At No Small Endeavor, we try to talk about the things that really matter to people. Two such things - politics and religion - are notoriously tricky to discuss without generalizing, proselytizing, or stoking division. But in an election year, we can’t ignore a sub-group in the United States that is adamant about combining faith and nation: Christian Nationalists. In this episode, we called in Tim Alberta, author of “The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory” and an expert for the job. He shares what it was like growing up around the movement, offers his criticism of a subculture he knows inside and out, and presents the clear and present danger of conflating religious identity with national identity.

145: Tim Alberta: The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory

Exploring what it means to live a good life. What does it mean to live a good life? What is true happiness? What are the habits, practices, and dispositions that contribute to authentic human flourishing? No Small Endeavor examines these questions with host Lee C. Camp.  You'll hear from best-selling authors, philosophers, scientists, artists, psychologists, theologians and even the occasional politician—courageous, impassioned people taking seriously the question of how to live a good life. Striving for a good life is No Small Endeavor, and we’re here with you on the road. Learn more at nosmallendeavor.com.

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What happens when you get a self-dubbed “yankee Jewish feminist” talking about Jesus? Turns out, you get a fascinating conversation leaving folks of all faiths and worldviews with much to think about. Amy-Jill Levine is a brilliant professor of New Testament, and, perhaps surprisingly, a practicing Jew. In this episode, she uses her knowledge of Jewish culture to highlight common mis-readings of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’s stance on societal and gender norms, and how “Christian fragility” can impede one’s ability to address religious and social questions honestly.

156: Amy-Jill Levine: A Jewish Take on Jesus (Best of NSE)

This is our unabridged interview with Angela Williams Gorrell. What is joy? Is it equatable with happiness, or pleasure, or both? Is it to be found in a career, or a romantic partner, or a religion? And if we were to manage it, would our lives forever be free from sorrow, pain, and suffering? In this episode, author and professor Angela Williams Gorrell, who was teaching a class on joy at Yale when she lost three people that she loved in a four-week span, describes her personal experience of finding joy amidst loss.

155: Unabridged Interview: Angela Williams Gorrell

What is joy? Is it equatable with happiness, or pleasure, or both? Is it to be found in a career, or a romantic partner, or a religion? And if we were to manage it, would our lives forever be free from sorrow, pain, and suffering? In this episode, two guests discuss joy, describing both what it is and, perhaps more importantly, what it is not. Author and professor Angela Williams Gorrell, who was teaching a class on joy at Yale when she lost three people that she loved in a four-week span, describes her personal experience of finding joy amidst loss. And Yale theologian Miroslav Volf, himself no stranger to suffering growing up in a war torn country, explains the connection between joy and sorrow.

155: Angela Williams Gorrell and Miroslav Volf: On Joy and Sorrow (Best of NSE)

This is our unabridged interview with Karen Korematsu. What is it like to be an Asian American? In light of the beginning of AAPI month, we present a re-airing of our episode from 2021 with Karen Korematsu and Eugene Cho, two Asian-Americans with unique stories of grief and hope. Karen Korematsu tells the story of her father Fred Korematsu, a famed Japanese-American civil rights activist who refused Franklin Roosevelt’s executive order to report to what FDR himself called “a concentration camp” on American soil shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

154: Unabridged Interview: Karen Korematsu

What is it like to be an Asian American? In light of the beginning of AAPI month, we present a re-airing of our episode from 2021 with Karen Korematsu and Eugene Cho, two Asian-Americans with unique stories of grief and hope. Karen Korematsu tells the story of her father Fred Korematsu, a famed Japanese-American civil rights activist who refused Franklin Roosevelt’s executive order to report to what FDR himself called “a concentration camp” on American soil shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Eugene Cho discusses his experiences as a Korean-born American immigrant, and how we might learn to love our neighbors in the face of political polarization and racial discrimination.

145: Tim Alberta: The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory

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