No Small Endeavor with Lee C. Camp

Author of The Shack, William Paul Young, joins us on this episode of No Small Endeavor. At age 50, William Paul Young wrote the New York Times Best-selling novel “The Shack.” It went on to sell 25 million copies and was turned into a major motion picture. 11 years prior, Paul’s wife discovered he was having an extra-marital affair. With nothing left to hide, he began a journey toward healing and w...

How do you forgive someone who committed unspeakable horror against someone you love? In 2015, 21-year-old white supremacist, Dylann Roof, was welcomed into a bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Minutes later, he opened fire and murdered nine members of the church. At his trial, the family members of those killed got the chance to speak to Roof...

In honor of MLK day, we're once again airing our conversation with Martin Luther King's first lawyer Fred Gray. We hope this episode celebrates the progress made toward justice and reminds us of the work yet to be done. Dr. Gray tells stunning stories of his work as a civil rights lawyer standing before the supreme court on multiple occasions, and what it was like to stand beside MLK and Rosa Park...

What do our brains want more than chocolate, sex, or a sports car? What does your memory of long past events have to do with the apparently unrelated arguments and anxiety you are experiencing these days? Psychiatrist Curt Thompson discusses these questions from the perspective of both brain science and theology. A psychiatrist in private practice, Dr. Thompson has expertise in interpersonal neuro...

The folk-pop duo Johnnyswim, comprised of married couple Amanda Sudano and Abner Ramirez, discuss their reality television shows, their public marriage, their radically different childhoods, and their opinions about Christianity in America. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why are there different narratives around race in America? Some Americans believe that we are a “shining city on a hill” a beacon of truth and justice for the world, but anyone with eyes can see that there are some major contradictions in that narrative. James Baldwin called this “The Lie” and we discuss it in great detail with Dr. Eddie Glaude and his book Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and...

Does religion make us happier? David Desteno discusses his book How God Works, in which he makes the argument, backed by research, that the wisdom of the world’s great religious traditions lines up with recent psychological and neuroscientific findings about what constitutes a good, flourishing life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megap...

The civil rights movement was led by a host of brilliant and courageous men and women, among their ranks the lawyer Dr. Fred Gray. He was MLK's first attorney, he successfully argued before the Supreme Court multiple times, and he was a close friend of Rosa Parks. Today, he shares those stories, along with his thoughts on the ongoing fight for equity in the United States. See omnystudio.com/listen...

What happens when one of the country’s most outspoken critics of white male Christian political conservatism sits down with a well-known white male conservative Christian political pundit? Find out, as Kristin Du Mez and David French discuss politics, culture, and the desperate need for hospitality in the digital age. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad ch...

Ethics professor and host Lee C. Camp explores what it means to live a good life by sitting down with some of the world's greatest thinkers, creatives, and everyone in between—from PRX, Tokens Media and Great Feeling Studios.  For fans of On Being, The Daily Stoic, and Oprah's Super Soul. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Guests include: Malcolm Gladwell James Lawson Tara Brach Rainn Wilso...

The inaugural episode of No Small Endeavor, in which Lee discusses the reasons behind the name change, the mission entailed by the new name, and the centrality of conversation, courage, and community. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The final episode of Tokens Show (in a way). Jason Eskridge, Michael Hicks, and Odessa Settles discuss their experiences with tokenism, and Lee reveals why, given such realities, the Tokens Show has decided upon a new name.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are many parenting styles doing more harm than good? Alfie Kohn discusses the surprising psychology behind the widely practiced reward/punishment model of raising kids, and why we should “work with” our children instead of trying to control their behavior.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Justice is what love looks like in public.” In this episode, Justin Jones discusses how his work for justice, particularly during a 62-day non-violent protest outside the Tennessee State Capitol, is itself an act of faith, steeped in self-denying love. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do bourbon, bluegrass, and the Bible have in common? Just ask the Billboard charting Hillbilly Thomists, a group of Catholic Dominican Friars, clad in white tunics and rosaries—playing bluegrass music. Their name, Hillbilly Thomists, is indebted to the Catholic Southern Gothic writer Flannery O'Connor whose mixture of morbidity and grace show up in their songs. We assembled at the Soultrain S...

“Good conversations create personal closeness,” says Heather Holleman. “When you have good conversations, it could intervene in the loneliness epidemic.” Today, she discusses the many tried-and-true methods for becoming better conversationalists – a skill that just might be a central key to human flourishing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...

“If we are to take heart from the really good things about American history, we have no choice but to reckon first with the dark sides of it,” says Bill McKibben, a prominent journalist, author, and activist. One of the most prominent of environmental activists and authors, McKibben also discusses racial justice, the economic impact of suburbanization, and the relation of the Christian church to s...

Are we as good as we think we are? Virtue theory suggests that things like compassion, honesty, and courage are the keys to living a good, happy life. But Christian Miller brings to light a troubling reality: though we all want to be virtuous, it turns out that it doesn’t take much to get us to forsake our values. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choice...

In a culture brimming with wealth, upward social mobility, and endless access to pleasure, why are we only becoming more anxious, depressed, and unsatisfied? Dr. Anna Lembke makes a claim many of us don’t want to hear, though we know to be true: “Every pleasure has a cost, and that cost is pain. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone....

Is friendship really a key to being happy? We often make our quest for human flourishing a solitary one, focusing on making changes in our personal mindsets and habits. Yet, much ancient and modern wisdom suggests that we cannot do it alone. In this episode, Andy Gullahorn, Gabe Scott, and Antsy McClain share stories and songs – full of high fives and trailer parks – that showcase the importance o...

Might we all be happier if we stopped taking ourselves too seriously? Singer-songwriters Andy Gullahorn and Antsy McClain describe how humor can make us comfortable enough to be vulnerable with each other. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hymns are often sentimentalized in the American church, cast aside as merely retired songs with dated language, bearing no real appeal or relevance. But of course it may be that our old hymnals have some crucial things to say to us in our current cultural moment. This is the challenge I posed to Odessa Settles, Phil Madeira, and Leslie Jordan: find and perform some old hymns which might be both in...

How music gives voice to people on the margins; how lament and hope co-exist in songwriting; and wondering what one is really supposed to do with “turn the other cheek,” all with Joy Oladokun. Plus, she performs five of her songs live from Nashville’s Sound Emporium. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Instagram culture, internet extremism, the Seven Deadly Sins, the hard work of parenting, learning how to grieve, and much more. Plus, KS performs five beautiful songs live from Nashville’s famed Sound Emporium. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are the “seven deadly sins” merely a medieval-era reflection upon divine finger-wagging? Rebecca DeYoung explains why the “seven deadly sins” is better understood as a diagnostic tool which may instead facilitate a joyful and flourishing life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices