Delgado Podcast

In this week’s podcast, we’re honored to learn from Dr. Ali Michael and Dr. Eleonora Bartoli about their helpful new book entitled “Our Problem, Our Path: Collective AntiRacism for White People.” It’s a powerful resource to help us learn ways to talk about racism and build skills to be actively anti-racist.

Dr. Michael and Dr. Bartoli argue that inner and outer antiracist work are deeply interconnected. Their book provides readers with strategies to build racial competence and ways for us to make a more just, equitable and loving multiracial society.

In this episode, they share:

• Why it’s difficult for us (white people) to talk about race

You can watch the full conversation here:

Authors featured:

Ali Michael, Ph.D. is Director of the Race Institute for K-12 Educators and works with schools and organizations across the country to help make research on race, Whiteness, and education more accessible and relevant to educators. Ali is the author of Raising Race Questions: Whiteness, Inquiry and Education, winner of the 2017 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award. As a member of a multiracial editorial team, she has co-edited The Guide for White Women who Teach Black Boys, Teaching Beautiful and Brilliant Black Girls, and Everyday White People Confront Racial and Social Injustice: 15 Stories. With her colleague Toni Graves Williamson, Ali adapted Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility for a Young Adult audience. Ali sits on the editorial board of the journal Whiteness and Education.

Eleonora Bartoli, Ph.D is a consultant and licensed psychologist, specializing in trauma, resilience-building, and multicultural/social justice counseling. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology: Human Development/Mental Health Research from the University of Chicago in 2001. After receiving her clinical license in 2005, she opened a small independent practice, which she has held since. After 15 years in academia (12 of those years as the director of a Masters in counseling program), she became a full-time consultant. Her mission is to share the tools of counseling and psychology in support of social justice work.

In this week’s podcast, we're honored to learn from Amanda Held Opelt about her latest book: "A Hole in the World: Finding Hope in Rituals of Grief and Healing." It’s a beautifully written book that explores ways to find faith and hope amid seasons of grief and suffering.

In this episode, Amanda talks with us about

• Becoming a social worker and serving as a chaplain

Amanda Held Opelt is an author, speaker, and songwriter. She writes about faith, grief, and creativity, and believes in the power of community, ritual, worship and shared stories to heal even our deepest wounds. Amanda has spent the last 15 years as a social worker and humanitarian aid worker. Learn more about her latest book:

You can watch the full video here:

In this week’s podcast, we're honored to learn from Austen Hartke about his journey of coming out as transgender in seminary, the work he is doing right now to help transgender and gender-expansive Christians, and some encouraging words for Christians parents of transgender youth.

Austen Hartke is a graduate of Luther Seminary’s Master of Arts program in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible Studies, and is the winner of the 2014 John Milton Prize in Old Testament Writing. He is the author of a book entitled "Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians," which is published by Westminster John Knox Press. He is also the founder and director of Transmission Ministry Collective -- an online community dedicated to the spiritual care, faith, and leadership potential of transgender and gender-expansive Christian.

You can watch the full video from this podcast here:

Dr. Jeannine Brown talks with us about writing her latest commentary on the "Epistle to the Philippians." Dr. Brown has taught at Bethel Seminary for over 20 years. She teaches in the areas of New Testament, Greek, hermeneutics, and integration. YouTube link:

In this week’s podcast, we learn from Dr. Jeffery M. Leonard about his book “Creation Rediscovered: Finding New Meaning in an Ancient Story,” which was written to help Christians understand the creation stories in our Hebrew Bible, while also appreciating what science tells us about our world. His book is available at Hendrickson Publishers:

Jeffery M. Leonard is Associate Professor of Religion at Samford University in Birmingham, AL, where he specializes in Hebrew, Hebrew Bible, and the ancient Near East. He received his MDiv from Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, and his PhD from Brandeis University in Waltham, MA.

YouTube video:

Much of the church has forgotten that we worship a disabled God whose wounds survived resurrection, says Amy Kenny. It is time for the church to start treating disabled people as full members of the body of Christ who have much more to offer than a miraculous cure narrative and to learn from their embodied experiences.

In this interview, Dr. Amy Kenny discusses her research and new book "My Body is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church," published by Brazos Press & Baker Publishing:

Amy Kenny (PhD, University of Sussex) is a disabled scholar and a Shakespeare lecturer whose research focuses on medical and bodily themes in literature. Her work has been featured in Teen Vogue, The Mighty, The Audacity, and Sojourners.

YouTube video:

We're grateful to learn from Dr. Bart Ehrman about his helpful new book entitled "Journeys to Heaven and Hell: Tours of the Afterlife in the Early Christian Tradition," which is published by Yale University Press.  It’s a fascinating look into the ancient literature that describes descents into hell and ascents into heaven.

In this episdoe, Dr. Ehrman discusses:

Dr. Bart D. Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed his M.Div and Ph.D. degrees at Princeton Seminary and started his teaching career at Rutgers University. He has written or edited over thirty books, six of which were New York Times best sellers. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages.

The video and show notes: mikedelgado.org

In this episode, we're honored to learn from Leyla Jagiella about her transgender journey as a Muslim woman – and finding belonging among the third-gender communities in South East Asia.

It’s the topic of her brave and insightful new book entitled “Among the Eunuchs: A Muslim Transgender Journey” which helps us understand some of the unique struggles faced by Muslim transgender woman – but also how she found affirmation and support in Islam. You can get her new book here:

Leyla Jagiella is a cultural anthropologist and scholar of religion, working on orthodoxy and heterodoxy in Islam and gender and sexuality in Muslim societies. As a Muslim trans woman, she has also been a community activist for several decades and works as a social worker with LGBTQI refugees in Germany

In the podcast, she talks with us about:

At the end of the podcast, she talks about what Jesus says about eunuchs (Matthew 19:12) – and the application for transgender and gender nonconforming people.

Many parents struggle to understand ways to support their their transgender teenager, especially if they think that it's just a phase of gender exploration, or a mild form of gender dysphoria that will eventually resolve.

A parent may further struggle on how to care for their trans youth if they belong to a non-affirming religious community, which may exclude their teen from participating in spiritual ceremonies (e.g. communion, confirmation, mitzvahs) and gender-based ministries. Sadly, some of these religious communities may further harm trans youth with transphobic teachings and political agendas aimed to hurt the LGBT community.

All of this can lead trans youth to feel unaccepted, unloved, and less likely to continue in their faith journey.

In this week's podcast, we chat with Andrew Maxwell Triska, MSW, LCSW about ways for parents to support and affirm their trans teen at home, school, and church.

Andrew is a psychotherapist, educator, and author who works with trans and queer youth and adults. Triska also trains and consults on gender identity and sexuality for organizations, corporations, and schools. He is proud to be a trans-identified therapist and his fantastic new book "Parenting Your Transgender Teen: Positive Parenting Strategies for Raising Transgender, Nonbinary, and Gender Nonconforming Teens" is designed to help parents actively support and affirm their trans youth along the journey.

Some trans-affirming religious organizations mentioned in this podcast:

The Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity:

Keshet - For LGBTQ Equality in Jewish Life:

Jewish Queer Youth

Transmission Ministry Collective

Reformation Project:

Trans Support and Counseling Resources:

You can get podcast notes and resources mentioned in this episode on the blog:

In this conversation, we’re honored to learn from Bridget Eileen Rivera about her journey growing up in a Reformed Baptist church, coming out, and ways the church can better love and care for LGBTQ+ Christians.

This is the topic of her latest book entitled: “Heavy Burdens: Seven Ways LGBTQ. Christians Experience Harm in the Church,” where she addresses the pain, trauma and discrimination that many LGBTQ people have experienced in churches, and steps that all of us need to take to create safe and inclusive spiritual homes.

Bridget Eileen Rivera is a sociologist completing her PhD at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Rivera has become a leading voice on gay celibacy in the church, helping Christians better grapple with gender and sexuality in a divided culture. She has worked with a number of faith-based organizations, including Revoice, Christians for Social Action, and Preston Sprinkle's Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender. Follow her on social media at @travelingnun and on her website: https://bridgeteileenrivera.com/

YouTube video of this show:

Blog and notes: