Carry The Fire Podcast

Hey friends, thank you for all the support for the past 96 episodes, Patreon included, we've created this year. Andy Lara and I take a moment to discuss the future with a new Thrice album being produced, and we chat a bit about some of the highlights over the past year. Cheers. 

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Today we are joined by Dr. Pete Enns. Pete is an author and a professor of Biblical Studies.

In our conversation we talk about the importance of changing your mind, we discuss inerrancy and ideology, and Pete shares some of his thoughts on the Christmas story as it relates to his evolving and dynamic understanding of what the scriptures really are.

Today we are joined by friend, the singer and songwriter Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids.

In our casual and meandering conversation we talk about kickball and community in Matt’s hometown of Lawrence Kansas, we discuss The Good Place and how humans think about mortality and immortality, and Matt tells us what writing over 1200 songs for other people has meant for his songwriting skills. You’ll also hear about the most money that Matt ever won rolling dice. Let’s dive in.

Today we are joined by professional soccer player Ali Krieger. Ali has been an integral part of the Women’s US national soccer team over the past few years winning two world cups, and also plays for the Orlando Pride.

In our conversation we discuss advances in LGBTQ rights and Women’s rights and the responsibility she feels to use her voice for good, we talk about the difficulty of not deriving your identity completely from things that you pour yourself into, and Ali shares what it’s like to represent the US on the world stage.

Today on the pod we are joined by the writer D.L. Mayfield. In our conversation we talk about the role of the imagination in transforming the world, we discuss the way that hearing from diverse perspectives transforms your imagination, and we talk about the way that ideologies, or Capitol-T truths, inoculate us against reality, and a whole lot more.

Today we are joined by Dr. Rabbi Brad Artson. Rabbi Artson is a speaker, educator, and philosopher, and is the Vice President of the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. We discuss octopi and butterflies, he explains how he invented process theology on his own only to find out that he’d been beaten to the punch, and he shares some hot takes on Hanukkah that you probably haven’t heard before.

Enjoy this BONUS episode where Chris and I break down our collab playlist, Songs of R/EVOLUTION available on Spotify. This is a new Patreon format and. wanted to kick it off with a free episode for the public as well. Enjoy.

Today we are joined by my friend Chris Conley. Chris is the singer and songwriter of the band Saves the Day, and has been making great music under that name for nearly a quarter-century at this point.

Chris shares about how he persists in creation and shuts out both the naysayers and the expectations of his fans, we talk about the nostalgia as it relates to Chris’s newest music and reissues of classic records, and what Chris finds helpful in the Buddhist understanding that life is suffering.

We also talk about a bonus episode that we did together which will be accessible to everyone, but in the future will be a perk for members of Patreon who support this show.

Today on the podcast we are joined by Dara Molloy. Dara is a Celtic priest, a writer, and a guide for pilgrims on the Aran Islands where he lives off the coast of Ireland.

In our conversation, we talk about some of the negative consequences of institutions and globalization, Dara shares what sets apart the Celtic tradition from the Roman Catholic one he was a part of previously, and he shares about the importance of experience in his own life.

Today on the pod we are joined by Elaine Howard Ecklund. Dr. Ecklund is a professor of sociology at Rice University where she founded the Religion and Public Life Foundation. She spends much of her time researching the relationship of science and faith as they relate to social groups, and this is also the focus of her new book which we will discuss throughout the episode.

We talk about the importance of both racial and religious representation in the scientific fields, we explore the reasons undergirding the animosity that can exist between the science and faith communities, and Elaine shares her ideas about shared values as a possible way to work past and through those tensions.

Today on the pod we are joined by Brian McTernan! Brian is a music producer and musician who has been instrumental in the making of a slew of amazing records, including two of my band Thrice’s earlier albums. We’ve been friends ever since and it was a blast getting to reminisce with him as well as talking to him about his new band Be Well, and their new album.

In our conversation, as on the new record, Brian opens up about struggling silently for years with depression, we talk about the unique role that a producer plays in the life of a record and a band, and we spend some time talking about records we worked on together and the amazing community of bands that orbited his studio during that era.

Today we are joined by Sam Rocha. Sam is a professor of Philosophy of Education, a writer, an avid guitar player, and consequently, will end up making some wonderful yet super nerdy musician analogies along the way today.

Our conversation centers often around Rocha’s lifelong Catholicism and I enjoyed hearing about the deep ways that his tradition has shaped him and his views. We explore the way beauty has shaped his own faith journey, we discuss Catholic critiques of atomistic individualism and capitalism, and my favorite part might be Sam comparing Karl Marx to a guitar pedal. Let’s dive in.

Today we are joined by Preeti Chhibber. Preeti is a Young Adult (YA) author, speaker, and freelance writer, and co-hosts two podcasts as well. Fair warning, we definitely go to some nerdy places today but I promise there’ll be a lot in there for everyone.

We talk about her new Yoda picture book and the connections between the force and eastern spirituality, we talk about representation both in modern fiction and in The Hindu pantheon, and we explore the way that representation affects not only those represented but also the rest of society as well.

Today we are joined by Jared Byas. Jared is the cohost of the podcast The Bible for Normal People and is a former teaching pastor and professor of philosophy and biblical studies.

On the show we talk about Jared’s new book, Love Matters More, digging into the different ways the concept of truth is often misunderstood and misapplied, and Jared introduces me to a helpful new word and concept that will help us really understand how differently we all experience reality.

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Today we are joined by Chef Danny Bowien. Danny is best known for his restaurant Mission Chinese and is known throughout the food industry as a very talented and innovative chef. Danny ends up kind of interviewing me for a decent portion of this episode because he’s just curious and friendly like that.

We talk about quite a bit about the similarities and differences of the way creativity and expectations function in both the music and food industries, we discuss cooking at home and I get a bit of a lesson on how to cook in a Wok, and we end with Danny sharing a bit about Narx, his band with Geoff Rickly of Thursday and Chris Conley of Saves the Day.

Today on the pod we are joined by Jeremy Courtney. Jeremy is the founder and CEO of Preemptive Love, a global organization providing relief, jobs, and community to end war. For the past 15 years, Jeremy has served families on the frontlines of the world’s biggest crises, and he lives with his family in Iraq.

In our conversation Jeremy expounds on the ways that we don’t value all lives equally, we explore connections between ISIS and white nationalism and the faiths that underlie and animate those groups, and Jeremy encourages us to leave room in our bags so to speak, for the good, true, and beautiful things that other people are holding out to us.

Hey everyone! Today we are joined by Jessica Dore. Jessica uses Tarot through a psychological/spiritual lens to help people better understand themselves and their connections to the world around them.

We talk about the connections between therapy, self-care, and Tarot, we talk about the way Tarot can help us see beyond all the ways that we get stuck in binary thinking and can reawaken our mythic imagination, and Jessica even does a brief reading for me at the end of the episode. Let’s dive in.

Today we are joined on the pod by the very gifted songwriter, singer and guitar extraordinaire, Jessica Dobson.

Jessica has played guitar on the road with the likes of Beck, The Shins, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but now puts most of her musical efforts into her band Deep Sea Diver.

In our conversation, We talk about the upcoming Deep Sea Diver release and if being known as a band’s band is a good or bad thing, Jessica shares about working with and befriending her unhoused neighbors, and we talk about both the trials and the triumphs of being married to your drummer.

Today on Carry the Fire Podcast we are joined by Dr. Omid Safi.

Omid is a Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He specializes in contemporary Islamic thought and classical Islam, including mystical Persian poetry, especially the poet Rumi, which he explores in his book Radical Love and also now in his online course which we’ll talk about a bit later. I spent a lot of time preparing for this one and then barely asked any of the questions I prepared, which always means it was a good conversation.

We discuss the way that great art is always universal but still should not be severed from its roots and context, Omid shares about how he’s benefited from his engagement with other religious traditions, and we talk about why reading nearly 800 year old poetry can be important not only for nourishing our own souls, but also for bringing about justice and making love real in the world today. This was one of my favorite conversations so far and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did. Let’s dive in.

Today on the podcast we are joined by none other than the fierce and beautiful and lovely Shadlie Kensrue, my wife. Shadlie is a former Level 1 Trauma ICU Nurse and is currently the school nurse for a large high school.

In our conversation Shadlie talks a bit about the current pandemic and what we can all be doing to get us out of this sooner, she shares somewhat she’s seen and learned in her various nursing roles included her thoughts on how we view death and how we empathize with those different than us, we discuss motherhood from a few different angles, and Shadlie shares a bit of advice for how to deal with being married to someone as difficult as me at times. It was such an honor to get to go deep with this amazing woman, and there are even a few things I learned that I hadn’t known before.

Today we are joined by Jon Foreman. Jon is the singer of the band Switchfoot, he makes amazing music on his own, and with other friends. He is simultaneously one of the most charismatic frontmen out there and also one of the nicest humans you'll ever meet.

Today on the Pod we are joined by David Dark. David is an author, professor, and probably my very favorite person on Twitter, as he pokes and prods curiously, thoughtfully, and earnestly into our assumptions and hypocrisies.

In our conversation, we talk about Marvel and myth, beloved community, robot soft exorcisms, and much more. Including David's idea that “Religion is politics, is what we do, and how we speak in the way that we think about other human beings.”.

Today on the podcast we are joined by Eric Silver. Eric is one of the hosts of my very favorite podcasts, Join the Party. Join the Party is a collaborative storytelling podcast using the framework and mechanics of the popular game, Dungeons & Dragons. Eric the “DM” or Dungeon Master,  of the Join the Party Game. We’ll learn more about what that means as we go. Some of you might be thinking that maybe you’ll skip this one and that D&D is not for you. But, if you stick around I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised and intrigued.

Eric and I talk about the magic of collaborative storytelling, we discuss the way that he tries to craft Join the Party to be open and inviting in a variety of ways, and he shares how his Jewish heritage and faith influence his storytelling.

Today on the pod we are joined by Chuck Wendig. Chuck is an author and storyteller in a variety of mediums. He is most well known through his novels, the most recent of which is titled Wanderers and which I read recently and really enjoyed.

In our conversation, we talk about the way that fiction interacts with the good, the true, and the beautiful including the relationship of canon to both fiction and religion, the way that fiction can help us see things that reality has obscured, and the way that the best fiction both gives you an escape while simultaneously bringing you right back to the real issues from a novel perspective, pun intended. Let’s dive in

Hey everyone! Today on the pod we are joined by William Matthews. William is a recording artist, a host of the popular podcast The Liturgists, and an advocate for social change fighting against racism, voter suppression, climate change, and more.

In our conversation we go deep into the good, true, and beautiful of Star Trek and I try to get William to sell me on why I should be a Trekkie, we discuss philosopher Rene Girard’s theories of mimetic desire and scapegoating, and William explains why certain voices should be excluded from the conversation not because they are conservative or liberal, left or right, but rather because they are bad-faith actors being weaponized against us. Let’s dive in.

Today on Carry the Fire we are joined by Thomas Jay Oord. Tom is a philosopher, a theologian, author, and all-around good dude.

In our conversation, Tom explains the ins-and-outs of Open and Relational theology, and he explains why it might be good news if God has a different kind of agency or power than the standard omnipotence many of us have been told is the only game in town.

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Today we are joined by Moiya McTier. Moiya is an astrophysicist and folklorist with a passion for worldbuilding.

We talk about her work studying exoplanets and galactic dynamics, we discuss why we can trust the scientific process precisely because it makes mistakes and owns them, and Moiya makes some helpful connections and analogies relating global and galactic systems to systems of oppression. Lets’ dive in.

Today on the pod we are joined by Matthew Caws, singer and songwriter of one of my very favorite band, Nada Surf. Matthew, as you'll hear, is an exceedingly kind and thoughtful soul and I had such a great time talking.

We discuss the connection between philosophy and pop music, Matthew explains why he writes about love so much and what kinds of love he is singing about, we hear his early reflections on wonder and growing up in Manhattan and so much more.

Today we are joined by Brett Gurewitz, guitarist and one of the main songwriters in the seminal punk band, Bad Religion. Brett also owns and operates the independent and highly successful and influential music label, Epitaph Records.

On the show today we talk about Brett’s love for science & Science fiction. We discuss the promises of punk rock and how it’s failed or delivered on its promises. Brett shares about how own spiritual practice. And we discuss throughout on how this all intersects.

Today on the pod we are joined by Valerie Forstman. Valerie is an associate master Zen teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan tradition, and also has a Ph.D in Hebrew Biblical Interpretation.

In our conversation she tells the story of her introduction to Zen practice, she talks about the way her practice has impacted her life and specifically how it is impacting the way she walks through these strange times of the social distancing and canceled plans, and she shares about some of the ways that Zen gave her new ways to interpret the unconditional love she found in her spiritual roots.

Today on the pod we are joined by the one and only Kevin Devine. Kevin is a very talented singer and songwriter and one of my favorite people I’ve met in the 20 or so years I’ve been playing music for a living.

We talk about the relationship of true strength to vulnerability, Kevin shares a bit about his approach to songwriting, and I force Kevin to speculate a bit on why he’s such a nice fellow. It was so great to catch up and pick Kevin’s brain a bit and I’m sure you’ll all enjoy the conversation. Let’s dive in.

Today on Carry the Fire Podcast we have Cindy Wang Brandt. Cindy is an author, a podcaster, and a public speaker. She’s written a book, Parenting Forward: How to Raise a Children with Justice, Mercy, and Kindness, and has a podcast by the same name. A former conservative Christian missionary, Cindy underwent a phase shift and now speaks and writes about how that has impacted her life and how it impacts the often overwhelming and bewildering tasks of raising children.

In our conversation, Cindy recounts the story of her own phase-shift and gives her advice for others going through similar situations. And she shares tips for parenting in a way that does justice for your children and also helps them to learn how to do justice in the world around them.

Today on Carry the Fire Podcast we are joined by the esteemed professor John Cobb Jr. Dr. Cobb is an American theologian, philosopher, and environmentalist. Cobb is often regarded as the preeminent scholar in the field of process philosophy and process theology. He is also the author of over 30 books and he just celebrated his 95th birthday. He was the first theologian elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences for his interdisciplinary work in ecology, economics, and biology.

While Dr. Cobb is well versed in process philosophy much of his work has been as a process theologian. Process philosophy and theology provide us a means for retaining values such as the good, the true, and the beautiful as well as explaining God’s agency in the world all without denying what we learn through science. And, often aligning more with what we learn through science vs what we learn through strict materialism. This is a bit of a heady conversation but, John is wise and a delightful human. I believe you will all enjoy this.