The Ethan C. Lewin Podcast

The Glenns are back in town, which made for the perfect 4th of July weekend and a golden opportunity to finally ask something I've been curious about for years: who was Angus before Kaylene, and who was Kaylene before Angus? We talk about childhoods on opposite sides of the world, family, loss, friendship, and how two people from Pennsylvania and Australia found each other and built a life so many...

Graham Bier, the man behind the music at the Cathedral, has always been a bit of a mystery to me. So I tried to solve it. Graham grew up hands in the earth — free range, with miles of woods and wild to roam. The son of a conservation biologist who brought him through Pennsylvania forests hunting endangered species — Graham even discovered one that ended up in the Smithsonian with his name on it —...

Edmund Rhodes or “Mundo” doesn’t sugarcoat a thing. He feels comfortable to say what he thinks, even if it rubs you the wrong way — and if you disagree, good. He invites it. He doesn't back down from conflict, and he's not above stirring the pot.  But he wasn’t always comfortable in his own skin.  Growing up, Edmund was shy. It wasn't until he picked up the bottle that he discovered a...

At 94 years young, Major General Ronald K. Nelson reflects on nearly a century of experiences — from flying President Eisenhower as a young Marine helicopter pilot, to simultaneously building two careers over four decades: rising to the rank of two-star general in the Marine Corps Reserve while spending those same years coaching, teaching, and mentoring generations of students at the Academy of th...

I would like to say 52 weeks and 52 episodes flew by but I really can't. It's been long, rewarding, uncomfortable at times, and... really, really good for me. I was reluctant to be in the guest seat but Tony refused to let me off the hook and I'm glad he didn't. Tony did a great job keeping it grounded, using me as the lens to reflect on the podcast, the people, the stories, and wh...

“This is going to be a pretty dark interview… with suicide, Islamic dreaming, jihad… it may get a little dark. But anyhow, it is what it is, I guess. Welcome to my life.” There you have it — straight from Ben himself. Hard to top an introduction like that. But I will add this: beneath all the darkness Ben deeply cares. And despite the weight of the conversation, we shared a lot of laughs too. Ben...

John Rienstra was drafted ninth overall in the 1986 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers and later played for the Cleveland Browns. He played under Chuck Noll, Bill Belichick, and Bruce Arians — coaches who combined for 11 Super Bowl rings. He was nicknamed The Raging Rhino. At his peak, he could total over 2,000 pounds in powerlifting. But there was always an unseen side. Since his first year at...

Martha is a coach, a listener, and what she calls a "lay midwife for women's spirits" — someone who helps people come home to themselves. She’s also my godmother. She's known me since before I knew myself. That should be enough said. In this episode, we talk about what it means to truly see someone, why anger is almost always thwarted love, the stories we carry that keep us small...

If you asked a room full of ten-year-old boys what they wanted to be when they grew up, Lach Brown became all of them: a Vietnam War Cobra attack helicopter pilot, police officer, firefighter, and decorated veteran, holding the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, and Air Medal among others. In the traditional sense of what it means to be a man, he checks every box. But Lach is th...

Shawn Rose has lived a quiet, intentional life that looks a lot like a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, and in this episode he shares just how that path unfolded. Shawn has built his life around music and nature: perhaps best known as the piano accompanist to many generations, but there is more to this man than meets the eye. He has slept in a tent for the last 19 years, climbed trees closing in on 7,...

Marcia Perretto grew up in Brazil surrounded by physicians, fell in love with medicine early, and spent years becoming one of the most globally recognized specialists in Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and hypermobility disorders. But through all that training, she kept noticing the same flaw in the medical system: patients weren’t getting the time or attention needed to address root causes. So she built s...

On the surface, it’s easy to assume Darryl is fulfilling a predestined path, given he is the descendant of many Bryn Athyn “Greats.” But that version of the story misses the point entirely. To truly understand Darryl today, you have to meet the 16-year-old version of him in the mid-90s—a shorter, overweight, average student who made a quiet decision one summer day to start running laps around a ba...

My friends and I love to thrift, and Brenna Synnestvedt has been part of The Bryn Athyn Thrift Shop (better known as BATS) , my personal favorite, for the past 25 years, recently taking on management. She thrives on supporting the 90 volunteers and 7 staff to find their niche, transforming a simple thrift store into so much more than a place to donate unwanted items. On the surface, BATS might see...

Stephen D. Cole is a jack of all trades, descended from a lineage of brilliant minds. His father, Dandridge MacFarlan Cole, was a notable rocket scientist and futurist (look him up on Wikipedia!) who focused on practical space colonization concepts like hollowed-out asteroids for human habitats. Stephen grew up out west, fell in love with the outdoors, and then moved east for his father’s work. As...

For more than 30 years, Mare Odhner was the heart of the Academy school store. From behind the counter, she ran more than a place to buy books and grab snacks — it became a hub of student life. A place where students came to laugh, vent, get advice, and feel at home. Generations of students knew her on a first-name basis — Mare — and if you passed through the Academy during those years, chances ar...

Brendan Pitcairn grew up as the kid who didn’t quite have his tribe yet. So he went into the woods—spending his time fishing and hunting. What began as isolation and escape slowly became mastery—and eventually purpose. Today, Brendan is a husband, father, outdoorsman, and mentor passionate about guiding the next generation of boys back toward adventure, brotherhood, and the natural and spiritual w...

Owen Frazier might seem like just the guy you bring your car to but he’s built a life far beyond that. As the oldest of nine, Owen learned early that if he wanted something, he had to go out and get it. His love for cars and career obsession started around five years old in Austria, flipping through Mercedes , Volkswagen, and BMW annual reports and calling out the names of cars as they whizzed by....

Before 40 years at the Academy as a teacher, coach, house master, and assistant principal, Brian Horigan earned his work ethic the old-fashioned way. At 10, he was a paperboy. Later, he packed cans for Castrol Motor Oil. By his late teens, he took a leap — boarding a three-day train across Canada to work the oil rigs. From a sperm whale oil spill, to getting hit by a car, to a barn-beam jump gone...

In Part 1, we explored Blane’s life before and after his near-death experience. In Part 2, we dive deep into the NDE itself—crossing the great divide, encountering angels, meeting “the light,” and navigating the strange and sacred aftermath. Along the way, we touch on TBIs and PTSD, getting saved by a serial killer, exchanging animal noises with Prince at a Purple Rain concert, being accused of mu...

I grew up dancing my heart out at Bostock Band concerts—a band of siblings who’ve been jamming since childhood. Some of you might remember Swirled Whale. What I didn’t know back then was just how wild the eldest of the six, Blane Bostock’s, full mosaic really was. This is a long episode—and for good reason. When you die, leave your body, and experience a place without time or space, linear storyte...

Although just 28, Thorne Pendleton has already lived a few lifetimes. At 14, he survived a giant fusiform brain aneurysm. By sophomore year of high school he had missed nearly 100 days of school. Detached and looking for discipline, he left home to attend an all-boys boarding school in New England, an experience that helped shape his independence and outlook. After high school, a planned gap year...

From road-tripping across Europe with infants in diapers to immigrating from South Africa to the United States during Apartheid, Carol and her husband Neil — with their three boys in tow — left everything they knew behind. They crossed the ocean by ship, arriving in New York Harbor at sunrise, the Statue of Liberty on the horizon — a symbol of freedom and the life they were about to build, rooted...

A quick note from me!

While it’s essential to focus on what needs improving, it’s equally important to acknowledge what’s already going right. Nina Dewees lives this practice. Despite real challenges, she makes a deliberate, lifelong effort to look for the good . In the spirit of Rise Above It , Nina honors her parents through the gifts they passed on: her father’s spirit of adventure and her mother’s love of teaching....

Some conversations just click—thanks to Mr. Frazier, this may be one of my favorite dialogues yet. Scott Frazier is the Dean of the Theological School at Bryn Athyn College, and the only professor to ever give me a B. Scott’s journey of finding his calling is unique: from being homeschooled in Belgium during his junior year to returning to his hometown feeling invisible, he reflects on how a simpl...