This amazing conversation with Juno-award winning musician, Steve Bell, was the 9th episode of the Spirituality for Ordinary People Podcast. I felt like it was worth re-sharing, and have also included the original “show notes” below. You can also get a transcript by reading this post in the substack app or on the substack website. This interview wa…

There are certain Christian traditions that seem talk about how we need more “Bible-based teaching.” These same traditions that tend to indicate that they are elevating the Bible and take pride in “understanding the Bible literally” or, if they actually deign to admit that it is impossible to take the entire Bible literally because, well, least of …

A podcast episode based on a written reflection first posted to the Noticing Delight Substack. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mattbrough.substack.comAv Matt Brough

Reading is interpreting. We know this more keenly than ever because we interpret all the time. You receive an email announcing that you have won a cruise. You read just a bit of it and already you have done your interpretation. It is spam or a scam. You delete it or send it to your Junk Mail folder. You read a news story and wonder if they have rea…

You can listen to the version audio or read the full reflection (transcript) below: The fact that we hold this collection of books as sacred (or if you personally don’t, you may at least agree that there is deep ancient wisdom there), is enough to say that we may want to do our best to understand what the Bible is all about. Interpreting the Bible …

Terry Marks-Tarlow is a psychologist, educator, author, illustrator and much more. We talked about her theory of Fractal Epistemology and her journey towards understanding its significance.Dr. Marks-Tarlow's website:https://www.markstarlow.com/Dr. Marks-Tarlow's books:https://www.markstarlow.com/books/…

Paul VanderKlay is a YouTuber and Christian thinker who has created a diverse community around Christian and existential themes.Nate Hile is also a YouTuber whose channel is called Grail Country. Nate tackles deep, theological issues with his own rotating cast of interesting and diverse people. He's also a member of Paul's "This Little Corner" comm…

Matt Brough has a podcast called The Common Toad. It often feels like he and I are picking at the same seam with regards to spirituality and philosophy. I thought it would be nice to get my podcast brain going again by chatting with him about podcasting and our general shared interest in Christianity.The Common Toad Podcast:https://www.youtube.com/…

The fifth in a 5-part series for Advent/Christmas 2022. He is born among us and is one of us. The incarnation. God with us and with intent, with imagination and creativity. Bearer of hope, and peace, and joy, and love. And so, we can be religious about the incarnation. As God came into the world and loved the place and people to which He came, we c…

The fourth in a 5-part series for Advent/Christmas 2022. The final advent theme is Love. Love is so central. It is at the core of who we are as human beings. We naturally love. Think of parents, children, grandchildren, wives, husbands, true friends. And our faith takes us further with love. Over and over we are asked to give ourselves to love. To …

The third in a 5-part series for Advent/Christmas 2022. What if joy was something you could simply choose? We tend to think joy is something that happens to us. It isn’t in our control. We would love to feel joyful, but that is really hard to do day in and day out. Is it the same as just being happy all the time? No, not really. So, what would it m…

The second in a 5-part series for Advent 2022. Being religious about something is about devotion, it’s about commitment. It is about staying the course even when you don’t feel like it. We are compelled to stay with it. We’ve made it our religion, and ours is a religion of peace. War is rampant, but we claim peace. Jesus claimed “Blessed are the Pe…

The first in a 5-part series for Advent/Christmas 2022. Getting religious about hope is not about being unrealistic or having some pie-in-the sky, everything will always be totally fine attitude. Religiously hoping means a full on acknowledgment of life in all its mess, brokenness, and still we fend off cynicism. We lament, but we don’t despair. We…

"From now on you will be catching people" - Jesus says this to his followers and it does not sound positive at all. Catching people? So, the job of people who follow Jesus is to go and "catch" others? Trap them? Trick them into something? I'm going to just say NO to all of that, but also say that when Jesus said this, there was something far more g…

Matt welcomes AJ Sherrill for a conversation around a book that has one of the most amazing sub-titles of all time! - Being With God: The Absurdity, Necessity, and Neurology of Contemplative Prayer. AJ is the Lead Pastor at St. Peter's Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina and is an adjunct professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he teac…

The Audio version of Prairie Presbyterian Church's Be Still and Behold series: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is Part Ten - God With Everyone For the printed liturgy and the original video series, visit https://www.prairiechurch.ca/worship This is a public episode. If you would l…

The Audio version of Prairie Presbyterian Church's Be Still and Behold series: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is Part Nine - Running Away From God's Presence For the printed liturgy and the original video series, visit https://www.prairiechurch.ca/worship This is a public episode…

The Audio version of Prairie Presbyterian Church's Be Still and Behold series: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is Part Eight - God NOT in the Earthquake, Fire, or Storm For the printed liturgy and the original video series, visit https://www.prairiechurch.ca/worship This is a publ…

The Audio version of Prairie Presbyterian Church's Be Still and Behold series: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is Part Seven - God in the Temple part 2 For the printed liturgy and the original video series, visit https://www.prairiechurch.ca/worship This is a public episode. If yo…

The Audio version of Prairie Presbyterian Church's Be Still and Behold series: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is part Six - God in the Temple part 1 For the printed liturgy and the original video series, visit https://www.prairiechurch.ca/worship This is a public episode. If you …

Steve Hill is a business owner, comedian, Satanist and much more. He is running for congress promoting peace, love and understanding. We talked about his life story and his insights from being in the military, corrections as well as being a black Satanist in Christian America.

The Audio version of Prairie Presbyterian Church's Be Still and Behold series: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is part Five - God in the Tent For the printed liturgy and the original video series, visit https://www.prairiechurch.ca/worship This is a public episode. If you would li…

The Audio version of Prairie Presbyterian Church's Be Still and Behold series: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is part Four - God on the Mountain For the printed liturgy and the original video series, visit https://www.prairiechurch.ca/worship This is a public episode. If you woul…

The Audio version of Prairie Presbyterian Church's Be Still and Behold series: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is part Three - God in Pillars of Cloud and Fire For the printed liturgy and the original video series, visit https://www.prairiechurch.ca/worship This is a public episod…

The Audio version of Prairie Presbyterian Church's Be Still and Behold series: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is part One - God in a Dream and a Wrestling Match For the printed liturgy and the original video series, visit https://www.prairiechurch.ca/worship This is a public epis…

The Audio version of Prairie Presbyterian Church's Be Still and Behold series: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is part One - God in the Garden. For the printed liturgy and the original video series, visit https://www.prairiechurch.ca/worship This is a public episode. If you would …

Matt Brough shares about a new series, Be Still and Behold: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mattbrough.substack.com…

Daniel Franzese is a comedian, actor and the host of the Yass Jesus Podcast. He is devoted to spreading light in the world with a message of radical acceptance. We talked about his personal history and what has formed him as well as how American culture has divided us from ourselves. We also talked about Gay Christianity's contribution to the world…

Malcolm Guite is a poet, author, academic, musician and more. We had a transcendent conversation rooted around the biblical story of the Transfiguration. Malcolm's website: https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/ Malcolm's books: https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/books/ Malcolm on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MalcolmGuitespell…

Paul VanderKlay is a pastor in California as well as a YouTube Content creator and the focal point of a diverse online community. We talked about how it is possible to believe in impossible things such as the physical resurrection of Jesus. Paul's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/PaulVanderKlay Paul's Substack: https://paulvanderklay.subs…

Liam Kavanagh is the Director and Co-Founder of the Life Itself Institute, pragmatic utopians working on collaborative solutions to the cognitive and practical problems of the western mind. His book, Liams book, Collective Wisdom in the West: Beyond the shadows of the Enlightenment is available through Perspectiva Press. Life itself's website: http…

Matt Brough welcomes Terence Lester to the podcast for a hopeful and inspiring conversation about justice. Terence is the founder of Love Beyond Walls, a nonprofit organization focused on poverty awareness and community mobilization and is the author of When We Stand: The Power of Seeking Justice Together. This is a public episode. If you would lik…

Esther Lightcap Meek is an author, philosopher, and professor emeritus at Geneva College. She is known for her writing on Epistemology; Books such as A Little Manual for Knowing, Longing to Know, and Loving to know. We talked about her model of knowledge known as Covenant Epistemology and the seemingly countercultural idea that knowledge itself cou…

This episode was films quite a while ago and, due to flakiness issues on my part, was not released until now. It consists of 2 separate interviews with the creators of viral auto-tuned videos. Details for both artists and their most well-known hits is listed below: Evan Gregory is one of the masterminds behind the successful Shmoyoho YouTube Channe…

Becca Tarnas is a scholar, author, counselling astrologer and educator. She is studied in Archetypal Cosmology and the products of the imagination among many other things. She is an editor of Archai: The Journal of Archetypal Cosmology. We talked about these topics and how they relate to our evolution. We also talked about the experience of being s…

This episode features reflections and a conversation with Rev. Mary Fontaine. Executive director of Hummingbird Ministries, ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and Indigenous Leader, Mary brings such wisdom as she reflect on her own work, the need for healing and listening, the power of music, dance, and the arts, and the the im…

Smokey is a visual artist and musician. He and I have been friends and collaborators for years. We decided to commit one of our wide-ranging conversations to video. This episode focusses on art, music taste, and modern culture. Smokey's website: https://smokeydraws.com/ Smokey's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smokeydrawss/…

Howard Bloom is a thinker, author, scientist, music publicist and much more. He has written on atheism, cultural history, and anthropology. He is very hard to pin down! In this, our second conversation, I wanted to begin to get a feel for his style of transcendent atheism and see how it has informed his life's path. I enjoyed this conversation as w…

Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, writer, literary scholar and philosopher. His new book, The Matter with Things takes over from his previous book The Master and His Emissary, examining some of the most fundamental questions of human existence. We discuss The Matter with Things as well as the topic of longing as an entry point for personal growth…

As Jesus indwells the world so we too indwell the world. This might be an apt description of what is called "incarnational ministry." How might the incarnation be important for us as we reflect on being together in-person, and how might technology continue to play a vital role? (Maybe it always has!) Based on a message that Matt Brough gave at an o…

Donna Thomas is a writer, researcher and Research Fellow at the University of Central Lancashire. Her research is around consciousness and the self, especially as experienced by young children. Her website "A Children's Guide to the Unknown" examines what children can teach us about self and reality. Donna's website: https://childrenselfandanomalou…

Lewis Waller is the host and creator of the YouTube channel, Then & Now. He unpacks the life and work of diverse philosophers and historical movements to try to better understand human motivation. We focused on Epistemology (theories of knowledge) and how they are served by thought movements such as Modernism, Romanticism and Postmodernism. Lewis's…

Gary Lachman is a writer and musician who covers a broad range of topics to do with mysticism and the human condition. We talked about his career and how feeling the reality of death can awaken the desire for more life. Gary's website: https://garylachman.co.uk/ Gary's biggest hit written for Blondie (Always Touched by Your Presence Dear): https://…

We made it to episode 100!! Whoohoo! And what better way to mark this milestone, and all the work that went into it, than with a conversation about resting. Matt Brough and Kate Rademacher talk about her latest book Reclaiming Rest: The Promise of Sabbath, Solitude, and Stillness in a Restless World This interview is so wide-ranging covering topics…

A lively conversation between Matt Brough and Steph O'Brien about how to "Make a Move." Often we have trouble making decisions and then even more trouble acting on them. Steph's latest book deals directly with this. On the big things and the small things, Steph provides sage wisdom for taking steps, even when they might be a bit stumbling or windin…

John Vervaeke teaches Cognitive Science at the University of Toronto and spends a lot of time modelling deep, constructive conversation (dialogos as he calls it) with collaborators on YouTube. He was a huge inspiration to this podcast and an early guest. We discussed dialogos and how the ideas of sacred and profane might translate into a secular ph…

In this Episode, Matt Brough and children's author, Laura Alary, have a conversation about the long season of "ordinary time" and how it can be understood as a time of growth. This interview is wide ranging, including how to talk to kids about the ascension of Jesus, and also how do adults contend with the bizarre nature of the Pentecost narrative.…

Philosopher, psychotherapist and author Mark returns to Mourning Talk Show. We discuss moralism and spirituality. As usual, Mark gives further insights into his personal world of transcendent imagery and language with references to Dante and Blake; a spirituality that is ever-present and somehow non-religious. Mark's website: https://www.markvernon…

Has anyone else been having a hard time with joy? Maybe joy is something to fight for, something to learn to spot and well... enjoy. In this episode we discuss becoming a student of joy and talk about Disneyland, holding newborns, baptisms, the resurrection appearances of Jesus, and the unexpected delight of a fire hydrant in the middle of a forest…

Pádraig Ó Tuama is a Poet, activist, theologian and much more. He is a gentle, yet bold presence. His poetry podcast, Poetry Unbound is released through On Being and he also hosts the Corrymeela Podcast, a recent episode of which is a conversation with U2's the Edge. We discuss issues around poetry, prayer, social media. Poetry Unbound: https://onb…