Podcasts by At Sea with Justin McRoberts

@ Sea Podcast #3: Michael Wear from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.576872

My guest for episode 3 is Michael Wear. Buzzfeed calls him one of President Obama’s “ambassadors to America’s believers.”  Having worked in the White House office of Faith-Based initiateves, Michae...

@ Sea Podcast #7: David Bazan from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.571997

Songwriter and artist David Bazan is my guest on Episode 7 of the @ Sea Podcast. David has been making music professionally since 1995, most notably, As the frontman for Pedro The Lion, the mind be...

@ Sea Episode #19: Adam Caress from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.557135

I’m going go out on a limb and suggest that almost every music listener, even more casual fans, has been privy a conversation revolving around the idea of “selling out.” A conversation focused on w...

@ Sea Podcast #21: Dominique DuBois Gilliard from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.554810

Welcome to episode 1 of season 3 of the @ Sea Podcast. My guest is Dominique DuBois Gilliard. Dominique is the director of racial righteousness and reconciliation for the Love Mercy Do Justice Init...

@ Sea Podcast #29: Jonathan Merritt from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.548249

In her landmark book “Caring For Words in a Culture of Lies” Marylin McEntyre writes… “If language is to retain its power to nourish and sustain our common life, we have to care for it in something...

@ Sea Podcast 30: Jer Swigart on the “Migrant Caravan” from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.546445

On March 25, 2018, women, men and children from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador began walking north toward the US border. As weeks passed, their numbers grew… and their story began to move towa...

@ Sea Podcast 31: Jen Hatmaker from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.544891

Welcome to Season 4! And what a way to kick it off! In the fall of 2018, I got to spend a few weeks on the road with Jen Hatmaker and Nichole Nordeman on their Moxie Matters tour. For 15 nights, I ...

@ Sea Podcast #39: Michael Frost from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.538131

In a recent poll of Australians, 70% of those polled claimed to mistrust religious leaders. Of course, I don’t spend a lot of time searching Australian polling data. I saw this because I pay attent...

@ Sea Podcast #40: Jeremy Jones from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.537350

This episode airs in February of 2020 and gyms all over the country are wrapping up their New Year’s deals to entice newcomers. It’s a poorly kept secret in the fitness world that most gyms (24 hr ...

Latifah Alattas from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.497926

One of the hallmarks of a good or great artist is the ability to reinvent. The capacity to, after finding success with a certain formula or expression, change things up; even essential things. Beca...

Eugene Cho from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.496237

A few years ago, in conversation with artist Dylan Mortimer, we identified what we called “3rd rail” topics; things that, when talked about (or sometimes even approached) overcharged conversations ...

Season Six from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.495367

When I started the @ Sea Podcast, I was doing a bit of soul searching. The way I communicated it originally was that the cultural spaces I was used to hosting the work of soul-shaping and meaning-m...

@ Sea Season 6: It Is What You Make Of It from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.494327

Sacred vs “Ordinary” from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.490814

I didn’t know a lot about the actual life of Jesus before I was in my mid-twenties. Honestly, even after I started calling myself a Christian (which is far more interesting conversation now than it...

Deconstruction and Fundamentalism from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.487360

I just got off the phone with a long-time friend who is now a coaching client.

It's the call I needed in order to finish this script.

This beloved friend began the conversation ...

Ideology As Idolatry from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.483070

I feel like I’ve always been aware of the sociopolitical battle lines between differing thoughts on “abortion” or preemptive war, but the comprehensive, nearly wholesale division and split betwe...

Nick Laparra from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.480377

The @ Sea podcast started out to be (and I hope continues to be) a helpful and hopeful guide through sometimes murky or turbulent cultural waters. Some of what that looks like is talking to people ...

Tanner Olson from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.476179

In a bio of mine, I describe myself as someone who desires to “provide language for the process of life and faith” I am a “words” person. Not everyone has to be or is. But I certainly care quite a ...

Monica DiCristina from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.472633

You know that friend who gets to the gym 7 days every week. I think we all have that friend (if we’re not that friend).

I don’t think I’ve ever heard a friend like that called “weak” for ...

Ben Higgins from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.469305

I actually never watched the Batchelor. And that’s not a thing I say with pride or any sense of superiority. I honestly just don’t watch a lot of TV and haven’t since I was about 12, when shows lik...

Pádraig Ó Tuama from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.465921

Sometimes, there aren’t sufficient words for a moment or a season or a feeling. The other side to that coin is that sometimes the wild, the unexpected, or inexplicable … serve the blessed purpose o...

David Dark #2 from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.463586

When I am asked what I do, I often say that I try to prove language for the process of faith and art. I think that does a decent job of describing my work, even if it’s a bit nebulous.

The Problem of Care from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.462544

A few weeks ago, I was in a contraption with a few folks my age and older who were voicing concerns about all the “information” kids get online. During that conversation, statistics were thrown aro...

Overwhelmed And I Should Be from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.459425

“Sometimes, God gives us glimpses into the enormity of the work at hand, not to increase our capacity to do a larger work or more work but so that the work we can do becomes more vital and less opt...

Dominique Dubois Gillard from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.456614

During the first season of the podcast, I got to talk with Dominique Dubois Gillard about his book “Rethinking Incarceration.” One of the things we talked about was the difficulty and opportunity t...

Mike Donehey from 2022-02-22T12:38:40.453071

Just as there are artists who work at the edges of a culture, pushing boundaries and breaking rules that need breaking, there are also artists doing essential work closer to the heart or center of ...

Enneagram and Being Named from 2022-02-17T12:00

A few years ago, I was invited to participate in this event. I don't remember what the event was, as a speaker, I was there to story tell, tell some stories and teach

The Dood and the Bird from 2022-02-10T12:00

Whether you are a kid or you have kids, or you like kids, or you were a kid, or whatever, I think you're gonna like this project and the songs on it and you can pick it up from us directly at www.t...

The Enneagram With Jim Gum from 2022-01-27T12:00

Oh, the enneagram.

It is, like many tools, so often misused or misapplied. It feels to me that a lot of folks are stuck between some form of infatuation with the tools or their type and s...

Mary's Yes from 2021-12-23T12:00

Because I came into the practice of faith through a distinctly protestant doorway, I didn’t know, early on, what to make of the Catholic of veneration or even emphasis on Mary, the mother of Jesus....

Aundi Kolber from 2021-12-16T12:00

In recent years, I have noticed a kind of uptick in conversations and the pace of conversations and the intensity of conversations about mental health come the holidays. Some of that has to do with...

Stay in Your Lane / Know Your Power from 2021-11-19T22:00

This will take on a bit of a confessional tone.

A few years ago, Dr. Christena Cleveland talked on my podcast about the need for black leaders to steer away from trying to influence white...

David Zach from 2021-11-11T12:00

“If you really wanted to help, you’d up and move to Africa.”

It was a few minutes after I’d just spoken at a college chapel and a particularly fired-up student was trying to convince his c...

Alan Smyth from 2021-10-28T15:45

It was somewhere in the early 2000s when I got a package in the mail from a friend, who had just taken a job with an organization that purported to rescue people from slavery. And I've got to admit...

God, Context, and Bad Religion from 2021-10-21T11:00

I ran into a friend recently whom I haven’t seen in a while. And at first, I didn’t recognize him. Some of that had to do with the time between meetings. But more of it had to do with context. The ...

Tara Owens from 2021-10-14T11:00

In the book Prayer: 40 Days of Practice, I take a swing at unpacking the word “spiritual;” not an effort to redefine the word for all users, but an effort to expand its application to meet my own e...

Facts & Feelings from 2021-09-23T11:00

It’s likely you’ve heard something like

“You’re being emotional.”

Or “let’s not bring emotions into this.”

Taylor Schumann from 2021-09-16T18:45

I’ve come to pretty fundamentally believe that some things cannot (and should not) be discussed outside of personal experience. That might sound odd coming from someone with a relatively traditiona...

Rachel Held Evans, Language, and Trust from 2021-08-26T16:00

I have mentioned Caroline McIntyre‘s book “caring for words in a culture of lies“ many times over the course of this podcast’s five years. It was, upon first read, a formative and grounding resourc...

Matthew Paul Turner from 2021-08-19T15:00

When Rachel Held Evans died, on May 4 of 2019, she left a significant m emotional and cultural void; one that was felt by her followers and readers but also one that was felt differently by those s...

The Power of Celebrity from 2021-08-12T11:00

The way I hear it used, the word “celebrity” almost always comes with a tinge of disdain. In fact, I was recently interviewing a band about their relatively wild public success and used the word “c...

Simone Biles, Athletics and Whole Health from 2021-07-29T14:39:36

Stephen Pressfield calls it “Resistance.”

A number of religious traditions call it “sin.”

But regardless of the name folks apply to it, it seems to me that we generally share, c...

KJ Ramsey from 2021-07-22T11:00

I was setting up to interview an upcoming guest when she told me “I’m sorry I’ll have to be pretty strict with the hour and leave right away. I’m seeing my therapist right after this.”

“A...

You Are The Gift from 2021-07-15T19:50

Toward the end of the introduction of my most recent book, It Is What You Make Of It, is a kind of admonition; a clarion call, as it were.

“There is a virtual army of contentious voices ar...

The Work of Art from 2021-06-24T11:00

I remember sitting on the edge of a hotel bed, sorting through line after line of a ledger to figure out if the tour manager had missed paying me, two weeks prior, the $55 per night I was promised....

Christopher Williams from 2021-06-17T15:40

In his Legendary book “The War of Art” Steven Pressfield writes:

“The professional arms himself with patience, not only to give the stars time to align in his career but to keep himself fr...

Poetry, Love and Control from 2021-06-10T11:00

A number of years ago, I sat in on a reading by the poet Gregory Orr. Gregory Or was then (and is now) a favorite poet of mine. In fact, he’s a favorite writer of mine. He was maybe five or six pie...

Staying Power from 2021-05-27T11:00

During studio sessions with younger or inexperienced musicians, my dear friend and music producer Masaki Liu would often be asked questions like “What do you think about our chances?” Or “Do you th...

JJ and Dave Heller from 2021-05-20T11:00

Close to 20 years ago, I sat in a park near my place in The Bay Area, talking with Dave and JJ about their hopes and dreams. Having spent the first few years of their musical career between Arizona...

Listening Comes First from 2021-05-13T11:00

In the 8th chapter of the biblical book of acts is a fascinating story about a man named Philip.

Hermeneutics, LGBTQ Youth, and the Pursuit of Love from 2021-04-29T11:00

I remember being in a conversation, I think it was my Junior year of college, in which I was fully introduced to the term “hermeneutics.” I’d been familiar with “interpretation” before but the idea...

Kevin Garcia from 2021-04-22T12:00

I ask just about all my guests about life online. I'm of the opinion that "real" life happens there and I'm increasingly interested in the way it does; particularly when that happening takes on lab...

Karen Swallow Prior from 2021-03-25T16:00

I don’t know when the words “liberal” or “conservative” became insults. What I do know is that I can’t remember a time when they weren’t. So, maybe it’s always been this way to some degree. I’m not...

Fear and Booze & Beer and Taboos from 2021-03-18T11:00

When Donald Miller’s book “Blue Like Jazz” was initially making its rounds through religious circles, one of the hot topics of conversation had to do with cultural taboos.

Harding House Brewery from 2021-03-11T12:00

The very first beer I ever had was, I believe, a Bud Dry. That’s probably not true for a lot of folks, but it’s part of my story and I like it as someone who tests as a 4 on the enneagram.
Listen

Laura Joyce Davis from 2021-02-25T12:00

The ethos and heart of my next book is that just about nothing "is what it is." Instead, as the title of the book would have it, It Is What You Make Of It.

I realize that shifting from "it...

Pain & Strength from 2021-02-17T09:00

I think it was 6 or so years ago, I was in a session with a therapist who practiced cranial - sacral therapy.

Which, in short, attends to the alignment of the body between the cranium (my ...

Jennifer Ko from 2021-02-11T12:00

Often enough, the topic of pain gets tied up into the same kind of conversations had about “evil.”  Spoken of as a “problem” or a thing to be avoided. A thing that diminishes the human experience a...

Latifah Phillips from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

One of the hallmarks of a good or great artist is the ability to reinvent. The capacity to, after finding success with a certain formula or expression, change things up; even essential things. Beca...

Kayla Craig from 2021-01-28T12:00

If you've been around me for any significant time, you'll likely know that my mother is a hero of mine. not in a cute "I love my mom, you guys" kind of way but more like "I hope I can be the kind o...

Labels vs Relationships from 2021-01-21T12:00

Most of the guests I host on the podcast share some kind of faith in common. For many of them, that faith carries the label of "Christianity." for others, that label doesn't fit quite as well or as...

Jon Steingard from 2021-01-14T12:00

Jon Steingard spent 16 years as a musician, songwriter, and frontman in a band whose success had its context in what some call the "Christian market." I've spent a bit of time there myself and ther...

Shaun Groves from 2020-07-17T12:00:03

It was 1997 in Palo Alto, CA. I remember sitting 7th row from the stage, listening to a man named Tony Campolo talk about loving people well. He talked about neighbors and kids. He told a story abo...

Sarah Heath from 2020-06-30T13:00:22

It is hard to be a pastor.

In fact, in the two decades I’ve worked as a songwriter, storyteller, author, advocate and a pastor, the weight and difficulty of the entire list before it, pal...

Jennifer Lahl from 2020-06-16T05:10:49

Albert Camus writes about ethics, “A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.”

And while I think we’d be hard-pressed to find someone who denies the importance of ethics...

@ Sea Podcast #42: Colby Martin from 2020-05-20T02:05:03

One of the most persistent criticisms of religious progressivism is that it is reactive, pushing back on (and sometimes warring against) older, institutional practices deemed out of date, unhelpful...

@ Sea Podcast #41: Ben McBride from 2020-03-16T20:51:48

It’s one thing to say “we’re in this together.” It’s another thing entirely to practice “belonging” and pay the kind of price required to actually broaden one’s tent; to include people who would ju...

@ Sea Podcast #38: Cameron Dezen Hammon from 2019-10-10T05:18:03

In his early letters to Jesus followers the Apostle Paul regularly and specifically warned against a religious philosophy called Gnosticism. In short, Gnosticism valued immaterial things and partic...

@ Sea Podcast #37: Kirsten Powers from 2019-09-17T22:56:57

The power of those who identify, translate and communicate current events is truly massive; sometimes frighteningly so.  In 1978, Science fiction writer  Philip K. Dick warned against the power of ...

@ Sea Podcast #36: Jamie Tworkowski from 2019-08-20T20:29:43

World suicide prvention day is Sept 10 this year. If you’ve been around my life or work for any stretch of time, you know that suicide, depression and related realties have played a significant rol...

@ Sea Podcast #35: Sarah Thebarge from 2019-07-24T05:44:45

I met Sarah Thebarge in Houston at a gathering of speakers and artists focused on advocating for children in poverty. I was immediately struck, not only by how articulate she was but by the depth a...

@ Sea Podcast #34: Dr. Christena Cleveland from 2019-05-20T23:07:35

I first met Christena Cleveland across the street from a conference where, later that day, she would speak on issues of race and the long road towards unity among Christians. Her presentation was 3...

@ Sea Podcast #33: Andrew Osenga from 2019-04-29T20:15:27

That songwriting is an art is widely understood. What can be messy or confusing is what becomes of any art, and particularly songwriting, when it becomes a job, a business or an industry. And then,...

@ Sea Podcast #32: Aaron Niequist (full interview) from 2019-03-26T12:32:18

For a season, Aaron Niequist worked at a church called Willow Creek in the Chicago area; a church that functioned as a kind of flagship for mainline christian Chruch practice. He also served at Mar...

@ Sea Podcast Season 3 Recap/Review from 2019-01-17T19:02:33

Take a brief tour through some of the key moments in conversations that defined Season 3 of the podcast. My guests: – Dominique Dubois Gillard   – Sandra McCracken   – Carlos Whittaker   – Jeremy C...

Special Episode: Reflecting On The Death of John Chau with Matt Mikalatos from 2018-11-25T15:12:15

Earlier this month, John Allen Chau was killed by members of one of the most isolated peoples on earth. According to his own journal, Chau was committed to sharing what he knew of Jesus with the Se...

@ Sea Podcast #28: Scott Erickson (Part 2) from 2018-10-18T23:31:30

This is part two of my interview with visual artist and storyteller Scott Erickson. If you haven’t had the chance to check out part one, it’s not necessary to hear it first .. but… it might be help...

@ Sea Podcast #27: Scott Erickson from 2018-09-26T15:52:36

My guest on this episode is long-time friend and co-creator Scott Erickson. He and I created and released the book “Prayer: 40 Days of Practice” a few years ago and his partnership has been not onl...

@ Sea Podcast #26: Matt Shotwell from 2018-08-22T20:45

Jan 1 2018 was a landmark day for marijuana legalization in CA. For many, the moment was another stumbling misstep towards even more compromised societal norms. For others, including my guest, it w...

@ Sea Podcast #25: Michael McBride Returns from 2018-07-18T05:00:29

“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. – Amos 8:...

@ Sea Podcast #24: Jeremy Cowart from 2018-04-21T05:00:59

You may have heard the rumor or legend or sorts that certain cultures throughout history have been at least suspicious or cautious about photography in fear that something of the soul was captured ...

Episode #23: Carlos Whittaker from 2018-03-31T05:00:09

The question “What do you do?” or “What do you do for a living?” it’s not so much a question about work as it is a way to figure out who someone is; a question of identity. And that relationship be...

@ Sea Podcast #22: Sandra McCracken from 2018-03-11T05:00:42

The ways we move into and out of one another’s lives… the modality of relationship, is a matter of art. In fact, I resonate with Seth Godin’s definition of art as anything that facilitates human co...

@ Sea Podcast #20: Julie Bindel from 2017-09-24T12:59:04

in 1981, in Yorkshire, England, Peter William Sutcliffe was convicted of the murder of 13 women over a span of about 5 years. Police were criticized for there slowness of the investigation, the pac...

Podcast Episode #18: Hanif Abduraquib from 2017-07-27T21:21:55

Artists and critics have a famously contentious relationship. It can seem, at least, that the discipline of critiquing stands at odds  to the discipline of creating it. Yet, I can’t think of really...

@ Sea Podcast #17: Dr. Todd Allen from 2017-06-30T22:37:50

Some of my guests make national news. They win Grammys or national book awards. But this will never be a podcast about what’s most popular or what’s trending, per se. My interest is in connecting y...

@ Sea Podcast #16: Daniel White Hodge from 2017-06-12T21:21:25

This Friday, June 16, the Tupac Shakur Biopic “All Eyez on Me” hits theaters. The film is  named after the rapper’s remarkable 1996 release “All Eyes On Me.” Since his death in September of that sa...

@ Sea Podcast #15: Michael Wear Returns from 2017-05-31T20:02:21

My guest on this episode of the podcast is actually my first 2-time guest, Michael Wear.  During season 1, Michael shared his unique angle on not just the idea of politics, but the human practice o...

@ Sea Podcast # 14: Mark Labberton from 2017-05-17T04:00:32

My guest on this episode is Mark Labberton. Mark is the author of three deeply insightful books and is most likely better known as the President of Fuller Theological Seminary. Mark’s work and frie...

@ Sea Podcast #13: Ryan O’Neil (Sleeping At Last) from 2017-04-25T21:02:27

A few nights ago, I took my newborn daughter, who was crying, into the small office space where I do most of my work, including recording and editing this podcast. I deftly navigated my laptop whil...

@ Sea Podcast #12: Propaganda from 2017-04-10T05:00:58

My guest on this episode of the podcast is hip hop artist Propaganda. I have a somewhat poignant recollection of my fist real experience with hip-hop. On April 18, 1992, I was standing in the outfi...

@ Sea Podcast #11: Audrey Assad from 2017-03-27T16:48:02

The line between what is sacred and what some may call “secular” or “profane” is a famously difficult line to navigate. Volumes have been written and argued over regarding where that line is, how t...

@ Sea Podcast #10: David Dark from 2017-03-14T20:54:25

My guest on Episode 10 of the @ Sea Podcast is author David Dark.  I call him an “author,” perhaps because that’s what he may be best known for. But David is also a professor at Bellmont University...

@ Sea Podcast Season 1 Recap from 2017-03-12T05:25:09

Welcome to Season 2 of The @ Sea Podcast! Before we get into the actual interviews and guests that will make up Season 2, I thought it appropriate to look back at a few of the highlights from Seaso...

@ Sea Podcast #8: Katelyn Beaty from 2016-10-14T22:15:26

My guest on episode 8 is author and journalist Katelyn Beaty. Christianity Today made Katelyn the first female managing editor in the magazine’s 60-year history. She also happened to be the younges...

@ Sea Podcast #6: Jeremy Courtney from 2016-08-13T12:00:01

Jeremy Courtney is my guest on episode #6 of the @ Sea Podcast. Along with his wife Jessica, he is the founder of the Preemptive Love Coalition, an organization describing themselves as “a global m...

@ Sea Podcast #5 with Michael McBride from 2016-07-17T05:05:06

In Dallas, Texas On July 7th of this year, a heavily armed shooter fired upon a peaceful demonstration and the police officers who had been assembled to ensure the safety of those demonstrating. Tw...

@ Sea Podcast #4 with Jars of Clay from 2016-06-26T15:20:47

Jars of Clay has been living and working at the intersection of art, religion and advocacy for over 20years. We talked about early expectations for a successful band to how valuable that success is...

@ Sea Podcast #2: busbee from 2016-05-17T00:01:25

The @ Sea Podcast #2, featuring songwriter/producer busbee, is at iTunes now.  Mike Busbee (busbee) is a songwriter and producer working in Los Angeles and Nashville. If you’ve listened to pop musi...

@ Sea Podcast #1: Gene Luen Yang from 2016-04-30T21:04:04

The first installment of my first podcast, entitled “Listen