Nomad Podcast

We’ve caused a turning point in the Earth’s natural history. Everybody Now is a podcast about what it means to be human on the threshold of a global climate emergency, in a time of systemic injustice and runaway pandemics. Scientists, activists, farmers, poets, and theologians talk bravely and frankly about how our biosphere is changing, about grief and hope in an age of social collapse and mass extinction, and about taking action against all the odds. Everybody Now is being released by podcasters all over the world as a collective call for awareness, grief and loving action. Nomad is only able to create content like this because of a small group of financial supporters. If you'd like to join them, head over to our Patreon page or our own donation platform.

In this episode we speak with the director of Theos Think Tank and host of The Sacred podcast, Elizabeth Oldfield. Elizabeth is passionate about exploring how we can build healthy friendships and societies in an age characterised by seemingly ever deepening differences, and what role faith can play in this. So we ask Elizabeth why we find it so hard to relate to people who are culturally, politically and religiously different from ourselves, and how we can begin to overcome this. Interview starts at 12m 40s Nomad can only keep going because a small group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over to our Patreon page to donate in dollars and our PayPal members page to donate in pounds. You might also want to have a look at

In this episode we welcome Rob Bell back to the podcast. Rob’s written a new book - Everything is Spiritual - within which he explores how ideas about creation, love and connection have profoundly shaped his faith journey. We chat with Rob about what it means to embrace who we are and where we’ve come from, our wounds, our pain and our regrets, and how this can deepen and expand our sense of self and connection to the world and the divine. As you’d expect from Rob, it’s a conversation full of humour, insight and inspiration. Interview starts at 15m 4s Nomad can only keep going because a small group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over to our Patreon page to donate in dollars and our PayPal members page to donate in po

In this episode we discuss radical theology with author, philosopher and storyteller Peter Rollins. Peter explores the freedom that comes when we accept and embrace the lack within us and the struggle within life. He believes that letting go of the frenetic pursuit of that which will make us whole and complete opens the way to accepting the lack within and finding enjoyment within the struggles of life. From this place of freedom we find God in the act of love, the depth dimension of our experiences, and in a continual transformative conversation. It’s a mind bending and inspiring conversation. Interview starts at 14m 53s Nomad can only keep going because a small group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over to our Patre

Toxic masculinity is a term that seems to be cropping up more and more in academic and media discussions, as we become more aware of the harmful effects - on men, women and society in general - of men conforming to traditional masculine ideals, like dominance, self-reliance, and competition. So we dialled up Stephen Whitehead, who is an author, researcher, consultant and lecturer on gender, sexuality and identity, and asked him where these traditional expressions of masculinity came from, what effects they are having on us, and how we can overcome them. It’s an honest, insightful, challenging and hopeful conversation. Interview starts at 12m 16s Nomad can only keep going because a small group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug

In this episode we speak with artist, poet and author Emily Garcés. It’s a heart-warming, heart-breaking, inspiring and challenging conversation, as Emily shares with us her journey through life and faith, with all of its joys and struggles, as she wrestles with what it means to be fully alive. Interview starts at 11m 48s You can buy Emily's book in the US through CreativeOnion Press and in the UK through Proost. And you can find her art at Etsy.com and on her Facebook page. If you want more from Nomad, check out our website, and follow us on Facebook, twitter and Instagram.  Nomad can only keep going because a small group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over to our Patreon page to donate in dollars and our PayPal me

In this episode we speak with therapist, theologian and author, Mark Karris. For anyone going through a faith deconstruction, prayer is often near the top of the list of things we struggle to make sense of. And Mark is certainly no exception to this. He had the kind of traumatic childhood you’d only expect to see in a film. But despite all his prayers, and the prayers of his church, the situation steadily deteriorated. So we asked Mark why so often our prayers aren’t answered? How can a God of love observe such suffering without intervening? Why does God often seem to answer quite trivial prayers, and ignore the more significant ones? Mark has a fascinating take on all our questions, and proposes a hopeful, loving and grounded vision of prayer. Interview starts at 17m 45s. If you want more from Nomad, check out our website, and follow us on Facebook, twitter and Instagram.  Nomad can only keep going because a small group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad comm

Dr. Hillary McBride is a clinical counselor in Vancouver. When she’s not doing clinical work she is researching, speaking, writing and podcasting (as a host on The Liturgists), about the intersection of spirituality and mental health, trauma, and trauma therapies, embodiment, eating disorders, body image, and sex and sexuality. But we wanted to focus in on embodiment, so we spent a hour chatting about what it means to be truly embodied, why many of us feel so disconnected from our bodies, and how a greater sense of embodiment can profoundly reshape our sense of self, gender, sexuality, spirituality, and just about anything else you can think of. Interview starts at 17m 41s If you want more from Nomad, check out our website, and follow us on Facebook, twitter and Instagram.  Nomad can only keep going because a small group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such

In this episode, black liberation theologian Prof Anthony Reddie and the poet Ravelle-Sadé Fairman reflect on black experience. These searching thoughts begin with the recent murder of George Floyd at the hands of US police officers, and from there reach into a knotted web of power and oppression: the disproportionate suffering of black people from Covid19, the enduring roots of European colonial rule, the dynamics of white fragility, the experience of black embodiment, the veneration of the statues of slave traders, and the emerging anti-racism movement. Anthony Reddie is professor of Liberation Theology at Oxford University and the author of many books, including Is God Colour Blind? and Theologising Brexit. Ravelle-Sadé Fairman is a poet from Nottingham, UK, who performs as A Poetic Perception. If you want more from Nomad, check out our website, and follow us on Facebook, twitter and Instagram.  Nomad can only keep going because a small group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain

In this episode Mark Oakley shares with us his lifelong relationship with poetry. He believes poetry is the language of the soul, and should therefore be the person of faith’s native language. For Mark poetry has put to words his deepest longing, has sustained him through troubled times, and has transformed the way he’s come to see God, himself and others.  And Mark believes that in our ever more chaotic world, now more than ever we need to rediscover the language of poetry.  Interview starts at 8m 45s. If you want more from Nomad, check out our website, and follow us on Facebook and twitter. Nomad can only keep going because a small group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over to our Patreon page to donate in dollars a

Theologian, poet and author Nicola Slee joins Jemimah to talk about when she first encountered feminist theology and its potential to challenge, inform and enrich our Christian faith and practice.  Nicola Slee is Director of Research at the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theology and Professor of Feminist Practical Theology in the Faculty of Religion at VU Amsterdam. Her research interests range around Christian feminist practical theology but also encompass poetry and theology and other aspects of practical theology. Interview starts at 19m 22s. If you want more from Nomad, check out our website, and follow us on Facebook and twitter. Nomad can only keep going because a small group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our donors gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over

In this episode vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church at Trafalgar Square, London and professor of Christian ethics at King's College, Sam Wells shares his belief that to live well is to improvise well. He defines improvisation in the theatre as "a practice through which actors seek to develop trust in themselves and one another in order that they may conduct unscripted dramas without fear." And that, he believes, is how we should approach life. Building trust, overcoming fear, conducting relationships, and making choices - all without a script. The Bible therefore is not a ‘script’ but a training school that shapes our habits and practices. And living well is "faithfully improvising on the Christian tradition."  It’s a fascinating and inspiring conversation that brings to life Christian ethics.  Interview starts at 16m 30s.  If you want more from Nomad, check out our website, and follow us on Facebook and twitter. Nomad can only keep going because a small group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills.

We felt these unprecedented times deserved an unprecedented episode of nomad. So for the first time we recorded a remote episode, with Jemimah beaming in from Cardiff, David from Birmingham, and Tim and Nick from Nottingham.  To help stimulate the conversation, we thought we'd ask the Listener Lounge for questions.  So tune in if you want to know how we’re coping with the pandemic, what signs of hope we’re seeing, whether we still believe in God, what prayer means to us, the most significant thing we’ve learnt from the nomad journey, the most cringe-worthy thing we’ve said during an interview, the funniest things our kids have said recently, and much much more!  If you want more from Nomad, check out our website, and follow us on Facebook and twitter. Nomad can only keep going because a small group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our donors gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, No

In this final meditation of the series, Anna reflects on the power of the greeting that Jesus gave his disciples when he met them in the upper room on Easter day. She considers what Pádraig Ó Tuama shares about this greeting in his book In The Shelter: Finding a home in the World. She then leads us in a stilling exercise followed by an Ignatian style meditation, using our imaginations to enter into the scene in the locked room as told in John and Luke’s gospels. Anna then finishes with a short examen and closing prayer. David Blower responds to the meditation with original music and ambience. If you want a meditation like this one each month, then visit either our PayPal or Patreon membership page.

In this meditation Anna Robinson reflects on our struggles with fear, anxiety and distress. She looks at how Jesus himself felt great fear, particularly at this time of Easter. Then, drawing on the wisdom of James Finley, Anna leads us through a stilling exercise and meditation where we can bring our deepest fears and distress to Jesus. Through this we hope together we can find freedom from our experience of the tyranny of fear. David Blower compliments the meditation with original music and ambience. If you want a meditation like this one each month, then visit either our PayPal or Patreon membership page.

In this contemplation, Anna Robinson considers the significance of acknowledging how we are feeling in these uncertain and unsettling times. She considers the importance of kindness and compassion to others and ourselves, recognising our shared human experiences. Anna then leads us into a stilling exercise to help us become fully present, after which she guides us a Loving-Kindness meditation that fosters feelings of compassion and kindness and enables us to feel more connected to those we love and those around us during this time of isolation.  David Blower compliments the meditation with original music and ambience. If you want a meditation like this one each month, then visit either our PayPal or Patreon membership page.

Rather than an interview based episode, we felt these strange times required something a little more meditative.  Each month for the last year Anna Robinson has been producing some wonderful meditations for our patrons. So we asked her to produce a short series for our main podcast feed, called Meditations for Isolation.  In this meditation, Anna reminds us we are not alone in finding ourselves weighed down by worry and concerns. Anna will lead us in contemplating divine presence and peace. We will then be led on an imaginative journey where we are invited to acknowledge our fears and concerns and give them to God. We will then be invited to rest in this peace and presence and receive what it is we need at this time.   David Blower compliments the meditation with original music. If you want a meditation like this one each month, then visit either our PayPal or Patreon membership page.

For just a few weeks we’ve all been living in a very different world. Sociologist and Baptist Minister Sally Mann reflects on how her community in London’s East End are adapting to the coronavirus pandemic, and where she sees glimmers of hope amidst the grief and isolation. If you want more from Nomad, check out our website, and follow us on Facebook and twitter. Nomad can only keep going because a small group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our donors gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over to our Patreon page to donate in dollars and our PayPal members page to donate in pounds. You might also want to have a look at our blog, which we're now using to share the stories of the evolving faith of our podcast listeners.  And if you're looking for other people to share th

Mike McHargue is the host of the podcast Ask Science Mike, co-founded of the The Liturgists Podcast and author of Finding God in the Waves. He’s a public educator who weaves together insights from science and faith to help people navigate what it means to live well. We ask Mike the question that scientists, philosophers, theologians and self-help gurus have wrestled with for thousands of years: why we do the things we do? Or rather, why we so often don't do the things that we want to do! Why, for example, do we binge Netflix when we know taking a walk outside would be better for us, or why do we scroll Facebook when our real friends live just down the street. Drawing on science, personal revelation, and spiritual insight, Mike shows us how to live more at peace with ourselves and the world around us. Interview starts at 16m 47s.  If you want more from Nomad, check out our website, and follow us on Facebook and twitter. Nomad can only keep going because a small group of faithful listeners help us pay the bill

In another break from our usual interview format, we listen in on a conversation between Jemimah McAlpine and Joy Brooks as they reflect on their experiences as women who grew up immersed in evangelical Christianity. Unpicking some of the messages they absorbed over the years, they examine what it means for them to move away from repression and reconnect with their embodied and internal experiencing. Learning to value their own voice, they also explore the responsibility that comes with agency and privilege within their respective communities. Conversation starts at 4m 30s. If you want more from Nomad, check out our website, and follow us on Facebook and twitter. Nomad can only keep going because a small group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our donors gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Belove