The Habit

Loren Warnemuende is the author of Exile , Book 1 of the Daughter of Arden trilogy. She started writing Exile in 1995. But life intervened, and the story languished for two decades and more. That delay, as it turned out, made it possible for Loren to write a better book. Anyone who has faced writing roadblocks will find Loren's story encouraging. Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel....

Dawn E. Morrow writes poems for people who think they don't write poetry. Her debut collection is The Habit of Hope . Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/member See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Drew Bratcher is a journalist and essayist whose work has appeared in Oxford American, Los Angeles Review of Books, Paris Review, Nowhere Magazine, Garden & Gun, and Image Journal . His debut book is Bub: Essays from North of Nashville . It combines memoir and arts criticism—particularly country music criticism. In this episode, Drew Bratcher and Jonathan Rogers talk about oral storytelling, j...

Rachel Marie Kang is the author of Let There Be Art: The Pleasure and Purpose of Unleashing the Creativity Within You . In this episode, Rachel and Jonathan Rogers discuss creative collisions, finding balance between art-making and other life-responsibilities, and creating right where you are. Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/member See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inf...

Sean Dietrich is a blogger, a storyteller, a musician, a novelist, a memoirist, and a columnist. On his blog, Sean of the South , he posts a new story every day about the people and places of the American South. His new book is You Are My Sunshine: A Story of Love, Promises, and a Really Long Bike Ride . In this episode, Sean and Jonathan Rogers talk about paying attention, talking to strangers, a...

Andrew Roycroft is a poet and pastor in Northern Ireland. His new collection, 33 , consists of 33 poems, each 33 words long, meditating on the life and words of Jesus from the Gospel of John—plus 33 essays about the 33 poems. In this episode, Andrew and Jonathan Rogers talk about poetry's power to distill meaning, the poetic implications of John's idea of Logos made flesh, and Seamus Heaney. Suppo...

Audrey Elledge and Elizabeth Moore started writing liturgies and prayers for their local church in New York City as a way of helping their friends and co-congregants deal with the fear and isolation of the COVID-19 lockdowns in their city. Those liturgies grew to become their new book, Liturgies for Hope: Sixty Prayers for the Highs, the Lows, and Everything in Between . In this episode, Audrey an...

MaryAnn McKibben Dana is a writer, a free-range pastor, a speaker, and a leadership coach. Her most recent book is Hope: A User's Manual . MaryAnn embarked on this book as a way of writing herself back to hope after a grueling few years of life and world events. In this episode, MaryAnn and Jonathan talk about hope that is not predictive, the difference between hope and optimism, and the ways that...

James K.A. Smith is a philosopher and a professor at Calvin University. He is also the editor in chief of Image , a quarterly journal at the intersection of art, faith, and mystery. His work has been especially formative for me. His new book is How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now . In this episode, Jamie Smith and I talk about Ecclesiastes, no-when...

Journalist Bonnie Kristian writes opinion pieces on foreign policy, religion, electoral politics, and more. Her column, "The Lesser Kingdom," appears in print and online at Christianity Today . She is a fellow at Defense Priorities, a foreign policy think tank, and her work has been published at outlets including The New York Times , The Week , USA Today , CNN, Politico , Reason , and The Daily Be...

Ron Block is the banjo player for Alison Krauss & Union Station and the author of Abiding Dependence: Moment by Moment in the Love of God . In this episode, Ron and Jonathan Rogers discuss finding one's true identity, repentance without negative self-talk, and getting free of the anxiety and fear that eat up processing power for a writer or artist. Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givin...

Katelyn Beaty is the author of Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits are Hurting the Church . In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called the book "a must-read for anyone invested in the fate of evangelicalism." In this episode, Katelyn and Jonathan Rogers talk about the difference between fame and celebrity, the need to challenge (and not mimic) celebrity culture, and the...

David Zahl is the founder and director of Mockingbird Ministries, editor-in-chief of the Mockingbird website , and co-host of The Mockingcast . His new book is Low Anthropology: The Unlikely Key to a Gracious View of Others (and Yourself) . He writes, "Low anthropology keeps the avenues of communication open. It provides a bulwark against burnout. It has led to a kinder view of myself and a fount...

Melanie Penn is a singer-songwriter with a background in musical theater. Through the pandemic, she produced and released twenty pop singles. Those singles have been bundled into two albums: More Alive, Volumes 1 and 2. Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/member See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joshua Stamper is a composer and collaborator on projects that cross genres and disciplines, from jazz, classical, and avant-garde music to film, dance, visual art, and poetry. In this episode, Joshua Stamper and Jonathan Rogers discuss discord and dissonance, complexity and contingency, and paying attention to the music that is all around us. Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com...

Doug Powell is a musician, songwriter, designer, coder, Christian apologist, amateur magician, and now a fiction writer. He recently published Among the Ashes , the second in his Graham Eliot series of biblical archeological thrillers. Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/member See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sarah Mackenzie is the host of Read-Aloud Revival , a podcast, website, and membership that helps parents nurture warm family relationships and book-loving children through reading aloud. Her new book, is itself intended to be read aloud. Sarah recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for her picture book A Little More Beautiful , which was illustrated by Breezy Brookshire . Support the show: http...

Over the last few years, Lore Ferguson Wilbert has been moving toward a more contemplative and expansive faith. She has learned to be more curious, living into questions as a way of being present with God, rather than seizing too quickly on answers that may not be as helpful–or true–as they first appear. That trajectory gives shape to her new book, A Curious Faith . Support the show: https://thera...

Julian R. Vaca is the author of The Memory Index, a novel set in a world where a disease has ravaged human memories, and people depend on artificial recall. Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/member See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Richard Gibson and Jim Beitler are English professors at Wheaton College. In 2020 they published a book together called Charitable Writing: Cultivating Virtue through Words, in which they explore the ways that writing can be a spiritual discipline and a means of loving God and loving our neighbors.  Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/member See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...

Glen Scrivener is the Director of Speak Life , a UK-based organization that shares the love of Jesus through creative communication. He is a speaker, a producer of online content, and the author of several books. His latest book is The Air We Breathe: How We All Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality . In it, Glen makes the case that Western culture isn't as post-Christian as...

Dave Connis has written young adult novels in the past—Suggested Reading and The Temptation of Adam. But his most recent books are icture books that explore the connections between human creativity and the creativity of the God in whose image we are made. The Inventions of God (and Eva) came out in 2021. The Stories of God (and Kiki) came out earlier this year. Support the show: https://therabbitr...

Mary McCampbell is Associate Professor of Humanities at Lee University in Tennessee. She is also the author of Imagining our Neighbors as Ourselves: How Art Shapes Empathy . In order to truly love and welcome others, she argues, we need to exercise our imaginations, to see our neighbors more as God sees them than as confined by our own inadequate and ungracious labels.  Support the show: https://t...

Nancy Guthrie is a Bible teacher and speaker and the author of twenty-something books. Her most recent book is Blessed: Experiencing the Promises of the Book of Relevation . Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/member See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Singer-songwriter Allen Levi lost his brother and best friend Gary ten years ago this summer. He memorializes his brother's life—and especially the year he was his brother's full-time caretaker—in The Last Sweet Mile , recently re-released by Rabbit Room Press. In this episode, Allen and Jonathan Rogers discuss the impossible challenge of putting words to the things that matter most, and the reaso...