Spiritual Geography Podcast

We often focus on what comes next—how to shape the future, how to make an impact. But what if the most powerful thing we can do isn’t strategizing or striving, but simply showing up, fully present and in integrity with who we are? In 1969, Mister Rogers did just that when he testified before Congress, not with forceful arguments, but with quiet authenticity. His presence alone shifted the energy i...

Have you been feeling somewhat bleak? Perhaps the chaos and uncertainty all around has led to feelings of powerlessness. Reducing our own stress and anxiety leads to better decision making. And we can do that by performing simple acts of kindness. Not only are we helping others and ourselves, even one act of kindness can create a ripple effect far beyond what we can see. As I drove through my neig...

I dragged my feet walking toward the cafeteria. As I entered through the doors my eyes darted from side to side as the smell of overcooked French fries and overapplied cologne assailed my nose. Where were my friends? My heart was pounding. I let out an audible sigh as I saw some friends at a table in the far back right corner of the cafeteria. Out of the way. Granting enough invisibility to let me...

My mother said I was a starry-eyed dreamer. She didn’t mean it as a compliment. She thought I looked at life through rose colored glasses and wasn’t being realistic about the world, other people, or my future. She worried for me because she thought I would be disappointed over and over again unless that idealism was nipped in the bud. I tried to be practical, I really did, but this persistent beli...

At the start of every year many of us make resolutions. These resolutions usually involve us doing something: improving our waistlines, increasing our physical activity, or enhancing our financial situation. However, resolving to improve our emotional state might be the best resolution we can make. And that helps us with every other kind of resolution we could make. We often think that achieving g...

I have to admit that having political discussions right now is at the bottom of my list of fun things to do. People who voted differently than I did don’t seem to understand my perspective. And, honestly, I don’t understand theirs. I especially don’t understand the voters who feel as if their perspective is the one consecrated and sanctified by Jesus himself. When an issue is made sacred, logic se...

I conceptualized Spiritual Geography as a mountain, with infinite ways of climbing the mountain of spirituality to the top where one has a wider vista. What if I’m wrong? What if there is only one viable path to the truth? [Don’t worry - I’m not going rogue or anything. This is my thought exercise to get me back to where I started - love as the source of all.] Religions change over time. Spiritual...

Janet, in whose spiritual development circle I sat for seven years, used to say that her only religion was a religion of kindness. What Janet didn’t know, and what science is starting to find out, is that acts of kindness, whether performed of witnessed, produce oxytocin, the hormone related to bonding and love. So merely doing a simple kind act, like holding the door for someone or picking up som...

Someone asked a question this week that has stuck with me: If you could write the next chapter for humanity, what would you write? This week’s episode is focused on envisioning that world. In the midst of fear and anxiety about what might happen next, take a moment to imagine the world as you would like it. Joni Miller is a writer, researcher, spiritual coach, and speaker who uses her knowledge, e...

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), or “Tapping,” is an effective technique to acknowledge and release feelings in order to replace those crappy feelings with positive thoughts. If you listened to “What is ‘Miracles’ are Merely Science We Haven’t Figured Out Yet?” podcast episode, you may know that I don’t care how it works, merely that it does. I have faith science will eventually catch up. If you...

Life lessons from Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss: “A person’s a person no matter how small” and if we stay very quiet, we may hear a cry of “We are here! We are here! We are here!”   and discover an entirely new world on a speck of dust. What don’t we know about the co-inhabitants of our planet? In this episode I have a lot of examples from the incredible animal world, mostly from the three TED t...

Science can look like a miracle to those who have never seen it. Think of all the time-travel tropes in movies where the person traveled back in time with a lighter in their pocket. With every click and resulting flame, the person looked like a magician or a god to those who had never experienced that technology. We are surrounded by incalculable mysteries. For as much as we know about the human b...

I created Spiritual Geography because I believe we each have our own way of comprehending and interacting with that something beyond our understanding and earthly experience. We may call this something that lays beyond names like God, Spirit, Source, or the Universe. Or the words I tend to favor: the Transcendent, the Divine, and the Infinite. I believe anyone’s spirituality can be a useful subset...

I view the Bible as a sacred text, something that informs my understanding of the Divine but does not complete it. Everyone reading the Bible has their own interpretation of what the words mean – for their lives and their spirituality. There is no one definitive understanding of the Bible or the verses contained therein. The Bible is a strange book, comprising stories that were passed down in oral...

What happens after we die is one of the greatest mysteries of humanity. The religious traditions of the world have various beliefs, ranging from disappearing into nothingness to reincarnation to the Christian concept of heaven and hell. So who goes to heaven and who deserves everlasting punishment? Speaking as if you know with certainty that hell exists and some significant subset of the populatio...

What kind of courage and conviction does it take to come out as gay when that revelation could mean blowing up your whole life? In most parts of conservative or evangelical Christianity this disclosure could - and often does - lead to rejection by family, friends, and the church community. The repercussion of this rejection is often a pervasive feeling that the person isn’t worthy of love. Isn’t w...

If we want to understand our world better, to get closer to a more complete perspective, we need to be consciously open to changing our minds. It requires great vulnerability to say, “I see things differently now.” Or “I was wrong before and now I know better.”   This is tantamount to saying, “I made a mistake,”words far too rare to hear in our society.  In moments where we admit error, we become...

We humans are programmed to resist changing our mind. People tense up when faced with cognitive dissonance, the psychological conflict that arises when new beliefs conflict with existing beliefs. Our brains want to bring us back to equilibrium so our beautiful brains seek out cognitive distortions to keep our world secure. Our physical reaction is the first step to awareness that our brain may not...

We often act as if we dropped out of our mother’s womb with our current positions on things like racism, sexism, or the environment, but our positions have been shaped and informed by our life experiences, the information we’ve consumed, and the people around us. We sometimes respond in social media as if we believe one well-phrased argument will change someone’s mind, as if logic alone can lead s...

Talking about your deeply held spiritual beliefs with someone is like walking into a room with the other person sitting in the middle and surrounded by eggshells. Some people have a small circle of eggshells around them. They can brush off things they don’t agree without any harm. However, some people have the whole room filled with eggshells so there is barely any space to tiptoe closer. And the...

Hopelessness is the emotion I fear the most, so I’ve found creative ways to get out of hopelessness without brushing aside any real issues that may have precipitated the feeling. I can’t fix the world. But I can make choices that help me deal with that world better. Spiritual Geography is an email newsletter/podcast designed to help you find your unique home in the spiritual/religious universe. Al...

We are all interconnected and interdependent. Interconnected with those who came before us - for better or worse. Interdependent on those around us - for better or worse. Our lives weave in and out of each others, creating something no one person could imagine. More than the sum of its parts. Less than the ideal vision of what is possible. What I do today matters. If I bring my best self into ever...

2026 Update: In this early episode of Spiritual Geography , I explore the complicated religious history behind the founding of the United States — and why the architects of the Constitution intentionally separated church and state. The colonies were filled with Christians who deeply disagreed with one another: Puritans, Catholics, Quakers, Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, and many more. Those disa...

I have never understood evangelism. How can someone be so certain? And not merely certain for themselves, so certain they know what is right and true that they believe everyone should think and feel the same way? I first encountered evangelism as a freshman in college. I was left with a negative impression. And I came away with one solid foundation that has ruled my faith ever since: If God exclud...

Everyone’s spirituality contains elements that are not provable. Wondering whether what you believe is true is a perfectly understandable human reaction. [I reference the day my brother died in this episode. The full story is in Episode 1 Spirituality Doesn't Fit Into a Box ] Joni Miller is a writer, researcher, coach, and speaker who uses her knowledge, education, and love of all things spiritual...