Love Is Stronger Than Fear

Can God truly heal, redeem, and transform brokenness? Katherine Wolf, coauthor of Suffer Strong and cofounder of Hope Heals, talks with Amy Julia about the reality of disability and pain, redefining brokenness and healing, and the game-changing nature of community. (Keep scrolling for book giveaway!)“Katherine Wolf miraculously survived a catastrophic stroke caused by a congenital brain defect she never knew she had. After a sixteen-hour brain surgery, forty days in the ICU, a year in neuro rehab, and eleven operations, she continues her recovery to this day.” Katherine and her husband, Jay, are the authors of Suffer Strong and Hope Heals and the founders of Hope Heals and Hope Heals Camp.Connect with Katherine online:Website: hopeheals.comInstagram: @hopehealsFacebook: @hopehealsTwitter: @hopehealsOn the Podcast:Wolfs’ books: Suffer Strong and Hope HealsHope Heals CampJohn SwintonPenny’s diagnosis“The Lord has really used what was terrible, tragic brokenness and transformed that into something really beautiful. We love our story of redemption.”“It’s not a rejection of the body that we’re in. It’s a deeper understanding of the body we’re in and how it can enable us to see truths about God differently than if it were ‘normal.’”“Community is a game-changer for healing.”“True community isn’t trying to be outcome changers. They’re not trying to pray away your pain. They’re just with you in it… True community isn’t trying to stamp a Jesus sticker on your pain because it’s so much bigger than something a sticker could do…I need the truth of Jesus but not yet. In this moment, I need you to cry with me and feel the loss with me and let it be shocking to you.”“God has equipped me in these years of suffering.”“The communal, almost instant, embracing of each other [at camp] has everything to do with the fact that living the ‘American dream’ is no longer available to these families, so they’re not concerned with it anymore. They’re on the other end of the spectrum where they actually are wanting to disrupt the lie that joy only comes in a pain-free life. They are banding together to proclaim that we’re not going to worship the idol of a pain-free life. It’s not available. That’s not our story. But there’s still joy in this story."BOOK GIVEAWAYTo enter for your chance to win a copy of Suffer Strong, simply share this podcast episode on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, and be sure to tag me when you share it!___Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.Head, Heart, Hands, Season 4 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast, is based on my e-book Head, Heart, Hands, which accompanies White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES that are designed to help you respond to the harm of privilege and join in the work of healing. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.__

How do spiritual practices equip us to participate in God’s healing work in the world? Rich Villodas, pastor and author of The Deeply Formed Life, talks with Amy Julia about social divisions, the relationship between inner spiritual formation and outward actions, and God’s healing work within individuals and communities.SHOW NOTES:“Rich Villodas is the Brooklyn-born lead pastor of New Life Fellowship, a large, multiracial church with more than seventy-five countries represented in Elmhurst, Queens.” Connect with Rich online:Website: richvillodas.comFacebook: @rvillodasInstagram: @richvillodasTwitter: @richvillodasOn the Podcast:The Deeply Formed Life by Rich VillodasThe Message: Eugene Peterson’s Bible translationLuke 3-4Thomas Keating, Henri Nouwen, and Jean VanierFamily Systems TheorySexual Character by Marva DawnLiving Gently in a Violent World by Stanley Hauerwas and Jean Vanier“It’s quite liberating—it’s very difficult at first—but it’s quite liberating when you realize, ‘I’m not a human doing, I’m a human being. I can take an extra nap. Or I can delight in or cultivate things that bring me joy.’”“Contemplative prayer for me has been the most important element for how I think about race, how I think about the interior life, how I think about justice...the goal is to be present with God so that I can be present with myself and then be present with my neighbor. For me, contemplative prayer serves as the foundation to be present with those who are difficult to love, to be present with those I disagree with.”“The agony of prayer is that I don’t see fruit in the moment. And I need to be okay with that.”“Who are you allowing to speak into your life? What are the stories you’re opening yourself to? Even in the books that we read, the music that we listen to, the stories that we come across, I think that moving close to someone isn’t necessarily a physical proximity. Sometimes it’s an emotional proximity. Sometimes it’s narrative proximity—trying to understand someone’s story.”“How Christians can participate in the renewal of the world—we can see people as enemies to be conquered or see wounds that need to be healed. And that’s hard. That’s a cruciform way of living. It’s painful. It’s slow.”___Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.Head, Heart, Hands, Season 4 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast, is based on my e-book Head, Heart, Hands, which accompanies White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES that are designed to help you respond to the harm of privilege and join in the work of healing. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.

Can acknowledging the wounds of white evangelicalism actually bring healing? Kristin Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne, talks with Amy Julia about the harm of militant masculinity and Christian nationalism found within white evangelicalism and the hope for healing by exposing and addressing those wounds.SHOW NOTES:Kristin Kobes Du Mez is professor of History and Gender Studies at Calvin University and the author of Jesus and John Wayne. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame, and her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics. Connect with Kristin online:Website: kristindumez.comFacebook: @kkdumezTwitter: @kkdumezOn the Podcast:Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du MezLuke 6:6-10“The closer I looked, the more I saw John Wayne popping up in very unexpected places as the icon of American masculinity and Christian masculinity.”“We have seen this before. We have seen this so many times before—evangelicals finding reasons to support abusers of power, to support men who they thought would protect the faith, protect Christianity—and at great costs to women, to children, and to their communities.”“It doesn’t take a lot always to slip from metaphorical battles to actual battles.”“How did we get to where we are now? There were many choices, active choices, that individuals made at different junctures, often for the purpose of enhancing their own power, and we can start to see how all of this came together...Then we are freer to ask, “Is this where we want to be? Is this how evangelicals—how Christians—ought to engage our neighbors?”“What is the Good News? And what should that look like? And how much should it actually entail building walls and drawing stark divisions and excluding people from our communities?”Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.Head, Heart, Hands, Season 4 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast, is based on my e-book Head, Heart, Hands, which accompanies White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES that are designed to help you respond to the harm of privilege and join in the work of healing. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.

Erin and David Leaverton sold their house, loaded their three, young children into an RV, and traveled the country for a year. Their family’s journey is part of the documentary The Reunited States. Erin Leaverton talks with Amy Julia about their search for what divides our nation, the false hierarchy of human value, and the durable power of God’s love to heal division.SHOW NOTES:Erin Leaverton is a wife, a mom to three children, an interior designer, and a blogger. Her family’s “life-altering adventure, traveling across America by RV for one year to learn about why the fabric of our nation is fraying” is part of The Reunited States documentary. Connect with Erin online:Website: erinleaverton.comFacebook: @erineleavertonInstagram: @erinleavertonPinterest: @erineleavertonWebsite: undividednation.usOn the Podcast: The Reunited States of America: How We Can Bridge the Partisan Divide by Mark GerzonDocumentary: The Reunited States, presented by Van Jones and Meghan McCainSusan Bro, Steven Olikara, and Greg OrmanUndivided Nation“[Our divisions are] rooted in our belief in a false hierarchy of human value...you can’t measure human life. It’s infinite.”“We bear the image of an eternal God. That’s incredible. Each one of us. It’s infinitely beautiful and infinitely valuable.” “The things that I will look for to define my own value is the exact same set of principles I’ll apply on every other person.”“We do have permission to mourn things that we discover. And we need to. I think that that’s healthy. But we can’t stay there. We have to move through it.”“Dr. King said, ‘Love is the most durable power in the world.’ And when I heard that quote, what I literally saw was like an actual structure to hold the weight of disagreement. And I think agreement is what we’re building on right now. And it’s so cheap and so flimsy. It cannot hold any dissonance, whereas love can.”“Respect is earned over time. Honor is something we can give freely, just like love. Everyone is deserving of honor because everyone bears God’s image. Even if they’re committing atrocities—and I know this is a hard thing to say, a hard thing to believe—but even in the act of committing horrible atrocities, no human being is outside the realm of redemption and honor.”Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.Head, Heart, Hands, Season 4 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast, is based on my e-book Head, Heart, Hands, which accompanies White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES that are designed to help you respond to the harm of privilege and join in the work of healing. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.

Marxism is often mentioned when talking about progressive views of justice, but what are the secular concepts that shape conservative views of justice? Are they biblical? Corey Widmer, lead pastor of Third Church in Richmond, VA, tells his story of moving into, and out of, a neighborhood in the inner city of Richmond, and he talks with Amy Julia about race, white evangelicalism, faith, and biblical justice.Connect Online:Third Church website: thirdrva.orgInstagram: @thirdrvaFacebook: @ThirdRVATwitter: @coreywidmer and @ThirdRVAOn the Podcast:White Picket Fences and A Good and Perfect Gift by Amy Julia BeckerChristian Community Development AssociationDon Coleman“A call for gentrification with justice” by Corey Widmer Bob LuptonUrban HopeBook of RevelationCorey’s sermon series on RevelationSermon series on Revelation by Rankin WilbourneRevelation: The Triumph of Christ by John StottDivided by Faith by Christian Smith and Michael O EmersonThe Bible project series on justiceReading While Black by Esau McCaulleyAmy Julia’s podcast Interview with Esau McCaulley“As Christians, we’re called not just to preach good news of forgiveness but also the good news of the renovating and restoring and renewing work that the gospel can do for neighborhoods, communities, families, and societies.”"Marxism is not the only secular concept of justice. Actually, the typical view of justice that we have as Americans is also profoundly secular and was birthed out of the Enlightenment...When you understand that, it’s not just that progressive Christians are malformed by this Marxist view of justice. It’s that conservative Christians are really malformed by this libertarian and liberal view of justice that is not from the Bible. It’s from John Rawls."“A true biblical worldview and a true biblical teaching of justice is unlike anything that any of us probably have seen. And, therefore, you shouldn’t fit into any political category or any secular concept of justice.”“The hope of Jesus won’t be as beautiful and clear and wonderful if we don’t first recognize the ways that we have put so much of our hope into false idols that ultimately don’t deliver.”...Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.Head, Heart, Hands, Season 4 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast, is based on my book Head, Heart, Hands, which accompanies White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES that are designed to help you respond to the harm of privilege and join in the work of healing. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.

Is healing possible for women coming out of abuse, addiction, sex trafficking, and prostitution? Thistle Farms ambassador, Dorris Walker-Taylor, tells her story of loss, drugs, life on the street, and the healing power of love that she found at Thistle Farms.SHOW NOTES:Dorris Walker-Taylor is an ambassador for Thistle Farms. Follow Thistle Farms online:Website: thistlefarms.orgInstagram: @ThistleFarmsFacebook: @ThistleFarmsTwitter: @ThistleFarmsOn the podcast:Thistle Farms productsThistle Farms videosBecca Stevens“You can’t tell me that love is not stronger than fear—because it is. You can’t tell me that love is not the most powerful force for change in the world—because it is.”“I always thought it was me against the world. This organization [Thistle Farms] loved me back to life.”“This whole world is in an uproar. And the only way we are going to be able to live in peace and unity is for love to come into the picture.”“I could have responded to my father’s death in a lot of different ways, but the way I responded to it was not the right way because I thought I could cover up the pain with a chemical, and it manifested itself into just a horrible life. But God has brought me out of that, and I have done more living in these past 11 years than I did in the first 50 or so…the first four, five decades of my life were in ruins, but God has forgiven me of all my sins, which are many, and now he has blessed me to be able to go back out there and to tell women that there is a way out, that we do get our lives back.”“God chased me until I found him.”“Come to Thistle Farms…and you’ll see, it’s as clear as night and day, the difference that love has made in our lives.”Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.Head, Heart, Hands, Season 4 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast, is based on my e-book Head, Heart, Hands, which accompanies White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES that are designed to help you respond to the harm of privilege and join in the work of healing. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.

How do we respond with courageous love in order to bridge the divisions facing our country? Natasha Sistrunk Robinson, Raymond Chang, and Amy Julia Becker reflect on racial injustice, unity, discipleship, and ways to courageously love our neighbors.Show Notes:Natasha Sistrunk Robinson is an author, speaker, former US Marine Corps captain, Naval Academy Graduate, and founder of Leadership LINKS, Inc. Raymond Chang is the president of the Asian American Christian Collaborative (AACC), a pastor, and writer. On the Podcast:Wheaton CollegeAsian American Christian Collaborative A Sojourner’s Truth by Natasha Sistrunk RobinsonWhite Picket Fences by Amy Julia BeckerLeadership LINKS, INCAACCEphesians, John 17, Psalm 133, Exodus 20, Acts 6:1-3Russell MooreCompassion (&) Conviction by The AND campaignThou Shalt Not Be a Jerk by Eugene ChoGenerous Justice by Tim KellerThe Witness“Unity has always been at the heart of God. So has diversity…it’s not unity in uniformity, which is what we see in a lot of evangelical spaces.” - Ray“When we see these things [racial injustice and civic unrest] happening, it is a cause for mourning. It’s a cause for lament. It’s a cause for care and concern and hospitality.” - Natasha“The church should have so much to offer that our culture doesn’t have in a time of turmoil because we believe in a God of love and in a God of love for every individual human being and for our world in an even broader sense.” - Amy Julia“The Christian ethic is to move towards the stranger, not away from the stranger; move towards the other, not away from the other; move towards the person who’s different, not away from them.” - Ray“We’re called to both preach and practice the Gospel. We’re called to embody the Kingdom of God.” - Ray“We have to count the cost of discipleship, and when we talk about this issue of racial justice and injustice and unity, and all these things, if you really commit to it, it’s going to cost you something…I always talk about these issues as discipleship issues—they are discipleship issues.” - Natasha“The biblical understanding of justice is about proactive care for the vulnerable.” - Amy Julia___Thank you to the Church of the Apostles in Raleigh, NC and the Center for Christianity and Scholarship for sponsoring this discussion. Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.Head, Heart, Hands, Season 4 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast, is based on my e-book Head, Heart, Hands, which accompanies White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES that are designed to help you respond to the harm of privilege and join in the work of healing. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.

How should Christians care for immigrants and respond to the divisiveness surrounding immigration policies in the United States? Briana Stensrud, director of Women of Welcome, talks with Amy Julia about her journey from working in the pro-life movement to working with immigrants, biblical hospitality, and what extending welcome to immigrants could look like today.SHOW NOTES:Briana Stensrud is a human dignity advocate and the Director of Women of Welcome. Connect online:Women of Welcome: womenofwelcome.comInstagram: @womenofwelcomeInstagram: @bri.stenzFacebook: @WomenofWelcomeOn the Podcast:Women of WelcomeLatasha Morrison and Be the BridgeHeather MacFaydenAmy Julia’s trip to the borderLetter on Immigration ReformLove Undocumented by Sarah QuezadaGenesis 1:27, Matthew 25, Luke 10:25-37Association for a More Just Society“The borders on my definition of what it meant to be pro-life really started to expand because of my anchoring in the belief of the dignity and sanctity of every human life. Being against abortion was not enough.”“You have law enforcement handling a humanitarian crisis, so instead of treating vulnerable people as a specific vulnerable population, what you’re doing is trying to meet that humanitarian need with a military response, which is such a mismatch because you’re asking border patrol to handle toddlers, and their job is to thwart and find those who would seek to do harm to the country or enter illegally.”“Women of Welcome…we are a community of Christian women who are looking to enter into this issue from a biblical perspective. What is Christlike welcome? What is biblical hospitality…immigration for us is a biblical issue; it’s not a political issue. What that does is it frees us up to engage and enter into this space and speak very transparently and honestly about the policies that are affecting vulnerable people no matter who’s in charge, no matter who the president is.”“We want safe borders. We also want compassionate treatment of those who are made in the image of God.”“When you move to this Kingdom mindset of what God cares about, you move off of this “country” or “empire” mindset that says, ‘Citizenship first. America first.’”___Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.Head, Heart, Hands, Season 4 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast, is based on my e-book Head, Heart, Hands, which accompanies White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES that are designed to help you respond to the harm of privilege and join in the work of healing. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.

What is the role of art in bringing hope and healing to the fractures of our world? Makoto Fujimura, a leading contemporary artist and the author of Art+Faith, talks with Amy Julia about creating beauty through brokenness, the art of waiting and making, and how the theology of God’s new creation transforms communities of Christ.Show Notes:Makoto Fujimura is the author of Art+Faith: A Theology of Making, and his “art has been featured widely in galleries and museums around the world, and is collected by notable collections including The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, The Huntington Library as well as Tikotin Museum in Israel.” Connect online:Website: makotofujimura.comFacebook: @makotofujimuraartInstagram: @iamfujimuraTwitter: @iamfujimuraYouTubeOn the Podcast:Makoto Fujimura’s Books: Art+Faith, Refractions, Culture Care, and Silence and Beauty Silence movieSilence by Shūsaku EndōEmbers InternationalKintsugi art1 Corinthians 3, John 11-12, Luke 19Liuan Huska interviewMargaret Mead"I consider what I do to be prayer and theological work as much as aesthetic work, so I’ve always felt the presence of God in my studio, in the practice of making.""It becomes essential conversation for us to find our thriving. What does it mean to be a human being today, let alone a Christian? The arts fundamentally can bring us to a deeper conversation."”We are not going back to pre-pandemic normal. It’s a new world. It’s a world in which we have all suffered—and we have all shared in the suffering—and, therefore, we have an opportunity to create communities that would both nurture and protect those broken places and really be able to share because of our brokenness...A Kintsugi master even amplifies or exposes the fractures but does it in a beautiful way. And can we do that as communities, especially communities of Christ?”"Waiting is such an important part of art. You cannot have music without pauses. You cannot have choreography without the body stopping. And so being still, finding that still point of the turning world, as TS Elliot writes, is very much at the heart of every art form.""If we are not making, we are consuming."___ Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.Head, Heart, Hands, Season 4 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast, is based on my e-book Head, Heart, Hands, which accompanies White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES that are designed to help you respond to the harm of privilege and join in the work of healing. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.

Is diversity or discipleship the answer to segregation within the American church? David Swanson, pastor and author of Rediscipling the White Church, talks with Amy Julia about the segregated American church, the white church’s discipleship problem, and how rethinking discipleship can grow communities of welcome that break down barriers. (Scroll down for book giveaway details!)Show Notes:“David W. Swanson is the pastor of New Community Covenant Church, a multicultural congregation in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood. He helps lead New Community Outreach, a nonprofit that collaborates with the community to reduce sources of trauma, and speaks around the country on the topics of racial justice and reconciliation.”Connect online:Website: dwswanson.comTwitter: @davidswansonFacebook: @PastorDavidWSwansonInstagram: @david.w.swansonOn the Podcast:Rediscipling the White Church: From Cheap Diversity to True SolidarityDr. Brenda Salter McNeilMichael Emerson and Christian SmithDavid Bailey on Love Is Stronger Than FearArrabon“There’s something that’s been discipling us outside of Jesus that has left us content with that segregated status quo...Why is it that my discipleship to Jesus hasn’t upended or broken through some of the segregated patterns that are so normal in this country?”“What makes us so incredibly unique is that we make up this family with other welcomed outsiders…and the center is always Christ, the center is always Jesus’ body, which welcomes us as these former outsiders now sitting together at the same table.”“One of the attributes of whiteness is forgetfulness.”___Book GIVEAWAY:To enter to win a copy of Rediscipling the White Church...1. After 1 p.m. EST on April 6, go to Amy Julia's Instagram account: @amyjuliabecker2. Follow @amyjuliabecker on Instagram ✔️3. Like the post for this podcast episode

What does thriving, interdependent community look like? Rev. Dr. Matt Floding talks with Amy Julia about Friendship House, a sustainable housing model where graduate students and adults with intellectual disabilities live in interdependent communities. They focus on the beautiful work that is possible when communities refuse to believe in scarcity and fear and rather trust in the abundant love and provision of God.SHOW NOTESRev. Dr. Matthew Floding is the director of ministerial formation at Duke Divinity School and a founder of Friendship House Partners USA.Connect Online:Website: friendshiphousepartners.comOn the Podcast:Friendship HouseWestern Theological Seminary, Holland MIErik CarterPenny’s diagnosis of Down syndromeFriendship House locationsWestern Graduate Certificate in Disability and Ministry“Safe, affordable, community-oriented housing—seminarians needed that; people living with an intellectual or developmental disability needed that.”“…the community-building model that we hoped would build life together: eating together, praying together, and celebrating—finding every opportunity to celebrate life in each other.”“‘It’s not doing something to someone or doing for someone. It’s life together with someone. And receiving from.’ If we really truly believe that there is this treasure in each human being who bears the image of God, then it really is about mutuality and belonging.”“Everyone has needs to be met.”“The skills that come with interdependent living—social awareness, self-awareness, active listening skills, this attentiveness and attending to each other—these are foundational skills for people going into ministry, but they’re foundational skills for human beings who live in community.”“I have come to believe that person-first language is the key to my relationships across racial lines, economic divisions...before I label…with any label whatsoever, the disability community has taught me that they are a person first.”“The belovedness and the dignity that comes with being made in the image of God—the disability community gets that.”---Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.Head, Heart, Hands, Season 4 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast, is based on my e-book Head, Heart, Hands, which accompanies White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES that are designed to help you respond to the harm of privilege and join in the work of healing. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.

“What does it mean for me to actually be a Potawatomi woman? To be a Christian? To be human?” Author Kaitlin Curtice, a member of the Potawatomi Nation, joins Amy Julia on the podcast to talk—and to ask questions— about racial and religious identity, holidays and traditions, and entering into an expansive understanding of the love of God.Show Notes:As both a member of the Potawatomi Nation and a Christian, Kaitlin Curtice offers a unique perspective on the never-ending journey of finding ourselves and finding God. Kaitlin’s book Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God  “shows how reconnecting with her Native American roots both informs and challenges her Christian faith.”Connect online:Website: kaitlincurtice.comInstagram: @kaitlincurticeTwitter: @KaitlinCurticeOn the Podcast:Kaitlin’s books: Native and Glory HappeningThe Doctrine of Discovery document“[when] your faith becomes the catchall for your identity, we lose the nuance of what it means to be human in a lot of ways.”“That’s what assimilation does…the church wants what is white in me but not what is native in me.” “What I want to do is help people ask the questions in the first place about America, about Christianity, about who they are…and that’s about belonging, right, about identity.”“Can we have thoughtful, reciprocal relationships with one another where the end goal isn’t, ‘Can I get you to heaven or not?’”“You can’t reconcile something until you actually acknowledge it. American Christianity has not acknowledged its complicity in the genocide and colonization of Indigenous peoples.”“When we learn to have this reciprocal relationship with the earth, we will become more humble as human beings.”“We take care of ourselves because we also are trying to learn to care for one another better.”“This journey [of decolonization work or anti-racism work] is lifelong, and it will involve us messing up and trying again and apologizing and fixing it and reading another book and then reading that book all over again…”“Every time we take a step forward or we do the action, that doesn’t mean that we’ve now reached the end and done all the things. We should always be doing all of the things and not think that we have to reach some finish line. We’re always doing it. That’s what being human is. That’s how we love each other better.”__Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.Head, Heart, Hands, Season 4 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast, is based on my e-book Head, Heart, Hands, which accompanies White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES that are designed to help you respond to the harm of privilege and join in the work of healing. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.

Why should Christians in particular participate in the work of reparations? Duke Kwon and Greg Thompson, the co-authors of Reparations, talk with Amy Julia about white supremacy, the harms and thefts of centuries of racism, and the imaginative, beautiful, restoring work of reparations. (scroll down for book giveaway!)Show Notes:Duke L. Kwon is the lead pastor at Grace Meridian Hill in Washington, DC, and Gregory Thompson is a pastor and the executive director of Voices Underground. They are the co-authors of Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair.Connect online:Twitter: @dukekwondc and @_wgthompsonInstagram: @dukekwondc, @gregory__thompson, @reparations_projectVoices Underground: vuproject.orgOn the Podcast: Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and RepairW. E. B. Du BoisLove Is Stronger Than Fear episode with David SwansonThe National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum#justicedepositsReparations in Tulsa, OKHBO: True Justice“If we understand racism for what it really is, the harms go far beyond personal relationships. They go deeper, they go longer, they go wider, and for centuries.” - Duke“We are calling people not simply as white people to engage in the work of reparations...We’re calling the Christian church—everyone who bears not whiteness per se but everyone who bears the name of Christ—because the Church itself as a community, as a corporate entity, was complicit in, and actually active perpetrators of, the evils of white supremacy.” Duke"Could it be true that our theological tradition actually invites us to [the work of reparations]?” Greg“…we invented education, markets, city planning—I’m not worried about our creativity once we start asking questions. What I’m worried about is our resistance to asking questions.” GregBOOK GIVEAWAYTo enter to win a copy of Reparations:1. Share this podcast episode on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, and be sure to tag Amy Julia Becker when you share.OR2. Go to this episode post on Amy Julia's Instagram and tag a friend in the post's comments.Shipping to continental US addresses only__Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.Head, Heart, Hands, Season 4 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast, is based on my e-book Head, Heart, Hands, which accompanies White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES that are designed to help you respond to the harm of privilege and join in the work of healing. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.

Can peacemaking dismantle racism? Osheta Moore, author of Dear White Peacemakers, offers a warm and welcoming invitation to White people as she talks with Amy Julia about antiracism, the difference between peacekeeping and peacemaking, and the equalizing nature of our belovedness. Show Notes:“Osheta Moore is a writer, pastor, speaker, and podcaster in Saint Paul, Minnesota, as well as a mother of three and economic justice advocate for women in developing countries.” Preorder her book Dear White Peacemakers: Dismantling Racism with Grit and Grace.Connect Online:Website: osheta.comInstagram: @oshetamooreOn the Podcast:Osheta’s books: Dear White Peacemakers and Shalom SistasDear White Peacemakers podcastHow to Be an Antiracist and White Fragility Galatians 3:28, Ephesians 2:16Osheta’s IG post after Ahmaud Arbery video was releasedEnneagramPenny’s Down syndrome diagnosisAustin Channing Brown, Myisha T Hill, Latasha Morrison, Rachel Cargle“If Jesus actually calls us to be peacemakers, what does that look like, and how does that look in our everyday lives?”“If I really care about your belovedness, I’m going to invite you into this work and listen to you and be patient with you and love you. But if you care about my belovedness, then you’re going to understand that there are systems that are continually oppressing me, like police brutality or school systems. You’re going to do what you can to change those systems so that I can move through this world as a beloved.”“Part of my nonviolent peacemaking practices is to hold onto the humanity of people.”“Do some intentional work of owning and acknowledging your belovedness…oftentimes we don’t see the humanity of others because we’ve neglected the humanity of ourselves.”“Belovedness can be the great equalizer that we need in this world.”__BOOK GIVEAWAYTo enter to win a copy of Dear White Peacemakers:1. Share this podcast episode on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter and tag Amy Julia Becker when you share.OR2. Go to this episode post on Amy Julia's Instagram & tag a friend in the post's comments.Shipping to continental US addresses only...Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.Head, Heart, Hands, Season 4 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast, is based on my e-book Head, Heart, Hands, which accompanies White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES that are designed to help you respond to the harm of privilege and join in the work of healing. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.

It's been a rough year. Protests, political division, a global pandemic. And our bodies ache. Our friendships feel strained. We've had too much to drink. We haven't exercised enough. On a self-care level and a social-care level, we are not doing well. In the midst of all the personal and social turmoil, Season 5 of the Love is Stronger than Fear podcast begins next week. In this season, I'm looking for conversations about hope and healing. Not conversations that sugarcoat the hardship. Not conversations that substitute entertainment for real connection. But conversations that look at the hardship and hurt in order to name it and understand it so that we can move towards healing. Together. For this season of the Love is Stronger than Fear podcast, you can look forward to hearing from filmmakers and authors and practitioners about faith and healing, disability and healing, self-care and healing, and how we can begin to repair our social fabric. Our first episode will drop next Tuesday, September 7th. Do go ahead and subscribe wherever you get this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and please spread the word about these conversations. And send me guest suggestions if you have them. My email is amyjuliabeckerwriter@gmail.com, or you can always fill out a contact form on my website amyjuliabecker.com.I look forward to this journey together into healing, wholeness, and hope. _____Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well, releasing Spring 2022...you can pre-order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.

What is a meaningful life? Does thinking about disability change your answer? Heather Lanier, author of Raising a Rare Girl, talks with Amy Julia about her daughter's diagnosis and subsequent reactions from medical professionals, parents' expectations for their children, the gift of vulnerability, the power of language, and the truth that love is stronger than fear.SHOW NOTES:Heather Lanier “is a poet, essayist, teacher, and speaker. An assistant professor of creative writing at Rowan University, she is the author of the memoir, Raising a Rare Girl.”Connect Online: Website: heatherlanierwriter.comFacebook: @heatherkirnlanierInstagram: @heatherklanierTwitter: @heatherklanierOn the Podcast:Heather's book: Raising a Rare GirlAmy Julia's book: A Good and Perfect GiftJesus says, “Do not be afraid.”____Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well, releasing Spring 2022...you can pre-order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day.

What is privilege? How can we leverage it to proclaim God's love to the world and create communities that flourish? Dominique DuBois Gilliard, the author of Subversive Witness, talks with Amy Julia about the church and privilege, economic justice, and how to leverage privilege in order to demonstrate the Gospel in innovative and faithful ways.Show Notes:Guest Bio: “Dominique DuBois Gilliard is the Director of Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation for the Evangelical Covenant Church. He is the author of Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice that Restores, which won a 2018 Book of the Year Award for InterVarsity Press and was named Outreach Magazine's 2019 Social Issues Resource of the Year. Gilliard's latest book, Subversive Witness: Scripture's Call to Leverage Privilege was just published by Zondervan. Gilliard also serves as an adjunct professor at North Park Theological Seminary in its School of Restorative Arts and serves on the board of directors for the Christian Community Development Association. In 2015, the Huffington Post named him one of the “Black Christian Leaders Changing the World.”Connect Online:TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTubeOn the Podcast:Season 3 interview with Dominique (about his book Rethinking Incarceration)Books by Dominique: Rethinking Incarceration and Subversive WitnessSubversive Witness video-based small group curriculumAmy Julia's book about privilege: White Picket FencesScripture: Esther, Lamentations, Isaiah 58:12, Jeremiah 29:6-8, Psalm 139:23-24, John 13:34-35Justice depositsFREE RESOURCE: Head, Heart, Hands Action GuideQuotes:“There's privilege connected to embodiment, so how our bodies are constructed…race, gender, able-bodiedness, mental cognition…this form of privilege slowly but surely starts to negate the biblical truth that we are equitably made in the image of God. It starts to create this sliding scale of humanity where some lives are respected, protected, and valued over and against others.”“We have been conditioned, and dare I say discipled, to think about good intentions as more important than the impact of our actions.”Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well, releasing Spring 2022. You can pre-order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

A life without limits is part of the American dream. But what if living within limits is the key to a spacious life? What if we say “no” to hustle and hurry? Ashley Hales, author of A Spacious Life, talks with Amy Julia Becker about the benefits of limits, the goodness of interdependence within community, and the space needed to be attentive to others.Show Notes:Guest Bio:“Ashley Hales is a writer, speaker, podcast host, and holds a PhD in English from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She is the author of Finding Holy in the Suburbs and A Spacious Life. Listen to The Finding Holy Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and connect with Ashley at aahales.com or @aahales on Instagram and Twitter.”On the Podcast:Ashley's books: Finding Holy in the Suburbs and A Spacious LifePsalm 16:6; Psalm 18:19Quote misattributed to Walter Brueggemann is from Frederick BuechnerSteven GarberInterview Quotes“Limits are actually embedded in creation.”“We have spread ourselves out so thinly that we have transgressed; we've gone beyond those good guardrails—those good, natural, human limits that God intended for our flourishing. We've bypassed them for hustle and hurry.”“God's good limits are actually for our flourishing. They enable creativity. They enable rest. They enable purpose and joy and connection. And when we live without limits, we live exhausted, where the goalposts of success are continually moving.”“[How might choices] begin to bring more freedom for others, moving us outward from this boxed-in, closed-off sense where really life is all about me and my personal happiness and my sense of unlimited autonomy, which is what the American way tells us is the good life?”“To love someone well means that we are accepting constraints “ “Jesus invites us into the constraints, particularly of the church as our first and new family, so we can live for the life of the world...The point of community is to actually bless our world wherever we are.”___Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well, releasing Spring 2022...you can pre-order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

We've heard the rhetoric that demonizes Critical Race Theory. But should citizens of the Kingdom of God have a different response? David Bailey, executive director of Arrabon, talks with Amy Julia Becker about Critical Race Theory and peacemaking, the removal of Confederate monuments, and the use of history as a means to heal.Show Notes:Guest Bio:David Bailey is the executive director of Arrabon, which exists to “equip Christian leaders and their communities for the work of reconciliation. Our digital study series, worship resources, and Transformational Journey training modules are designed to help you build a reconciling community that brings healing and wholeness to our broken and divided world.”Connect Online:arrabon.comInstagram: @wearearrabonFacebook: @wearearrabonTwitter: @wearearrabonOn the Podcast:ArrabonBailey on previous podcast episodes: Waking Up to Privilege and Loving Our Enemies in a Nation DividedRace, Class, and the Kingdom of God study seriesWebinar—CRT: How to Respond as Citizens of the Kingdom of God (not yet available)Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw1619 ProjectNew York Times article with BaileyInterview Quotes“I think what's even more important than what CRT is is our understanding of: What does it mean to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God?”“What is Critical Race Theory? How would people who engage in that discipline define it? What are some of the image-bearing gifts…And what are the ways that it falls short?…It is our assignment to be peacemakers. It's our assignment to be people engaging in a ministry of reconciliation.”“We can use history to hurt. We can use history to hide. We can use history as a means to heal.”“You see the good, bad, and the ugly of humanity [in the Bible], but when we talk about American history, it's almost considered you're being un-American to say anything negative about our history.”“We can give empathy to folks whether we agree with people or not. I think this is a very important practice to do, particularly as a person who follows Jesus.”“What's the right and honorable thing to do to speak the truth in love, to actually engage in the truth…to look at complex, sinful human beings and how we've engaged with one another and to actually be agents of peacemaking and reconciliation, not just only for today but for our children and the next generation.”___Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well, releasing Spring 2022...you can pre-order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my 

In a society filled with disconnect and division, how can the Enneagram guide us toward compassionate living within our communities? Suzanne Stabile, teacher and author of numerous books, including The Journey Toward Wholeness, talks with Amy Julia Becker about the Enneagram's identification of the nine different ways of seeing the world and the healing available through naming who we are.We're giving away a copy of The Journey Toward Wholeness! Go to today's post on my Instagram for more info!Guest Bio:“Suzanne Stabile is a highly sought after speaker and teacher...After 25 years of studying the enneagram, learning from people's stories, cultivating relationships, and learning under Father Richard Rohr, she has become a bestselling author and world class teacher of the Enneagram and how individuals can best utilize this spiritual tool.”Connect:suzannestabile.comInstagram: @suzannestabileFacebook: @EnneagramSuzTwitter: @SuzanneStabileOn the Podcast:Books: The Journey Toward Wholeness, The Road Back to You, The Path Between UsWorkshop: Know Your NumberSubscription Service: The TableThe Enneagram Journey podcast: episode with Morgan Harper NicholsConsolations by David WhyteSpeaking by the Numbers by Sean PalmerInterview Quotes“[The Enneagram] offers an awareness that there are nine different ways of seeing the world and your way isn't everybody else's, and that's the primary cause, I think, of all the disconnects that keep us dividing and circling the wagons and thinking we're right and everybody else is wrong.”“I've learned to ask myself three questions...‘Why am I moving toward this person? What if anything do I hope to get in return? And does the other person want my help?'...And then my fourth question has become, ‘If I say yes to this, what does that mean I'm saying no to?'”“We are an imbalanced society.”“You can't change what you can't name...[The Enneagram] names the things you already know but you have not been able to articulate about yourself. And once you can articulate them, you can do something about it.”“To assume that we're all having the same experience in a room, in a family, in a small group, in a women's group—we're just not. And to make room for difference [is]...for sure a step toward us living more compassionate lives as we try to live together in one city, town, group, school, church. All gifts are necessary.”“It doesn't matter what you have to say if people can't hear you.”__Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well, releasing Spring 2022. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

Black literature powerfully expands our theological imaginations. Danté Stewart, writer, speaker, and author of Shoutin' in the Fire, talks with Amy Julia Becker about literature, theology, Black Jesus, and finding beauty and faith free from traditions bound to white spaces. Giveaway: We're giving away a copy of Shoutin' in the Fire. To enter, complete the following 2 steps:Follow Amy Julia Becker on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.Share this podcast episode on one of the above social media platforms and tag Amy Julia when you share OR find this episode's post on one of Amy Julia's social media accounts and comment about why you would like to win this book.Thanks to Penguin Random House for this giveaway.  Shipping to continental US addresses only. This giveaway ends on Saturday, November 20, at 11:59 pm EST. ADVENT DEVOTIONALGuest Bio:“Danté Stewart is a writer and speaker whose voice has been featured on CNN, The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Sojourners, The Witness: A Black Christian Collective, Comment Magazine, and more. He received his B.A. in Sociology from Clemson University. He is currently studying at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga.”Connect Online:Website: www.dantecstewart.comTwitter & Instagram: @stewartdantecShow Notes, Links, and QuotesDanté provides a wealth of resources connected to Black literature and theology. For complete SHOW NOTES, QUOTES, and LINKS to all of these resources: go to: amyjuliabecker.com/dante-stewart/--Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well, releasing Spring 2022...you can pre-order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

“In some ways, we judge the story by the storyteller.” Colonialism corrupted the beautiful message of the Gospel when it forced Christianity on Indigenous people. The First Nations Version of the New Testament (FNV) seeks to remove those colonial barriers and present the beauty of Jesus' story. Terry Wildman, lead translator and project manager of FNV, talks with Amy Julia about how this translation is a gift from Native people to Native people, as well as to the dominant culture and the Church as a whole.SHOW NOTES (go to amyjuliabecker.com/terry-wildman/ for complete show notes and for BOOK GIVEAWAY info)Guest Bio: “Terry M. Wildman (Ojibwe and Yaqui) is the lead translator, general editor, and project manager of the First Nations Version. He serves as the director of spiritual growth and leadership development for Native InterVarsity. He is also the founder of Rain Ministries.”Connect Online:Website: firstnationsversion.comInstagram: @fnv.ntFacebook: @FirstNationsVersionTwitter: @TerryMWildmanOn the Podcast:First Nations VersionMore books by Terry Wildman: Birth of the Chosen One, When the Great Spirit Walked Among UsThe Song of Bitter Tears (Luke 1:46–55, Magnificat)Translation processInterview Quotes“…Christianity was brought to our Native people and forced on us, technically. In some sense, we didn't make our own decision from reading the Bible or from hearing the gospel. We didn't make our own decision. We were told this is what we have to do. And so to me faith comes out of a willing heart that hears...the story of the gospel.”“Even the word ‘church' can bring up barriers because of those [colonial] experiences. So we intentionally used other words so that those barriers don't immediately go up. We're not trying to deceive anyone or any of our Native people. We're just trying to present the Scriptures in a way so that the barriers that the colonial experiment on our people produced aren't in the way."“This [translation] is not only a gift from Native people to other Native people, but it's also a gift from a group of Native people to the dominant culture…it opens up new ways of seeing God.”“When you take something as beautiful as the gospel—and I believe the gospel is a wonderful, beautiful story when it's understood—and when you force that on somebody, in oppressive ways, you destroy the message of it because Native people, traditionally, we don't just listen to the story. We evaluate the storyteller. And if the storyteller isn't consistent with the story, then we don't believe the story.”___Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well, releasing Spring 2022...you can pre-order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

What does it mean to be healthy? Can people with disabilities be healthier than typical people? What does it mean to be healed by God? Dr. Brian Brock, author of Wondrously Wounded, talks with Amy Julia Becker about the body of Christ and disability, his experience as the dad of a son with Down syndrome, and what it means for all of us to move toward wholeness.For full show notes, quotes, and more, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/brian-brock/__Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well, releasing Spring 2022...you can pre-order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

As we near the end of 2021, I'm returning to one of the most listened to (and possibly most appreciated) episodes from this past year—my conversation with Osheta Moore about her book Dear White Peacemakers.********Can peacemaking dismantle racism? Osheta Moore, author of Dear White Peacemakers, offers a warm and welcoming invitation to White people as she talks with Amy Julia about antiracism, the difference between peacekeeping and peacemaking, and the equalizing nature of our belovedness.“Osheta Moore is a writer, pastor, speaker, and podcaster in Saint Paul, Minnesota, as well as a mother of three and economic justice advocate for women in developing countries.” SHOW NOTES:For complete show notes, links, quotes, etc., go to: amyjuliabecker.com/osheta-mooreSeason 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well, releasing Spring 2022...you can pre-order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

Can our children really make a difference in the fight against racism? Dr. Jemar Tisby, author of How to Fight Racism Young Reader's Edition, talks with Amy Julia Becker about practical ways kids can stand up to injustice and how courageous actions will transform them (and us) into agents of healing in this world. “It's not just about what we've done. It's about who we've become.”SHOW NOTES (go to amyjuliabecker.com/jemar-tisby/ for complete show notes, quotes, and BOOK GIVEAWAY info)Guest Bio:“Dr. Jemar Tisby is the New York Times Bestselling author of The Color of Compromise and president of The Witness: A Black Christian Collective where he writes about race, religion, politics, and culture. He is also cohost of the Pass the Mic podcast.”Connect Online:Website: jemartisby.comFacebook: @JemarTisby1Twitter: @JemarTisbyInstagram: @jemartisbySeason 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well, releasing Spring 2022...you can pre-order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

In a society reeling from the pandemic and the aftermath of George Floyd's murder, is it possible to create something new for our world? Anne Snyder, editor-in-chief of Comment magazine and co-editor of the new anthology, Breaking Ground, talks with Amy Julia Becker about the pandemic and our collaborative imagination. They examine how questions asked communally about our past, present, and future can reimagine our whole society. SHOW NOTES: Go to amyjuliabecker.com/anne-snyder/ for complete show notes, transcript, and BOOK GIVEAWAY info.GUEST BIO:“Anne Snyder is the editor-in-chief of Comment magazine and oversees the partner project, Breaking Ground. She is the host of The Whole Person Revolution podcast and co-editor of Breaking Ground: Charting Our Future in a Pandemic Year, published in January 2022.”___*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

Learning the history of enslavement and racism illuminates the path to repentance and repair. Lisa Sharon Harper, leading faith and race activist and author of Fortune, joins Amy Julia Becker and looks at the power and beauty of her ancestors, the ways that America's race and enslavement laws broke her family (and our nation), and why there is hope for healing.SHOW NOTES:Go to amyjuliabecker.com/lisa-sharon-harper/ for complete show notes, transcript, and BOOK GIVEAWAY info.GUEST BIO:“Lisa Sharon Harper (LSMA, Columbia University; MFA, University of Southern California) is the founder of Freedom Road, a consulting group dedicated to shrinking the narrative gap. A sought-after speaker, trainer, and consultant, Harper has written several books, including Fortune: How Race Broke My Family and the World and How to Repair It All and the critically acclaimed The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can Be Made Right. She has researched her family's origins for three decades and presented on her ancestors' achievements at the African American Civil War Museum. Harper lives in the same Philadelphia neighborhood where three generations of her ancestors lived.”___*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

In a world of pain, can one person—one action—make a difference? Becca Stevens, author of Practically Divine, talks with Amy Julia Becker about the healing available through the practice, practicality, and presence of love within community.SHOW NOTES:Go to amyjuliabecker.com/becca-stevens/ for complete show notes, transcript, and BOOK GIVEAWAY info.GUEST BIO:“Becca Stevens is a speaker, social entrepreneur, author, priest, founder of ten non-profit justice initiatives, and President of Thistle Farms. She has been featured on PBS NewsHour, The Today Show, CNN, ABC World News, named a CNN Hero, and White House Champion of Change. Drawing from 25 years of leadership in mission-driven work, Becca leads important conversations across the country with an inspiring message that love is the strongest force for change in the world. Her newest book is Practically Divine, published by Harper Horizons.”____Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well, releasing Spring 2022...you can pre-order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

The effects of trauma often surface in our embodied existence. What about hope? Cole Arthur Riley, author of This Here Flesh and creator of Black Liturgies, talks with Amy Julia Becker about bearing witness to the pain of the world through our bodies, the healing found in belonging, and the importance of weaving together self-care and community-care for social healing.SHOW NOTES AND GIVEAWAYView full show notes and transcript from this episode, plus book giveaway info: amyjuliabecker.com/cole-arthur-rileyGUEST BIO“Cole Arthur Riley is a writer, liturgist, and speaker seeking a deeply contemplative life marked by embodiment and emotion. She is the founder and writer of Black Liturgies, a project seeking to integrate concepts of dignity, lament, rage, justice, rest, and liberation with the practice of written prayer.”___*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

For anyone struggling with pain or loss, for anyone concerned about the things that divide us, this episode—this book— is for you. It's launch day for my latest book, To Be Made Well. I'm celebrating by sharing an excerpt with you! I hope you enjoy it, and if you think of other people who might find this relevant and helpful in their own lives, please pass it along to them as well.You can find more info about To Be Made Well here.“From hurting bodies and souls to hurting relationships and communities, it's clear that things are not as they should be. The gospels brim with stories of Jesus healing people, but what does that mean for us today? In To Be Made Well, author Amy Julia Becker weaves together her own story with reflections on biblical accounts of Jesus' healing work, providing fresh insight into both the nature of healing and the pathway to healing, then and now. This book is a powerful invitation to personal, spiritual, and social healing as we reconnect to our bodies and souls, to God, and to our communities.For anyone struggling with pain or loss, for anyone concerned about the things that divide us, this book goes beyond wellness and beyond miraculous physical transformations to explore how we can—personally and collectively—be made well.”___Recording is from To Be Made Well: An Invitation to Wholeness, Healing, and Hope by Amy Julia Becker. Used by permission of Herald Press. All rights reserved.A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day.

What if I feel disappointed with God? Does grief play a role in healing? Is racial reconciliation a work of healing? Katherine Wolf and David Bailey join me for a conversation celebrating the book launch of To Be Made Well. We talk about the multidimensional nature of healing, and then we respond to questions from launch party guests at the end as we reflect on healing and hardship and hope in our personal lives and our society. For show notes and guests' bios, go to:amyjuliabecker.com/to-be-made-well-conversation___Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well...you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

In a society that pursues happiness at all costs, how do we cultivate contentment? Niro Feliciano, psychotherapist and author of This Book Won't Make You Happy, talks with Amy Julia Becker about the keys to finding true contentment.Bio:Niro Feliciano is a psychotherapist, podcast host, national media commentator, and expert on anxiety, brain science, and spirituality. She holds a master's degree in social work from Columbia University and is a columnist for Psychology Today. A first-generation Sri Lankan American, she lives with her family in Fairfield County, Connecticut. For full show notes, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/niro-feliciano__Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well...you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

When we need healing, is medicine the only solution? Dr. Matthew Loftus talks with Amy Julia Becker about both the limits and the role of medicine connected to healing, wholeness, and community.  Guest Bio:Dr. Matthew Loftus teaches and practices Family Medicine in Baltimore and East Africa. His work has been featured in Mere Orthodoxy, Christianity Today, Plough, Comment, and other publications.For full show notes, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/matthew-loftus___Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well...you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

How do we reclaim personhood and relationships in a technological world? Andy Crouch, author of The Life We're Looking For, talks with me about technology and what it means to be a person. We conclude our conversation with daily practices to help us reflect the truth that we are designed in and for love.Guest Bio:Andy Crouch is partner for theology and culture at Praxis, an organization that works as a creative engine for redemptive entrepreneurship. His writing explores faith, culture, and the image of God in the domains of technology, power, leadership, and the arts. He is the author of five books (plus another with his daughter, Amy Crouch).For full show notes, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/andy-crouch/___Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well...you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

How do we rest in a restless world? Kate Rademacher, public health expert and author of Reclaiming Rest, talks with Amy Julia Becker about rest, burnout, healing, social justice, and the difference between religious and secular approaches to rest.GUEST BIO:“A graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut and the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kate Rademacher's professional work is focused on international public health. Kate is the author of three books.”For full show notes, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/kate-rademacher/To Be Made Well audiobook___Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well...you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

While Jesus welcomed the disabled, the poor, and the outcast, Christian communities are often spaces of exclusion. Dr. Amy Kenny is a disabled scholar, a Shakespeare Lecturer, and the author of My Body Is Not a Prayer Request. In this conversation, she talks with Amy Julia Becker about disability, the church, ableism, and creating communities of belonging.___GIVEAWAYRate and review this podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Then go here and fill out the form to enter the giveaway for the To Be Made Well audiobook! ___Guest Bio:"Amy Kenny is a disabled scholar and a Shakespeare Lecturer who hates Hamlet. She serves on the mayor's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Taskforce in her home city, coordinates support for people experiencing homelessness in her neighborhood, and is currently co-launching Jubilee Homes OC, a permanent supportive housing initiative in her local community. She is a Scribe for Freedom Road Institute and believes that every human is an image-bearer worthy of belonging. "For full show notes, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/amy-kenny/___Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well...you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

How do we raise children who will stand against racial injustice? Helen Lee, co-author of The Race-Wise Family, and Amy Julia Becker discuss why it's important for all of us to talk about race, how we can do this well with and for our children, and the postures of celebration and lament.Guest Bio:“Helen Lee has been a Christian publishing professional since 1993, when she began her career working at Christianity Today (CT) magazine. She is the director of product innovation at InterVarsity Press, where she formerly served as an associate editor, director of marketing, and associate director of strategic partnerships.”For full show notes, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/helen-lee/___Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well...you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

How do we create communities where friendship is a possibility among people of differing abilities? Dr. John Swinton, theologian and author, talks with Amy Julia Becker about mutual relationships of care, the meaning of health and healing, and the speed of love.___Guest Bio:“John Swinton is chair of divinity and religious studies at the University of Aberdeen. He has published widely within the area of disability theology, spirituality and health, qualitative research, and mental health.”___For full show notes, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/john-swinton/___Season 5 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my newest book, To Be Made Well...you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

Welcome to Season 6 of Love Is Stronger Than Fear, a podcast about pursuing hope and healing in the midst of personal and social brokenness.The lineup of guests for this podcast season is extraordinary! I can't believe I get to talk to these people. A few of the upcoming guests include:

Can we find—can we grow—goodness, beauty, and kindness in a wounded world? Rich Villodas talks with Amy Julia Becker about what it means to live lives formed by the love of God.GUEST:“Rich Villodas is the Brooklyn-born lead pastor of New Life Fellowship, a large multiracial church with more than seventy-five countries represented in Elmhurst, Queens. Rich holds a Master of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.” He is the author of two books: The Deeply Formed Life and Good and Beautiful and Kind.Connect Online:Website: richvillodas.comInstagram: @richvillodasTwitter: @richvillodasOn the Podcast:S4 E4 | Spiritual Practices That Heal with Rich VillodasTired by Langston HughesBarbara Brown TaylorFleming RutledgeThe Lord's PrayerFor complete show notes and transcript, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/rich-villodas/____Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

We may sometimes doubt the importance of our questions, but the practice of curiosity is actually a gift. Author Lore Ferguson Wilbert joins Amy Julia Becker to talk about all the questions we are invited to ask of God and of ourselves and how those questions can open up spacious places in our souls. __Guest Bio:“Lore Ferguson Wilbert is a writer, thinker, learner, and author of A Curious Faith and Handle With Care. She writes for She Reads Truth, Christianity Today, and more, as well as her own site, Sayable.net. She lives in New York and has a husband named Nate, a puppy named Harper Nelle, and too many books to read in one lifetime.”__Connect Online:Website: sayable.netInstagram: @lorewilbertTwitter: @lorewilbert__On the Podcast:A Curious Faith: The Questions God Asks, We Ask, and We Wish Someone Would Ask UsPsalm 16:6; Genesis 3:9A. J. Swoboda For complete show notes and transcript, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/lore-ferguson-wilbert/__Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

“You belong here, as you are, who you are. Come be in this place with us.” Down syndrome advocate and author Heather Avis joins Amy Julia to talk about the importance of people with Down syndrome, celebrating Down Syndrome Awareness Month, and creating spaces of belovedness and belonging.__Guest Bio:“Founder of The Lucky Few and The Lucky Few Foundation, Heather Avis is a New York Times bestselling author, podcaster, and Down syndrome advocate, working to create a more inclusive world where everyone belongs.”__Connect Online:heatheravis.comFoundation: theluckyfewfoundation.orgPodcast: theluckyfewpodcast.comInstagram: @theluckyfewfoundation; @theluckyfewofficialFacebook: @theluckyfewfoundation__On the Podcast:Heather's books: Everyone Belongs;  Different--A Great Thing to Be!; The Lucky Few: Finding God's Best in the Most Unlikely Places;  Scoot Over and Make Some Room: Creating a Space Where Everyone BelongsPodcast episode: 171. What does belonging actually mean? (Storytelling Tour Recap with Heather + Josh Avis!)Study: Disabilities in Newbery Books Newbery Award Winning Books 1975–2009: How Do They Portray Disabilities?Books: Wonder; Fish in a Tree; Counting by 7s; Out of My Mind; A Storm of StrawberriesCamp: Hope Heals CampVerse: Psalms 139:14For full show notes, transcript, and more, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/heather-avis/__BOOK GIVEAWAY:I'm joining Heather and other moms of kids with Down syndrome over on Instagram to give away our favorite picture books and memoirs in celebration of Down Syndrome Awareness month.You can find all the details on my October 5, 2022, Instagram post @amyjuliabecker.__Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.__*A transcript of this episode will be available soon, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

"The challenge is to trust again the beauty of life together.” Professor and author Willie James Jennings talks with Amy Julia Becker about the beauty, promise, and hope of Christianity, especially if and as we are able to untether Christianity from whiteness and reimagine institutions and relationships built upon mutual dependence.__Guest Bio:“Willie James Jennings is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale University. His book The Christian Imagination won the American Academy of Religion Award of Excellence in the Study of Religion and the Grawemeyer Award in Religion. He has also published the book After Whiteness. He is an ordained Baptist minister and served as interim pastor for several North Carolina churches. He received an undergraduate degree from Calvin University, his M.Div from Fuller Theological Seminary, and his Ph.D in religion and ethics from Duke.”__On the Podcast:Books by Willie James Jennings:Acts: A Theological Commentary on the BibleThe Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of RaceAfter Whiteness: An Education in Belonging (Theological Education between the Times)Amy Julia's family trip to New HavenHope Heals Camp__For full show notes, transcript, and more, go to: https://amyjuliabecker.com/willie-james-jennings/__Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

Rest is a challenge for almost all of us in our frantic and distracted world. For anyone who is longing to stop and rest and delight but feels stuck in a pattern of never-enough-time, this conversation is for you. Ruth Haley Barton talks with Amy Julia Becker about rest as a healing practice given to us by God that leads to a spacious, generous life. Ruth is the author of many books, including her latest, Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest. ___Giveaway: We are giving away a copy of Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest. To enter to win, share this podcast episode on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, and be sure to tag me! The contest will end on Sunday, November 6, at 11:59 pm ET.___Guest Bio:“Ruth has spent over 20 years as a student, a practitioner and a leader in the area of Christian spirituality and spiritual formation. She served on the staff of several churches before founding the Transforming Center, a ministry dedicated to creating space for God to strengthen the souls of leaders, equipping them to lead transforming communities. Ruth's voice is courageous, authentic and unique. She is bold in tackling the issues of the day while always inviting us into deep spiritual practices that draw us nearer to God.”___Connect Online:Transforming Center on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/transformingctr/ Transforming Center on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/transformingcenterTransforming Center on Twitter: https://twitter.com/transformingctr Ruth's website: https://www.ruthhaleybarton.comTransforming Center website: https://transformingcenter.orgStrengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Podcast: https://transformingcenter.org/strengthening-the-soul-of-your-leadership-podcast/On the Podcast:Ruth's booksNewest book: Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest: From Sabbath to Sabbatical and Back AgainWayne Muller's Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy LivesMark 2:27-28Podcast: Strengthening the Soul of Your LeadershipPodcast episode: Season 17: Episode 5 | The Power of Unplugging___Transcript & More: https://amyjuliabecker.com/ruth-haley-barton/____Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my book To Be Made Well.*A video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

In between the extremes of selfishness and selflessness, how do we bring healing to our true selves? Dr. Alison Cook, psychologist and author, talks with Amy Julia Becker about finding our true selves and how that helps us bring health and wholeness into our relationships with God and with one another.__Guest Bio:“Dr. Alison Cook is a psychologist and the author of two books, including her new book, The Best of You (Thomas Nelson 2022) and Boundaries for Your Soul (Thomas Nelson 2018). For 20 years, Alison has helped women, ministry leaders, couples, and families learn how to heal painful emotions, develop confidence from the inside out, forge healthy relationships, and fully live out their God-given potential.”__Connect Online:Website: dralisoncook.comInstagram: @dralisoncookFacebook: @dralisoncook__On the Podcast:First book - Boundaries for Your Soul  (talks about Internal Family Systems)New book: The Best of YouPodcast episode explaining Fawn response Mark 12:30-31__Transcript and more: amyjuliabecker.com/alison-cook/__Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

How does control lead to anxiety? How can we let go of the illusion of control and entrust our lives to God? Pastor and author Sharon Hodde Miller joins Amy Julia Becker for a down-to-earth, intellectually astute conversation about the wisdom surrounding control, agency, and influence.__Giveaway: We are giving away a copy of Sharon's latest book: The Cost of Control. To enter to win, share this podcast episode on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, and be sure to tag me! The contest will end on Sunday, December 4, at 11:59 pm ET.__Guest Bio:"Sharon leads Bright City Church in Durham, NC with her husband, Ike. She writes, travels around the country speaking at churches and conferences each year, and holds a PhD on women and calling." Sharon is the author of three books, including her latest, The Cost of Control: Why We Crave It, the Anxiety It Gives Us, and the Real Power God Promises.__Connect Online:Website: SheWorships.comInstagram: @sharonhmillerFacebook: @sharonhoddemillerTwitter: @SHoddeMiller__On the Podcast:Books: The Cost of Control;  Free of Me; and NiceGenesis 3__Transcript and more: amyjuliabecker.com/sharon-hodde-miller/__Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

It's Christmastime! But how do we celebrate Christmas when consumerism and church hurt bring complicated feelings to this season? Journalist Bekah McNeel and Amy Julia Becker talk about divisions within the American church and Bekah's book Bringing Up Kids When Church Lets You Down. If you are someone who is wrestling with questions of faith and doubt and how to raise kids with faith without force-feeding them answers, this conversation is for you. __Guest Bio:"Bekah McNeel is a journalist, wife, and mother of two. She is the author of Bringing Up Kids When Church Lets You Down,  and her work has appeared in Christianity Today, Sojourners, Relevant, The Texas Tribune, ESPN's The Undefeated, The Christian Science Monitor, Texas Public Radio, and elsewhere. In addition to pieces about parenting, she writes about education, immigration, and faith communities—as well as the occasional op-ed calling the American evangelical church to lay down its idols of White supremacy and patriarchy."___Connect Online:https://bekahmcneel.com/ https://twitter.com/BekahMcneel https://www.facebook.com/bekah.mcneel/ https://www.instagram.com/wanderbekah/___On the Podcast:Book: Bringing Up Kids When Church Lets You Down: A Guide for Parents Questioning Their FaithThe Spiritual Child by Dr. Lisa MillerAmy Julia writing about faith, church, and kidsHebrews 4:12Matthew 1:21___Transcript, complete show notes, and more: https://amyjuliabecker.com/bekah-mcneel/___Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day at amyjuliabecker.com, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

Do you feel like there isn't enough time or wish you could just get a better hold on time? This episode is a chance to enter into a way of greater freedom with time. Professor and author James K. A. Smith talks with me about history, contingency, limitations, Black Lives Matter, hope, and his latest book, How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now.__Guest Bio:“James K. A. Smith is professor of philosophy at Calvin University and serves as editor in chief of Image journal, a quarterly devoted to ‘art, mystery, and faith.' Trained as a philosopher with a focus on contemporary French thought, Smith has expanded on that scholarly platform to become an engaged public intellectual and cultural critic. An award-winning author and widely traveled speaker, he has emerged as a thought leader with a unique gift of translation, building bridges between the academy, society, and the church.”__Connect Online:Website: jameskasmith.comTwitter: @james_ka_smith__On the Podcast:Latest book: How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully NowChristianity Today interview with BonoBono's book SurrenderMidnight Library by Matt HaigRepetition by KierkegaardPlough Essay | When Merit Drives Out GraceA Royal Waste of Time: The Splendor of Worshiping God and Being Church for the World by Marva Dawn__For full show notes, transcript, and more, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/james-k-a-smith__Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, and a video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

Does anxiety characterize your relationship with time? Author Jen Pollock Michel talks with Amy Julia Becker about our posture toward time and her new book In Good Time.  She offers gentle reflections on learning new habits of being and of receiving the lives we have been given.__Guest Bio:“Jen Pollock Michel is a writer, speaker, coach, and podcast host. She is the author of five books. Her fifth book, In Good Time, released December 13, 2022. She holds a B.A. in French from Wheaton College, an M.A. in Literature from Northwestern University, and is working to complete an M.F.A from Seattle Pacific University. After eleven years of living in Toronto, Jen now lives in Cincinnati with her husband and her two youngest children. You can follow Jen on Twitter and Instagram @jenpmichel, subscribe to her Monday letters at www.jenpollockmichel.com, and listen to episodes of the Englewood Review of Books podcast.”__On the Podcast:New book: In Good Time: 8 Habits for Reimagining Productivity, Resisting Hurry, and Practicing PeaceS6 E9 | Spiritual Timekeeping in a New Year with James K. A. SmithThe Divine Hours by Phyllis TickleBecoming Friends of Time by John SwintonThree Mile an Hour God by Kosuke KoyamaWe Crashed seriesLuke 10:38-42WorkshopPsalm 90For show notes, transcript, and more, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/jen-pollock-michel/__Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, and a video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

Pain is more than a physical sensation; it has cultural, relational, and spiritual dimensions as well. Dr. Haider Warraich, a cardiologist and the author of The Song of Our Scars, talks with Amy Julia Becker about these dimensions, the opioid epidemic, and ways we can be a part of the story of healing, for ourselves and others.__Guest Bio:“Haider Warraich is a doctor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the VA Boston Healthcare System. He is the author of Modern Death and State of the Heart, and regularly writes for the New York Times and Washington Post, among others. He lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts.”__Connect Online:Twitter: @haiderwarraich__On the Podcast:The Song of Our Scars: The Untold Story of Pain For full show notes, transcript, and more, go to: https://amyjuliabecker.com/haider-warraich/__This conversation is a great pair with previous conversations on the podcast that I've had with Dr. Matthew Loftus and Liuan Huska.}__Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, and a video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

In the wake of Tyre Nichols' death in Memphis, David M. Bailey, founder of Arrabon, talks with Amy Julia Becker about the long, deep, painful, hopeful work of healing in a world that is often filled instead with quick reactions.__Guest Bio:David M. Bailey is the founder and chief vision officer of Arrabon, which “cultivates Christian communities to pursue healing and reconciliation in a racially divided world…For the past 5 years we have successfully partnered with organizations across the country, providing guidance, education and the tools to build more empathetic, reconciled communities.”Connect Online:Website: arrabon.comTwitter: @davidmbaileyInstagram: @davidmbaileyFollow Arrabon on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter: @wearearrabon___On the Podcast:David M. Bailey on the podcast: S5 E15 | To Be Made Well; S5 E4 | What's So Controversial About Critical Race Theory?; S3 E19 | Loving Our Enemies in a Nation Divided; S3 E1 | Waking Up to PrivilegeTyre NicholsColor of Compromise by Jemar TisbyJemar Tisby on the podcast: S5 E10 | How Kids Can Fight Racism; S4 E1 | How Do We Fight Racism?; S3 E6 | Now Is the Time for Justice Reconciling All Things by Emmanuel Katongole and Chris RiceAmy Julia's book To Be Made WellArrabon coursesMatthew 6:9-13Amy Julia's video series for LentAmy Julia's Lenten devotional__Interview transcript and more: amyjuliabecker.com/david-bailey__Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.__*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, and a video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

What is casual racism? And how did a non-fiction writer end up writing a mystery series? Author Patricia Raybon talks with Amy Julia Becker about faith and “casual racism,” Black history month, and the beauty and truth that emerge from creative storytelling.__Giveaway:  Share this episode on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter by February 26th and tag me when you share. You'll be entered for a chance to win a copy of Patricia's latest book, Double the Lies.__Guest Bio:“A writer of faith by day and mystery by night, Patricia Raybon is an award-winning Colorado author, essayist, and novelist who writes daring and exciting books and novels at the intersection of faith and race. After a notable career in newspaper journalism and journalism education, Patricia turned to fiction with release of a 1920s mystery series about a prim, poor but clever Black female theologian—a fan of Sherlock Holmes—who solves murder and crime in Colorado's dangerous Klan era.”__Connect Online:Website: www.patriciaraybon.comInstagram: @patriciaraybonFacebook: @patricia.raybonTwitter: @patriciaraybon__On the Podcast:Patricia's 1st interview on Amy Julia's podcast: S3 E3 | Our Different Stories Divide UsAll That Is Secret by Patricia Raybon Double the Lies by Patricia RaybonWhite Picket Fences by Amy Julia BeckerStory by Robert McKee https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/For full show notes, transcript, and more, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/patricia-raybon/___Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.__*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, and a video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

What do our bodies tell us about ourselves and our world? And how do we listen? Lyndsey Medford, author of My Body and Other Crumbling Empires, talks with Amy Julia Becker about physical and social healing and the beauty of limitations and interdependence. They discuss how healing connects to slowing down, technology, food banks, capitalism, and more.___Guest Bio:“Lyndsey Medford lives with a rare autoimmune disorder in the American South and is the author of My Body and Other Crumbling Empires: Lessons for Healing in a World That is Sick. She writes and speaks about spirituality and justice from a disabled and feminist perspective, through loves of friendship and land passed down by her family, in the tradition of the Christian mystics.”More about My Body and Other Crumbling Empires: Lessons for Healing in a World That is Sick: “We live in a world that is sick. Both literally sick, with chronic illness on the rise, and figuratively sick, facing ever increasing rates of burnout, disconnection, and disaster. Lyndsey Medford draws on her experience living with a rare autoimmune disease to offer broader lessons we need to heal what ails us, both individually and communally. Whether our burnout stems from illness, systemic racism, poverty, or simply sin's separation, we're all in need of hope, and we are called to heal together.”___Connect with Lyndsey online: Website: lyndseymedford.comInstagram: @lyndseymedfordTwitter: @lyndseymedford___For show notes, transcript, and more: amyjuliabecker.com/lyndsey-medford/Coming soon__Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, and a video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

On World Down Syndrome Day, Jillian Benfield, author of The Gift of the Unexpected, talks with me about whether it is hard to be the parent of a child with a disability, how our perspective on ourselves, faith, and the world has changed through our experiences as parents, and about the gift of the unexpected.__Guest Bio:“Jillian Benfield is a former journalist and news anchor. She holds a broadcast journalism degree from the University of Georgia. Her essays about living an unexpected life have appeared on sites such as TODAY, Good Morning America, Yahoo! News, and ABC News. Jillian regularly advocates for the full inclusion of people with disabilities in her writings, in her community, and as a part of the National Down Syndrome Congress's National Down Syndrome Advocacy Coalition. Jillian and her husband, Andy, and their three children make their home on Florida's Space Coast.”__Connect Online:Website: jillianbenfield.comInstagram: @JillianBenfieldBlogFacebook: @jillianbenfieldTwitter: @JillianBenfield____On the Podcast:Book: The Gift of the Unexpected: Discovering Who You Were Meant to Be When Life Goes Off PlanThe Journey by Adam HamiltonDown Syndrome Diagnosis NetworkTranscript* and more are available at: https://amyjuliabecker.com/jillian-benfield/__Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, and a video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

In an anxious, rational world, is there a place for enchantment? Katherine May, New York Times bestselling author of Wintering and Enchantment, talks with Amy Julia Becker about awakening wonder, relearning enchantment, connecting to the natural world, and living every day with a continual sense of the presence of God. __Guest Bio:“Katherine May is an internationally bestselling author and podcaster living in Whitstable, UK. Her journalism and essays have appeared in a range of publications including The New York Times, The Observer and Aeon. Katherine lives with her husband, son, two cats and a dog. She loves walking, sea-swimming and pickling slightly unappealing things.”__Connect Online:Website: katherine-may.co.uk/Instagram: @katherinemay___On the Podcast:Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious AgeWintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult TimesNew Yorker essay: The End of the English MajorGenesis 1Zen Peacemakers For transcript and more, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/katherine-may/Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.__*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, and a video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

What should you hope for? What's worth investing your life in? How do you define and create a flourishing life? Matt Croasmun, coauthor of Life Worth Living, joins me to discuss:How to ask life's big questionsWhy pursuing those questions matters How to disagree with respect, friendship, and kindness in the midst of those questions“Matt Croasmun is an Associate Research Scholar and the Director of the Life Worth Living program at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School and a Lecturer of Divinity and Humanities at Yale University. He is also a staff pastor at the Elm City Vineyard Church, a dynamic, diverse, urban church.”Connect Online:Website: matthewcroasmun.comTwitter: @mattcroasmunOn the Podcast:Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most by Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz Education's End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life by Anthony KronmanTranscript and more: amyjuliabecker.com/matt-croasmun/ Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, and a video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

How do we step into the good work of kingdom justice? In this episode: hear the story of Michelle Ferrigno Warren, a faith-rooted justice advocate and activistlearn how to be a faithful ally in this life-giving, transformative justice work__Guest Bio:Michelle is the president and CEO of Virago Strategies, a consulting group that provides strategic direction and project management for civic engagement campaigns alongside communities affected by racial and economic injustice. She helped found Open Door Ministries in downtown Denver to address poverty, addiction, and homelessness. She is also the author of a new book, Join the Resistance.__Connect Online:Website: michelleferrignowarren.comInstagram: @michelleferrignowarrenFacebook: @michelle.f.warren.1Twitter: @mcfwarren__On the Podcast:Michelle's books: Join the Resistance and The Power of ProximityOpen Door MinistriesI John 3:18Nicholas Wolterstorff Micah 6:8Hebrews 11Amos 5:24__Transcript and more: amyjuliabecker.com/michelle-ferrigno-warren__Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.__*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, and a video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

In an environment of deconstruction, how do we identify what needs to be torn down? And in the midst of the rubble, what are we rebuilding? Dr. Yolanda Pierce, author of In My Grandmother's House, joins Amy Julia Becker for a conversation about:grandmother theologydeconstructing Christian faithBlack Jesus and unlearning racial hierarchieshope that something true and good and beautiful can be renewed and rebuilt within the church and within our world__Guest Bio:“Yolanda Pierce, PhD, is a scholar, writer, womanist theologian, and accomplished administrator in higher education. She was appointed the Founding Director of the Center for African American Religious Life at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). And she currently serves as Professor and Dean of the Howard University School of Divinity.” Dr. Pierce will soon be Dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School.__Book: In My Grandmother's House: Black Women, Faith, and the Stories We Inherit__Connect Online:Website: yolandapierce.comTwitter: @YNPierce__For the transcript, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/yolanda-pierceThe transcript will be available within one business day on my website, and a video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.__Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

Do you feel like you have to stay strong to survive? Aundi Kolber, a licensed professional counselor and author, talks with Amy Julia Becker about her latest book, Strong Like Water. They discuss how to:become strong in new waysreceive and participate in healinglive with compassion towards ourselves and carry love in our bodies__Guest Bio“Aundi Kolber is a licensed professional counselor (MA, LPC) and author of the critically acclaimed Try Softer. She has received additional training in her specialization of trauma- and body-centered therapies and is passionate about the integration of faith and psychology. Aundi regularly speaks at local and national events, and she has appeared on podcasts such as The Lazy Genius with Kendra Adachi, Typology, Go and Tell Gals, and The Next Right Thing with Emily P. Freeman. As a survivor of trauma, Aundi brings hard-won knowledge about the work of change, the power of redemption, and the beauty of experiencing God with us in our pain.”__Connect Online:Aundi's websiteAundi on InstagramAundi on Twitter__On the Podcast:Small Talk AudiobookBook: Strong like Water: Finding the Freedom, Safety, and Compassion to Move through Hard Things--and Experience True Flourishing Dr. Gabor Maté__Transcript:For transcript and more, go to: amyjuliabecker.com/aundi-kolber/__Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, and a video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

How do we prepare now to die well? Can we reimagine care of the dying in all of its messiness as a gift? Dr. Lydia Dugdale, a medical ethicist, internal medicine doctor, professor, and author of The Lost Art of Dying, talks with Amy Julia Becker about:DisabilityDeathMedical assistance in dyingHonoring all human life as the gift it is without idolizing life__Guest Bio:“Lydia Dugdale MD, MAR, is the Dorothy L. and Daniel H. Silberberg Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at Columbia University. Prior to her 2019 move to Columbia, she was Associate Director of the Program for Biomedical Ethics and founding Co-Director of the Program for Medicine, Spirituality, and Religion at Yale School of Medicine. She is an internal medicine primary care doctor and medical ethicist. Her first book, Dying in the Twenty-First Century (MIT Press, 2015), provides the theoretical grounding for this current book. She lives with her husband and daughters in New York City.”__Connect Online:Website: lydiadugdale.com__On the Podcast:Book: The Lost Art of Dying: Reviving Forgotten Wisdom__Interview transcript and more: amyjuliabecker.com/lydia-dugdale__Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.__*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, and a video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

Is racism baked into our nation's DNA? Is there any hope for change? John Blake, a CNN journalist and author of More Than I Imagined, explores the personal and social aspects of race as he shares:his own experience as a biracial kid growing up in West Baltimoretime at Howard University and working for CNNunderstanding of race and faith in Americaexperience of learning about his own white family as a young adultreasons for hope_Guest Bio:John Blake is an award-winning journalist at CNN.com and an author. He has been honored by the Associated Press, the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Academy of Religion, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Religion Communicators Council and with the GLAAD Media Award…He has spoken at high schools, colleges, symposiums and in documentaries about topics such as race, religion and politics.  Blake is a native of Baltimore, Maryland and a graduate of Howard University._Connect Online:WebsiteTwitterFacebook_On the Podcast:More Than I Imagined by John BlakeCry of the Beloved Country by Alan Paton Beloved by Toni MorrisonTranscript available at: amyjuliabecker.com/john-blake/_Season 6 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com._A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, and a video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

Love is stronger than fear. What if we really believed it? What if we lived into love and weren't overcome by anxiety? What if, even in the midst of the harrowing realities of our global catastrophes and the mundane realities of our everyday lives—what if we could live in a way that deepens who we are, that connects us to ourselves, to God, to one another? I'm Amy Julia Becker, and this is a podcast about what it means to be human beings who seek love rather than fear, hope rather than cynicism, healing rather than division.In this season, I am excited to talk with Esau McCaulley about wrestling with his humanity as a Black man in America, and with Curtis Chang about the possibilities that open up when we face our own anxiety. Other guests include New York Times columnist Tish Harrison Warren and bestselling author Curt Thompson. We'll talk about disability and culture and spirituality and maybe some politics and, again, about walking with courage along a way of grace and love. The first episode will drop on September 5th. Meanwhile, now is the time to let other people know about this podcast by sharing this trailer with them, leaving a rating or review, and, if you haven't already, subscribing so you can get new content every two weeks. Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

“Whose stories matter?” Esau McCaulley, author of How Far to the Promised Land, joins Amy Julia Becker for an honest, hopeful conversation about:being Black in Americahonoring the messiness and complexity of our humanityholding on to hope in the goodness of God“How do the people whom we love, who hurt us, shape the kind of people we become? And how do we make peace with that?” _Guest Bio:“Rev. Esau McCaulley, PhD is an author and associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. His writing and speaking focus on New Testament theology, African American Biblical interpretation, and Christian public theology. His new memoir How Far to the Promised Land, questions the narrative of exceptionalism that he, and other Black survivors, are conditioned to give when they “make it” in America. His book Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope won numerous awards, including Christianity Today's book of the year. Esau is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. His writings have also appeared in places such as The Atlantic, Washington Post, and Christianity Today.”_Connect Online:Website: esaumccaulley.comInstagram: @esaumccaulleyFacebook: @OfficialEsauMcCaulleyTwitter: @esaumccaulley_On the Podcast:Previous episode: S3 E11 | The Black Church's Gift to Christianity with Esau McCaulleyReading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in HopeChildren's book: Josey Johnson's Hair and the Holy SpiritLent: The Season of Repentance and RenewalGenesis 25:19-27:45_For transcript, go here: amyjuliabecker.com/esau-mccaulley_Season 7 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com._*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day on my website, and a video with closed captions will be available on my YouTube Channel.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

Do you wrestle with anxiety? Are you plagued with worries? Do you think you've conquered anxiety? Curtis Chang, author of The Anxiety Opportunity, joins Amy Julia Becker for a conversation that uncovers: what anxiety really is all aboutspiritual practices for facing anxietypractical ways we can grow in the midst of anxiety__Guest Bio:Curtis Chang is a theologian and consulting faculty member of Duke Divinity School and a Senior Fellow at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the founder of Redeeming Babel and the host of the Good Faith podcast. His latest book is The Anxiety Opportunity: How Worry Is the Doorway to Your Best Self. __Connect Online:Redeeming BabelInstagram: @redeemingbabelFacebook: @redeemingbabelTwitter: @hcurtischangRB__On the Podcast:The Anxiety Opportunity: How Worry Is the Doorway to Your Best SelfTo Be Made Well: An Invitation to Wholeness, Healing, and HopeThe Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der KolkThe Good Faith podcastMatthew 6:25-34Matthew 26:36-46Psalm 139Jesus Is the Question: The 307 Questions Jesus Asked and the 3 He Answered by Martin B. Copenhaver__Transcript: amyjuliabecker.com/curtis-chang/YouTube Channel: video with closed captions  __Season 7 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

Have you watched the new show on Netflix called Down for Love? It's a reality dating show for people with Down syndrome, and we're celebrating the start of Down Syndrome Awareness month with a conversation with the producer of Down for Love, Robyn Paterson. We talk about:How the show was createdThe diversity of the Down syndrome communityThe universal desire for love, relationships, and connectionBONUS CONTENT: At the end of the episode, I talk with Penny, our 17-year-old daughter who has Down syndrome, about her thoughts on Down for Love.___FREE DOWNLOAD: ​​5 THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN WHEN OUR DAUGHTER WAS DIAGNOSED WITH DOWN SYNDROME___TIME ESSAY: Doctors Don't Know How to Talk About Down Syndrome___GUEST BIO:“Robyn Paterson is a New Zealand-based producer, director and writer known for Down for Love (2022), Grand Designs New Zealand (2015) and In the Zone (2018). She works across various roles within multiple formats, including television factual, documentary & entertainment series, documentary feature, web-series, comedy, and drama. She has a background as an actress and presenter, and is the current president of the Directors & Editors Guild of Aotearoa New Zealand.”___Connect Online:Website: https://www.robynpaterson.co.nz/Instagram: @_robynpaterson____On the Podcast:Down for LoveNew Zealand Down Syndrome Association ___TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/robyn-paterson/YouTube Channel: video with closed captions___Season 7 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

What happens when women receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome? How does that diagnosis affect those women and their families? How does it affect our whole society?  Stephanie Meredith joins Amy Julia Becker for a conversation about her new report on the bias doctors have when giving a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, including:The landscape of prenatal testingHow doctors approach it and what they could do betterWhy these conversations matter outside the Down syndrome space__FREE DOWNLOAD: ​​5 THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN WHEN OUR DAUGHTER WAS DIAGNOSED WITH DOWN SYNDROME__Guest Bio:Stephanie Meredith is the Director of the National Center for Prenatal and Postnatal Resources at the University of Kentucky's Human Development Institute and co-author and lead author of numerous studies, including “The impact of implicit and explicit bias about disabilities on parent experiences and information provided during prenatal screening and testing” in the Disability and Health Journal. In addition, she is a 4th-year doctoral student at Georgia State University with a focus on disability and health and the mother of a 23-year-old with Down syndrome and two younger daughters.__Connect Online:www.lettercase.orgInstagram: @lettercaseorgFacebook: @lettercaseorg__On the Podcast:Report in the Disability and Health JournalTIME: Doctors Don't Know How to Talk About Down SyndromeLettercaseHHS and Disability DiscriminationNYT: When They Warn of Rare Disorders, These Prenatal Tests Are Usually WrongS7 E3 | Netflix's Down for Love with Robyn Paterson__TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/stephanie-meredith/YouTube Channel: video with closed captionsSeason 7 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

How do we show up for each other in the midst of pain? Is it possible to hope when we're suffering? Psychiatrist Curt Thompson, author of The Deepest Place, joins Amy Julia Becker to talk about:How to identify the denial and shame we've connected to sufferingHow to form durable hope in the darkest placesHow to help a friend in the midst of suffering__Guest Bio:“Inspired by deep compassion for others and informed from a Christian perspective, psychiatrist Curt Thompson shares fresh insights and practical applications for developing more authentic relationships and fully experiencing our deepest longing: to be known. He helps people process their longings, grief, identity, purpose, perspective of God, and perspective of humanity, inviting them to engage more authentically with their own stories and their relationships. Only then can they feel truly known and connected and live into the meaningful reality they desire to create. Curt and his wife, Phyllis, live outside of Washington DC and have two adult children.”__Connect Online:Website: curtthompsonmd.comInstagram: @curtthompsonmdFacebook: @CurtThompsonMDTwitter: @curt_thompsonmd__On the Podcast:The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of HopeAmy Julia's book: To Be Made Well: An Invitation to Wholeness, Healing, and HopeHope Heals CampHebrews 12:1-3The Bible ProjectGenesis 2Genesis: The Story We Haven't Heard by Paul Borgman__TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/curt-thompson/__YouTube Channel (interview video with closed captions)__Season 7 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

Anxious parents. Anxious families. Anxiety is contagious. How do I know if I'm an anxious parent? And if I am one, how is that affecting my kids? What can I do about it—for their sake and for mine? Therapist and author Sissy Goff, LPC-MHSP, joins Amy Julia Becker on the podcast to talk about:How to identify and stop anxiety loopsWhy failure is good for parents and kidsCommon parenting strategies that DON'T workPractical tools for changing thought and behavior patternsPLUS you get to listen in to Amy Julia's own parenting therapy session when she tells Sissy the hardest thing for her as a parent right now! Advent Devotional: Prepare Him Room is available now!__GUEST BIO:“Sissy Goff, LPC-MHSP, has worked as the director of child and adolescent counseling at Daystar Counseling Ministries since 1993. She speaks to parents and children's ministers across the country, is a frequent guest on media outlets, and is the author of 13 books including her latest, The Worry-Free Parent. She also co-hosts the chart-topping Raising Boys and Girls podcast, with fellow Daystar Counselor David Thomas.”__Connect Online:Website: www.raisingboysandgirls.comInstagram: @RaisingBoysandGirls and @sissygoffFacebook: @raisingboysandgirlsYouTube: @raisingboysandgirls__On the Podcast:The Worry-Free Parent: Living in Confidence so Your Kids Can Too (Bethany House)The Worry-Free Parent Workbook__TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/sissy-goff/__YouTube Channel: video with closed captionsSeason 7 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

Holiday culture wars and consumerism bring more chaos than joy to the world. But there's hope. The countercultural season of Advent offers a different way to prepare for Christmas. Tish Harrison Warren, former New York Times columnist and author, talks with Amy Julia Becker about:How the practices of Advent disarm the culture warsWays that Advent helps us grieve and hopeWhy waiting to celebrate Christmas mattersPLUS why Tish chose to leave the New York TimesGive a book for Christmas!__Guest Bio:Tish Harrison Warren is a priest in the Anglican Church in North America. She is a former New York Times columnist the author of Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life (Christianity Today's 2018 Book of the Year) and Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work, or Watch, or Weep (Christianity Today's 2022 Book of the Year and the 2022 ECPA Christian Book of the Year). Her latest book is Advent: The Season of Hope. She is a founding member of The Pelican Project and a Senior Fellow with the Trinity Forum. She lives with her husband and three children in Austin, Texas.__Connect Online:Visit Tish's website at tishharrisonwarren.comFollow Tish on Instagram: @tishharrisonwarren__On the Podcast:Advent: The Season of HopeMore of Tish's booksTish's final essay at the TimesAmy Julia's books__TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com//tish-harrison-warren/__YouTube Channel: video with closed captions__Season 7 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

Is faith something that should always stay the same? Or is it something that evolves by necessity? Sarah Bessey, author of Field Notes for the Wilderness, talks with Amy Julia Becker about:Her evolving faith journeyHow to adapt and thrive in an evolving faithMaking room for change, in ourselves and othersNavigating the intersection of anger and joyHow to discover what we're hoping for, not just what we're againstHow to embrace the gifts of an evolving faith__MY LENTEN RESOURCES:LENTEN DAILY DEVOTIONALLenten Small Group Guide & Video Series_Guest Bio:Sarah Bessey is the author or editor of five books, including the New York Times bestseller A Rhythm of Prayer. Her latest book is Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith.. She also leads Evolving Faith, a conference and online community for people who are reimagining their faith with hope. Bessey lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with her husband and their four children._Connect Online:Website: sarahbessey.comInstagram: @sarahbesseyFacebook:@sarah.styles.bessey_On the Podcast:Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible's View of Women_TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/sarah-bessey/_YouTube Channel: video with closed captions_Season 7 of the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast connects to themes in my latest book, To Be Made Well, which you can order here! Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

This podcast has a new name: Reimagining the Good Life. If you're asking, “Why a name change?” and “Why now?”—I have answers! Author and teacher Patricia Clarke talks with me about:How disability challenges assumptions about the good lifeAccepting limitations and finding freedom within themHow faith and culture shape our understanding of the good lifeThe power of reimagining what's possibleWhat all of this has to do with changing the podcast name!_GUEST BIO:Patricia Clarke is a speaker, teacher, and writer who brings people from different backgrounds together to talk about faith. She holds a master's degree in English Literature, a Barnabas Counseling Certificate, and is currently enrolled in the Master of Theology program at Fuller Theological Seminary. In her new workbook, Lifted by Love, Clarke weaves her personal faith, love of storytelling, and teaching skills together to bring the wisdom of the Bible into daily life. She currently lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband and four children. For up-to-date information, follow her on Instagram @patriciaclarkestudies or visit her website to subscribe to her updates: patriciaclarke.org._On the Podcast:Patricia Clarke's book Lifted by LoveSteve Perkins at Greenhouse CoachingAmy Julia's book White Picket FencesAndrew Leland's book Country of the BlindMicha Boyett's book Blessed Are the Rest of UsTreasures in the Dark by Katherine Wolfe and Alex WolfJohn McWhorter's misunderstanding of disability Subscribe to Amy Julia's updates_TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/podcast-reimagining-good-life/_YouTube Channel: video with closed captions_Reimagine the Good Life with me through the lenses of disability, faith, and culture. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

Is blindness an incidental characteristic, like hair color? Or is it an identity? What language should we use to talk about disability, and why does it matter? Andrew Leland, author of The Country of the Blind, joins Amy Julia Becker on the podcast for a conversation examining:Blindness and identityThe importance of language and the use of metaphors in relation to disabilityHow the experience of disability can involve beauty, power, and lossThe role of allies in advocating with disabled individualsHow Andrew has reimagined the good life_Amy Julia's upcoming events_Guest Bio:Andrew Leland is a writer, audio producer, editor, and teacher living in Western Massachusetts. His first book, The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight, about the world of blindness (and figuring out his place in it), was published in July 2023 by Penguin Press. You can find links to order a copy here._Connect Online:Website: www.andrewleland.orgInstagram: @quailty_On the Podcast:Amy Julia's upcoming eventsLeland's New Yorker essay “How to Be Blind”National Federation of the BlindSara Hendren's book and podcast episode with Amy JuliaAmy S. F. Lutz's Chasing the Intact MindDeath Panel podcastJohn McWhorter's NYT essay: “When We Do, and Don't, Need a New Phrase to Describe Reality”Disability Language Style Guide TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/andrew-leland/_YouTube: video with closed captions_Reimagine the Good Life with me through the lens of disability, faith, and culture as we challenge assumptions about the good life, proclaim the inherent belovedness of every human being, and envision a world of belonging. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

Why would a Christian author immerse her stories in darkness? Why would she use violent imagery that directly relates to Christianity, race, class, disability, and illness? And how can this darkness guide us toward the importance of love in the flesh, of personal connection and vulnerability? In this conversation, Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson, author of Flannery O'Connor's Why Do the Heathen Rage? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress, and Amy Julia Becker explore:Flannery O'Connor's unique perspective on faith and darknessThe portrayal of disability in O'Connor's storiesLove in the abstract versus love in the fleshChallenges of publishing an unfinished manuscriptHow the prophetic imagination in O'Connor's work confronts the dominant culture's illusions about the good lifeRegister for the Festival of Faith & Writing__Guest Bio:Jessica Hooten Wilson (PhD, Baylor University) is the Fletcher Jones Endowed Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. She is the author or editor of eight books, including Flannery O'Connor's Why Do the Heathen Rage? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress, Reading for the Love of God, The Scandal of Holiness (winner of a Christianity Today 2023 Award of Merit), and Giving the Devil His Due: Demonic Authority in the Fiction of Flannery O'Connor and Fyodor Dostoevsky (winner of a 2018 Christianity Today Book of the Year Award). Wilson speaks around the world on topics as varied as Russian novelists, Catholic thinkers, and Christian ways of reading. __Connect Online:Website: https://jessicahootenwilson.com/Instagram: @drjessicahootenwilsonFacebook: @JessicaHootenWilsonTwitter: @HootenWilsonOn the Podcast:Flannery O'Connor's Why Do the Heathen Rage? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in ProgressRegister for the Festival of Faith & WritingTRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/jessica-hooten-wilson__Let's Reimagine the Good Life together through the lens of disability, faith, and culture. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook Twitter Website Thanks for listening!

Why does it matter that most churches don't welcome people with disabilities in leadership? If a church excludes people with disabilities, is it really a church? Rev. Dr. Andrew Draper, coauthor of Disabling Leadership, talks with Amy Julia Becker about:Ways in which churches exclude and marginalize people with disabilitiesWhy it's essential to centralize people with disabilities in church life and leadershipHow disability inclusion benefits the whole congregationReimagining church employment practices to create opportunities for people with disabilitiesWhy churches are tempted to pursue efficiency and productivity, and the invitation to a different wayHow to minister in the midst of humannessSUBSCRIBE to Amy Julia's weekly emails (Registration coming soon for Reimagining Family Life With Disability workshop)EVENT: Festival of Faith & Writing__Guest Bio:Rev. Dr. Andrew T. Draper (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is founding teaching pastor at Urban Light Community Church in Muncie, Indiana, and adjunct theology faculty at Anderson School of Theology and Winebrenner Seminary. He is the author of A Theology of Race and Place, Christian Mission and Poverty, and numerous articles on race, disability, and the church. He is the coauthor of Disabling Leadership: A Practical Theology for the Broken Body of Christ._Connect Online:Read Andrew's blog.Follow him on Twitter: @AndrewTDraper_On the Podcast:Disabling Leadership: A Practical Theology for the Broken Body of Christ by Andrew T. Draper, Jody Michele, and Andrea MaeBrian BrockI Corinthians 12Friendship House (Western Theological Seminary)Friendship House (Aberdeen)_TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/andrew-draper/_YouTube: video with closed captions_Let's reimagine the good life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

{Please note that we discuss abuse in this episode.}How do we love people across our political and social divides? What are the costs and gifts of loving our political neighbor? Nancy French, author of Ghosted: An American Story, talks with Amy Julia Becker about:Her experiences as a ghostwriter for GOP politicians and her decision to leave the industryPolarization within the church and the political landscapeInadequate responses to abuse from both the church and the cultureThe cost of speaking outFinding hope and connection in surprising waysNew Workshop with Amy Julia: Reimagining Family Life With Disability_GUEST BIO:Nancy French has collaborated on multiple books for celebrities - five of which made the New York Times best seller list - and written books under her own name.  She has conducted a multi-year journalistic investigation, written commentary, and published for the nation's most prominent newspapers and magazines. Her memoir, Ghosted, is a story of poverty, success and the rise and fall of political influence. She lives in Franklin, Tennessee with her husband – journalist David French – and family._CONNECT ONLINEWebsite: nancyfrench.comInstagram: @nancyjanefrenchFacebook: @NancyAndersonFrenchTwitter: @NancyAFrench_ON THE PODCAST:New Workshop with Amy Julia: Reimagining Family Life With DisabilityGhosted: An American Story by Nancy FrenchThe Washington Post: What it's like to experience the 2016 election as both a conservative and a sex abuse survivor by Nancy FrenchNancy's Kanakuk Kamp investigationDavid French at the New York Times_TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/nancy-french/_YouTube Channel: video with closed captions_Let's Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com._Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

What's the difference between limitations and brokenness? What does it mean to be blessed? How can a dual diagnosis of Down syndrome and autism be a part of a flourishing life? Micha Boyett, a writer, poet, and mom, joins Amy Julia Becker to talk about her new book Blessed Are the Rest of Us. They explore the intersection of blessing, limits, and longing within the context of the Beatitudes, including:The meaning of 'blessed' and how it relates to the gifts and challenges of being humanFlourishing in the midst of grief and hardshipThe importance of insisting on presence and inclusion for people with disabilitiesHow to recognize and accept limitations without equating them with brokennessUsing our imaginations, minds, and bodies to move toward a new vision of the good lifeWorkshop with Amy Julia: Reimagining Family Life With DisabilityGuest Bio:Micha Boyett is the author of Blessed Are the Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole. She is cohost of the award-winning The Lucky Few podcast, creator of The Slow Way podcast and newsletter, and has written for publications such as the Washington Post and Christianity Today. Micha lives with her husband and three children in northern New Jersey and works part-time as a youth pastor at Good Shepherd Church in New York City.Connect Online:Website: michaboyett.comInstagram: @michaboyettThreads: @michaboyettOn the Podcast:{The Transition to Adulthood} Amy Julia on the Lucky Few Podcast{Living into the Really Real} Micha on Amy Julia's podcastThe BeatitudesThe Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing: A Theological Commentary by Jonathan T. PenningtonNick Cave on Krista Tippett's On Being podcastAmy Julia's book White Picket FencesThe Slow Way podcast and newsletterWorkshop with Amy Julia: Reimagining Family Life With DisabilityTRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/micha-boyett/YouTube Channel: video with closed captionsLet's Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

We are heading into another contentious Presidential election. For people of faith, for people who care about character and gentleness and values, for people who are inclined to disengage from politics altogether, what are we to do? Michael Wear, author of The Spirit of Our Politics, joins Amy Julia Becker to talk about:His work as a staffer in the Obama White House (Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships)How political anger and polarization malform individuals, families, churches, and communitiesHabits and practices for gentle, hopeful political engagementStewarding political influence for the good of our neighborsPolitics and identityA new imagination for political engagementWorkshop with Amy Julia: Reimagining Family Life With Disability_Guest Bio:“Michael Wear is the Founder, President and CEO of the Center for Christianity and Public Life, a nonpartisan, nonprofit institution based in the nation's capital with the mission to contend for the credibility of Christian resources in public life, for the public good. For well over a decade, he has served as a trusted resource and advisor for a range of civic leaders on matters of faith and public life, including as a White House and presidential campaign staffer. He is the author of The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life, a paradigm-shifting book that advances a vision for spiritual formation in the context of political life, and the author and co-author of several other books.”_Connect Online:Website: www.michaelwear.comInstagramFacebookTwitter_On the Podcast:Dallas WillardThe Center for Christianity and Public LifeThe Divine Conspiracy by Dallas WillardThe Great Omission by Dallas WillardEitan HershActs 8Workshop with Amy Julia: Reimagining Family Life With Disability_TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/michael-wear/_YouTube Channel: video with closed captions_Let's Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

Send us a Text Message.How do you hold onto hope in the midst of suffering? How can we trust in the goodness of God in a world of pain? What does the good life look like in the midst of disability and uncertainty? Katherine Wolf, author with Alex Wolf of Treasures in the Dark, survived a catastrophic stroke at the age of 26 and continues her recovery to this day. She offers thoughtful answers to these questions as she talks with Amy Julia Becker about: Her personal journey of suffering and hopePractices and habits of hopeCaring for others in painDifferences between hope and toxic positivityThe non-linear journey and unexpected realities of healingFREE RESOURCE: 10 Ways to Move Toward a Good Future (especially for families affected by disability)_Guest Bio:Katherine & Jay Wolf are communicators and advocates. They married and moved to Los Angeles to pursue careers in law and the entertainment industry. Their son, James was born in 2007, and six months later Katherine's life nearly ended with a catastrophic stroke. Miraculously, she survived and continues her recovery to this day, including having a miracle baby, John in 2015. Katherine and Jay have shared their journey of steadfast hope through their books and at speaking events. Together, they founded Hope Heals camp, a community for families with disabilities like them. Katherine, Jay and their two sons live in the Atlanta area._Connect Online:Website: hopeheals.comInstagramFacebook_On the Podcast:The GoodHard Story podcastTreasures in the Dark by Katherine Wolf, with Alex Wolf (+ more of Katherine's books)Hope Heals CampMend Coffee & Goods in AtlantaSara Groves' Open My HandsMike Foster | People of the Second ChancePsalm 84:11John 16:33John 9Isaiah 45:3FREE RESOURCE: 10 Ways to Move Toward a Good Future (especially for families affected by disability)_TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/katherine-wolf/_Watch on YouTube_Let's Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

Send us a Text Message.In a society often obsessed with intelligence, can we reimagine a good life that encompasses joy, meaning, and respect for all? What does it mean to respect and support individuals with profound intellectual disabilities? What role do those most intimately involved in providing care have in advocacy? Professor Amy Lutz, Ph.D., author of Chasing the Intact Mind, joins Amy Julia Becker to discuss:How the severely autistic and intellectually disabled were excluded from the debates that affect them mostControversy and misconceptions about sheltered workshops/14(c) programsThe importance of meaningful relationships and communityBuilding a caring and committed workforce of caregiversListening to caregivers and families_FREE RESOURCE: 10 Ways to Move Toward a Good Future (especially for families affected by disability)_GUEST BIOProfessor Amy Lutz, Ph.D., is a historian of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research locates at the intersection of disability history and bioethics. She is a founding board member of the National Council on Severe Autism (NCSA) and the author of Chasing the Intact Mind and several other books. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and five children, including Jonah, her 25-year-old son with profound autism. _CONNECT ONLINEWebsite: amysflutz.com/_ON THE PODCASTChasing the Intact Mind: How the Severely Autistic and Intellectually Disabled Were Excluded from the Debates That Affect Them Most by Amy Lutz, Ph.D.The Lancet Commission on the future of care and clinical research in autismSection 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards ActUnited States Commission on Civil Rights 2020John SwintonAmy Julia's essay about the spiritual lives of people with intellectual disabilities_TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/amy-lutz/_YouTube Channel: video with closed captionsLet's Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com and subscribe here to receive my weekly thoughts and reflections.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

Send us a Text Message.What does it mean to live a good life? How do we find meaning and happiness in our everyday lives? In this episode, Amy Julia Becker sits down with Meghan Sullivan, co-author of The Good Life Method and philosophy professor at Notre Dame, to explore:The narrow American understanding of the good lifeHow to help students (and all of us) explore the big questions about life, purpose, and meaningHow individuals with intellectual disabilities contribute to our understanding of humanityThe relationship between love, attention, and the good lifeExpanding our conceptions of work and vocation _SUBSCRIBE to Amy Julia's Reimagining the Good Life newsletter._Guest Bio:Meghan Sullivan is the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. She serves as Director of the University-wide Ethics Initiative and is the founding director of Notre Dame's Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, which will launch in the summer of 2024. In 2022, Sullivan published The Good Life Method with Penguin Press (co-authored with her teaching collaborator Paul Blaschko) based on a wildly popular introductory philosophy course she developed at Notre Dame called “God and the Good Life.” Sullivan has degrees from the University of Virginia, Oxford University, and Rutgers University, where she earned a PhD in philosophy. She studied at Balliol College, Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar._Connect Online:Website: meghansullivan.orgFacebook: @sullivan.meghan_On the Podcast:The Good Life Method: Reasoning Through the Big Questions of Happiness, Faith, and Meaning by Meghan Sullivan, Ph.D. and Paul BlaschkoQuestions for a Life Worth Living with Matt Croasmun (Yale)Young Minds in Critical Condition by Michael Roth _TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/meghan-sullivan/_YouTube: video with closed captions_Let's Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

Send us a textHow do we envision the good life in a way that is hopeful and human and freeing and good? My name is Amy Julia Becker. I help people reimagine the good life through my writing and speaking on disability, faith, and culture.My hope for the work I do, and for this show, is that we would:–Challenge the assumptions about what makes life good–Proclaim the inherent belovedness of every human being–And envision a world of belonging–Where everyone mattersDiscover captivating conversations with leading authors, professors, and experts who delve into what it truly means to be human and what makes life good. If you're ready to explore helpful, beautiful perspectives on belonging and belovedness and mattering, now is the perfect time to join.Subscribe today to catch new episodes every other week, beginning September 10. Let's reimagine the good life together. Mark your calendar, and make sure you're subscribed. You won't want to miss this.REIMAGINING THE GOOD LIFE is available wherever you get your podcasts.Also, check out my live, online WORKSHOP: Reimagining Family Life with Disability. Use code FAMILY24 to take 30% off registration! It begins September 18th!YouTube Channel: video with closed captionsLet's Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

Send us a textThe ways we have envisioned success—whether it's more wealth, social media followers, recognition, or power—might actually lead us away from an abundant, spacious life. Pastor Rich Villodas, author of The Narrow Way, joins Amy Julia Becker on the podcast to examine how the Sermon on the Mount challenges prevailing notions of success and the good life and invites us to reimagine faithfulness to Jesus. Amy Julia and Rich discuss:Reimagining success, morality, and individualismInterior examination and the integration of loveThe paradox of the narrow path and the spacious life in Jesus' wordsPractices for reimagining the good life in a world of distractionsEmbracing grace and seeking transformationCheck out Amy Julia's live, online WORKSHOP: Reimagining Family Life with Disability. Use code FAMILY24 at checkout and take 30% off!Guest Bio:Rich Villodas is the author of 4 books, including his latest The Narrow Path: How the Subversive Way of Jesus Satisfies Our Souls. He is the lead pastor of New Life Fellowship, a large multiracial church with more than 75 countries represented, in Elmhurst, Queens, and Long Island, New York. He is the co-host of the Resilient Pastor podcast. He's been married to Rosie since 2006, and they have two beautiful children, Karis and Nathan.Connect Online with Rich: Website | Instagram | Facebook | TwitterOn the Podcast:Matthew 5-7BibleProject Podcast: Sermon on the Mount seriesHope Heals CampMatthew: A Commentary, Volume 1 by Dale BrunerPete ScazzeroTRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/rich-villodas-2024/YouTube Channel: video with closed captionsLet's Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

Send us a textWhat does it mean to be human? Who counts as a human being and why? Anthropologist Tom Pearson has been asking these questions for a living for a long time, and then his daughter was born and diagnosed with Down syndrome, prompting him to ask the questions all over again in his book An Ordinary Future. Amy Julia and Tom discuss:Normalcy, disability, and the human experienceCultural perceptions of disability and the historical context of eugenics and institutionalization How prenatal testing influences societal views of disabilityInterdependence and its relationship to the human experienceThe ways disability is a source of innovation and community, not just an inevitabilityFREE RESOURCE: 10 Ways to Move Toward a Good Future {especially for families with disability}Guest Bio:Tom Pearson is a cultural anthropologist with wide-ranging interests in the fields of environmental justice and disability studies. He teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where he also chairs the social science department. His writing has appeared in numerous scholarly journals and other public outlets. The birth of his daughter Michaela and her diagnosis with Down syndrome thrust him into an unfamiliar world of disability and difference. His book An Ordinary Future: Margaret Mead, the Problem of Disability, and a Child Born Different examines this experience in relation to Margaret Mead's path to disability rights activism. It confronts the dominant ideas, disturbing contradictions, and dramatic transformations that have shaped our perspectives on disability over the last century. Connect Online:Website | TwitterOn the Podcast:Washington Post: A mystery illness stole their kids' personalities. These moms fought for answers.An Ordinary Future: Margaret Mead, the Problem of Disability, and a Child Born Different by Thomas PearsonTRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/tom-pearson/YouTube Channel: video with closed captionsLet's Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

Send us a textThe way we tell the stories of our past plays a crucial role in shaping our imagination for the future. Author and historian Jemar Tisby, Ph.D., insists in his work that we tell a fuller story of our past, especially when it comes to the history of race and justice within the United States. Jemar joins Amy Julia Becker to discuss his latest book, The Spirit of Justice. Their conversation includes:The persistent spirit of justice in the Black Christian experience in AmericaThe historical and ongoing struggles against racismHow faith and storytelling fuel resilience and hopeAmy Julia's book: White Picket Fences: Turning toward Love in a World Divided by Privilege_Guest Bio:Jemar Tisby, PhD, is the author of new book The Spirit of Justice, and he also wrote the New York Times bestselling The Color of Compromise, and the award-winning How to Fight Racism. He is a historian who studies race, religion, and social movements in the twentieth century and serves as a professor at Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically Black college. _Connect Online with Dr. Tisby:Website: https://jemartisby.com/ | Instagram | Facebook | Substack/Newsletter_On the Podcast:The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance by Jemar TisbyThe Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church's Complicity in Racism by Jemar TisbyMississippi Civil Rights MuseumAmy Julia's previous conversations with Jemar: S5 E10 | How Kids Can Fight Racism with Jemar Tisby, PhD S4 E1 | How Do We Fight Racism? with Jemar TisbyS3 E6 | Now Is the Time for Justice with Jemar Tisby_TRANSCRIPT here_YouTube video here with closed captions_Let's Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

Send us a textWhat freedom could we offer one another as humans if we weren't so stuck on the treadmill of achievement and quantified learning? Pepper Stetler, PhD, is the author of A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother's Reckoning with the IQ Test. She joins Amy Julia Becker on the podcast to share her personal journey navigating the world of IQ testing with her daughter Louisa, who has Down syndrome. Amy Julia and Dr. Stetler explore: the historical roots of these intelligence assessmentsIQ testing's societal implicationsthe ethical dilemmas the tests present for parents and educatorshow IQ tests shape our understanding of intelligence and the pursuit of a fulfilling lifeways to challenge conventional notions of achievement and success_Noonday Lucky Few bracelet (in celebration of Down Syndrome Awareness month): https://noondaycollection.com/products/lucky-few-bracelet_On the Podcast:A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother's Reckoning with the IQ Test by Pepper Stetler Alfred BinetDSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)Henry Goddard_Connect with Dr. Stetler on her website (pepperstetler.com) or X (@PepperStetler)._Watch this conversation on YouTube by clicking here. Read the full transcript and access detailed show notes by clicking here or visiting amyjuliabecker.com/podcast.Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

Send us a textPolitical divides don't just disappear after elections. If you long for a hopeful way forward, this conversation is for you. Pastor Corey Widmer talks with Amy Julia Becker about how to navigate political polarization with humility, love, and a commitment to Jesus' way of life.Corey and Amy Julia discuss:Political engagement and identity formationThe dangers of political idolatry and hyperindividualism How to embody love and curiosity in political discourseLiving out the way of Jesus in a polarized worldHow to respond to the election results _FREE DOWNLOAD: 5 Ways to Experience God's Love and Practice Peace_ON THE PODCAST:Sermon on the MountThe BeatitudesRich Villodas on the podcastThe AND CampaignHow to Be Christian in the Election | White PaperHow to Be Christian in the Election | Sunday School seriesThe Good Life of the Kingdom | Sermon_Watch this conversation on YouTube by clicking here. Read the full transcript and access detailed show notes by clicking here or visiting amyjuliabecker.com/podcast._Guest Bio:Rev. Corey Widmer is Senior Pastor of Third Church, a Presbyterian congregation in Richmond, VA. A graduate of University of Virginia and Princeton Theological Seminary, he also has a Ph.D. in theology from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Corey is married to Sarah, a public health nurse, and they have 4 teenage daughters.  Corey loves reading, exploring the outdoors, and pickleball! -Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

Send us a textHow do we decide who has a life worth living? Author and professor emerita Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, PhD, joins Amy Julia Becker to discuss what it means to:be humanlive in communitycare for one anothernavigate the complicated ethics of selective abortionfind the language and stories to talk about a life worth living_ADVENT DEVOTIONAL: Prepare Him Room: Advent Reflections on What Happens When God Shows Up_ON THE PODCAST:Plough essay: “The Body She Had” by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson Book: About Us: Essays from the New York Times about Disability by People with Disabilities Sara Hendren's episode: “Who Belongs? Disability and the Built World”_CONNECT with Dr. Garland-Thomson on her website: rosemariegarlandthomson.com_Watch this conversation on YouTube by clicking here. Read the full transcript and access detailed show notes by clicking here or visiting amyjuliabecker.com/podcast._About:Rosemarie Garland-Thomson is professor emerita of English and bioethics at Emory University. She works in disability culture, bioethics, and health humanities. She is a Hastings Center Senior Advisor and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is co-editor of About Us: Essays from the New York Times about Disability by People with Disabilities and author of Staring: How We Look and several other books._Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

Send us a textHow do we attend to diverse voices in our churches and society without silencing or patronizing each other? Author and professor Esau McCaulley, PhD, joins Amy Julia Becker to discuss The New Testament in Color: A Multiethnic Bible Commentary. They talk about:the importance of connecting church and culturethe insights provided by scholars from diverse backgrounds and ethnicitiesthe harm caused by limiting biblical interpretation to a Western-centric lensthe role of the church in today's societythe transformative power of listening and learning from each other_AMY JULIA'S Books_ON THE PODCAST:NYT essays by Esau McCaulleyThe Esau McCaulley PodcastReading While Black: book; podcast episodeHow Far to the Promised Land: book; podcast episode_CONNECT with Dr. McCaulley on his website (esaumccaulley.com) and on social media (@esaumccaulley)_Watch this conversation on YouTube by clicking here. Read the full transcript and access detailed show notes by clicking here or visiting amyjuliabecker.com/podcast._ABOUT:Esau McCaulley, PhD, is an author and The Jonathan Blanchard Associate Professor of New Testament and Public Theology at Wheaton College. His writing and speaking focus on New Testament Exegesis, African American Biblical Interpretation, and Public Theology. He has authored numerous books including, Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope, which won numerous awards including Christianity Today's Book of the Year. Esau also served as the editor of New Testament in Color: A Multi-Ethnic Commentary on the New Testament.On the popular level, Esau's recent memoir, How Far to the Promised Land, was named by Amazon as a top five non-fiction book of 2023. He has also penned works for children, including Josey Johnson's Hair and the Holy Spirit and Andy Johnson and the March for Justice. Esau is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, and senior editor for Holy Post Media as well as the host of a new podcast with the Holy Post. His writings have appeared in places such as The Atlantic, Washington Post, and Christianity Today._Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

Send us a text"Just try harder. Work harder. Think harder." But what if the key to creativity, whether that's in our art or in the art of our daily lives, isn't more effort but surrender? Carey Wallace, artist and author of The Discipline of Inspiration, joins Amy Julia Becker to talk about:How discipline and spiritual practices nurture inspirationThe role of surrender in the creative processHow all humans can explore their creative potential and embrace the joy of creationArt as a communal experienceHow the discipline of inspiration empowers meaningful change in our world that is good and mutually beneficial_REIMAGINING FAMILY LIFE WITH DISABILITY WORKSHOP_ON THE PODCAST:The Discipline of Inspiration by Carey WallaceImage Seminar: The Discipline of Inspiration (a five-week craft workshop)Slow Productivity by Cal NewportJon Batiste interview on Fresh AirOnce a Queen: A Novel by Sarah ArthurOnce a Castle by Sarah Arthur _CONNECT with Carey Wallace on her website (disciplineofinspiration.org), Instagram (@disciplineofinspiration), or Facebook (@disciplineofinspiration)._WATCH this conversation on YouTube by clicking here. Read the full transcript and access detailed show notes by clicking here or visiting amyjuliabecker.com/podcast._ABOUT THE GUEST:Carey Wallace is the author of The Discipline of Inspiration (Eerdmans), The Blind Contessa's New Machine (Penguin), and The Ghost In The Glass House (Clarion). She works to help people from all walks of life find inspiration and build strong creative habits to sustain a lifetime of creation. She performs as a songwriter, exhibits her own fine art, and has spoken on art, faith, and justice with students at Princeton, Julliard, Emory, Pratt, and Yale. Her articles and poems have appeared in Time, Detroit's Metro Times, and America. She is the founder of a retreat for artists in Michigan, and the Discipline of Inspiration creative habit formation program, which has been in operation for over a decade across the US and internationally. She grew up in small towns in Michigan, and lives and works in Brooklyn. _Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!