Callings

This is a special episode of “Callings” for several reasons. First, it represents the podcast’s first experiment with recording an episode in front of a live audience; it was taped at the 2026 NetVUE Conference in Kansas City. Second, it features Almeda M. Wright, who is associate professor of religious education at Yale Divinity School and the author of Teaching to Live: Black Religion, Activist-...

Jessica Riddell is committed to cultivating hope in higher education. Her book, Hope Circuits: Rewiring Universities and Other Systems for Human Flourishing , offers innovative tools for educators that include stories of luminaries and a reconsideration of the assumptions with which we often operate. As such, Riddell helps us come to a clearer understanding of systems of governance, leadership, an...

Recently, Anna Moreland coauthored (with Thomas Smith) The Young Adult Playbook: Living Like it Matters . The book is specifically written for undergraduates and invites and guides them in vocational reflection and discernment. But for Anna, writing the book represented her own vocational shift. Anna is a professor of the humanities at Villanova University, where she also holds an endowed chair an...

Carlo Rotella, a writer and a professor at Boston College, is interested in the nuts and bolts of teaching. In particular, he is interested in the craft of teaching and the ways we can build classroom experiences that help people make meaning. His new book, What Can I Get Out of This?: Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics , follows the experience of a single cohort of students in...

Angela Duckworth is known for her work on grit, the topic of her best-selling book and her famous TED-talk. In this wide-ranging conversation, Angela explores the wisdom of Howard Thurman and Viktor Frankl, the alignment between values and decision making, and the ways a constellation of mentors can benefit students as they explore their calling. Her research on the overlap between perseverance an...

Barbara Brown Taylor has written award-winning books, received numerous accolades, and served as an Episcopal priest, teacher, and public theologian. And yet, in this conversation, she consistently circles back to the meaningfulness of what she refers to as “the small” – the local, the embodied, the immediately present. Barbara challenges us to listen to callings from within ourselves as well as f...

Maria LaMonaca Wisdom is a leading voice on mentoring and coaching in higher education. Her recent book, How to Mentor Anyone in Academia , offers methods and approaches to understand the mentor role. In this conversation, she articulates the differences among mentoring, teaching, and coaching, and the ways these coalesce in our work with students. Mentoring helps us value growth in a relationship...

Willie James Jennings believes that belonging is the goal of education, which is pursued at the intersections of the world’s contradictions and our own social and moral sensibilities. Willie is a public theologian and professor of systematic theology and Africana studies at Yale Divinity School. In this conversation, he reflects on the influence of mentors and role models while also highlighting t...

Michael Lamb is committed to educating for character through the virtues. In his role as the senior executive director of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University, Michael works to encourage students to “live the questions” as part of connecting their interests and talents with the callings of their communities and contexts. Michael discusses how setbacks, crises, and dee...

Lee C. Camp is host of the podcast and nationally-syndicated radio series No Small Endeavor , which explores what it means to live a good life. He is also Distinguished Faculty Fellow at Lipscomb University, a NetVUE member institution. In this conversation, Lee brings his wealth of experience as well as a personal and honest approach to bear on questions of vocation in higher education. In the pr...

This bonus episode features highlights from conversations that aired during the fifth season of Callings. In these clips, our guests offer advice for today's students and for anyone who teaches or mentors young adults. Listen to this compilation of insightful and interesting advice from John Inazu, Jason Blakely, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Emmanuel Katongole, Caryn Riswold, Abel Chavez, Kiran Si...

Jennifer Herdt, professor of Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School, explores the “call to live well” in her writing, teaching, and research. In our conversation, Jennifer discusses what it means to live a virtuous life and how that grounds our sense of genuine happiness and fulfillment. She challenges us to resist the cultural narrative to “get as much out of life as we can,” but rather to purs...

Kwame Anthony Appiah is one of the world’s most influential philosophers and currently serves as president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Many know his work from the weekly "Ethicist" column in the New York Times. In this episode, he shares both personal and professional aspects of a vocational journey that has carried him from Ghana to Britain, the United States, and beyon...

Mustafa Akyol is a public intellectual and Muslim reformer who emphasizes the importance of being attentive to others and to the world around us. In this conversation, he shares his vocational journey from Turkey to the U.S. as a journalist, an academic, and a political commentator. As the author of books like The Islamic Jesus and The Islamic Moses , Mustafa reminds us of the hard work of respect...

Kiran Singh Sirah, an award-winning storytelling artist and folklorist, explores the overlap between vocation and story. In this conversation, we discuss how storytelling deepens human connection as part of our callings. Kiran reminds us of the beauty of sharing our individual and communal stories, along with the power of an inspiring and complex narrative. Stories help foster curiosity about our...

Abel Chávez sees our callings through this important question: what type of ancestor do we want to be? As the tenth president of Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, Abel explores the contours of our vocations as change makers in our careers and in our communities. Drawing from his experience with Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), he discusses how we can best serve first-gene...

Caryn Riswold believes that conversations about vocation should give greater attention to issues of social justice, identity, and culture. As a professor of religion at Wartburg College, she reminds us that our callings help us to “be human together, better.”  In this conversation, Caryn describes how her own dual callings as teacher and public theologian help her pursue such goals. But she also s...

Emmanuel Katongole is known for his work on violence and politics in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as theologies of peacebuilding and reconciliation. As a Catholic priest in Uganda and professor of theology and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame, he confronts the complexities of callings in various contexts. He describes his vocational journey as having carried him across different kinds...

Bonnie Miller-McLemore’s new book, Follow Your Bliss and Other Lies About Calling , brings forward the nuance and complexities of vocational discernment. She explores the ways our callings can be fractured or blocked, relinquished or conflicted, missed or unexpected. By grounding calling in the realities of everyday life, she reminds us of the importance of being kind to ourselves and practicing f...

Jason Blakely is a political philosopher at Pepperdine University and author of Lost in Ideology: Interpreting Modern Political Life . In this episode, he reflects on his own vocational journey while helping us think about this tumultuous time in modern political life. Through it all, he reminds us that vocations are always based in stories and that political “science” has more in common with lite...

John Inazu, author of Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect , is Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis. He is also a sought-after speaker who speaks about pluralism, the right of assembly, free speech, religious freedom, and related issues. In this episode, he reflects on his vocation as a lawyer and teacher, and...

This bonus episode features highlights from conversations that aired during the fourth season of Callings. In these clips, our guests offer advice for today's students and for anyone who teaches or mentors young adults. Listen to this compilation of insightful and interesting advice from Parker Palmer, Norman Wirzba, Katharine Hayhoe, Shirley Hoogstra, Miroslav Volf, Sarah Bassin, Anantanand...

Christi Belcourt, a Métis artist whose painting “Reverence for Life” appears on the newest volume from the NetVUE Scholarly Resources Project, reflects on the vocation of the artist. In our conversation, she explains how walking gently on the earth is part of learning responsibility and leading a life of integrity. From her perspective, vocation is about recognizing the gifts one is born with, as...

Geoffrey Bateman, a NetVUE faculty fellow and NetVUE scholar, has written extensively on the topic of supporting our LGBTQIA+ students in their vocational journeys. In our conversation, we explore strategies for mentoring queer students and discuss how to build inclusive practices in vocation work, both in classrooms and across campus. By taking action in local environments, listening for shifts i...

Kathleen Fitzpatrick, author of Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University , imagines that higher education can innovate for change in ways that allow campuses and communities to flourish. Throughout our conversation, we explore the benefits of public facing scholarship, digital literacy, and discovering new ways for educators, students, and community members to learn and colla...