Humanize Me

A question from a former church pastor about finding connections and community with other people on the other side of faith. Bart thinks it's harder as an adult than when you were in high school or college, but has some thoughts that may inspire some practical moves. Things we mention during the episode: 

https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/resources

How can we learn to have our disagreements across ideological divides more constructively and respectfully? David C. Smalley may be something of an expert at this point, having conducted hundreds of long-form conversations - many of them with Christians - on his podcast for the last 11 years. In this episode with Bart Campolo, David talks about how he approaches these on-air disagreements, and what allows him to stay friends with many of his guests after they hang up the phone.

Bart and John share thoughts about the Inauguration of President Biden, the emotions it raises, what is entailed in turning the page as a nation, how to begin to bring Trump's most fervent supporters back into conversation, the importance of rituals like this, the Inauguration as a civic religious ceremony, and the actual religion in the ceremony - including the biggest bible we've ever seen.

What does it take to cope in a high-pressure, competitive environment... without falling into harmful behavior? Ali Tamposi is a grammy-nominated songwriter who has written for some of the biggest names in pop music: Kelly Clarkson, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, John Legend, Ozzy Osbourne and many others. She's also Bart Campolo's daughter-in-law-to-be. Bart and Ali talk about what it's like to be in a songwriting session, how high-pressure, competitive environments can bring out everyone's insecurities, the better of her two coping strategies, how gender plays a role, how a good key relationship can make all the difference, and how you can't always change the room but rather what you bring to it.

Bart joins Konrad Benjamin, host of the Australian podcast Ideas Digest, to talk about why he isn't a progressive Christian but rather a secular humanist, and to assert that they ALWAYS become atheists.

A coronavirus story, Bart’s contention that Christmas should be once every 4 years, and a reminder that life isn’t ‘supposed to’ be perfect.

The second of two classic installments of this podcast that we’re posting on the topic of better conversations. Last week, we heard about the method called 'street epistemology'. This time, we're hearing about 'deep canvassing', used by our guest David Fleischer of the Los Angeles LGBT Center to change votes. We hope it’ll help you think about how to engage with people more productively, and enable some good interpersonal outcomes! Note: This is an edit comprised of TWO separate conversations with David, which originally appeared in episodes 423 and 429.

In a reprise of this classic conversation with Anthony Magnabosco, we talk about a conversational tool which can change the course - and productivity - of those most difficult exchanges, the ones between people who disagree on fundamental things in life. Anthony is an advocate of 'street epistemology', and it could be a very useful idea in these divided times. This is the first of two 'classic' episodes we're posting on the topic of better conversations. We hope it'll help you think about how to engage with people more productively, and enable some good interpersonal outcomes.

Bart gives a stream-of-consciousness update from under his rock, including stark thoughts about the recent attempted suicide of a close friend, an unexpected gift from another, and an attempt to recenter around gratefulness. The classic article on chess Bart mentions (circa 1992) can be found at https://vault.si.com/vault/1992/03/02/the-child-is-the-master-playing-a-young-chess-prodigy-rekindled-the-authors-love-for-the-game