In the last week, we've all witnessed the terrible devastation unfold in Los Angeles. Images of destruction - of loss of life, property, and community - are filling our news feeds. Meanwhile, here in North Carolina, my region continues to recover from Hurricane Helene. How are we to process the impact of these natural disasters from both near and far? Josie Gwin is the CEO and co-founder of The Resilience Resource, an organization that seeks to equip individuals, leaders, and organizations facing challenge and change. She is a Mental Health Coach, a Spiritual and Psychological First Aid Instructor, and a certified Chaplain with vast experience domestically and internationally responding to disasters. In this episode, she and I discuss the initial impact of this most recent disaster on L.A. residents, the experience of the broader public watching the crisis unfold online, and how we can tend to our emotional responses in healthy ways. For more on her organization, see https://theresilienceresource.org/

Christmas Day is almost upon us, and during this last week of Advent, we focus on the theme of love - its challenges, its requirements, its embodiment. Today, I speak with baker and theologian Kendall Vanderslice about the way we offer and experience love through the foods we eat. She talks about her new book, Bake and Pray, and walks us through some of the traditional practices of Christmastide and Epiphany.

We live in a time that is dominated by cynicism and suspicion...and joy is sometimes in short supply. Today, I speak with artist and poet Corey Frey about the role curiosity and imagination have in cultivating a life of joy - and why we in the modern West have lost so much of our capacity for wonder. We talk about the power of paradox, the mystery of a dynamic and incarnate God, and the way the holidays habituate delight.

How do we define peace? Is it a feeling? A disposition of the heart? A state of being? To help answer these questions as we meditate on the theme of week two of Advent, I talk with Pastor Rich Villodas about what Jesus has to say about peace in the Sermon on the Mount. Pastor Rich unpacks the difference between peacemaking and peace keeping, and he also talks about his new book The Narrow Path: How the Subversive Path of Jesus Satisfies Our Souls.

Week 1 of Advent is focused on the theme of hope, so for this conversation I wanted to speak with someone who knows what it's like when doubt and shifting faith threaten to steal your hope. Ian Harber is the author of the forthcoming book Walking Through Deconstruction, a gentle guide for anyone who wants to be a companion to those who are struggling in their faith. Ian's voice is a trusted one, as his own journey of deconstruction and reconstruction was forged in the fires of grief and loss. And because Advent is a season of waiting and longing, I hope this episode offers some light and grace for those who are longing for a return of confident faith and seeking to rebuild a hope that once felt lost.

Today I am privileged to speak with Dr. O. Alan Noble, professor and author of the book On Getting Out of Bed, which is one of the best books I've ever read about the reality of struggling with mental health as a person of faith. Dr. Noble and I discuss the broken anthropology that may be contributing to the unique anxieties of our age and reflect on the message we send when we choose to persevere through suffering.

Today, I talk with Meredith McDaniel, a licensed clinical mental health counselor and director of Milk + Honey Counseling in Davidson, North Carolina. Meredith and I cover A LOT in this episode, as she helps me unpack a few ideas that are still a bit unresolved in my mind: the role our spiritual practices play in our mental health, our current cultural obsession with wellness, and our sense of personal identity as it relates to a mental health struggle. This conversation was so rich for me, so honest, practical, and helpful.

www.meredithmcdaniel.com

Grief has been an enormous part of my own mental health journey. Today on the podcast, I talk with Dr. Mekel Harris who had a profound encounter with grief, one even a Ph.D. in clinical psychology did not fully prepare her for! I consider Dr. Mekel to be a kindred spirit; her deep passion is to offer resources both to individuals and organizations for managing the challenges of grief and mental health needs. Together, we'll discuss the impact grief had on our mental health and ways we learned to move forward with the new burden of grief.

Mental health continues to be a taboo topic in many churches, but today's guest - Chuck DeGroat - has spent years as both a pastor and a psychologist. He brings insights on how the tools of psychological study can be an asset for the church, but also how the rich tradition of soul care in the Christian tradition has a role to play in the lives of those seeking mental wellbeing.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, so for the next five weeks, I'll be having conversations with licensed counselors, therapists, psychologists, and pastors about the intersection of faith and mental health. Today, we talk with best-selling author and therapist Aundi Kolber about trauma, listening to our bodies, and why she likes to describe strength like water.