Failing Boldly
48 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 9 ratingsWhat's it like to fail? How do we respond when we do? This podcast features honest conversations with cultural and religious leaders about failure, reslience and perseverance.
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Episodes
A second conversation with Eugenia Cheng
June 05, 2022 21:29 - 1 hour - 110 MBI first recorded a podcast with mathematician & musician Eugenia Cheng in 2018 after reading her book "How to Bake Pi." I loved our conversation and so was delighted when she reached out to me last fall about possibly recording another podcast, this time on a different topic. Eugenia had recently had a final traumatic pregnancy loss which ended her hopes of ever bearing children, after several years of painful attempts and miscarriages. In her looking for attempt to look for resources to he...
Conversation with Benjamin Saulsberry of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center
January 04, 2022 22:53 - 40 minutes - 32.3 MBMy guest this episode is Benjamin Saulsberry, the Public Engagement and Museum Education Director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi. The story of Emmett Till’s lynching and murder has long had a haunting effect on me, partially because I Iive about a mile north of the church where his funeral was held in 1955 and I went on a personal pilgrimage a few years ago where I walked 13 miles from that church to his grave site in suburban Chicago. A story about Till’s dea...
Conversation with author Kathleen Norris
August 06, 2021 14:42 - 38 minutes - 31.2 MBOne of the benefits of doing a podcast is it gives me the opportunity to reach out to people whose work I’ve long admired and see if there’s any chance they’d like to talk to me. It’s always a joyful surprise when many of them say yes. That was the case when I heard from Kathleen Norris and when she agreed to this conversation. I was greatly formed in my early days of ministry by her books, “The Cloister Walk” and “Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith,” and she’s written numerous other poems...
Conversation with author and pastor Tyler Sit
June 16, 2021 14:19 - 47 minutes - 37.9 MBMy guest this week is Tyler Sit, the founding pastor of New City Church in Minneapolis, a community that describes itself as focuses on environmental justice and radical inclusion as a queer and people of color affirming place of worship. Tyler recently wrote a book called “Staying Awake: The Gospel for Changemakers” which gives an overview of some of the core spiritual practices at New City. It can be a bit of a challenge to find communities that fully embrace practices like centering margi...
Conversation with the author and scholar Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney
May 18, 2021 12:52 - 32 minutes - 26.1 MBMy guest for this episode is Dr. Wil Gafney. Dr. Gafney is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. She is the author of several books including Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to Women of the Torah and of the Throne. She is also an Episcopal priest. We talked about a lot about biblical interpretation, including womanist biblical interpretation. For those who aren’t familiar with the word womanist, it was coined by the author Alice Walker and briefly means...
Conversation with author/artist Jan Richardson
April 14, 2021 15:42 - 47 minutes - 38.3 MBJan Richardson is an artist, writer, and United Methodist pastor and has traveled widely as a retreat leader and conference speaker. Jan has written many books, including her most recent one, Sparrow: A Book of Life and Death and Life in which she shares in vulnerable and beautiful ways about the ache of grief and loss after the sudden death of her husband in 2013. We reflect on the nature of grief, how many people feel like they get grief “wrong” and also how failure is integrated into the ...
Conversation with interfaith leader Eboo Patel
December 18, 2020 20:43 - 36 minutes - 29 MBMy guest for this podcast is Eboo Patel. Eboo is the founder of IFYC, Interfaith Youth Core, and is now a national figure in developing interfaith conversations and relationships. Named by U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders of 2009, Eboo served on President Obama’s Inaugural Faith Council and is the author of several books, including "Acts of Faith: The Story of An American Muslim, in the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation" and "Out of Many Faiths: Religious Diversi...
Conversation with Grail Cafe owner, Sheldrick Holmes
October 15, 2020 15:49 - 34 minutes - 27.3 MBMy guest for this episode is Sheldrick Holmes. I don’t know about you, but it seems like every day I read about one of my favorite restaurants or businesses having to close because of the pandemic. It made me curious about how does a restaurant actually make ends meet in times like this? So I reached out to one of my new favorite coffee places in my neighborhood, The Grail Café, which opened just two months before the pandemic hit. They’ve hung in there and I reached out to the owner, Sheldr...
Conversation with church planter Kevin Makins
October 01, 2020 23:16 - 40 minutes - 32.3 MBMy guest this week is church planter and pastor Kevin Makins. Kevin is the founder of Eucharist Church in Hamilton, Ontario, and he recently wrote the book, “Why Would Anyone Go to Church?” The book is a very honest look at how his church came to be and his own personal joys and struggles in that process. We also do some reflections on the state of the church in Canada. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram @kevinmakins.
Conversation with journalist Derrick Clifton
September 17, 2020 21:36 - 36 minutes - 29.5 MBI’m continuing this little mini-series about journalism as I talk to free-lance journalist, Derrick Clifton. Derrick is a journalist focused on the intersections of identity, culture and social justice issues. Their work has appeared at NBC News Digital, Vice, The Triibe and various other news and culture outlets. They were most recently the communications manager for ProPublica Illinois, the first regional newsroom operation of ProPublica. Derrick has some engaging and honest things to ...
Conversation with Medill School of Journalism Dean Charles Whitaker
September 03, 2020 16:40 - 42 minutes - 34.1 MBA common topic for conversation these days centers around what information we’re receiving and whether we can trust that information. Because I have a little background in journalism, information sharing has always been of interest to me so I’m doing three episodes in a row dedicated to this topic. First up is a conversation with Charles Whitaker, the dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Before joining the Medill faculty, Charles was a senior editor at Ebony m...
Conversation with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (rebroadcast)
August 20, 2020 12:00 - 31 minutes - 42.9 MBThe Democratic National Convention is happening right now so I thought it might be a good time to share the conversation I had in January 2019 conversation with then-mayoral candidate (and now Chicago mayor) Lori Lightfoot.
Conversation with paralympian Susannah Scaroni
August 06, 2020 13:00 - 40 minutes - 32.6 MBNormally right now, many of us would be glued to the TV watching the Summer Olympics, but, of course, it has become one of the many unfortunate pandemic postponements this year. Since 1960, the Paralympics have also been held the same year as the Olympics and they too have been postponed. Today I talk with one of the athletes who would have competed in this year’s competition, Susannah Scaroni. Susannah is a wheelchair racer with an emphasis on the marathon. She competed in the 2012 and ...
Conversation with educator Denise Pope
July 23, 2020 17:35 - 34 minutes - 27.9 MBMy guest this week is Denise Pope. Denise is a Senior Lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education and the author of “Doing School”: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students. She’s also the co-founder of Challenge Success, an organization that partners with schools, families, and communities to embrace a broad definition of success and to implement research-based strategies that promote student well-being and engagement wit...
Conversation with singer-songwriter Leslie Jordan
July 09, 2020 14:45 - 46 minutes - 37.2 MBMy guest for this this week's episode is Leslie Jordan. Between 2009 and 2018, Leslie was a part of the Grammy-nominated Christian music group, All Sons & Daughters. Now, she lives in the Nashville area with her family and is releasing solo music and overseeing, The Fold, a non-profit that creates spaces and opportunities for songwriters and artists to collaborate and find their voices. We had a wide-ranging conversation on her own faith life and how it’s changed over the years, her experie...
Conversation with Arrabon founder David Bailey
June 06, 2020 21:16 - 45 minutes - 36.6 MBMy guest this week is David Bailey. David is the founder of Arrabon, an organization that helps Christian leaders and communities engage in the work of reconciliation and culture creation, especially racial reconciliation. Out of this work has come two additional musical ministries called Urban Doxology and The Porter’s Gate worship project. I reached out to David several weeks ago and was so pleased when he accepted and it so happened that we scheduled our conversation for last Wednesday i...
Conversation with Ph.D. student & "Rejection-skirt" designer Caitlyn Kirby
May 14, 2020 15:26 - 16 minutes - 13 MBMy guest this week is Caitlin Kirby. Caitlyn will start soon as a science literacy researcher at the University of Nebraska, but the reason she was brought to my attention is because, of all things, something she wore. When Caitlyn defended her Ph.D. dissertation, she wore a skirt made out of rejection letters and emails that she had received during her graduate studies. Of course, I had to ask her about how rejection and failure played into this decision. You can follow Caitlyn on Twitter ...
Conversation with Freedom Singer Rutha Mae Harris (rebroadcast)
April 23, 2020 17:08 - 31 minutes - 25 MBThe episode this week is a rebroadcast of my conversation with Rutha Mae Harris. Ms. Harris is a retired teacher who lives in Albany, Georgia, but she’s perhaps more widely known as one of the original Freedom Singers, a group of activitists and musicians who worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the early 1960s. The group traveled across the country raising money and awareness for SNCC and their work during the Civil Rights Movement and also providing inspiration for...
Conversation with activist Shane Claiborne
April 09, 2020 16:33 - 52 minutes - 41.8 MBMy guest this week is author and activist Shane Claiborne. Shane has been one of the most notable Christian social justice advocates for the last two decades and is the author of several books including his first, “The Irresistible Revolution” and his latest “Beating Guns: Hope for People who are weary of violence.” We talked about how he’s adjusting to living during this pandemic, the span of his career, why he still has hope. To find out more about Shane and his ministry, you can go to h...
Conversation with Trey Hall
March 25, 2020 23:21 - 1 hour - 56.9 MBMy guest this week is Trey Hall, Director of Evangelism and Growth for the British Methodist Church and the other co-founder of Urban Village Church. Urban Village celebrates its 10th birthday on March 28 and so I thought it would be fun to have Trey on not only to share about his own personal story and journey but for us to do a little reminiscing about the last 10 years. All this, plus Trey talks about his current position and the state of the church in Great Britain. To find that web...
Conversation with writer Lyz Lenz
March 13, 2020 15:57 - 39 minutes - 31.9 MBMy guest this week is Lyz Lenz, author of the book, “God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss, and Renewal in Middle America.” Liz is a journalist who writes for the Cedar Rapids Gazette. In “God Land,” she reports on the state of the church in the Midwest, while also integrating her own experiences of faith, marriage and divorce. She writes with bracing candor and honesty, but does so in a way that bespeaks her commitment to a life of faith. We talk about all of this in this conversation. To lear...
Conversation with author Lisa Sharon Harper (rebroadcast)
February 27, 2020 14:50 - 52 minutes - 42.3 MBThe episode this week is a rebroadcast of my conversation with Lisa Sharon Harper. Lisa is a prolific speaker, writer and activist and is the founder and president of FreedomRoad.us, a consulting group dedicated to shrinking the narrative gap in our nation by convening forums and experiences that bring commonalities toward a just world. She's the author of several books, including The Very Good Gospel, recognized as the "2016 Book of the Year" by Englewood Review of Books, explores God’s in...
Conversation with author Tim Hillegonds
February 13, 2020 15:47 - 37 minutes - 30.1 MBMy guest this week is Tim Hillegonds, author of a new memoir, “The Distance Between.” Tim’s memoir is an open and bracingly honest look at his life as a young man who battled various demons, including addiction, volatile relationships, and jail time. Tim leaves no stone unturned in exploring why he did what he did and he does so in gripping prose. We talk about the book and where he is today. To learn more about Tim and his writings you can go to his website and follow him on Twitter (@Tim...
Conversation with Epic Fail Game co-creator Susanna Kass
January 23, 2020 15:02 - 37 minutes - 30.2 MBMy guest this week is Susanna Kass, one of the co-creators of the children’s game, The Epic Fail Game. Susanna lives in Sydney, Australia, and is, in her own words a "reforming helicopter-parent with a few decades of professional experience in cultural psychology and design.” The game is a set of 30 activity cards and a mindset theory book designed to change the way the whole family thinks about failing. Susanna talks about how the game came about, their experience of putting the game on K...
Conversation with Chicago Eco-House founder Quilen Blackwell
January 09, 2020 22:34 - 40 minutes - 32.7 MBMy guest this week is the founder of the Chicago Eco House, Quilen Blackwell. I read an article about Quilen in the Chicago Tribune in early November and was moved by his dedication to using sustainability to alleviate poverty, his commitment to the south and west sides of Chicago, and his passion for integrating his faith into all of his work. To learn more about Chicago Eco House, you can go to their web site or go to the Chicago Eco House Facebook page.
Conversation with Fr. James Martin (rebroadcast)
December 26, 2019 17:04 - 36 minutes - 50.4 MBThis is a rebroadcast of a conversation I had with Fr. James Martin in 2017. Fr. Martin is a Jesuit priest, editor at large of America magazine, and bestselling author of such books as Jesus: A Pilgrimage and The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything. He has appeared on many major radio and television networks, ranging from NPR’s Fresh Air to Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. Before entering the Jesuits in 1988, Father Martin graduated from the Wharton School of Business and worked for Ge...
Conversation with Barbara Brown Taylor
December 12, 2019 15:14 - 31 minutes - 25 MBMy guest this week is the renowned writer on faith and religion, Barbara Brown Taylor. I’ve read and been influenced by many of Barbara’s books so was excited when she agreed to be on this podcast. We focused our conversation on two of her books, her latest, Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others and the book she wrote in 2006, Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith. She shared insights into her teaching and writing career, failure and resilience, and also answered the question, if you co...
Conversation with Tod Bolsinger, author of "Canoeing the Mountains"
November 19, 2019 13:49 - 28 minutes - 22.9 MBMy guest this week is Tod Bolsinger, author of the book, “Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Unchartered Territory.” "Canoeing" has done the rare thing of becoming a popular book in both conservative and progressive church circles. By combining research in systems theory and adaptive leadership and using the compelling metaphor of the Lewis and Clark expedition, Bolsinger’s book has provided a very helpful guide for church leaders trying to navigate rapid change in the 21st cen...
Conversation with Diana Graber
October 12, 2019 16:33 - 26 minutes - 21 MBMy guest this week is Diana Graber, author of the book, “Raising Humans in a Digital World.” Many of us have a love-hate relationship with technology and this is especially true for parents as they try to maneuver their way through a field that seems to change every day. Diana and I had a very helpful conversation about what all of us can do to use the tool of technology wisely, both as parents and as consumers. I hope you enjoy it. To learn more about Diana's books or read her columns, yo...
Conversation with advice columnist Amy Dickinson
September 13, 2019 13:58 - 41 minutes - 33 MBMy guest this week is Amy Dickinson, perhaps best known as the writer of the popular advice column “Ask Amy,” which is carried in over 150 newspapers and read by an estimated 22 million readers daily. In addition to her work as a writer, you may have also heard Amy on the NPR Quiz Show “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.” All of these experiences made for a fascinating conversation as Amy talks about juggling life as an advice columnist and her own experiences with parenthood and marriage. We also ta...
Conversation with Vance Rains
August 10, 2019 19:51 - 32 minutes - 26.1 MBMy guest this week is Rev. Vance Rains. In these days of grieving and reflecting after the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Vance’s experiences are sadly timely. He was the pastor of First Church in Coral Springs, Florida, a community next to Parkland, Florida where the Stoneman Douglas High School shootings took place in 2018. Just this past July, he started as pastor of First United Methodist in Orlando, a church just down the street from Pulse, the nightclub where 49 people were kill...
Conversation with Greg Borzo
July 30, 2019 15:29 - 37 minutes - 29.9 MBMy guest this week is Greg Borzo, author of the book “Lost Restaurants of Chicago.” Greg is a Chicago-area writer and the author of several books focused on our great city. Lost Restaurants revisits many of Chicago’s restaurants that helped create so many memories. In this episode, not only do we talk about the book, but we explore the restaurant business in general and talk about what helps an eatery succeed or fail.
Conversation with Bromleigh McCleneghan
June 27, 2019 14:11 - 43 minutes - 34.7 MBMy guest this week is Rev. Bromleigh McCleneghan, author of the book "Good Christian Sex: Why Chastity Isn’t the Only Option—And Other Things the Bible Says About Sex." Bromleigh is a United Methodist pastor currently serving at a United Church of Christ church in the Chicago area. I’ve admired her writing for some time and so was grateful for this conversation. We explored the reasons for and reactions to this book where she does some deep reflection on topics that some say should never be...
Conversation with Reggie Williams
April 30, 2019 13:00 - 48 minutes - 38.7 MBMy guest this week is Dr. Reggie Williams, associate professor of Christian Ethics at McCormick Theological Seminary. I recently read Dr. Williams’ book "Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance" and was moved by its look at Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his time in the United States in 1930, specifically his time in Harlem at Abyssinian Baptist Church. April 9, 1945, was the date that Bonhoeffer was killed in a German concentration camp and so I thought it...
Conversation with Jeremy Smith
April 15, 2019 12:00 - 43 minutes - 34.8 MBMy guest this week is Jeremy Smith, United Methodist pastor and creator of the blog, Hacking Christianity. Jeremy is the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Seattle but his wider audience knows him as the prolific writer of blog posts on Hacking Christianity, a site where Jeremy engages others in conversations about faith using the lenses of progressive theology, technology, and geek culture. He’s also one of the top go-to sites when folks want to read thought-provoking reflections o...
Conversation with Steve Baskerville
March 02, 2019 20:09 - 35 minutes - 28.4 MBMy guest this week is a Chicago TV icon, Steve Baskerville. For nearly 30 years, Steve was the WBBM’s primary weathercaster until his retirement at the end of 2017. During his career, he won 11 regional Emmys in addition to several other awards. Before coming to Chicago, he was the weather anchor with CBS Morning News, where he was first African-American weather anchor on a network newscast What happens when a weather anchor’s forecast goes wrong? Steve shares lots of great stories from h...
Conversation with Lori Lightfoot
January 24, 2019 16:52 - 29 minutes - 23.4 MBMy guest this week is Chicago mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot. Lori has an extensive background in the law, including as a former assistant U.S. attorney, Chair of the Police Accountability Task Force created by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and President of the Chicago Police Board. If elected, she would be the Chicago’s first black woman and first openly gay mayor. We talked about the challenges facing Chicago and what it takes to run for political office. You can find out more about her at her ...
Conversation with Elaine Heath
January 07, 2019 22:21 - 46 minutes - 37 MBMy guest this week is theological scholar and author Elaine Heath. Dr. Heath's research interests focus on community as a means of healing trauma, emergent forms of Christianity, and alternative forms of theological education. She is the author of numerous books and articles, including The Mystic Way of Evangelism and the most recent of which is Healing the Wounds of Sexual Abuse: Reading the Bible with Survivors. Heath’s vocational journey includes having served as Dean of the Divinity Sch...
Conversation with Bishop Karen Oliveto
October 18, 2018 14:34 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MBMy guest this week is Bishop Karen Oliveto, bishop of the Mountain Sky Conference of The United Methodist Church. Bishop Oliveto made news in 2016 by becoming the first openly LGBTQ person to be elected bishop in the UMC. She has two books that have come out in 2018 that explore the call for spiritual renewal in the church and her own spiritual and vocational journey. One can't help but be hopeful about the future of the church when experiencing the bishop's enthusiasm and joy for livi...
Conversation with Heidi Stevens
September 18, 2018 21:14 - 35 minutes - 49.3 MBMy guest this week is Heidi Stevens, a columnist at the Chicago Tribune. Heidi is the author of “Balancing Act,” a column that comes out five times a week and explores a wide variety of issues with a focus on how we can balance all the things that make us who we are. She wrote a column a few weeks ago that caught my eye. The headline was: Are we setting our kids up to do the one thing we haven't taught them to do well: Fail? She is a parent of three herself and we had a great conversation ...
Conversation with Freedom Singer Rutha Mae Harris
August 28, 2018 13:34 - 43 minutes - 34.6 MBI’m honored to have Rutha Mae Harris as my guest for this week’s podcast. Ms. Harris is a retired teacher who lives in Albany, Georgia, but she’s perhaps more widely known as one of the original Freedom Singers, a group of activitists and musicians who worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the early 1960s. The group traveled across the country raising money and awareness for SNCC and their work during the Civil Rights Movement and also providing inspiration for all wh...
Conversation with Rev. Broderick Greer
August 14, 2018 19:08 - 42 minutes - 34.1 MBMy guest for this week’s podcast is Reverend Broderick Greer. Rev. Greer is Canon Precentor at Saint John's Cathedral in Denver, Colorado. At Saint John's, Broderick coordinates ministry to people in their 20s and 30s, oversees the Cathedral's daily and weekly liturgies, and assists the Dean with stewardship and development. Also has a strong national presence where he has spoken on matters related to history, black and queer theology, and racial justice. His work has appeared in The Guardi...
Conversation with Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren
July 30, 2018 21:16 - 38 minutes - 30.6 MBMy guest for this week’s podcast is Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren. Judge Lerner-Wren pioneered the first therapeutic mental health court in the United States, dedicated to the safe decriminalization of people with mental illness and neurological disorders. She recently wrote a book entitled A Court of Refuge: Stories from the Bench of America's First Mental Health Court. In our conversation, Judge Lerner-Wren discusses her own story of becoming a judge and mental health advocate and her passion...
Conversation with Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
July 11, 2018 18:31 - 43 minutes - 34.8 MBMy guest for this week’s podcast Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann. Rabbi Lizzi catalyzed the founding of Mishkan Chicago, a new Jewish faith community that describes itself this way: An unconventional kind of community, a cross-community community, designed to enhance the Jewish landscape in Chicago and create a new way in. Lizzi has received many honors because of her work including being a 2016-2017 Schusterman Fellow, a 2018 winner of the Lippman Kanfer Fellowship in Applied Jewish Wisdom and list...
Conversation with Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell & Jason Byassee
May 02, 2018 15:44 - 42 minutes - 34.4 MBMy guests for this week’s podcast Rae Jean Proeschold Bell & Jason Byassee. Rae Jean and Jason have recently wrote the book, “Faithful and Fractured: Responding to the Clergy Health Crisis,” a book that seeks to answer the question why are pastors in such poor health and what can be done about it? Rae Jean is associate research professor of global health at the Duke Global Health Institute and the Duke Center for Health Inequalities and Jason is the Butler Chair in Homiletics and Biblical H...
Conversation with Lisa Sharon Harper
April 11, 2018 15:30 - 50 minutes - 69.8 MBMy guest for this week’s podcast is Lisa Sharon Harper. Lisa is a prolific speaker, writer and activist and is the founder and president of FreedomRoad.us, a consulting group dedicated to shrinking the narrative gap in our nation by convening forums and experiences that bring commonalities toward a just world. Ms. Harper is the author of several books, including The Very Good Gospel, recognized as the "2016 Book of the Year" by Englewood Review of Books, explores God’s intent for the wholen...
Conversation with Olympian Brian Hansen
March 28, 2018 14:23 - 36 minutes - 49.7 MBMy guest for this week’s podcast is Olympic speedskater Brian Hansen. Brian is a 3-time Olympian, including competing in the 1500, team pursuit and mass start events. Brian won an silver medal in team pursuit in 2010. We talked about his Olympic experiences, what it takes to stay in elite condition, and how he responds to setbacks.
Conversation with Jonathan Eig
March 14, 2018 15:51 - 36 minutes - 29 MBMy guest for this week’s podcast is Jonathan Eig. Eig’s book “Ali:A Life” was published last year and is considered the definitive biography of Muhammad Ali. The book won the 2018 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing Ken Burns calls Jonathan Eig a "master storyteller." Eig is the author of five books, three of them New York Times best sellers. Eig is a former staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, where he remains a contributing writer. Eig has also written for The New York Times, ...