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In this Drinks and Deconstruction episode, I’m joined by River Polsgrove, a fiction writer and human trafficking survivor, for a conversation that somehow includes Catholic chanting, the “drink the blood” confusion of childhood, and why church people love turning shame into a personality. We talk dissociative amnesia, purity culture’s greatest hits (yes, the donut object lesson makes an appearance), and what it looks like to rebuild a spiritual life when the church was part of the harm. AND how River uses their fiction for the kind of healing and revenge therapy can’t always provide. Content warning up front for trafficking.

River's Books: https://amzn.to/4tTGQy7

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If prayer has ever felt like a spiritual performance review, this episode is for you. Jeremy talks with Wes Ellis, author of Abide in Amen, about why prayer gets weaponized into guilt, why “spiritual discipline” often turns into self-blame, and how the church trained a lot of us to treat God like a cosmic vending machine. Wes offers a different frame: prayer as God moving toward you, not you climbing toward God. Less control, less shame, more resonance.

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Chris Young grew up Roman Catholic, got rushed through the sacraments because doctors didn’t think he’d live long, and still managed to be a skeptic by age six. This episode is a funny, tender, unexpectedly deep conversation about disability, Catholic guilt, “real presence” logic puzzles, and the moment he realized he couldn’t say the creed honestly anymore. Then something surprising happened. A community made room for his doubts, told him to focus on what he could believe, and that cracked open a way back without pretending.

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If you grew up in rapture culture, you already know the feeling: one missing family member and your brain goes straight to “did I miss the rapture?” This episode is group therapy, but funny. We talk with Stuart Delony (Snarky Faith) about his new book Tribulation Survival Guide, a satire that reads like a real survival manual for surviving evangelical end-times fearmongering. Antichrist spotting tips, false prophet red flags, and why the grifters keep moving the goalposts while somehow still collecting money.

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What if the new year isn’t about doing more, but about paying attention? In this guided episode, we explore a New Year version of the Ignatian Examen—reflecting on home, work, relationships, media, and time—to help you see where you’ve been, where you’re headed, and where you actually want to go. No resolutions required.

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Christians argue fiercely about the literal details of Jesus’ birth—even though the Bible never gives a date and early believers didn’t agree on one. In this episode, we look at how December 25 emerges from theology, symbolism, and later church decisions rather than historical memory, and why our modern obsession with certainty might be the least faithful part of the story.

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Turns out the Christmas story you defend like it’s a court transcript doesn’t even work on its own historical terms. In part one, we take apart Nazareth, Bethlehem, and the Roman census Luke uses to move Jesus across the map—spoiler: historians aren’t impressed. In part two, we go underground into caves, kataluma, and the version of Jesus’ birth the early church actually remembered before we swapped risk for rustic décor. This isn’t an attack on Christmas. It’s an attack on the idea that faith only works if the floor plan is literal and the facts are fragile.

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