Shifting Culture
Shifting Culture features long-form conversations at the intersection of faith, culture, justice, and the way of Jesus. Hosted by Joshua Johnson, the podcast includes discussions with authors, theologians, artists, and cultural thinkers. The show explores how embodied love, courage, and creative faithfulness can foster real healing and hope.
Episodes
Ep. 438 Kyle Strobel - When God Seems Distant it Isn't Because You Failed
In this episode, I talk with Kyle Strobel about what's actually happening when God feels distant. Most of us start with passion - prayer comes easy, Scripture comes alive - and then a season arrives where the lights go out and we assume we've failed or been abandoned. Kyle offers a different reading than abandonment: the dryness isn't punishment or absence, but the desert where God
Ep. 437 Michael Rhodes - The Gospel is Political (Just Not How You Think)
In this episode, Michael Rhodes claims the gospel is inherently political, and "the Lord reigns" was never just a private comfort but a statement about who actually runs the world. We name the two instincts that keep so many of us stuck: retreating into a safe bubble or chasing the halls of power, and why a more holistic approach is necessary. And we get practical: city council meetings,
Ep. 436 Amar Peterman - Loving Your Neighbor Across Real Difference
In this conversation, Amar Peterman and I get into the slow, local, unglamorous work of becoming neighbors across real difference. We talk about the table as the place where the common good gets built, and why so many of us are far more comfortable playing host than being hosted - flinging our doors open without ever considering who actually walks through them. We get into hospitality as displacem
Ep. 435 Ben Norquist & Brian Miller - The Places We Live Are Telling Stories. Which Ones Are Getting Told?
In this episode, Ben Norquist and Brian Miller make the case that American Christians have become a placeless, rootless people and that we are shaped by inherited land stories. That our land is exceptional. That property is something to wall off. That the ground exists to be taken and turned into wealth. We dig into where these stories came from, how they affect our faith, and why it matters that
Ep. 434 Aaron Cline Hanbury - When Machines Can Do More, What Does it Mean to be Alive?
In this episode with Aaron Cline Hanbury, we think through how we relate to technology and the things we make. We tackle the question underneath the whole AI moment: not just what it means to be human when machines can do more and more, but what it means to be alive. We get into whether any technology is really neutral, where our attention is going and who's buying it, raising kids in a scree
Ep. 433 Brant Hansen - Living Unoffended in an Age of Outrage
In this episode, Brant Hansen argues that holding onto offense is killing us - spiritually, physically, and relationally. He had to decide whether the offense he experienced as a young person should be held on to or if he should release it. It led him to a simple, uncomfortable conclusion: righteous human anger doesn't exist in scripture, and the anger we carry, however justified it feels, is
Ep. 432 Zachary Wagner - Is Virtue Formation the Answer to the Crises Men and Boys are Facing Right Now?
There's no shortage of voices telling men who they should be right now and most of them are answering the wrong question. In this conversation with Zachary Wagner, author of Men of Virtue, we get underneath the culture war noise around masculinity and into something more substantive: the four concrete crises facing men and boys today, why virtue formation is better than role definition as a r
Ep. 431 Fr. John Dear - Surrendering to the God of Peace and Following the Nonviolent Jesus
In this episode, Fr. John Dear joins me to explore his latest book, Universal Love: Surrendering to the God of Peace and one of the core convictions at the center of it: genuine peacemaking begins not with better strategy or more effort, but with total surrender to the God of peace, to the will of God. We talk about what it looks like to take the Sermon on the Mount seriously, why following the no
Ep. 430 Jennifer Garcia Bashaw & Aaron Higashi - Interpreting the Bible in a World Fighting Over What It Means
What are you actually doing when you read the Bible? Interpretation. Every time we open the text, we're already choosing which questions to ask, which lenses to bring, and whose interests get served by the answers we land on. In this episode, I sit down with Jennifer Garcia Bashaw and Aaron Higashi, authors of Serving Up Scripture, to talk about what responsible interpretation looks like, why
Ep. 429 K.J. Ramsey - Finding Joy in the Place Between Our Pains
What does joy look like in the midst of pain and grief? K.J. Ramsey's memoir, The Place Between Our Pains, was written while she was fighting for her life - and in this conversation, she talks about what that actually means. We get into how dependence on others opens us to love in ways independence never could, why grief is a gate into aliveness rather than a place to get stuck, and what it l
Ep. 428 Tim Ross - What Secrets Do to the Body and Why Confession Is the Path to Healing
In this conversation, Tim opens up about the wound that shaped his early life, the silence that followed, and what the long road toward healing has actually required. We get into what secrets do to the body, the difference between vertical confession and horizontal healing, why accountability that feels like parole isn't really accountability, what grief work demands and what gets stuck when
Ep. 427 Richard Beck Returns - Reading the Bible Through the Lens of Love
In this conversation with Richard Beck, author of The Book of Love, we explore what it actually means to read Scripture through the hermeneutic of love. Richard helps us see that we have to reckon with our attachment to God - whether we actually believe he's for us - because that fear or security shapes everything about how we read. We get into the violent texts of the Old Testament, why both
Ep. 426 Brian Zahnd - Unseen Existences: Why the Western World Forgot the Spiritual Realm Exists
Brian Zahnd joins me to talk about his new book Unseen Existences — and we get into why modern Western people suffer a kind of spiritual homelessness, how philosophical materialism has convinced us the spiritual world isn't real, and what it looks like to recover a sense that heaven and earth actually overlap. We also dig into the Incarnation as a doorway into mystery, wonder and awe as non-n
Ep. 425 Elizabeth Berget - How Motherhood Reveals the Maternal Heart of God
Elizabeth Berget joins the podcast to explore the maternal heart of God — tracing how the Hebrew word rakum, often translated simply as "compassionate," is linguistically rooted in the word for womb, and what it means that God reaches for that word first when describing himself to Israel. The conversation moves through pregnancy, labor, and the crucifixion, the theology of secure attachm
Ep. 424 Jeffrey Overstreet - What a Darkened Theater Can Teach About Seeing God Clearly
Light is a language, and learning to read it - in a darkened theater, in the stories of your neighbors, in the films you were told to avoid - helps us see clearly. In this conversation, Jeffrey Overstreet and I talk about cinema as a spiritual practice, what it looks like to love your neighbor by actually watching their films, why the filmmakers he was told to fear have shaped his faith far more t
Ep. 423 Nijay Gupta - What Does New Creation Look Like Here and Now in Your Work, Your Money, Your Relationships
Paul wasn't just helping people get to heaven. Nijay Gupta joins me to make the case that Paul's letters were written for people trying to figure out how to live, not how to escape. Drawing from his new book Paul for the World, Nijay walks through the Greco-Roman world Paul was writing into - its economic disparity, its philosophies, its hunger for meaning - and shows how we can see our
Ep. 422 Tia Levings Returns - What High Control Religion Takes From You and What it Actually Looks Like to Get it Back
In this episode, Tia Levings returns to talk about her new book I Belong to Me - a guide to healing and recovery after high-control religion and other controlling environments. Tia walks through what she calls the steps before the steps: the audacity, the centrality, the willingness to want something different before you're even ready to name what happened to you. We talk about why language c
Ep. 421 Tish Harrison Warren - What Grows in Weary Lands: Can the Desert Fathers and Mothers Teach Us Moderns What We Need for Resilience?
What do you do when the fire won't start - when life is full but God feels distant, when faith is intact but the soul is running on empty? In this conversation, I sit down with Tish Harrison Warren, who draws on her new book, What Grows in Weary Lands, to explore acedia, the ancient concept usually translated as sloth but better understood as a sadness that the good is difficult. We trace how
Ep. 420 Eric Clayton Returns - The Spirituality of Star Wars
In this episode, I sit down with Eric Clayton to explore the spirituality of Star Wars and why these stories still shape how we see ourselves and the world. We talk about the cave on Dagobah, the pull of the dark side, nonviolence, discernment, and how stories can become spaces where God meets us and forms us - if we’re paying attention. We get into holy indifference, the tension between action an
Ep. 419 Scot McKnight & Adrienne Gibson - Ministries That Aren't Trauma-Informed Aren't Truly Pastoral
In this episode, I talk with Scot McKnight and Adrienne Gibson about their new book Traumatized Church, and what it looks like to read Paul, and our congregations, through a trauma-informed lens. We explore what trauma actually is, how it lives in the body, and why so many people are being quietly re-traumatized in the very communities meant to heal them. The conversation moves between Paul's
Ep. 418 Alan Noble - Why Every Decision Feels Existential Right Now and What an Ancient Framework Can Do About It
We’re living in a fractured world, pulled in a thousand directions, unsure what it actually means to live a good life. In this episode, I talk with Alan Noble about virtue, telos, and how prudence, justice, courage, temperance, faith, hope, and love reorient us toward a life that is whole, grounded, and shaped by the way of Jesus. We explore decision-making, suffering, agency, and hope - and what
Ep. 417 Steven Garber - Making Peace with the Proximate: Why Hope Isn't the Same Thing as Optimism
What do you do when the world refuses to become what you know it should be? In this conversation, Steven Garber introduces the concept of "the proximate" - learning to make peace with what is nearly, but not yet, true - in our marriages, our work for justice, and our longing for God's kingdom to come. Drawing on Tolkien, Augustine, the Clapham Society, and the surprising cry of a po
Ep. 416 Andrew Root - The Church Has Been Worshiping an Ancient Fertility Idol
I sit down with Andrew Root to talk about his new book Baal and the Gods of More and the ways fertility idols still shape how we think about growth in the church. We explore how the drive for more - more people, more influence, more momentum - can pull us away from the way of Jesus, even when we think we’re being faithful. This conversation moves from Elijah to Mary and reframes growth as being fo
Ep. 415 Jason VanRuler Returns - You're Not Bad at Communication. You're Just Speaking a Language No One Taught You to Recognize
In this episode, I talk with Jason VanRuler about why we keep missing each other in conversation and what’s actually going on beneath the surface. We explore the five communication types - peacemaker, advocate, thinker, harbor, and spark - and how our upbringing, attachment styles, and even shame shape the way we speak and listen. Jason offers a practical way forward: growing in self-awareness, un
Ep. 414 Amy Orr-Ewing Returns - Reclaiming the Power of Forgiveness in a Culture of Outrage and Fear
Forgiveness is one of the hardest, but most crucial parts of the Christian life. In this episode with Amy Orr-Ewing, we talk about why forgiveness matters right now, especially in a culture shaped by outrage, cancellation, and competing visions of justice. Amy helps clarify the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation, why real forgiveness doesn’t minimize harm or remove consequences, and
Ep. 413 Malcolm Guite - Lifting the Veil: Beauty, Myth, and Re-Enchantment
Malcolm Guite joins me to talk about his new epic poem Galahad and the Grail and why these ancient stories still matter. We explore how myth and poetry can help us see what’s real, how we’ve lost a sense of wonder in a mechanized and disenchanted world, and why imagination is essential for meaning. Malcolm shares how the story of the wasteland speaks to our cultural moment - from ecological crisis
Ep. 412 Jay Stringer - What Your Desires Are Trying to Tell You
Desire is shaping your life more than you think. In this conversation, I talk with Jay Stringer about why desire often feels like a civil war within us and how our longings are deeply connected to our story - our wounds, our past, and the formation we’ve received. We explore five core desires that lead to human flourishing, how shame keeps us stuck, and why paying attention to what you want can be
Ep. 411 Mark DeYmaz Returns - Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace
Mark DeYmaz - pastor, author, and longtime leader in building multi-ethnic, economically diverse churches returns to talk about what it actually means to be a peacemaker in a divided world. We center the conversation on the Prayer of St. Francis and explore the difference between claiming the name of Christ and embodying his way, why nuance and listening matter, and how to hold tension without try
Ep. 410 Al Gordon - Igniting Your God-Given Creativity
Creativity isn’t optional in this moment, it’s essential to what it means to be human and to follow Jesus in a rapidly changing world. In this conversation, I talk with Al Gordon about why imagination is under threat, how AI is reshaping our creative lives, and why the church is called to recover its role as a place that ignites creativity rather than suppresses it. We explore how the Holy Spirit
Ep. 409 Marty Solomon - The Gospel of Being Human
Marty Solomon joins me to talk about what it actually means to be human and why starting with belovedness changes everything. We explore how the stories we believe shape our view of God, ourselves, and others, why certainty can get in the way of real faith, and how to hold both our brokenness and our belovedness at the same time. This conversation moves from theology into practice - how we listen
Ep. 408 Kevin Burrell - Consider the Birds: Joy, Attention, and the Way of Jesus
Kevin Burrell joins me to talk about what it means to pay attention again - to consider the birds, as Jesus says, and to see how creation can lead us deeper into the life of God. We walk through Philippians, a letter written from prison yet full of joy, and explore how joy and suffering can coexist, how anxiety is reshaped by trust, and how rootedness, unity, and discernment are formed in us over
Ep. 407 James K.A. Smith - Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark
In a world of misinformation and uncertainty, we’re often tempted to think our way out of our problems. But what if more knowledge isn’t the answer? In this episode, I talk with philosopher and author James K.A. Smith about his book Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark and why the pursuit of certainty can easily become an idol. We discuss his personal journey discovering the wisdom of silence, sol
Ep. 406 Bethaney Wilkinson - A More Beautiful Way to Live
In this episode, I sit down with Bethaney Wilkinson to talk about the pressure so many of us feel to move faster, do more, and carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. Bethaney shares her own story of burnout and how that crisis forced her to rethink the pace of her life, the way she pursued justice, and what it means to live faithfully in a chaotic world. We explore why constantly staring
Ep. 405 Josh Nadeau - Heaven Meets Earth: Beauty, Truth, Goodness and the Nicene Creed
Josh Nadeau, author of Heaven Meets Earth, joins me to explore what it looks like to move beyond intellectual faith into something embodied and transformative. Drawing on the Nicene Creed as a 40-day guide, Josh makes the case that goodness, truth, and beauty are the doorways into a faith that actually forms us - shaping our loves, our attention, and how we see the world around us. We talk about w
Ep. 404 Jared Stacy - Reality in Ruins: Conspiracy, the Church, and the Way of Christ
In this episode, I talk with theologian Jared Stacy about why conspiracy theories have taken such deep root in our cultural moment and why they often find unique traction within American Christianity. We explore how an overload of information, fear, and ideological certainty can distort the stories we tell about the world and about God. Jared reflects on the Columbine martyrdom myth, the differenc
Ep. 403 Shannan Martin - Counterweights: Holding Hope in a Heavy World
In this episode, I’m joined by Shannon Martin to talk about her new book Counterweights and how we keep moving forward when life feels overwhelmingly heavy. We explore grief, collective trauma, and why quick fixes and toxic positivity fall short, alongside the small, ordinary practices that help us stay grounded and human. This conversation moves through faith, paradox, community, and the kingdom
Ep. 402 Justin Ariel Bailey Returns - Discipling the Diseased Imagination
Justin Ariel Bailey joins me to talk about his book Discipling the Diseased Imagination and why imagination plays a crucial role in spiritual formation. We explore how the stories, habits, and media that capture our attention quietly shape our discipleship, and why following Jesus requires learning to behold what is good, beautiful, and true. We also discuss hope, idolatry, attachment, and how the
Ep. 401 Kendall Mariah - The Anchoring Tether in the Midst of Soul Friction
What do you do when your faith no longer fits the formulas you were given? In this episode, I sit down with Kendall to talk about what she calls “soul friction” — the holy discomfort that surfaces through disillusionment, infertility, adoption, racial awakening, purity culture, and watching the church miss the way of Jesus. We explore anger, courage, embodiment, and what it really means to pray “o
Ep. 400 Sarah Bessey Returns - Braving the Truth with Rachel Held Evans
In this episode, I sit down with Sarah Bessey to talk about editing Braving the Truth, a curated collection of blog posts and essays from Rachel Held Evans that feel as timely now as when they were first written. We explore Rachel’s legacy, her refusal to give in to dualistic thinking, and her commitment to telling the truth without surrendering love. This conversation is about long-term faithfuln
Ep. 399 Preston Sprinkle Returns - What Does the Bible Really Say About Women in Leadership?
In this episode, I sit down with Preston Sprinkle to walk through one of the most debated questions in the church: women in leadership. We trace the story from Genesis to the prophets, through the ministry of Jesus, into Romans 16, 1 Corinthians, and 1 Timothy 2, asking what the whole sweep of Scripture actually says about authority, teaching, and the nature of leadership in the kingdom of God. Pr
Ep. 398 Miroslav Volf & Christian Wiman - Wrestling with Faith Together
What happens when a poet and a theologian decide to write letters to each other about faith? In this episode, I sit down with Christian Wiman and Miroslav Volf to discuss their book Glimmerings and talk about the language we use for God and why it so often falls short, the tension between God's presence and absence, what the Book of Job has to say about suffering, and whether faith can surviv
Ep. 397 Kristen LaValley - Finding Wholeness and Love After Spiritual Trauma
In this conversation, I sit down with Kristen LaValley to talk about the complexity of growing up in the church and what happens when faith both forms us and harms us. We talk about spiritual trauma, shame, neurodivergence, fear-based theology, and the moment when the frameworks we were given stop holding. Kristen shares her story of growing up in ministry, leaving church leadership, and slowly re
Ep. 396 Christopher Beha - Why I Am Not an Atheist
Chris grew up Catholic, lost his faith in college after his twin brother nearly died and he was later diagnosed with stage three cancer, and spent years immersed in atheism shaped by thinkers like Bertrand Russell and the New Atheists. In this episode, we talk about the limits of scientific materialism and romantic idealism, the problem of suffering, the reality of consciousness, and why atheism i
Ep. 395 Tim Timmons - Holding Grief and Gratitude and The Story Behind "Even If" and "I Can Only Imagine 2"
A few weeks before leaving to pursue mainstream music, Tim Timmons was told he had five years to live. In this episode, we talk about the story behind his song “Even If,” how that confession was forged in the middle of stage-four cancer, and how his journey is now portrayed in the film I Can Only Imagine 2. We explore what it means to hold grief and gratitude together, to surrender outcomes withou
Ep. 394 Jason Green - Building Community in a Divided World
Jason Green was serving in the Obama White House when a phone call from his mother sent him home to sit with his grandmother in the hospital — and into a story he never knew was his. In this conversation, we talk about the hidden history of Quince Orchard, a Black community founded after emancipation, and three segregated churches that chose to merge in 1968 after Dr. King’s assassination. We expl
Ep. 393 Hannah Miller King - Feasting on Hope
In this episode, I sit down with Hannah Miller King to talk about hope when life doesn’t resolve neatly. We explore what it means to live in the now and the not yet, how grief, loss, and unanswered prayers shape our faith, and why Christian hope isn’t the same thing as optimism. We talk about the table, the Eucharist, and the idea that salvation is less about transaction and more about union with
Ep. 392 Michael Leach - Faith Over Fear
In this episode, I sit down with Michael Leach for a thoughtful conversation about fear, faith, and what it looks like to keep moving forward when clarity is hard to come by. We talk about his journey from growing up on the South Side of Chicago to working in the NFL and serving in the White House, but more importantly about how faith is formed through practice, resilience, and trust in uncertain
Ep. 391 N.T. Wright - God's Homecoming: What if the Point of Christianity Isn't to Go to Heaven When We Die?
What if Christianity was never meant to be about escaping earth for heaven, but about God coming home to the world? In this episode, I sit down with N. T. Wright for a wide-ranging conversation that reclaims the Bible’s larger story: heaven and earth meant to overlap, God dwelling with humanity, and new creation beginning now. We explore temples and tabernacles, resurrection and judgment, what it
Ep. 390 Martin Shaw - Liturgies of the Wild: Myths That Make Us
We live in a world flooded with stories, opinions, and noise, and I find myself wondering which ones are actually worth giving our attention to. In this conversation, I sit down with mythologist and storyteller Martin Shaw to explore why some stories shape us toward life while others quietly hollow us out. We talk about myths that function like prayers rather than spells, why Jesus taught through
Ep. 389 Fr. James Martin Returns - Work in Progress
In this episode, I talk with Father James Martin about his new memoir Work in Progress and the ways our ordinary jobs shape who we become. We explore summer work, vocation, grief, perseverance, and how faith is formed not just in churches, but in kitchens, factories, offices, and everyday life. Jim reflects on loss, discernment, and the slow work of becoming human, and together we talk about where
Ep. 388 Lori Melton - Walking with a Spiritual Giant
In this episode, I talk with Lori G. Melton, author of Journey with a Giant, about the practice of walking with spiritual giants from history as a way of formation. We explore slowness, silence, pilgrimage, and what Lori learned by walking with Fred Rogers, including why listening is love, why presence matters more than productivity, and how paying attention to the person in front of us reshapes f
Ep. 387 Lisa Colón DeLay - The Wisdom of the Desert Elders and the Way of Spiritual Formation
The Desert Elders didn’t flee the world to escape it. Some left because Christianity had become comfortable, aligned with power, and disconnected from real transformation. In this episode, I am joined by Lisa Colón DeLay to explore the wisdom of the early Christian desert mothers and fathers and what their lives teach us about spiritual formation today. We talk about attention and restlessness, ju
Ep. 386 Dr. Lee Warren - How to Change Your Brain, Build Resilience, and Change Your Life
In this episode, I sit down with neurosurgeon and author Dr. Lee Warren to talk about how our thoughts shape our brains and, over time, our lives. Lee draws from neuroscience, Scripture, and his own story, serving as an Army surgeon, living with PTSD, and walking through the loss of a child, to help make sense of why so many of us feel stuck in anxiety, fear, or reactivity. We talk about what Lee
Ep. 385 J.R. Briggs - The Art of Asking Better Questions
In this episode, I sit down with J.R. Briggs, author of The Art of Asking Better Questions, to talk about why questions matter in a culture shaped by certainty, polarization, and the pressure to always have the right answer. We explore how questions shape our relationships, our faith, and the stories we tell ourselves, why Jesus so often chose questions over direct answers, and how the questions w
Ep. 384 Nathan Clarkson - I'm the Worst: How Freedom Is Found in Admitting Our Faults
In this episode, I sit down with Nathan Clarkson, author of I’m the Worst, for an honest conversation about brokenness, shame, confession, and freedom. Nathan shares what it was like growing up in a well-known Christian family, learning how to perform moral goodness while hiding the parts of himself he didn’t know how to face, and how confronting that reality became the beginning of healing rather
Ep. 383 Winfield Bevins - How Beauty Will Save the World
In this episode, I sit down with Winfield Bevins to talk about beauty and why it matters for everyday life, the church, and spiritual formation. We discuss his book How Beauty Will Save the World and how beauty shapes attention, formation, and the way we live, work, and follow Jesus. Winfield shares his own story, including seasons of burnout and vocational transition, and how art and creativity b
Ep. 382 David Dault - The Accessorized Bible: How We Use the Bible For Harm or For Life
In this episode, I talk with David Dault about his book The Accessorized Bible and the ways the Bible is actually used in our churches, institutions, and public life. We wrestle with how the Bible can be taken seriously without being turned into a prop, a weapon, or a justification for harm. Our conversation moves through questions of power, responsibility, and interpretation, and keeps returning
Ep. 381 Best of 2025: Top 10 Movies of the Year
In this episode, I’m joined by Craig Detweiler and Elijah Davidson for our Best Movies of 2025 conversation. We count down our top films of the year and explain why each one made our list. We talk about the themes that stood out in 2025 movies, including grief, violence, faith, memory, creativity, and what it means to be human. We also discuss overlooked films, shrinking theatrical releases, genre
Ep. 380 Ryan Burge - The Vanishing Church and the Cost of Polarization
What’s actually happening to the church in America and why does it matter beyond Sunday morning? In this episode I’m joined by Ryan Burge, a social scientist who studies religion in the U.S. and brings long-term data, charts, and lived pastoral experience into a conversation often driven by fear or nostalgia. We discuss his book The Vanishing Church, the quiet decline of the moderate church, the r
Ep. 379 Kelley Nikondeha Returns - Jubilee Economics
What does it mean to take Jesus seriously when he announces good news to the poor, freedom for the captive, and release from debt? In this episode of Shifting Culture, I’m joined by theologian and practitioner Kelley Nikondeha to talk about her new book Jubilee Economics and the disruptive, concrete vision of Jubilee found in Scripture. We explore why Jubilee was never just a spiritual metaphor bu
Ep. 378 Best of 2025: Most Listened to Episodes of the Year
As 2025 comes to a close, I wanted to pause and look back, not at what was loud or polarizing, but at what people actually stayed with. This episode gathers the 10 most listened to conversations of the year, and together they reveal something honest about this moment: a deep longing for a faith shaped by humility instead of power, a discipleship rooted in real life, and a way of Jesus that resists
Ep. 377 Best of 2025: Top 10 Books of the Year
In this episode, I am joined by Lore Wilbert and Byron Borger for a roundtable countdown of our top ten books of 2025. Moving from number ten to number one, we reflect on the novels, memoirs, theology, and cultural criticism that most shaped our reading year. Along the way, the conversation opens into deeper questions about faith and doubt, grief and hope, community and isolation, and what it mean
Ep. 376 Bill & Kristi Gaultiere - Receiving and Reflecting God's Great Empathy For You
In this episode, I sit down with Bill and Kristi Gaultiere for a thoughtful conversation about empathy - what it really is, why it’s so often misunderstood, and why it matters for the way of Jesus. We talk about God’s great empathy for us and how the incarnation reveals a God who enters our experience, not just intellectually but emotionally and bodily. Together, we explore the role of emotions in
Ep. 375 Leonard Sweet - Living into the Imagination of Jesus, the Maker, Mender, Minder, Master
In this episode, I’m joined by theologian and storyteller Leonard Sweet for a deep conversation on the imagination of Jesus and why imagination is central to faith, discipleship, and what it means to be human. We talk about how Jesus doesn’t simply explain reality but reshapes it through story and metaphor, and why Jubilee sits at the heart of his vision for the world. We also explore what it mean
Ep. 374 Kate Murphy - The Way of Jesus is Often Found in the Lost, Hidden, and Small
In this episode, pastor and author Kate Murphy shares the surprising story behind Lost, Hidden, Small, a season when ministry fell apart, illusions shattered, and the only way forward was surrender. Kate reflects on discovering that God often does His deepest work in places that look like failure, weakness, and smallness, and how her congregation learned to see again, love their neighbors without
Ep. 373 William J. Kole - Gun Violence Must End: Evangelical Gun Culture and the Nonviolent Way of Jesus
Journalist and author William J. Kole joins me to unpack the deep and often hidden ties between white evangelicalism, politics, fear, and America’s gun culture. Drawing from his new book In Guns We Trust, Bill shares how his own ministry collided with concealed weapons, why fear has shaped so much of the church’s response to gun violence, and how Christian nationalism and the idolizing of the Seco
Ep. 372 Dorothy Littell Greco - Rooting Out Misogyny For the Love of Women
In this conversation, I sit down with Dorothy Greco to explore misogyny not just as individual prejudice, but as a system that shapes our culture, our institutions, our churches, and even our closest relationships. Dorothy walks me through how misogyny shows up in medicine, economics, purity culture, pornography, and the daily lives of women, and why it remains so difficult to see and name. We tal
Ep. 371 Valentyn Syniy - Serving God in the Midst of the War in Ukraine
In this powerful conversation, I sit down with Valentyn Syniy, president of a theological seminary in Kherson, to explore what it means to lead, shepherd, and hold on to hope in the midst of war. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Valentyn lost almost everything - his home, his church community, and the entire seminary campus he helped build. Yet in the chaos of evacuation, the trauma of displacement, a
Ep. 370 Stephanie Spellers - What the Nones and Dones Teach Us About the Future of Faith
The church is in a moment of honest reckoning. Attendance is shrinking, institutions are thinning, and many who once belonged now stand on the outside looking in. In this conversation with author and priest Stephanie Spellers, we explore what the “nones” and “dones” are teaching us about faith, community, and the way of Jesus. Stephanie invites us to look directly at decline, name the shame we car
Ep. 369 Mark Yarhouse & Julia Sadusky - Navigating and Understanding Emerging Sexual Identities
In this episode, I talk with Dr. Mark Yarhouse and Dr. Julia Sadusky about the rapidly expanding language of emerging sexual identities and what it means for the young people we care about. We explore why new terms keep appearing, how identity forms in adolescence, and what teens are actually trying to express when they use language many of us have never heard before. Rather than reacting with fea
Ep. 368 Faith Womack - Discovering the Fullness of Scripture: Context, Wonder, and Worship
In this episode, I’m joined by Faith Womack, known to many as Bible Nerd Ministries, for a deeply refreshing conversation on how to read Scripture with clarity, curiosity, and joy. Faith shares her own story of growing up with mishandled and misapplied Bible teaching, and how learning the basics of hermeneutics transformed everything for her. We talk about context, genre, the big story of God’s re
Ep. 367 Brian Recker - How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love
In this episode, I talk with Brian Recker about his new book Hell Bent and the ways fear-based theology has shaped so many of our spiritual imaginations. Brian grew up learning about hell and God in the same breath, and he unpacks how that fusion created a system built on binary thinking, punishment, and spiritual insecurity. We explore his journey from fundamentalism to evangelical ministry to a
Ep. 366 Jenny Marrs - Trust God, Love People
In this episode, I sit down with Jenny Marrs, author, adoptive mom, and co-host of HGTV’s Fixer to Fabulous, for a tender and deeply human conversation about grief, waiting, restoration, and the steady presence of God in the middle of it all. Jenny shares openly about a season of profound loss, the long and miraculous journey to bring her daughter home from the Congo, and the everyday choice to tr
Ep. 365 Diana Butler Bass - Time, Love, and a Calendar that Says No to Imperialism and Empire
In this episode, I talk with Diana Butler Bass about her new book A Beautiful Year and the deeper story that sits beneath our experience of time. We explore how the Roman calendar still shapes us with the imagination of empire - militarism, consumerism, and control - and how the Christian calendar offers a counter-formation rooted in love, hope, peace, and a circular sense of time that keeps drawi
Ep. 364 Justin Giboney - Conviction and Compassion that Lead Us Out of the Culture War
In this conversation, I talk with Justin Giboney, cofounder of the AND Campaign and author of Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around, about how we can follow Jesus faithfully in the midst of the culture war. Justin shares how the civil rights generation embodied both conviction and compassion, and what it looks like to recover that kind of moral imagination today. We talk about seeing the sin in ourselv
Ep. 363 Chris Hoklotubbe & Danny Zacharias - Reading the Bible on Turtle Island: Indigenous Wisdom and Interpretation
In this episode, I talk with Dr. Chris Hoklotubbe and Dr. Danny Zacharias about their book Reading the Bible on Turtle Island and how Indigenous wisdom invites us to see Scripture through a different lens. We explore how the Bible, written by tribal people deeply connected to land and kinship, calls us back into right relationship with Creator, creation, and one another. Chris and Danny share stor
Ep. 362 Glen Henry - Father Yourself First
Glen Henry, the creator of Beleaf in Fatherhood, shares his story of how resistance turned into calling - how learning to father himself helped him become the father his children needed. We talk about the inherited baggage we carry, the control we try to hold, and the grace that grows when we choose presence over perfection. Glen opens up about fatherhood as a form of cultural resistance, the powe
Ep. 361 Kat Armas Returns - Liturgies for Resisting Empire
Kat Armas joins Shifting Culture to talk about her new book, Liturgies for Resisting Empire, a powerful exploration of how empire shapes the way we think about God, community, time, and ourselves. She names the ways control, hierarchy, and productivity have distorted our faith and imaginations, and invites us into practices of resistance rooted in love, rest, and belonging. Kat offers a vision of
Ep. 360 Mark Batterson - Your God-Sized Dreams Happen Gradually, Then Suddenly
Pastor and author Mark Batterson joins me to talk about his new book Gradually, Then Suddenly, a powerful invitation to dream God-sized dreams, start small, and stay faithful long enough to see legacy take root. We explore what it means to move from imagination to action, how to live with long vision and long obedience, and why true success often looks like quiet persistence over time. Mark shares
Ep. 359 Sara Billups Returns - Spiritual Practices to Calm Anxiety in Your Body, the Church, and Politics
Sara Billups returns to Shifting Culture to talk about her new book Nervous Systems: Spiritual Practices to Calm Anxiety in Your Body, the Church, and Politics. Together we explore the anxiety running through our lives, our churches, and our culture and what it means to find peace that’s deeper than control. Sara shares how Ignatian spirituality and the practice of “holy indifference” can help us
Recommended
Women in Family Business
1-On-1 Music Review
Islamic Lectures (Manhaj-e-Salaf): Understanding Islam The Way Salaf Did
This Mother Means Business: Strategy, Advice, and Support for Mom Entrepreneurs
ISLAMIC LECTURES
Dominant Duo/Total Dominance Hour
Morning Prayer with Pastor Sean Pinder
Dispatches from Reality
TechnoSnobCast
The Young and Called Podcast .
Deadline: White House
2819 Church
