Spiritual Misfits Podcast

Today is a replay of one of the most listened-to Spiritual Misfits episodes of all time — not because of a spike when it dropped, but because people just keep coming back to it. Every week, someone finds this conversation and sends it to a friend, or stumbles across it scrolling back through the feed. Becca, Caro and Will discuss the question: for those of us who grew up in evangelical Christian h...

When people ask Jessica Morthorpe what gives her hope, she gets a little wary. Sometimes it feels like they're really asking for permission to stop worrying — to feel better so they don't have to act. And that's why hope is complicated. Offered too cheaply, it becomes a sedative. In this episode, Will and Caro speak with Jess — founder of the Five Leaf Eco Awards — about sitting hon...

Carolyn Meers guides us through a winter reflection on the healing power of slowing down. Where ever you find yourself when you hit 'play' this is a kind and gentle invitation to move differently through whatever activities this day may hold, drawing on an ancient prayer from St Aidan of Lindisfarne, alongside some poetry by Mary Oliver. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or...

Pearl is a queer pastor with a PhD in history. Rev Kev is a former missionary who now sometimes identifies as an atheist pastor. Together, they are forming a new church community in Maitland — with misfits front of mind. Will is joined by Pearl and Kev in Mitch Forbes' office, where the four of them have a conversation about queering the bible, exploring negative/apophatic theology and how th...

Are apologists grifters? What happened to all the New Atheists? Can progressives Christians present a more compelling vision of faith that still has some backbone? Mitch and Will get into a free-ranging pub theology conversation that somehow ends up exactly where it needs to — thinking about what it looks like to communicate a more beautiful, more honest vision of Christianity for the times we liv...

Is violence ever justified? Are there wars Christians should support? If so, what would the conditions need to be? If not, why not? In this episode Will and Caro are joined by friend of the pod Becca De Souza and Micah Hurst, pastor at Ashfield Baptist Church, to explore four historic Christian frameworks for thinking about war: from crusades and preventative war through just war theory, biblical...

What is spiritual direction — and could it be what your soul has been looking for? In this episode, Caro sits down with three trained spiritual directors — Sally Jones, Peter Ellem, and Kym Dixon — for a warm, honest conversation about the ancient practice of spiritual accompaniment. Together they explore what spiritual direction actually is (and isn't), how it differs from therapy or pastora...

Will has a new collection of poetry out in the world — 'The Fossil of Us' — and Caro interviews him about the themes it explores. Along the way they discuss grief, masculinity, faith and what it means to be human, with Will reading a few poems as they go. Get the book here in Australia or on Amazon for international orders. Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions f...

What do you do with your faith after crisis — when the casseroles have stopped coming, people have moved on, and you're left in a strange in-between space between who you were and who you are becoming? Adriel Booker is an author, writer and dual Australian-American citizen whose latest book, Tethered to Hope , grew out of exactly that kind of liminal season — a succession of pregnancy losses,...

Does God actually have a specific plan for your life? This is the inaugural Spiritual Misfits 'roundtable', and Will is joined by three friends of the pod — Caro, Mitch, and Becca — to wrestle with a question that came straight from the listener Facebook group. It's one of those topics that can land very personally for many of us: how much of the inertia, anxiety, and lost time that...

What does AI reveal about where we've located our sense of worth? Graham Hill — theologian, and author of more than 30 books, including his recent release Born, Not Built: God's Children in an Age of AI — joins Will to explore what Christian faith has to say about human dignity in an age of intelligent machines. They discuss the 'Imago Dei', the difference between truth and pla...

After 200+ Spiritual Misfit episodes, Will sits down with long-time friend of the podcast (and new co-host!) Caro Meers to look backwards — and forwards. How did Spiritual Misfits begin? What's kept it going? And what does the next chapter look like with Caro on board? A conversation about community, curiosity, and why this little Australian podcast keeps finding people who need it. Want to r...

This conversation with Sally Longley was first published in October, 2024. We're bringing it back because it feels timely and relevant.  In a world that is loud, violent, and relentless, Sally Longley offers something quietly radical — a way of being present to the chaos without being consumed by it. We talk about Sally's commitment to nonviolence forged in apartheid-era South Africa, th...

It's Easter Sunday, and for the first time in Spiritual Misfits history, Caro and Mitch are in the same conversation. To mark the occasion, we're wrestling with the question that sits at the heart of the Easter story: did the resurrection actually happen — and does it matter how we answer that? Will, Caro and Mitch explore the tension between resurrection as historical event and resurrec...

Carolyn Meers guides us through a contemplation for autumn. As the leaves turn and fall from the trees, what might we let go of? Caro shares her observations then leads us through an embodied practice you can do almost anywhere (even if you're driving or walking your dog while you listen).  Future Church Conference | May 28, Parramatta Town Hall Spiritual Misfits listeners can get $10 off tic...

Ken Scott D is an author and thinker exploring the evolution of human intelligence, faith, and relational capacity in an age of rapid technological change. His work examines AI and modern technologies as extensions of human perception, and invites the church into a renewed vocation as a steward of relational and spiritual intelligence during times of transition. In this conversation we explore his...

This episode, we're taking you into the room for the launch of Edgewalkers: Reimagining Faith, Church and Theology — a new collection of memoir theology from At the Edges Publishing, featuring 20 contributors writing about what it looks like to practise faith from the fringes. Will hosted the contributor panel on the night, 'speed-dating' several of the book's contributors. You...

This is a replay of one of our highlight conversations from the archive. Originally released September 2024. Amy Kenny, author of 'My Body Is Not A Prayer Request,' joins Will for a discussion about disability justice and ableism in the church. She shares her experiences of being prayed over for her disability to be erased and the harmful treatment she received in the church. Amy emphasi...

Brad Watson spent years as a Salvation Army officer — humanitarian disaster responder, senior leader, insider. He's also gay. In this conversation, Brad shares what led him to research the lived experience of LGBTQ+ officers within the Salvation Army, and what he found: stories of moral injury, religious trauma, and quiet resilience, gathered from officers who trusted him with their experienc...

Andrew Cox is a Filipino-Australian poet, performer, and the facilitator of Canberra Poetry Slam. In this conversation, we explore how poetry spaces can function as alternative spiritual communities — places of transcendence, vulnerability, and belonging outside traditional religious frameworks. Andrew shares his journey from earnest young performer to community curator, wrestling with questions o...

Justine Toh is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX) and a writer whose work appears regularly in The Guardian. In this conversation, Will and Justine explore the crisis of attention in our digital age — what we lose when our attention is fragmented, what it costs to reclaim it, and if the concept of 'a hidden life' might help us. This conversation doesn&ap...

What if the beliefs you were taught don't all have to stand or fall together? James McGrath, a New Testament scholar who went through his own faith reconstruction, joins Will to talk about what comes after deconstruction. Using the metaphor of DIY home renovation, James explores how we can take ownership of rebuilding our worldview without guilt - recognising that even the most conservative C...

Mitch and Will hang out with a cuppa in Mitch's lounge room and discuss the state of the world. They talk about raising kids in progressive faith communities, Australia's social media ban for under-16s, and why it's so hard to build thick community when everyone wants the benefits of belonging without the commitment. They wrestle with whether their kids are learning to intuit God or...

What comes after faith deconstruction? Tiffany Yecke Brooks joins Will to talk about "second-time-around spirituality" — the beautiful, uncertain space of rebuilding after everything falls apart. Drawing on the final image from Dante's Inferno, Tiffany explores what it means to emerge from hell and 'rebehold the stars'. Tiffany and Will discuss why our understanding of God...

Amar D. Peterman joins Will to discuss his forthcoming book Becoming Neighbors: The Common Good Made Local — a constructive vision for how Christians might practice radical neighbour love in a world that often rewards self-sufficiency and tribalism. Born in India and raised between a Polish Catholic neighborhood and a white evangelical megachurch in Wisconsin, Amar knows what it's like to be...