*trigger warning* “My passion is to have a kinder and gentler world for our little people in faith spaces.” (Matt Shantz) Meet Matt Shantz, husband, dad, social worker in child and adolescent mental health, and spiritual mentor. Matt is our podcast guest this week and we are so grateful to have had one of the most complicated, difficult and needed conversations we've had on the podcast to date. This week, we tackle the subject of spanking and we do so in a way that will be informative and passio...
Apr 02, 2024•1 hr•Season 5Ep. 59
I’m trying to be in alignment with what I understand what the true principles of love to actually be. (Stephanie Stalvey) The passionate and kind Stephanie Stalvey is our guest this week on the podcast. Stephanie is a deconstructing mama of one, high school art teacher, and painter writer and comic book artist extraordinaire. She loves music and animals and going to the beach when its cold. She's been irresistibly drawn to making comics since she was a kid. Comics are intimate, they are rock and...
Mar 26, 2024•54 min•Season 5Ep. 58
“God is like a fort, strong and secure with walls that are mighty and safe. Inside, there are hidden places to hold you when you’re scared or need a quiet place to rest.” What is God Like (Matthew Paul Turner & Rachel Held Evans) The spunky and amazing Matthew Paul Turner is our guest this week on the podcast. Matthew is a dad of three, New York Time's best-selling children's author, and accomplished photographer and journalist. Matthew's fiery, yet gentle spirit and his passion to help othe...
Mar 19, 2024•51 min•Season 5Ep. 57
“You aren't going to mess up your kids' theology." (Sarah Swartzendruber) The brilliant Sarah Swartzendruber is our guest this week on the podcast. Sarah is a mama, pastor, kid's faith curriculum creator (Zippee) and cohort leader for Parenting After Deconstruction. Most of the parents who reach out to her know what they don't want to teach their kids, but they have no idea what they do want for their families. Sarah's passion is helping parents in deconstruction create healthy spiritual practic...
Mar 12, 2024•54 min•Season 5Ep. 56
“Self-discovery is the goal. Self-compassion is the vibe." (Trisha Wilkerson) We start off Season Five with Trisha Wilkerson as our guest this week on the podcast. And it's really good! Trisha is a deconstructing mama, author, former pastor's wife turned certified Nutrition Coach. She works with individuals and groups, guiding a behavioral change process towards increasing overall wellness. Her style is wholeheartedness, with curiosity and gentle challenges. Trisha's journey in Transformation, H...
Mar 05, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 5Ep. 55
“Chronic trauma can overwhelm our internal coping resources. Trauma disrupts the same system that regulates our body’s stress response causing a hyperactive fight-or-flight reaction. It’s not just all in our head. It’s in our bodies too. (Brittany Moses) Guess what??? The guests on our podcasts this week are...drum roll please... us. We are closing out Season Four with a conversation with just the two of us. We dive deep into THE STRUGGLE to heal our spiritual trauma and how our bodies have suff...
Dec 05, 2023•58 min•Season 4Ep. 54
“Admitting we could be wrong about the things we are most convinced of, that are so fundamental to who we are, is painful and becoming someone new is scary.” (an excerpt from Godbreathed, Zack Hunt) Zack Hunt (sometimes known as Zaack Hunt around the internet, a deconstructing dad, former pastor, prolific author and BBQ magician extraordinaire, is our guest this week. Zack has spent the last decade writing about the interplay of faith and politics and when not doing that good work, he can be fou...
Nov 28, 2023•53 min•Season 4Ep. 53
“My love, God is here when you choose goodness and are living from your heart. When you follow the path of love, God is with you from the start. And God is there when you mess up, if you make a choice that isn’t best. It doesn’t mean you’re bad; it just means you’re human-like all the rest.” (an excerpt from My Love, God is Everywhere ) Victoria Robb Powers and Cameron Vickrey, also known as the Reverend Mamas, are our guests this week on the podcast. Victoria is the Senior Pastor at Royal Lane ...
Nov 21, 2023•46 min•Season 4Ep. 52
"I would hope never to feel so confident in my theology as not to be willing to correct a wrong view once presented with compelling evidence." Chad Bahl (Deconstructing Hell) Chad Bahl is our podcast guest this week. Chad is a theologian, step-dad and author. Chad is also a kind, humble, deep, brilliant soul who is on a personal mission to seek the whole truth no matter what the cost. On this episode, after we find out one of Chad's fun and super unique hobbies and his surprising day job, we tak...
Nov 14, 2023•50 min•Season 4Ep. 51
“In a time when we love to keep ourselves separated from one another with our ideologies and beliefs, liminality asks how we exist in those in between spaces.” - Kaitlin Curtis (Living Resistance) Kaitlin Curtice is our podcast guest this week. Kaitlin is an award-winning author, poet-storyteller, and public speaker. As an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi nation, Kaitlin writes on the intersections of spirituality and identity and how that shifts throughout our lives.She also speaks on these t...
Nov 07, 2023•50 min•Season 4Ep. 50
“Following Jesus out of the entanglements of Christian supremacy and white supremacy are deep convictions. We believe God desires so much more from the Church than the frequently empty religiosity and hypocrisy we have become adjusted to.” -- Dr. Drew Hart Dr. Drew Hart, black activist, racial reconciliation expert, biblical studies professor and father of three boys, is our guest this week. Drew is the author of Trouble I've Seen and Who Will Be A Witness . Following Jesus out of the entangleme...
Oct 31, 2023•55 min•Season 4Ep. 49
Kyndall Rae Rothaus, a preacher, poet, feminist theologian, spiritual director, and preaching coach, is our guest this week. She is the author of Thy Queendom Come: Breaking Free from Patriarchy to Save Your Soul (2021) and Preacher Breath (2015). She is the co-founder and Executive Director of Nevertheless She Preached, a national, ecumenical preaching conference designed to elevate the voices of womxn on the margins and the founder of the Soul of Preaching Project. Kyndall is a sought-after pu...
Oct 17, 2023•53 min•Season 4Ep. 48
This Week on the Podcast: Dr. Glenn Siepert, a deconstructing dad, former pastor, author and podcast host of the What If Project, is our guest this week.Glenn creates a safe space for people to explore this idea: What if there are ways of thinking about God and faith that are different than what our traditions have handed us? . On this episode, we ask a big What If question: what do we do with our grief during deconstruction? What if there are ways of thinking about and approaching grief than wh...
Oct 17, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 4Ep. 47
Tara Teng, an Embodiment Coach who works in the intersections of spirituality and sexuality, is our guest this week. Tara helps people find their way back to their bodies, overcome shame, heal trauma and dismantle purity culture in a way that is in alignment with their values and beliefs so that they can build a healthy, sexual ethic and thrive in freedom and wholeness. On this episode, we explore the ways we have been separated from our bodies and consequently from each other and why that is so...
Oct 04, 2023•55 min•Season 4Ep. 46
Ericka Graham, freelance pastor and Bible-nerd extraordinaire, mama to two littles, recovering 12-stepper, and podcast hostess, is our guest this week. Ericka has a passion for reframing the Bible to be a source of life and healing and spreading that word far and wide. On this episode, we dive deep into the hard spaces of OCD manifested in scrupulosity, drug addiction and herky-jerky recovery and the ways that the Bible has been used to harm others. We also lean into the hopeful ideas of radical...
Oct 03, 2023•52 min•Season 4Ep. 45
Dr. Eric Seibert, Old Testament scholar and professor, dad of tweens and teens, prolific author and Minecraft guru, (yes, you read that right) is our guest this week. Eric is passionate against churchce sanctioned violenebecause he is troubled by how much violence Christians condone and sometimes participate in. I do NOT believe this is what God intended," he says (with a little bit of umph in his voice). On this episode, we unpack why it's incredibly harmful to believe that God is a violent, bu...
Sep 26, 2023•49 min•Season 4Ep. 44
We continue Season Four with Mary DeJong. Mary lives in Seattle, Washington's Rainier Valley in Columbia City, at Hedgewood, a home that for over a decade has hosted community connection through the reclamation and restoration of a neighborhood forest. Mary finds herself an eco-theologian and urban naturalist who delves into why place matters, the sacramentality of creation, and how together this informs the development of our ecological self. Mary terms this work “sacred eco-awakening” and sees...
Sep 19, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 4Ep. 43
We are so excited to launch Season Four with Dr. Laura E. Anderson, the author of that wisdom. Dr. Laura is a psychotherapist, trauma resolution coach and consultant, writer and educator specializing in complex and developmental trauma, dynamics of power and control and religious trauma. She views herself as still a work in progress. She believes healing is a life-long process rather than a point you get to where you say “there, I am done, healed.” However, who she is today is quite different an...
Sep 12, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 4Ep. 42
Annalise Hume, is our guest on our perfectly-timed summer bonus episode. Annalise is a passionate, creative, down-to-earth mover who loves listening and asking questions to help others recognize the movement of God in their life. After growing up in Boise, Idaho, she earned a BFA in Dance, spending a year touring with a performing-arts organization in South Africa upon graduation. Before moving to South Africa, she met an amazing South African who happened to live in Idaho. They got married and ...
Jul 25, 2023•50 min•Season 3Ep. 41
Bekah McNeel is our final guest of Season Three. Bekah is a native of San Antonio, Texas, where she has been a reporter for nine years. Her work has appeared in print with Christianity Today, The San Antonio Current, and the Public Justice Review, as well as online with the Christian Science Monitor, Sojourners, the Texas Tribune, the Hechinger Report, The 74 Million, and numerous local outlets. Bekah calls herself a story-teller, but she is especially known for her ability to communicate the hi...
May 23, 2023•48 min•Season 3Ep. 40
Matt Mattson, the "starter" of both the BETWEEN community and Today I Pray For You project on Instagram and Facebook, is our guest this week. Matt dreams of creating a global relational religious movement. Matt believes “church” (and faith exploration) can and should happen in our conversations with others. He's passionate that the space between us is sacred, a holy space. The way we fill that space — the choices about the way we interact with people — is our faith-come-to-life. He wants your co...
May 16, 2023•47 min•Season 3Ep. 39
Liz Mall, apologist (fancy word for someone who uses "argument" and "reason" to make a point that something is or isn't true and she has her masters in this area of expertise), deconstructing mama of three littles and podcast hostess, is our guest this week. She and her cohost provide incredible resources for both faith deconstruction and reconstruction. They tackle subjects like hell, Biblical genocide, purity culture and even head-coverings (for those of you forced to wear them - yes, it's a t...
May 09, 2023•47 min•Season 3Ep. 38
Melissa Neeb, author, deconstructing mama of two teens, avid photographer, and podcast hostess is our guest this week. Her mantra is "love big, live kind" and there could be nothing truer about Melissa. She's highly committed to loving without strings, inclusive of everyone who walks into her home or her life and kindness is her main squeeze. When she's not caring for babies at her day job, you can find her loving on all of her fur babies (six of them to be exact), writing furiously for social m...
May 02, 2023•49 min•Season 3Ep. 37
Mike Morrell, coauthor of the Divine Dance with Richard Rohr (a pretty big deal), dad of two, an opti-mystic (which he likes to call himself), and Dudeist Priest (look it up here) , is our guest this week. He's a contemplative-in-process, seeking a more grounded experience of God, life, himself and the world, not because of grand mystical aspiration, but in order to stay sane in the here and now. He's pretty sure his two girls are funny and brilliant – both my academically ‘gifted’ (as the schoo...
Apr 25, 2023•50 min•Season 3Ep. 36
Dr. Camden Morgante, psychologist, coach, writer, and fellow mama is passionate about purity culture recovery, egalitarianism and reconstruction. She currently lives in Knoxville, TN with her husband and her two beautiful children. We know what is wrong with purity culture—now we need to know how to heal. As a licensed psychologist specializing in sexuality who grew up in the height of purity culture, Dr. Camden, as she is known around the internet, offers a path forward to help repair the movem...
Apr 18, 2023•42 min•Season 3Ep. 35
Jillian Benfield, author, mom of three, former TV news anchor, and fierce advocate for access and inclusion of all types, is our guest this week. When she and her husband Andy were just 27 years old, they unexpectedly found out their son would be born with Down syndrome. Originally, devastated, they later, through months and years of learning and unlearning, realized their grief was largely tied to their ignorance and unknowing ableism. It is not easy raising a child with a disability in an inac...
Apr 11, 2023•51 min•Season 3Ep. 34
Kat Wordsworth, author, mom of two, avid swimmer, and experienced doubter, is our guest this week. Although she is constantly living with doubt and unpacking both the harm and the healing it has brought to her life, she is taking slow steps on her own path of faith. Our conversation with Kat, one of most gentle souls we've had the privilege of interviewing, was raw, vulnerable and not wrapped up in a nice neat bow. Her vulnerability and openness about her own continuing and difficult, yet sacred...
Apr 04, 2023•43 min•Season 3Ep. 33
Jason Elam, grateful husband, author, proud dad of four amazing kids, host of the Messy Spirituality Podcast , and former church pastor, is our guest this week. Although he is deconstructing from toxic religion, he is still enamored by Jesus. Our time with Jason was refreshing and empowering, especially in the area of deconstructing and parenting. Speaking from his very own mistakes and frustration with his own early parenting based in rigid evangelicalism, he walks us through the hard part of f...
Mar 28, 2023•44 min•Season 3Ep. 32
Meredith Miller, mom, children's pastor and soon-to-be author of a legit book coming out in August titled Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn't Have to Heal From , is with us this week. Meredith has over 20 years experience in children’s ministry and curriculum. In 2019 she and her husband Curtis started a small church on Zoom that wants to live the one-anothers, neighbor well, and do justice. And eat. For the 5 years prior she was Curriculum Director for the children’s ministry at Willow Cr...
Mar 21, 2023•48 min•Season 3Ep. 31
Sarah Bessey, mom, best-selling author of dozens of words and books, podcast host herself and co-creator of the Evolving Summit is with us this week. Sarah was born and raised in the prairies and foothills of western Canada. Now living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada (on the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region in southern Alberta and the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3), Sarah and her husband of twenty-one years are raising their four kids. She’s a pseudo-hermit bookworm, ...
Mar 14, 2023•47 min•Season 3Ep. 30
