The Habit

The Habit episodes:

• 04.29.2024

  Courtney Ellis Is Looking Up

  Besides being a bird enthusiast, Courtney Ellis is a pastor in Southern California, the author of several books, and the host of a podcast called The Thing with Feathers. Her new book is Looking Up: A Birder’s Guide to Hope...

  
• 04.22.2024

  Leif Enger on I Cheerfully Refuse

  Leif Enger writes novels about good people living through bad times. His new book, I Cheerfully Refuse, epitomizes what the Los Angeles Tines calls Enger's “musical, sometimes magical and deeply satisfying kind of storytelling.” In this episode, Leif Enger and Jonathan...

  
• 04.15.2024

  Emily P. Freeman On How to Walk Into a Room

  Emily P. Freeman spends a lot of time thinking, talking, and writing about discernment and decision-making–doing the next right thing. She hosts The Next Right Thing podcast and created The Next Right Thing Guided Journal. Her latest book is How...

  
• 04.08.2024

  Faith Chang Is a Perfectionist.

  Faith Chang struggles with perfectionism. Nevertheless, she pushed through and finished a book–about perfectionism. It’s called Peace Over Perfection: Enjoying a Good God When You Feel You're Never Good Enough. Faith is the guest on this week’s episode of The...

  
• 04.01.2024

  Kenneth Padgett and Shay Gregorie on Visual Storytelling

  Kenneth Padgett and Shay Gregorie are the founders of Wolfbane Books. They are also co-authors of the Story of God trilogy of picture books, beautifully illustrated by Aedan Peterson—The Story of God with Us, The Story of God the King,...

  
• 03.25.2024

  Brian Zahnd on Poetic Theology

  When pastor Brian Zahnd was walking five hundred miles across Spain on the Camino de Santiago, he contemplated hundreds of crosses and crucifixes. He asked the question, "What does this mean? Why is the image of a man nailed to...

  
• 03.18.2024

  Sarah Arthur is a spy for hope.

  Sarah Arthur has written and published a dozen books over the last twenty years or so, but her new book, Once a Queen, is her first foray into fiction. Once a Queen is a portal fantasy with clear connections to...

  
• 03.11.2024

  Andi Ashworth and Charlie Peacock Think Everything Matters

  Andi Ashworth and Charlie Peacock live at the intersection of hospitality and creativity. This husband and wife duo founded Art House America, a unique artistic hub of rich hospitality, conversations of consequence, and imaginative creativity. Charlie is a Grammy-winning record...

  
• 03.04.2024

  Amy F. Davis Abdallah loves ritual.

  Amy F. Davis Abdallah is a professor, writer, speaker, and creator of rituals. Her latest book is Meaning in the Moment: How Rituals Help Us Move Through Joy, Pain, and Everything in Between. Starting with the foundation that rituals are...

  
• 02.26.2024

  Mike Cosper on the Stories We Tell Ourselves

  Mike Cosper is the director of podcasting for Christianity Today, where he hosts The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill and Cultivated: A Podcast About Faith and Work. He is the author of several books, most recently Land of My...

  
• 02.19.2024

  Allen Levi Wants You to be Brave.

  Allen Levi is a singer-songwriter and an exceedingly talented storyteller.  His memoir from a few years ago, The Last Sweet Mile, is a very moving account of his life with his brother–especially the last year before his brother died. Allen...

  
• 02.12.2024

  Greg Wilbur

  Greg Wilbur is Founder and Dean of Students at New College Franklin. A composer and  church musician, he recently released a new album of hymns and psalms called Securely I Will Dwell: Songs for the Church. In this episode, Greg...

  
• 02.05.2024

  Grace Hamman Looks with Medieval Eyes

  Grace Hamman is a writer and independent scholar of Middle English contemplative writing and poetry. She is also the host of the podcast, Old Books with Grace. Her first book is Jesus through Medieval Eyes: Beholding Christ with the Artists,...

  
• 01.29.2024

  Joy Clarkson Thinks You Are a Tree

  Joy Clarkson is the author of Aggressively Happy and host of the podcast, Speaking with Joy. She is the books editor for Plough Quarterly and a research associate in theology and literature at King's College London. Joy completed her PhD in theology at the University of...

  
• 01.22.2024

  Brian Brown on Creation

  Brian Brown is the founder and executive director of The Anselm Society, an organization dedicated to a renaissance of the Christian imagination. Along with Jane Scharl, Brian edited a collection of essays called Why We Create: Reflections on The Creator,...

  
• 01.15.2024

  Emily Jensen on Weakness and Strength

  Emily Jensen is the co-founder and content director of Risen Motherhood. She is the host of the Risen Motherhood Podcast and an author. Her most recent book is He is Strong: Devotions for When You Feel Weak. In this episode,...

  
• 01.08.2024

  Wendell Kimbrough Thinks You Belong.

  Songwriter Wendell Kimbrough has been writing, recording, and performing songs based on the Psalms for the last few years. His most recent record is called You Belong. In this episode, Wendell and Jonathan Rogers talk about loneliness, perfectionism, feeling like...

  
• 01.02.2024

  Replay: Justin Whitmel Earley on Better Habits

  In this replay of an episode from 2022, Jonathan Rogers talks with Justin Whitmel Earley about the formation of better habits. Justin is the author of The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose in an Age of Distraction, among other books....

  
• 12.11.2023

  Garrett Taylor and the Art of Wingfeather

  Garrett Taylor is the art director for the Wingfeather Saga television series. The new Art of Wingfeather book features beautiful work from Garrett and his teams. In this episode, Garrett and Jonathan Rogers discuss "truth of materials" and why the...

  
• 12.04.2023

  Kevan Chandler is redefining accessibility.

  In 2016, Kevan Chandler and a few of his friends took a trip across Europe. Kevan’s friends carried him—literally. Kevan has spinal muscular atrophy, type 2, a disease that renders him unable to walk. But he left his wheelchair behind,...

  
• 11.27.2023

  Tish Harrison Warren is making Christmas weird again.

  Tish Harrison Warren is an Anglican priest and the writer of several books. Until recently she had a column in the New York Times. She has also had a column in Christianity Today. Her new book is Advent: The Season...

  
• 11.20.2023

  Mitali Perkins likes being on the margins.

  Mitali Perkins has always thought of herself as an outsider writing for outsiders. And yet she has a remarkable gift for inviting people in. She has two new books out: Hope in the Valley is a middle-grade novel. Holy Night...

  
• 11.13.2023

  Joe Sutphin Draws Watership Down

  Illustrator Joe Sutphin has been a fixture around the Rabbit Room for many years. Highlights of his long career include illustrating The Wingfeather Saga and Little Pilgrim’s Progress. His newest book, however, is his most ambitious yet. It’s an almost...

  
• 11.05.2023

  Amber and Seth Haines on The Deep Down Things

  Amber and Seth Haines have each written and published books of their own, but now this married couple have written a book together—The Deep Down Things: Practices for Growing Hope in Times of Despair. In this episode, Amber and Seth...

  
• 10.30.2023

  Andrew Wilson on the Spirit of 1776

  Andrew Wilson is Teaching Pastor at King’s Church London, and has degrees in history and theology from Cambridge (MA) and King’s College London (PhD). He is a columnist for Christianity Today, and has written several books. The most recent is...

  
• 10.23.2023

  Amy Baik Lee Has a Homeward Ache

  Amy Baik Lee has written that in every place her life has taken her, "there have been hints of beauty and great knocks of mercy that have called to me from beyond my surroundings, always speaking of a King and...

  
• 10.16.2023

  Gregg Hecimovich solved a literary mystery.

  In 2001, Henry Louis Gates announced the discovery of an unpublished novel called The Bondswoman’s Narrative, written in the 1850s by an enslaved woman named Hannah Crafts. If Gates had the authorship right, it would be the oldest known novel...

  
• 10.09.2023

  Tiffany Eberle Kriner, Farmer/Writer

  Dr. Tiffany Eberle Kriner is Associate Professor of English at Wheaton College in Illinois. She is also a farmer. Her new collection of essays is In Thought, Word, and Seed: Reckonings from a Midwest Farm. In it, Dr. Kriner connects...

  
• 10.02.2023

  Emma Fox Loves Siberian Folklore.

  Emma Fox is the author of The Carver and the Queen, an historical fantasy novel based on the folklore of Siberia. In this episode, Emma talks with Jonathan Rogers about piano lessons, teaching and mentoring young writers, and how she...

  
• 09.25.2023

  Philip Yancey Loves John Donne

  Philip Yancey has written and published more than 25 books. He is known for his honesty, his willingness to wade into difficult questions–and, more to the point, his unwillingness to give easy answers to those difficult questions. In his latest...

  
• 09.18.2023

  Diana Glyer on Warnie Lewis's Letters

  Diana Glyer teaches in the honors college at Azusa Pacific University. Her writing and research focus on C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the other Inklings. Her most recent book is The Major and the Missionary. Dr. Glyer edited this collection...

  
• 09.11.2023

  Carolyn Leiloglou Stands Beneath the Swirling Sky

  Carolyn Leiloglou’s new middle-grade novel is Beneath the Swirling Sky: Book 1 of the Restorationists Trilogy. It’s a book about art, creativity, and reclaiming the creative energy that comes so naturally to small children. It’s also about a family of...

  
• 09.04.2023

  Jennifer Holberg on Nourishing Narratives

  Dr. Jennifer L. Holberg is professor and chair of the English department at Calvin University and codirector of the Calvin Center for Faith and Writing, the home of the Festival of Faith and Writing, which will be happening live and...

  
• 08.28.2023

  Curt Thompson Goes to the Deepest Place

  Curt Thompson is a psychiatrist, a speaker, and the author of several books–most recently, The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope. In this episode, Curt and Jonathan Rogers talk about what it means to be hospitable to your...

  
• 08.21.2023

  Harrison Scott Key's Insane Love Story

  Harrison Scott Key's new memoir is How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told. It’s the story of how infidelity tore his marriage apart, and how he and his wife Lauren patched it back together. It is...

  
• 08.14.2023

  Hometown Stories: New Hometowns

  In this, the final episode of the Hometown Stories summer series, writers from The Habit Membership tell stories about NEW hometowns. Hometowns change, and for a little while, at least, you can find yourself a stranger in your own hometown.  Loren...

  
• 08.07.2023

  Karen Swallow Prior on the Evangelical Imagination

  Karen Swallow Prior is one of the leading evangelical writers and commentators our time. Her new book is The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. In this episode, Dr. Prior and I talk about...

  
• 07.31.2023

  Hometown Stories: North, South, East, and West (Virginia)

  In this, the sixth episode of the Hometown Stories summer series, writers from The Habit Membership take us to all four points of the compass. Sara Dredge takes us north to Ontario, Canada. Sarah Bannerman, Lindsay Kyle, and  Monica Olsen...

  
• 07.24.2023

  Russell Moore gives an altar call.

  Russell Moore is Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today. His new book is Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America. He invites unmoored and discouraged Christians to step into an uncertain future, letting go of the kind of culture-warring, politicized...

  
• 07.17.2023

  Summer Short Wonders.

  Summer Short’s new book is The Legend of Greyhallow. Kirkus Reviews called it “A delightful, engaging otherworldly adventure sure to charm. This fun read artfully combines our reality with Greyhallow's...fans of The Lord of the Rings and portal fantasies will...

  
• 07.10.2023

  Hometown Stories: Texas Forever!

  This week’s episode, the fifth in the Hometown Stories series, takes us to Texas. We’ll blow up a gas station in the Panhandle. We’ll check out some tumbleweeds in West Texas. We’ll pop over to Bryan Texas, to wonder how...

  
• 07.03.2023

  Hometown Stories: America!

  In honor of the Fourth of July, this episode of The Habit Podcast continues the Hometown Stories summer series with five reminiscences of small-town America by writers from The Habit Membership. Prepare for a gauzy, nostalgic look at the kind...

  
• 06.26.2023

  Andrew Peterson has a lot going on.

  Andrew Peterson is a singer-songwriter, he’s the author of The Wingfeather Saga as well as two nonfiction books, Adorning the Dark and The God of the Garden. He’s the executive producer of the Wingfeather television series. He’s the founder and...

  
• 06.19.2023

  Hometown Stories: Fathers and Mothers

  Hometowns are full of fathers and mothers. In this episode, Andrew Peterson and four writers from The Habit Membership share stories involving their fathers and mothers. Andrew Peterson on Lake Butler, Florida Gina Gallagher on Morton, Pennsylvania Kori Frazier Morgan on Kent, Ohio Katie...

  
• 06.12.2023

  Hometown Stories: California!

  In this episode the Hometown Stories series continues with a trip to California. To paraphrase Walt Whitman, California is large. It contains multitudes. Whatever you envision when you think of California, you can be sure the opposite is also true....

  
• 06.05.2023

  Hometown Stories: Georgia, British Columbia, New York, Kentucky

  This episode kicks off the "Hometown Stories" summer series. As the name suggests, this  series features stories from writers' hometowns. In this episode: Jonathan Rogers on Warner Robins, Georgia Anna Eastland on New Denver, British Columbia Jana Shirk on the Finger Lakes region...

  
• 05.22.2023

  Ben Shive is doing something new (and old).

  For nearly twenty years, Ben Shive has been producing and collaborating with musicians including (but not limited to) JJ Heller, Colony House, Ellie Holcombe, Dave Barnes, The Gray Havens, Andrew Peterson, Melanie Penn, Randall Goodgame, Sandra McCracken, Jill Phillips, and...

  
• 05.15.2023

  K.B. Hoyle Contains Multitudes.

  K. B. Hoyle is a writer of many genres and talents. She’s the author of the teen fantasy series, The Gateway Chronicles, and the adult dystopian series, The Breeder Cycle. She has also done fairytale retelling and science-fiction fantasy. She’s...

  
• 05.08.2023

  Arthur Boers on Shattered.

  Arthur Boers’s new memoir is Shattered: A Son Picks up the Pieces of His Father’s Rage. In it he reflects on coming of age in an immigrant family scarred by violence. In this episode, Arthur Boers and Jonathan Rogers talk...

  
• 05.01.2023

  Claude Atcho on Reading Black Books

  Claude Atcho is a pastor in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the author of Reading Black Books: How African American Literature Can Make Our Faith More Whole and Just. As Josh Larsen has said, this work of Christian literary criticism is written...