S10 E3—The return of the R-word is about more than language. The words we choose both reflect and shape our moral imagination. When disability becomes an insult or a political weapon, it influences how we understand human worth, vulnerability, and belonging. In this conversation, Christina Cipriano, PhD, joins Amy Julia Becker to explore her research on political language and disability, including the return of the R-word. They discuss what these patterns reveal about the systems shaping care, education, and belonging, and they consider: how can we resist dehumanizing language and  choose words that move us toward justice and joy?

00:00 Introduction to Disability Discourse Matters
06:53 Asset-Based vs. Deficit-Based Perspectives
10:27 Personal Narratives and Language Choices
19:49 The Rise, Fall, and Rise of the R Word
23:42 Dehumanization in Political Rhetoric
28:47 Historical Context of Disability Discourse
33:00 Disability Language and Future Generations
40:48 Reimagining Disability and the Good Life

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Disability Discourse Matters
• The Education Collaboratory at Yale | Child Study Center
• Spread the Word – Special Olympics
• Montclair University: Use of the Slur [r-word] Triples on X After Elon Musk Shares the Word in a Post
• Be Unapologetically Impatient by Christina Cipriano
• Euphemism Treadmill article

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ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Christina Cipriano, PhD, is currently an associate professor of applied developmental and educational psychology at the Yale Child Study Center in the Yale School of Medicine and Director of the Education Collaboratory. This fall Dr. Cipriano will transition to be the inaugural Joseph W. and Alma W. Keilty Endowed Chair in Education and Professor with tenure at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Education Collaboratory will be moving to the College of Education at UMass Amherst. An award-winning scholar and internationally regarded expert in the science of learning and development, Chris received her PhD from Boston College, her EdM from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and her undergraduate degree from Hofstra University. Dr. Cipriano has published over one hundred and twenty papers, commentaries, and reports, spanning top-tier journals such as Child Development and the Review of Educational Research as well as media outlets including The Washington Post, NPR, The New York Times, PBS, and Education Week. Her award-winning and best-selling new book, Be Unapologetically Impatient: The Mindset Required to Change the Way We Do Things (2025), is the latest must-read for every educator, provider, parent, and person interested in improving the lives of children and families, right now. A prolific public scholar, educator, and speaker, Chris privileges her positionality as a first-generation high school graduate and mother of four children in her science.

https://www.drchriscip.com/

https://www.disabilitydiscoursematters.org/

https://www.beunapologeticallyimpatient.com/

https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/christina-cipriano/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinacipriano/

LinkedIn @ChristinaCipriano

Instagram @DrChrisCip

BlueSky @DrChrisCip

Twitter @DrChrisCip

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S10 E2—What do you do when you’ve done all the “right” spiritual things and still feel exhausted? Tish Harrison Warren, a writer and Anglican priest, joins Amy Julia Becker to explore burnout, spiritual dryness, midlife weariness, and the practices that help us stay rooted when God feels distant. For those who are tired, discouraged, or wondering why faith feels harder than it used to, here’s hope for the long middle of life from Tish’s latest book, What Grows in Weary Lands.

00:00 Introduction to Tish Harrison Warren
03:29 Exploring Spiritual Weariness and Doubt
14:47 Understanding Fortitude and Resilience
23:23 The Imagined Good Life
30:20 Navigating the Desert of Faith
35:10 The Practice of Stability
44:04 Community in Seasons of Aridity

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Books by Tish Harrison Warren: 

• What Grows in Weary Lands 
• Liturgy of the Ordinary 
• Prayer in the Night 

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ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Tish Harrison Warren is an Anglican priest and the author of several books, including Liturgy of the Ordinary, which won Christianity Today’s 2018 Book of the Year, and Prayer in the Night, which won Christianity Today’s 2022 Book of the Year and the 2022 ECPA Christian Book of the Year. She formerly wrote a weekly newsletter for The New York Times, which focused on faith in public discourse and private life. She was also a columnist at Christianity Today. Her articles and essays have appeared in Comment Magazine, The Point Magazine, Religion News Service, and elsewhere. She currently serves as the C.S. Lewis Theological Writer-in-Residence for The Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary. She is a senior fellow with the Trinity Forum and an assisting priest at Immanuel Anglican Church. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and three children.

https://tishharrisonwarren.com/

https://www.instagram.com/tishharrisonwarren/

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S10 E1—When you walk into a room, what does that room tell you about who you are as a human being? What assumptions go into our restaurants and civic buildings and churches and homes and schools? What do they say about who we are and about how we relate to each other? Artist and design researcher Sara Hendren joins Amy Julia Becker to explore how modern spaces—from office buildings to nursing homes—shape what we believe about dignity, dependence, and belonging. Together they uncover how design can either diminish or restore our shared humanity, and why the good life depends on reimagining how we live together.

00:00 Introduction to Design and Humanity
05:24 Understanding the Machine Model and Anti-Human Design
14:32 What Spaces Communicate About Being Human
29:29 Design Choices and Human Dignity
34:49 Innovations in Dementia Care Design
37:26 Art and Dignity for Individuals with Disabilities
41:32 The Metaphysics of Dignity and Human Connection
51:07 Designing for the Good Life: Relationality and Community

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• What Can a Body Do? How We Meet the Built World by Sara Hendren
• Previous podcast conversation: “S3 E15 | Who Belongs? Disability and the Built World with Sara Hendren”
• Comment Magazine essay by Sara Hendren: “Pattern Recognition: Design for humans in unexpected places.”
• Short film: Simple Machine
• Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

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ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Sara Hendren is an artist, design researcher, writer, and professor at Northeastern University. Her book What Can a Body Do? How We Meet the Built World explores the places where disability shows up in design at all scales: assistive technology, furniture, architecture, urban planning, and more. It was named one of the Best Books of 2020 by NPR and won the 2021 Science in Society Journalism book prize.

Her art and design works have been exhibited on the White House lawn under the Obama presidency, at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Seoul Museum of Art, the Vitra Museum, and many others, and her work is held in the permanent collections at MoMA and the Cooper Hewitt. She has been an NEH Public Scholar and a fellow at New America, and her commentary and criticism have been published in Harper’s, Art in America, The New York Times, the Washington Post, and elsewhere.

Website: sarahendren.com

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What makes a life good? In this new season of Reimagining the Good Life, Amy Julia Becker invites listeners into thoughtful conversations about faith, family, disability, belonging, beauty, repair, community, and what it means to be human. This season features interviews with:

• Tish Harrison Warren about persevering with grace through midlife
• Malcolm Foley about the role of greed and pride in racism and what we can do to respond with love
• Brian Brock about disability and creation
• Dr. Chris Cipriano at Yale about politics and language and disability 
• Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg about her book On Repentance and Repair 
• Craig Thomas, author of the book That's Not How It Happened and co-creator of How I Met Your Mother, about how we tell the story of family and Down syndrome.

Follow the show now and join us beginning May 19 for a new season of Reimagining the Good Life.

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Exciting news! New episodes are dropping on my Take the Next Step podcast, and I’m sharing this one here so you won’t miss out. Be sure to follow Take the Next Step with Amy Julia Becker wherever you listen so you are sure to get future episodes. https://pod.link/1838911087

More about Take the Next Step: amyjuliabecker.com/step/

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What if inclusion in schools didn’t have to be a constant fight? Adrian Wood, PhD, shares what actually helped her son with autism thrive in their public school system. Adrian and Amy Julia Becker explore:

• Building trust with educators
• Collaboration and creativity
• Navigating IEPs and transitions
• Small changes that make a big difference

Ask Me Anything: Record (or email) your question for our upcoming Ask Me Anything episode: amyjuliabecker.com/qr/

04:30 Navigating Public School for Children with Disabilities
 06:53 Creative Thinking and Working Together as a Team
 15:55 Strategies for Success 

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• VLOG: Tales of an Educated Debutante

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ABOUT:

Adrian Wood is the creator of the vlog Tales of an Educated Debutante. She has a PhD in Educational Research and contributes to Today Parents, The Today Show, and the Love What Matters blog. She lives in rural eastern North Carolina with her family. She is the co-author of Autism Out Loud.  

CONNECT with Adrian on her website (talesofaneducateddebutante.com), Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. 

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Take the Next Step is produced in collaboration with Hope Heals. Hope Heals creates sacred spaces of belonging and belovedness for families affected by disabilities to experience sustaining hope in the context of inclusive, intentional, inter-ability communities. Find out more about our resources, gatherings, and inter-ability communities at hopeheals.com. Follow on Instagram @hopeheals.

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S9 E9 — Our culture feels like a battlefield, but perspectives and actions change when we see it as a garden we’ve forgotten how to tend. Artist and author Makoto Fujimura shares with Amy Julia Becker how art, wonder, and imagination can restore our capacity to love, hope, and tend culture with care. Together they explore his book Art Is: A Journey into the Light, slow art, spiritual imagination, and a gentler way to live faithfully in a fractured world.

00:00 Introduction to Makoto Fujimura and the Process of Art
07:08 Stewardship Responsibility for Imagination and Creativity
13:34 The Importance of Slow Art and Observation
19:19 Engaging with Darkness in Art
22:15 The Role of Artists within the Darkness of Society
29:07 Giving Away Beauty: The Heart of Art
34:07 Imagination, Faith, and Love
42:58 Culture Care: Changing the Metaphor
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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Art Is: A Journey into the Light, Art and Faith: A Theology of Making, and Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life by Makoto Fujimura
• Embers International
• Amy Julia’s episode with Justin Giboney: “How the Civil Rights Generation Can Lead Us Out of the Culture War” with Justin Giboney 
• Amy Julia’s Take the Next Step podcast - new episodes beginning February 4, 2026

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ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Makoto Fujimura is a leading contemporary artist whose process driven, refractive “slow art” has been described by David Brooks of New York Times as “a small rebellion against the quickening of time”. In addition to his work as an artist, Mako is an author whose latest work is entitled Art Is: A Journey into the Light. From 2003 to 2009, he served as a Presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts. He is a celebrated speaker and advocate for the arts and has received five Honorary Doctor of Arts degrees.

https://makotofujimura.com/

https://www.instagram.com/iamfujimura/

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S9 E8 — We're living through a season of deep division, political unrest, and global instability. Justin Giboney, political strategist and author of Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around, joins Amy Julia Becker to help us recover a moral imagination shaped by faith—one that resists polarization, refuses hatred, and offers a better way forward in public life.

00:00 Guidance from the Civil Rights Generation
07:18 The Black Church's Public Witness
10:00 The Civil Rights Movement vs Progressive Activism
13:52 Forgiveness and Redemption
17:28 Navigating the Culture Wars
25:39 The AND Campaign: Bridging Divides in Politics
28:51 Cultivating Moral Imagination
31:51 The Impact of Social Media
37:52 Practices for Living Out a Moral Imagination
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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around: How the Black Church's Public Witness Leads Us out of the Culture War by Justin Giboney

 • AND Campaign: andcampaign.org

 • Church Politics podcast

 • Amy Julia's Take the Next Step podcast: amyjuliabecker.com/step/

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ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Justin Giboney (JD, Vanderbilt University) is an author, ordained minister, attorney, and political strategist. He is the founder and president of the AND Campaign, a Christian civic organization focused on raising civic literacy, promoting civic pluralism, and equipping Christians to engage politics with the love and truth of Jesus Christ. Justin is dedicated to promoting Christ-centered values as the basis for engagement in politics and social issues. 

BOOK: Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/justinegiboney/

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S9 E7 — Your body is trying to tell you something. Are you listening? In this episode, corporate lawyer Justin Whitmel Earley joins Amy Julia Becker to explore how spiritual life is also embodied life. As you reflect on the year ahead, this conversation invites you to think not in terms of resolutions, but in terms of habits that nurture health and wholeness. Justin and Amy Julia reflect on:

• How breathing can reconnect body and soul
• How fasting, feasting, and everyday meals contribute to the spiritual life
• How to understand pain and sickness in a world that is both beautiful and broken
• Why sleep matters spiritually

00:00 Intro: Anxiety Journey
05:20 The Body and Soul Connection
09:25 Cultural Disconnect
14:46 Breath: A Practice to Reconnect Body and Soul
23:35 Food: Fasting, Feasting, and Ordinary Fare
32:08 Understanding Pain and Sickness in a Broken World
38:18 The Spiritual Significance of Sleep

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Bible verses: Ephesians 2; Genesis 1-2; Genesis 2:7; Genesis 2:9; Psalm 23
• Kelly Kapic interview with Amy Julia
• Embodied Hope by Kelly Kapic

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ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Justin Whitmel Earley is a writer, speaker, and lawyer. He is the author of The Common Rule, Habits of the Household, and Made for People, though he spends most days running his business law practice. Through his writing and speaking, Justin empowers God’s people to thrive through life-giving habits that form them in the love of God and neighbor. He continually explores both how physical habits are more spiritual than we think and how spiritual habits are more physical than we think. He lives with his wife and four boys in Richmond, Virginia, spends a lot of time around fires and porches with friends, and is a part-owner of a local gym. You can follow him online at justinwhitmelearley.com.

ONLINE:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justinwhitmelearleyauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhitmelearley/

X: https://x.com/Justin_W_Earley

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@justinwhitmelearley1630

Website: https://www.justinwhitmelearley.com/

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S9 E6 — In a season of parties and entertaining, it’s good to remember that hospitality means something very different—welcoming the stranger and caring for one another. In The Hospitality of Need, Kevan Chandler, born with a progressive disability, explores how dependence can expand life and deepen community. His story points us back to our shared human neediness, reflected in the baby lying in the manger. 

00:0 Reimagining the Good Life
06:12 Gift of Interdependence
12:52 Understanding Need and Hospitality
17:37 Proximity and Need
21:43 Peer to Peer Caregiving
26:39 A Journey to Skellig Michael
32:53 Spiritual Realities of Need
38:12 Invitation Into Need

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Amy Julia’s interview with Kevan on Take the Next Step
• The Hospitality of Need: How Depending on One Another Helps Us Heal and Grow Together by Kevan Chandler and Tommy Shelton
• We Carry Kevan 
• I John 1

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ABOUT OUR GUEST:

KEVAN CHANDLER is the founder of the nonprofit organization We Carry Kevan and speaks worldwide about friendship and disability. He and his wife, Katie, enjoy doing everything together, including growing vegetables and reading to each other.

Kevan was the second of his siblings to be diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, type 2, a rare neuromuscular disease. In 2016, he and his friends took a trip across Europe, leaving his wheelchair at home, and his friends carried him for three weeks in a backpack.

An avid storyteller, Kevan is an author and speaker worldwide about his friendships and unique life with a disability, being a featured speaker for Tedx and Google, as well as various conferences, pharmaceutical companies, and universities.

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S9 E5 — There is a lot of conversation right now about the role of women and men in society. Whether we’re talking about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal or the viral essay "The Great Feminization" and all the commentary it sparked, it’s clear we’re in a cultural moment where we don’t quite know how to talk about men and women. Should we see men and women as interchangeable? What does equality look like when our bodies are not the same? Can we admit our neediness and maintain our dignity as women or as men? These are some of the questions I'm asking Leah Libresco Sargeant as we talk about her new book, The Dignity of Dependence.

00:00 The World is the Wrong Shape for Women
6:14 The Lie of Autonomy and How It Harms Everyone
21:09 Building a Just Society: Dismantling False Anthropology
22:52 Understanding Disability and Unemployment
25:43 Societal Examples of Dependent Communities
30:15 The Dignity of Dependence
32:51 Legacy of Care in Society
38:20 The Costs of Devaluing Vulnerability
41:14 Practices for Embracing Dependence

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto by Leah Libresco Sargeant
• Sara Hendren’s What Can a Body Do
• Amy Julia’s interview with Sara Hendren: Who Belongs? Disability and the Built World with Sara Hendren

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ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Leah Libresco Sargeant is the author of several books, including The Dignity of Dependence. She runs the substack Other Feminisms, which focuses on how to advocate for women as women in a world that makes an idol of autonomy. She lives in Maryland and works in family policy in D.C.
Other Feminisms: https://www.otherfeminisms.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/leahlibresco

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