(A)Theist Podcast

MEDITATIONS FOR MORTALS BOOK STUDY This week Kelley and Erin complete their book study of Meditations for Mortals . Oliver Burkeman’s fourth week of the book focuses on showing up in our own lives. Conversations this week start a little heavy - the thought of life and death. But Erin ties our mortality into the Burkeman’s concept of finitude - the idea that things end. Lots of us keep “planning” f...

MEDITATIONS FOR MORTALS BOOK STUDY Continuing our book study, Kelley and Erin finished Week 3 of Meditations for Mortals . This week was all about letting go - the idea of moving past the stress of productivity and people pleasing and instead focusing on the value of doing less and enjoying more. Focus in on the false allure of effort! We’re curious! Where have you learned about letting go?   Comm...

MEDITATIONS FOR MORTALS BOOK STUDY Continuing our book study, Kelley and Erin finished Week 2 of Meditations for Mortals and have a very deep conversation around the theme of taking action.    Did you reach the same conclusions they did? Did you interpret things differently? How are you carrying some of the Week 2 messaging into your daily life? Please comment and let us know what you think about...

MEDITATIONS FOR MORTALS BOOK STUDY Kelley and Erin just finished reading Week 1 of Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitation and Make Time for What Counts. This week was all about being finite . We break down each day - Days 1 through 7 - of the first section of the book to discuss Oliver’s messaging, examples from their own lives, and what messages resonated...

It’s been HOT in St. Louis! We’ve just experienced a major heatwave and in a late night conversation, Kelley brought up the recent New York Times article The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century . After some discussion, Erin and Kelley decided to jump on to record their own "best movie lists" of the 21st Century (and, a little bit of the late-90s!) Maybe you’ll hear about one you haven’t...

In the second of a two-part series about Mel Robbin’s The Let Them Theory , Erin and Kelley discuss how the theories apply to adult relationships: How do adults make friends? Why is it so much harder than when we’re kids? (Hint: It’s NOT just because of work!) And, what can we do to create more meaningful relationships in our lives? Underlying all of this is a very powerful cognitive behavior that...

We’re back! Erin and Kelley took a month long hiatus where they highlighted two very special episodes from the early days of (A)Theist. Now we’re back with all-new episodes and awesome plans for the future! In the first of a two part series, Erin walks Kelley and the audience through The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins.  Far from a traditional self-help book, The Let Them Theory offers extremely ta...

Kelley and Erin are still working on new episodes in the background. In the meantime, please enjoy the second (A)Theist Encore! This week we’re replaying our conversation with New York Times best selling author Oliver Burkeman. A world-renowned journalist, Oliver has published several popular books including: HELP!: How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done The Antidote: Happiness for...

Presenting “(A)Theist Encores” where we highlight previous episodes that are fan favorites AND carry significant weight today! Our first encore highlights Dr. Belden Lane, a retired Professor of Theology from St. Louis University. Dr. Lane offers a unique perspective to all things religion, specifically focusing on finding God in non-traditional places. He authored Backpacking with the Saints: Wil...

Becky Garrison is an American author, storyteller, journalist, and of most interest to Kelley and Erin, a religious satirist!  Her incisive commentary on faith, culture, and spirituality is bolstered by her extensive background, including a MDiv from Yale Divinity, a MSW from Columbia, and publishing with The Wittenberg Door since 1994. On (A)Theist, Becky shares the importance of satire in modern...

Meet Dr. David Morris. David is the founder and publisher of Lake Drive Books, focusing on publishing books that “help you heal, grow, and discover.” With 25 years experience in corporate publishing, David created Lake Drive as an independent publisher focusing on authors who are redefining their spiritual paths, are healing from religious trauma, or working to bridge faith and doubt.  David share...

In the second part of our continuing series about Artificial Intelligence, we tackle some major questions: What really is AI? What’s the difference between AI and AGI? Should we feel optimism or existential dread? Should we be excited or scared? (Hint: The answer is probably a little of both!) Kelley and Erin’s conversation will probably leave you with mixed feelings, but the reality is simple: AI...

The first in a two (or more) part series discussing Artificial Intelligence, Kelley and Erin discuss Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Harari. Erin and Kelley have wanted to discuss AI since the very beginning of the show and Nexus is a perfect starting point. Harari condenses 100,000 years of human history into a series of moments when information pe...

The "loneliness epidemic” is well documented and publicized. But what’s the full story? Journalist Derek Thompson published “The Anti-Social Century” in the February 2025 issue of The Atlantic. This powerfully researched essay posits that Americans have been steadily choosing to become more isolated over the course of the last century.  Notable examples include the adoption of the automobile,...

Can creativity be a form of spiritualism? What about meditation? Kelley and Erin would both absolutely say YES. Kelley recently met Wendy Solganik, the creator of www.willawanders.com . She teaches courses on making art for the sake of art itself . No push for perfection. No need to impress others. Just purely to relax and find joy.  Digging deeper, Kelley learned Wendy has an incredible life stor...

When was the last time you did something for a complete stranger that was purely for the betterment of their lives? Our guest this episode is Larry Jordan, who spent 25 years as an investment banker before he started to ask himself the same question.  In 2011, he quit his job and began a spiritual journey in which he has served others all over the world. In the process, his whole life and personal...

Liz Charlotte Grant is an award winning non-fiction storyteller having been featured in The Huffington Post, the Revealer, Sojourners, Christianity Today, and the National Catholic Reporter, among many others. She grew up in a deeply conservative branch of white American evangelicalism. After going through a deconstruction of faith, she now finds herself writing in progressive, mainline, global, a...

Happy New Year from Erin and Kelley! We’re actually “off” for a holiday break, but we jumped on a Zoom call to plan out future episodes and ended up doing a bit of a reflection on how much we’ve grown in 2024.  This is a “raw” recording - almost zero editing - just our authentic appreciation for how much has happened in 2024. Huge thank you to our audience - it’s because of YOU we’ve been able to...

This isn’t a political podcast. But the nature of modern politics does permeate everything this podcast is about: modern culture, psychology, religion, social science, etc. So, Erin and Kelley have a deep conversation about the 2024 Presidential Election. No matter what your political affiliation, you’ll find both hosts deeply focused on finding connections between liberals, progressives, conserva...

Happy Holidays to all of our listeners! In the spirit of celebrating the holidays, Kelley has invited her dear friend Maggie Kelly to discuss food as a sacred practice. Maggie has been an award winning restaurateur and chef for over 40 years. Her relationship with food is not religious, but it is sacred . Maggie discusses her relationship with food, the role food plays in building bonds between pe...

Dr. Ignacio Sanchez Prado is a Professor of Spanish, Latin American Studies, and Film and Media Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. His research focuses on the relationship between cultural institutions, political ideologies and aesthetic representation in literature, cinema, gastronomy and other forms of cultures. Ignacio discusses a “little bit of everything” on this episode of (A)The...

Reverend Dr. Nichole Torbitzky is an assistant professor of religion and University Chaplain at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. In April 2024, Dr. Torbitzky co-edited Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God: Sermons, Essays, and Worship Elements from the Perspective of Open, Relational, and Process Theology. Among her co-editors is Dr. Thomas Jay Oord, whom we met in Episode 32! Dr...

Felicia Murrell is a spiritual companion, life coach, and author. In February 2024, she published And: The Restorative Power of Love in an Either/Or World. Felicia brings the wisdom of her book to the (A)Theist Podcast by asking a simple but powerful question: Since most of us respond to the normal cares and concerns of daily life through frustration or anger, what would happen if we instead respo...

Cathleen Falsani is an award winning journalist and author. Writing at the intersection of religion, spirituality, faith and culture, Cathleen is the author of several books including The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Cohen Brothers , and Belieber!: Fame, Faith and the Heart of Justin Bieber. Cathleen has also worked as both a...

We've already learned about faith deconstruction - a process in which a person steps away from the religious context in which they were raised, questions the doctrines, and arrives at new conclusions about their beliefs. (Ep. 32) In this episode, Kelley and Erin meet Chelsea, someone who went through her own deconstruction and has since developed a faith that is non-traditional, progressive, a...