about her most recent book and the communal nature of courage; how “we need the presence and words of others to bring us from confusion to hope and faith.” She also discusses how being disabled and encountering various physical struggles have formed her faith and her prayer life. In authentic and profound ways, K.J. reminds us of hard-won realities about the heart of God and beauty itself. My hope and prayer is that this conversation and K.J.’s words might shift something within you as well. May her words bring healing and may they bring hope.
The Sunday Herald calls today’s guest, Jessica DeFino, “the woman the beauty industry fears.” That’s because Jessica, a beauty reporter and beauty culture critic, has seen the inner workings of the beauty industry and didn’t like it. More than that, Jessica now spends her time dismantling beauty standards, debunking marketing myths, and exploring how beauty culture impacts people — physically, psychologically, and spiritually.
Jessica has written for outlets such as The New York Times, Vogue, Teen Vogue, Harper’s BAZAAR, Allure, New York Magazine’s The Cut, ELLE, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Glamour, SELF, and many others. She now writes her own beauty newsletter called The Unpublishable.
In today’s episode, Jessica talks about her own experience in the beauty industry and why she decided to opt out, the psychological and spiritual impacts of beauty standards, why beauty standards are so powerful, why she sees today’s standard of beauty as dehumanizing, and what the beauty industry doesn’t want you to know. Jessica’s insights are so needed, speaking powerfully to the media-saturated culture we find ourselves in. This is truly a must-listen episode.
How do we live life fully alive? For Sandhya Oaks, living fully alive entails being courageous enough to go to places of brokenness and shame, so we might find healing. While trauma or hurt stunts our capacity for fullness of life, healing leads to an increased ability to love and live abundantly.
Sandhya Oaks is a Ministry Leader, Spiritual Director, leads Kintsugi workshops, and does Story Work. Born in India and adopted as a Transracial Adoptee in the Midwest, Sandhya now walks with others through identity reclamation and creating experiences that restore shalom within the human heart.
She is the Co-Founder of The Adoption Triad, a group that provides community and resources to those connected to Adoption and Foster Care. Sandhya holds two Certificates in Narrative Focused Trauma Care from The Allender Center and a Certificate in Resilient Leadership from the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. Additionally, she recently completed her Trauma Care Group Training Certificate through The Art of Living Counseling Center.
In today’s episode, I talk with Sandhya about the power and freedom that can come from finding healing in our own stories, how she stays grounded in God’s goodness and beauty amidst life’s brokenness, and how she’s come to see beauty in unexpected places. Sometimes finding beauty in a broken world can be feel like grueling work. I’m so grateful for brave leaders like Sandhya Oaks, who graciously show us the way forward.
We are approaching Lent, a forty-day period of preparation for celebrating Jesus’ resurrection at Easter. It’s a time rich with spiritual significance. It also happens to be a time when the ideas of self-deprivation and fasting can get emphasized in faith-based circles. The tricky part is that both diet culture messages and faith-based messages at times explicitly and implicitly emphasize food restriction and/or self-deprivation.
This Lent I have the privilege of being a part of a teaching series called “Losing the Lies for Lent.” The lie I am tackling is the message that “self-deprivation makes us holier or brings us closer to God.”
In today’s episode, I am so grateful to be joined by Registered Dietitian, Brittany Braswell, to do a deeper dive with me on this particular lie. Brittany is a non-diet dietitian who approaches nutrition and wellness from a holistic standpoint, including physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional wellbeing. She specifically works with women who struggle with disordered eating and negative self-image. Overall, Brittany is passionate about helping her clients establish a healthy relationship with food and body to improve their quality of life and walk free and fearlessly in their purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to our conversation. I hope it brings you closer to that kind of freedom.
In a world where beauty is so often equated with thinness and weight loss with health, willpower, and virtue, Intuitive Eating gives us a different framework-one that emphasizes the beauty of body diversity and makes food freedom possible.
In today’s episode, I have the privilege of speaking with one of the co-creators of Intuitive Eating, Elyse Resch, MS, RDN, CEDS-S. Elyse is a nutrition therapist in private practice in Beverly Hills, California, with forty years of experience, specializing in eating disorders, Intuitive Eating, and Health at Every Size. She is the co-author of Intuitive Eating, now in its 4th edition, the Intuitive Eating Workbook, The Intuitive Eating Card Deck—50 Bite-Sized Ways to Make Peace with Food, The Intuitive Eating Workbook for Teens, and The Intuitive Eating Journal—Your Guided Journey for Nourishing a Healthy Relationship with Food. She is also a chapter contributor to The Handbook of Positive Body Image and Embodiment and her work has been profiled in outlets such NPR, CNN, NBC, KTTV,Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times,Associate Press, KFI Radio, USA Today, and the Huffington Post,among others. Elyse is nationally known for her work in helpingpatients break free from diet culture through the Intuitive Eatingprocess. Her philosophy embraces the goal of reconnectingwith one’s internal wisdom about eating and believes that all bodies deserve dignity and respect. She also supervises and trains health professionals, is a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist and Supervisor, a Fellow of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals, and a Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
In my time with Elyse, we discuss what first drew her to the concept of Intuitive Eating, what Intuitive Eating is and how it differs from diet culture, sneaky ways diet culture is showing up these days, and how the concept of health can be expanded beyond weight. So, if you’re curious about Intuitive Eating, making peace with food, or looking for a new way to connect with your body, this episode is for you.
In a world of selfies, social media, and self-promotion, the virtue of humility isn’t getting much airtime these days. In today’s episode, I have the privilege of discussing this all-important virtue with Richard Foster and Brenda Quinn.
Richard Foster is the founder of Renovaré Institute for Christian Spiritual Formation, a nonprofit that helps people in becoming more like Jesus. He is also the author of several foundational books on spiritual formation and the Christian journey of faith, including Celebration of Discipline, which has sold over two million copies worldwide. Brenda Quinn is Pastor of Spiritual Formation at Living Way Fellowship in south Denver and helped with idea development behind Foster’s latest book.
In today’s conversation, we discuss Richard’s most recent title, Learning Humility: A Year of Searching for a Vanishing Virtue. In our time together we talk about what spiritual formation is and why it’s important, why humility is considered a foundational virtue, how we can cultivate humility in our life, and how humility is tied to beauty of the soul.
In a world filled with both beauty and brokenness, perhaps the greatest brokenness we experience is death. On today’s episode, we tackle this brokenness head on with author, Sarah Berger.
When Sarah Berger’s nineteen-year-old son went to heaven in an inexplicable single-car accident, Sarah found herself plunged into deep grief. Having journaled her experiences in the wake of that event, Sarah shares her insights with us in her book, Hope in the Eleventh Hour: A Mothers’ Journey Through Grief with Eternal Eyes and in today’s episode.
In our conversation, Sarah helps us see both life and death with an eternal perspective. She also helps us open our eyes and hearts to how God might be speaking to us amidst our grief and how she experienced God as good and loving amidst her own grief. Overall, Sarah encourages us with so many overlooked truths about God, ourselves, and our loved ones this side of heaven. May Sarah’s words and insights encourage you amidst whatever you might be going through today.
Life is all about connection. As humans we seem to thrive most when we are deeply connected to God, other people, ourselves, and our sense of purpose in the world. On today’s episode, I talk with Beth Davis all about deepening our connection with God, other people, and even ourselves.
Beth Davis is the Director of Ministry Advancement for an international sisterhood of women called Blessed Is She. This online and in person community seeks to help women deepen their prayer life and foster community. Beth is also the co-author of the book, Loving God, Loving Others. In our time together, Beth passionately shares about what drew her to a life of faith and how it changed her life, how our relationship with God impacts our relationship with others, how our bodies can be seen as gifts of love, and how she knows Jesus to be Beauty itself.
Every year, when Christmas rolls around, I try to wrap my mind and heart around the significance of Jesus coming to earth. The far-reaching impact of God coming in his fullness to restore and redeem the entire world is a hard one to fully grasp.
In today’s episode, author and Bible teacher, Hannah Anderson, helps us explore one often-overlooked aspect of the Christmas story, inviting us to take a closer look at the created world. In her new book, Heaven and Nature Sing: 25 Reflections to Bring Joy to the World, she invites us to consider the earthy, unnoticed things like snowflakes, trees, bodies, and swaddling bands that reveal the glory of the Promised Son.
In my time with Hannah, she helps us see how creation bears witness to God’s character and spiritual realities, how Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection redeems humanity and the entire creation, the usefulness of seemingly dormant seasons of our lives, and her experience of redefining beauty in her relationship with her own created body. Perhaps most importantly, Hannah reminds us that life is stronger than death. As she says it, “Life is the realer, truer thing.”
Have you ever been stunned by a night sky or deeply moved by the expansiveness of the universe? If so, today’s episode is for you.
Dr. Deb Haarsma is an astronomer, experienced research scientist, and the president of BioLogos. She has studied large galaxies, galaxy clusters, the curvature of space, and the expansion of the universe using telescopes around the world and in orbit. Dr. Haarsma completed her doctoral work in astrophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and previously served as professor and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Calvin University.
In today’s conversation with Dr. Haarsma, we talk about the compatibility of faith and science, what the natural world can teach us about God, and how the study of space and the physical universe has deeply impacted her faith and what it has taught her about authentic beauty.
Dr. Chinwé Williams is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), the founder and owner of Meaningful Solutions Counseling & Consulting, and an Executive Coach. She also recently co-authored the book, "Seen: Healing Despair and Anxiety in Kids and Teens Through the Power of Connection." Dr. Williams’ clinical expertise lies in the areas of stress/anxiety management, trauma recovery, the intersection of faith and mental health, and youth and women’s wellness.
In today’s conversation, we talk about the current mental health crisis among kids and adolescents; the prevalence of anxiety and despair. We also discuss the impacts of social media and the pressure among kids and teens to be ‘perfect.’ Thankfully, Dr. Williams also shares how she remains hopeful amidst her clinical work and research. She also tells us about and encourages us with the antidote to despair, the power of connection. She explains how and why feeling seen and known heals us and how it can heal and help today’s youth.
Jennifer Tucker leaned into breath prayer out necessity. Amid anxiety and a family crisis, it became a lifeline.
Jennifer Tucker is a mom, artist, and graphic designer, primarily working for Ann Voskamp. Jenn is also the author of Breath as Prayer: Calm Your Anxiety, Focus Your Mind, and Renew Your Soul. As Jenn puts it, “I create art to remind my own soul that God is with us, that we are loved and held and never alone.”
In today’s conversation, we talk about how both Jenn and her daughter’s struggles with anxiety led her to the practice of breath prayer. Instead of being an occasion for shame or a barrier to her faith, anxiety actually became a gateway for drawing closer to God. Jenn also talks about the importance of making church a safe, compassionate, and life-giving space for those struggling with mental health issues. Jenn also reminds and encourages us in the slow work of true beauty; it may not be glamorous or a quick fix, but it is ultimately what brings about wholeness and thriving in our lives.
Justin McRoberts has a way with words. He has a way of breathing new life into familiar topics and inviting us to out of the box thinking that inspires the mind and heart. As Justin puts it, he creates to provide language for the process of faith and life.
In official terms, Justin is an author, musician, host of The @Sea Podcast, retreat leader, and leads workshops on the creatives process. He lives in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children and has been teaching, storytelling, and songwriting for nearly twenty years. In our time together, Justin expands and deepens the ideas of happiness, creativity, and art. He also shares his desire for people to live fully, allowing our souls to actively participate in the world around us. He reminds us that each of us is an essential element in our communities and in the world and that our creative decisions done in love at home and at work deeply matter. Simply put, you and your life deeply matter. Take a listen and Justin helps us remember why.
We live in a world fraught with disconnection and distraction. In today’s episode and in her book, The Connected Leader, Montana-based psychotherapist and author, Karen Hardwick, shares all about how to re-connect with our true selves, our purpose in the world, our connection with God, and with other people.
Karen Hardwick is a clinically and spiritually trained psychotherapist-turned-leadership coach, podcast host, and speaker. She helps others awaken, courageously lead, and unlock the power of connection in their lives and at work. As a globally recognized leadership consultant, Karen has witnessed a transformation in the lives and performance of thousands of leaders at companies like ESPN, Turner Broadcasting, UPS, and Intercontinental Hotels Group.
In today’s episode, Karen reminds us that our lives deeply matter. She recenters us in our purpose of being stewards of the gifts we’ve been given, including the people who have been entrusted to our care, and how her own life has served as the training ground for the lessons she now shares with others. In short, Karen gives us insight how to live this “one wild and precious life” more fully ourselves and more connected to God and other people.
This is a big week for Tori Hope Petersen. On October 18th Tori’s memoir entitled "Fostered: One Woman’s Powerful Story of Finding Faith and Family through Foster Care" will release. Then this coming weekend, Tori will be hosting the Survivors Thriving and Writing Workshop in North Carolina. It is Tori’s desire to help survivors of human trafficking, foster care, and abuse tell their story; to know they are heard and that they deeply matter. The writing retreat is part of the Beloved Initiative, a nonprofit that seeks to change the narrative for youth in foster care. To learn more about Tori's nonprofit, check out belovedinitiatitve.org.
Tori Hope Petersen is a former foster youth, foster care advocate, and is passionate about foster care reform, adoption advocacy, and vulnerable populations. In addition to her advocacy work, Tori was crowned Mrs. Universe in 2021. In today’s episode, I talk with Tori about the powerful story she tells in her forthcoming memoir about growing up in the foster care system, how God’s love has shaped her story, what are helpful and not so helpful ways to support foster youth, and her authentic thoughts on being in the pageant world. This is an episode you don’t want to miss; Tori’s heart and her story are truly incredible.
Liz Wienke wanted to help others find healing in their relationship with food and body image in the same way she had. Her own journey of finding intuitive eating changed her life and she wanted to help others break free from diet culture. Liz Wienke is a therapist, Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, and a fellow Minnesotan, working at Venture Therapy in White Bear Lake.
In today’s episode, Liz talks about why she gave up dieting, what intuitive eating is and why she’s so passionate about being an intuitive eating counselor, the prevalence of diet culture, the importance of self-compassion, and how faith communities have often gotten it wrong when it comes to our relationship with food and our bodies. If you are someone who longs for more freedom in your relationship with your body or with food, this episode is for you.
After spending a decade as a radio personality in markets that included Las Vegas, Cara Whitney found herself longing for the simple life. Having grown up on a cattle farm in Northern Wisconsin, she found her way back to the country, this time a horse farm in Nebraska. That is where Cara now lives, along with her husband Dan, known as “Larry the Cable Guy.”
Cara is the author of the bestselling books Fields of Grace and Unbridled Faith. Her latest book is called Country Soul: Inspiring Stories of Heartache Turned to Hope. In today’s episode we talk about lessons of life and faith Cara has learned from the farm, how others’ stories of hope amidst brokenness inspire our own perseverance and faith, and how that “cloud of witnesses” reminds us we’re not alone on this journey home.
I am guessing we all want to be healthy, right? In today’s episode, I talk with licensed clinical psychologist and eating disorder specialist, Dr. Colleen Reichmann all about the trends of wellness culture and clean eating. Dr. Reichmann helps us see how, through the lens of diet culture, our ideas on health and wellness may be a bit warped.
In addition to being a licensed clinical psychologist and eating disorders specialist, Dr. Reichmann is the founder of Wildflower Therapy LLC, and the coauthor of the book, The Inside Scoop on Eating Disorder Recovery: Advice from Two Therapists Who Have Been there, along with Jennifer Rollin. Colleen practices in Philadelphia, PA and also specializes in mental health specific to college students, maternal mental health, anxiety, and depression.
In today’s episode, we talk about how and why Colleen found herself specializing in eating disorders. We also talk about wellness culture, the prevalence of disordered eating, and why Colleen refers to clean eating as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Dr. Colleen Reichmann’s voice and work are a force in helping people move away from disorder and diet culture and into more healing and wholeness. I am so excited for us to learn from her today.
On today’s show, I welcome Dr. Curt Thompson back to the podcast. If you remember Curt from Episode 33, you already know that the conversation ahead is a special one.
Dr. Curt Thompson is a psychiatrist, author, speaker, and the host of The Being Known Podcast. Curt’s work largely lies at the intersection of interpersonal neurobiology and spiritual formation, connecting our intrinsic desire to be known with the need to tell truer stories about ourselves. Curt desires to show us how to form deep relationships, discover meaning, and live integrated, creative lives. Using the tools of neuroscience, attachment research, and Biblical knowledge, Curt names the depths of what it means to be human; to long to be deeply known and live into and in light of the true hope of the Gospel.
In today’s conversation, Curt and I discuss themes and insights from his most recent book, The Soul of Desire. Curt explains why beauty makes all the difference in our lives; how we can put ourselves in the path of oncoming beauty, and why it’s so important to do so. Curt also names the importance of community in helping us see beauty in ourselves and envisioning beauty amidst the chaos of our own lives. Perhaps most importantly, Curt reminds us that God is a God who wades into the chaos of the world, and the chaos of our lives, and not only sees beauty but is intimately involved in bringing that beauty about.
Manda Carpenter is an author, speaker, advocate, and the co-host of A Longer Table Podcast, alongside her husband, Eric. Manda has written two books, the most recent being Soul Care to Save Your Life. Manda is very passionate, about “Seeing people own their full identity and do their inner work,” as she puts it. And that is exactly the kind of beautiful work she models and invites others into in her latest book. Foster care is also not only part of Manda’s family's life, but a large part of her advocacy work as well.
In today’s episode, I talk with Manda about why she’s so passionate about foster care, the importance of radical honesty in her own story, why tending to our inner world and wounding is so important, how slowing down is pivotal for self-awareness and soul work, and how beauty so often occurs in the unseen. This conversation left me feeling so grounded and encouraged. My hope is that it does the same for you.
On today’s episode, I talk with Registered Dietitian, Dylan Murphy, all about breaking free from societal lies and ideals around beauty and body image.
Dylan received her Food Science and Human Nutrition Degree from Clemson University, completed her Dietetic Residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and has provided individualized nutrition coaching for hundreds of clients. Her specialty areas include eating disorders, disordered eating, Intuitive Eating, body image concerns, peri- and postnatal nutrition and women’s health. Dylan is also the founder of Free Method Nutrition, based in Nashville, Tennessee. Free Method Dietitians practice from a non-diet, Health at Every Size (HAES) approach with an emphasis on Intuitive Eating and mindset work.
In my conversation with Dylan, we talk about unhelpful cultural messages around food and body image that get in the way of women feeling trust, respect, and safety in their bodies. We also discuss why postpartum bounce back culture is toxic, why commenting on body shape and size in general is not helpful, the normalization of disordered eating, and how we can move toward feeling more confidence and peace in our relationships with food and our bodies. Dylan is doing such important work to help women break free from damaging cultural messages around food and body image. I can’t wait for you to hear from her today.
Today’s episode is a big one. Today we are celebrating 100 episodes with Bob Goff. Back in Episode four, I had the pleasure of interviewing Bob at Dream Big at Magnolia in Waco, Texas. It was actually at that event that I decided to take the official plunge into podcasting and Bob helped me get things rolling.
For those who may be new to Bob, he calls himself a “recovering lawyer,” is a New York Times bestselling author, hosts the popular Dream Big Podcast,” is co-owner of The Oaks retreat center in San Diego, California, and in 2002 he saw a need in India and founded what is now known as Love Does. Love Does is committed to fighting human rights, caring for the vulnerable, and providing education in conflict zones.
In today’s episode, I talk with Bob about his new book, Undistracted, and how we go about living a life of purpose. I also talk with Bob about the importance of dreaming, why he left his law practice after 25 years to dream big himself, why courage is beautiful, and the importance of letting go of rules or stories were telling ourselves that no longer serve us. I can’t wait for you to hear this encouraging conversation with Bob Goff. Whether you’re a brand-new listener or have been here for a while, thank you so much for joining us today. I’m truly so grateful you’re here.
Jo Saxton is an author, speaker, International Justice Mission Ambassador, podcast host, leadership coach, and a fellow Minnesotan. Jo invests in women leaders in a number of ways, including an initiative called the Ezer Collective, an event held to invest in and catalyze attendees’ leadership. Jo is especially passionate about helping women realize and live into their God-given identity.
In today’s conversation, Jo talks about her own struggles with beauty growing up and the impact of not seeing women that looked like her in media. She also names that the influence of beauty culture is a gentle seduction in the world and in the church. Jo also reminds and challenges us in the church to offer a counter cultural narrative for beauty, turning away from the objectification of women. And with powerful conviction, Jo inspires us to engage our true identity and purpose, as that is what produces true beauty in the world.
What if the truest thing about us is that we are loved beyond what we can imagine? In her work and in our time today, that is the reality Elizabeth Peterson invites us into. Elizabeth Peterson is a certified spiritual director and yoga instructor, with fifteen years of experience working in retreat ministry. Elizabeth seeks to create safe and sacred spaces for individuals and groups to reflect on their own lives, become more aware of God’s presence, and live from their truest identity as Beloved.
In today’s conversation, Elizabeth explains how engaging God through yoga helped get her through a very difficult season, why she engages spiritual direction and yoga in her work and how they complement each other, and she highlights the importance of connecting with our bodies in our spirituality and overall wellbeing. My hope is that this conversation and Elizabeth’s insights might open us all up more fully to endless love, the foundation on which our soul stands.
Dr. Dale Gentry wants you to know that faith and science are not enemies. More specifically, he believes you can be a Christian and deeply care for creation and connect with God in the study and experience of the natural world. Dr. Dale Gentry is the Conservation Manager at Audubon Minnesota and the founder and director of Disciple Science, a podcast and video series helping people connect with God through creation. He has a M.S. in Biology and a Ph.D. in Atmosphere, Environment and Water Resources and teaches as an adjunct professor at the University of Northwestern in Saint Paul, MN.
In today’s episode, Dr. Gentry details his own story of wading through deep questioning on his way to reconciling faith and science and, as a result, developed a passion for helping others do the same. He also talks about why he’s so passionate about birds and why we should care about them as well, how to connect with God through creation, and the role imagination plays in our interactions with nature. This episode opened me up to the wonder of the natural world. My hope is that you might join me in seeing that life is everywhere, and so are the fingerprints of the author of life.
On today’s episode, Pastor Mike Kelsey speaks to two distinctives of the true beauty reality that God invites us into, a life of joy and justice. Mike Kelsey is a Campus Pastor, and a member of the Teaching Team at the McLean Bible Church near Washington D.C. Mike is a third-generation pastor in the D.C. area.
In our time together, Mike explains how witnessing true joy changed the trajectory of his life, the challenges and gifts of leading a multi-ethnic congregation, how justice is central to God’s vision for humanity, and why he believes women’s struggle with beauty is a significant pastoral and discipleship issue in the church. Today’s episode is so powerful, in that it helps us start to see just how expansive true beauty is. A reality that blows cultural beauty out of the water. Mike also gives us deep encouragement, reminding us that we are conduits of God’s beauty, invited to contribute to the world in ways that reflect the nature and character of God.
In today’s episode, I talk with physical therapist, Lisa DeKam. Lisa has worked as a physical therapist for twenty years and in an eating disorder treatment setting for 12 years. As Lisa describes it, she loves “exploring meaningful movement, embodiment, and the incredible ways that our bodies work.” Lisa also co-founded the Axia Project, alongside Jacquie Danz, which we talk all about back in episode 73.
In this conversation, Lisa helps us see the joy and helpfulness of moving our bodies, beyond the common scripts of diet culture. She also highlights unhelpful messages she sees at work in our culture, indicators of a dysfunctional or unhelpful relationship with exercise, and how we can be intentional about directing our relationship with moving our bodies toward balance and wellbeing.
Megan Hadley is a registered dietitian nutritionist with her Masters in Nutrition. She is also the owner and founder of Simple Nutrition, where she and two other clinicians provide in-person or virtual, one on one, nutrition therapy and coaching using Health At Every Size® and Intuitive Eating informed practices. Megan is passionate about helping clients find freedom in eating and acceptance of their bodies so that they can turn more attention towards living.
In today’s conversation, we talk about Megan’s new webinar, “How To Raise Kids Who Have A Healthy Relationship with Food and Their Body.” We also discuss what diet and wellness culture are and how they might be getting in the way of our relationship with food or our bodies. Megan also gives us some indicators to help us determine if we could benefit from more support in either of these relationships. When it comes to cultural messages about food and our bodies, we are swimming in tainted waters. In her work and in our conversation, Megan helps us shed these unhelpful beliefs and behaviors, so we might live more freely and fully.
In today’s episode, Pastor Scott Sauls helps us conceive of beauty in such a refreshing, counter-cultural way. Author and pastor, Scott Sauls, currently serves as the Senior Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Previously, Scott was a lead and preaching pastor for Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, where he worked alongside Dr. Timothy Keller. He has also planted and pastored churches in Kansas City and St. Louis.
In his new book, Beautiful People Don't Just Happen: How God Redeems Regret, Hurt, and Fear in the Making of Better Humans, Scott helps us see how true beauty is forged and formed within us over years. In our conversation today, Scott tells us all about his book, how his own experiences of depression, anxiety, and struggle have shaped his views on beauty, and how his experience of God’s goodness has deepened amid his trials. This conversation also so beautifully illustrates that, as Paul David Tripp puts it, “…because of God’s grace, hurt and fear don’t win-beauty wins.”
I am thrilled to have therapist, New York Times bestselling author, and the president and founder of Wild at Heart Ministries, John Eldredge, on the show today. It was John who first helped me see the Bible, or the story of God, not as dry history, but as a dynamic and unfolding adventure that we are invited into. John continues to be a voice of encouragement and inspiration, reminding me and so many others, that the life of our hearts deeply matters, that God tirelessly pursues us, and is deeply in love with humanity.
In today’s show, John shares all about his new book, Resilient: Restoring Your Weary Soul in These Turbulent Times. In light of the pandemic, polarization in our country and around the world, the onslaught of technology, and so much else, John notes the prevalence of struggle and burnout he is seeing. He discusses trends he’s noticing in the wake of the pandemic, provides specific tools to restore our souls, and describes how, as he puts it, beauty heals. I have been waiting to talk with John Eldredge about beauty for some time now. After listening to today’s episode, I think you’ll understand why.
Nicole Baumann is a sophomore and the Chief of Staff of Student Government at the University of Notre Dame. This past February, Nicole shared an original poem she wrote on social media, entitled “May Our Daughters Break the Curse.” In powerful words and images, Nicole addresses the prevalence and dangers of the normalization of disordered eating.
In her poem and in our conversation, she discusses how disordered eating thrives on the widespread acceptance of the notion that a woman’s worth is intrinsically tied up in her size. She also discusses the surprising response to her poem, shares about her own experience of disordered eating, and identifies some of the major influences she sees impacting Gen Z, when it comes to struggles with food and body image. This is such an important conversation, naming the dangers of normalizing disordered eating. My hope is that conversations like this one might wake us all up to this cultural trend, so we can “break the curse,” as Nicole puts it, for the next generation.
Amy Julia Becker is an award-winning writer and speaker on personal, spiritual, and social healing. She has authored four books and her writing has appeared in outlets such as USA Today, Christianity Today, and Washington Post. Amy Julia’s most recent book is To Be Made Well: An Invitation to Wholeness, Healing, and Hope. Becker is a graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv). She also holds a bi-vocational license with the Evangelical Covenant Church. Amy Julia hosts the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast and lives with her husband and their three children in western Connecticut.
Today, Amy Julia challenges us to look at healing, wholeness, and health in a new way; a way that helps us see ourselves as multidimensional, interrelated beings. She talks about what operating in the world of disability has taught her about beauty, invites us to see others and ourselves through the lens of belovedness, and shows us how being a specimen of physical flawlessness is not the highest form of health and wholeness. Instead, Amy Julia invites us to disconnect from distractions so we can tune into the inner voice of Love. It’s from that place of belovedness, we can participate in the larger healing work of Love in the world.
Kellie Haddock is a self-proclaimed hope giver. The kind of hope Kellie exudes is not naïve or shallow, but real and hard won. Kellie is a singer, songwriter, wife, and mom. She is also a former widow who has lived through tragedy and found hope and joy on the other side. To learn more about Kellie’s story of living through the tragedy of losing her first husband, please check out our conversation in episode 41. In that episode, Kellie talks about The Thank You Project, a short film featuring Kellie’s story of gratitude after tragedy. The film has attracted more than 150 million views and has been featured on The TODAY Show, The Huffington Post, and Cosmopolitan among other national and international media outlets.
Kellie has performed in Iraq, Israel, China and across the U.S., offering music that engages the soul. She has worked alongside Sara Groves and Sandra McCracken and has sung and spoken alongside Tim Keller, Christine Caine, Andrew Peterson and Bethany Hamilton. In today’s episode, Kellie tells us all about her new album, Orchids from Fire; what inspired it, how she experienced God while creating it, and why this project is different than any other album she’s made. She also talks about how she is able to remain hopeful and connected to God amidst life’s struggles and tragedies, the importance of women celebrating versus competing with one another, and why she believes the role of creatives is to bridge the gap between heaven and earth.
This week’s guest lives and breathes Attachment Theory. In today’s show, I am thrilled for him to share how our early-learned blueprint for relating impacts our adult relationships and even our relationship with God. Krispin Mayfield is a Licensed Professional Counselor in private practice in Oregon, where he and his wife live with their two children. Trained in attachment-based emotionally focused therapy, Krispin has served for over ten years in church-based trauma recovery programs. In his writing, podcasting, and speaking, Krispin explores the integration of faith and psychology.
In our time together, Krispin helps us explore what the four main attachment styles are, how these styles impact our adult romantic relationships, and how they impact our relationship with God. Krispin also helps us understand how we might move toward experiencing a more secure attachment with God. So often, how we relate to God has much more to do with an insecure attachment we experienced early in life and much less to do with the true character of God and the beauty revealed in Jesus.
My hope is that today your eyes might be opened to how you might connect more deeply with others in your life. I also hope that any untrue ideas about the Divine might fall away, so you might experience the true beauty of God and connect more deeply with Him.
We all have something beautiful to bring to the world. Simply being who we are or creating from a place of authenticity, we have the opportunity to bring good and beautiful things into being. Today’s guest is doing just that and, in her work and in her words, she inspires others to do the same. Jena Holliday is a Minneapolis-based graphic artist, children’s book author and illustrator, wife, mother, and the founder and Director of the online shop and platform, Spoonful of Faith. Her work can be found at retailers such as Target, Michaels, and Kirklands and her recent children’s book release, A Spoonful of Faith, was featured on Good Morning America.
In our time together, we talk about Jena’s transition from a full-time marketing career to creating her own business as a graphic artist, and what she felt God telling her in that transition. Jena also shares how she creates from a place of worship and sees her work as an incredible opportunity to co-create alongside God. Jena is inspired by the beauty of our differences. My hope is that this conversation might remind you of your own unique beauty and inspire you to create the next beautiful thing that God is calling forth from within you.
Tara Owens is the founder and executive director of Anam Cara Ministries, where she has been accompanying others in their journeys with God for 15 years as a certified spiritual director and supervisor. Tara holds a Masters of Theological Studies in Spiritual Formation, combined with a certificate in Death, Dying & Grieving, from Tyndale Seminary, and the Advanced Certificate in Supervision from the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education at Fordham University. Tara also teaches rabbinic Scripture study groups, educates spiritual directors, teaches in several spiritual direction programs across the U.S., and teaches a variety of spiritual formation courses. Tara was the Senior Editor of Conversations Journal for 7 years and has authored two books, Embracing the Body: Finding God in Our Flesh & Bone (IVP, 2015), and At Play In God’s Creation: A Contemplative Coloring Book (Franciscan Media, 2016).
In my conversation with Tara, we talk about soul friendship; what it is, how it impacts the world, why Tara refers to it as “living art,” and how soul friendship plays a crucial role in resisting culture. We also talk at length about Tara’s book, Embracing the Body. Tara helps us move away from cultural trends of objectifying or criticizing our bodies, to instead befriend our bodies and see them as good. She reminds us that God speaks through our bodies, so often reminding us of His care and presence in the midst of our own embodiment.
On this week’s episode, I interview author, speaker, and former litigating attorney, Lisa Appelo. In her new book, Life Can Be Good Again: Putting Your World Back Together After It All Falls Apart, Lisa details the story of becoming a widowed mother of seven and what she’s learned in the process.
In her writing and in her ministry, Lisa offers hope to those struggling with disappointment or grief. She offers compassionate, Biblical insight to help others find their footing, process raw emotion, and offer the hope that life can be good again. Lisa also writes at the popular site LisaAppelo.com, founded a team of writers at hopeingrief.com, administers the Facebook group Widow Mama Collective, and serves on the Executive Team for COMPEL with Proverbs31Ministries.
In our time together, we talk about what got Lisa through the days following her husband’s death, her passionate invitation for us all to live life deeply, and how all of life can be viewed as an opportunity to be shaped into the people God’s created us to be. So, may we be reminded that amidst life’s struggle and chaos, something deeper is also at work. Currents of healing, redemption, and love continue to form us. And, even amidst or following those seasons of struggle, may we know and be reminded that life can be good again.
I am grateful to have had numerous significant spiritual mentors in my life, but one of the most significant mentors in my young adult years was Dr. Jeffrey Crafton. Dr. Crafton is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church, an adjunct professor at North Park Theological Seminary, and a Sacred Studies teacher at Minnehaha Academy, teaching classes in ethics and faith formation to eleventh and twelfth graders.
This year, Dr. Crafton is retiring from Minnehaha Academy after 26 years of mentoring thousands of high schoolers as they wade through pivotal faith-related questions. In my time with Dr. Crafton, we tackle some of the same issues and themes that arise in his classes, including issues of faith and doubt, how he sees science as complimentary to faith, and, after studying the uniqueness of Christianity for decades, what he believes to be most captivating about the person of Jesus. Spiritual mentors don’t offer easy answers but bring us hope and grounding in an often-chaotic world. My hope is that today’s conversation will do just that.
There’s something so mysterious about music. It can shift our mood, connect us with other people, or help us experience God. For years, I have been enamored with the power and mystery of music. And that is why I am thrilled about today’s interview. Chenoa Murphy started the violin at age 3 and was trained in and completed the Suzuki Violin method. Simply put, she has been immersed in the art and beauty of music throughout her lifetime.
She has achieved both her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Violin Performance from the University of Cincinnati’s Conservatory of Music, as well as her Doctoral studies from the University of Iowa. She has taught violin and viola and is a member of several symphony orchestras in her area. Her opinions on race can be found on CNN, NPR Illinois, and Huffington Post. Chenoa is married to the love of her life, Victor of Glasgow, Scotland, and is the mother of two, and bonus mother of four. She also hosts her own podcast, entitled “Black, White & In Color.”
In our time together, we talk about what it was like growing up immersed in classical and Gospel music, why black representation in classical music matters, and why she believes authenticity is cornerstone to embodying true beauty.
Sometimes light shines brightest in the darkness. And that’s exactly what’s happening at the Polish-Ukrainian border, as Davide Martello plays his baby grand piano. Davide Martello, also known as Klavierkunst, is a German pianist of Italian descent. Martello is known for traveling around conflict zones to play his baby grand piano, which he tows behind his bicycle, using a powered trailer. His mission is to bring peace through music.
Martello’s work has been featured by outlets such as CNN and has previously been recognized by the European parliament for his “outstanding contribution to European cooperation and the promotion of common values.” Martello is currently playing at the Ukrainian-Polish border for refugees, fleeing the Russian invasion. And that is where he was, when I recently had the pleasure to speak with him about his mission and about beauty.
Sumner Brooks is a registered dietitian (RDN), author, and mom who has spent over 13 years working in the field of nutrition and eating disorders. She most recently co-authored her second book, entitled How to Raise an Intuitive Eater: Raising the Next Generation with Food and Body Confidence. Sumner earned her RDN credential and M.P.H. in Community Health Sciences from UCLA in 2008. Her experience includes providing nutrition therapy for adolescents and adults with eating concerns for over a decade, public speaking and pursuing advanced training in trauma-informed, weight-inclusive healthcare. She is also the founder of EDRD Pro, a global, online continuing education platform for eating disorder dietitians.
Raising two kids in Oregon, Sumner knows the importance of informing caregivers and medical providers on how we can ultimately prioritize mental health as we move toward the common goal of building a true sense of wellbeing for our future generations. In this week’s episode we talk about how diet culture disrupts our relationship with food and our bodies, why fear-based messaging is unhelpful in those relationships, and how to go about raising kids with food and body confidence. In a culture where we are inundated with unhelpful messaging that so easily disconnects us with the gift of food and our very own bodies, Sumner Brooks kindly and articulately helps us let go of diet culture messages, so we can usher in something different for the next generation.
Nicole Zasowski is a licensed marriage and family therapist, author, and speaker. Back in Episode 36, I had the privilege of speaking with Nicole about her first book, From Lost to Found. In that book, Nicole shares how her journey of multiple miscarriages and crippling anxiety gave her empty hands to experience God in new ways. In her new book, entitled, What If It’s Wonderful? Nicole invites readers to trust joy and find the courage to celebrate when we have endured seasons of disappointment and despair.
In this conversation, Nicole invites us to open our hearts and minds to joy and celebration in authentic and grounding ways. She also makes a psychological and spiritual case for the importance of embracing joy and celebration, even when it feels scary, and discusses tangible practices to help us move from worry and “what ifs” to embracing the vibrancy of the present moment.
So, whether your struggle with worry or perhaps find yourself in a season of disappointment, may Nicole’s words fuel the flame of courage within you; the courage to engage the goodness of the present moment and look toward the future with hope and imagination.
Our society is sick. Diet culture, the beauty industry, and the media have sold us a narrowly defined ideal and it has warped our views on food, our bodies, and beauty. In this week’s episode, I had the privilege of speaking with the incredible Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani all about the fallout of these warped cultural messages.
Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani is an eating disorders expert physician and the Founder and Medical Director of the Gaudiani Clinic in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Gauidiani completed her undergraduate degree at Harvard, medical school at Boston University School of Medicine, and her internal medicine residency and chief residency at Yale. In 2008, she was one of the founding team members of the ACUTE Center for Eating Disorders at Denver Health and, after seven great years there, she left as its Medical Director to pursue her vision of outpatient care, founding the Gaudiani Clinic. During her years at ACUTE, Dr. Gaudiani became a nationally recognized internist for her work on the medical complications of eating disorders. She also wrote a book on this same topic, released in 2018, Sick Enough: A Guide to the Medical Complications of Eating Disorders.
Dr. Gaudiani has lectured nationally and internationally and is widely published in the scientific literature as well as on blogs. She is one of the only outpatient internists in the US who carries the Certified Eating Disorder Specialist and Supervisor designation and has received the honorable designation of Fellow from the international organization Academy for Eating Disorders.
In our time together, Dr. Gaudiani covers so many important topics, including the shocking percentage of people whom she believes have a disordered relationship with food, how diet culture has impacted the medical field, and how most doctors don’t understand eating disorders. She also talks about thin privilege, weight stigma, weight-inclusive medical care, and what a balanced relationship with food and our bodies looks like. Dr. Gaudiani’s wisdom and compassion are palpable in her work and in this episode. My hope is that her experience and insights might help us identify and shed the harmful messages we have absorbed, so we might move into a more peaceful relationship with food, our bodies, and ourselves.
What would it be like to not just admire nature from a distance, but treat creation as a relative, a teacher, and an expression of the love of the Creator?
On this week’s episode, I talk with Randy and Edith Woodley. Rev. Dr. Randy Woodley is an author, activist, farmer, scholar, speaker, wisdom keeper, and a Cherokee descendant recognized by the Keetoowah Band. In his work, Dr. Woodley addresses a variety of issues concerning American culture, faith, justice, race, and our relationship with the earth and Indigenous realities. He currently serves as Distinguished Professor of Faith and Culture and Director of Intercultural and Indigenous Studies at George Fox University/Portland Seminary. Randy has written numerous books, including his most recent title, Becoming Rooted: One Hundred Days of Reconnecting with Sacred Earth. His expertise has been sought in national venues such as Time Magazine, Christianity Today, and The Huffington Post.
Edith Woodley is a mentor/speaker on issues concerning Indigenous Spirituality and Creation. She is a full-time mother, grandmother and farmer, and has developed a unique relationship with the land and insights concerning how to raise a family on a small farm. Edith is an Eastern Shoshone tribal member and enjoys carrying on the tradition in her family of Native American beadwork with her jewelry. Together, Randy and Edith are co-creators and co-sustainers of Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice and Eloheh Farm & Seeds. Through an Eloheh experience, they invite people to a deeper spirituality and new relationship with creation while modeling regenerative Earth-tending practices and Earth justice.
In this episode, Randy and Edith, invite me to see beauty and creation through a completely new, counter-cultural lens. What if true beauty has nothing to do with being flawless and everything to do with what indigenous cultures call the Harmony Way? What if we laid down our striving and rested in a more beautiful reality, one that says that we are loved by the great Creator just as we are, that we have each been created with a unique beauty and identity, and that we are a part of something much bigger than we are.
Victoria Myers is a non-diet registered dietitian and owner of the virtual private practice and online education center, Nourishing Minds Nutrition. Victoria and her staff specialize in empowering women to ditch diets, regulate hormones, heal digestion and learn to practice wellness without obsession. She is also the host of the popular intuitive eating and wellness podcast, the Nourishing Women Podcast. Her mission for her community is to help women let go of the unhealthy obsession with eating healthy, make peace with their body, and live their lives to the fullest.
In our time together, Victoria helps us understand what orthorexia is, or the unhealthy obsession with being healthy. She also unpacks the concept of fatphobia, why it matters, and how diet culture has skewed our relationship with food and our bodies. In short, Victoria highlights how pursuing “health” so often gets mixed up in diet culture, often becoming a perfectionistic or obsessive pursuit. She then helps us get diet culture out of the way, so we can re-establish a harmonious relationship with food and our bodies. I hope that Victoria’s insights and this conversation take you one step closer to doing just that.
Dr. Carol Peters-Tanksley believes that we can live fully alive in the way God created us to live- physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually. She believes we can thrive. Dr. Peters-Tanksley, or “Dr. Carol,” as she is called, is a licensed OB-Gyn physician and Reproductive Endocrinologist, an ordained Doctor of Ministry, an author, speaker, and personal coach. She also produced a regular radio program, “The Dr. Carol Show,” with her husband, Al, from 2009 until his death in 2016. Dr. Carol has seen how many people struggle to find the help they need in the church for the struggles they encounter: broken relationships, mental or emotional struggles, or toxic religion. She desires to come alongside those undergoing such brokenness to find healing and transformation so they can live more fully.
In our time together, Dr. Carol shares how God transformed her own mental/emotional struggles and grief into growth, meaning, and joy. She also talks about the common struggles around beauty and body image she encountered as an OB-Gyn and tells the story behind why she chose to pursue ministry, in addition to being a physician. Dr. Carol also deeply encouraged me by talking about finding purpose in midlife and beyond and reminded me, and us, that “God will not stop until everything is made right.” My deep hope is that Dr. Carol will encourage you as much as she did me.
On this week’s episode, I talk with enneagram coach and co-leader of the non-profit, 40 Orchards, Stephanie Spencer. 40 Orchards creates safe spaces for people to learn about and wrestle though biblical texts using the ancient Jewish concept of Midrash. Stephanie had a first career as a pastor and now facilitates Scripture Circles in the Minneapolis area and, remotely, around the world. She currently lives in Minneapolis with her husband and their two adolescent sons.
In my time with Stephanie, we talk about how reading the Bible in a new way “opened up the world” to her. She also discusses how we have been made to delight in the world around us and highlights the common thread of feeling like we don’t measure up when it comes to beauty standards and so often in the life of faith as well. Perhaps most importantly, Stephanie reminds us that God is not a God who stands far off but is, instead, intimately involved in each of our stories and that He sees us as beautiful, good, and rejoices over us, even now.
Katy Rose is committed to creating “art to reflect the beauty of light illuminating the darkness.” Trained in psychology and art, Katie desires to bring depth and meaning to each of her paintings. She is also a contributing author for the “Love God Greatly Bible” published by Thomas Nelson in 2020 and has illustrated and written upcoming projects in children’s literature.
Katie lives in Texas with her husband and four children. She and her husband have made it their mission to serve foster children and under-served populations around the globe. Her fine art business was originally launched for that purpose and continues to exist with that guiding principle.
In our time together, we talk about how creating beauty and reflecting light in the world is actually an act of rebellion against the darkness that we so often encounter. Katie also talks about why she believes creativity is pivotal for children, how art has brought healing and redemption in her own life, and she encourages us to step outside of our comfort zones to experience unknown beauty on the other side.
As you listen today, I hope you are encouraged to see more beauty around you, feel any nudges for using your agency in your own corner to bring about more light, and, to be reminded that whatever we are invited into, we don’t go alone.
This episode is all about beauty ideals, our relationship with our bodies and food, and social media. I can’t think of better conversation partners for this one than Lisa DeKam and Jacquie Danz, the founders of the Axia Project. Lisa is a physical therapist who works in the field of eating disorders and Jacquie is the mom of two teenage girls, who is committed to changing the narrative that a females’ appearance is the most important thing about her. Together, Lisa and Jacquie have founded the Axia Project, an organization seeking to teach women that life is more than your appearance and help women build skills to actively live their God-given worth.
In this episode, we talk about the prevalence of disordered eating and body image struggles, tips for bringing up the next generation in an image-saturated world, and why beauty ideals are not only damaging but get in the way of living out our purpose in the world. This is a must listen episode, calling out the breadth and depth of the fallout of cultural beauty standards, impacting females’ mental and emotional health, their relationship with food and their bodies, with others, and so much more. We also highlight how we go about making change. Please listen, and then, help us change the narrative!
Haejin Shim Fujimura is a seasoned lawyer and the founder and managing partner of Shim & Associates, located in both New York and New Jersey. Haejin is also the CEO and co-founder of Embers International, an organization committed to protecting, restoring, and empowering victims of injustice with the goal of ending intergenerational exploitation and preventing human trafficking. She also serves as the Team Leader of NYC Advocacy & Mobilization Team of International Justice Mission, the largest anti-slavery organization in the world.
Haejin is married to renowned contemporary artist, Makoto Fujimura, with whom she leads the “Beauty + Justice” movement. One initiative within that movement is Kintsugi Academy, of which Haejin is the President.
In our time together, Haejin reminds me that we are all artists, with the power to create beautiful things in our own corner of the world. She also helps me see that justice is ultimately about creating beautiful relationships, that love is generative, and that we can all create something new amid broken realities. This is a powerful episode, reminding us that we are not helpless onlookers of the brokenness in the world or in our own lives. Instead, we are all artists, empowered to infuse more beauty, love, and goodness into the world and into the communities we are a part of.
In this week’s episode, I had the privilege of interviewing renowned author, Philip Yancey. In his books, Philip has explored the most basic questions and deepest mysteries of the Christian faith, including award-winning titles such as The Jesus I Never Knew, What’s So Amazing About Grace? and Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? He currently has more than 15 million books in print, published in over 50 languages worldwide, and his books have garnered 13 Gold Medallion Awards from Christian publishers and booksellers.
Philip began his writing career as a journalist in Chicago, where he worked for about twenty years, writing for a wide variety of magazines including Reader’s Digest and Christianity Today. As a journalist, he interviewed people such as President Jimmy Carter, Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller, and Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement.
In my time with Philip, we talk about his new book, Where the Light Fell, and why he believes it is the one book he was put on earth to write. We also talk about how his life story has shaped his writing, how beauty transformed his faith and relationship with God, and how his experiences around the world have shaped his views on beauty. This conversation was such a gift to me. My hope is that Philip’s wisdom and words might bring so much light into your life as well.
For months I looked forward to my interview with author, hospital chaplain, and former atheist, J.S. Park. When it comes to the tension of beauty and brokenness, what better person to talk to than someone who literally sits at the precipice of life and death, crisis, and suffering every day? Furthermore, J.S. is an honest voice, speaking candidly about his own struggles with depression and his journey from atheism to faith. He is a suicide survivor, Korean American, and loves Jesus. J.S. also recently released his book, The Voices We Carry: Finding Your One True Voice in a World of Clamor and Noise.
In my time with J.S. we talk about the idea of calling and what inspired him to become a hospital chaplain, his journey from atheism to faith, his experience as a chaplain, and how even in the midst of so much suffering, he believes beauty exists and still wins. I can’t wait for you to hear from him today.
Nine years ago, Taylor Hughes decided to chase a dream he’d had since he was seven years old. On his 7th birthday, Taylor’s parents bought him a magic kit and he fell in love with the art of illusion. He wanted to be a magician. For years he had encouraged others to live out their passions and chase their dreams, but he had not done the same for himself. Now, more than 3,000 shows later, Taylor has become known for his signature style of Magic Storytelling. He is a bestselling author, a highly sought-after keynote presenter and his comedy magic special '“Chasing Wonder” is streaming now on Apple and Amazon Prime. Taylor also regularly performs at various Bob Goff events throughout the U.S.
In my time with Taylor, we talk about what it’s like to tune into your own passion and intuition to chase the dreams God has shaped within you, the deception and misdirection Taylor sees in marketing and cultural ideas of beauty, and how to start seeing your own story through the eyes of wonder. This is such a fun episode. And like Taylor’s new book, Road to Wonder, our time is filled with both laughter and so much of Taylor’s wisdom. My hope is that this episode might deeply encourage you, inviting you to embrace the beauty in your own unique story and become more attuned to invitations to embrace wonder every day.
Sandra McCracken is a singer-songwriter and hymn writer from Nashville, Tennessee who has produced 14 solo albums over two decades. Sandra’s music has also been featured in TV, including ‘Ten Thousand Angels’ on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and has over 15 million streams. Sandra is also a published author, contributing a regular column in Christianity Today and recently released her first book "Send Out Your Light" in September 2021.
My conversation with Sandra was so encouraging. In our time together, we talk about her new book’s invitation to see the Light God has given each of us and what it looks like to send that Light back out into the world. We also talk about how Sandra has experienced God’s Light in her own seasons of darkness and what encouragement she might give to those of us are feeling a little worn out after the experience of the past-year-and-a-half. If you are feeling weary or are needing a reminder of God’s working in your life, even if you can’t see or feel it, this one is for you.
When it comes to messages about food and our bodies, our society gives us some pretty warped ideas. On today’s episode, I talk to registered dietitian nutritionist, Megan Hadley, who is fiercely committed to counteracting such dangerous messages and helping clients find freedom in eating and acceptance of their bodies. Megan currently provides one-on-one nutrition therapy and coaching for individuals in North Carolina and engages with clients in an online community called Fork the Food Rules, a membership program that offers courses, groups, and online coaching.
In our time together, Megan and I talk about how she sees diet culture being a barrier to living fully and freely, how diet culture is like the air we breathe, the beauty of body diversity, and in what ways the church has adopted diet culture. My hope is that all of us might find more freedom in our relationship with food and our bodies and that we might together swim upstream against a culture that works against that freedom.
Sometimes the resilience of humans astounds me. On this week’s episode, I talk with author and speaker, Bonnie Gray, who is an incredible model of resilience and persevering faith. In her most recent book, Sweet Like Jasmine, Bonnie recounts her past, growing up as a Chinese American daughter of a mail-order bride and a busboy working in San Francisco Chinatown. Though Bonnie’s early years were fraught with verbal and emotional abuse and loneliness, she has persevered to become an encourager of others.
Bonnie loves inspiring women to experience deeper intimacy with God, specifically addressing topics of soul care, stress recovery, and emotional healing through storytelling, visual arts, nature, prayer, and meditation. She has written three books and her writing has been featured in outlets such as Relevant Magazine, KLOVE, and Christianity Today.
In this week’s episode, Bonnie shares about her struggles with anxiety and panic attacks, what drew her to God as a child, how she’s found soul care to be essential in her own journey, and how she’s been able to keep her heart open to God amidst all the trials she’s undergone. My hope is that as you listen today, you might know that your story matters, and that in the midst of whatever you are going through, you are seen, known, and loved.
Dr. MaryKate Morse is the executive dean of the Portland Seminary and lead mentor for the Leadership and Spiritual Formation Doctor of Ministry track. She leads the seminary and serves on the Executive Academic Leadership of the university.
Dr. Morse began her ministry living in the Andes Mountains of Bolivia and Peru, then studied at Western Evangelical Seminary, where she received a Masters in Biblical Studies and a Masters in Divinity. She went on to become certified as a spiritual director, was recorded as a pastor with the Evangelical Friends, and completed her doctorate at Gonzaga University. MaryKate has taught at the seminary for nearly 30 years in the fields of New Testament Greek, various spiritual formation courses, and leadership and organizational change courses. She has also authored three books, centering on the topics of leadership and prayer, as well as various other chapters and writing projects.
In our time together, MaryKate was able to put words to the mystery of beauty in a way I haven’t experienced before. She describes how beauty opens us up to God in unique and powerful ways. She also talks about her experience as a spiritual director, the process of spiritual formation, why she believes more people are being called to the ministry of spiritual direction these days, and how beauty literally saved her life when she was sixteen. So, please sit back, and allow MaryKate’s words and stories to minister to your heart and mind. May you be opened anew to the power of beauty and may we allow Beauty to do its work in us.
When Tyler and Lydia Lund met Jenn Corral, they didn’t know it would change their lives.
Tyler and Lydia live in Salina Kansas, along with their four kids, hosting foster children and working their day jobs: Lydia, a Clinical Therapist and Tyler, a Sales and Marketing Director for a farm equipment supplier. Even though life was full, Lydia and Tyler also wanted to serve their community; not in a distanced, hand-out sort of way, but in a way that was deeply relational. It was their friendship with Jenn Corral that helped them see the need for safe and communal housing for those in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction or leaving unsafe situations at home.
What began with a desire, prayer, and friendship, has now turned into Journey Homes, an organization that provides safe and sober living for men, women, and families. Perhaps one of the most beautiful parts of the community at Journey Homes is that it provides a true home for those living there, a place where they are known, loved, and supported. In my conversation with Jenn, Lydia, and Tyler, I was reminded of the beauty of home and family. It’s in those places we are reminded that, at our core, we are loved, accepted, and that we belong. And if, perhaps, that wasn’t experienced in our earlier years, we can still create or experience “home” later in life. Something beautiful is happening in Salina, Kansas, because Jenn, Tyler, Lydia, along with Dave, Jake, and Aaron (the leaders at the men’s home) are reminding Journey Home residents that they are loved, and they are family. They also remind us of what true family looks like and that it’s never too late to experience “home.”
Scott Erickson, also known as Scott the Painter, is an artist, author, and performance speaker. In his work, Scott seeks to demonstrate that the story of God is not just a story that happened thousands of years ago, but it is also a story that’s happening right now, in your life and mine. Scott’s work has appeared on CNN, in National Geographic, and in various magazines, newspaper outlets, and book covers. The beauty of Scott’s work is that he gives fresh language and visuals to the spiritual journey. He somehow seamlessly weaves profundity, hilarity, and refreshing honesty into his work, inviting us to think honestly about our deepest experiences and life’s deepest questions.
In our time together, we talk about Scott’s journey behind his show and upcoming book release entitled “Say Yes: Discover the Surprising Life Beyond the Death of a Dream,” how his role as a spiritual director informs his work, the power of vulnerability and weakness, and the mind-blowing nature of Grace and its power to transform us. So, please sit back, get ready to laugh, to think deeply, and to be encouraged by Scott Erickson. May you come away from this conversation with new eyes to see how the story of Love and Grace and God is playing out today, even in your story.
In this week’s episode, I had the pleasure of talking with Maggie Meyers. Maggie is a Doctor of Marriage and Family Therapy and a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. Maggie has worked with clients with various diagnoses and struggles; however, much of her work has been in the field of eating disorders. For years, she worked in various levels of care and in leadership roles at a nationally renowned eating disorder clinic. More recently, she has decided to fully commit her time at a private practice in the Twin Cities area, called Wholehearted Healing.
In my conversation with Maggie, we tackle all sorts of important topics: what’s the difference between disordered eating and eating disorders, how social media is shaping beauty standards, why the phrase “strong is the new skinny” isn’t helpful, and why it’s so important that we not equate body shape/size with health or with worth. What I love about Maggie is that she boldly calls out injustice and that which doesn’t bring life. She is a fierce advocate for her clients and for women, desiring they live freely as their authentic self, unencumbered by an unnecessary and unhelpful preoccupation with food or body image.
My hope is that our conversation helps to expose some of the unhelpful messages of the beauty industry and diet culture, so that you can shed any life-depleting messages you may have adopted. So, may you be freed and more able to live more fully into the person God has created you to be.
Last week I had the privilege of interviewing Pastor Mitchel Lee of Grace Community Church in Fulton, Maryland. It was a conversation that deeply encouraged me. So often, it can be easy to equate life circumstances with the goodness of God. And to wonder how do we connect with and trust God amid life’s trials and brokenness? Pastor Lee recently released a book, entitled Even If, that addresses this exactly. The message has been stirring in his heart for nineteen years.
In his book and in our time together, Pastor Lee helps us learn to be more resilient in the face of suffering and how to live with a daring commitment to engage deeply with God in a broken world. Specifically, he teaches us how the practice of remembering helps us stay connected to God and how dwelling on God’s character and goodness before the storm grounds us, regardless of life’s ups and downs.
Pastor Lee approaches this conversation as a wise and knowing guide, having undergone his share of struggles, including the death of his father, as well as miraculous turns, such as his own birth story. It’s people like Pastor Lee who spur me on in my own journey. He reminds me of the deep and utter goodness of God and that our stories and his goodness are so much bigger than the brokenness we experience.
From the first time I heard Jason Gray’s music I was drawn in by its relatability and its ability to convey a hope that doesn’t feel superficial or naive, but grounded and deep. And that is why I am thrilled to have Christian singer/songwriter Jason Gray join me on the show this week. Jason is a two-time ASCAP Performance Award winner, has scored two Top Ten Christian chart hits, and landed on the Billboard Top Christian Albums chart with his album A Way to See in the Dark.
Jason has the ability to convey deep truths with incredible artistry, in his music and in his speaking. In our time together we talk about the mission behind his music, the ways he’s learned to reframe anxiety and anger, how we can all become conduits for something greater than ourselves when we engage our creativity, the incredible power of words, and how life’s disorder and adversity actually have the power to transform us.
Gabi Kahn is a non-diet dietitian and owner of Method Nutrition. After recovering from a lifetime of harmful dieting, Gabi earned her MA in Clinical Nutrition from NYU and has now made it her mission to protect the next generation from diet culture. More specifically, Gabi seeks to help moms find peace in their relationship with food and learn to love their bodies, so they can protect their young daughters from a lifetime of harmful dieting.
In my time with Gabi, we talk about what it might look like to move toward a more helpful relationship with food and our bodies, how pursuing “health” can become an obsession, and what might need to shift in our own lives to live more fully and help the next generation walk away from the cage that is diet culture. So, whether you are a mom or not, this episode is for you. We have all been swimming in the tainted waters of diet culture, so may we shed its toxic legacy, so we can hand the next generation something different and far better.
Molly LaCroix is a licensed marriage and family therapist, author, and speaker. As a therapist, Molly knows that we need loving relationships when we are struggling with life’s challenges. However, she noticed that, due to fear of vulnerability, people often struggle with being a supportive presence in one another’s lives during times of suffering. And that’s exactly why Molly wrote her book, Restoring Relationship: Transforming Fear into Love Through Connection. In her book, Molly explores the root of our vulnerability and offers practical ways to transform fear into love through connection.
In my time with Molly, we talk about her experience of God amid her battle with cancer, some helpful ways of handling societal messages around ageing, some practical ways we can choose love over fear-in our relationship with ourselves and with others, and how miraculous it is that we can heal, personally and interpersonally. My hope is that this episode will leave you more hopeful and will encourage you to persevere in the lifelong journey of healing and transformation, as we are all being shaped to become more infused with Love.
Bruxy Cavey is the senior pastor at The Meeting House, a church for people who aren’t into church. The Meeting House is a multisite Anabaptist congregation in Ontario, Canada where thousands of people connect to God and each other through Sunday services, online interaction, and a widespread house church network. Bruxy is also author of the bestselling book, The End of Religion and his new book, (re)union: The Good News of Jesus for Seekers, Saints, and Sinners.
In my time with Bruxy, we talk about so many things: how legalism can find its way into our relationship with food or exercise, why he finds Jesus to be so magnetic, why God is more beautiful than we can fathom, and how we have a pivotal role in bringing about more beauty in the world. I hope this episode encourages you today and inspires all of us to be “part of the solution…partnering with God to bring about something good,” as Bruxy puts it.
Jess Connolly is an author, church leader, and coach. She’s also a woman who has experienced decades of shame and pain in her body. She’s been on a journey to break free from body shame using God’s truth and now she is inviting women to join her. As she puts it, she’s obsessed with the freedom that is ours for the taking.
Today’s episode is a little different. For one, we’re going to jump right into my conversation with Jess. Also, our conversation is going to largely focus on her new book, Breaking Free from Body Shame: Dare to Reclaim What God Has Named Good. As we consider letting go of what beauty is not, it is so important to release the lies that have been spoken over our good bodies. So, please settle in and listen in to a conversation that is long overdue. May God meet you in these tender places and may you know that your body is good.
Hope Carpenter is a pastor, author, wife, and mom. Along with her husband Ron, she pastors Redemption Church in Greenville, South Carolina and San Jose, California. She has also authored two books, The Little Pink Book, and most recently, The Most Beautiful Disaster. When Hope is not helping her husband lead Redemption or spending time with her grandchildren, she often travels to Pakistan, Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Mexico to do missions work under the umbrella of Hope for the Nations. Hope’s heart and passion is seeing people’s lives changed and transformed so that they can be everything God has created them to be.
In my time with Hope, we talk about the masks we wear as humans and how to work toward a different reality in the church and in our relationships. Hope also openly shares about her own story of infidelity and marital struggles, demonstrating what it looks like for leaders to “go first” in sharing their own vulnerabilities. I absolutely loved my conversation with Hope. Her words are so encouraging and filled with so much wisdom. She demonstrates the beauty of vulnerability, the beauty of rock bottom, and reminded me that the goal of following God is not perfection, but freedom.
These days the concept of self-love is tossed around a lot. And often, it can be assumed to be a shallow, abstract, or even self-indulgent concept. For that reason, and so many others, I am so glad I have Karlyn Benn on the show today. Not only does Karyln give us a helpful definition and understanding of this concept, but she explains how it has transformed her own life.
Karlyn Benn is licensed professional counselor and Glō Coach. In her coaching work, she helps women live a life full of joy, confidence, and courage all while embracing the beautiful body they have right now. Karlyn specifically emphasizes the inner work that must take place within each of us so that we can show up confidently and authentically to shine in the world around us. I can’t wait for you to listen today and hopefully sink a little more deeply into the reality of this infinite love we are all immersed in and then, offer some of that incredible love and acceptance to yourself.
Abby Turner is a food blogger, speaker, and writer. Born into a large family, she grew up in Central Arkansas, where she learned the importance of community and hospitality at a young age. After obtaining her master’s degree from Baylor, Abby lived in 6 states in 5 years and learned how essential community is to wellbeing and faith. Abby’s passion is to encourage women to stop wasting time waiting for the perfect family, house, or table and to start opening their homes, cooking for friends, and building community. Abby also recently released her latest book, The Living Table: Recipes and Devotions for Everyday Get-togethers.
What especially strikes me about Abby’s message is how she frames the importance of gathering at the table. She’s caused me to see how incredibly sacred and healing the table is. A meal is built in time to connect with others, be known, and let others know they are known and loved. It’s much more than recipes or meal planning, it’s about relationships. I can’t wait for you to listen in and learn from Abby.
Do you ever wonder how such incredible beauty and such profound brokenness can coexist in the world? And in the midst of those seeming competing realities, what does that mean about God and his goodness? It’s questions like these that today’s guest has studied, struggled with, and recently written a book about.
Sarah Clarkson is a writer and theologian who currently lives in West Sussex in England with her husband, son, and daughter. Sarah recently finished her MSt (Master of Studies) in modern doctrine at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford with a focus on theodicy and beauty, studying the presence of beauty in the midst of a broken work. Sarah also just completed her latest book, entitled This Beautiful Truth: How God’s Goodness Breaks Into Our Darkness, detailing the story of Sarah’s personal struggle with mental illness and the beauty that infiltrated and transformed her darkness, teaching her to hunger after hope.
Sarah’s insights are profound, hopeful, and have been fought for in the midst of her own suffering. She is a seasoned theologian and is an artist with her words. She has a beautiful way of speaking, of describing God, and of envisioning a world where Beauty is our ultimate reality and truth. My hope is that as you listen today, you may you know and feel that truth.
Katherine Wolf is a survivor, communicator, and advocate. After giving birth to her first son in 2008, Katherine miraculously survived a catastrophic stroke. Since that day, Katherine and her husband, Jay, have committed their lives to champion the truth that suffering and joy can coexist in your good/hard story. In that pursuit, Katherine and Jay have written two best-selling books (Hope Heals and Suffer Strong), created a thriving online community, and founded Hope Heals Camp for families affected by disability. Katherine and Jay currently live in Atlanta, Georgia with their two sons.
Today’s episode is one where I often found myself pausing after Katherine responded to my questions. The beauty and profundity of what she said threw me off, but in a good way. I wanted to sit in her words, rather than move on to the next question or topic. There is so much wisdom, humility, and depth in what Katherine has to say. Her words on today’s episode deeply impacted me and I hope they encourage you deeply too. I can’t wait for you to hear more about Katherine’s story, how she’s found authentic hope, and be reminded that each one of our lives is a profound miracle.
Melanie Penn is a gifted singer/songwriter who writes pop songs at the crossroads of faith and culture. Melanie began formal vocal training at a young age and eventually moved to New York City to pursue a career on Broadway. After years of being a mainstay in New York City’s theater scene, including a run of playing Sandy Dumbrowski in Grease for a Broadway touring company, Melanie decided to transition to song writing and pursue a career as a solo artist.
Melanie has released several albums, including Wake Up, Hope Tonight, Immanuel, Immanuel: The Folk Sessions, and her most recent album, More Alive. For many years Melanie also served as a worship leader at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, under the leadership of author and theologian Tim Keller.
In my time with Melanie, we talk about the unexpected turns during the pandemic, her journey and initial fears around songwriting, creativity, and the amazing privilege we have as image bearers of God to bestow beauty to the world around us. I truly loved this conversation with Melanie. She somehow managed to simultaneously challenge and inspire me…and as an added bonus, we laughed a lot. I can’t wait for you listen in!
Christyna Johnson is a Dallas-based, Non-Diet Registered Dietician whose nutrition philosophy is rooted in the social justice framework of Health at Every Size (R) and seen through the lens of Intuitive Eating. After years of personally struggling with negative body image, disordered eating, and anxiety, Christyna is thankful that she has now come to find a flourishing relationship with her body and food. She now loves helping others find that same freedom in their bodies and with food. As Christyna puts it, “Life was not meant to revolve around food and thoughts about our bodies. It’s a big world out there just waiting to be explored!”
I loved my conversation with Christyna. She’s so authentic, passionate, and just really fun to talk with. In our time together, she opened my eyes to aspects of cultural beauty and food that I hadn’t thought of before. It’s also so clear that Christyna is a compassionate advocate for her clients and anyone struggling in their relationship with food or their body. My hope is that as you listen today, you might notice any subtle nudges or invitations within yourself to step into more freedom in your relationship with food or body image. Or maybe you’re needing to see the profound beauty in the authenticity of who you are. Either way, Christyna’s voice has been a great encouragement in my life. I hope that her voice may do the same for you.
Daron Babcock is the founder and executive director of Bonton Farms near Dallas, Texas. Starting as a garden in a small lot, Bonton Farms has grown into two fully functioning, organic farms, one in the Bonton community and a separate 40-acre farm south of Dalllas. Before the Farm’s presence Bonton was what was considered a food desert.
The mission of Bonton Farms is “to restore lives, create jobs and ignite hope in a once forgotten and neglected neighborhood with some of the most marginalized people.” So many beautiful things are happening at Bonton Farms, with even more plans in the works. It has been some time since I’ve experienced a mission and a place full of so much purpose and life. Daron’s love for the people there and his passion for bringing about meaningful change is stunning. I truly can’t wait for you to hear more about his story, his heart, and his work at Bonton Farms. I have a feeling that his story may change yours as well.
My time with Allen Arnold was such a gift. He totally breathed new life into the concepts of creativity and living life as a true adventure. Allen Arnold is an author (The Story of With and Chaos Can’t) and speaker. He is also the Executive Producer of Content for John and Stasi Eldredge’s ministry, Wild at Heart.
In short, Allen’s passion is awakening people’s hearts to pursue their dreams and creativity with God. As Allen so poignantly says in our interview, when we bring something new into existence, we are “dancing with God to create good and beautiful things.” As a former fiction publisher, Allen oversaw the launch of more than 500 novels. He has now turned his attention to helping people live a better story. My hope is that by listening to Allen’s words today, he may inspire you and your heart in the midst of your own story as it unfolds in all of its creativity and adventure.
Today’s episode is a little different. Back in Episode 18, I shared a little about my story and why I’m so passionate about beauty and why I even started Impossible Beauty in the first place. In today’s episode, I share a bit more about why I care so much about this topic and why I hope you’ll join me in redefining beauty and seeking after true beauty. So please sit back and I hope you enjoy part two of “Why I’m So Passionate about Beauty.”
Can I just say that Ginny Owens is amazing?! For years, I have listened to and loved her music and in our time together, I experienced firsthand how very authentic and beautiful her heart and her faith are. For those of you who are new to Ginny Owens, she is a singer/songwriter and speaker, who was named the Gospel Music Association’s 2000 New Artist of the Year. Ginny has also won 3 Dove Awards, multiple ASCAP awards, sold over a million records, been a top performer on the Christian radio charts, and impacted mainstream audiences at Lilith Fair, The Sundance Film Festival, and the White House.
Having been blind since she was three years old, Ginny’s unique perspective on life and faith has a way of helping others see with more clarity. For years, she has been inspiring audiences with life-giving songs and stories of encouragement. That same sense of perspective, clarity, and encouragement permeated our conversation. I can’t wait for you to hear Ginny’s perspectives on cultural beauty, as well as true beauty, a beauty that has the power to move us.
My conversation with Bunmi Laditan was so refreshing. Bunmi is simultaneously hilarious and full of wisdom. She also has the invaluable gift of putting you completely at ease in her presence. Bunmi is a writer living in Quebec, Canada whose work ranges from the humorous to the poetic, including titles such as The Honest Toddler, Confessions of a Domestic Failure, Dear Mother, and her most recent book, Dear God: Honest Prayers to a God Who Listens.
In my time with Bunmi, she shares about her fascinating journey of faith; a journey of exploration, hitting rock bottom, and coming to know God in intimate and unexpected ways. She also shares about some of the unneeded pressure on women, from beauty standards to what we eat, and how pivotal it is for us to see ourselves and others as lovingly and beautifully created by God.
The work Ben Higgins is doing in the world is undoubtedly inspiring. While you may know him from ABC’s twentieth season of The Bachelor, Ben has gone on to use his platform to do beautiful things in the world. Alongside a couple of his friends, Ben founded Generous International, a for-profit company that invests 100% of its profits from coffee and apparel into life-changing partner organizations that improve education, create jobs, feed children, and empower communities to eliminate poverty.
Ben also recently released his first book entitled Alone in Plain Sight: Searching for Connection. In his book, Ben shares how he went from feeling deeply alone and dissatisfied to finding authentic connection with himself, with others, and with God. My interview with Ben was so encouraging. In our time together, he reminds us that we each have deeply purposeful lives. As he says in his book, “we need to break out of our silos and come together for something bigger than ourselves.” I’m so excited for you to listen in and be reminded of how deeply beautiful life can be when we connect with ourselves, with other people, and with the God who loves us deeply.
I absolutely loved my conversation with Javoni Cobb. Javoni is an eating disorder recovery coach at the Eating Disorder Center in Rockville, Maryland. She has her master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling and currently works with teens and adults struggling with anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and body image issues. In her work with clients, Javoni seeks to help them break free from disordered behaviors, to discover food freedom, body acceptance, and self-compassion.
In our time together, Javoni and I cover so many important topics: how beauty standards impact our relationship with food and our bodies, the dead end that is comparison, and how “healthy” comes in all kinds of body shapes and sizes. I laughed with Javoni and learned so much from her. I’m so excited for you to listen in.
Kellie Haddock inspires me. She has lived through tragedy and found hope on the other side and now inspires others to do the same. Kellie is a singer, songwriter, wife, and mom. She is a former widow whose music draws on real-life stories of beauty, heartache, hope, and the celebration of life. Kellie has performed in Iraq, Israel, China, and across the U.S. and her albums include Leave the Light On, Wild Love, and her Christmas album Peace on Earth. She has sung and spoken alongside Tim Keller, Christine Caine, Marianne Williamson and worked alongside Sara Groves and Sandra McCracken.
Additionally, in the wake of tragedy and losing her husband, the Thank you Project was created, a short film featuring Kellie’s story. The film has attracted more than 150 million views and has been featured on The TODAY Show, The Huffington Post, and Cosmopolitan. What strikes me most about Kellie is her authenticity; she lives her message. She has gone to the depths of heartbreak and learned to trust God in new and beautiful ways. I’m so excited for you learn more about Kellie, her story and her inspiring perspectives on hope.
Kristy Cambron is a vintage-inspired storyteller, writing from the space where art, history, and faith intersect. She’s a Christy Award-winning author of historical fiction, including her bestselling debut, The Butterfly and the Violin, and nonfiction, including the Verse Mapping series of Bibles and Bible studies. A self-proclaimed history nerd, she loves to chase all things research, going behind the scenes at a Ringling Bros. Sarasota mansion, touring a former TB sanitarium, and exploring the backroads of Ireland.
Kristy holds a degree in Art History/Research Writing and spent 15 years in education and leadership development for a Fortune-100 corporation, partnering with such companies as the Disney Institute, IBM/Kenexa, and Gallup before stepping away to pursue her passion for storytelling. Her work has been named to Publishers Weekly Religion & Spirituality TOP 10, Library Journal Reviews’ Best Books, RT Reviewers’ Choice Awards, received 2015 & 2017 INSPY Award nominations, and received a 2020 Christy Award for her novel, The Painted Castle. Currently, Kristy resides in Indiana with her husband and three sons, where she continues to pen her upcoming novels.
My time with Kristy was such a gift. Her faith and her ability to take the “long view” of life were especially striking to me. In our time together, she reminded me of the importance of staying attuned to God’s leading and attuned to those sacred moments filled with eternal beauty.
Today on the podcast, I have a very important conversation with Whitney Otto. In our time together, Whitney talks about her experience as an endurance athlete, particularly as a world champion rower. Whitney was a member of the national rowing team and an alternate in the 2000 Olympics. She has also worked with Women’s Sports Foundation to help bring sport to girls in the inner city. Following her full-time rowing career, Whitney went on to get her masters degree in Counseling Psychology and work in the eating disorder field. She currently resides with her family in Cambridge, Massachusetts and runs Life Alive Coaching, where she works in leadership development, and executive and performance coaching.
While we all know it’s helpful to move our bodies, the pervasive messages of diet culture can often warp our relationship with movement and our bodies. In today’s episode, Whitney speaks so authentically about the very real body image pressures of being an endurance athlete and her own struggles with disordered eating. We also talk about the unhelpful cultural messages around health and beauty. Often times, being muscular or thin doesn’t equate with holistic wellbeing. All of that to say, I am so grateful for the experience, vulnerability, and heart that Whitney brings to today’s conversation. I can’t wait for you to listen.
Jonathan is an incredibly gifted England-based photographer, the creator of a photography course for children called “Cultivating Wonder,” and is a copyrighter for Penguin Random House publishing. In his photography work, Jonathan largely specializes in photographing families and children, in addition to providing portraits for branding and start-ups, headshots, engagements and weddings.
In my time with Jonathan, he describes his photography work in the most profound and beautiful ways. He helped me see that his portrait work and in his cultivating course, he is doing something so much deeper than taking photos or teaching about photography. Rather, both of these are venues for Jonathan to make profound in-roads for people to realize their diving imaging, the essence of beauty, and what it means to live life deeply.
Jonathan’s words and insights in this interview are phenomenal. The way he talks about beauty, about people, and about his work in the world shifted my heart and my mind in amazing ways. Get out your notebook for this one. Jonathan has some tremendous insight to share!
Shawna Boren is the Engagement Pastor at Woodland Hills. She has served in various pastoral staff roles in both Texas and Minnesota for over 20 years, but it is at Woodland Hills where Shawna is passionate about helping people find their place of belonging within the larger congregation. She is married to her husband, Scott, and they are parents to four children, three boys and one girl. In my time with Shawna, she shares her powerful story of how love has transformed her life, her own struggles with beauty, and how her view on authentic beauty has been formed over the years. I absolutely loved my conversation with Shawna. I can’t wait for you to meet her and learn from her in today’s episode.
Nicole Zasowski is a licensed marriage and family therapist, writer, and speaker. She is also the author of From Lost to Found: Giving Up What You Think You Want for What Will Set You Free. In her book, Nicole reveals her own story of how challenges such as unwanted transition, multiple miscarriages, and crippling anxiety gave way to a deepened faith and connection with Jesus.
In addition to maintaining a private therapy practice, her professional work includes leading marriage intensives at The Hideaway Experience in Atlanta, GA, facilitating support and enrichment groups at several local churches in the greater New York City area, and serving as an adjunct professor at Alliance Theological Seminary. Nicole lives with her husband, Jimmy and their two sons, in a small town just outside New York City.
My time with Nicole was such an encouragement to me. She reminded me of truths that resonate so deeply but that I often forget. In short, Nicole’s message invites us to discover how the surprising path to healing begins when we let go of what we have known, and swerve right into God’s transforming grace, where we find what we need.
Dr. Jillian Lampert is a Registered Dietician, adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota and is the Chief Strategy Officer at The Emily Program, a treatment program for those struggling with eating disorders. Dr. Lampert is also the Co-founder and President of the Residential Eating Disorders Consortium and the Treasurer of the Eating Disorders Coalition, a DC-based national organization for eating disorders policy and advocacy. She is the author of numerous book chapters and articles addressing nutritional treatment of body image, eating disorders, sports participation, adolescent health and disordered eating and she regularly speaks regionally and nationally on numerous eating disorder related topics.
Simply put, Jillian is pretty much an expert in eating disorders, with an expansive range of policy, clinical, research, education, teaching, and program development experience in this area. In my time with Jillian, we talked a lot about the influence of cultural beauty standards in the development of an eating disorder, how beauty standards can impact our relationship with food and our bodies, as well as what is the difference between a disordered relationship with food and a clinical eating disorder. There is so much packed into the conversation and I am so excited to share Jillian’s wisdom with you.
I absolutely loved my conversation with Adam Weber. Adam is the founder and lead pastor of Embrace, a multi-site church based out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota and the author of Talking With God, a book on prayer, and his most recent book, Love Has A Name. He also hosts a podcast called The Conversation. Adam’s home life is also very full; he and his wife, Becky, are busy raising their four kids, seven chickens, two dogs, and three fish.
I laughed a lot in my time with Adam. He has a way of talking about really important things in a lighthearted way. He’s a great storyteller, dynamic speaker, and has a way of inviting us to notice the life of God at work all around us. I can’t wait for you to laugh with and learn from Adam.
Dr. Thompson is a Washington D.C. based psychiatrist, author, and speaker who integrates interpersonal neurobiology and a Christian view of what it means to be human. He seeks to educate and encourage others as they seek to fulfill their intrinsic desire to feel known, valued and connected. Curt’s insights about how the brain affects and processes relationships help people discover a fresh perspective and practical applications to foster healthy and vibrant lives, allowing them to get unstuck and move toward the next beautiful thing they’re being called to make.
Dr. Thompson’s work has been greatly influential in my own life, both professionally and personally and, so I am so excited for you to hear from him today. There were numerous times in this interview that were truly “drop the mic” moments. I found myself simultaneously speechless and profoundly inspired. Dr. Thompson has a humble and compassionate way of speaking truth, a truth that feels so sacred that it deserves space to breathe. So, please, sit back, maybe grab a notebook for this one, and prepare to be inspired.
Stephanie Williams O'Brien is a pastor at Mill City Church in Minneapolis, she teaches at Bethel Seminary, and is the executive producer and co-host of Lead Stories Podcast with Jo Saxton. Stephanie has also authored two books, Stay Curious: How Questions and Doubts Can Save Your Faith and Make a Move: How to Stop Wavering and Make Decisions in a Disorienting World.
I am so grateful to have known Stephanie for a couple of decades now. What has always stood out to me is Stephanie’s vibrant and steadfast faith. Her life and her words always remind me that the life of faith is one of adventure, as we join God in his restorative and redemptive work in the world, not knowing where that will lead.
Because of Stephanie’s steadfast and dynamic faith, I was so excited to talk to her about authentic beauty. And she was kind enough to tackle some tough issues with me: about faith, struggle, and about how she makes sense of the realities of beauty and tragedy.
“Words not for the ears, but for the soul.” That is how Arielle Estoria describes her work. Arielle is a Spoken Word Poet, author, and speaker. She has shared her work in keynote talks with companies such as Google, Lululemon, and Tedx and has emceed events such as Anchored in Love for teenage girls, featuring surfer Bethany Hamilton. Arielle has also lead writing, social media and self-acceptance workshops in various settings ranging from students to professional development spaces.
She is the Co-Author of two self-published collections of poetry: Vagabonds and Zealots (2014) and Write Bloody Spill Pretty (2017). In 2016 she released her EP of poetry and music titled Symphony of a Lioness. And when not writing or speaking, Arielle can be found acting and modeling as well.
What strikes me about Arielle is the power of her words; not only the words themselves, but the conviction and artistry in her delivery. Her words have the power to pierce through life’s superficial trappings and speak directly to the soul; reminding us of Whose we are and calling forth the stirrings of our true self.
Morgan Snyder is a strategist, entrepreneur, teacher, speaker and the author of Becoming a King: The Path to Restoring the Heart of a Man. Morgan’s passion is to shape the men and women who are shaping the kingdom of God. In 2010, he established BecomeGoodSoil.com, a fellowship of leaders whose global reach offers guidance for becoming the kind of person to whom God can entrust the care of his kingdom. Morgan serves on the executive leadership team at Wild at Heart and Ransomed Heart Ministries, where he and his wife Cherie have worked with John and Stasi Eldredge for more than two decades.
I recently had the privilege of talking with Morgan and his wife, Cherie, all about Morgan’s book and authentic beauty. In our time together, we talk about marital struggle, inner transformation, the value of suffering, and the depth of true beauty. Morgan and Cherie ultimately teach us how the journey of wholeheartedness and, so, the journey of discovering true beauty, is rooted in the Life of God.
Evelyn Tribole’s message is a breath of fresh air. She is a wise and compassionate voice, teaching people around the world how to reconnect with their bodies and make peace with food.
Evelyn is a registered dietician, the author of 9 books, and co-author of the best-selling book: Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach, which has been the basis of over 125 studies to date. Evelyn enjoys public speaking around the world and trains health professionals on how to help their clients cultivate a healthy relationship with food, mind, and body through the process of Intuitive Eating.
The media often consults Evelyn for her expertise, appearing in hundreds of interviews, including New York Times, CNN, NBC’s Today Show, MSNBC, Fox News, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Vogue, and People magazine. Evelyn was the nutrition expert for Good Morning America, and a national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics for six years.
In short, Evelyn is an expert in nutrition and teaching others to remember the miracle of our bodies and the gift of food. My conversation with Evelyn is rich in so many ways. I can’t wait for you to listen!
Miles Adcox is the Owner and CEO of Onsite, an internationally known emotional wellness lifestyle brand that delivers life-changing personal growth workshops, inspiring content, leadership retreats, and emotional treatment. Miles is also a speaker, podcast host, business leader, coach, and works with and consults several NGO’s. His work at Onsite has been featured on 20/20, Good Morning America, New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Dr. Phil Show, and The Doctors. Miles Adcox has devoted his life to living into these three concepts: Empathy over action, love over agenda, and grace over advice.
On paper, Miles Adcox is clearly accomplished. What I believe is more important is how Miles treats people. He truly wants people to know that they matter and their story matters. He is passionate about humanizing struggle and about healing from our past so we can live more fully and authentically in the present.
Melody Miles is a writer, coach, founder of the company Soulcation, and formerly an international expert at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. There she helped launch the global campaign to eradicate malaria.
After working in 25 African countries by the age of 30, Melody found herself hyperventilating, in the midst of a panic attack, utterly confused why she felt so stressed, exhausted, and unhappy inside the life she always thought she wanted.
In the wake of her pain, she quit her dream job, sold her belongings, and traveled solo around the world to forge a new way forward. On the other side of her adventure, Melody founded Soulcation, a company helping fellow hustlers, perfectionists, and world-changers develop regular self-care routines that calm inner chaos and revive the soul. She writes regularly to thousands of women struggling with perfectionism, fear, and navigating transition.
Natasha Ngindi is an anti-diet nutritionist and the founder of The Thick Nutritionist brand. She is also a certified Zumba instructor and advocate for promoting enjoyable movement for all bodies in a non-judgmental, body-positive environment.
In short, Natasha is passionate about spreading the word about the anti-diet message, body acceptance, health at every size, and intuitive eating. She believes that we all deserve to live a fulfilling life, free of the pressures of diet culture.
Stasi Eldredge is a New York Times bestselling author whose books have sold nearly three million copies. She is a teacher, conference speaker and the director of women’s ministry at Ransomed Heart, a ministry devoted to helping people discover the heart of God, recover their own hearts in God’s love, and learn to live in God’s kingdom. Stasi founded this ministry with her husband, John, and it has been used by God to change the hearts of men and women all over the world.
In short, Stasi’s passion is to see lives transformed by the beauty of the gospel. And, as you will see by my conversation with Stasi, her heart for seeing God’s beauty at work in the world and in all people is remarkable and inspiring.
Aundi Kolber is a licensed professional counselor from Castle Rock, Colorado and is the author of the book, Try Softer: A Fresh Approach to Move Us out of Anxiety, Stress, and Survival Mode-and into a Life of Connection and Joy.
I absolutely loved my conversation with Aundi. In our time together, she taught me all how when we pay compassionate attention to ourselves and stay curious, we are more able to heal and notice true beauty in our lives. If you are ever hard on yourself or struggle to believe in your own belovedness, this episode is for you.
Jean Kilbourne is a renowned activist, speaker, and author. She is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on the image of women in advertising, in addition to her critical studies of alcohol and tobacco advertising. Beginning in the 1960’s, she began to explore the connection between advertising and various public health issues, such as eating disorders, violence against women, and addiction. She wondered how messaging in advertising contributes to these issues.
To counteract the harmful messages in advertising, Kilbourne launched a movement to promote media literacy to help prevent these public health issues. Jean is also the creator of the renowned film series, Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women and has authored two books: Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel and So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids. Millions of people around the world have viewed Kilbourne’s films, lectures, and television appearances.
Jean Kilbourne helps us recognize how powerful advertising is. It’s everywhere and it’s always teaching us something; sending us some kind of message about what our culture defines as beautiful or desirable. Kilbourne reminds us of our freedom; the freedom to examine the messaging in advertising and media and then decide if we want to adopt and live into those values and messages.
If you have ever struggled with body image or your relationship with food, this episode is for you. Christy Harrison is an anti-diet registered dietician, certified intuitive eating counselor, an accomplished journalist, and the author of Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating. She also hosts a weekly podcast called Food Psych, which is one of Apple’s top 100 health podcasts, with tens of thousands of listeners worldwide.
In Christy’s words, her mission is to “help you recognize diet culture for the life thief that it is, and tune back into your body’s inner wisdom about how to truly nourish yourself—so that you can free up space in your life for bigger and better things.”
Christy’s work has been hugely transformational and inspiring in my own life. So, whether you are new to the concept of diet culture or are very familiar with it, I am hopeful that Christy’s message may shift your relationship with food and body image in some pivotal ways.
Carlos Whittaker is an author, speaker, and, according to his wife, a hope dealer. Carlos is a father of three and documents his family’s life, struggles, and adventures in front of a large social media following. As he addresses topics ranging from bird watching to racism on social media, he demonstrates vulnerability, curiosity, and grace.
Carlos has authored three books: Moment Maker, Kill the Spider, and his latest title, Enter Wild. In short, Carlos is a master at showing what it looks like to live out a fervent and adventurous faith in the midst of real life.
Lacy is an author, teacher, and spiritual director. She provides spiritual direction and teaches at the Renovaré Institute, for the Doctor of Ministry program in Spiritual Direction at Fuller Theological Seminary and at Portland Seminary. Lacy also provides spiritual direction for adults through GoodDirtMinistries.org and for children at Haven House. She also recently released her latest book "Spiritual Conversations with Children: Listening to God Together."
So, if God is the source of beauty, it seems important to know more about how we might draw near to that Source. Thankfully that is, in fact, Lacy’s specialty.
I will forever be grateful for Melody Olson. For years, I was a bit skittish about how distant the characters and culture of the Bible felt. However, after studying passages from the Old Testament with Melody for a few years now, I am steadily seeing that the gracious heart of God is very much alive and well in the entirety of the Bible; yes, even in the Old Testament, that felt so dusty and removed to me before.
In addition to leading Scripture Circles in the rabbinical tradition, Melody Olson is a gifted singer/songwriter and Director of Music and Art at Awaken West Seventh in St. Paul, Minnesota. There is artistry in all that Melody is involved in, awakening hearts and minds to the beauty alive in the world and alive in the character of God. I think you’ll also find that to be very true in our conversation together.
This week's episode is a little different. I realized that after 17 episodes I haven't told you much about who I am, my story, and how I got to be so passionate about beauty. So, this week I take some time to tell you about my own experience of beauty: what's brought me life, what's been toxic, and how I'd love for you to join the Impossible Beauty movement.
Steve Wiens is a spiritual teacher, writer, and pastor who has authored three books, entitled "Beginnings," "Whole," and most recently "Shining Like the Sun: Seven Mindful Practices for Rekindling Your Faith." Steve also hosts a weekly podcast called This Good Word. Wiens is a gentle companion in the journey of spiritual development and loves coming alongside people in reconstructing their faith when old theological foundations have fallen apart.
Because of Steve’s thoughtful approach to faith, my conversation with him around authentic beauty is fascinating. In our time together, we talk about what it means to awaken to God and, so, awaken to the very real Beauty that is generative, communal, and very much alive and well in our midst.
Hannah Rose Thomas is a gifted English artist, who has found a way to integrate her art and humanitarian work, largely painting portraits of those whom have been persecuted. She desires to use art as a tool for advocacy, bringing a voice to the voiceless into places of influence in the
West. She has organized art projects in Jordan with Syrian refuges, with Yezidi women in Northern Iraq who had escaped ISIS captivity, with Rohingya children in refugee camps on the Myanmar border, and with survivors of Boko Haram and Fulani violence in Northern Nigeria.
As a whole, my conversation with Hannah and her beautiful work remind me, and
reminds us, of the enduring beauty of the human soul and the eternal beauty of the Divine.
Marissa Knox is a PhD candidate in Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. She also works as a research assistant to Kristin Neff. In her work, Marissa focuses on exploring how self-compassion acts as a source of resilience for healthy body image and stress management. Her dissertation, in particular, examines whether or not a self-compassion writing intervention helps college students reduce body image concerns.
Marissa offers so much wisdom here: how to relate to our bodies, others, and ourselves from a place of compassion and kindness. Her words and insights are such a strong and beautiful contrast to the world’s often-unforgiving beauty standards.
Rob Bell has authored ten books, including the New York Times bestselling titles, "What We Talk About When We Talk About God," "The Zimzum of Love," "Love Wins," and "What Is The Bible?" Rob also hosts a weekly podcast called The Robcast. He has also toured with Oprah, has been profiled in the New Yorker, and in 2011, was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in Time Magazine.
Needless to say, I am so honored that Rob took the time to talk with me about authentic beauty. As I had predicted, in my time with him, he totally opened my heart and my mind to the depths and possibilities of true beauty in a new way. I think you’ll like this one.
For years I have connected with the heart, beauty, and honesty of the Grammy-nominated band, Gungor. I recently had the chance to speak with Lisa Gungor of the musical duo. Lisa is a gifted singer/songwriter who now writes music for her solo career, “Isa Ma.” Lisa also recently released her first book entitled "The Most Beautiful Thing I’ve Seen: Opening Your Eyes to Wonder."
In her book, Lisa details formational events in her family life; the beautiful, the painful, and how all of it has transformed her. In my time with Lisa, she vulnerably speaks about seeing beauty in all things, including in life’s broken places and within herself.
Julia Attalla, D. Min, is the Executive Director of After Hours Ministry in south Los Angeles, California. Julia also serves as the Director of Ministry Program at Fuller Theological Seminary. Above all, I see Julia as an advocate for hope. In our time together, Julia taught me the pivotal role of hope and bravery in the midst of life’s brokenness. And how when we persevere in hope and bravery, beauty can grow exponentially. In our lives and in the lives of others.
A leader sets the tone for the culture of a community. A leader models the ethos of a place and of a community. This could certainly be said of Dr. Donna Harris, president of Minnehaha Academy, a private K-12 Christian school in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
On August 2, 2017, unexpected tragedy befell the over century-old school when an explosion leveled the middle portion of the Academy’s high school. In the midst of losing two beloved employees and the ensuing grief and uncertainty, Dr. Harris forged ahead in wisdom, fortitude, and faith. That same steadfast faith characterized my time with Dr. Harris. In our time together, she spoke of how to see beauty at work in the wake of tragedy and how a community can emerge from such an event with renewed vigor for loving one another well.
Allison Fallon is a gifted writing coach, author, and founder of Find Your Voice. She has written over a dozen books, including her most recent title "Indestructible: Leveraging Your Broken Heart to Become a Force of Love and Change in the World." I met Ally at a writer’s conference she was hosting in Nashville, Tennessee. There, she brought back to life some pivotal things within me. She reminded me of the power of story and the power of creativity.
In my interview with Ally, she shares a bit about her own story: her experience with heartbreak, surrender, and the beauty she’s found amidst it all.
Becca Stevens is an Episcopal priest, speaker, author, social entrepreneur, and founder and president of Thistle Farms. Simply put, Thistle Farms makes natural bath, body, and home products. But this beautiful initiative does so much more than that. Thistle Farms employs and empowers female survivors of trafficking, violence, and addiction. The organization provides free housing, medical care, therapy, and education for two years, while women earn an income through one of three social enterprises.
Becca inspires me to see that true beauty is revealed in loving acts. And Becca’s beauty shines so brightly as she continues to provide a loving space for women to heal and to grow. As they say at Thistle Farms, “love heals”…and that is a beautiful thing.
I was 23-years-old when I was first introduced to Erin Gruwell’s story in the 2007 feature film Freedom Writers. I remember being enamored with Erin’s story; how she used writing as a tool for healing and bridge building in a Long Beach, California English classroom filled with at-risk youth and racial tensions in light of the Rodney King riots. Not only did 100% of Erin’s students go on to graduate from high school, but they also became co-authors of the New York Times bestselling book, The Freedom Writers Diary. Following the film, Erin went on to found the Freedom Writers Foundation, dedicated to “provid[ing] educators with tools to empower all students to succeed” (www.freedomwritersfoundation.org). The Foundations’ efforts reach worldwide.
Erin is a prime example of authentic beauty, of persevering to bring about wholeness and inspiration in the midst of brokenness. She has grit and fiercely fights to highlight the innate beauty in others. It was a dream come true to meet Erin (via Skype), a mentor of mine for years. I no doubt believe that she will very soon be a mentor of yours as well.
Mako is a leading contemporary artist. His art has been featured in galleries and museums around the world and is represented by Waterfall Mansion in New York City and Artrue International in Asia. Fujimura is also an arts advocate, speaker, and has written several books, including Refractions, Culture Care, and Silence and Beauty. He is recognized worldwide as a cultural influencer and currently serves as the Director of Culture Care Initiative at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Lydia Fujimura, Mako's daughter, is a human resources professional and a lifelong student of human psychology and behavior. She holds a Masters degree in Organizational Psychology. Lydia has also worked alongside a nonprofit group called Telos, which is dedicated to peacemaking efforts among polarized people groups.
As you can imagine, this conversation is fascinating. Together, Mako and Lydia invited me to see how brokenness can in fact be the starting point for beauty and how eternal truths about true beauty can be passed down from generation to generation.
I had so many “aha” moments interviewing Hillary McBride, it’s hard to know where to begin summarizing our time together. Hillary is a Vancouver-based researcher, therapist, and doctoral candidate. She is also the author of Mothers, Daughters, and Body Image: Learning to Love Ourselves As We Are and is featured on “The Liturgists” podcast and the CBC podcast “Other People’s Problems.”
If you have ever struggled with body image or are a mom wanting to pass along positive messages around body image to your daughter, this one is for you.
Jennifer Moore comes alongside women in crises at Tandem in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Tandem is an organization that provides a community of hope and practical help for women undergoing a variety of struggles. The work Jennifer does is so important, coming alongside women during some of the most vulnerable seasons of their lives. What's even more amazing is how Jennifer does her work, the heart she has for the women she works with and the steadfast hope she carries for them, and with them.
Join me in learning from Jennifer. Her words are dynamic, and she speaks from a place of raw authenticity. She knows about brokenness. Interestingly enough, that has also resulted in her knowing all about true beauty and real hope too.
Bob Goff is a self-proclaimed “recovering lawyer” and author of two New York Times best selling books: "Love Does" and "Everybody Always." He also hosts conferences worldwide to encourage people to find and follow their dreams and has established Love Does the organization, dedicated to helping change the lives of women and children around the world.
Bob enacts the kind of beauty I’m talking about in so many ways. The kind of beauty that brings about wholeness, and freedom, and flourishing. He believes that love isn’t just a concept, but an action, and he makes that apparent in everything he does. I experienced that firsthand, as Bob recently took some time to sit down with me to talk about beauty.
Katelyn Beaty is an advocate for women, helping them take hold of their true identity. She is the author of "A Woman’s Place: A Christian Vision for Your Calling in the Office, the Home, and the World", she was Christianity Today’s youngest and first female managing editor, and Katelyn launched a website for the magazine called Her.meneutics, created for female writers.
Katelyn’s voice is articulate and powerful, speaking to the intersection of faith and culture in publications such as The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The New York Times.
Her insights on beauty are so inspiring and I know you’ll feel the same way.
Sarah Groves is an extremely gifted singer, songwriter, and recording artist who has been nominated for 7 Dove Awards. Sarah also works alongside International Justice Mission, advocating for victims of human trafficking. Sarah's beautiful voice has this amazing way of speaking to the soul's deepest longings, struggles, and hopes. In this episode I talk with Sarah Groves about beauty and what it means to search for and understand beauty in the midst of the sometimes very broken human experience.
For more on Impossible Beauty's mission to re-define and re-discover true beauty, go to:
impossible-beauty.com
Greg is a recognized theologian, teacher, pastor and co-founder of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, and has authored or co-authored 22 books. While Greg’s credentials are impressive, what has most impacted me is his belief in and teaching on the unconditional and incomprehensible love of God.
So, if beauty truly is “the life of God at work in us and around us,” it makes all the difference if the character of that God is entirely good and loving. Greg’s teaching on that kind of love has changed my faith and, so, my life.