Living On Common Ground

Send us Fan Mail Every December, something in us softens. The traffic is still bad and the lines are still long, yet we wait with a little more patience and offer a little more grace. We wanted to understand that shift without scolding or sanctimony, so we sat down to unpack holiday joy from two very different angles: a progressive Christian’s lens on incarnation and an atheist’s take on seasonali...

Send us Fan Mail Feeling cornered by purity tests and tribal litmus checks? We’ve been there. As a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist who happen to be close friends, we trade quick outrage for slow curiosity and ask a tougher question: are we building bridges or policing borders? From social media habits to Stoic clarity, we unpack how certainty hardens into fundamentalism and how to...

Send us Fan Mail What if a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist could argue hard topics, laugh at themselves, and keep choosing friendship? That’s the spirit of this conversation as we map common ground without sanding off our edges—tackling public education, healthcare, and the blurry line between rights and services. We start by calling out how split life feels and then test our labe...

Send us Fan Mail Division feels baked into everything—work, faith, politics, even friendships—yet the best conversations still start on shared ground. We sit down as a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist, grateful for a friendship that doesn’t need uniformity, and we follow a thread from holiday calm to the future of intelligence. Along the way, we ask hard questions about survival, c...

Send us Fan Mail When every headline demands a side, what if we started with a question? We sit down as a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist to explore how creation stories frame our deepest assumptions about chaos, order, and the feminine. From Genesis’ hovering spirit over the deep to the Babylonian Enuma Elish’s splitting of Tiamat, we trace how cultures turn raw potential into a...

Send us Fan Mail Feeling pulled to choose a side in every room you enter? We bring a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist to the same table to ask a harder question: if life doesn’t come preloaded with meaning, what should we build together? We start by untangling nihilism from its stereotypes. Passive nihilism stares into the void and shrugs; active nihilism treats the blank space as...

Send us Fan Mail Feeling squeezed into a corner by every conversation? We push back with a frank, funny, and steady exchange between a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist who’ve made a promise: stay friends, stay curious, and keep the hard questions on the table. Together we take on the urge to be right, the fear of feeling like a fool, and the hidden role ego plays when debates turn...

Send us Fan Mail Ever catch yourself deciding that someone’s chewing or phone volume is a moral failure? We start there—small frictions that expose big assumptions—and climb toward the larger question: how do we live together with sharp differences, without losing honesty or hope? As a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist, we test the edges of our friendship by trading judgments for cu...

Send us Fan Mail Feeling tugged to take a side on everything? We zoom out from the outrage to ask a harder question: what actually matters enough to shape your day, your community, and your character. Starting with the government shutdown, we separate optics from impact—what really happens when federal spending pauses, why retroactive pay masks immediate pain for contractors, and how uncertainty m...

Send us Fan Mail Seeds don’t look like certainty—until you’ve seen them sprout a dozen times. We start with a backyard mystery of “trash tomatoes” and end up mapping how humans learn, trust, and pass on what we call truth. Along the way, we push into the hard question: when policies claim to be “for your own good,” are they honest stewardship or just control with better branding? We explore how kn...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist ask whether public schools are built to indoctrinate—and refuse to turn the question into a shouting match? We start with history, not heat, tracing Horace Mann’s citizen-making vision, the Prussian roots of standardization, and the slow drift from local classrooms to district, state, and federal control. If ever...

Send us Fan Mail Homelessness is one of America's most divisive issues, with battle lines seemingly drawn between compassion and accountability. But what happens when a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist sit down to tackle this thorny topic? Surprisingly, they find significant common ground. Our conversation explores whether public assistance should come with obligations, and ho...

Send us Fan Mail The line between faith and politics has always been contested ground, but in today's hyper-polarized climate, the question burns more intensely than ever: Should churches that promote political messages maintain their tax-exempt status? This episode brings together two unlikely friends – a progressive Christian pastor and a conservative atheist – who begin with surprising agr...

Send us Fan Mail When violence enters our political landscape, can meaningful conversation still survive? In this timely episode, recorded just hours after a high-profile political shooting, two friends from opposite sides of the ideological spectrum wrestle with one of America's most divisive topics: gun rights and the Second Amendment. The heart of their discussion centers on a fundamental...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when we question the stories nations tell themselves? In this thought-provoking episode, we tackle the complex question of whether American military operations worldwide ultimately help or harm US interests. The conversation begins with an examination of historical context, specifically addressing covert operations like the CIA's Project Ajax in 1953, where Ameri...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when we peel back the layers of American mythology to examine the true foundations of our nation? Mark Charles, author of "Unsettling Truths" and a dual citizen of the United States and the Navajo Nation, joins us for a profound conversation that challenges conventional narratives about American history. Charles takes us on a journey through the Doctrine of...

Send us Fan Mail "Finding yourself is a lie perpetrated by our consumerist culture." With this provocative statement, two friends – a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist – launch into a fascinating exploration of identity, authenticity, and the forces that shape our understanding of self. The conversation challenges a concept many of us take for granted: that somewhere withi...

Send us Fan Mail Ever wondered why building communities often leads to deeper divisions? In this special follow-up to our conversation with Peter Rollins, we explore a radical alternative to traditional community-building that might change how you think about human connection forever. Rollins draws a crucial distinction between three forms of social bonds. Communities form around shared identities...

Send us Fan Mail "I have no idea what I'm talking about and I don't mind that," admits theologian Pete Enns in this refreshingly honest conversation about faith beyond certainty. This realization brought him not panic or dread, but profound relief—a sentiment that has guided his work helping others navigate their spiritual journeys. Pete shares how embracing uncertainty transfo...

Send us Fan Mail Dive into a fascinating exploration of applied postmodernism with hosts who bring contrasting worldviews to the conversation. This episode tackles the provocative idea that selectively applying postmodern principles amounts to "cheating" in philosophical discourse. The conversation begins by unpacking postmodernism itself – a philosophical approach questioning whether ob...

Send us Fan Mail Does it feel like every part of your life is divided? Every scenario? Every environment? Your church, your school, your work, your friends. Left, right. Conservative, liberal. Religious, secular. From parenting styles to school choice, denominational choice to governing preference, it seems you're always being asked to take a side. This is a conversation between a progressive...

Send us Fan Mail Are Americans having fewer children because we're too poor—or because we're too wealthy? This provocative question launches our exploration into plummeting birth rates and changing family structures across America and other developed nations. When fertility rates drop below replacement level, what does it mean for our future? We dive into recent statistics showing U.S. b...

Send us Fan Mail When Congressional hearings on UFOs feature military personnel claiming encounters with non-human technology, a profound question emerges: how would confirmation of intelligent alien life change religious beliefs? In this thought-provoking episode, a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist find surprising common ground as they explore the resilience of faith in the face o...

Send us Fan Mail What if the good news isn't finding fulfillment, but discovering we can never be whole? What if community forms not just around shared beliefs, but shared enemies? What if anxiety isn't something to overcome, but the very evidence of our humanity? These provocative questions form the heart of our conversation with philosopher, author and public speaker Peter Rollins abou...

Send us Fan Mail Lucas and Jeff continue the discussion surrounding the topic of metaphysics. Is there a difference between metaphysics and supernatural? Supernatural and paranormal? And what do we make of similar beliefs in the paranormal that appear in numerous cultures? Is this evidence that the paranormal, does in fact, exist? ©NoahHeldmanMusic https://livingoncommonground.buzzsprout.com https...