By Amy Julia Becker
A podcast about reimagining the good life through the lens of disability, faith, and culture. Host Amy Julia Becker interviews guests in conversations that challenge assumptions about the good life
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The podcast currently has 156 episodes available.
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What does it mean to be human? Who counts as a human being and why? Anthropologist Tom Pearson has been asking these questions for a living for a long time, and then his daughter was born and diagnosed with Down syndrome, prompting him to ask the questions all over again in his book An Ordinary Future.
Amy Julia and Tom discuss:
FREE RESOURCE: 10 Ways to Move Toward a Good Future {especially for families with disability}
Guest Bio:
Tom Pearson is a cultural anthropologist with wide-ranging interests in the fields of environmental justice and disability studies. He teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where he also chairs the social science department. His writing has appeared in numerous scholarly journals and other public outlets. The birth of his daughter Michaela and her diagnosis with Down syndrome thrust him into an unfamiliar world of disability and difference. His book An Ordinary Future: Margaret Mead, the Problem of Disability, and a Child Born Different examines this experience in relation to Margaret Mead's path to disability rights activism. It confronts the dominant ideas, disturbing contradictions, and dramatic transformations that have shaped our perspectives on disability over the last century.
Connect Online:
Website | Twitter
On the Podcast:
TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/tom-pearson/
YouTube Channel: video with closed captions
Let’s Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.
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The ways we have envisioned success—whether it’s more wealth, social media followers, recognition, or power—might actually lead us away from an abundant, spacious life. Pastor Rich Villodas, author of The Narrow Way, joins Amy Julia Becker on the podcast to examine how the Sermon on the Mount challenges prevailing notions of success and the good life and invites us to reimagine faithfulness to Jesus.
Amy Julia and Rich discuss:
Check out Amy Julia's live, online WORKSHOP: Reimagining Family Life with Disability. Use code FAMILY24 at checkout and take 30% off!
Guest Bio:
Rich Villodas is the author of 4 books, including his latest The Narrow Path: How the Subversive Way of Jesus Satisfies Our Souls. He is the lead pastor of New Life Fellowship, a large multiracial church with more than 75 countries represented, in Elmhurst, Queens, and Long Island, New York. He is the co-host of the Resilient Pastor podcast. He’s been married to Rosie since 2006, and they have two beautiful children, Karis and Nathan.
Connect Online with Rich: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
On the Podcast:
TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/rich-villodas-2024/
YouTube Channel: video with closed captions
Let’s Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.
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How do we envision the good life in a way that is hopeful and human and freeing and good?
My name is Amy Julia Becker. I help people reimagine the good life through my writing and speaking on disability, faith, and culture.
My hope for the work I do, and for this show, is that we would:
–Challenge the assumptions about what makes life good
–Proclaim the inherent belovedness of every human being
–And envision a world of belonging
–Where everyone matters
Discover captivating conversations with leading authors, professors, and experts who delve into what it truly means to be human and what makes life good. If you're ready to explore helpful, beautiful perspectives on belonging and belovedness and mattering, now is the perfect time to join.
Subscribe today to catch new episodes every other week, beginning September 10. Let’s reimagine the good life together.
Mark your calendar, and make sure you’re subscribed. You won’t want to miss this.
REIMAGINING THE GOOD LIFE is available wherever you get your podcasts.
Also, check out my live, online WORKSHOP: Reimagining Family Life with Disability. Use code FAMILY24 to take 30% off registration! It begins September 18th!
YouTube Channel: video with closed captions
Let’s Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.
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What does it mean to live a good life? How do we find meaning and happiness in our everyday lives? In this episode, Amy Julia Becker sits down with Meghan Sullivan, co-author of The Good Life Method and philosophy professor at Notre Dame, to explore:
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Guest Bio:
Meghan Sullivan is the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. She serves as Director of the University-wide Ethics Initiative and is the founding director of Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, which will launch in the summer of 2024. In 2022, Sullivan published The Good Life Method with Penguin Press (co-authored with her teaching collaborator Paul Blaschko) based on a wildly popular introductory philosophy course she developed at Notre Dame called “God and the Good Life.” Sullivan has degrees from the University of Virginia, Oxford University, and Rutgers University, where she earned a PhD in philosophy. She studied at Balliol College, Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar.
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Connect Online:
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On the Podcast:
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TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/meghan-sullivan/
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YouTube: video with closed captions
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Let’s Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.
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In a society often obsessed with intelligence, can we reimagine a good life that encompasses joy, meaning, and respect for all? What does it mean to respect and support individuals with profound intellectual disabilities? What role do those most intimately involved in providing care have in advocacy? Professor Amy Lutz, Ph.D., author of Chasing the Intact Mind, joins Amy Julia Becker to discuss:
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FREE RESOURCE: 10 Ways to Move Toward a Good Future (especially for families affected by disability)
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GUEST BIO
Professor Amy Lutz, Ph.D., is a historian of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research locates at the intersection of disability history and bioethics. She is a founding board member of the National Council on Severe Autism (NCSA) and the author of Chasing the Intact Mind and several other books. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and five children, including Jonah, her 25-year-old son with profound autism.
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ON THE PODCAST
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TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/amy-lutz/
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YouTube Channel: video with closed captions
Let’s Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com and subscribe here to receive my weekly thoughts and reflections.
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How do you hold onto hope in the midst of suffering? How can we trust in the goodness of God in a world of pain? What does the good life look like in the midst of disability and uncertainty? Katherine Wolf, author with Alex Wolf of Treasures in the Dark, survived a catastrophic stroke at the age of 26 and continues her recovery to this day. She offers thoughtful answers to these questions as she talks with Amy Julia Becker about:
FREE RESOURCE: 10 Ways to Move Toward a Good Future (especially for families affected by disability)
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Guest Bio:
Katherine & Jay Wolf are communicators and advocates. They married and moved to Los Angeles to pursue careers in law and the entertainment industry. Their son, James was born in 2007, and six months later Katherine’s life nearly ended with a catastrophic stroke. Miraculously, she survived and continues her recovery to this day, including having a miracle baby, John in 2015. Katherine and Jay have shared their journey of steadfast hope through their books and at speaking events. Together, they founded Hope Heals camp, a community for families with disabilities like them. Katherine, Jay and their two sons live in the Atlanta area.
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Connect Online:
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On the Podcast:
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TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/katherine-wolf/
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Let’s Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.
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We are heading into another contentious Presidential election. For people of faith, for people who care about character and gentleness and values, for people who are inclined to disengage from politics altogether, what are we to do? Michael Wear, author of The Spirit of Our Politics, joins Amy Julia Becker to talk about:
Workshop with Amy Julia: Reimagining Family Life With Disability
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Guest Bio:
“Michael Wear is the Founder, President and CEO of the Center for Christianity and Public Life, a nonpartisan, nonprofit institution based in the nation's capital with the mission to contend for the credibility of Christian resources in public life, for the public good. For well over a decade, he has served as a trusted resource and advisor for a range of civic leaders on matters of faith and public life, including as a White House and presidential campaign staffer. He is the author of The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life, a paradigm-shifting book that advances a vision for spiritual formation in the context of political life, and the author and co-author of several other books.”
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Connect Online:
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On the Podcast:
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TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/michael-wear/
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YouTube Channel: video with closed captions
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Let’s Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.
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What's the difference between limitations and brokenness? What does it mean to be blessed? How can a dual diagnosis of Down syndrome and autism be a part of a flourishing life? Micha Boyett, a writer, poet, and mom, joins Amy Julia Becker to talk about her new book Blessed Are the Rest of Us. They explore the intersection of blessing, limits, and longing within the context of the Beatitudes, including:
Workshop with Amy Julia: Reimagining Family Life With Disability
Guest Bio:
Micha Boyett is the author of Blessed Are the Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole. She is cohost of the award-winning The Lucky Few podcast, creator of The Slow Way podcast and newsletter, and has written for publications such as the Washington Post and Christianity Today. Micha lives with her husband and three children in northern New Jersey and works part-time as a youth pastor at Good Shepherd Church in New York City.
Connect Online:
On the Podcast:
TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/micha-boyett/
YouTube Channel: video with closed captions
Let’s Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.
Connect with me:
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Send us a text
{Please note that we discuss abuse in this episode.}
How do we love people across our political and social divides? What are the costs and gifts of loving our political neighbor? Nancy French, author of Ghosted: An American Story, talks with Amy Julia Becker about:
New Workshop with Amy Julia: Reimagining Family Life With Disability
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GUEST BIO:
Nancy French has collaborated on multiple books for celebrities - five of which made the New York Times best seller list - and written books under her own name. She has conducted a multi-year journalistic investigation, written commentary, and published for the nation’s most prominent newspapers and magazines. Her memoir, Ghosted, is a story of poverty, success and the rise and fall of political influence. She lives in Franklin, Tennessee with her husband – journalist David French – and family.
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CONNECT ONLINE
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ON THE PODCAST:
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TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/nancy-french/
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YouTube Channel: video with closed captions
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Let’s Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.
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Connect with me:
Thanks for listening!
Send us a text
Why does it matter that most churches don’t welcome people with disabilities in leadership? If a church excludes people with disabilities, is it really a church? Rev. Dr. Andrew Draper, coauthor of Disabling Leadership, talks with Amy Julia Becker about:
Workshop: Reimagining Family Life with Disability
EVENT: Festival of Faith & Writing
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Guest Bio:
Rev. Dr. Andrew T. Draper (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is founding teaching pastor at Urban Light Community Church in Muncie, Indiana, and adjunct theology faculty at Anderson School of Theology and Winebrenner Seminary. He is the author of A Theology of Race and Place, Christian Mission and Poverty, and numerous articles on race, disability, and the church. He is the coauthor of Disabling Leadership: A Practical Theology for the Broken Body of Christ.
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Connect Online:
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On the Podcast:
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TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/andrew-draper/
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YouTube: video with closed captions
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Let’s reimagine the good life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.
Connect with me:
Thanks for listening!
The podcast currently has 156 episodes available.
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