Shifting Culture

In this episode, I sit down with acclaimed writer and poet Kathleen Norris to talk about her deeply personal new book, Rebecca Sue . The book tells the story of her sister Becky - born with brain damage at birth - whose life was marked by both difficulty and transformation, humor and resilience. Kathleen shares what it was like to grow up alongside Becky, how storytelling became a way of honoring...

On Shifting Culture , we often ask: what does it mean to follow Jesus in the complexity of our world? In this episode, John Fugelsang helps us press into that question with clarity and urgency. John is a comedian, actor, and political commentator shaped by the unlikely pairing of parents who were once a nun and a Franciscan brother. His new book, Separation of Church and Hate , takes an unflinchin...

What happens when the church trades the way of Jesus for the way of empire? In this episode of Shifting Culture , I talk with theologian and activist Drew Hart about his latest book, Making It Plain . We trace the long history of Christendom, the Doctrine of Discovery, and the legacies of white supremacy that continue to shape American Christianity today. But this isn’t just a conversation about w...

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Trymaine Lee joins Shifting Culture to talk about his new book A Thousand Ways to Die and the true cost of violence in America. Known as a griot of Black survival and death, Trymaine has spent decades reporting on the lives and communities most affected by gun violence. But when he suffered a sudden heart attack at just 38, he was forced to reckon with the weight...

Prayer can be more than quiet reflection — it can be protest, solidarity, and a catalyst for justice. In this episode of Shifting Culture , I talk with Liz Theoharis and Charon Hribar about their new book We Pray Freedom , a collection of prayers, songs, and liturgies born out of the Freedom Church of the Poor. We explore how faith traditions can sustain movements, how ritual can become resistance...

When the world feels uncertain and fear threatens to overwhelm, how do we stay rooted in faith? In this conversation, theologian Hanna Reichel joins me to talk about the new devotional For Such a Time as This . We explore what history - especially the lessons of Germany a century ago - can teach us about resilience, discernment, and Christian witness today. Hanna helps us see that faithfulness doe...

The story of Christianity is full of paradox—spaces of violence and division becoming arenas of hope and redemption. In this episode, I sit down with priest and author Fergus Butler-Gallie to talk about his book Twelve Churches , which traces the history of Christianity through twelve remarkable church buildings across the globe. From Bethlehem to Birmingham, Rome to Japan, these spaces reveal the...

Natalie Runion returns to Shifting Culture with her new book I Don’t Even Like Women: And Other Lies That Get in the Way of Sacred Sisterhood. Behind the provocative title is a deeper story: how the church has too often handed women scripts of competition, gossip, and scarcity and how those scripts can be rewritten into something truer and freer. In this conversation, we talk about identity, trust...

What story are you living in? In this episode, Trevin Wax joins me to explore how the church can root itself more deeply in the story of Scripture. We talk about The Gospel Way Catechism, the ancient practice of catechesis, and why discipleship is more than just memorizing truths - it’s learning to walk in the way of Jesus. Along the way, Trevin shares why true freedom is found in submission to Go...

What if healing doesn’t happen in isolation, but only in community? In this episode Toni Collier talks about her new book Don’t Try This Alone and the hard-won lessons she’s learned about vulnerability, resilience, and the necessity of others in our journey toward healing. Toni shares her story of brokenness and betrayal, the seasons of hopelessness she’s endured, and how confessional community be...

What does it look like to seek justice when the problems seem too big to solve? In this episode, sociologist and justice advocate Kurt Ver Beek shares his journey from the Midwest to the front lines of Honduras - moving into one of the country’s most violent neighborhoods, confronting systemic corruption, and helping lead a nationwide police reform that saved thousands of lives. We talk about the...

Zach Lambert joins me for a conversation about how we read Scripture and how our reading shapes everything. We explore the lenses we bring to the Bible, the harm that can come from flat or literalist interpretations, and what it looks like to center our reading on the life and teachings of Jesus. Zach’s new book, Better Ways to Read the Bible , invites us to move beyond fear-based or power-driven...

When Clarissa Moll’s husband died suddenly, she was thrust into a new reality one shaped by deep grief, single parenting, and the quiet work of guiding her four children through unimaginable loss. In this episode, Clarissa shares hard-won wisdom about how children grieve, how adults can walk alongside them with care and presence, and how grief doesn’t need to be fixed it needs to be witnessed. We...

Karen Swallow Prior returns to the podcast to help us rethink what calling really is. It's not a passion we chase or a dream we conjure up, but something that comes from outside of us. Something we respond to. We talk about the slow work of vocation, how it shifts over time, and why pursuing what’s true, good, and beautiful in ordinary life might be the most faithful thing we can do. This con...

Stories aren’t just entertainment - they’re how we make sense of who we are, what we value, and where we’re headed. In this episode, writer and professor Sean Gaffney invites us to see story as a sacred thread woven through culture, theology, and discipleship. We talk about the shape of the meta story that undergirds all great narratives, how stories can form us spiritually, and why even blockbust...

What if aging wasn’t something to fear, but something to embrace? In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Kerry Burnight, a leading gerontologist and author of Joyspan , to explore how we can shift our mindset around aging. Instead of chasing anti-aging fads or resisting change, what if we cultivated joy, purpose, and connection across every season of life? Kerry unpacks the four practices at the hea...

When we live in constant noise and inner pressure, how do we learn to think clearly, live intentionally, and follow Jesus with our whole minds? In this episode, I sit down with clinical neuroscientist Dr. Caroline Leaf to explore the intersection of faith, mental health, and neuroplasticity. We talk about how renewing our minds is more than a spiritual idea - it’s a tangible, daily practice that c...

In this episode, I talk with Alex Fogleman about reclaiming the forgotten art of catechesis - not as rigid instruction, but as a living tradition that helps form whole people in the way of Jesus. We explore how the early church shaped new believers, what we’ve lost in our fast-paced, fragmented culture, and how we might recover a slower, deeper approach to discipleship today. This conversation off...

What’s really happening in Iran beyond the headlines? In this episode, I sit down with Lana Silk, CEO of Transform Iran, to explore the remarkable growth of the underground church in one of the most spiritually hungry regions in the world. Lana shares her powerful personal story from a childhood shaped by faith under Iran’s Islamic regime to leading a global discipleship movement impacting million...

Cyd and Geoff Holsclaw join the podcast for a deep conversation on spiritual formation, attachment theory, and why so many of us feel stuck in our faith. Drawing from their work in neuroscience, pastoral care, and discipleship, they unpack how our early relational patterns shape the way we experience God and how we can begin to heal. We explore the four “landscapes of the soul” (the pasture, jungl...

Brian McLaren returns to Shifting Culture to explore his new speculative novel The Last Voyage - a prophetic work of fiction set in a world unraveling from ecological collapse, authoritarianism, and cultural despair. But this isn't a story of resignation. It's a call to imagine differently. We talk about the role of art as prophetic witness, how fiction can shape moral imagination, and w...

In this episode, I sit down with Episcopal priest and author Leyla King to explore her deeply moving memoir Daughters of Palestine . Told through the voices of five generations of Palestinian women, Leyla’s book offers a powerful counter-narrative to the dominant Western framing of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Through personal and ancestral stories, she sheds light on the lived experience of...

What does it look like to resist empire without becoming empire? Poet and essayist David Gate joins the podcast to explore how care, friendship, and creative truth-telling can become acts of rebellion in a world shaped by power, productivity, and isolation. In this conversation, we talk about why individualism is a dead end, how to build communities that last, and why Jesus’ refusal to grasp power...

Today, we’re sitting down with Doug Lynam - Marine, monk, money coach, and author of Taming Your Money Monster . Doug doesn’t just help people build better budgets. He helps them untangle the deep wounds, attachment patterns, and spiritual beliefs that shape how we handle money. We talk about money not as a neutral tool, but as something we carry stories about - stories that often go back to child...

Today, Jackson TerKeurst joins me to share his extraordinary journey from the rural simplicity of a Liberian village to the chaos and trauma of war, and finally, to discovering a profound sense of belonging through faith, community, and adoption. Jackson recounts the harrowing experience of surviving as a child during Liberia’s brutal civil conflict, the transformative power of music and worship i...