Excavations with Connie Chen

On this episode of Excavations, I'm joined by Mattie Mae, PhD candidate at the University of St. Andrews and Bible scholar specializing in gender and sexuality in the New Testament. We talk about what "childlike faith" actually meant in the world Jesus lived, who gets called childlike and why, and how that same language has been used to infantilize disabled people in church spaces. We talk about Internal Family Systems therapy and what it looks like to do inner child work through an IFS lens, and how it has shaped our relationships with ourselves and with God. 

Guest: Mattie Mae Motl 
https://www.instagram.com/mattiemaemotl?stkn=dDRiYnE4NXg0a293

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This Excavations episode is a threesome on the sacred erotic convened by Tamice. Connie sits down with Tamice and Gary to excavate the erotic as root work, as power, as what the body already knows. Audre Lorde said the erotic is power. This episode says Jesus is Lorde.

Dr. Tamice Spencer-Helms
Dr. Gary Green 

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Topics: eroticism, spirituality, power, root work, feminine energy, kink, biblical stories, embodied spirituality, divine energy, liberation spirituality, authenticity, divine multiplicity, attunement, shadow work, pleasure, honesty, divine energy, vulnerability, attention, attunement, divinity, flow, breath work, play, embodiment, sacredness, neuroscience, spirituality

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What does it mean to live by Christian ethics without God at the center? What happens when Marxist theory meets the bars of Rikers Island, the wards of outpatient psychiatric care, and the walls of San Quentin? In this episode of Excavations, Connie sits down with Chris Alfonso (Jean-Paul Fartre), a Marxist scholar, organizer, and abolitionist, to trace the surprising theological architecture inside radical thought.

They explore the structural parallels between Hegel's dialectic and Christian eschatology, why Jesus might be history's most compelling militant communist, the difference between Marxism as critique and Marxism as state religion, and how theory fails the moment it stops meeting people where they are. 

This episode is for anyone who has ever felt the gap between what institutions profess and what they practice. And for anyone trying to keep the faith, in whatever language that takes.

Topics include: liberation theology, abolition, Marxist philosophy, Hegel, Paulo Freire, CLR James, prison organizing, sacred encounter, agnosticism, dialectical materialism, embodied pedagogy, No Brooklyn Jails.

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What happens when you stop apologizing for your body and start reading it as sacred text? In this episode of Excavations, I sit down with Ciarra Jones (@thegardeningtheologian) to talk about what it actually means to reclaim the body after religious trauma. We go deep on queer sexual ethics, the theology of pleasure, disability justice, Eve as liberator, and why so much of Christian tradition has needed us to stay at war with our own flesh.
This is a conversation for anyone who grew up being taught that their body was the problem and is starting to suspect the tradition was wrong.

We cover:
Queer theology and sexual ethics
Embodiment, pleasure, and the sacred body
Deconstruction and religious trauma
Disability justice and theology
Eve, death, rebirth, and what liberation actually costs

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What happens when desire meets doctrine and neither will back down?

In this episode of Excavations, Connie Chen sits down with Colten Barnaby for a wide-ranging, unfiltered conversation about the tangled roots of faith, sexuality, and identity. They dig into what it means to grow up Christian with a body full of desires you've been taught to distrust, how worshiping a male God shapes the way we relate to ourselves and others, and why shame doesn't just disappear when you leave the pew.

From trans theology to the violence embedded in liberation, this conversation refuses easy answers, and wrestles honestly with scripture, pleasure, body image, and the communities that formed (and sometimes deformed) us.

Because you can't excavate your faith without excavating yourself.

Connect with us:

• Colten Barnaby on Instagram, Tiktok, Substack
• Connie Chen on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube

Help sustain my work and this podcast on Patreon

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Join Connie Chen and Dr. Tamice Spencer-Helms for a rich conversation exploring hospice work as a powerful metaphor for helping whiteness face its own death and transformation. Together, we reflect on the sacred interconnectedness of birth and death, the vital role of embodiment in spiritual practice, and the possibility of resurrection that emerges when we embrace grief, ritual, and our shared humanity.

In this episode, we explore:

• How the disembodiment of whiteness disconnects us from ourselves and how its death can open the door to a more authentic way of being
• Choosing joy, depth, and meaningful impact over fame and performance
• The complex relationship between sin and shame
• Crying as part of the body’s natural, life-giving cycle
• How post-Christian identity creates space for more expansive, honest conversations about faith
• Why God cannot be contained by rigid categories. God is being itself

Connect with us:

• Dr. Tamice Spencer-Helms on Instagram
• Connie Chen on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube

Help sustain my work and this podcast on Patreon

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From the perspective of an Asian American artist, I explore the Instagram blackout designed to prompt reflection and amplify black voices after the death of George Floyd.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please consider leaving a review here on iTunes and supporting me on Patreon. 

If you would like to suggest topics for future episodes or send in comments, please email [email protected] 

Website: www.connie-chen.com
Instagram | Tiktok | Youtube 

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Welcome to the inaugural episode of Excavations, where I share my response to a photo I stumbled upon on April 9th, 2020 and have not been able to look away from since.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please consider leaving a review here on iTunes and supporting me on Patreon. 

If you would like to suggest topics for future episodes or send in comments, please email [email protected] 

Website: www.connie-chen.com
Instagram | Tiktok | Youtube

Support the show