Think clearly. Act well. Appreciate life.
We resume a tradition from the past years, discussing some favorite books we read in 2025. As always, our themes involve religion, spirituality, and the intersection of faith and intellect. This time we welcome Makayla Steiner, assistant professor of English at BYU. Matt’s list of honorable mentions: Douglas Coupland, Life After God; Paul J. Pastor, The Locust …
Diane Glancy is a prolific and acclaimed poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and professor emeritus at Macalester College. Her awards include the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oklahoma Center for the Book, the American Book Award, the Pushcart Prize, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers’ …
Karen Swallow Prior is the author of several books, among them The Evangelical Imagination, On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books, and Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More. A prominent voice in the Christian public sphere, she is a frequent speaker, a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum, a contributing writer at Dispatch, and …
Emma Mason is Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at Warwick University in England. She’s the author and editor of several books, primarily on nineteenth-century English literature, most recently a study titled Christina Rosetti: Poetry, Ecology, Faith, and she edits, with Mark Knight, the book series New Directions in Religion and Literature for Bloomsbury …
Callid Keefe-Perry is assistant professor of contextual education and public theology at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry. A traveling minister within the Religious Society of Friends – the Quakers – he is also the author of two books we discuss today: 2014’s Way to Water: A Theopoetics Primer and 2023’s Sense of the Possible: An Introduction …
Darren Middleton is Professor of Literature and Theology at Baylor University, where he is also director of Baylor’s Interdisciplinary Core. This year, he also assumed the editorship of the academic journal Christianity and Literature, a leading journal in the field of literature and religion. A prolific scholar with books on subjects ranging from the novelists Shusaku …
As is our custom, the podcast’s producer and I spend a few minutes reflecting on this season’s great guests and discussing a few moments from this season’s conversations that stood out to us.
Paul J. Pastor recently published a book of poems titled The Locust Years. Recognizing this achievement, and returning to one of our favorite conversations, we highlight this 2022 conversation with Paul after the release of his previous poetry collection, Bower Lodge.
Andrew Silver is the Page Morton Hunter Professor of English at Mercer University, where he has taught since 1998. He is a scholar, playwright, musician, and was named the state of Georgia’s Professor of the Year in 2003. I’m talking with Andy today about his late wife, the poet Anya Krugovoy Silver, who died of …
Kelsey Osgood is a graduate of Columbia University and Goucher College’s creative nonfiction MFA program. Her work has appeared in New York, The New Yorker, Time, Harper’s Magazine, and elsewhere. Her first book, How to Disappear Completely: On Modern Anorexia, was chosen for the Barnes and Noble Discover program. I met Kelsey a few years ago, and spoke with her …
