No Small Endeavor with Lee C. Camp
No Small Endeavor with Lee C. Camp explores what it means to live a good life through conversations with authors, philosophers, neuroscientists, theologians, and leaders. The podcast examines religion, neuroscience, politics, and the pursuit of meaning, aiming to foster healing and understanding. It offers practical insights on happiness, habits, and the common good.
Episodes
279: Unabridged Interview: Steve Cuss
This is our unabridged interview with Steve Cuss.
Anxiety is contagious, and most of us catch it without noticing: from a tense meeting, a hard conversation, a parent, a group chat. After an emergency, an ER doctor pulled a young hospital chaplain aside and gave him some life-changing advice: anytime somebody's heart stops, first take your own pulse. He learned that, in order to help, he needs
The Subtext: Who Gets to Judge You? Suddenly Amish and the Myth of the Unjudged Self
Six 'English' strangers try to go Amish for a month, surfacing big questions about autonomy, conformity, vanity, and discernment.
This week we're talking about TLC's Suddenly Amish, a (very scripted) reality show where six outsiders spend a month living in an Amish community to see if they could actually join the church. Lee and Savannah use Suddenly Amish as a foundation for conversations around
279: Steve Cuss: Five False Needs That Are Quietly Running Your Life
Anxiety is contagious, and most of us catch it without noticing: from a tense meeting, a hard conversation, a parent, a group chat. After an emergency, an ER doctor pulled a young hospital chaplain aside and gave him some life-changing advice: anytime somebody's heart stops, first take your own pulse. He learned that, in order to help, he needs to first notice what’s going on inside of him.
Steve
278: Unabridged Interview: Michele Norris
This is our unabridged interview with Michele Norris.
As we practice the good life with a bit of rest, we asked four of our team members to choose one of their favorite episodes and explain why. Cariad’s summer staff pick — Michele Norris: Race, Your Story, 6 Words, Please Send
“I wanted to create a vehicle that allowed people to talk about this allegedly toxic topic on their own terms.” - Mic
The Subtext: Lindsay Clancy & the Question of Justice
In this episode, Lee and Savannah talk about the ways Lindsay Clancy’s trial is sparking conversations around mental health, justice, and culpability.
This week, we tackle a story listeners have been asking us to cover: the case of Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts mother who killed her three children in 2023 after months of worsening psychiatric symptoms and a cocktail of nine prescribed med
278: Summer Staff Picks: Michele Norris
As we practice the good life with a bit of rest, we asked four of our team members to choose one of their favorite episodes and explain why. Cariad’s summer staff pick — Michele Norris: Race, Your Story, 6 Words, Please Send
“I wanted to create a vehicle that allowed people to talk about this allegedly toxic topic on their own terms.” - Michele Norris.
Could you describe your experience of
277: Unabridged Interview: Kristin Neff
This is our unabridged interview with Kristin Neff.
As we practice the good life with a bit of rest, we asked four of our team members to choose one of their favorite episodes and explain why. Jakob’s summer staff pick — Kristin Neff: The Power of Self Compassion
Is high self-esteem crucial to human flourishing or rather a hindrance?
“The biggest problem with self-esteem is that it tends to b
The Subtext: Flock Cameras, Hank Green, and Revisiting Skinny Culture
This week, we look at AI purity tests and mass surveillance, then circle back to an ongoing conversation: should social media commentary on people's bodies be off-limits?
We're digging into the Hank Green AI backlash and how AI use has become a sort of cultural purity test that nobody can actually pass. Then we break down Flock’s license-plate cameras and whether safety and privacy can coexist at
277: Summer Staff Picks: Kristin Neff
As we practice the good life with a bit of rest, we asked four of our team members to choose one of their favorite episodes and explain why. Jakob’s summer staff pick — Kristin Neff: The Power of Self Compassion
Is high self-esteem crucial to human flourishing or rather a hindrance?
“The biggest problem with self-esteem is that it tends to be contingent,” says Kristin Neff. “We only feel good ab
276: Unabridged Interview: Oliver Burkeman
This is our unabridged interview with Oliver Burkeman.
As we practice the good life with a bit of rest, we asked four of our team members to choose one of their favorite episodes and explain why. Lee’s co-host on The Subtext Savannah’s summer staff pick — Oliver Burkeman.
In an age full of lifehacks, self-help books, and productivity gurus, many of us only end up busier and more stressed than
The Subtext: The Odyssey Movie Review
Lee and Savannah discuss Christopher Nolan's Odyssey – both the social media storms that started before it hit theaters, and lessons inside the film itself.
Christopher Nolan's Odyssey is a blockbuster hit, and has caused a few waves in culture. Elon Musk wants his own "historically accurate" AI version, translator Emily Wilson says the film loses the "wily" Odysseus that exis
276: Summer Staff Picks: Oliver Burkeman
As we practice the good life with a bit of rest, we asked four of our team members to choose one of their favorite episodes and explain why. Lee’s co-host on The Subtext Savannah’s summer staff pick — Oliver Burkeman.
In an age full of lifehacks, self-help books, and productivity gurus, many of us only end up busier and more stressed than we were before. What if there’s a better way to live a ful
275: Unabridged Interview: The Hillbilly Thomists
This is our unabridged interview with the Hillbilly Thomists.
As we practice the good life with a bit of rest we asked four of our team members to choose one of their favorite episodes and explain why. Lee’s summer staff pick—The Hillbilly Thomistis: Bourbon, Bluegrass, and The Bible.
There aren’t many Billboard-charting bluegrass bands made up entirely of Catholic Dominican Friars, who play t
The Subtext: True Crime, Colonialism, and Data Centers
What does our fascination with true crime say about us? This week, Lee and Savannah tackle listener questions. First up, they talk about the upcoming JonBenét Ramsey Netflix series, the line between justice and entertainment, and whether stories about evil can actually shape us for good.
Speaking of shaping us, how does city planning around data centers form our community and character? Wha
275: Summer Staff Picks: The Hillbilly Thomists
As we practice the good life with a bit of rest we asked four of our team members to choose one of their favorite episodes and explain why. Lee’s summer staff pick—The Hillbilly Thomistis: Bourbon, Bluegrass, and The Bible.
There aren’t many Billboard-charting bluegrass bands made up entirely of Catholic Dominican Friars, who play their shows clad in white tunics and rosaries. In fact, there is p
274: Unabridged Interview: Danielle Chapman
This is our unabridged interview with Danielle Chapman.
There is a fear that keeps most of us from looking too hard at where we come from: that we will turn over the wrong rock and find something we cannot carry. In the South, a holler is the tangled place on the riverbank you are told not to go. It is also a primal yell, and, as it happens, the sound Marines make.
Danielle Chapman is a
The Subtext: Free Speech with Jacob Mchangama Part 2
Can I just say something? No, really! What are the boundaries of free speech these days? The conversation continues between Lee, Savannah, and Jacob Mchangama, Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech. Whether you're a free speech absolutist, a skeptic, or somewhere in between, this episode will challenge your assumptions about the topic. Stay tuned for Lee and Savannah's debrie
274: Danielle Chapman: How Do You Inherit a Legacy You Can't Defend?
There is a fear that keeps most of us from looking too hard at where we come from: that we will turn over the wrong rock and find something we cannot carry. In the South, a holler is the tangled place on the riverbank you are told not to go. It is also a primal yell, and, as it happens, the sound Marines make.
Danielle Chapman is a poet, a lecturer at Yale, and the author of the memoir Hol
273: Unabridged Interview: Annie Jacobsen
This is our unabridged interview with Annie Jacobsen.
Wouldn't you rather not know how the world ends?
Nine nations hold nuclear weapons, and every one of them is watched, counted, and deterred. A biological weapon needs no nation, no missile, and no submarine. The delivery system is a pair of lungs, and the barrier to entry is a working knowledge of biology and a computer. That asymmetry is w
NSE+ Books You Should Know: The Honesty Crisis by Christian B. Miller
Most people who share misinformation already suspect it is false.
This is a short preview of Lee's conversation with philosopher Christian B. Miller, from Books You Should Know, our quarterly series on NSE+. His new book, The Honesty Crisis, skips the easy target of lying public figures to ask a harder question: what kind of people do we become when deception gets cheap, convenient, and alm
The Subtext: Free Speech with Jacob Mchangama Part 1
Nikki Minaj thanked Elon Musk for saving free speech, so naturally, Lee and Savannah had to phone a friend to learn more about what is going on. Jacob Mchangama, Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech sat down with The Subtext to discuss everything from social media and censorship to hate speech, political polarization, and the First Amendment. They examine the real costs of p
273: Annie Jacobsen: Why Biological War Scares Her More Than Nuclear
Wouldn't you rather not know how the world ends?
Nine nations hold nuclear weapons, and every one of them is watched, counted, and deterred. A biological weapon needs no nation, no missile, and no submarine. The delivery system is a pair of lungs, and the barrier to entry is a working knowledge of biology and a computer. That asymmetry is why the journalist who wrote the definitive account of how
272: Unabridged Interview: Malcolm Guite
This is our unabridged interview with Malcolm Guite.
A frightened knight, cornered in a castle he doesn't understand, grabs a spear he was warned not to touch and drives it into the king. And because the king and the land are one, the whole country goes barren. The rivers empty, the crops fail, nothing can be born. It's called the Dolorous Stroke, and poet Malcolm Guite first heard it at eight
The Subtext: Deconstructing Christianity
What happens when a retired theology professor walks into a party full of deconstructing twenty-somethings? It sounds like the start of a joke. But really. How do we show up for ourselves and the people we love when doubt and deconstruction enter the chat?
This week on The Subtext, Lee and Savannah discuss one of the more defining conversations of modern faith: deconstruction. Whether you're aski
272: Malcolm Guite: A Wounded King, a Barren Land, and the Spear That Heals
A frightened knight, cornered in a castle he doesn't understand, grabs a spear he was warned not to touch and drives it into the king. And because the king and the land are one, the whole country goes barren. The rivers empty, the crops fail, nothing can be born. It's called the Dolorous Stroke, and poet Malcolm Guite first heard it at eight years old from his mother. When he protested that the kn
271: Unabridged Interview: Lee Warren
This is our unabridged interview with W. Lee Warren.
Can you change your brain? The anxious tendencies, the recurring grief, the patterns of rumination? Our guest today says you can.
Dr. W. Lee Warren is a neurosurgeon and Iraq War veteran who performed 200 brain surgeries in a tent hospital during the war, came home carrying PTSD he wouldn't name for years, and later lost his 19-year-old son
The Subtext: Hookup Culture, Power, and Love
What do capitalism and hookup culture have in common?
This week, Lee and Savannah unpack the viral Empire State Building skywalker stunt, exploring whether power is inherently corrupting. Lord of the Rings has finally entered the chat!
They break down a fascinating view on hookup culture, exploring how capitalism, attachment, purity culture, and our understanding of freedom all shape the w
271: Lee Warren: Why You’re Not Stuck With the Brain You Have
Can you change your brain? The anxious tendencies, the recurring grief, the patterns of rumination? Our guest today says you can.
Dr. W. Lee Warren is a neurosurgeon and Iraq War veteran who performed 200 brain surgeries in a tent hospital during the war, came home carrying PTSD he wouldn't name for years, and later lost his 19-year-old son to murder. His book, The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brai
270: Unabridged Interview: Curtis Chang
This is our unabridged interview with Curtis Chang.
What if our institutions, even the broken ones, are worth saving?
Curtis Chang doesn't think you can understand American politics right now unless you understand one thing, and it isn't what you'd expect. It isn't policy or party. It's fear: an anxiety about future loss that “both” sides are quietly managing, with liberals afraid of having re
The Subtext: More Money, More Problems?
Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire! If that doesn’t make you want to talk about money, nothing will.
The world just got its first trillionaire in Elon Musk. While Lee and Savannah aren’t trillionaires, they’ve got their own stories to tell about money. This episode is an open conversation about what we’ve learned about money, what we’d do differently, and how Christians can think abo
270: Curtis Chang: The Real Thing Driving American Politics
What if our institutions, even the broken ones, are worth saving?
Curtis Chang doesn't think you can understand American politics right now unless you understand one thing, and it isn't what you'd expect. It isn't policy or party. It's fear: an anxiety about future loss that “both” sides are quietly managing, with liberals afraid of having religion imposed on their lives and conservatives afraid
269: Unabridged Interview: James Kimmel, Jr.
This is our unabridged interview with James Kimmel, Jr.
There's a grievance that keeps coming back to you: in the shower, in traffic, at two in the morning. You replay it, win the argument again and settle the score again. It feels like justice, but it never quite satisfies.
James Kimmel Jr. spent decades trying to understand that pull. At seventeen, he came within seconds of committing a m
Songwriter Thomm Jutz on Turning a Dark Inheritance Into Something Beautiful
Can creativity transform the darkness of your past?
Lee sits down with Grammy-nominated songwriter Thomm Jutz to discuss his grandfather's suicide, apparently after he was unable to come to terms with the fact that he'd been a Nazi, a friend lost to alcoholism, and Carl Jung's aid in his life, all while sharing songs he's written that helped heal his own inherited darkness.
This episode is a pr
The Subtext: Is Nate Bargatze Guilty by Association?
What does it mean when a “clean” and “family friendly” comedian supports the UFC Freedom 250 fight, rubbing shoulders with unethical and greedy billionaires?
This isn’t really about Nate Bargatze. It's about all of us and the selective moral lines we draw. This week on The Subtext, Lee and Savannah wrestle with questions of public witness, private relationships, power, and consistency, look
269: James Kimmel, Jr.: Your Brain on Revenge
There's a grievance that keeps coming back to you: in the shower, in traffic, at two in the morning. You replay it, win the argument again and settle the score again. It feels like justice, but it never quite satisfies.
James Kimmel Jr. spent decades trying to understand that pull. At seventeen, he came within seconds of committing a mass shooting, then drove away and devoted his life to the qu
268: Unabridged Interview: Lee C. Camp
This is our unabridged interview with Lee C. Camp.
In a rare role reversal, No Small Endeavor host Lee C. Camp takes the guest seat as theologian and journalist Russell Moore interviews him about his book, releasing in paperback July 2nd, Scandalous Witness: A Little Political Manifesto for Christians.
Rather than offering a defense of Christian power in America, Lee reckons honestly with the
The Subtext: Scandalous Witness with Lee C. Camp
The paperback edition of Lee's book just dropped, and Savannah's got questions!
Savannah and Lee are celebrating the paperback release of Scandalous Witness by working through the book’s big ideas: why Christianity is not a religion but a politic, liberalism, Romans 13, the dream of a Christian America, and, perhaps most important, why Lee can’t stand the word "countercultural.” Use code WITNESS4
268: Lee C. Camp: Christianity, Politics, and the Common Good
In a rare role reversal, No Small Endeavor host Lee C. Camp takes the guest seat as theologian and journalist Russell Moore interviews him about his book, releasing in paperback July 2nd, Scandalous Witness: A Little Political Manifesto for Christians.
Rather than offering a defense of Christian power in America, Lee reckons honestly with the ways Christians have often been bad neighbors, especi
267: Unabridged Interview: Allison Russell
This is our unabridged interview with Allison Russell.
How does someone turn a childhood marked by danger and loss into a life full of music, courage, and joy?
Allison Russell’s life has been marked by trauma, survival, and a persistent return to beauty. After leaving an abusive home as a teenager and finding refuge in the streets and music of Montreal, she slowly discovered that art could bec
The Subtext: Skinny Culture, Open Theism, Anger!
We’re doing a temperature check of different cultural artifacts, including the UFC Freedom 250 fight, open theism, the gift of anger, and skinny culture.
This week on The Subtext, Savannah and Lee do a full cultural temperature check. They react to the UFC Freedom 250 chaos (yes, including that post-fight interview), dig into a listener’s question about Open Theism and whether God actually knows
267: Allison Russell: A Persistent Return To Beauty
How does someone turn a childhood marked by danger and loss into a life full of music, courage, and joy?
Allison Russell’s life has been marked by trauma, survival, and a persistent return to beauty. After leaving an abusive home as a teenager and finding refuge in the streets and music of Montreal, she slowly discovered that art could become more than escape. It could become a way to tell the t
266: Unabridged Interview: Marisa Renee Lee
This is our unabridged interview with Marisa Renee Lee.
How do we learn to live with grief when healing takes longer than we hoped?
Author and advocate Marisa Renee Lee learned about grief early, watching her mother move through years of illness before losing her to cancer. Years later, after becoming a mother herself and developing long COVID, Marisa found herself facing a new kind of uncerta
The Subtext: Talking about 'Paradise' & Nuclear War
When the world feels like it's ending, some people buy bunkers, some people move to Argentina, some people stop reading the news entirely. How should Christians behave in the face of existential dread?
Paradise got renewed for a third season, and we're using it as an excuse to ask a question we've all been quietly avoiding: how do you cope when the threat is real? In this episode, Savannah and Le
266: Marisa Renee Lee: Grief, Uncertainty, and the Work of Realistic Hope
How do we learn to live with grief when healing takes longer than we hoped?
Author and advocate Marisa Renee Lee learned about grief early, watching her mother move through years of illness before losing her to cancer. Years later, after becoming a mother herself and developing long COVID, Marisa found herself facing a new kind of uncertainty. One that reshaped her body, her work, and her underst
265: Unabridged Interview: Hunter Prosper
This is our unabridged interview with Hunter Prosper.
What happens when caring for others costs you the ability to feel?
During the COVID pandemic, Hunter spent his days caring for critically ill patients in the ICU. Over time, the emotional weight became overwhelming. He found himself pulling away not only from patients, but from friends, family, and even his own emotions.
Then one day, d
The Subtext: America’s UFC Freedom Fight
When a cage fight lands on the White House lawn, it's worth asking… what exactly are we celebrating?
On June 14, 2026 (Flag Day, Trump's 80th birthday, and the eve of America's 250th anniversary) the White House South Lawn will host something it never has before: a UFC cage fight. We're going beneath the spectacle to ask what it actually means when the symbols we use to celebrate a nation reveal
265: Hunter Prosper: An ICU Nurse on Trauma and the Healing Power of Listening
What happens when caring for others costs you the ability to feel?
During the COVID pandemic, Hunter spent his days caring for critically ill patients in the ICU. Over time, the emotional weight became overwhelming. He found himself pulling away not only from patients, but from friends, family, and even his own emotions.
Then one day, desperate to reconnect with the world, he walked outside an
264: Unabridged Interview: Norman Wirzba
This is our unabridged interview with Norman Wirzba.
How does the pursuit of independence distort our understanding of the good life?
Before Norman Wirzba became a theologian, philosopher, and public intellectual, he was a farm boy in Southern Alberta, waking before sunrise to tend to the land and animals in his care, and he says that these early experiences working with the natural world taug
The Subtext: Yesteryear and the Trad Wife Movement with Beth Allison Barr
We have a substitute teacher on today's episode! Lee is out of town, so Savannah called upon All the Buried Women co-host Beth Allison Barr to step in. The trad wife dream might look beautiful on camera, but what if you actually have to live it?
What happens when a woman who sells the fantasy of "traditional" womanhood wakes up and has to actually live it? Using Yesteryear as a jumping-off point,
264: Norman Wirzba: The Myth of Self-Sufficiency and the Good Life
This is our unabridged interview with Norman Wirzba.
How does the pursuit of independence distort our understanding of the good life?
Before Norman Wirzba became a theologian, philosopher, and public intellectual, he was a farm boy in Southern Alberta, waking before sunrise to tend to the land and animals in his care, and he says that these early experiences working with the natural world taug
263: Unabridged Interview: Joe Vukov
This is our unabridged interview with Joe Vukov.
What if AI’s greatest revelation isn’t about technology at all — but about us?
Philosopher Joe Vukov joins Lee C. Camp for a conversation about artificial intelligence, human dignity, and the spiritual dangers hidden beneath our technological optimism. Drawing from philosophy, theology, neuroscience, and Catholic social thought, Vukov argues tha
The Subtext: Ask Us Anything
You asked, we answered. From how Savannah and Lee became friends to whether Jesus is God (no big deal), this episode covers the questions YOU asked. We get into faith and doubt, how to stay hopeful when the world feels chaotic, what it looks like to do ministry well right now, and the books that have shaped us most spiritually.
Things we mentioned in this episode:
Mere Christianity by CS Lewis
Hinge Virtues, Shame, and Skydiving: Lee Camp on With & For
Today we're sharing something a little different: a conversation Lee recently had as a guest on the With & For podcast with Dr. Pam King. Pam is a developmental psychologist, Executive Director of the Thrive Center for Human Development at Fuller Seminary, and an ordained Presbyterian minister. Like Lee, she has spent much of her career exploring how faith, spirituality, and virtue can help people
262: Unabridged Interview: Linley Dixon
This is our unabridged interview with Linley Dixon.
What does it mean to live a good life in a world increasingly disconnected from the land that sustains it?
Before Linley Dixon became co-director of the Real Organic Project, she spent years in academia studying plant pathology and soil microorganisms, peering through microscopes at the unseen relationships beneath our feet. But a passion fo
The Subtext: The Pitt: What We Get Wrong About Addiction with Erin Calipari
Dr. Erin Calipari thinks we're getting a lot wrong about addiction, so she and her lab are working to change that by conducting research that could save lives and destigmatize unhelpful narratives. In this episode, we dig into The Pitt's portrayal of high-functioning addiction and what it gets right that most TV gets wrong.
We sit down with Dr. Erin Calipari to unpack what addiction actually is
262: Linley Dixon: A Good Life Grows in Healthy Soil
What does it mean to live a good life in a world increasingly disconnected from the land that sustains it?
Before Linley Dixon became co-director of the Real Organic Project, she spent years in academia studying plant pathology and soil microorganisms, peering through microscopes at the unseen relationships beneath our feet. But a passion for organic farming and the well-being of workers and th
261: Unabridged Interview: Tish Harrison Warren
This is our unabridged interview with Tish Harrison Warren.
What if burnout isn’t failure, but an invitation to become more fully human?
Back in 2023, Anglican priest and author Tish Harrison Warren hit a wall. She was exhausted by her work on faith and public discourse at the New York Times, and discouraged by the constant controversy that came hand in hand with writing about religion in a
The Subtext: America Reads the Bible
What happens when the Bible becomes a stage prop for national identity instead of a text that interrogates it?
This episode explores “America Reads the Bible,” a high-profile event where political leaders, actors, and influencers recited Scripture from the nation’s capital, and, drawing on Bonhoeffer’s warning about reading the Bible for ourselves instead of against ourselves, Savannah and Lee ex
261: Tish Harrison Warren: Your Burnout May Be An Invitation to a Meaningful Life
What if burnout isn’t failure, but an invitation to become more fully human?
Back in 2023, Anglican priest and author Tish Harrison Warren hit a wall. She was exhausted by her work on faith and public discourse at the New York Times, and discouraged by the constant controversy that came hand in hand with writing about religion in a public forum. So she left. What followed was a 2 year explorati
260: Unabridged Interview: Nicholas Ma
This is our unabridged interview with Nicholas Ma.
What if the goal of disagreement isn’t to win, but to stay in relationship?
After producing the smash hit documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” on the life of Fred Rogers, filmmaker Nicholas Ma had one lingering question: Where is the kindness and acceptance that Mr. Rogers embodied in today’s divided world? He found the answer in his latest
The Subtext: Noah Kahan's New Record Will Make You Go to Therapy Again
Noah Kahan’s The Great Divide is a brutally honest soundtrack to growing up, drifting away, and figuring out how to make peace with the place you come from.
This episode dives into The Great Divide, the latest record from Noah Kahan, and unpacks its themes of home, relationships, love, and friendship. In it, they explore their own connections to their hometowns, Wendell Berry’s hot take about aut
260: Nicholas Ma: What to Do With the People You Love But Don’t Agree With
What if the goal of disagreement isn’t to win, but to stay in relationship?
After producing the smash hit documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” on the life of Fred Rogers, filmmaker Nicholas Ma had one lingering question: Where is the kindness and acceptance that Mr. Rogers embodied in today’s divided world? He found the answer in his latest documentary, Leap of Faith, which follows 12 pastors
259: Unabridged Interview: Kristin T. Lee
This is our unabridged interview with Kristin T. Lee.
What happens when we question the faith that formed us?
Dr. Kristin T. Lee, physician and author of We Mend with Gold: An Immigrant Daughter’s Reckoning with American Christianity, reflects on her journey as a Chinese American navigating faith and identity in the immigrant church of her youth. In this conversation, she explores the beauty a
The Subtext: Netflix is Boring Because of Our Short Atten—
Are our shrinking attention spans rewriting the rules of storytelling?
This week on The Subtext, we dig into the claim that streaming platforms like Netflix are deliberately dumbing down storytelling to accommodate distracted viewers. What is being lost when stories are engineered for half-watching? Are we shaping content around distraction, or training ourselves to expect it? And in a world wher
259: Kristin T. Lee: An Immigrant Daughter’s Reckoning with Faith and Identity
What happens when we question the faith that formed us?
Dr. Kristin T. Lee, physician and author of We Mend with Gold: An Immigrant Daughter’s Reckoning with American Christianity, reflects on her journey as a Chinese American navigating faith and identity in the immigrant church of her youth. In this conversation, she explores the beauty and complexity of immigrant communities, the unconscious b
258: Unabridged Interview: Shankar Vedantam
This is our unabridged interview with Shankar Vedantam.
We all like to believe that we live our lives rationally, deliberately, and consciously. But what if our conscious decision-making is just the tip of the iceberg?
“ I feel like I have a full picture of what's happening inside my own mind,” says Shankar Vedantam. But it turns out “there is a large portion of our mind that's working outside
The Subtext: God Had a Big Week in Pop Culture
From a Gen Z grunge pop artist’s critique of Bible interpretation to politics to the Artemis II mission, God had a big week in pop culture.
This week on The Subtext, we unpack a wave of God-talk across pop culture, from Sofia Isella’s haunting critique of biblical “context,” to Paula White-Cain’s eyebrow-raising comparison of Trump to Jesus, to Perez Hilton’s post-near-death approach to scripture
258: Shankar Vedantam: Hidden Brain (Best of NSE)
We all like to believe that we live our lives rationally, deliberately, and consciously. But what if our conscious decision-making is just the tip of the iceberg?
“ I feel like I have a full picture of what's happening inside my own mind,” says Shankar Vedantam. But it turns out “there is a large portion of our mind that's working outside of our conscious awareness.”
Shankar founded Hidden Brain
257: Unabridged Interview: Rosalind Picard
This is our unabridged interview with Rosalind Picard.
What if the technologies we build to serve us begin to quietly shape who we become?
As part of our series The Human Cost of AI, Rosalind Picard offers a profound window into both the promise and the peril of artificial intelligence. A pioneer in affective computing, her work sits at the intersection of neuroscience, ethics, and the search
The Subtext: Should the Church Have Reputation Managers?
What happens when a church starts thinking like a brand, and hires people to protect its image?
In this episode, we explore the rise of reputation management inside religious institutions, starting with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its growing ecosystem of influencers, media strategy, and image control. From the “second Mormon moment” on social media to The Secret Lives of
257: The Human Cost of AI: What Is It All For?
We’re building smarter, faster tools every day, but are they helping us live better lives or just accelerating us in the wrong direction?
In part two of The Human Cost of AI, Lee C. Camp shifts from diagnosing the forces behind the AI revolution to discerning how we might live well within it. Drawing on voices from neuroscience, theology, and philosophy, this episode explores three essential ques
256: Unabridged Interview: Josh Brake
This is our unabridged interview with Josh Brake.
What if the tools shaping our future are also reshaping our humanity?
As part of our series The Human Cost of AI, Josh Brake stands out as a uniquely thoughtful voice, bringing together engineering, philosophy, and theology to ask deeper questions about technology and human flourishing. We wanted to bring you the full, unabridged conversation t
The Subtext: Everyone Hates Poetry
Lee and Savannah welcome a guest on this week’s episode to discuss why everyone hates poetry! In the hot seat is professor and poet Donovan McAbee, who recently published Holy the Body, a collection of poems exploring loss, grief, and doubt. Together, they talk about the beauty of uncertainty and how poetry can be the translator of life’s darkest experiences. If you liked the selected poems McAbee
256: The Human Cost of AI: Money, Sex, and Tools
What if the greatest danger of AI isn’t that it becomes human, but that it reshapes what it means to be one?
In part one of this series, we explore artificial intelligence through a sobering insight: every ship we build also creates the possibility of a shipwreck. The question is not whether AI will save us or destroy us, but how our own formation may already be the collateral damage of its rise
255: Unabridged Interview: Matt Lee
This is our unabridged interview with Matt Lee.
What if flourishing isn’t something you achieve, but something you share?
Sociologist and human flourishing scholar Matthew T. Lee reflects on his unlikely journey from studying homicide to exploring love as a social practice. Drawing on research, philosophy, and lived experience, he challenges individualistic definitions of success and offers a
The Subtext: Is Social Media a Calling?
Is being an influencer on social media a calling? Can public-facing work align with a life of service? In this episode, Savannah and Lee unpack a viral influencer video and explore what it means to have a dream, how it connects to vocation, and what it really means to make an impact in the world.
Things we mentioned in this episode:
NYT Cooking Black Sesame Rice Krispies Treats
Dept. Q
Parad
255: Matt Lee: Why You Can't Flourish Alone
What if flourishing isn’t something you achieve, but something you share?
Sociologist and human flourishing scholar Matthew T. Lee reflects on his unlikely journey from studying homicide to exploring love as a social practice. Drawing on research, philosophy, and lived experience, he challenges individualistic definitions of success and offers a richer vision rooted in community, dialogue, and mu
254: Unabridged Interview: Laurie Santos
This is our unabridged interview with Laurie Santos.
Many of us spend years chasing the things we believe will make us happy, success, recognition, the next promotion, the perfect relationship, only to discover they don’t satisfy the way we expected.
Why are we so often wrong about what will make our lives better?
Yale psychologist Dr. Laurie Santos, creator of the most popular course in Y
The Subtext: WAR! Part TWO!
Back by popular demand! Class is back in session this week as Lee and Savannah walk through Dispensationalism for Dummies, Christian Nationalism, and Just War Tradition in light of our current moment. So grab your notebooks and pens because you’re going to need them! What do you think? Do we need a part 3?
Things we mentioned in this episode:
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
Lady Tremaine by Ra
254: Laurie Santos: The Science of Happiness (and How We Get It Wrong)
Many of us spend years chasing the things we believe will make us happy, success, recognition, the next promotion, the perfect relationship, only to discover they don’t satisfy the way we expected.
Why are we so often wrong about what will make our lives better?
Yale psychologist Dr. Laurie Santos, creator of the most popular course in Yale’s history, Psychology and the Good Life, joins Lee C.
