Good Books Big Questions

"We can rest in the fact that Christ is never scandalized by our despair, or alarmed to find us sunk in the abyss," writes Jean Neely. "For Christ the deep ocean trenches are neither forbidden nor catastrophic. They're just another location in God's vast, mercy-filled cosmos." Watch unabridged episodes on Youtube here. Jean Neely has lived in the ambiguity of believing God is present wherever we f...

Eight new episodes of Good Books Big Questions are coming your way starting October 5th. We have some great, honest conversations lined up you for with NavPress authors including Jean Neely, Brian Heasley, Tanya Godsey, Wayne Francis , Janel Breitenstein , Liz Daye, Bill Mowry , and Anna Broadway. We dig into everything from finding God in the midst of mental illness and impossible situations, to...

We have two exciting updates for you. Our podcast is now on Youtube. You can watch 14 unabridged episodes from Season 1 and 2 on the NavPress Youtube channel. We go even deeper on topics such as self care; getting along with people who disagree with us; wrestling with honest questions about faith; and searching for God when life gets really hard. Also, Season 3 is in the works!  More good books, b...

In our last episode of Season 2, we take you to the 2026 Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In amongst the book tables and hubbub, host Karen Stiller sat down with NavPress editors Caitlyn Carlson and Olivia Eldredge to talk about how book ideas are selected (Spoiler: it’s not about platform); why NavPress leans into the harder questions of faith; and wha...

“An untold story never heals. It just festers.” That’s one of the big motivations Mary DeMuth offers us for reexamining and then sharing our life stories with each other. In her 2026 book Restory Your Life: How Jesus Reframes Your Past, Rewrites Your Present, and Redefines Your Future , DeMuth invites readers to use storytelling techniques, such as conflict, climax, and denouement – a fancy word f...

There are all kinds of negative terms to describe the process of re-examining what it means to be a Christian: Deconstruction. Exvangelical. A crisis of faith. What if we approached this more positively? Marty Solomon says deconstruction can be a vibrant, beautiful, and compelling reconstruction process. Solomon and Reed Dent’s 2026 book The Gospel of Being Human: How Asking Better Questions of th...

Self-care sometimes gets a bad rap. It sounds entitled. But seriously bad things can happen when we don’t take care of ourselves. Ben Espinoza ’s new book Good News about Self-Care: How Nurturing Your Soul, Your Self and Your Sanity Honors God is meant for a general audience. Everyone can benefit. But this is a conversation about what happens when pastors ignore self-care. The consequences can be...

If you’ve ever been bullied you know how crippling it can be. After it happened to her daughter London, Heather Thompson Day and London wrote a children’s book called Can I Sit Here? They wanted to give other kids the words to name bullying for what it is and encourage adults to take it more seriously. But this conversation quickly moves into how to identify and respond to bullying whether you’re...

Where has Derwin Gray had conversations about Jesus? A coffee shop. A golf course. An NFL dressing room. But many Christians don’t do that. This pastor and former NFL defensive back wrote a  book called Lit up with Love: Becoming Good News People to a Gospel Starved World . It’s not so much about evangelism, as about becoming a person who overflows with good news. If you don’t always feel you’re o...

Why does the world need another Bible marketed at women? That’s a question Olivia Eldredge, the Editor of The Message Women’s Devotional Bible asked herself. She grew up in the era of “purity culture” and was deeply dissatisfied with much of the Christian content created for women. “It ignores questions I had about Scripture,” she says, “hard questions about how women are mistreated and portrayed....

Why is it that in life’s worst moments God can feel so distant? That’s where this conversation with author Dominique Young begins. She knows what it’s like to feel forgotten by God. But Dominique has also discovered that if we look for God’s character, we may be surprised where we find it. Her book, God, Where are you? invites readers to honestly wrestle with our deepest hurts and failures, and li...

If you follow the news, it’s hard not to become outraged by one group or another. Perhaps most discouraging for Christians is how they themselves are sometimes viewed as hateful. How did the world’s greatest love story become associated with hate? That’s where Mark DeYmaz starts his new book Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace. Using St. Francis’ Peace Prayer as a framework, he describes practical...

Season 2’s ad-free episodes are full of bold, loving and sensible conversations about faith. Fifteen episodes drop weekly on Mondays in March and April 2026. Good Books Big Questions is a NavPress podcast where conversations about books open the door to bigger conversations about life and faith.  Hosted by Karen Stiller —author of Holiness Here: Finding God in the Ordinary Events of Everyday Life...

NavPress editor Deborah Sáenz talks with Karen Stiller about how editors find, woo and work with Christian authors. She shares the story of how she developed a passion for sharing the stories of writers of colour, and why that is so crucial.  We think this conversation is the perfect way to wrap up Season 1 of Good Books Big Questions. We’ll be back in March with Season 2. Post talk from Deborah:...

How do we stop striving for approval and rest in God’s grace? This is an ongoing question for many people of faith. Author, pastor and speaker Joyce Koo Dalrymple knows what striving feels like, and how tough it is to stop. In this honest conversation Joyce shares the roots of her striving, her wounds of failure, and her journey to believe God’s grace.  Parables of Grace: A Bible Study on God's He...

Do we have to sit with Christians whose politics offend and trouble us? Actually, yes, we should, says author Norm Hubbard . Even if it’s really hard. Norm is the author of More than Christians: Practicing Gospel-Shaped Community with the Language of the Early Church .  Norm didn’t intend to write a book that speaks to the current polarized political climate, but that’s what he did. His suggested...

No one ducks the tough questions about faith on this show. Not the host and not the guests. If you’re disillusioned, doubting, discovering faith, or if you simply want a safe space to dig into some big questions you’ve had for a while, you will find good company here.  You’ll discover thoughtful, honest, and civil conversations about the issues that keep us up at night. Also, the occasional laugh,...

Can we still find beauty in being a Christian? Or in Christian institutions? Author Jared Ayers was disappointed with the church’s reaction to the growing number of religiously unaffiliated and wrote a book for people in the borderlands of faith.  In You can Trust a God With Scars , Ayers walks readers through a gentle examination of the Christian faith and what it can offer we who search. In this...

A lot of talk about women in the church leads to what they should or shouldn't be doing. Kat Armstrong, author of The Storyline Project Bible study series, poses a different and bigger question. In this lively and challenging conversation, Kat, a Bible study author, preacher and teacher walks us through her own journey of coming to grips with the often untold and misunderstood power of women in th...

Do you need to ask God some tough questions? Have you shaken your fist at God or cried out your most honest pain and heartbreak? For Dieula Previlon , the author of Does God See Me? speaking (or maybe even yelling) to God with complete earthy honesty is an important part of how we live with trauma and grief.  Dieula set out to write a book as teacher and guide, pulling on her years of experience w...