Give and Take

My guest is Arjun Sethi. In his new book American Hate: Survivors Speak Out , he chronicles the stories of individuals affected by hate. In a series of powerful, unfiltered testimonials, survivors tell their stories in their own words and describe how the bigoted rhetoric and policies of the Trump administration have intensified bullying, discrimination, and even violence toward them and their com...

My guest is Steven Wallace. Steven Wallace is the founder and CEO of the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company, the first company to sustain exports of premium chocolate manufactured entirely in Africa, and credited with producing the world's first single-origin chocolate bar in 1994. He shares his experience with tariffs and their impact on international trade and the world economy. Wallace often speaks on...

My guest is Jonathan Merritt. His newest book is Learning to Speak God from Scratch: Why Sacred Words Are Vanishing--and How We Can Revive Them. As America rapidly becomes a pluralistic, postmodern society, many of us struggle to talk about faith. We can no longer assume our friends understand words such as grace or gospel. Others, like lost and sin, have become so negative they are nearly convers...

My guest is Michele Margolis. Her new book From Politics to the Pews: How Partisanship and the Political Environment Shape Religious Identity challenges the conventional wisdom that suggests that religious differences between Republicans and Democrats have produced this gap, with voters sorting themselves into the party that best represents their religious views. Margolis offers a bold challenge t...

My guest is Kenneth J. Barnes. His new book Redeeming Capitalism explores the history and workings of this sometimes-brutal economic system. He investigates the effects of postmodernism and unpacks biblical-theological teachings on work and wealth. Proposing virtuous choices as a way out of such pitfalls as the recent global financial crisis, Barnes envisions a more just and flourishing capitalism...

My guest is Alan Noble. His new book is Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age . These two trends define life in Western society today. We are increasingly addicted to habits―and devices―that distract and "buffer" us from substantive reflection and deep engagement with the world. And we live in what Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor calls "a secular age"―an age in which all belie...

My guest is Allie Rowbottom. Her debut book is Jell-O Girls: A Family History . It's a memoir that braids the evolution of one of America's most iconic branding campaigns with the stirring tales of the women who lived behind its façade - told by the inheritor of their stories. In 1899, Allie Rowbottom's great-great-great-uncle bought the patent to Jell-O from its inventor for $450. The sale would...

My guest is John Fea. John is professor of American history at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. His previous books include Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction , and he blogs regularly at The Way of Improvement Leads Home . His newest book Believe Me: The Evangelical Road To Donald Trump argues that the embrace of Donald Trump is the logical outcome o...

My guest is Joseph Cicio. Lauren Bacall, Bill Blass, Rose Marie Bravo, Carol Channing, Prince Charles, Brooke Hayward Duchin, Erté, Princess Grace, Audrey Hepburn, Lady Nancy “Slim” Keith, The Kissingers, Kenneth J. Lane, Eleanor Lambert, Dawn Mello, Robert Mondavi, Josie Natori, and Joan Rivers, are just a few of the great friends of Joseph Cicio. His first book, Friends* *Bearing Gifts is about...

My guest is Rabbi Ben Kamin. He is a nationally-known clergyman, teacher, counselor, and the prize-winning author of twelve books on human values, civil rights, and spirituality. His most recent book is The Blessing Of Sorrow: Turning Grief into Healing . Special Guest: Ben Kamin.

My guest is Rabbi Herbert J. Cohen. His column, “Kosher Movies,” has appeared in newspapers in Atlanta, Toronto, and Denver. He is the author of several books including Kosher Movies: A Film Critic Discovers Life Lessons at the Cinema, The One of Us: A Life in Jewish Education, Texas Torah, Kosher Parenting and Walking in Two Worlds: Visioning Torah Concepts in Secular Worlds . Rabbi Cohen also bl...

My guest is Stephanie Feldman. She co-edited Who Will Speak For America? , with Nathaniel Popkin. The editors and contributors to Who Will Speak for America? are passionate and justifiably angry voices providing a literary response to today’s political crisis. Inspired by and drawing from the work of writers who participated in nationwide Writers Resist events in January 2017, this volume provides...

My guest is MaryAnn McKibben Dana. Her newest book is God, Improv and the Art of Living . In it she blends Scripture, psychology, theology, and pop culture in a wise, funny, down-to-earth guide to improv as a practice for life. Offering concrete spiritual wisdom in the form of seven improvi­sational principles, this book will help readers become more awake, creative, resilient, and ready to play--...

My guest is Andrew Selee. In his new book, Vanishing Frontiers: The Forces Driving Mexico and the United States Together , he argues that there may be no story today with a wider gap between fact and fiction than the relationship between the United States and Mexico. Wall or no wall, deeply intertwined social, economic, business, cultural, and personal relationships mean the US-Mexico border is mo...

Think you could never go vegan? Think again. As this smart, funny and persuasive manifesto makes clear, you're already 90% vegan anyway. That's right--you already love animals and are slowly but surely eating less meat than you used to. With the insider tips and inspiring stories in this book, you'll be ready to go whole hog (see what we did there?) and eat vegan for good. With a loyal online foll...

My guest is Laura Vanderkam. She is the the acclaimed author of What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast . She isn’t like other time-management gurus. She’s not trying to shave off 30 seconds here or there; she’s interested in the emotional and psychological side of the 168 hours everyone has each week. Her newest book is Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done . Her core...

My guest is Matt Tebbe. He co-founded Gravity Leadership , and is planting a church, The Table Indy , in the northeast suburbs of Indianapolis. He also co-hosts the Gravity Leadership podcast . Special Guest: Matt Tebbe.

My guest is Benyamin Cohen. His book My Jesus Year: A Rabbi's Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith is part memoir, part spiritual quest, part anthropologist’s mission. It's a humorous, personal, ultimately inspirational exploration of Christianity by the son of an Orthodox Rabbi on his journey through America's Bible belt. Benyamin Cohen is Editorial Director of From the Grapevine...

Nathaniel Popkin is a writer, editor, historian, journalist, and the author of five books, including his most recent novel Everything is Borrowed . A meditation on cruelty and regret, a mesmerizing tour of a city through time, and an evocative portrait of radical Jewish life of another age. In Everything is Borrowed, acclaimed architect Nicholas Moscowitz lands a major commission, but his drive su...

My guest is L.M. Browning. In her career-defining work, To Lose the Madness: Field Notes on Trauma, Loss and Radical Authenticity , Browning explores the breaking point every mind has after finding her own limit during a gauntlet of traumatic events. Pulled out of this blast-crater moment in her life by a friend, she is brought away from the insanity and deep into the snowy Sangre de Cristo Mounta...

My guest is Matthew Kaemingk. His most recent book is Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear . In it he offers a thought-provoking Christian perspective on the growing debates over Muslim presence in the West. Rejecting both fearful nationalism and romantic multiculturalism, Kaemingk makes the case for a third way—a Christian pluralism that is committed to both the historic...

The election of Donald Trump in 2016, like most of his campaign, came as a shock to many Americans. In Troll Nation Amanda Marcotte argues that Trump's election was the inevitable result of American conservatism’s degradation into an ideology of blind resentment. For years now, she contends, the purpose of right wing media, particularly Fox News, has not been to argue for traditional conservative...

My guest is Suzanne Stabile. Her newest book is The Path Between Us: An Enneagram Journey To Healthy Relationships . This book on the nine Enneagram types and how they behave and experience relationships will guide readers into deeper insights about themselves, their types, and others' personalities so that they can have healthier, more life-giving relationships. Most of us have no idea how others...

My guest is Michèle Gerber Klein. Michèle is a philanthropist, collector and author whose topics are fame, fashion and art. Her first book is Charles James: Portrait of An Unreasonable Man , a biography of the iconic and controversial designer Charles James, published by Rizzoli ex Libris . Special Guest: Michèle Gerber Klein.

My guest is Jeff Mallinson. Jeff is Associate Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Concordia University, Irvine, a 1517 Thinking Fellow, and Co-Host of the Virtue in the Wasteland podcast. His newest book is Sexy: The Quest for Erotic Virtue in Perplexing Times. In it he asks what would happen if we reframed contemporary conversations about sexuality altogether? Instead of focusing on taboos, b...