Elena Rossini noticed a disturbing trend; she observed a cross-generation epidemic of body dissatisfaction. Not only was the trend across generations but it was manifested in similarly distressing ways across diverse cultures.

Elena Rossini is an Italian film director, producer, editor and public speaker. Her work focuses on issues of social justice, media representation, and the empowerment of women and girls. Elena’s most notable film is the documentary The Illusionists, about the globalization of beauty ideals and the dark side of advertising. Rossini shot the film in eight countries, across four continents. The documentary has been featured in Vogue Italy, New York Magazine, NPR, FOX and NBC Baltimore, amongst others. Rossini has taken the documentary on tour, including some of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley (Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter) and at dozens of schools in the United States and Europe (most recently: Harvard University, University of Chicago, USC, UCLA, UC Berkeley).

In today’s episode, I have the honor of talking with Elena about themes from The Illusionists and her upcoming film The Realists. In our time together, we talk about the globalization and saturation of unrealistic beauty ideals and how such inundation is impacting us. She also discusses the connection she sees between the rise of social media and the current teen mental health crisis. Elena’s voice and message are pivotal in our media saturated world. She helps us pull off the blinders to see the agenda and dangers of popular beauty ideals, so we can direct our life and energies toward more meaningful, lasting endeavors.

Shame is that all-encompassing, embodied, sinking feeling that we are wrong or bad. It’s not just a sense of guilt over something we did, but the wrongness of who we are. And shame has all kinds of occasions to creep in; the perceived wrongness of our body, our relationships status, our parenting, our career, and the list goes on.

In today’s episode, Jasmine Holmes invites us to consider the influence shame has on our lives. Jasmine Holmes is a teacher and author, committed to centering black stories in history. She has written books such as Carved in Ebony: Lessons from the Black Women Who Shape Us and Mother to Son: Letters to A Black Boy on Identity and Hope. Jasmine’s latest book is called, Never Cast Out: How the Gospel Puts an End to the Story of Shame.

In my time with Jasmine, we talk about how scripts of perfectionism in Christian and popular culture can lead to shame. Jasmine also shares about her own journey of shame’s influence in her life and the transformation that took place when she opened space for Jesus to speak into those places where shame dwelled. Jasmine also gives us important ideas on how to notice and combat shame in our lives; ultimately reminding us that grace is stronger than shame. My hope is that this conversation might bring some light into our own corners of shame. And in those places, may the voice of grace speak loudest.

Cleere Cherry Reaves had an experience that changed how she viewed everything. When Cleere’s son was born three months prematurely, Cleere and her husband watched as their child fought for his life, developed, and began to thrive. In today’s episode, Cleere tells us the lessons she learned from that experience, how her faith was transformed, and why it inspired her to write the children’s book, The Miracle of You.

Cleere Cherry Reaves is the owner and creator of Cleerely Stated, an online boutique whose inspirational products can be found in retail stores all over the United States. She is also the author of three devotionals and the host of the growing podcast, Let's Be Cleere. Cleere’s mission is to help others see themselves and the world around them through the eyes of Jesus.

In our time together, Cleere reminds us to not miss the life we have, that the God of miracles is for us, and that his fingerprints are everywhere. As Cleere so helpfully puts it, what would it mean to live life looking for those miracles?

Amanda Held Opelt got a lesson in grief she never wanted. After a series of miscarriages, the loss of her grandma, and then her beloved sister, Amanda found solace in an unexpected place, in exploring ancient grief rituals in practices. In her first book, A Hole in the World: Finding Hope in Rituals of Grief and Healing, Amanda explores how such ancient grief rituals and practices can be a vessel for honest expression, communal connection, and even healing.

Amanda is an author, speaker, and songwriter. She writes about faith, grief, and creativity. She has spent 15 years serving in the non-profit and humanitarian aid sectors and lives in the mountains of Boone, North Carolina. This July, Amanda is releasing her second book, Holy Unhappiness: God, Goodness, and the Myth of the Blessed Life.

In my time with Amanda, we talk about the complexity of living in a world that can be both stunningly beautiful and so very broken. She helps us see the beauty of ritual and community and how loss has the potential to deepen our capacity for love, faith, and healing. She also helps us see how reading the Biblical narrative through the lens of grief, can open us to seeing God in new and transformational ways. Overall, Amanda bravely and authentically wades into the human experience, offering us so much compassion, hope, and hard-won wisdom.

In today’s episode, K.J. Ramsey reminds me that “We are held by this web of love,” the love of God and the love of others. Those words and others like it shifted something in me. Instead of having to nervously earn or find God’s love, it is a reality that always surrounds me. A reality I can rest in. A reality we can rest in.

K.J. Ramsey is a trauma-informed licensed professional counselor and is the author of three books, including her latest title, The Book of Common Courage: Prayers and Poems to Find Strength in Small Moments. K.J. writes at the intersection of theology, psychology, and spiritual formation to guide us in recovering the rhythm of resilience through nervous system regulation and the wonder of communion with God.

In my time with K.J. she talks about her most recent book and the communal nature of courage; how “we need the presence and words of others to bring us from confusion to hope and faith.” She also discusses how being disabled and encountering various physical struggles have formed her faith and her prayer life. In authentic and profound ways, K.J. reminds us of hard-won realities about the heart of God and beauty itself. My hope and prayer is that this conversation and K.J.’s words might shift something within you as well. May her words bring healing and may they bring hope.

The Sunday Herald calls today’s guest, Jessica DeFino, “the woman the beauty industry fears.” That’s because Jessica, a beauty reporter and beauty culture critic, has seen the inner workings of the beauty industry and didn’t like it. More than that, Jessica now spends her time dismantling beauty standards, debunking marketing myths, and exploring how beauty culture impacts people — physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

Jessica has written for outlets such as The New York Times, Vogue, Teen Vogue, Harper’s BAZAAR, Allure, New York Magazine’s The Cut, ELLE, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Glamour, SELF, and many others. She now writes her own beauty newsletter called The Unpublishable.

In today’s episode, Jessica talks about her own experience in the beauty industry and why she decided to opt out, the psychological and spiritual impacts of beauty standards, why beauty standards are so powerful, why she sees today’s standard of beauty as dehumanizing, and what the beauty industry doesn’t want you to know. Jessica’s insights are so needed, speaking powerfully to the media-saturated culture we find ourselves in. This is truly a must-listen episode.

How do we live life fully alive? For Sandhya Oaks, living fully alive entails being courageous enough to go to places of brokenness and shame, so we might find healing. While trauma or hurt stunts our capacity for fullness of life, healing leads to an increased ability to love and live abundantly.

Sandhya Oaks is a Ministry Leader, Spiritual Director, leads Kintsugi workshops, and does Story Work. Born in India and adopted as a Transracial Adoptee in the Midwest, Sandhya now walks with others through identity reclamation and creating experiences that restore shalom within the human heart.

She is the Co-Founder of The Adoption Triad, a group that provides community and resources to those connected to Adoption and Foster Care. Sandhya holds two Certificates in Narrative Focused Trauma Care from The Allender Center and a Certificate in Resilient Leadership from the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. Additionally, she recently completed her Trauma Care Group Training Certificate through The Art of Living Counseling Center.

In today’s episode, I talk with Sandhya about the power and freedom that can come from finding healing in our own stories, how she stays grounded in God’s goodness and beauty amidst life’s brokenness, and how she’s come to see beauty in unexpected places. Sometimes finding beauty in a broken world can be feel like grueling work. I’m so grateful for brave leaders like Sandhya Oaks, who graciously show us the way forward.

We are approaching Lent, a forty-day period of preparation for celebrating Jesus’ resurrection at Easter. It’s a time rich with spiritual significance. It also happens to be a time when the ideas of self-deprivation and fasting can get emphasized in faith-based circles. The tricky part is that both diet culture messages and faith-based messages at times explicitly and implicitly emphasize food restriction and/or self-deprivation.

This Lent I have the privilege of being a part of a teaching series called “Losing the Lies for Lent.” The lie I am tackling is the message that “self-deprivation makes us holier or brings us closer to God.”

In today’s episode, I am so grateful to be joined by Registered Dietitian, Brittany Braswell, to do a deeper dive with me on this particular lie. Brittany is a non-diet dietitian who approaches nutrition and wellness from a holistic standpoint, including physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional wellbeing. She specifically works with women who struggle with disordered eating and negative self-image. Overall, Brittany is passionate about helping her clients establish a healthy relationship with food and body to improve their quality of life and walk free and fearlessly in their purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to our conversation. I hope it brings you closer to that kind of freedom.

In a world where beauty is so often equated with thinness and weight loss with health, willpower, and virtue, Intuitive Eating gives us a different framework-one that emphasizes the beauty of body diversity and makes food freedom possible.

In today’s episode, I have the privilege of speaking with one of the co-creators of Intuitive Eating, Elyse Resch, MS, RDN, CEDS-S. Elyse is a nutrition therapist in private practice in Beverly Hills, California, with forty years of experience, specializing in eating disorders, Intuitive Eating, and Health at Every Size. She is the co-author of Intuitive Eating, now in its 4th edition, the Intuitive Eating Workbook, The Intuitive Eating Card Deck—50 Bite-Sized Ways to Make Peace with Food, The Intuitive Eating Workbook for Teens, and The Intuitive Eating Journal—Your Guided Journey for Nourishing a Healthy Relationship with Food. She is also a chapter contributor to The Handbook of Positive Body Image and Embodiment and her work has been profiled in outlets such NPR, CNN, NBC, KTTV, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Associate Press, KFI Radio, USA Today, and the Huffington Post, among others. Elyse is nationally known for her work in helping patients break free from diet culture through the Intuitive Eating process. Her philosophy embraces the goal of reconnecting with one’s internal wisdom about eating and believes that all bodies deserve dignity and respect. She also supervises and trains health professionals, is a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist and Supervisor, a Fellow of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals, and a Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

In my time with Elyse, we discuss what first drew her to the concept of Intuitive Eating, what Intuitive Eating is and how it differs from diet culture, sneaky ways diet culture is showing up these days, and how the concept of health can be expanded beyond weight. So, if you’re curious about Intuitive Eating, making peace with food, or looking for a new way to connect with your body, this episode is for you.

In a world of selfies, social media, and self-promotion, the virtue of humility isn’t getting much airtime these days. In today’s episode, I have the privilege of discussing this all-important virtue with Richard Foster and Brenda Quinn.

Richard Foster is the founder of Renovaré Institute for Christian Spiritual Formation, a nonprofit that helps people in becoming more like Jesus. He is also the author of several foundational books on spiritual formation and the Christian journey of faith, including Celebration of Discipline, which has sold over two million copies worldwide. Brenda Quinn is Pastor of Spiritual Formation at Living Way Fellowship in south Denver and helped with idea development behind Foster’s latest book.

In today’s conversation, we discuss Richard’s most recent title, Learning Humility: A Year of Searching for a Vanishing Virtue. In our time together we talk about what spiritual formation is and why it’s important, why humility is considered a foundational virtue, how we can cultivate humility in our life, and how humility is tied to beauty of the soul.