Tent Talks with Dr Stephen Backhouse

The start of the new season in 2024 marks the end of the current season for Tent Talks. We are bringing our podcast in to land, with a series of final thoughts from former guests, hosts and friends of the show. Join Stephen Backhouse in a series of conversations as we explore The Last Word. This final episode contains conversations with Eve Poole and our first ever guest, Golibe Omenaka. You can l...

The start of the new season in 2024 marks the end of the current season for Tent Talks. We are bringing our podcast in to land, with a series of final thoughts from former guests, hosts and friends of the show. Join Stephen Backhouse in a series of conversations as we explore The Last Word. Episode Three features co-host Sean McCoy in a conversation with Rachel Howell about what faith looks like w...

The start of the new season in 2024 marks the end of the current season for Tent Talks. We are bringing our podcast in to land, with a series of final thoughts from former guests, hosts and friends of the show. Join Stephen Backhouse in a series of conversations as we explore The Last Word. Episode Two features co-host Chris Marchand offering a coda to his series on "Women in Church Leadership" wi...

The start of the new season 2024 marks the end of the current season for Tent Talks. We are bringing our podcast in to land, with a series of final thoughts from former guests, hosts and friends of the show. Join Stephen Backhouse in a series of conversations as we explore The Last Word.  Episode One features Brad Jersak, Natasha Beckles and friends. You can find Brad HERE . :) More about Natasha...

Left, Right, or in the middle? Guest host and previous guest to the Tent Sheyi Martin-Allens presents a series of conversations with black and brown friends from across the political spectrum to discuss their thoughts on having Britain's first Asian prime minister along with a government containing an increasing amount of ethnic minorities. The series works through a number of conflicting question...

Left, Right, or in the middle? Guest host and previous guest to the Tent Sheyi Martin-Allens presents a series of conversations with black and brown friends from across the political spectrum to discuss their thoughts on having Britain's first Asian prime minister along with a government containing an increasing amount of ethnic minorities. The series works through a number of conflicting question...

Left, Right, or in the middle? Guest host and previous guest to the Tent Sheyi Martin-Allens presents a series of conversations with black and brown friends from across the political spectrum to discuss their thoughts on having Britain's first Asian prime minister along with a government containing an increasing amount of ethnic minorities. The series works through a number of conflicting question...

Left, Right, or in the middle? Guest host and previous guest to the Tent Sheyi Martins-Allens presents a series of conversations with black and brown friends from across the political spectrum to discuss their thoughts on having Britain's first Asian prime minister along with a government containing an increasing number of ethnic minorities. The series works through a number of conflicting questio...

Dr. Emily Hunter McGowin has entered the Tent to take part in Chris Marchand's annual Christmas episode. She has just released her new book Christmas: The Season of Life and Light which offers reflections, insights, and gentle challenges about how we celebrate the holiday season. The conversation dwells on the major themes Chris addressed in his own Christmas book as well as past episodes, namely,...

Austin M. Freeman, professor at Houston Christian University , joins the tent for another bonus episode to discuss J.R.R. Tolkien's views on non-violence and war. Who exactly is the "pacifist" in The Lord of the Rings and why isn't it Tom Bombadil? In two archival episode segments Melody Green, dean of Urbana Seminary , is featured with her owns thoughts about Tolkien. Dr. Freeman is the author of...

Musician, songwriter, and worship leader Rachel Wilhelm joins the Tent with Chris Marchand to discuss her new album Jeremiah and how she approached writing songs that speak truth to leaders in power while also calling for communal repentance. Though a bonus episode, this conversation pieces together a number of elements from previous Tent Talks series: 1) Rachel contributed the theme song to Chris...

One of the episodes we received the most feedback about was when Clare Backhouse, Stephen's wife, appeared in our "How to Love" series. Clare, a qualified and registered nutritional therapist, is now launching her own podcast, "Nutrition With Love." Her first episode, which we are releasing as a bonus, goes into her background story and why nutrition plays such a vital role in our overall health....

Previous Tent guests Danielle Shroyer and Thomas Jay Oord join Sean for the fifth episode of the Disagree series to offer their perspective on how to enter into difficult conversations with calmness and an inner peace that does need to force other people to switch to your side of an argument. It may take us years to do so, but they point the way to helping engage with sharp disagreements in ways t...

Ryan Walker joins Sean McCoy for the fourth episode of the Disagree series to discuss the ins and outs of being a lobbyist and policymaker within the U.S. Government. Taking a relational approach Ryan hopes to help groups in Washington D.C. "wade through the bureaucracy and manage the increasing unpredictability of politics" in order to help them come to make difficult decisions for complex soluti...

Dr. Anika Prather is a literature professor, classical educator, and author. She is currently the Director of High Quality Curriculum and Instruction at Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and with her husband founded The Living Water School. She joins the Disagree series to discuss with Chris Marchand how to approach teaching about and having difficult conversations about race and racism...

Pete Wehner is an American writer and former speechwriter for the administrations of three Republican U.S. presidents. He is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and a contributing editor at The Atlantic , He joins Stephen Backhouse for a respectful and honest conversation on violence, patriotism and the Christian witness: topics about which Pete and Stephen deeply disagree. You ca...

This is the first episode in our new series "Disagree". We are talking with people from different sides of different aisles and from people on the frontlines of some of the most contentious issues of the day. How can we disagree well?  What is the value of disagreement? Is it worth it? Can be it good? What happens when it goes bad? To help kick off the series we spoke with Simon Croft. Simon is a...

In the final episode of her series on Interrupting Serious Youth Violence Rev. Natasha Beckles covers how the Compassionate Communities toolkits are centered around helping churches to work within their communities to interrupt serious youth violence. Using the meaning behind the figure of the Pieta as a foundational image (Mary holding Jesus after being taken down off the cross) she also discusse...

In episode 3 of Interrupting Serious Youth Violence Tent Talks co-host Rev. Natasha Beckles discusses power and privilege with Leroy Logan. Logan is the UK's most highly decorated and well known black police officer and is the founding member of the Black Police Association. He is the author of "Closing Ranks", which detailed his time as a senior police officer in London and had his story dramatiz...

Tent Talks co-host Rev. Natasha Beckles continues her series on Interrupting Serious Youth Violence with a discussion about education and belonging in a conversation with education thought leader Rachel Clarke. Through conversations and interviews, Natasha takes on the systemic and personal issues that create unsafe communities for our children and looks to solutions for what schools and churches...

In this episode Tent Talks co-host Revd. Natasha Beckles begins her series on Interrupting Serious Youth Violence. Through conversations and interviews, Natasha takes on the systemic and personal issues that create unsafe communities for our children and looks to solutions for what schools and churches can do about it. This first episode gives an overview of the "big picture" of youth violence and...

Brad Jersak's most recent book Out of the Embers deals with deconstruction in all its forms. Tent Talks invited Brad to make a four-part series on the themes of his book.  In this fourth episode has a conversation with Judith Moses, a seasoned indigenous political activist in Canada who is known for working on the committee that worked with Canadian prime ministers to ensure the First Nations char...

Brad Jersak's most recent book Out of the Embers deals with deconstruction in all its forms. Tent Talks invited Brad to make a four-part series on the themes of his book.  In this third episode he sits down with Felicia Murrell to explore deconstruction from a path of love and understanding but also as a black woman in the American context. Felicia is a certified master life coach, a former ordain...

Brad Jersak's most recent book Out of the Embers deals with deconstruction in all its forms. Tent Talks invited Brad to make a four-part series on the themes of his book.  In this second episode he sits down with David Hayward, the NakedPastor, to talk about deconstruction, staying in relationship as we go through the process of reshaping our faith, and finding community in the aftermath of it all...

Brad Jersak's most recent book Out of the Embers deals with deconstruction in all its forms. Tent Talks invited Brad to make a four-part series on the themes of his book. In this first episode he sits down with Brian Zahnd to talk about deconstruction, reconstruction and the church. Zahnd is a pastor, speaker and prolific author, well known for his stance against Christian nationalism. You can fin...