The UpWords Podcast

Thank you for listening to The UpWords Podcast. We wanted to send you a quick message to let you know that we will be moving to every-other-week podcast releases in July and August this summer, and returning to weekly podcast releases in September. Have a blessed summer!    Send us Fan Mail CONNECT WITH US Subscribe to The UpWords Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and visit slbf.org/studio t...

What do evangelicals mean when they talk about “supporting Israel” — and how did Jewish–Christian dialogue evolve from centuries of suspicion into the conversations happening today? In the third installment of our series built around the Last Questions of Faith community lecture, host Jean Geran welcomes historian and author Dan Hummel for a wide-ranging conversation on Christian Zionism, evangeli...

What if many of us have been taught to read the Bible in a way it was never meant to be read? In this special live event recorded by Upper House, BibleProject co-founder Tim Mackie returns to Madison — the city where he earned his PhD in Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at UW–Madison and pastored at Blackhawk Church — to share the story behind one of the most widely used Bible-teaching resources in...

Too many Christians, Jerry Sittser says, sit at a banquet table and eat only one food. In this episode, host Tressa Spingler talks with theologian, historian, and author Dr. Jerry Sittser — professor emeritus of theology at Whitworth University — about the newly revised edition of his book Water from a Deep Well and the spiritual inheritance many believers overlook. Drawing on the monks’ rhythm of...

In this episode of The UpWords Podcast, host Jean Geran sits down with biblical scholar Seth Whitaker to explore a question at the heart of Christianity's origins: how do Jews and Christians read Scripture differently—and what holds their interpretive traditions together? Drawing on his doctoral research at the University of St Andrews on the use of the Psalms in the book of Hebrews, Seth arg...

What do you do when the church — the very community that's supposed to reflect the love of God — becomes a source of real pain? Host Dan Johnson sits down with Scott Bessenecker, author of Bad Religion, Good News: An Honest Guide to Spiritual Disappointment , for an unflinching conversation about church hurt, institutional failure, and the long road toward healing. Drawing on four decades of...

What would it look like if the church took seriously the 80,000 hours most people spend at work over a lifetime? In this conversation, host John Terrill sits down with Matt Rusten — pastor-turned-vocational-discipleship-advocate and author of Pastoring for Monday: Help Your Congregation Integrate Faith and Work — to explore one of the most neglected dimensions of Christian formation: our everyday...

What does it look like when a Jewish New Testament scholar sits down with a Christian host to talk about how two ancient traditions read the same texts — and reach such different conclusions? That's exactly the conversation host Jean Geran has with Dr. Amy-Jill Levine in this wide-ranging episode recorded in Madison, Wisconsin. AJ Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Stu...

This week on The UpWords Podcast, we're bringing you something a little different — and we think you're going to love it. We're sharing the first episode of a brand-new podcast series from the Lumen Center and SLBF STUDIO: American Evangelicals, A History Podcast. Hosted by historians John Fea, Dan Hummel, and Maggie Capra, this series takes a thoughtful, deep dive into one of the m...

STUDIO at the SL Brown Foundation is launching a brand new podcast, and we wanted to share it with our faithful listeners of The UpWords Podcast.  If you like what you hear, click the links below to subscribe or follow the show: Listen on the web = https://americanevangelicalsahistorypodcast.buzzsprout.com Apple Podcasts = https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/american-evangelicals-a-history-podca...

What if picking up a book could become a form of prayer? In this conversation, host John Terrill sits down with Jeff Crosby — publisher, author, and lifelong champion of the written word — to talk about his book World of Wonders: A Spirituality of Reading (Paraclete Press, 2025). Jeff brings more than four decades in bookselling and publishing to a deeply personal question: why should we read? His...

What does it look like to be a faithful Christian in the public square without losing your soul in the process? In this conversation, host Rebecca Cooks sits down with Justin Giboney — attorney, ordained minister, political strategist, and co-founder of the AND Campaign — for a candid, thought-provoking dialogue on faith, politics, and moral imagination. Drawing from his book Don’t Let Nobody Turn...

Dallas Willard believed that the aim of God in human history is the formation of a community of loving persons — people apprenticed to Jesus, shaped by his character, and prepared to co-reign with him in eternity. In this episode of The UpWords Podcast, host Dan Hummel sits down with Keas Keasler, author of the first comprehensive academic study of Willard’s theology. Together they trace Willard’s...

Artificial intelligence is everywhere — but what does it mean for us as humans, as embodied creatures, and as people of faith? In this episode of The UpWords Podcast, host Dan Johnson sits down with Noreen Herzfeld, a computer scientist turned theologian who has been thinking seriously about AI and humanity since the 1980s. Together they explore why we are driven to create AI in our own image, wha...

What does it mean to be human before God? In this episode of The UpWords Podcast, host Dan Johnson sits down with pastor and author Reed Dent, whose new book The Gospel of Being Human: How Asking Better Questions of the Bible Reveals Who We Are (co-authored with Marty Solomon) challenges one of the most deeply held assumptions in Christian culture: that being human is a problem to overcome.  Drawi...

What role does forgiveness play in the hard, often painful work of building peace? In this episode of The UpWords Podcast, host Jean Geran sits down with her longtime friend Todd Deatherage, co-founder of Telos, a nonprofit helping leaders navigate conflict and work toward reconciliation in some of the world’s most challenging places. Drawing from decades of experience in the Middle East, Northern...

What does it mean to give yourself fully to something — a marriage, a calling, a city, a cause — and still make peace with the fact that you won't get everything you hoped for? In this episode of The Upwards Podcast, host John Terrill sits down with professor, author, and longtime friend Steve Garber for a wide-ranging conversation about vocation, faithfulness in a particular place over time,...

What does it take to build a city where every person truly belongs? In this episode of The UpWords Podcast, we walk the streets of Madison, Wisconsin — metaphorically and literally — with two people who have spent their careers shaping it. Host Rebecca Cooks welcomes Jason Ilstrup, president of Downtown Madison Inc., and Peter Tan, architect and Chief Design Officer Emeritus of Strang Inc., to dis...

In this episode of The Upwards Podcast, host Tressa Spingler sits down with author and pastor Tiffany Stein for a conversation that goes where the church often doesn't — into the deep, disorienting territory of grief, lament, and the silence of God. Tiffany's new book, Mourning God , was born out of the loss of her infant son David, who lived only 53 days, and the years of secondary infe...

In this deeply reflective conversation, host John Terrill welcomes pastor, author, and practitioner Mark DeYmaz for an exploration of Christian peacemaking. Drawing from his new book Make Me an Instrument of Peace and his decades of work leading multi‑ethnic congregations, Mark unpacks the biblical, historical, and practical foundations of living as Christlike peacemakers in a fractured cultural m...

In this deeply honest and theologically rich episode of The Upwards Podcast , host Jean Geran sits down with philosopher and biblical scholar S.J. (Shannon) Parrott for a wide‑ranging conversation on shame —what it is, how it forms, and how the transforming presence of Christ meets us in our most vulnerable places. Drawing from her own story, her research on metaphors of clothing and nakedness, an...

In this episode of The UpWords Podcast , host John Terrill welcomes pastor and author Matt Erickson for a rich, thoughtful exploration of pastoral ministry through the lens of agrarian imagery. Drawing from his new book The Pastor as Gardener , Matt Erickson shares how the rhythms of soil, seasons, and cultivation offer a renewed vision for ministry in a time when many pastors feel depleted, disor...

In this Lenten conversation, host Tressa Spingler sits down with longtime bookseller and friend of Upper House, Byron Borger of Hearts & Minds Books, to explore how the church year—and especially Lent—can shape our discipleship. They reflect on wilderness imagery, repentance, almsgiving, contemplative reading, and what it means for Jesus to meet us in our “low places.” Byron introduces a rich...

In this episode of The UpWords Podcast , host Dan Johnson sits down with author and scholar Karen Swallow Prior to explore one of the most pressing questions of our time: What is my calling? Drawing from her new book, You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful , Karen unpacks the difference between calling, vocation, work, and career—and why confusing them can leave...

In this episode of The UpWords Podcast, host Dan Hummel sits down with historian John Fea, distinguished professor at Messiah College and visiting fellow at the Lumen Center, to explore one of the most debated questions in American history: Was America founded as a Christian nation? John shares insights from his Upper House lecture, unpacking the complexity behind this question and why it matters...