Deconstruction Workers

Flamy Grant (God's Favorite Drag Queen) Flamy Grant made drag history in 2023 when her debut album Bible Belt Baby reached #1 on the iTunes Christian music charts and she was suddenly in Rolling Stone and People. We talked about growing up Dobson, slaying shame, and how evangelicalism is like living in the Truman Show dome. https://www.flamygrant.com/

Trevor Poelman is a former youth pastor turned atheist filmmaker who created the Belief it or Not Podcast in 2018. He also wrote and directed two critically acclaimed plays at the Toronto Fringe Festival. Trevor and I talk about how we met on Facebook when he was still a believer, the significance of the family scapegoat, and the role that heartbreak plays in chronic pain. www.beliefitornot.com

Esther Loopstra is a preacher's kid who survived her childhood using pattern recognition and creativity. Now she's a commercial illustrator and instructor using the neuroscience of creativity to inform her coaching and workshops. We talked about childhood suicidal ideation, not being allowed to listen to non-Christian music, and the direct correlation between the two. Her book "Think Like an Artis...

Timothy Schraeder Rodriguez used to do social media for megachurches who told him to not tell anyone about his orientation. After eight years in conversion therapy he wrote a book called Conversion Therapy Dropout. Even though conversion therapy is illegal in several states it's still happening under different names. Tim told me about when he realized silence is complicity and how he moved through...

Joon (JS) Park is a hospital chaplain who regularly sees a lot that keeps him in the deconstruction cycle. His books and online presence are vulnerable in a way we don't often see. We talked about privilege and addiction to certainty and how to break cycles as a parent. https://jspark3000.com/

Matthew Paul Turner and I met in like 2010 through early online deconstruction stuff but I never knew how he grew up in an Independent Baptist church AND school. He graduated second in his high school class of 4 and didn't see his first movie until he was in college. His parents were beside themselves that he was exposed to the world in this way, so you can imagine how it went over when he came ou...

I found Marla on Teams when she replied to me that she and her husband were asked to leave a church and told by the pastor to lie about it. She's a former missionary and former Christian book author who deconstructed and overhauled her entire life and now she's writing a memoir. For fun she cuts up and reconfigures stupid Christian books as therapy - literally deconstructing her former life.  http...

Simone Turkington and Stephanie had a podcast called Dongtini before Simone became a literal magician. She now performs magic full-time and is a regular at the mecca of magic, The Magic Castle. Simone is the first full-on atheist to be a guest on Deconstruction Workers. She explains her process, the ensuing response of her family and friends, and shares about explaining belief systems to her own c...

Stephanie Warren is a religious trauma survivor advocate, writer, and host of the Focus On Your Own Family podcast. On this episode we talk about overcoming religious trauma and finding community outside of high-control religion. https://www.iamthestrongwilledchild.com/

Jaye Brix is a writer,musician and trans femme ex-pastor who explores art, tattoos, healing and spirituality. http://linktr.ee/jbrixart #exvangelical #expastor #deconstruction #transgender #nonbinary

Johanna Stark Olsen is a director, playwright, musician, comedian, actor, and Lutheran lay theologian from Minneapolis. Her work includes a decades-long performance art exploration of erroneous masculinity. She performs country-fried folk punk freakout music under the name burnunit. She is also a passionate community gardener and composter. https://legitimatewebsite.info/

Rachel Lichtman is a video director, graphic designer, and DJ who has created a cozy 1970s AM radio underworld called Programme 4 . The editor of the AV Club said they want to live in this world, and they also had this to say about it. [ https://www.avclub.com/programme-4-the-william-joel-show-the-napa-boys ] I asked Rachel about her Reformed Jewish upbringing and how it informed where she is now.