This Used to Be a Blog

What started as a blog is now a podcast. Hosted by Bri-anne Swan (United Church of Canada minister, singer-songwriter, writer(?), and occasional holy shit-stirrer), This Used to Be a Blog is a simple podcast: one voice, one mic, and words that started as blog posts—now spoken aloud. These are essays about faith, doubt, politics, grief, justice, and what it means to stay human in an age that keeps trying to hollow us out. Sometimes there’s a prayer. Sometimes there’s just a pause. You don’t have to be religious. You just have to care about people. Whether you’re aching, angry, hopeful, or all three—welcome.

Last refreshed: July 29th, 2025 at 3:15 AM ⓘ

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Episodes

Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" is Everything the Gospel is Not

Welcome to the first episode of This Used to Be a Blog —a podcast where I quite literally read a past blog post into a microphone and wonder if anybody hears it. In this debut episode, I read a piece originally written in response to the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” passed in the U.S. House of Representatives—legislation wrapped in Christian language but soaked in cruelty. It’s about the dissonance between Jesus and empire, the weaponization of scripture, and the dangerous ways faith is used t...

Jul 08, 2025•15 min•Ep. 1

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