The Habit

Emma Fox is the author of The Carver and the Queen , an historical fantasy novel based on the folklore of Siberia. In this episode, Emma talks with Jonathan Rogers about piano lessons, teaching and mentoring young writers, and how she got interested in Slavic folklore.  Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/member See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Philip Yancey has written and published more than 25 books. He is known for his honesty, his willingness to wade into difficult questions–and, more to the point, his unwillingness to give easy answers to those difficult questions. In his latest book, published by Rabbit Room Press, Philip Yancey engages the seventeenth-century poet and preacher, John Donne. Undone is Philip Yancey’s modern renderi...

Diana Glyer teaches in the honors college at Azusa Pacific University. Her writing and research focus on C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the other Inklings. Her most recent book is The Major and the Missionary . Dr. Glyer edited this collection of letters between Warren Lewis, the brother of C.S. Lewis, and Dr. Blanche Biggs, a medical missionary in Papua New Guinea. Their conversation spans faith...

Carolyn Leiloglou’s new middle-grade novel is Beneath the Swirling Sky: Book 1 of the Restorationists Trilogy . It’s a book about art, creativity, and reclaiming the creative energy that comes so naturally to small children. It’s also about a family of people who can go into old paintings and walk around in them. Like her main character Vincent, Carolyn is the granddaughter of art collectors and t...

Dr. Jennifer L. Holberg is professor and chair of the English department at Calvin University and codirector of the Calvin Center for Faith and Writing , the home of the Festival of Faith and Writing, which will be happening live and in person next April, for the first time since 2018. Her new book is Nourishing Narratives: The Power of Story to Shape Our Faith . In this episode, Dr. Holberg and J...

Curt Thompson is a psychiatrist, a speaker, and the author of several books–most recently, The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope . In this episode, Curt and Jonathan Rogers talk about what it means to be hospitable to your own suffering, engaging suffering as the way of redemption, and the role of storytelling in mental and spiritual health. Support the show: https://therabbitroom...

Harrison Scott Key's new memoir is How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told. It’s the story of how infidelity tore his marriage apart, and how he and his wife Lauren patched it back together. It is hilarious, and it’s wise, and it’s exceedingly hopeful. To quote the jacket copy, “How to stay Married is a comic romp unlike any in contemporary literature, a wild Pilgrim’s Progress t...

In this, the final episode of the Hometown Stories summer series, writers from The Habit Membership tell stories about NEW hometowns. Hometowns change, and for a little while, at least, you can find yourself a stranger in your own hometown.  Loren Warnemuende: Michigan  Rachel Donahue: Spain Desi Ana Sartini: Southeast Asia Holly Schurter: Illinois Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfue...

Karen Swallow Prior is one of the leading evangelical writers and commentators our time. Her new book is The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis . In this episode, Dr. Prior and I talk about the role of imagination in the making of meaning, and we talk about what happens when we start to examine the unexamined metaphors that make it possible for u...

In this, the sixth episode of the Hometown Stories summer series, writers from The Habit Membership take us to all four points of the compass. Sara Dredge takes us north to Ontario, Canada. Sarah Bannerman, Lindsay Kyle, and  Monica Olsen take us south to Mississippi and Louisiana. Laura Love goes east to China. And Shannon Stephens takes us west–or, in any case, to the West Virginia of his childh...

Russell Moore is Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today. His new book is Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America . He invites unmoored and discouraged Christians to step into an uncertain future, letting go of the kind of culture-warring, politicized Christianity that has led us to this moment of reckoning. In Losing Our Religion , Dr. Moore shows how we might steer clear of both...

Summer Short’s new book is The Legend of Greyhallow . Kirkus Reviews called it “A delightful, engaging otherworldly adventure sure to charm. This fun read artfully combines our reality with Greyhallow's...fans of The Lord of the Rings and portal fantasies will find much to enjoy.” Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/member See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s episode, the fifth in the Hometown Stories series, takes us to Texas. We’ll blow up a gas station in the Panhandle. We’ll check out some tumbleweeds in West Texas. We’ll pop over to Bryan Texas, to wonder how and why Bryan made somebody’s best-of list, and why a big-city reporter would want to deny them their moment of glory. And finally, we’ll go squirrel hunting in tiny Bluff Dale Te...

In honor of the Fourth of July, this episode of The Habit Podcast continues the Hometown Stories summer series with five reminiscences of small-town America by writers from The Habit Membership. Prepare for a gauzy, nostalgic look at the kind of Americana that makes you want to eat watermelon and listen to music by John Philip Sousza. Expect parades, fireworks, corn on the cob, pioneers on the Wes...

Andrew Peterson is a singer-songwriter, he’s the author of The Wingfeather Saga as well as two nonfiction books, Adorning the Dark and The God of the Garden . He’s the executive producer of the Wingfeather television series . He’s the founder and president of The Rabbit Room. He’s a sought-after speaker. In this episode, recorded in front of a live audience at The Habit Writers' Weekend, Andrew an...

Hometowns are full of fathers and mothers. In this episode, Andrew Peterson and four writers from The Habit Membership share stories involving their fathers and mothers. Andrew Peterson on Lake Butler, Florida Gina Gallagher on Morton, Pennsylvania Kori Frazier Morgan on Kent, Ohio Katie Rizzo on Aspen, Colorado Judith Millar on Fivemiletown, Northern Ireland and Amarillo, Texas Find out more abou...

In this episode the Hometown Stories series continues with a trip to California. To paraphrase Walt Whitman, California is large. It contains multitudes. Whatever you envision when you think of California, you can be sure the opposite is also true. This tour of the Golden State is brought to you by four writers from The Habit Membership—Gypsy Martin, Jaclyn Hoselton, Kendra Britez, and Reagan Dreg...

This episode kicks off the "Hometown Stories" summer series. As the name suggests, this  series features stories from writers' hometowns. In this episode: Jonathan Rogers on Warner Robins, Georgia Anna Eastland on New Denver, British Columbia Jana Shirk on the Finger Lakes region of New York Elizabeth Harwell on Murray, Kentucky This episode features writers from The Habit Membership . Support the...

For nearly twenty years, Ben Shive has been producing and collaborating with musicians including (but not limited to) JJ Heller, Colony House, Ellie Holcombe, Dave Barnes, The Gray Havens, Andrew Peterson, Melanie Penn, Randall Goodgame, Sandra McCracken, Jill Phillips, and Keith and Kristyn Getty. He recently signed on as a writer for Getty Music . Ben sat down to talk with Jonathan Rogers about...

K. B. Hoyle is a writer of many genres and talents. She’s the author of the teen fantasy series, The Gateway Chronicles, and the adult dystopian series, The Breeder Cycle. She has also done fairytale retelling and science-fiction fantasy. She’s a columnist and staff writer at Christ and Pop Culture , and she is the cofounder, CEO, and acquisitions editor of Owl's Nest Publishers , an independent p...

Arthur Boers’s new memoir is Shattered: A Son Picks up the Pieces of His Father’s Rage . In it he reflects on coming of age in an immigrant family scarred by violence. In this episode, Arthur Boers and Jonathan Rogers talk about breaking family codes of silence, living with ambiguity while still taking a clear moral position, and beach glass. Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/...

Claude Atcho is a pastor in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the author of Reading Black Books: How African American Literature Can Make Our Faith More Whole and Just . As Josh Larsen has said, this work of Christian literary criticism is written "with the passion of a book lover and the urgency of a preacher." In this episode, Claude Atcho and Jonathan Rogers visit some of the great works of twenti...

Dr. Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt is associate professor of art and art history at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. Her new book is Redeeming Vision: A Christian Guide to Looking at and Learning From Art . In this episode, Dr. Weichbrodt and Jonathan Rogers talk about embodied vision, loving vision, and transforming vision, as well as the importance of paying attention to what you see bef...

Alan Noble is associate professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University. He’s co-founder and editor in chief of Christ and Pop Culture , and an advisor for the AND campaign . He has written for The Atlantic, Vox, BuzzFeed, The Gospel Coalition, Christianity Today, and First Things. His new book is On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living. It’s a book about mental suffering, whether...

Ashlee Gadd is the founder of Coffee + Crumbs , a website, podcast, and newsletter devoted to encouraging mothers through storytelling. Her new book is Create Anyway: The Joy of Pursuing Creativity in the Margins of Motherhood . In this episode, Ashlee and Jonathan Rogers talk about the ways that creativity and motherhood, instead of being opposing forces, can actually complement one another. They...