Note: This transcript is autogenerated using speech recognition software and does contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.

Hi friends, it’s been a few months since we’ve been here together. I do love taking a break from all sorts of things in the summer, but I also love returning to the rhythms of fall. So I am excited to be here and to return to this podcast and tell you more about what we have in store for the next couple of months. Some of you might remember that we changed the name of this podcast last year and it is now called Reimagining the Good Life.

That renaming process was really helpful in considering what guests we wanted to invite on the show this season, because we wanted to find guests who can help us think about where our ideas of the good life come from. The good life is a concept in philosophy, but it’s also just a set of assumptions that we have about what we want in our lives. And sometimes those ideas are problematic and they don’t actually lead to exactly what we want them to. So when those ideas are problematic, what can we do

to envision something different, to live into something that is more hopeful and human and freeing and good? When we’re here together, my hope for the work that this show is doing in the world is I wanna challenge the assumptions about what makes life good. I’m gonna say that again.

My hope for the work that I do and for this show more broadly 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. Not every guest is going to speak to all of those things, as many of you who are listening know I write and teach and interview people about all sorts of topics, disability and faith and culture

and how those things intersect. Sometimes the disability aspect is front and center, and that will be true with some of the interviews this season. I’ve got two different college professors who both have daughters with Down syndrome. There’s Tom Pearson, who wrote a wonderful book, An Ordinary Future, about the history of anthropology as it relates to people with Down syndrome and intellectual disability. Also going to get to interview Pepper Stetler an art historian who has written about her daughter, Louisa.

Amy Julia (02:12.876)

and the history of the IQ test and how it speaks to our culture’s understanding of intelligence. There are going to be other times where faith or culture take the lead in what we’re talking about. And to that end, I’m going to get to have a conversation with pastor and author Rich Villodas. His latest book, The Narrow Path, uses Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount to reimagine the good life. I’m also excited to hear from Dr. Jamar Tisby about how our understanding of history

and specifically the historical witness of Black Christians can help us reimagine our future as a nation. These are just a few of the rich conversations I am thrilled to share with you in the weeks and months ahead. The first episode of this season will drop next week on September 10th. Meanwhile, right now is the time to let other people know about this podcast. You can share this trailer with them, leave a rating or review, just a simple click of a button on the rating or a

simple sentence that says why this podcast has been meaningful to you helps people to find it. If you have not already subscribed, you can also subscribe now, get new content every two weeks, and not miss an episode. Finally, I do want to let you know about my upcoming workshop, Reimagining Family Life with Disability. So this is a workshop designed to help families affected by disability envision and work towards a good future. I am

teaching this live online beginning on September 18th, 2024. Registration is now open. And I’ve taught this once before and the previous participants were able to say that this workshop gave them a new mindset towards disability, a larger network of support and care, and a plan for taking manageable steps towards a good future. I would love for you or a friend of yours

who could benefit from this type of conversation to envision and work towards a good future for your family. So register today, use the code FAMILY24, that’s F -A -M -I -L -Y and then the numerals 2 4 to take 30% off your registration. And please tell your friends, I would love to have people who can join us for this conversation.

Amy Julia (04:34.104)

You can find out more in the show notes or at amyjuliabecker.com/workshop. As we head into this new podcast season, I also would love to hear from you. So please feel free to click the link in the show notes. You can text me comments and suggestions, questions, ideas. I would love to hear from you. Finally, I want to thank Jake Hanson for editing this podcast and Amber Beery, my social media coordinator for doing everything to make sure that

all the behind the scenes work happens. And thank you, thank you for being here. I hope you will join me for beautiful, challenging, deep conversations that will help you to challenge assumptions about the good life, proclaim the belovedness of every human being, and envision a world of belonging where everyone matters. Let’s reimagine the good life together.