With a B3 organ, a prophetic imagination, and a heart broken wide open by grace, gospel music legend Andraé Crouch (1942–2015) left an indelible mark on modern Christian worship music. In this episode, Stephen Newby and Robert Darden offer a sweeping yet intimate exploration of his life, spiritual vision, and genre-defining genius. Together with Mark Labberton, they discuss their new biography, Soon and Very Soon: The Transformative Music and Ministry of Andraé Crouch . Through laughter, lament,...
Jul 08, 2025•48 min•Ep. 219
During a moment of historic turbulence and Christian polarization, Trinity Forum president Cherie Harder stepped away from the political and spiritual vortex of Washington, DC, for a month-long pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago—a.k.a. “the Camino” or “the Way.” In this episode, she reflects on the spiritual, emotional, and physical rhythms of pilgrimage as both counterpoint and counter-practice to the fracturing pressures of American civic and religious life. Together, she and Mark Labberton ...
Jul 01, 2025•57 min•Ep. 218
For Christians, morality is often set by our interpretation of Jesus. In this episode, Reggie Williams reflects on the moral urgency of resistance in the face of rising nationalisms and systemic racial injustice that persists. Reggie Williams is associate professor of black theology at Saint Louis University, and author of Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus . Exploring the transformative and fraught legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he draws from Bonhoeffer’s encounter with black Christian faith in Harlem. H...
Jun 24, 2025•49 min•Ep. 217
“More of the church is committed to their immigrant neighbours than the media or politicians would like the public to believe.” (Myal Green, from the episode) Myal Greene (president and CEO of World Relief) joins host Mark Labberton to discuss the global humanitarian crises, refugee resettlement, and the church’s responsibility to respond with courage and compassion. From Rwanda's post-genocide reconciliation following 1994 to the 2025 dismantling of humanitarian aid and refugee programs in the ...
Jun 17, 2025•49 min•Ep. 216
What do you do when you don’t know what to do? Angela Williams Gorrell joins Mark Labberton to discuss her latest book, Braving Difficult Decisions . With poignant storytelling and theological depth, Gorrell shares how this book was born out of personal crucibles and a yearning to make sense of liminal, paralyzing spaces we all encounter—individually and communally. Together they explore how discernment is not just about decision-making but also about cultivating a life of wisdom, attentiveness,...
Jun 10, 2025•49 min•Ep. 215
Mental, emotional, and spiritual healing requires more than clinical technique—it demands sacrificial empathy, institutional trust, and a profound affirmation of the image of God in every human being. In this episode, clinical psychologist and Pine Rest CEO Mark Eastburg joins Mark Labberton to discuss the rising need for mental health care—especially for children, adolescents, and those recovering from severe trauma. Eastburg offers insights about the post-pandemic mental health landscape; psyc...
Jun 03, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 214
What is the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)? And what does it have to do with conservative political power in the United States and abroad? Leah Payne and Caleb Maskell join Mark Labberton for a deep dive into the emergence and impact of the New Apostolic Reformation—a loosely affiliated global network blending Pentecostal Christian spirituality, charismatic authority, and political ambition. With their combined pastoral experience and scholarly expertise, Payne and Maskell chart the historical,...
May 27, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 213
Historian and journalist Molly Worthen explores the mysterious and potent force of charisma, and its power to shape American identity, culture, politics, and religion. She explains how storytelling, transcendence, and authority are used by America’s most charismatic leaders. Drawing on her new book, Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump , Worthen shares how charismatic authority reveals deep human desires for meaning, agency, and transcendence. The co...
May 20, 2025•52 min•Ep. 212
Cancer is among the most common and feared diseases in the modern world. Dr. Selwyn Vickers—president and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center—joins host Mark Labberton to discuss how precision oncology, data, and faith are transforming cancer treatment. A distinguished cancer surgeon and pancreatic cancer researcher, Vickers explains how groundbreaking advances in genomics, immunotherapy, and AI are transforming once-lethal diagnoses into survivable and even chronic conditions. Togethe...
May 13, 2025•53 min•Ep. 211
“Leadership is defined by listening.” In this Conversing Short, Mark Labberton explains the essential role listening plays in leadership and successful communication. Leaders are often known for what they’ve said publicly or privately, but in actual fact, the experience of leadership and the effectiveness of leadership is determined by the mutuality of listening and learning that goes on between the primary leader and the team that they’re working with at any given time. Here, Mark shares from h...
May 06, 2025•8 min•Ep. 210
Strong leadership is born not from control, but from authentic community and the cultivation of people and teams. Nathan Hatch, former president of Wake Forest University and esteemed historian, joins Mark Labberton to reflect on the nature of transformative leadership. Drawing from his decades of experience at Notre Dame and Wake Forest—and from his new book, The Gift of Transformative Leaders —Hatch explores how leaders cultivate thriving institutions through humility, vision, and empowerment....
Apr 29, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 209
Two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Nicholas Kristof (opinion columnist, the New York Times ) reflects on his career of reporting from the front lines of injustice and human suffering, discussing hope, human resilience, and the urgency of responding to global injustice. An advocate for empathy-driven journalism that holds power accountable and communicates the stories of the most vulnerable, Kristof joins Mark Labberton in this episode to discuss his life’s work of reporting from the worl...
Apr 22, 2025•49 min•Ep. 208
In this episode, Russell Moore, editor-in-chief of Christianity Today , joins Mark Labberton to discuss the seismic political, moral, cultural, and spiritual crises facing American evangelicalism and how to respond. Reflecting on his own journey from the Southern Baptist Convention to his current role, Moore offers a candid and theologically rich diagnosis of a movement he describes as simultaneously fragmented, bored, and longing for renewal. Drawing parallels to historical awakenings and momen...
Apr 15, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 207
“If a person is entrusted to care for a building and decides to tear it down, there's a moral imperative to disclose whether there are people inside. There are 20.6 million people and 566,000 children living inside PEPFAR.” PEPFAR is the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. And as of March 25, 2025, its congressional reauthorization has expired. For more than two decades, its website states, “the U.S. government has invested over $110 billion in the global HIV/AIDS response, the largest c...
Apr 08, 2025•41 min•Ep. 206
"Listening is everything. Without listening, there’s no music, no art, no understanding—just noise.” (Charlie Peacock, from the episode) Acclaimed musician, producer, podcaster, and author Charlie Peacock joins Mark Labberton to reflect on music, art, attention, listening, faith, and spirituality. From his groundbreaking work in pop music production (e.g., Amy Grant, Switchfoot, the Civil Wars), to his deep engagement with faith and mentorship, Charlie explores how attention shapes creativity, w...
Apr 01, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 205
“They’re fighting their way through this crazy immigration system that is ineffective, illogical, and inhumane. … There’s a wideness in God’s mercy. Since when has anybody said mercy for some and not for all? … Fixing immigration is really different than blowing it up. … This is not an impossible crisis to solve. … We need to not be divided by our political affiliations. As Christians, we stand with Christ, who critiques all human institutions.” (Alexia Salvatierra, from the episode) The immigra...
Mar 25, 2025•55 min•Ep. 204
“If I'm actually seeing you and then I'm hearing you, then it doubles the thickness of that communication moment.” In this Conversing Short, Mark Labberton reflects on the full-bodied, empathetic nature of listening and the communication process. He reflects on good listening, the empathy it requires, and what it means to truly recognize and successfully understand each other. Listening and perceiving are bound up together in a fundamental way, offering us an opportunity to enter into another’s ...
Mar 18, 2025•7 min•Ep. 203
“‘To whom much is given, much is expected.’ … That is the core of our Christian belief.” “I hope that people who are both patriotic and Christian are not being painted with a broad brush.” (Condoleezza Rice, from this episode) In this episode, Condoleezza Rice joins Mark Labberton to discuss the state of US foreign and domestic policy in light of Christian moral convictions. Secretary Rice served as the 66th US Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, has been on the faculty of Stanfor...
Mar 11, 2025•16 min•Ep. 202
“ When I watch people who are what I think of as expert communicators, they are people who have this quality that they hear well, they listen deeply, and they know what kind of communication to give in return that actually seals that that was fully received.” (Mark Labberton, from this episode) Why is it so hard to communicate? To accomplish the simple task of delivering and receiving information? In this Conversing Short, Mark Labberton suggests that real and successful communication is a mirac...
Mar 04, 2025•9 min•Ep. 201
This is a turbulent time for American democracy. Years, perhaps decades, of social change is manifesting in the form of distrust, violence, chaos, fear, loneliness, and despair. But Conversing , along with Comment magazine, is about hope, healing, and hospitality. For this special 200th episode of Conversing, Mark Labberton invites Anne Snyder (Editor-in-Chief, Comment magazine) for a close reading and discussion of the 2025 Comment Manifesto, a hopeful new document offering a vision of Christia...
Feb 25, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 200
”I grew up thinking that Christianity was basically cruel and hypocritical.” “The core teachings of Jesus align very well with the core teachings of James Madison.” “That's why we need Christianity. It's not because we don't have reason to fear. It's because we do.” —Jonathan Rauch, from the episode We’re at a crossroads, where Christianity and secularism in America are both operating at cross-purposes, and both need a critical reassessment of their role in democratic public life. In his new boo...
Feb 18, 2025•57 min•Ep. 199
“Is Trump interested in being Constitutionally faithful?” (Mark Labberton, from this episode) “What we're watching here is the operation of the will of an individual on the system, and the system is really meant to answer to the negotiated will of a plural body.” (Yuval Levin, from this episode) “ I think character is destiny, especially in the American presidency, because the presidency really is one person.” (Yuval Levin, from this episode) The transition of power from one presidential adminis...
Feb 11, 2025•41 min•Ep. 198
“The gift of listening is the laying down of presumption. I don’t know you. I don’t know what you would say about this or that or the other thing. I don’t understand how you have experienced life. I don’t share in that emotional moment. I don’t have that same vocabulary. I don’t have that same life experience.” (Mark Labberton, from this episode) In this Conversing Short, Mark Labberton reflects on the reality and meaning of the fact that “I am not you.” He considers the importance of differenti...
Feb 04, 2025•9 min•Ep. 197
“I’m one of the thousands and thousands of people in Altadena who have lost our homes to the fire and are trying to pick up the pieces and find out what to do next.” (Megan Katerjian, from the episode) What is it like to lose your house in a fire? The Eaton Fire in Los Angeles County started on January 7, 2025, and within twenty-four hours had burned over fourteen thousand acres of Altadena, California, and surrounding areas. Thousands of people have lost their homes (some without any guarantee ...
Jan 28, 2025•47 min•Ep. 196
A special episode for the inauguration of Donald Trump’s second term, as the forty-seventh president of the United States. Whether you’re filled with hope and joy, or anxiety and fearfulness, how can we pursue a common citizenship that is grounded in faith and moral sensitivity, focused on justice and love, and rightfully patriotic? Today, Mark welcomes friends Pete Wehner (columnist, The Atlantic , and Fellow, Trinity Forum), Anne Snyder (editor-in-chief, Comment magazine), and David Goatley (p...
Jan 20, 2025•47 min•Ep. 195
“The Good News is still good news.” “I'm very pro-democracy, and yet democracy has never been the necessary prerequisite for the good news of Jesus Christ to flourish. … The good news of Jesus Christ doesn’t win and doesn’t lose based on a political party winning or losing.” (Walter Kim, from this episode) How does evangelicalism relate to the dominant political powers of our world? In this episode Mark Labberton welcomes Walter Kim to Conversing . As the president of the National Association of...
Jan 14, 2025•57 min•Ep. 194
“An attentive, earnest ear.” “We begin as listeners, that we begin as learners, that we begin as, as genuine, interested, empathetic people who are called to know and see and hear one another.” “Entering the room listening gave me an opportunity to realize that I could just behold someone. Behold them visually, behold them audially, to sit in the wonder, the awe, the mystery, the difference of their life from mine and just absorb it in a way that was such a delight. It was also humbling. It also...
Jan 07, 2025•11 min•Ep. 193
”And then finally, word comes over the telegraph that the Emancipation Proclamation is in effect. Jubilation!“ (Jemar Tisby, from the episode) The African-American Christian tradition often celebrates an all-night Watch Night service on New Year’s Eve. But where does this beautiful liturgical practice come from? It dates all the way back to December 31, 1862, on the eve of the Emancipation Proclamation going into effect the following day. In this episode of Conversing, Mark Labberton welcomes hi...
Dec 31, 2024•10 min•Ep. 192
“Each Advent, I do something unusual; I reread King Lear . Revisiting Shakespeare’s dark exploration of the dissolution of family, friendship, personality, and nation has become part of my annual rhythm. That might seem odd, particularly during this most difficult of years: With short winter days, and so much national, international, and personal pain all around us, who needs more darkness? As a Christian, I do.” (Mark Labberton, from this episode) In this Conversing Short, Mark Labberton shares...
Dec 24, 2024•8 min•Ep. 191
“I think my hope is that by this time next year, we would have survived this. … The hope is to survive. … It’s really hard to think beyond that.” “We need to repent from apathy. We need to fight this normalization of a genocide.” —Rev. Dr. Munther Issac, from the episode In the long history of conflict in the Middle East, both Jews and Palestinians have felt and continue to feel the existential threat of genocide. There remains so much to be spoken and heard about the experience of each side of ...
Dec 17, 2024•49 min•Ep. 190
