The Ethan C. Lewin Podcast

Saul Fisher has spent much of his life trying to understand why we are the way we are—and how paying closer attention might help us better understand and love both ourselves and one another. Born into a close-knit Jewish family and raised in Newark, New Jersey, Saul grew up sensitive, curious, and painfully aware that he was different. He struggled considerably in school, with reading, memory, mat...

Chris Barber is an ordained New Church priest, religion teacher at the Academy of the New Church, and President of the Swedenborg Foundation. He has dedicated much of his life to studying Emanuel Swedenborg—not just his theology, but the man behind it. Chris helps bring consciousness to the remarkably human story of the man whose writings inspired the New Church—from an ambitious scientist wrestli...

Barbara d’Amato has spent nearly 50 years welcoming babies into the world—many of them from my hometown of Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. She had already delivered roughly 6,000 babies by the time she closed her private practice in 2018, and one colleague estimates her lifetime total may now be closer to 10,000. Barbara’s path to midwifery began with a traumatic first birth—one that included a doctor t...

Many know Lori Odhner as the voice behind the songs that shaped their childhood, filling generations of church services and bedtime routines. Underneath that is a discipline she's practiced even longer: paying attention to the person in front of her. In this conversation, Lori traces that listening thread from her father's example, through raising nine children, her marriage to John, a dai...

There is often a gap between the way we are taught life is supposed to look and the way life actually looks. In celebration of her 60th birthday, I sit down with Miss Erica Cantley, a longtime ANC teacher and Maître D, to explore that space between the ideal and the real—and what happens when life doesn't quite match the picture we were given. Raised in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, Erica describe...

When I found out that Anne Grace Glenn had recently given birth in front of 24 people, I said, "I need to interview her!" Anne grew up bilingual in Ottawa, spent a year in Japan as a kid, and was raised watching her parents actively live out their faith, one she'd spend years wrestling with herself, including a serious season discerning a call to become a Catholic nun. Anne grew up w...

It takes a village to raise a child, and Greg Henderson has been a piece of that village for our whole town for nearly three decades, first as many of my peers' 8th grade teacher, then as my elementary school principal. In this episode, we trace his own story: how he became one piece of that village, and the journey that got him there. Some of you may remember Mr. Henderson from May Day Play D...

The first time I encountered Penny Rhodes was from afar through her 2024 General Church Assembly Talk. That eight-minute talk can be listened to here: Penny’s Talk .  The first time we officially met in person was when I arrived at her front door to record this episode. Before we had even sat down, the words slipped out of my mouth: "I feel like I already know you." Penny's story is powerful becau...

Ever wonder what goes on inside the mind of a painter after a lifetime of working quietly on a canvas? Barrett Smith gives voice to his life and his work. In February, Barrett was told he didn't have years left. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he's been, in many ways, catapulted into reflecting on his life, and while in good conscience, mind, body, and spirit, he wants to pass on what he...

Rich and Mary Tate both grew up Catholic, but neither expected the path that would eventually bring them together. Rich grew up in a large Italian Catholic family and spent years on autopilot—go to school, work hard, get married—until his first marriage came to an end and gave him the awakening he needed. Mary was raised in a deeply devout Catholic family before finding the New Church and the Bryn...

Scott has a powerful story, and it starts with basketball saving his life and winds through becoming a teacher, coach, and principal at the Academy — until the desire to isolate from that role took over and he pulled away from people entirely. This past year, he started coming back. Why? Because he realized he had taken it to the extreme, is content with his life, and ready to pass on what he lear...

The Glenns are back in town, which made for the perfect 4th of July weekend and a golden opportunity to finally ask something I've been curious about for years: who was Angus before Kaylene, and who was Kaylene before Angus? We talk about childhoods on opposite sides of the world, family, loss, friendship, and how two people from Pennsylvania and Australia found each other and built a life so many...

Graham Bier, the man behind the music at the Cathedral, has always been a bit of a mystery to me. So I tried to solve it. Graham grew up hands in the earth — free range, with miles of woods and wild to roam. The son of a conservation biologist who brought him through Pennsylvania forests hunting endangered species — Graham even discovered one that ended up in the Smithsonian with his name on it —...

Edmund Rhodes or “Mundo” doesn’t sugarcoat a thing. He feels comfortable to say what he thinks, even if it rubs you the wrong way — and if you disagree, good. He invites it. He doesn't back down from conflict, and he's not above stirring the pot.  But he wasn’t always comfortable in his own skin.  Growing up, Edmund was shy. It wasn't until he picked up the bottle that he discovered a...

At 94 years young, Major General Ronald K. Nelson reflects on nearly a century of experiences — from flying President Eisenhower as a young Marine helicopter pilot, to simultaneously building two careers over four decades: rising to the rank of two-star general in the Marine Corps Reserve while spending those same years coaching, teaching, and mentoring generations of students at the Academy of th...

I would like to say 52 weeks and 52 episodes flew by but I really can't. It's been long, rewarding, uncomfortable at times, and... really, really good for me. I was reluctant to be in the guest seat but Tony refused to let me off the hook and I'm glad he didn't. Tony did a great job keeping it grounded, using me as the lens to reflect on the podcast, the people, the stories, and wh...

“This is going to be a pretty dark interview… with suicide, Islamic dreaming, jihad… it may get a little dark. But anyhow, it is what it is, I guess. Welcome to my life.” There you have it — straight from Ben himself. Hard to top an introduction like that. But I will add this: beneath all the darkness Ben deeply cares. And despite the weight of the conversation, we shared a lot of laughs too. Ben...

John Rienstra was drafted ninth overall in the 1986 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers and later played for the Cleveland Browns. He played under Chuck Noll, Bill Belichick, and Bruce Arians — coaches who combined for 11 Super Bowl rings. He was nicknamed The Raging Rhino. At his peak, he could total over 2,000 pounds in powerlifting. But there was always an unseen side. Since his first year at...

Martha is a coach, a listener, and what she calls a "lay midwife for women's spirits" — someone who helps people come home to themselves. She’s also my godmother. She's known me since before I knew myself. That should be enough said. In this episode, we talk about what it means to truly see someone, why anger is almost always thwarted love, the stories we carry that keep us small...

If you asked a room full of ten-year-old boys what they wanted to be when they grew up, Lach Brown became all of them: a Vietnam War Cobra attack helicopter pilot, police officer, firefighter, and decorated veteran, holding the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, and Air Medal among others. In the traditional sense of what it means to be a man, he checks every box. But Lach is th...

Shawn Rose has lived a quiet, intentional life that looks a lot like a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, and in this episode he shares just how that path unfolded. Shawn has built his life around music and nature: perhaps best known as the piano accompanist to many generations, but there is more to this man than meets the eye. He has slept in a tent for the last 19 years, climbed trees closing in on 7,...

Marcia Perretto grew up in Brazil surrounded by physicians, fell in love with medicine early, and spent years becoming one of the most globally recognized specialists in Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and hypermobility disorders. But through all that training, she kept noticing the same flaw in the medical system: patients weren’t getting the time or attention needed to address root causes. So she built s...

On the surface, it’s easy to assume Darryl is fulfilling a predestined path, given he is the descendant of many Bryn Athyn “Greats.” But that version of the story misses the point entirely. To truly understand Darryl today, you have to meet the 16-year-old version of him in the mid-90s—a shorter, overweight, average student who made a quiet decision one summer day to start running laps around a ba...

My friends and I love to thrift, and Brenna Synnestvedt has been part of The Bryn Athyn Thrift Shop (better known as BATS) , my personal favorite, for the past 25 years, recently taking on management. She thrives on supporting the 90 volunteers and 7 staff to find their niche, transforming a simple thrift store into so much more than a place to donate unwanted items. On the surface, BATS might see...

Stephen D. Cole is a jack of all trades, descended from a lineage of brilliant minds. His father, Dandridge MacFarlan Cole, was a notable rocket scientist and futurist (look him up on Wikipedia!) who focused on practical space colonization concepts like hollowed-out asteroids for human habitats. Stephen grew up out west, fell in love with the outdoors, and then moved east for his father’s work. As...