The Plunge with Derek Holser

Welcome to this special bonus episode. Today's conversation features Kenneth Tanner, author of Vulnerable God: How Jesus Upends Our Assumptions about God - And Shows Us How to be Human. Kenneth Tanner is pastor of Church of the Holy Redeemer, where he has served since 2005. His writing has appeared in many outlets, including Huffington Post, Sojourners, Mockingbird, National Review, Christianity T...

Welcome to Artists & Athletes: The Path to Transcendent Beauty. This is Episode Three of our second season of The Human Series. This series is an attempt to explore the full range, depth, and wonder of this mystery of being human. Joining me today is Petronija Makaveeva. Petronja Pavlinka Makaveeva was born in 1976 in the Republic of Macedonia. She is an iconographer and mosaicist. Through her...

Welcome to Artists & Athletes: The Path to Transcendent Beauty. This is Episode Two of our second season of The Human Series. This series is an attempt to explore the full range, depth, and wonder of this mystery of being human. Joining me today is Tony Hale. Tony Hale is a three time Emmy award winning actor known for such work as ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, VEEP, BEING THE RICARDOS, THE MYSTERIOUS...

Welcome to Artists & Athletes: The Path to Transcendent Beauty. This is Episode One of our second seaons of The Human Series, an attempt to explore the full range, depth, and wonder of this mystery of being human.  Joining me today is Ellery Hatfield, Hairdresser, Soprano, and Poet. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Ellery Hatfield now lives and works on Bainbridge Island, just ou...

Welcome to Episode Six in our Summer Replay Series. Today's conversation features Bradley Birzer, Leah Holser, Turner Burnett, and Sørina Higgins. The discussion covers perspectives on Pippin, Smeagol/Gollum, Sauron, and Tolkien as The Narrator.       To listen to the entire conversation with Bradley, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tolkiens-greatest-characters-pippin-bradley-j-b...

Welcome to Episode Five in our Summer Replay Series. Today's conversation features Holly Ordway, Landon Loftin, Alison Milbank, and Michael Ward. The discussion covers perspectives on Éowyn, Faramir, Gandalf, and Cormallen.        To listen to the entire conversation with Holly, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-plunge-with-derek-holser/id1762146345?i=1000736742721       To lis...

Welcome to Episode Four in our Summer Replay Series. Today's conversation features Jess Lederman, Elizabeth Hardy, David Burnett, and Turner Burnett. The discussion covers perspectives on the C.S. Lewis novel The Great Divorce, with an emphasis on Lewis's relationship with George MacDonald, and Lewis's portrayal of heaven, hell, and the afterlife.        To listen to the entire conversation with J...

Welcome to Episode Three in our Summer Replay Series.       Today's conversation features Dr. Heather Huckett, Dr. Don Lichi, Margaret Fay, and Pastor Justin Bryeans. As psychologists, counselors, and pastors, they work at the intersection of human identity, relationships, and spirituality.  These discussions explore how we think and feel about ourselves, one another, and the divine.      To liste...

Welcome to Episode Two in our Summer Replay Series. Today's conversation features Laura Van Dyke, Owen A. Barfield, Landon Loftin, and Max Leyf. The discussion covers some biographical elements of Owen Barfield's life, along with his work on the imagination, his "Great War" with C.S. Lewis, and his lifelong pursuit of anthroposophy, as developed by the philosopher Rudolf Steiner.   To view the ent...

Welcome to Episode One in our Summer Replay Series. Today's conversation features Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson, Kerry Dearborn, Chris Green, and Jordan Daniel Wood.         The discussion ranges from George MacDonald's conception and practice of true community, his theology of aging, suffering, and death, and his portrayal of the afterlife through his great novel Lilith.         To view the entire conv...

Welcome to Episode 6, our final installment in our series William Blake: Mystic for Modernity.       Today's guest is Valentin Gerlier. Valentin is a scholar, songwriter, and musician, and our conversation is a poetic and lyrical gem. Full of light and wisdom, like William Blake himself! Valentin is Head of Creative Cultures Pathway at Schumacher College, where he teaches the Poetics of Imaginatio...

Welcome to Episode Five in our latest series: William Blake: Mystic for Modernity. As we continue to explore the life and majesty of William Blake, I am joined by a returning Plunge favorite: Landon Loftin. This conversation explores G.K. Chesterton's thoughts on William Blake. Two great souls interacting for us today, mediated by the ever-insightful Landon Loftin!         Landon Loftin has a BA i...

Welcome to Episode Four in our latest series: William Blake: Mystic for Modernity. As we continue to explore the life and majesty of William Blake, I am joined by a returning Plunge favorite: the Inimitable Ron Dart!         Ron has had an abiding interest in Blake since his teens in the 1960s. Ron was on staff with Amnesty International in the 1980s, taught in the department of POLSC at Universit...

Welcome to Episode Three in our latest series: William Blake: Mystic for Modernity. As we continue to explore the life and majesty of William Blake, I am joined by a most enchanting guest: Susanne Sklar.        Susanne Sklar, PhD, is a leading international authority on William Blake, with a particular focus on his final illuminated masterpiece, Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion (1804–1...

Welcome to the second episode in our latest series, William Blake: Mystic for Modernity. William Blake (1757–1827) was a visionary English poet, painter, and printmaker of the Romantic Age.     Jason Whittaker is a writer and academic at the University of Lincoln, who spends his time alternating between visions of William Blake and writing about digital media. The author and editor of twenty books...

Welcome to the first episode in our latest series, William Blake: Mystic for Modernity. William Blake (1757–1827) was a visionary English poet, painter, and printmaker of the Romantic Age.       My guest today is Mark Vernon. Mark is a writer and psychotherapist. A keen podcaster, including over 100 dialogues with Rupert Sheldrake, and a columnist with The Idler, he speaks regularly at festivals a...

Welcome to Episode Twelve in our Animals in Literature series. Today's conversation features a fun, nostalgic, endearing discussion of Christopher Robin and his friends in The Hundred Acre Wood, created by A.A. Milne.         Today's guest is returning Plunge favorite and great friend, Brenton Dickieson.         Brenton is a father, husband, friend, university lecturer, and freelance writer from P...

Welcome to Episode Eleven in our Animals in Literature Series. Today's guest is the Rev. Dr. Olga-Maria Cruz, to regale us on the glories, virtues, and meaning in the novel Watership Down. Watership Down by Richard Adams is widely celebrated for its phenomenal world-building, authentic characters, and deep moral revelations. In this rabbit-centric world, a small band must survive the wilds, and ho...

Welcome to Episode Eleven in our Animals in Literature series. Today's episode features a riveting and rambling conversation about The Redwall Series, by Brian Jacques. This beloved series features many anthropomorphic creatures (mostly of the burrowing type) and has served as a great guide to heroic living for young people of the past two generations.          Joining me and enlightening me is re...

Welcome to Episode 9 in our Animals in Literature Series. This series aims to explore the origins, conventions, and meanings we find in stories featuring anthropomorphic animals.          Today's guest is Sørina Higgins, PhD. Sørina and I discuss Charles Williams' novel The Place of the Lion, and his Inkling counterpart C.S. Lewis' novel That Hideous Strength (with a particular emphasis on Mr. Bul...

Welcome to Episode 7 in our Animals in Literature series. This series aims to explore the origins, conventions, and meanings we find in stories featuring anthropomorphic animals.          Today's guest is Simon Horobin, PhD. Simon and I discuss a number of the creatures of Narnia, from C.S. Lewis's beloved book series. Featured topics include the brave Reepicheep, the steadfast Mr. and Mrs. Beaver...

Welcome to Episode 7 in our Animals in Literature series. This series aims to explore the origins, conventions, and meanings we find in stories featuring anthropomorphic animals.         Today's guest is David Bentley Hart, PhD. David and I share a lively conversation featuring iconic characters from Lewis Carroll's mind. Featured topics include Alice, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the resurge...

Welcome to our Easter interlude, as we take a one-episode hiatus from our Animals in Literature series. Joining me once again is the effervescent and egalitarian Jordan Daniel Wood.        Jordan and I discuss the events of the weekend, beginning with Good Friday, through Holy Saturday, and on to Resurrection Sunday. As always, he provides thoughtful insights from Maximus, Origen, the Bible, and h...

Welcome to Episode 6 in our Animals in Literature series. This series aims to explore the origins, conventions, and meanings we find in stories featuring anthropomorphic animals. Joining me for today's conversation on all things CATS! in stories is Laura Burnett, a newcomer to The Plunge. We discuss the cat Church from Stephen King's Pet Sematary, the unnamed cat in Coraline, Dr. Seuss's The Cat i...

Welcome to Episode 5 in our Animals in Literature series. This series aims to explore the origins, conventions, and meanings we find in stories featuring anthropomorphic animals. Joining me today is Elizabeth Hardy as we conclude our chapter-by-chapter journey through the beloved Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. Elizabeth is an instructor of English at western North Carolina's Mayland Community Coll...