I love taking a break from all sorts of things in the summer, and I also love returning to the rhythms of the fall. I’m especially excited to return to the podcast and tell you all about what we have in store.
As some of you might remember, we changed the name of the podcast last year to Reimagining the Good Life. That renaming has helped shape the list of guests we are inviting on the show in upcoming months. Each of these guests can help us think about the question:
Where do our ideas of “the good life” come from, what might be problematic about those ideas, and how we can envision something different?
My hope for the work I do, and for this show, is that we would:
- Challenge the assumptions about what makes life good
- Proclaim the inherent belovedness of every human being
- And envision a world of belonging
- Where everyone matters
Now, not every guest is going to speak to all of those things. As many of you know, I write and teach and interview people about disability and faith and culture and how those things intersect.
Disability
So sometimes the disability aspect is front and center. To that end, this season I’ll talk with two different college professors who have daughters with Down syndrome. There’s Tom Pearson, who wrote An Ordinary Future about the history of anthropology as it relates to people with Down syndrome and intellectual disability. And Pepper Stetler, an art historian who has written in A Measure of Intelligence about her daughter Louisa and the history of the IQ test and how it speaks to our culture’s understanding of intelligence.
Faith and Culture
Other times faith and/or culture take the lead. I’ll talk with pastor and author Rich Villodas, whose latest book, The Narrow Path, uses Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount to reimagine the good life. And I’m excited to hear from Dr. Jemar Tisby, whose book The Spirit of Justice came out this week, about how our understanding of history—and specifically the historical witness of Black Christians—can help us reimagine our future.
These are just a few of the rich conversations that I am thrilled to get to share with you in the weeks and months ahead.
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Find “Reimagining the Good Life” on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe (and rate and review)! You’ll get new episodes every two weeks. My first conversation drops on Tuesday, September 10.
I hope you’ll join me for beautiful, deepening conversations. Let’s reimagine the good life together.
Cognoscenti Essay:
We can build a culture of belonging — one that includes people with disabilities
“If there is anything we have learned through parenting our three kids, it is that disability is like a magnifying glass that shows us more clearly who we all are as humans. We often see Penny’s limitations more clearly than we see our own, and yet she helps us to understand that we all have limits. We all have needs. Once we can admit those limits, we can ask for help from one another. Once we recognize our needs, we can receive the gifts that others have to offer. We can become more connected, more humble, and more able to celebrate one another. We don’t need to paper over the real challenges that come with Down syndrome or autism or learning disorders. We do need to recognize the fullness of the humanity of people with disabilities in order to imagine not only the ways they might need support, but also the ways they might contribute to our society.”
2 books I love right now
Cultures of Growth by Mary C. Murphy.
For anyone interested in how the idea of “fixed” and “growth” mindsets affect communities (and not just individuals), this book is a fascinating read with implications for personal and institutional life.
The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin.
I couldn’t sleep the other night, so I downloaded this book on Kindle and raced through half of it. The good news was, I really love the characters and the story. It’s charming and winsome and sad and sweet, and most of it takes place in a bookstore. The bad news is that it was far too interesting to put me to sleep!
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