Terribly Honest with David Tensen

A kind listener to sent through a stack of questions, which I thought I would tackle in today's podcast. A lot of them emerge from concepts I explored in my last book, Decenter Everything, published in 2025.

A short reflection on what Gets my goat and makes me angry. I, for one, don't want to tell a small and common story at the end of my life.

In this episode I unpack and reflect on something called "Existential Labour". I also touch on existential angst and emotional labour. I highlight that chaplains, pastors, therapist and perhaps even life coaches can suffer under prolonged exposure to unanswerable questions, mystery and meaning-making.

In my book Decenter Everything, I say the following about Boomers:

"Inquire of most economists and they will tell you the Boomer generation’s wealth creation and sustained lifestyles have never been seen before, and probably won’t be seen again. For example, in 2023, American Baby Boomers owned 52% of their country’s net wealth despite comprising only 20% of the population. In the US, according to Federal Reserve records, Boomer wealth grew from $4.5 trillion in 1990 to $76.2 trillion in 2023. Boomers now have nearly double the wealth of Gen-X born 1965-1980 and more than five times the wealth of the Millennials born 1981-1996. In short, the current generation of potential elders across the West have been busy booming and enjoying the post-war material spoils at the expense of their own soul growth. Of course, this is a generalisation with outliers, but outliers exist across all generational means and the data is what it is."

Recently, a Boomer ( born 1964-1946) phoned me to chat about the book and the shallowness of his Boomer friends. In this episode I reflect on wealth, hoarding, and generations to come.

As always, you can discover more about me and my work at www.davidtensen.com

I am answering your questions! This is part 2.

I begin with answering a question on the tail end of epidsode 19 about writing. Someone asked : "Additionally, how did you decide what to write about? Context - I would love to write a non-fiction book one day but I have so much I want to write about, it’s difficult to decide on where to start!"

I then attempt to answer the question: "On the topic of ministry, I’m interested in how you ministered across many different denominations / church expressions and how you navigated different doctrinal beliefs? "

Feel free to send questions through on email or DM me via socials.

Find my books and more at www.davidtensen.com

Some listeners sent through some questions and feedback based on previous episodes. In this Q&A episode I start talking about challenging dynamics of working for small businesses.

I then dive into 10 different approaches to writing and share some of my own experience with them, across two decades of writing.

Thanks again for the great questions! I'll be answering more in future episodes.

Find out more about David at www.davidtensen.com

I did the maths and worked out I will have published 8 books in 6 years. People often ask how I write, and I absolutely love the podcast, 'How I Write' with David Perell. (Look it up). So I thought I'd share a bit about my writing process.

As usual, the episode is unpolished and there is a bit of wind and traffic noise in spots - but that's life!

Oh, and I end on sharing my thoughts around what I might tackle in my next book: small business fiction. Never heard of it? That's because the genre doesn't exist. Everything is BIG BUSINESS - yet small businesses, or micro-businesses (defined as having 0–4 employees), represent around 37 million people across AUS, UK and USA, generating around US$5.3 trillion per year. I've not attempted a fiction novel, but would like to give it a go and integrate my pastoral/developmental psych experience.

If you have followed me for a while, you may know I work part-time as a chaplain in an aged care facility, providing spiritual care to around 120 residents per year, of whom around 40 die. In this episode I reflect on the work and the doors and discussions it has opened up - including hosting Death Cafes.

Again, as a disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions I share in this (and other episodes) are my own and not to be taken as a reflection of employers and associated organisations.

Note: this podcast is recorded as I take my morning walk. As a result, you will hear some wind, passers-by greetings, and our beautiful Sunshine Coast wildlife.

I begin this episode with some THANK YOUs. Natalie and I are going be publishing another book in 2026 so I thought I'd share some stories on how books found me and how my books find others.

Details on the new book about Blessing can be found at www.davidtensen.com

P.S. There is some wind noise at the start of episode. Sorry. Not my wind. THE wind. It had something to to share too, I suppose.

This eposide was a lengthy attempt to synthesise a number of thoughts and frameoworks in an effort to explore what kind of spaces those who have found themselves outside conventional local church community. It starts is a brief update on things personally and moves through stages of faith, deconstruction, change theory, modernity, postmodernity and metamodernity. I then explore some thoughts and concepts around the kind of metamodern expressions of faith after deconstruction, midlife, and crisis. Feel free to reach out with your thoughts.