The Zeitcast with Jonathan Martin

By Jonathan Martin

Society & Culture Music Philosophy Religion & Spirituality Spirituality

What's The Zeitcast with Jonathan Martin about?

The Zeitcast is a daily podcast that aims to speak to the spirit of the moment we are in. Exploring the intersections of spirituality and pop culture/news/film/music, Jonathan Martin and guests speak to the spirit of the times with equal parts wonder and irreverence.

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The Zeitcast with Jonathan Martin episodes:

02.20.2024
My Imam, not your Mom
A cheeky title...a life-changing conversation, between an Imam and a Pastor on virtually everything that matters.
02.20.2024
you can do anything for 40 days (the start of a Lenten guide to personal revolution)
In the most earnest, non-gimmicky way imaginable, I'll tell you what I truly do believe: absolutely everything around you and in you can change, in just 40 days.
02.20.2024
on love and death (an Ash Wednesday/Valentine’s Day sermon)
At the intersection of love and death...the formal start of our Lenten series, "you can do anything for 40 days."
02.20.2024
transfigured
It's not just showing us about how Jesus the man is divine...this is the revelation for us of what it is to be human.
02.20.2024
rhythms of grace
An invitation to come out of the storm, into the rhythms that sustain your soul...into a deeper, more authentic way of living.
01.10.2024
The Way Home: Discovering the Hero's Journey to Wholeness at Midlife with Ben Katt
Ben Katt discusses his beautiful new book, 'The Way Home.' We talk about his experiences of mystical moments, the importance of paying attention to them, and the universal aspects of the journey to wholeness--including the excruciating but necessary path of...
12.25.2023
how to find your way back to your self with Kaitlyn Crain
Instantly one of our favorite all-time podcasts, our daughter Kaitlyn comes on for a vulnerable, far-reaching conversation about everything from pageants to the highs and lows of her experience with Christian school in Oklahoma, her passion for women's incarceration issues,...
12.19.2023
On Advent, saints, prophets, elders, hiddenness, & arguing with God--with C.E.W. Green
One of our all-time favorite Zeitcast guests, Dr. C.E.W. Green wrote the foreword to The Book of Waiting: Reflections on Advent & Christmas. His perspective and insight not only helped shape the book in final form, here he once again...
12.14.2023
The episode where Nicole finally comes on (to interview Jonathan on The Book of Waiting)
In this conversation, Jonathan and Nicole discuss the inspiration behind Jonathan's book on Advent and the timing of its release. They explore the importance of waiting and longing, and how to navigate cynicism and despair. They also discuss finding God...
05.12.2023
love not the world.
“The world is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” “For God so loved the world…” “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” So…which is it? A sermon on interpretation, that could open up how you see “the world”...
05.10.2023
eating and drinking damnation
What communion is, why it matters, who it is for...who is qualified for it. This is everything I most deeply believe about the mystery of the table, and why I still believe this is the invitation that changes everything.
05.01.2023
my sheep know my voice.
How do we know the voice of God, apart from all the other voices? Artificial intelligence can duplicate our speech patterns where those even who know us the best wouldn’t be able to distinguish the sound. Yet Jesus says, “my...
04.27.2023
God is in the tender places.
04.27.2023
seven miles
What in your life has ever worked out exactly the way that you've planned it? On this seven mile journey, maybe a seven day journey, or maybe it feels like you start this road all over again every seven minutes...we...
04.09.2023
"They have taken my Jesus away."
An Easter sermon for people who feel like they have carried your Jesus off. Like Eli with Hannah in the First Testament, "the priests" may have seen your grief as disruption, intoxication, disorderliness. But Jesus sees your weeping for what...
04.07.2023
Preaching to the Dead in a Graveyard on Good Friday Night
Y’all know how it is…sometimes you just get so wound up you have to go to preach at a graveyard after midnight! Perfectly normal behavior. My soul was seriously so agitated and electrified by the witness of Justin Jones &...
04.06.2023
Maundy Thursday: on nonviolent atonement and the meaning of the cross
On this Maundy Thursday Zeitcast, we talk about why it matters to believe that the character of the God who washed the feet of the disciples is the same as the God who died on the cross--and how what we...
03.30.2023
On Ramadan, with Mimi Edou
Special guest Mimi Edou joins us to talk about Ramadan, fasting, plus reflections from Jonathan on interfaith work, and Shusaku Endo's Silence!
03.23.2023
The story God tells about you, with Joel Everson
I don’t know quite what to tell you about this, since we had not felt anything or said anything quite like what we felt and said before. What I can say, is that the story God is telling about you,...
03.22.2023
Jesus is thirsty, with Joel Everson
Whether it's behind the bar at The Whisk or behind the pulpit, if the right Reverend Joel Everson is pouring...trust me, it's only going to be the good stuff!!! My instant favorite sermon on the woman at the well, this...
03.21.2023
deep darkness
If you find yourself in a place of "deep darkness," a place so dark not even "your word is a light unto my feet"...if you feel far from home, don't know how to get back, don't know where home is,...
03.17.2023
a real-time first take review of U2's new "Songs of Surrender!"
U2. Songs of Surrender. With our good friends Stella and Brother George Dickel.
03.16.2023
grace also to you, John MacArthur
MEAAAANNN...by God, GENE!!! On this Zeitcast, we are talking about how people can think they are culture-free, but everybody else is shaped by "the culture," inglorious ways of defining the "glory of God," how it's possible to take Revelation literally...
03.14.2023
speaking, on speaking
Do you speak--to any size crowd, behind a podium, or behind a screen? Our daughter Kaitlyn is competing for Miss Teen Oklahoma, so I've been talking to her about speaking--which got me thinking more broadly about the handful of things...
03.11.2023
trauma-informed spirituality with Jonathan Puddle
We can't speak the truth about faith, without speaking the truth about our bodies--without speaking the truth about our trauma. Whether you are dealing with your own trauma or someone else's (chances are pretty high you are dealing with both!),...
03.10.2023
Who is TRULY marginalized? (also, do you have to be married to know what it really means to be loved? Do you need to be a sheep to know God as good shepherd?)
Does theology exist to set boundaries and parameters for how we think/speak about God--or blow them up?
03.09.2023
when the house is swept
What is the difference between finding Jesus, losing religion, finding crystals or tarot cards, or coming into money? Apparently sometimes...not all that much.
03.07.2023
growing deeper across difference: an interfaith conversation with Imam Ahmed Alamine, Rabbi Bruce Pfeffer, & Rev. Dr. Maureen Knudsen Langdoc
It does seem like a bit of missed opportunity not to just call this "a rabbi, an imam, and two pastors walk into a bar," even though we weren't in a bar! I am so excited to introduce you to...
03.06.2023
he came to Jesus at night
a Lenten sermon by Jonathan Martin
03.03.2023
the one where I tell everything I really think about Scripture interpretation
Okay maybe not all that hot, but spicy for me?! Why I think Christians oftentimes overstate the case in making the first testament sound incomplete, when in fact everything we need (from mercy and justice to death and resurrection) was...
03.02.2023
The necessity, possibility, and perils of deconstruction, with Brad Jersak and Jonathan Puddle
Jonathan Puddle and I co-interviewed Brad Jersak about his latest book, Out of the Embers: Faith After the Great Deconstruction. We reflected on the historical precedence of faith deconstruction, observing that it is both a current move of God in...
03.01.2023
Being Transfigured with Chris E.W. Green
The band is back together again, y'all! Our favorite theologian here at the Zeitcast has a new book out for Lent, and it's a wonderful companion for this (and any other) season. Join us on the Lenten journey!
02.28.2023
How faith shapes the pursuit of justice: in conversation with CeCe Jones Davis and Shane Claiborne
a more intimate conversation between friends about how the relationship between faith and action
02.28.2023
The Criminal Injustice System: On Death, Faith, & Black History in America, Pt. 2, with CeCe Jones Davis and Antoinette Jones
Can you hear the sound of God? We sure did at the historic Mendenhall lecture, in which Rev. CeCe Jones Davis and Antoinette Jones tell the story not only of Julius Jones, but a universal story--the Christ story. From Gobin...
02.26.2023
The Criminal Injustice System: on death, faith, and black history, pt. 1--with Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III and Shane Claiborne
In this special two-part Zeitcast from the campus of DePauw University and Gobin United Methodist Church, part one of two probing, powerful lectures on the kind of faith that is literally dealing death in America--and the kind of faith that...
01.16.2023
The Sound of God Revisited, with Otis Moss III
On this Martin Luther King Day, we revisit one of our favorite conversations with one of America’s most needed prophetic voices—Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, who just released a brand new...
10.11.2022
In the belly of the whale: womb or tomb? with Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
For Yom Kippur, experience the first of an all-new iteration of the Zeitcast that will speak to anybody who has left one place/sense of identity, but doesn’t know who or what they are becoming yet…featuring a wise guide you need...
07.05.2022
When the Story Gets Too Small, with Tony Caldwell
Therapist/spiritual director Tony Caldwell helps us navigate the complex soul space, of when and why we have to leave certain spaces, when the story/script we have been given becomes too constricting.
07.05.2022
bonus track: closer than you think
Live from the Table OKC, passing along a treasure I received from a wise guide in my life, Dr. Rickie Moore--a word that "you are closer than you think."
06.14.2022
the road, part two: God on the road away from God
On the preachiest podcast ever...if you "have no choice," then "choosing" God is never truly possible.
06.07.2022
the road, part one: the road called godforsaken
The only road you’ve got, is the road you’re on now. So whether you’re a word of faither naming it & claiming it, or a new ager making all the right affirmations, denial is only going to take you so...
06.07.2022
on preaching: preaching as suspense, otherness, and tenderness
Okay so maybe you didn't exactly ask me for a "master class" on preaching, but if I was asked to do one...and only had about an hour to do it...this is everything I would say. And of course I would...
06.02.2022
ADHDAF (or, non-expert thoughts on ADHD & spirituality)
Vulnerability! Social commentary! Wild non-expert riffing! All the things to love or hate about this podcast, winding around to reflection on ADHD and Christian spirituality.
06.02.2022
Is our ideal of freedom as "individual rights" killing us?
Recorded immediately after the shooting at a hospital in Tulsa, OK tonight. The gods that we worship are "free" in all the wrong ways--and unfortunately when we believe in a deity that does whatever they want, we tend to "go...
06.01.2022
on devils and guns
A provocative, heartfelt talk on gun violence and idolatry, and how progressive culture is unable to give a thoroughgoing account of evil. Also, maybe the clearest example ever of JUST HOW NICHE this podcast really is!
06.01.2022
about last night in New Orleans...
Can you imagine what it would be like to try to preach some kind of sermon the morning after you get married? Well this is what it sounds like when I do it. A very vulnerable, tender, real life resurrection...
06.01.2022
The Road Away from Home
Leaving home isn't easy. In this deeply personal talk, Jonathan delves into the age-old question: CAN you ever really come home again? The start of the Road Away from God book tour, with our good friend Brian Zahnd, from St....
05.05.2022
not seeing is believing
how God doesn't fill our "need" for certainty, how God's response to our doubt isn't to overwhelm our senses so that there is no alternative but to believe, the crucifixion of Jack Sparrow and Iron Man, how Scripture de-stabilizes us...
05.05.2022
Loving in difference, with Dr. Ron Martin
Jonathan's Dad makes his long-awaited first appearance on the Zeitcast...on his 76th birthday!!! We talk about how he's changed, what he would do differently, and what it looks like to love and be loved in relationship with people who don't...
03.04.2022
follow the hunger wherever it may lead you: a Lenten invitation
Lent is not a demand for hungry people to go more hungry, or lonely people to become more isolated. It’s an invitation to make room, where we are a little too full. There are some things we cannot see, some...

What's The Zeitcast with Jonathan Martin about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Zeitcast with Jonathan Martin episodes:

My Imam, not your Mom

you can do anything for 40 days (the start of a Lenten guide to personal revolution)

on love and death (an Ash Wednesday/Valentine’s Day sermon)

transfigured

rhythms of grace

The Way Home: Discovering the Hero's Journey to Wholeness at Midlife with Ben Katt

how to find your way back to your self with Kaitlyn Crain

On Advent, saints, prophets, elders, hiddenness, & arguing with God--with C.E.W. Green

The episode where Nicole finally comes on (to interview Jonathan on The Book of Waiting)

love not the world.

eating and drinking damnation

my sheep know my voice.

God is in the tender places.

seven miles

"They have taken my Jesus away."

Preaching to the Dead in a Graveyard on Good Friday Night

Maundy Thursday: on nonviolent atonement and the meaning of the cross

On Ramadan, with Mimi Edou

The story God tells about you, with Joel Everson

Jesus is thirsty, with Joel Everson

deep darkness

a real-time first take review of U2's new "Songs of Surrender!"

grace also to you, John MacArthur

speaking, on speaking

trauma-informed spirituality with Jonathan Puddle

Who is TRULY marginalized? (also, do you have to be married to know what it really means to be loved? Do you need to be a sheep to know God as good shepherd?)

when the house is swept

growing deeper across difference: an interfaith conversation with Imam Ahmed Alamine, Rabbi Bruce Pfeffer, & Rev. Dr. Maureen Knudsen Langdoc

he came to Jesus at night

the one where I tell everything I really think about Scripture interpretation

The necessity, possibility, and perils of deconstruction, with Brad Jersak and Jonathan Puddle

Being Transfigured with Chris E.W. Green

How faith shapes the pursuit of justice: in conversation with CeCe Jones Davis and Shane Claiborne

The Criminal Injustice System: On Death, Faith, & Black History in America, Pt. 2, with CeCe Jones Davis and Antoinette Jones

The Criminal Injustice System: on death, faith, and black history, pt. 1--with Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III and Shane Claiborne

The Sound of God Revisited, with Otis Moss III

In the belly of the whale: womb or tomb? with Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso

When the Story Gets Too Small, with Tony Caldwell

bonus track: closer than you think

the road, part two: God on the road away from God

the road, part one: the road called godforsaken

on preaching: preaching as suspense, otherness, and tenderness

ADHDAF (or, non-expert thoughts on ADHD & spirituality)

Is our ideal of freedom as "individual rights" killing us?

on devils and guns

about last night in New Orleans...

The Road Away from Home

not seeing is believing

Loving in difference, with Dr. Ron Martin

follow the hunger wherever it may lead you: a Lenten invitation