Impossible Beauty

Today on the podcast, I have a very important conversation with Whitney Otto. In our time together, Whitney talks about her experience as an endurance athlete, particularly as a world champion rower. Whitney was a member of the national rowing team and an alternate in the 2000 Olympics. She has also worked with Women’s Sports Foundation to help bring sport to girls in the inner city. Following her full-time rowing career, Whitney went on to get her masters degree in Counseling Psychology and work in the eating disorder field. She currently resides with her family in Cambridge, Massachusetts and runs Life Alive Coaching, where she works in leadership development, and executive and performance coaching.

While we all know it’s helpful to move our bodies, the pervasive messages of diet culture can often warp our relationship with movement and our bodies. In today’s episode, Whitney speaks so authentically about the very real body image pressures of being an endurance athlete and her own struggles with disordered eating. We also talk about the unhelpful cultural messages around health and beauty. Often times, being muscular or thin doesn’t equate with holistic wellbeing. All of that to say, I am so grateful for the experience, vulnerability, and heart that Whitney brings to today’s conversation. I can’t wait for you to listen.

Jonathan is an incredibly gifted England-based photographer, the creator of a photography course for children called “Cultivating Wonder,” and is a copyrighter for Penguin Random House publishing. In his photography work, Jonathan largely specializes in photographing families and children, in addition to providing portraits for branding and start-ups, headshots, engagements and weddings.

In my time with Jonathan, he describes his photography work in the most profound and beautiful ways. He helped me see that his portrait work and in his cultivating course, he is doing something so much deeper than taking photos or teaching about photography. Rather, both of these are venues for Jonathan to make profound in-roads for people to realize their diving imaging, the essence of beauty, and what it means to live life deeply.

Jonathan’s words and insights in this interview are phenomenal. The way he talks about beauty, about people, and about his work in the world shifted my heart and my mind in amazing ways. Get out your notebook for this one. Jonathan has some tremendous insight to share!

Shawna Boren is the Engagement Pastor at Woodland Hills. She has served in various pastoral staff roles in both Texas and Minnesota for over 20 years, but it is at Woodland Hills where Shawna is passionate about helping people find their place of belonging within the larger congregation. She is married to her husband, Scott, and they are parents to four children, three boys and one girl. In my time with Shawna, she shares her powerful story of how love has transformed her life, her own struggles with beauty, and how her view on authentic beauty has been formed over the years. I absolutely loved my conversation with Shawna. I can’t wait for you to meet her and learn from her in today’s episode.

Nicole Zasowski is a licensed marriage and family therapist, writer, and speaker. She is also the author of From Lost to Found: Giving Up What You Think You Want for What Will Set You Free. In her book, Nicole reveals her own story of how challenges such as unwanted transition, multiple miscarriages, and crippling anxiety gave way to a deepened faith and connection with Jesus.

In addition to maintaining a private therapy practice, her professional work includes leading marriage intensives at The Hideaway Experience in Atlanta, GA, facilitating support and enrichment groups at several local churches in the greater New York City area, and serving as an adjunct professor at Alliance Theological Seminary. Nicole lives with her husband, Jimmy and their two sons, in a small town just outside New York City.

My time with Nicole was such an encouragement to me. She reminded me of truths that resonate so deeply but that I often forget. In short, Nicole’s message invites us to discover how the surprising path to healing begins when we let go of what we have known, and swerve right into God’s transforming grace, where we find what we need.

Dr. Jillian Lampert is a Registered Dietician, adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota and is the Chief Strategy Officer at The Emily Program, a treatment program for those struggling with eating disorders. Dr. Lampert is also the Co-founder and President of the Residential Eating Disorders Consortium and the Treasurer of the Eating Disorders Coalition, a DC-based national organization for eating disorders policy and advocacy. She is the author of numerous book chapters and articles addressing nutritional treatment of body image, eating disorders, sports participation, adolescent health and disordered eating and she regularly speaks regionally and nationally on numerous eating disorder related topics.

Simply put, Jillian is pretty much an expert in eating disorders, with an expansive range of policy, clinical, research, education, teaching, and program development experience in this area. In my time with Jillian, we talked a lot about the influence of cultural beauty standards in the development of an eating disorder, how beauty standards can impact our relationship with food and our bodies, as well as what is the difference between a disordered relationship with food and a clinical eating disorder. There is so much packed into the conversation and I am so excited to share Jillian’s wisdom with you.

I absolutely loved my conversation with Adam Weber. Adam is the founder and lead pastor of Embrace, a multi-site church based out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota and the author of Talking With God, a book on prayer, and his most recent book, Love Has A Name. He also hosts a podcast called The Conversation. Adam’s home life is also very full; he and his wife, Becky, are busy raising their four kids, seven chickens, two dogs, and three fish.

I laughed a lot in my time with Adam. He has a way of talking about really important things in a lighthearted way. He’s a great storyteller, dynamic speaker, and has a way of inviting us to notice the life of God at work all around us. I can’t wait for you to laugh with and learn from Adam.

Dr. Thompson is a Washington D.C. based psychiatrist, author, and speaker who integrates interpersonal neurobiology and a Christian view of what it means to be human. He seeks to educate and encourage others as they seek to fulfill their intrinsic desire to feel known, valued and connected. Curt’s insights about how the brain affects and processes relationships help people discover a fresh perspective and practical applications to foster healthy and vibrant lives, allowing them to get unstuck and move toward the next beautiful thing they’re being called to make.

Dr. Thompson’s work has been greatly influential in my own life, both professionally and personally and, so I am so excited for you to hear from him today. There were numerous times in this interview that were truly “drop the mic” moments. I found myself simultaneously speechless and profoundly inspired. Dr. Thompson has a humble and compassionate way of speaking truth, a truth that feels so sacred that it deserves space to breathe. So, please, sit back, maybe grab a notebook for this one, and prepare to be inspired.

Stephanie Williams O'Brien is a pastor at Mill City Church in Minneapolis, she teaches at Bethel Seminary, and is the executive producer and co-host of Lead Stories Podcast with Jo Saxton. Stephanie has also authored two books, Stay Curious: How Questions and Doubts Can Save Your Faith and Make a Move: How to Stop Wavering and Make Decisions in a Disorienting World.

I am so grateful to have known Stephanie for a couple of decades now. What has always stood out to me is Stephanie’s vibrant and steadfast faith. Her life and her words always remind me that the life of faith is one of adventure, as we join God in his restorative and redemptive work in the world, not knowing where that will lead.

Because of Stephanie’s steadfast and dynamic faith, I was so excited to talk to her about authentic beauty. And she was kind enough to tackle some tough issues with me: about faith, struggle, and about how she makes sense of the realities of beauty and tragedy.

“Words not for the ears, but for the soul.” That is how Arielle Estoria describes her work. Arielle is a Spoken Word Poet, author, and speaker. She has shared her work in keynote talks with companies such as Google, Lululemon, and Tedx and has emceed events such as Anchored in Love for teenage girls, featuring surfer Bethany Hamilton. Arielle has also lead writing, social media and self-acceptance workshops in various settings ranging from students to professional development spaces.

She is the Co-Author of two self-published collections of poetry: Vagabonds and Zealots (2014) and Write Bloody Spill Pretty (2017). In 2016 she released her EP of poetry and music titled Symphony of a Lioness. And when not writing or speaking, Arielle can be found acting and modeling as well.

What strikes me about Arielle is the power of her words; not only the words themselves, but the conviction and artistry in her delivery. Her words have the power to pierce through life’s superficial trappings and speak directly to the soul; reminding us of Whose we are and calling forth the stirrings of our true self.

Morgan Snyder is a strategist, entrepreneur, teacher, speaker and the author of Becoming a King: The Path to Restoring the Heart of a Man. Morgan’s passion is to shape the men and women who are shaping the kingdom of God. In 2010, he established BecomeGoodSoil.com, a fellowship of leaders whose global reach offers guidance for becoming the kind of person to whom God can entrust the care of his kingdom. Morgan serves on the executive leadership team at Wild at Heart and Ransomed Heart Ministries, where he and his wife Cherie have worked with John and Stasi Eldredge for more than two decades.

I recently had the privilege of talking with Morgan and his wife, Cherie, all about Morgan’s book and authentic beauty. In our time together, we talk about marital struggle, inner transformation, the value of suffering, and the depth of true beauty. Morgan and Cherie ultimately teach us how the journey of wholeheartedness and, so, the journey of discovering true beauty, is rooted in the Life of God.