Freedom Road Podcast

On this episode we are joined by Sibil Fox and Rob Richardson, featured in the award-winning Amazon documentary, Time, which is now published as an incredible book that tells more of the story. Fox and Rob are a formerly incarcerated couple. Fox served 7 years and Rob did 21 years time behind bars in Angola prison in Louisiana. Lisa invited Fox and Rob on the program because they learned something...

On this episode we are joined by Dr. Michael Emerson, renowned sociologist and Head of the Department of Sociology at University of Illinois, author of the landmark sociological study on evangelicals and race, Divided by Faith. In the context of the rise of white Christian nationalism—and the shameless claiming of that moniker by a growing gaggle of politicians— we invited Dr. Emerson to Freedom R...

This month we are joined by Natasha Sistrunk Robinson, T3 Leadership Solutions, founder and cochair of Leadership Links. Most noted for her book, A Sojourners Truth and Mentor for Life. Natasha’s latest project brought together a bunch of dynamic women writers to contribute to Voices of Lament: Reflections on Brokenness and Hope in a World Longing for Justice. Natasha was invited to speak with us...

This month we are joined by Michelle Ferrigno Warren, 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. Michelle's new book, JOIN THE RESISTANCE: STEP INTO THE GOOD WORK OF KINGDOM JUSTICE, offers a roadmap into the movement for so many o...

This month we are in conversation with Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra and Brandon Wrencher. Dr. Alexia, a national leader in faith engagement in immigrant justice for decades, is the dean of Centro Latino and associate professor of integral mission and global transformation at Fuller Theological Seminary. Brandon Wrencher is a minister, community organizer, teacher and facilitator whose work falls in...

This month Lisa Sharon Harper is joined by Kamal Bell, founding owner of Sankofa Farms. The goal of Sankofa Farms is to create a sustainable food source for ethnic minorities in both rural and urban areas located in Durham and Orange County, North Carolina. We invited Kamal to come speak with us because his work offers a way forward toward repair of what racial hierarchy broke in the world. www.sa...

This month we are joined by Robert Draper, New York Times Magazine political journalist to discuss his most recent article: “The Arizona Republican Party’s Anti-Democracy Experiment”. Apart from being a regular commentator on MSNBC, CNN and Washington Journal, among others, Draper is also the author of several books, including his most recent bombshell, To Start a War: How the Bush Administration...

This month, we feature an episode from a new podcast featuring Freedom Road's Lisa Sharon Harper: The FOUR. You can check out other episodes of The FOUR at thefour.black. Few have worked harder to cut and mend the ties between oppressor and oppressed than the one and only Ruby Nell Sales. The FOUR are honored to be joined by this iconic human rights activist, public theologian, and social critic....

This month, we feature an episode from a new podcast featuring Freedom Road's Lisa Sharon Harper: The FOUR. You can check out other episodes of The FOUR at thefour.black. Kristin Kobes Du Mez catapulted to the top of the best-seller list with her book, Jesus and John Wayne. A leading church historian, she joins The FOUR in a real eye-opener for the team. Kristin pulls back the curtain on conservat...

This month, Americans will pause to commemorate the day when the last enslaved African Americans were notified that they had been set free, on June 19, 1865 (two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation). In this context, Lisa Sharon Harper and Cole Arthur Riley (author of This Here Flesh, creator @BlackLiturgies on Instagram) reflect on the impact of 400 years of subjugation on Black...

At a moment when our nation stands at one of the greatest transition points in its history, the work of faith leaders of color is critical, yet often goes underfunded--leaving leadership pipelines that lack capacity to maximize their gifts, apply their grassroots knowledge and scale innovative strategies that could bless us all. Click into this convo with movement leaders of color, grounded in the...

This month listen in as Lisa dives deep with two awe-inspiring leaders whose work is reshaping America. Dr. Ron Daniels is convenor of the National African American Reparations Commission and president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century. Dr. Gail Christopher recently retired from her role as Senior Advisor and Vice President at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, where she was the driving f...

Lisa Sharon Harper welcomes Rev. Otis Moss III, pastor of Chicago's historic Trinity United Church of Christ, and they discuss the twin passions for community advancement and social justice that are the foundations of his ministry

Listen in as Lisa talks with Michael-Ray Mathews (Deputy Director of Faith In Action, an international faith-rooted federation of community organizing networks). In the shadow of the 1/6 commemoration, Mathews says we all must go deeper. We must tap into the source that powered the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King called it, “Soul Force.” 

Join host Lisa Sharon Harper and the Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, senior minister of Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, as they talk about the world's need for Fierce Love today

Join host Lisa Sharon Harper and Dr. Nicolette Louisssant, executive director of Healthcare Ready, as they sift through the fears and get to the facts about COVID-19 vaccination.

At a time when white nationalism is threatening democracy, itself, join Lisa Sharon Harper and Jen Hatmaker (New York Times best selling author and host of the For The Love podcast) in this special deep dive between friends on what it will take to repair what race broke in the world. Listen in as Lisa shares some early lessons gleaned from her forthcoming book, Fortune: How Race Broke My Family An...

Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper and Rev. Dr. Randall Balmer, author of Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right. In the past Balmer has gestured toward the connection between race and The Religious Right. In Bad Faith, Balmer draws a direct, straight line. His book and this mind-blowing conversation shine clege-lights on the relationship between the rise of the Civil Rights Movement and t...

Listen in as host, Lisa Sharon Harper, dives deep with Gen Zers Joseph Baah (17 years old) Janelle Addison (13 years old) and Jazzlyn Addison (10 years old), on how they are processing the events and traumas of the past year. These American siblings are processing the changes and struggles and they are ready to speak on what it means to be an American, they're hopes for society 20 years from now,...

Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper and her guest Allyson McKinney Timm, founder and Executive Director at Justice Revival, as they discuss the history - and the future - of the Equal Rights Amendment

On January 6th, White Christian Nationalists stormed the U.S. Capitol and revealed the breadth and depth of the distortion of Christianity in the U.S.. Listen in as host, Lisa Sharon Harper, Rev. Jennifer Butler, author of Who Stole My Bible?: Reclaiming Scripture as a Handbook for Resisting Tyranny, and South African public theologian, Rev. Rene’ August, lean deeper into our sacred texts in a way...

This month marks the 88th Anniversary of the opening of the very first Nazi concentration camp in the small town of Dachau. For five years the neo-Nazi movement in the U.S. gained ground during the 2016 Election cycle and under the Trump administration. On January 6, 2021, when white nationalists attempted an insurrection, Nazi language was scrawled across t-shirts and on banners. Marginalized com...

The world recently watched white nationalists scale the walls of the US Capitol Building to attempt an insurrection; killing 6 people, including 3 police officers. The world watched as 147 GOP members of Congress affirmed the lie that fueled the insurrection. The world watched as scores of GOP Senators voted not to even hear the evidence against the one man most responsible for the violence and th...

In the final dark days of 2020, six presidents of Southern Baptist Seminaries issued publicly condemned Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality; forbidding the subjects from being taught at their institutions. Join host Lisa Sharon Harper on Freedom Road with special guests: Dr. Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro (Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality scholar), Marlena Graves (evangelical scholar a...

Cast out in a boat without oars with host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and special guest, Wes Granberg Michaelson, author of Without Oars: Casting Off Into a Life of Pilgrimage. In our post-Trump America it is clear that white Americans are experiencing a major shake-up—especially white men. Something more is needed to address the questions of the white soul. Wes’s new book, Without Oars, might just point...