Heathen

Hi heathens! We're going on tour! And we can't think of a better reason to break our nearly 2-year silence. In this episode, get the inside scoop on TWO new albums full of fantastic music, and then come hear it in person. We can't wait to see you, west coast.

All four heathens are in the house and we're talking about gender, how to destroy it, and the art of drag. Everyone grows up under the massive pressures of the binary gender, and religious folks usually have a few extra layers weighing us down. Drag is one way to expand, fuck with, and blur the boundaries of the binary and help us find a little big of wiggle room—freedom, even—in the clothes that constrain us. It's also having a cultural moment like never before, and there are parts of it that are problematic AF. We go there, too.

We doubt we’re the first to introduce you to the phenom behind the very popular, very powerful platform God Is Grey, but if this does happen to be your first time encountering Brenda Marie Davies, we’re excited for you. Brenda is, in her own words, a sex-positive, LGBT+ affirming, science-believing, intellectual Christian. She’s also an author and YouTube personality and what we like to call a shame destroyer. Brenda has taken a strong stand on holding the church accountable when it comes to purity culture, inclusion, and more. Her new book, On Her Knees: Memoir of a Prayerful Jezebel, chronicles a decade of her spiritual journey in LA through marriage, divorce, unlikely friendship, and sexual exploration. It’s an honor to have Brenda on Heathen.

Westerlight is an Indie-Americana duo made up of Oklahoma singer-songwriters Rachel and Jonny Hupp. We talk with them about their shift from being worship leaders, how they quit church on accident, and what it’s been like to make music  during a pandemic. You’ll love this deconstruction conversation with Westerlight (and your two newest co-hosts, Anissa & Ben!).

Westerlight’s songs capture the modern ache of existence by directing an unflinching eye towards themes of hard-won love, frustrated faith, and unlikely hope in the midst of it all. In spite of their penchant for contemplative themes, Westerlight brings an electric charge to their folk stylings. After years of writing songs together, the husband and wife pair have crafted a sound that is as fresh as it is familiar and as graceful as it is gritty.

Welcome to the first episode of our new series we're wink-nudge calling Raising Hell!*

Anissa and Karyn are taking on the complicated work of parenting through and beyond religious deconstruction. In Raising Hell episodes, we'll connect with experts, good books, and each other about what's working (and what isn't) for raising our little ones outside of fundamentalism, the Ten Commandments, and Sunday School.

This first episode is a grab-your-coffee, pull up a chair, and vent/celebrate/troubleshoot-with-your-besties chat. It's long, and winding, and VERY us. Because this parenting in 2021 gig is MUCH. At least we're all in it together.

*our kids are great, we promise. The best ones. Legit fantastic.

You've probably seen her Instagram or TikTok accounts. Meet Blair, the internet phenom who is shaming purity culture and helping us all have the sex life we want. She's using social media to skillfully expose the damage purity culture does, dismantling it one deluded, destructive lie at a time.

Welcome back, heathens! There are four of us now. Meet your two new hosts, Anissa Nishira and Ben Grace, as they join Karyn and Flamy (formerly Matthew!) for a rousing round of catch up, sneak peek, and reflections on where we are a few years into this journey of deconstruction.

Look, here's the thing: maybe Jesus was an alien. Lots of folks say he was God incarnate and the savior of the world. But maybe he was an alien. It's worth a conversation, and if Heathen isn't the place for that conversation, we don't know what is.

Tess Meissner, hypnotherapist and Heathen fan favorite guest from season 2, is back in this long-lost episode recorded in July of 2019, but recently rediscovered buried in a folder under the wrong title. And we're so glad we found it, because it's a hilarious, sincere, beautiful discussion about possibilities. It's hopeful, it's human, and it's our absolute delight to bring Tess back to the Heathen conversation again, because we can't get enough of her.

Three members of the band The Many—Leslie Michele, Darren Calhoun, and Lenora Rand—are here with a declaration: love is greater than fear. Drawing on indie pop and gospel influences, The Many is a liturgically-grounded new kind of worship band, an intentionally diverse collective making music for people to sing together to bring more hope, love and beauty into the world. The songs and  experiences they create give voice to faith and doubt, laments and longings, inspire resistance to hatred and exclusion, and always remind us "we are on this earth to love.”

For those of us who grew up in some form of purity culture, the landscape of shame and its scars is deeply familiar terrain. Author, Licensed Mental Health Counselor Associate, and host of the incomparable Queerology podcast Matthias Roberts’ commitment to the long work of learning to trust our bodies, embrace our sexuality, and live fully into our most passionate possibilities is exactly the sort of prophetic heresy we are ALL about.

Azure Antoinette talks poetry, church, and Motown. We're thrilled to share this conversation about the road to owning your own spirituality.

David Wimbish is part of The Collection, a North Carolina band we have fallen in love with. We're betting you will, too. Enjoy this discussion about apostasy, divorce, Sufism, music, and more.

Welcome back, heathens! It’s the start of season 4, it’s Valentine’s Day, and Derek Webb is back to talk love, relationships, breakups, and so much more.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays, heathens! We're back with our final episode of 2019 and it's just family: Karyn and Matthew sit down to celebrate 50 episodes of Heathen and talk about why we feel old... and why we feel that's a good thing. Categories are: elderhood and mentoring, the freedom found in failure, and why it's better to experience spirituality than explain it.