Plain Values Podcast

In this episode of the Plain Values Podcast , host Marlin Miller sits down with Roc Baker to trace a life forged in West Virginia hills, Ohio oil fields, and deep family roots.  From his father’s hard-earned lessons in the tool-dressing days to raising six boys, Roc shares the gritty, grounded wisdom that shaped him. The talk flows naturally into the healing power of art. Roc recounts painting hos...

Marlin reflects on the powerful imagery Jesus used when talking about the shepherd and his sheep. He recently became a shepherd himself, and he’s seen firsthand how sheep know their shepherd’s voice. When the shepherd calls, the whole flock comes running. Jesus told the story of the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to go after the one that is lost. Marlin notes how easy it is to read that passage...

In this episode of the Plain Values Podcast , host Marlin Miller sits down with Conrad Fisher, musician, producer, and founder of Ragamuffin Hall studio, for a rich conversation about creativity, faith, family, and the tension between art and conservative culture. Conrad shares his upbringing in a conservative Mennonite church where his parents, despite the setting, encouraged his musical gifts fr...

A friend shared a powerful story with Marlin. He told him about a soldier-turned-missionary who was recruiting people to join him in one of the hardest, most dangerous places imaginable. When some expressed hesitation, the missionary looked at them and said, “Oh, I get it. You’re afraid to die.” Needless to say, they went. Marlin reflects on how that bold response hits home. Most of us have a thou...

In this deeply personal episode of the Plain Values Podcast , John Moody joins Marlin to share his remarkable story of redemption, resilience, and resistance. John grew up in Youngstown, Ohio during the devastating collapse of the Rust Belt. His family was shattered by divorce, alcoholism, and hardship. As a latchkey kid, life was chaotic. When his mother was diagnosed with cancer during his junio...

Grief is the price of love. That line, shared from the pulpit at a funeral, made Marlin pause and reflect. It caused him to consider how often we hold back from deep relationships out of fear of getting hurt. We were built for genuine connection, Marlin reminds us. Yet most of our daily interactions stay surface-level (“I’m fine,” “Everything’s great”) because going deeper means risking vulnerabil...

In this moving episode of the Plain Values Podcast , Marlin sits down with Josh Troyer to share his remarkable journey of faith, resilience, and finding true identity in Christ. Born with proximal femoral focal deficiency, Josh was missing his right femur bone. At just two years old, he underwent rotationplasty, a radical surgery in which doctors amputated his leg at the hip, rotated it 180 degree...

When Marlin and his brother were boys, they lived for the dirt pile… the “strip mine” in their mother’s garden. Armed with toy Caterpillar dozers and loaders, they dug huge holes and built towering piles of dirt. To them, those small mounds were massive and larger than life. Their dad would sometimes take them to real strip mines where they got to ride in ginormous equipment. It was genuinely larg...

In this episode of The Plain Values Podcast , Marlin sits down with Dawn and Carson of Soda Farm to discuss their 20+ year journey of homesteading, natural health, and standing firm in their convictions. What began as a small beekeeping and herbal honey operation at Mockingbird Meadows evolved into functional sodas and a commitment to real food made from God’s creation. Dawn explains her deep conc...

Marlin will never forget the first time he saw homeless people. He was 20 or 21, skating under a bridge in Portland, Oregon with his brother. Across the way were a handful of men with everything they owned in shopping carts. It was a scary and sad scene, one that left young Marlin feeling uncertain. Should he do something? Should he stay away? Should he be scared? Even today, he admits he doesn’t...

In this deeply moving episode of the Plain Values Podcast , Marlin Miller sits down for the second time with Aaron and Katie Ficker, who share their powerful journey of missionary life in Guatemala, profound loss, adoption, and God’s unwavering faithfulness through it all. Aaron and Katie moved to Guatemala as newlyweds, where Aaron helped build an aviation program and Katie worked as a nurse. The...

The concept of hospitality is simple on the surface: invite people over, share a meal, and talk. But Marlin believes it goes much deeper. Our Creator has placed within us a profound desire to truly know others and to be known ourselves. A tiny lady many years ago, known for her incredible gift of hospitality, once told Marlin and his wife a story. She had hosted two families, and as they were leav...

In this episode of the Plain Values Podcast , Marlin Miller sits down with John Kempf, founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture. John shares his remarkable journey from a young boy observing plants on his family’s produce farm in Ohio to leading a global regenerative agriculture movement that now spans over 5 million acres. John explains how close observation of plant health led him to foundational di...

In a village in India, a mother was told by her own family to take her deformed baby boy to the trash heap and leave him there to die. The little boy, they said, would never walk properly. But this mother couldn’t do it. She brought him back. Enraged, her family kicked her out. She was now on her own. Then she met a man who shared the gospel with her. She got saved and began reading the Scriptures...

In this episode of the Plain Values Podcast , Marlin Miller sits down with longtime broadcaster Mark Zimmerman to explore his journey from growing up in Northeast Ohio to a rich career in radio and storytelling. Mark spent his early years in Cleveland Heights before moving at age six to Geauga County in Amish country. At Bowling Green State University, he became the university mascot Freddie Falco...

We’ve been printing and mailing Plain Values for a long time using the postal system… and Marlin loves it. It’s expensive, but it’s great. In this charming Minute with Marlin , he shares a fascinating bit of postal history: the system began in 1775, before the Revolutionary War. Back then, the recipient paid the one-penny postage, not the sender. There was also an 11-pound weight limit. People too...

In this episode of the Plain Values Podcast , Marlin Miller sits down with Jed Johnson, founder of Wide Awake International, to hear how God led one ordinary family from Alaska to the front lines of caring for boys with disabilities in Ukraine. Jed grew up as a pastor’s kid in Alaska. When he was six, his father suffered a devastating double stroke. Life changed dramatically.  The strong, adventur...

In 1929, at the very beginning of the Great Depression, a man named Albert Brumley sat down in the northwest corner of Arkansas and wrote a song called “I’ll Fly Away.” It wasn’t published until 1932, but that simple hymn has since become the most recorded gospel song in history. Brumley went on to write over 800 songs, yet “I’ll Fly Away” remains one of the most beloved of all time. Marlin shares...

In this episode of The Plain Values Podcast … Sophia Eng shares her family’s journey from Vietnamese refugee roots to a thriving 40-acre regenerative homestead in East Tennessee.  With a military husband and two daughters, Sophia’s parents (boat people who fled Saigon) lived with them, creating a multi-generational home rich in tradition, work ethic, and faith. When lockdowns hit California in 202...

There are seasons when life brings deep, hard things … the loss of a spouse, the burial of a child, a long-term disability, or seasons of uncertainty and anxiety where God feels distant and silent. In this moving episode, Marlin shares the power of an old hymn written by William Cowper in 1779, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.” The lyrics speak straight to the heart: “God moves in a mysterious way,...

In this episode of The Plain Values Podcast … Some people build businesses. Others build lives that point to something greater. In this powerful conversation, Derek and Lisa Guyer share the raw, beautiful story of their journey; from financial brokenness and a tiny two-bedroom home with six kids in one room, to owning and transforming Kentucky Lumber into a place of integrity, character, and genui...

Marlin has always loved the simple, sensory pleasure of holding a real book or magazine; the feel of the paper, the weight in his hands.  In this episode, he reflects on how rare and precious books once were in the Middle Ages, when monks painstakingly copied them by hand. Then Gutenberg’s printing press changed everything by giving “wings to truth.” He beautifully connects this to God’s own desig...

In this episode of The Plain Values Podcast … Some stories remind us that God still does the impossible. On a seemingly normal Monday morning in 2013, Becky Mast collapsed at home. Within minutes she had no heartbeat. For the next 35 minutes she received no oxygen to her brain. She was clinically dead. What followed was a cascade of miracles. Paramedics worked on her relentlessly. After six shocks...

As a young boy, Marlin watched a powerful storm roll through with tornadoes touching down nearby.  A funnel cloud spun just 100 yards behind their house, hovering above the treetops. While the rest of the family took shelter in the basement, his dad stood outside, calmly watching in awe of nature’s raw power. Marlin was terrified, yet deeply moved by his father’s fearless wonder. That moment staye...

In this episode of The Plain Values Podcast , Marlin sits down with his good friend Larry Yoder for a conversation about God’s incredible redeeming grace. Larry shares his remarkable journey of growing up Amish, leaving the church as a teenager, and spiraling into a life of heavy drug use, partying, and bad choices. From smoking weed at 11 to nearly overdosing multiple times, Larry openly talks ab...