The Plunge with Derek Holser

Welcome to Episode One of The Human Series: Formation, Identity, Intimacy, and Sexuality.        Today's guest is Margaret Fay, a Licensed Professional Counselor and National Certified Counselor based in St. Louis, Missouri, with a practice rooted in the integration of mind, body, and spirit. Since 2014, she has guided adolescents and adults through anxiety, trauma, and life transitions using appr...

Welcome to the final episode in our series George MacDonald for Every Generation.     Joining me today is Stephanie Staples, a Nashville based singer-songwriter. Stephanie has spent over half of her life writing, recording and sharing her songs all over the world.      She has recorded ten full-length records and multiple EP's. Stephanie's studio albums tell part of her story but it is in her live...

Welcome to Episode Seven in our series George MacDonald for Every Generation. Joining me is a father-daughter duo: Erik Ritschard and Jenni Cannariato. We discuss growing up in a MacDonald-enriched household, and the power of the legacy of a healthy an loving image of our heavenly father.      Erik is a lifetime educator who's taught "just about every subject offered." Now Head of Schools at Grace...

Welcome to Episode 6 in our series George MacDonald for Every Generation, Aging & Death with Kerry Dearborn. This episode is dedicated to my father, Neil Holser, who passed away on June 18, 2025. Kerry Dearborn is the very grateful wife of Tim Dearborn, mother of three amazing daughters, Alison, Andrea, and Bethany, mother-in-law of their wonderful husbands, and grandmother of their 8 delightf...

Welcome to Episode Five in our series George MacDonald for Every Generation.      Today's episode features Dr. Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson, renowned George MacDonald scholar, and in my estimation, the living embodiment of Hospitality, Community, & Ecology.      Kirstin is a Georeg MacDonald scholar who lives on a farm in the Ottawa Valley, Canada. She writes and lectures internationally on MacDona...

Welcome to Episode Four of our series, George MacDonald for Every Generation.     Today's episode is entitled "George MacDonald, Matchmaker". That's right, my guests today, Jenni and Thomas Cannariato, began dating and were later married as a direct result of George MacDonald!     Jenni and Thomas share this story and many more, as we discuss courtship, marriage, and raising young children in ligh...

Welcome to Episode 3 in our series George MacDonald for Every Generation.     This episode features a new friend to the Plunge, Amanda B. Vernon. Amanda is winsom, jolly, hopeful, and quite learned. We discuss the transition of young adults to discovering their vocation, purpose and meaning in life. In particular, how young people today are moving toward what she calls the beginning of the end of...

Welcome to Episode Two in our series George MacDonald for Every Generation. This episode focuses on the journey every one takes from childhood to early adulthood.      Joining me today is Bret van den Brink. Bret is an MA (and future PhD) student in English at the University of Toronto. He completed his BA at Trinity Western University, where he twice received its C.S. Lewis and Friends Scholarshi...

Welcome to Episode One in our series George MacDonald for Every Generation. This episode features Julie Canlis and Leah Holser.     Today's conversation reviews George MacDonald's background and his own experience within a community that embraced Federal Calvinism, a very strong and austere derivative of Calvinism. We explore how MacDonald gently resisted some of these ideas, and how his imaginati...

Welcome to episode two of two featuring Jordan Daniel Wood, Assistant Professor of Theology at Belmont University.     In this conversation, Jordan and I conclude our discussion of Time and Trauma and the work of the Incarnation in his to-be-published essay: The End of Trauma: The Patristic Doctrine of Deification and Trauma Theory.   Jordan holds an M.A. from St. Louis University and a Ph. D. fro...

Welcome to episode one of two, featuring Jordan Daniel Wood, Assistant Professor of Theology at Belmont University.     In this conversation, Jordan and I discuss Time and Trauma in light of his to-be-published essay, The End of Trauma: The Patristic Doctrine of Deification and Trauma Theory.     Jordan holds an M.A. from St. Louis University and a Ph. D. from Boston College, both in Historical Th...

Welcome to the final episode in our 12-part series on Owen Barfield: The First and Last Inkling.     Today's episode is short and sweet. It's just a few of my reflections on what I learned in conversations about the magnificent Owen Barfield. As well as an admonition to take risks, swing big, and be relentlessly curious!     Connect with Derek: X: https://X.com/derekholser TikTok: https://www.tikt...

Welcome to episode eleven in our twelve part series on Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling.      Today's episode features a conversation with Landon Loftin, PhD, professor at Gravitas: A Global Extension of The Stony Brook School.     Landon and I discuss Barfield and C.S. Lewis's infamous "The Great War" and Barfield's instrumental role in helping create the Society for the Protection of...

Welcome to the tenth episode in our twelve part series on Owen Barfield: The First and Last Inkling.     Today's conversation features Jeffrey Hipolito.  Jeffrey is an independent scholars from Seattle.     Jeffrey and I discuss Barfield's Anthroposophical vision, his relationship with the ideas of many thinkers, his dedication to the heritage of Romanticism, and life and meaning in a world with "...

Welcome to episode nine in our twelve epiose series on Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling.     Today's conversation features Stephen Dunning, PhD. We discuss Charles Williams, perception, consciousness, love, romance, and a host of philosophical insights and literary figures.     Stephen is a writer of fiction. His new series, The Perilous Times Saga, was recently published, with book one...

Welcome to episode eight in our twelve episode series on Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling.     Today's episode features Laura Van Dyke, PhD. Laura teaches in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C. Her interests are in the environmental humanities, 20th-century British and Canadian literature, and the writings of the Inklings. She he...

Welcome to episode seven in our twelve episode series on Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling.     Today's episode features Nate Hile, creator and curator of Grail Country, a popular YouTube and Substack channel.  https://www.youtube.com/@grailcountry https://grailcountry.substack.com/     Our conversation dives into such luminaries as Kurt Cobain, Valentin Tomberg, Emil Bock, Bernardo Kast...

Welcome to episode six in our twelve part series on Owen Barfield: The First and Last Inkling.     Today's episode features Owen A. Barfield, the only grandchild of Owen Barfield and the Trustee of the Owen Barfield Literary Estate. https://www.owenbarfield.org/      Our conversation covers Barfield's life experiences, his abiding friendship with Cecil Harwood and C.S. Lewis, his marriage to Maud...

Welcome to Episode Five in our Twelve Episode series on Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling     Today's episode features Michael Di Fuccia, director of the Cultura Fellowship at the Martin Institute (Westmont University) and Research Fellow for the Centre of Theology and Philosophy, Nottingham, UK.      Michael is certified as a spiritual director through the Anglican diocese of New Englan...

Welcome to Episode Four in our Twelve Episode series on Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling      In today's episode, Michael Di Fuccia, Director of the Cultura Fellowship at the Martin Institute (Westmont University) and Research Fellow for the Centre of Theology and Philosophy, Nottingham, UK.     Michael is certified as a spiritual director through the Anglican diocese of New England. He...

Welcome to Episode Three in our 12-week series: Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling     In today's episode, Eugene Terekhin, a philologist, philosopher, translator, and author of Eleven Hidden Gems in the Works of the Inklings: The Music of Iluvatar in the Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield as well as Forty-Four Mystical Insights into the Books J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lew...

Welcome to Episode Two in our 12-week series:   Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling     In today's episode, Max Leyf Treinin, a certified Rolfer and Professor of Philosophy from Anchorage, Alaska, joins me and provides tremendous insight into the work of Owen Barfield, his connection to Rudolf Steiner, the evolution of human consciousness, language, and our need for reintegration of the wh...

Welcome to our newest series. Owen Barfield: The First & Last Inkling.     This episode provides a brief introduction to Barfield's life and work. In the weeks to come, we will host thoughtful conversations with 10 different guests, each providing a unique perspective on Barfield's philosophy, spirituality, and the imagination.     We will discuss the influence of Rudolf Steiner on Barfield, t...

Today's episode is a special bonus! Joining me is my good friend and co-author of Bryce and the Lost Pearl, the first book in the Lightglider Origins series, a seven-book Middle Grade fantasy fiction series published by New Growth Press.   In this episode, Zach and I discuss the work of cultivating a faithful imagination in the next generation, and the importance of story in technology, faith and...

Welcome to the 9th and Final Episode in our series on C.S. Lewis's novel, The Great Divorce. Join us as we explore the ideas presented by Lewis in this fantastic tale, a dream vision, written in response (according to Lewis) to William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.   Today's conversation features Jess Lederman. In this episode, Jess and I discuss how he came to faith in Jesus Christ, ho...