Impossible Beauty

Kimberly Wilkerson believes in the power of language; how it impacts us and those around us. Kimberly is a speech language pathologist, as well as the founder of Token Clothing Co. At Token Clothing Co., Kimberly has fused her passion for language with her interest in fashion, to give women an experience that helps them overcome limiting beliefs and negative self-talk. In our time together, Kimber...

With the start of the new year, we find ourselves in a season inundated with diet and fitness-related ads. We are being saturated with and sold the message that now is the time to change, reshape, or perfect our bodies or food intake. My hope is that today’s guest will help us all detox from the current flurry of diet culture messaging and be reminded of the goodness of food and of our bodies. Lis...

In 2007, Kristi McLelland went to Israel and realized that God is better than she ever knew. After studying in Egypt and Israel in 2007, Kristi’s life took a turn, and she began leading biblical studies trips to Israel in 2008. Kristi is an author, professor at Williamson College, and a biblical culturalist who teaches the Bible in its historical, cultural context. Kristi’s most recent book is ent...

Registered dietitian and author, Dana Sturtevant, believes that society has ruptured our relationship with food, movement, and our bodies. Food has become something to restrict and our bodies a project to tweak and “perfect.” But Dana believes it doesn’t have to be this way. She has spent more than 15 years helping people let go of chronic patterns of dieting and disordered eating and move ​​into...

All too often these days, bread gets a bad rap. In many ways, diet culture has taught us to fear “carbs” in all forms. Today’s guest, however, helps us see bread in a new way. She not only invites us to see bread as a gift, but as a sacred reminder of God’s presence and provision. Kendall Vanderslice is a professionally trained baker, speaker, and author, including her most recent title, By Bread...

Deb Benfield has helped hundreds of women heal their relationship with food, eating, and their bodies in her 35-year career as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist. In her own aging journey, she became frustrated by how difficult it was to find well-researched advice on aging with vitality that was not related to managing weight or youthful appearance. In her group and one-on-one coaching, Deb work...

Several months ago, The Atlantic reported that forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the past 25 years, representing the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history. In today’s episode, I talk with pastor’s kid turned pastor, Natalie Runion, about the trend of diminishing church attendance. Natalie Runion is the author of Raised to Stay: Persevering in M...

Donetta Floyd’s compassion and perspectives are so refreshing. When it comes to societal messages around food and our bodies, we can often be left with the feeling that we aren’t doing it right. In today’s episode, registered dietitian Donetta Floyd helps dispel unhelpful ideas and misconceptions regarding our relationship with food, our bodies, as well as Type 2 Diabetes. Donetta is a Registered...

Emmy Russell is a Nashville-based singer-songwriter who has been performing for the majority of her life. Touring on the road with her grandmother, country legend Loretta Lynn, Emmy started singing on stage at the age of two. Years later, Emmy sang with Willie Nelson’s son, Lukas, at her grandmother’s memorial. This special performance was nominated for Performance of the Year at the CMT Music Awa...

Gaelynn Lea is a professional musician and sought-after public speaker. She has opened for numerous artists including the Decembrists, composed the music for Macbeth on Broadway , starring Daniel Craig, and her perspectives have been shared on outlets such as On Being With Krista Tippett and PBS NewsHour . Having been born with Osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, Gaelynn has had to n...

Societal notions of “beauty” and our relationship with our bodies and food have been deeply influenced by diet culture. Author and registered dietitian Christy Harrison defines diet culture as: “a system of beliefs that equates thinness, muscularity, and particular body shapes with health and moral virtue; promotes weight loss and body reshaping as a means of attaining higher status; demonizes cer...

Grace Wabuke Klein has had her share of ups and downs. From fleeing Uganda under the reign of Idi Amin as a child to having her prayers to get married answered at the age of 42, Grace has had a full life. She has also learned, and now encourages others, that we can find purpose even in difficult days and seasons of waiting. In her new book Flourish: Finding Purpose in the Unknown and Unexpected Se...

Some of life’s greatest lessons come from unexpected teachers. For Lacy Finn Borgo, some of her greatest teachers have been children. In Lacy’s new book, Faith Like a Child: Embracing Our Lives as Children of God, Lacy invites us to consider what we might learn from children. Moreover, could welcoming our child selves draw us deeper into wholeness and our relationship with God? Lacy Finn Borgo tea...

You never know where things will lead. For Grace Casper, a journal she began in elementary school has now become her new book, releasing this week entitled, Dear Parents: Notes from a Child of Divorce. Grace Casper is a writer, speaker, full-time elementary school librarian, and the host of the podcast, Divorce: What I Wish My Parents Knew . She graduated from Baylor University and now lives in Wa...

In honor of the release of my new book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless , I have a special episode in store for you. I recently sat down to have a conversation with my literary agent, Don Pape. Don has been a champion of my book and its message for years now and I can’t thank him enough. In our time together we talk about how Don ended up working in the...

When it comes to societal messages around beauty, we’ve all been swimming in toxic waters. On today’s episode, Christie Dondero Bettwy, helps us name some of the toxic beliefs and messages that we are being fed, so we might be freed from them. Christie is the Executive Director of Rock Recovery in Arlington, Virginia. Rock Recovery is a Christian eating disorder therapy nonprofit where clients can...

Catherine Claire Larson invites us to see beyond the surface of things; reminding us that each life is a miracle, and that parenting is actually soul formation. Catherine is an author and the mother of six boys. Her most recent book is called, Watching in Wonder: Growing in Faith During Your Baby's First Year. Catherine has her masters in biblical studies and spent seven years writing with Chuck C...

“Whole,” “natural,” and “clean” are just some of wellness culture’s buzzwords. On the surface, wellness culture can be so enticing, perhaps seen as the pathway to optimal health and wellbeing. In today’s episode, however, Christy Harrison unpacks some of the dynamics and potential dangers of wellness culture; helping us see why we should think twice before investing in a product or plan that seems...

Elena Rossini noticed a disturbing trend; she observed a cross-generation epidemic of body dissatisfaction. Not only was the trend across generations but it was manifested in similarly distressing ways across diverse cultures. Elena Rossini is an Italian film director, producer, editor and public speaker. Her work focuses on issues of social justice, media representation, and the empowerment of wo...

Shame is that all-encompassing, embodied, sinking feeling that we are wrong or bad. It’s not just a sense of guilt over something we did, but the wrongness of who we are. And shame has all kinds of occasions to creep in; the perceived wrongness of our body, our relationships status, our parenting, our career, and the list goes on. In today’s episode, Jasmine Holmes invites us to consider the influ...

Cleere Cherry Reaves had an experience that changed how she viewed everything. When Cleere’s son was born three months prematurely, Cleere and her husband watched as their child fought for his life, developed, and began to thrive. In today’s episode, Cleere tells us the lessons she learned from that experience, how her faith was transformed, and why it inspired her to write the children’s book, Th...

Amanda Held Opelt got a lesson in grief she never wanted. After a series of miscarriages, the loss of her grandma, and then her beloved sister, Amanda found solace in an unexpected place, in exploring ancient grief rituals in practices. In her first book, A Hole in the World: Finding Hope in Rituals of Grief and Healing , Amanda explores how such ancient grief rituals and practices can be a vessel...

In today’s episode, K.J. Ramsey reminds me that “We are held by this web of love,” the love of God and the love of others. Those words and others like it shifted something in me. Instead of having to nervously earn or find God’s love, it is a reality that always surrounds me. A reality I can rest in. A reality we can rest in. K.J. Ramsey is a trauma-informed licensed professional counselor and is...

The Sunday Herald calls today’s guest, Jessica DeFino, “the woman the beauty industry fears.” That’s because Jessica, a beauty reporter and beauty culture critic, has seen the inner workings of the beauty industry and didn’t like it. More than that, Jessica now spends her time dismantling beauty standards, debunking marketing myths, and exploring how beauty culture impacts people — physically, psy...

How do we live life fully alive? For Sandhya Oaks, living fully alive entails being courageous enough to go to places of brokenness and shame, so we might find healing. While trauma or hurt stunts our capacity for fullness of life, healing leads to an increased ability to love and live abundantly. Sandhya Oaks is a Ministry Leader, Spiritual Director, leads Kintsugi workshops, and does Story Work....