When the wind is just right, on a small beach in Titusville, Florida, horseshoe crabs crawl out of the water and onto the beach to lay their eggs. Jim and Colin joined up with two marine biologists—Bob Sluka who works with A Rocha, a Christian conservation organization and Margaret Miller, a coral biologist who works with SECORE International—and three A Rocha interns to survey the horseshoe crabs. That experience began an exploration into paying attention to many of the creatures that surround us, extending hospitality, and learning from the creatures, even from the ocean itself, about how we might better worship the creator of it all. 

Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Vesper Tapes, Klimenko Music, Evergreen, High Street Music, Magentize Music, & Sirius Music, courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc.

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Octopuses and humans have been evolving separately for more than 500 million years, but still, we have a few things in common. We explore what this means about the octopus, what it means about humans, and what it tells us about the Creator of All Things. As we dive into the science of octopus cognition and behavior we find the questions get more and more interesting. To help us sort through it, we are joined by Sy Montgomery (author of Soul of an Octopus and Secrets of the Octopus) who introduced us to two giant Pacific Octopuses at the New England Aquarium. 

Thanks to the New England Aquarium for hosting our visit. 

Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Evan MacDonald, Mattijs Muller, Titan Sound, Klimenko Music, Ricky Bombino, Sirius Music, Northern Points, and Paradiso Music courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc. 

This episode originally aired on March 13, 2025

In the summer of 2022 Dawn Wright became only the 27th person ever, the fifth woman, and the first Black person to descend into the deepest part of the ocean, a place called Challenger Deep. As a scientist, Dawn has been studying and helping to map the depths of the ocean, but being there in person uncovered a new dimension and deepened her connection with the mysterious underwater world. In the episode, Colin and Dawn talk about the science of mapping, the world of deep sea submersibles, and how finding trash in the most remote places of our planet might spark a renewed sense of stewardship for all of God’s creation. 

Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Nick Petrov, courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc. 

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Story map of Dawn's Challenger Deep Dive

This episode originally aired on May 18, 2023

Coral reefs are easy to mistake for rock or plant life. But corals are animals—colonies of tiny polyps living in partnership with algae, building vast reef structures over generations. They are complicated creatures and they stretch our normal categories for living things. 

In this episode, we try to really get a grasp on this creature, with the help of coral biologists, writers, filmmakers and those who have been working to care for corals as they face many challenges. These experts see coral not just as an individual creature, but as a community—one built through symbiosis, cooperation, grief, and hope.

Along the way, the episode wrestles with climate change, extinction, restoration, and the spiritual weight of loving something vulnerable enough to disappear within a lifetime. Coral may look like rock from a distance. Up close, it becomes something much harder to categorize—and much harder to forget.

Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Kyle Booth, Pink Marble, Ricky Bombino, Simba Music, Mattijs Muller, & Pavel Yudin, courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc. 

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Learn about the work at the Frost Aquarium

In this episode of Language of God, Colin Hoogerwerf and Jim Stump sit down in Oxford, England with writer, veterinarian, barrister, and philosopher Charles Foster to explore a provocative idea at the center of his newest book, The Edges of the World: that everything truly significant happens at the edges.  

From the margins of geography and culture to the borders of science, religion, and human consciousness, Foster argues that creativity, transformation, and spiritual insight emerge not from comfortable centers of power, but from places of uncertainty, encounter, and risk. Along the way, the conversation ranges widely through questions about why humans are drawn toward certainty and control, whether Christianity has lost its “edgy” character, and how science can become too attached to its own paradigms. The discussion also explores language, embodiment, morality, and whether modern humans have become disconnected from the physical world in ways that earlier humans—and perhaps even nonhuman creatures—were not.  

Together, they reflect on Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, evolutionary biology, the Eucharist, modern scientific culture, and the role of language in shaping human consciousness. Foster makes the case that paying deeper attention to our embodied lives—to touch, scent, place, relationship, and the more-than-human world—may help recover something essential about what it means to be human.  

In a world that often feels relentlessly exhausting, weariness can seem like something to fix, escape, or push through. But what if it’s also a place where something deeper is happening?

In this episode, Anglican priest and writer Tish Harrison Warren helps us explore the spiritual reality of “dry seasons”—times that aren’t marked by crisis or tragedy, but by a quiet sense of fatigue, distance, or disorientation. Drawing on the wisdom of the desert fathers and mothers, Tish reflects on how Christians across history have understood these experiences not as failures of faith, but as essential parts of it.

The conversation explores how ancient practices like stability, repetition, and embodied prayer can quietly shape a life over time, even when nothing seems to be happening. And it offers a different vision of growth—one that doesn’t depend on constant energy or clarity, but unfolds slowly, often beneath the surface. Through the lens of her own experience, Tish reflects on how these dry seasons can become places of meaning, where growth isn’t just possible, but necessary.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in the “long middle,” weary of being weary, or unsure what God is doing in a dry season, this conversation offers a language—and a hope—for the journey.

Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Vesper Tapes, courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc.

Find Tish's new book here.

New Testament scholar N.T. Wright sits down with Jim Stump to explore how Christians should think about the past, the future, and the story that holds them together. What does it mean to say that something in the Bible “really happened”? And how do we distinguish between history, parable, and poetic imagination without missing the point of Scripture altogether?

Wright reflects on how modern assumptions about “history” can distort the way we read the Bible, and why the early Christians insisted that certain events—especially the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus—must be understood as real happenings in the world. At the same time, he shows how other parts of Scripture operate differently, inviting readers into a larger vision rather than offering straightforward historical reporting.

From there, the conversation turns toward the future: the Christian hope of new creation. Drawing on themes from across the New Testament, Wright describes a vision not of escape from the world, but of its renewal. The resurrection of Jesus becomes the key—both a real event in the past and the pattern for what God intends for all creation.

Along the way, Wright connects these ideas to everyday life. If God’s future is one of restoration and renewal, what does that mean for how we live now? How do acts of justice, care, and faithfulness become “signposts” of the coming world?

This episode offers a thoughtful and accessible guide to reading Scripture more wisely, understanding Christian hope more deeply, and imagining how the story of new creation is already beginning to take shape in the present. It also offers a special musical performance after the credits!

Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Grayson DeSmet, courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc. 

What happens when one of the world’s most prominent former atheists becomes a Christian—and claims that faith actually strengthens reason and science?

In this episode, Jim Stump sits down with author and public intellectual Ayaan Hirsi Ali to explore her unexpected journey from Islam to atheism, and ultimately to Christianity. Once known for her sharp critiques of religion, Ayaan now describes her Christian faith as something that sharpens her reason and makes her more committed to science.

Their conversation focuses on this personal transformation: what she found lacking in her years as an atheist, how she came to see herself as “spiritually bankrupt,” and why she ultimately turned to Christianity in search of meaning, hope, and peace. Along the way, they discuss the relationship between faith and reason, the role of science in a Christian worldview, and whether curiosity itself might be a form of worship.

Whatever you make of her broader public voice, this episode offers a chance to hear Ayaan Hirsi Ali tell, in her own words, the story of a life shaped by big questions about truth, morality, and what it means to live well.

Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Vesper Tapes, courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc.

In this episode, infectious disease epidemiologist and science communicator Jessica Malaty Rivera reflects on what it means to help people make sense of science in the midst of uncertainty. Drawing on her experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, she explores the gap between data and decision-making, and why clear, empathetic communication is essential for public health.

Jessica shares how her work has focused not just on understanding disease, but on translating complex information into something people can actually use. From social media to national data efforts, she considers what builds trust—and what breaks it—when the stakes are high and the science is still evolving.

The conversation also turns to her faith, and how her background in the church shaped her understanding of community, responsibility, and care for others. Together, they explore the tension between individual choice and the common good, and what it might look like to approach both science and faith with humility in a world that resists nuance.

Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Ricky Bombino, courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc.

What if one of our closest relatives had taken a completely different evolutionary path?

In this episode of Language of God, we continue our Cool Creatures series with a journey to Madagascar and also to the Duke Lemur Center, to explore the strange, beautiful, and deeply revealing world of lemurs. These primates split from our own lineage tens of millions of years ago, evolving in isolation into an astonishing diversity of forms. 

Along the way, we meet scientists who study lemurs in the wild and in conservation settings, uncovering what makes them so unique: female-led societies, rich social bonds expressed through grooming, and a reliance on smell rather than sight to understand their world. 

But this episode isn’t just about lemurs—it’s about what they reveal. Lemurs help us ask deeper questions about what it means to be human, how evolution unfolds in different directions, and what responsibility we carry for other species. With nearly all lemurs now threatened by habitat loss and human activity, their story is also one of urgency and conservation.

From evolutionary history to field research to theology, this episode invites you to see lemurs not just as fascinating creatures, but as mirrors—reflecting both our past and our present.

Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Pink Marble, Nick Petrov, Animated Music, Vesper Tapes, Rick Bombino, Zeonium & MS Elyascourtesy of Shutterstock, Inc.