Gary Thomas is a bestselling author, speaker and trusted voice on marriage, spiritual formation and Christian living.

In this episode of The Unbound Podcast, Dr. Tony Evans sits down with Gary Thomas for a deeply personal conversation about grief, loss, hope and the perspective that changes everything.

Both men share openly about walking through the deaths of loved ones, including the loss of parents, spouses and family members. Together, they reflect on what grief teaches us about eternity, how suffering exposes what truly matters and why faith becomes most important when life feels most fragile.

Throughout the conversation, Gary and Dr. Evans explore the difference between living with a sense of entitlement and living with gratitude for God's grace. They discuss the power of an eternal perspective, the comfort found in Scripture and the hope that anchors believers when circumstances seem overwhelming.

They also talk about caring for aging parents, helping loved ones prepare for eternity and learning to focus less on personal significance and more on making the name of Jesus known. Along the way, they offer practical encouragement for anyone wrestling with questions, facing loss or waiting on God in a difficult season.

This is a conversation about sorrow, but it is also a conversation about hope.

Because grief may remind us what we've lost.

But faith reminds us what can never be taken away.

Learn more about Gary Thomas:

https://garythomas.com/

Follow Gary Thomas on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorGaryThomas

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The Unbound Podcast is a weekly space for conversations that don’t rush to conclusions. Each episode explores what it means to live free from what binds us—pressure, fear, reputation and the need to have it all figured out—through thoughtful dialogue and lived experience.

Senior Producer & Creative Director: Heather Hair

Technical Director, Audio & Lead Editor: Lee Sherman

#TonyEvans #TonyEvansPodcast #UnboundPodcast

This episode of The Unbound Podcast is calm, honest and refreshingly practical. It is an invitation to stop running long enough to listen—to God, to your soul and to the still small voice we often miss in the noise.

Dr. Konstantinos Zarras is a Greek theologian, scholar, faculty member and researcher in the Department of Theology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) in Greece whose work explores the intersection of Scripture, faith and the human soul.

Listen as Dr. Tony Evans sits down with Dr. Zarras for a thoughtful and deeply reflective conversation about anxiety, prayer, silence and the search for peace in an increasingly noisy world. Drawing from both Scripture and the Christian tradition, Dr. Zarras offers a perspective that feels both ancient and urgently relevant.

Together, they explore what it means to move beyond surface-level religion and allow God to work at the level of the heart. Dr. Zarras explains why Jesus consistently addressed the inner life first—teaching that peace, conflict, forgiveness and even violence all begin within us before they ever appear around us.

The conversation also dives into prayer in a way many listeners may not expect. Rather than beginning with words, Dr. Zarras describes prayer as beginning with silence: emptying our distracted minds so there is room to receive the presence of God. Dr. Evans and Dr. Zarras discuss how modern life, constant technology and endless noise have left many spiritually exhausted—and why slowing down may be one of the most important spiritual practices of our time.

They also talk about family, emotional health, faith during hardship and the connection between inner peace and healthy relationships. Along the way, Dr. Zarras shares insights about the Lord’s Prayer, the “prayer of the heart” and why making space for God daily is not lost time, but an investment that changes the way we live.

If your life feels crowded, anxious or spiritually tired, this conversation will help you breathe again.

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The Unbound Podcast is a weekly space for conversations that don’t rush to conclusions. Each episode explores what it means to live free from what binds us—pressure, fear, reputation and the need to have it all figured out—through thoughtful dialogue and lived experience.

Senior Producer & Creative Director: Heather Hair

Technical Director, Audio & Lead Editor: Lee Sherman

#TonyEvans #TonyEvansPodcast #UnboundPodcast

Thank you for listening to The Unbound Podcast with Dr. Tony Evans. For more biblical teaching and ministry resources, visit www.TonyEvans.org, and if you’d like to go deeper in your study of Scripture, you can explore online courses at https://www.tonyevanstraining.org/

If you have ever wrestled with loss, wondered how the past shapes your faith or needed encouragement to keep carrying hope forward, this conversation is for you.

Dr. Craig Allert is a Professor of Theology at Trinity Western University (twu.ca) who specializes in Early Christian Theology and the Formation of the New Testament.

In this episode of The Unbound Podcast, Dr. Tony Evans sits down with Dr. Allert for a thoughtful and deeply personal conversation about Scripture, church history, legacy and grief. Together, they explore why understanding the historical context of the Bible matters, how the early church helps shape our understanding of faith today and why Christianity was never meant to be disconnected from story, community and relationship.

But this conversation moves beyond theology alone.

As the discussion unfolds, Dr. Evans and Dr. Allert reflect on the influence of fathers, the power of spiritual legacy and the deep personal losses both men have experienced. Dr. Allert shares openly about the recent passing of his father, while Dr. Evans reflects on the legacy his own father left behind and the role Scripture played in shaping his life and ministry.

Together, they wrestle honestly with grief, mourning and the hope believers hold onto in seasons of loss. They talk about why grief has no timeline, why people often need presence more than answers and how the body of Christ is meant to walk with one another through pain instead of avoiding it.

This episode is both intellectually rich and deeply human. It is a reminder that faith is not built in isolation. It is passed down through generations, strengthened in community and sustained by the hope found in Christ.

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The Unbound Podcast is a weekly space for conversations that don’t rush to conclusions. Each episode explores what it means to live free from what binds us—pressure, fear, reputation and the need to have it all figured out—through thoughtful dialogue and lived experience.

Senior Producer & Creative Director: Heather Hair

Technical Director, Audio & Lead Editor: Lee Sherman

#TonyEvans #TonyEvansPodcast #UnboundPodcast

Thank you for listening to The Unbound Podcast with Dr. Tony Evans. For more biblical teaching and ministry resources, visit www.TonyEvans.org, and if you’d like to go deeper in your study of Scripture, you can explore online courses at https://www.tonyevanstraining.org/

She has spent years helping people see beauty, grace and the character of God through art, Scripture and everyday faithfulness.

In this episode of The Unbound Podcast, Dr. Tony Evans sits down with author, artist and speaker Ruth Chou Simons for a conversation about anxiety, striving, rest and the spiritual lessons hidden in creation itself. Drawing from her book “Way of the Wildflower,” Ruth reflects on how God uses even the smallest details in nature to remind us of His care, His timing and His presence.

Together, they explore Jesus’ words in Luke 12 and what it means to “consider how the wildflowers grow.” Ruth shares how seasons of motherhood, ministry, disappointment and exhaustion taught her to slow down, pay attention and recognize that growth is not always visible. Sometimes God is still working even when nothing appears to be blooming.

Dr. Evans and Ruth also talk honestly about the pressures of modern life: constant noise, endless striving, technology overload and the temptation to believe everything depends on us. But this conversation offers another way forward. One rooted not in hustle, but in trust. Not in performance, but in presence.

This episode is both practical and deeply encouraging. It is a reminder that God is constantly revealing Himself through His Word, through creation and through the ordinary rhythms of everyday life. And sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is slow down long enough to notice.

If your soul feels tired, anxious or stretched thin, this conversation will help you breathe again.

Learn more about Ruth Chou Simons and her ministry:

Website: https://ruthchousimons.com/

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

Explore Way of the Wildflower:

https://wayofthewildflowerbook.com/

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The Unbound Podcast is a weekly space for conversations that don’t rush to conclusions. Each episode explores what it means to live free from what binds us—pressure, fear, reputation and the need to have it all figured out—through thoughtful dialogue and lived experience.

Senior Producer & Creative Director: Heather Hair

Technical Director, Audio & Lead Editor: Lee Sherman

#TonyEvans #TonyEvansPodcast #UnboundPodcast

Thank you for listening to The Unbound Podcast with Dr. Tony Evans. For more biblical teaching and ministry resources, visit www.TonyEvans.org, and if you’d like to go deeper in your study of Scripture, you can explore online courses at https://www.tonyevanstraining.org/

Anthony Evans joins his father for a conversation shaped by both calling and personal loss.

In this episode of The Unbound Podcast, Dr. Tony Evans sits down with his son Anthony for an honest and deeply personal conversation about grief, legacy and what it means to keep moving forward when life changes in ways you didn’t expect.

Anthony shares his journey in music—from church beginnings to global stages—and the challenges of finding his place between worlds. But the heart of this conversation goes deeper. Together, father and son reflect on the loss of Dr. Lois Evans and the series of family losses they have walked through, opening up about the tension between honoring the past and continuing into the future.

They talk about what it looks like to wrestle with God and still trust Him. About the importance of feeling your emotions instead of avoiding them. And about how legacy is something you carry, protect and live out every day.

This is a conversation for anyone navigating loss, holding onto memories or trying to find their footing again after life shifts.

Because moving forward doesn’t mean leaving someone behind.

It means learning how to carry them with you.

Learn more about Anthony Evans:

https://anthony-evans.com/

Follow Anthony on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/anthonyevansjr/

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The Unbound Podcast is a weekly space for conversations that don’t rush to conclusions. Each episode explores what it means to live free from what binds us—pressure, fear, reputation and the need to have it all figured out—through thoughtful dialogue and lived experience.

Senior Producer & Creative Director: Heather Hair

Technical Director, Audio & Lead Editor: Lee Sherman

#TonyEvans #TonyEvansPodcast #UnboundPodcast

Thank you for listening to The Unbound Podcast with Dr. Tony Evans. For more biblical teaching and ministry resources, visit TonyEvans.org, and if you’d like to go deeper in your study of Scripture, you can explore online courses at TonyEvansTraining.org.

When your mind is overloaded, your attention is scattered, and the world feels like one long stream of chaos, conflict, and noise discernment starts to matter more than hype.

In this episode of The Unbound Podcast, Dr. Tony Evans sits down with Dr. Ramesh Richard for a conversation that feels honest, grounded, and surprisingly timely. What starts with friendship and shared history turns into a deeper talk about spiritual clarity, truth, discipleship and what it looks like to stay anchored when everything around you is trying to shape you. As Dr. Richard puts it, people do not really live by what they say they believe. They live by what they value. And whatever you love will end up leading you.

Dr. Richard gives language to something a lot of people feel but do not always know how to explain: the gap between believing in God and actually being formed by Him. He talks about the spiritual life not as a side category, but as the center of everything. Heart, soul, mind and strength are not separate boxes to manage. They are the whole-person response to the God who has made Himself known in Christ.

The conversation also gets bigger. Dr. Richard shares the burden that has shaped so much of his life’s work: helping pastors around the world who have been called by God but never truly trained, and helping the gospel reach people who may have never heard it clearly before. He makes the case that when pastors are stronger, churches are healthier, and when churches are healthier, communities are changed.

What gives this episode real weight is that Dr. Richard is not speaking from a distance. He is the founder and president of RREACH, Ramesh Richard Evangelism and Church Health, and serves as professor of Global Theological Engagement and Pastoral Ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary. Through RREACH, he has spent decades carrying a bold vision: to change the way one billion individuals think and hear about the Lord Jesus Christ by evangelizing opinion leaders and strengthening pastoral leaders. He has trained thousands of church leaders in more than 100 countries to preach, live, think and serve biblically.

This episode is for the person who is tired of shallow takes and still wants something solid. It is for the believer who wants stronger discernment. It is for the leader who knows borrowed conviction will not hold forever. And it is for anyone who needs the reminder that the Word of God is still active, still powerful, and still unbound.

Learn more about Dr. Ramesh Richard at https://rreach.org/

Learn more about the GProCommission at https://gprocommission.org/

And if you want to join what God is doing through this ministry in a simple, steady way, RREACH hosts an online global prayer gathering every Sunday at 8:30 CST: https://rreach.org/prayer/

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The Unbound Podcast is a weekly space for conversations that don’t rush to conclusions. Each episode explores what it means to live free from what binds us—pressure, fear, reputation and the need to have it all figured out—through thoughtful dialogue and lived experience.

Senior Producer & Creative Director: Heather Hair

Technical Director, Audio & Lead Editor: Lee Sherman

#TonyEvans #TonyEvansPodcast #UnboundPodcast

Thank you for listening to The Unbound Podcast with Dr. Tony Evans. For more biblical teaching and ministry resources, visit www.TonyEvans.org, and if you’d like to go deeper in your study of Scripture, you can explore online courses at https://www.tonyevanstraining.org/

She grew up in the Evans family, but this conversation is not about a famous last name. It is

about memory, motherhood, family, loss and the kind of faith that gets built in ordinary moments long before anyone sees it in public.

In this episode of The Unbound Podcast, Dr. Tony Evans sits down with his granddaughter

Kariss Farris for a warm, funny and surprisingly honest conversation about growing up in the

Evans home. They talk about childhood memories, family traditions, being spoiled by Nanny

and Poppy, the rhythms of church life and the kind of closeness that shaped her from the inside out. What comes through most is not just legacy, but affection. The love in this family is easy to hear.

But the conversation also goes deeper. Kariss reflects on growing up without her biological

father, what it meant to be loved well anyway, and how, in more recent years, she has had to

learn to know God as Father in a more personal way. She shares how that search has looked in real life, and what she would say to others carrying that same ache.

They also talk about marriage, motherhood, homemaking, grief and the losses that have

marked their family, especially the death of Lois Evans. Kariss speaks openly about what it

means to let grief stay honest, to keep talking about the people you miss, and to build a home where faith is not forced but lived.

This episode feels like sitting in on a family conversation that is full of laughter, tenderness and the kind of truth that does not need to announce itself loudly to be deeply felt. If you have ever wondered how legacy really gets passed down, this one shows you. It happens in pancakes and donuts, in tears and storytelling, in discipline and delight and in the quiet decision to keep loving each other well.

You can connect with Kariss and explore more of her work here:

Photography & Business

Pharris Photos website: https://pharrisphotos.com/

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

Book & Writing

Jesus, Everywhere: https://a.co/d/0iXXsrBM

Jesus Everywhere on Substack: https://karissfarris.substack.com

Personal

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

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The Unbound Podcast is a weekly space for conversations that don’t rush to conclusions. Each episode explores what it means to live free from what binds us—pressure, fear, reputation and the need to have it all figured out—through thoughtful dialogue and lived experience.

Senior Producer & Creative Director: Heather Hair

Technical Director, Audio & Lead Editor: Lee Sherman

#TonyEvans #TonyEvansPodcast #UnboundPodcast

He’s 93.

He believes some of his greatest ministry happened after 70.

And that alone will make a lot of people rethink what they call “too late.”

In this episode of The Unbound Podcast, Dr. Tony Evans sits down with Dr. Gene Getz for a conversation about church, leadership, discipleship and what it looks like to keep building when most people assume your best years are behind you.

Dr. Getz talks about why so many people in the church are still hungry for real teaching, why consumer Christianity keeps weakening discipleship, and why truth and love have to stay together if the church is going to stay healthy.

What gives this episode weight is not just what he taught. It is how he lived it. Dr. Evans reflects on how Gene shaped him in seminary and helped form his understanding of the church. Gene shares how his later decades became some of his most fruitful, including rewriting key books, expanding the Life Essentials Study Bible, and continuing global ministry well into his 70s, 80s, and now 90s.

If you have ever wondered whether your most meaningful work is already behind you, this conversation says otherwise. It is a reminder that calling does not expire, faithfulness still compounds, and God is not in a hurry the way we are.

This is a conversation about the church, yes. But it is also about endurance, usefulness and the hope that your later years may hold more purpose than you imagined.

For more about Dr. Gene Getz’s ministry, visit: https://bibleprinciples.org/

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The Unbound Podcast is a weekly space for conversations that don’t rush to conclusions. Each episode explores what it means to live free from what binds us—pressure, fear, reputation and the need to have it all figured out—through thoughtful dialogue and lived experience.

Senior Producer & Creative Director: Heather Hair

Technical Director, Audio & Lead Editor: Lee Sherman

#TonyEvans #TonyEvansPodcast #UnboundPodcast

Do we have a reliable Bible—or just a collection of stories shaped over time?

What happens when faith meets evidence?

In this episode of The Unbound Podcast, Dr. Tony Evans sits down with archaeologist and scholar Dr. Scott Stripling for a conversation that brings the ancient world into sharp, modern focus. Drawing from decades of excavation and research, Stripling explores how archaeology doesn’t replace faith, but it can illuminate it in ways many have never considered.

From uncovering artifacts at biblical sites like Shiloh to reexamining what we thought we knew about crucifixion, this conversation challenges assumptions and deepens understanding. Dr. Stripling explains how material evidence can serve as a bridge for those wrestling with belief—helping connect historical reality with spiritual truth.

But this isn’t just about digs and discoveries. It’s about what happens when Scripture becomes more than words on a page—when history, culture and evidence bring it to life. Together, Dr. Evans and Dr. Stripling wrestle with questions that matter today:

How do faith and evidence work together without competing?

What can archaeology reveal about the reliability of Scripture?

And how does a deeper understanding of the past transform the way we worship, believe and live?

Some of what you’ll hear may surprise you. Some of it may challenge what you’ve always assumed. But all of it points to a bigger reality: God has been at work in real places, through real events, across real history.

If you’ve ever wondered whether the Bible can stand up to scrutiny or how to engage people who don’t yet believe it, this conversation offers both clarity and conviction.

Because seeing the evidence doesn’t replace faith.

It strengthens it.

Learn more about Dr. Scott Stripling and his work:

The Bible Seminary – www.thebibleseminary.edu

Associates for Biblical Research – www.digshiloh.org

Scott Stripling – www.scottstripling.net

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The Unbound Podcast is a weekly space for conversations that don’t rush to conclusions. Each episode explores what it means to live free from what binds us—pressure, fear, reputation and the need to have it all figured out—through thoughtful dialogue and lived experience.

Senior Producer & Creative Director: Heather Hair

Technical Director, Audio & Lead Editor: Lee Sherman

#TonyEvans #TonyEvansPodcast #UnboundPodcast

Love is heavier than anger.

Forgiveness is harder than outrage.

And John Perkins spent a lifetime showing what that looks like.

In this special in-memory episode of The Unbound Podcast, we are sharing a previously unreleased conversation between Dr. Tony Evans and Dr. John M. Perkins, recorded a few years ago and now offered in honor of his life and legacy after his death on March 13, 2026. In it, Dr. Perkins speaks with the kind of clarity that only comes from suffering, friendship and decades of walking with Jesus. He talks about dignity, reconciliation, discipleship, race, forgiveness and why love is not weak at all. It is weighty. It is costly. And it is the only way forward.

What makes this conversation so powerful is that it does not sound polished or distant. It sounds lived. Dr. Perkins reflects on his grandmother’s love, his brother’s murder, the torture he endured in a Mississippi jail and the hard-won realization that suffering can become a virtue when it drives a person deeper into Christ. Again and again, he returns to the same center: discipleship is friendship, the Bible must be embodied, and the Christian faith is the outliving of the indwelling Christ.

Dr. Evans also makes this deeply personal. He honors Dr. Perkins not just as a public voice, but as a hero, mentor and living influence on his own life and ministry. What unfolds is more than an interview. It feels like a final charge. A conversation about what still matters when a life has been lived all the way down to the roots.

This episode is for anyone who has felt worn down by anger, division or the shallow versions of justice and faith that dominate so much public life. It is for the listener who wants something older, deeper and truer. And it is for anyone who needs to hear John Perkins say one more time that love, dignity and the gospel will always belong together.

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The Unbound Podcast is a weekly space for conversations that don’t rush to conclusions. Each episode explores what it means to live free from what binds us—pressure, fear, reputation and the need to have it all figured out—through thoughtful dialogue and lived experience.

Senior Producer & Creative Director: Heather Hair

Technical Director, Audio & Lead Editor: Lee Sherman

#TonyEvans #TonyEvansPodcast #UnboundPodcast