Shows
A Soulful RevolutionSeason 3, Ep. 14: Sacred rebel Devin Mackey on true self and true belongingThis is the last episode of Season 3! To help us produce Season 4 of the pod, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Thanks for listening!***About this episode's guest: Devin Mackey is a 31 year old trans, queer public figure and “sacred rebel” who has dedicated his life to being an example for humanity in order to show that following your intuition, living authentically, and sticking by your values no matter what—even in the most extreme of circumstances—is the divinely right thing to do. Devin’s sacred rebellion and dedication to the truth has led him from a...2025-07-3050 min
A Soulful RevolutionSeason 3, Ep. 13: Sheila Joiner is advocating for immigrants in TexasSheila Joiner is a writer, immigration advocate, and aspiring peacemaker in the suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas. After a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) position that began in 2012 taught her to use her voice to speak in court on behalf of children in the foster care system, she discovered a deeper understanding of God’s care for those in vulnerable situations. Sheila’s hunger to learn more about the intersection of faith and justice eventually led to 4 years writing immigration advocacy campaigns and social content for We Choose Welcome and a temporary position working as an immigration coordinator for...2025-06-2650 min
AI Church ToolkitAI, Ethics, and Empathy: A Conversation with Rev. Lauren Grubaugh ThomasIn this episode, Peter speaks with the Rev. Lauren Grubaugh Thomas, founding vicar of Holy Companion Episcopal Church and creator of A Soulful Revolution. Together, they explore the ethical and pastoral complexities of generative AI—its creative potential, its risks, and how the church can faithfully engage with this rapidly evolving technology.Lauren draws on insights from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, shares stories from her ministry, and reflects on how spiritual formation, agency, and justice intersect with digital tools. From AI’s inherent bias to the dangers of false intimacy, this episod...2025-06-1655 min
A Soulful RevolutionSeason 3, Ep. 12: Erika Saucillo Rivera on dancing into our power and freedomBeing in conversation with Erika Saucillo Rivera is a dynamic, joyful experience — almost as electrifying as watching her dance! I’ve known Erika since she was just getting started in the Los Angeles salsa scene and remember being captivated by her confidence and the delight she so clearly took in dancing. Having a chance to interview her over a decade since we first met afforded an intimate look into the determination, passion, and courageous vulnerability that have propelled this talented dancer into the life of her dreams as a professional dancer, choreographer and the CEO of her own dance comp...2025-06-0547 min
A Soulful RevolutionSeason 3, Ep. 11: Ari Honarvar on how art keeps us tethered to freedomArtist and writer Ari Honarvar weaves the art forms of Sufi poetry and dance for the sake of collective healing. The poetry of her Persian heritage puts her mind at ease, Honarvar explains, while dance is “fuel for resilience.” Woven throughout this interview are Honarvar's breathtaking recitations of the poetry of Rumi in Farsi and English. About Ari:Ari Honarvar is the founder of Rumi with a View, dedicated to building bridges between the arts, social justice, and well-being. She dances with refugees and facilitates Resilience through Joy workshops on both sides of the U.S.-M...2025-05-2151 min
A Soulful RevolutionSeason 3, Ep. 10: Dr. Tanmeet Sethi on joy as justiceFor Dr. Tanmeet Sethi, everything is integrated.Joy springs from the same deep well as pain. There is no clear delineation between social change and spiritual transformation. Healing — on an individual and collective level — requires living into this wholly interconnected, interdependent reality.About Dr. Sethi:Tanmeet Sethi, MD is an Integrative and Psychedelic Medicine Physician, activist, author, and TEDx speaker who has dedicated her career to care for the most marginalized patients in Seattle’s refugee, uninsured and homeless populations as well as global communities traumatized by manmade and natural disasters as senior facult...2025-04-2359 min
A Soulful RevolutionSeason 3, Ep. 9: Maki Ashe Van Steenwyk on embracing discomfort for liberation's sakeFor Maki Ashe Van Steenwyk, any comfort that comes at the cost of full liberation isn’t worth keeping around. Whiteness, maleness, and other privileged positions people put stock in to keep them comfy, have to make way for a more expansive vision of what it means to be human. Community, on the other hand, can be a site of agitation — and that, the writer, activist and queer mystic says, is fertile ground for change.About Ashe:Maki Ashe Van Steenwyk (she/her) is a writer, activist, and queer mystic whose work explores the intersections of s...2025-04-1655 min
A Soulful RevolutionSeason 3, Ep. 8: Eréndira Jimenez Esquinca on transforming our money storiesEréndira Jimenez Esquinca midwifes new stories into the world. Weaving together spiritual direction and financial advising – two fields that many would dismiss offhand as unrelated — Jimenez Esquinca is committed to supporting people in authentically and strategically bringing their respective spiritual and material realities into alignment. Working with faith leaders, creatives, activists and others who are ready for a different approach, they empower people to break free from constraining capitalist and colonial narratives while courageously stepping into generative, life-affirming stories. This conversation abounds with wisdom won through this Soulful Revolutionary’s long and loving labor for who...2025-04-0946 min
A Soulful RevolutionSeason 3, Ep. 7: Fr. Pete Nunnally on making a way in the wildernessI met Fr. Pete Nunnally in the fall of 2017, at the beginning of a year of seminary studies. We immediately bonded over a shared passion for justice. Within a couple days of meeting, we were driving three hours to be part of the clergy-led counterprotest of the now-infamous “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. We spent the day witnessing to justice with clergy and other people of conscience.Ever since, I have known Fr. Pete to be someone who consistently shows up to be in solidarity with those who are suffering and oppressed, leveraging his...2025-04-0249 min
A Soulful RevolutionSeason 3, Ep. 6: Rabbi May Ye on solidarity for a Free PalestineRabbi May Ye is carving a path for a new generation of Jews.Raised in a secular household, yet steeped in her paternal grandparents’ story of surviving the Holocaust, Ye was moved at an early age by the story of her grandfather’s vocal resistance to the establishment of Israel. Her political awakening was intertwined with coming into her own religious practice, and Ye went to rabbinical school in order to create communities for those Jews who are deconstructing the ethnonationalist ideology of Zionism. Ye’s can be an isolating rabbinate. There are few institutional resour...2025-03-2651 min
A Soulful RevolutionSeason 3, Ep. 5: Dr. Norma Ramírez on befriending our feelings while contending for justiceWhat you’re feeling makes sense.Dr. Norma Ramírez understands in her own body the psychological burdens her clients carry as they navigate systems of exclusion and dehumanization. As an immigrant and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient, Ramírez has had to learn to navigate the many heavy and complex emotions imposed by an oppressive society, all while engaging in bold advocacy — including serving as a plaintiff in the 2017 case against the Trump Administration for illegally rescinding DACA.Our conversation was recorded during the first week of the new administration, as chaos was be...2025-03-1957 min
A Soulful RevolutionSeason 3, Ep. 4: Lorraine Lam on refusing to dehumanize anyoneIn her work with unhoused people and system-impacted youth, this week’s Soulful Revolutionary asks the question, “How do we find the glimmers of light in here?” In a sea of dehumanizing politics and policies, Lorraine Lam is committed to connecting — one human to another. The crisis outreach worker and case manager finds hope in the humanity of those whom society has thrown away. And she shares that hope generously in this episode, through stories of friends met on the streets who forever changed her. Lorraine (she/her) is a Chinese-Canadian settler-immigrant with an educa...2025-03-1253 min
A Soulful RevolutionSeason 3, Ep. 3: Buddhist scholar-practitioner Adriana DiFazio on spiritual practices and parentingIt was an absolute treat to be in conversation with Buddhist practitioner-scholar Adriana DiFazio about showing up for spiritual practice, how vital and challenging this is to do as a parent, and what it looks like to evolve into new ways of inhabiting movement spaces as our life circumstances change. Adriana’s wisdom is mediated by her gracious and grounded presence, and I trust you will find listening to our conversation as joyfully supportive as I did having it. This is especially true if you are navigating questions around what it looks like to work fo...2025-03-051h 09
A Soulful RevolutionSeason 3, Ep. 2: Filmmaker Andy Motz on how art keeps us human and connected in chaotic timesThis week’s Soulful Revolutionary is Andy Motz (he/him), an award-winning filmmaker. Andy works within and blends together narrative, documentary, and experimental formats to explore pressing issues including HIV awareness, queer identity, masculinity, and housing justice. His work has screened at festivals around the world. When not making films Andy can be found reading poetry and wandering through art museums. There are a lot of men contending to center masculinity in our collective conversation right now. Andy’s forthcoming film, MASC, challenges notions of toxic masculinity by highlighting alternative masculinities, as he plumbs the depths of his...2025-02-2650 min
Episcopal Divinity SchoolRacial Justice as Relationship: Advocating for Arab CommunitiesThe Rev. Leyla King, Canon for Mission in Small Congregations for the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, sits down with guests the Rev. Halim Shukair, Priest-in-Charge at Christ Episcopal Church and Priest-in-Charge at Mother of the Savior Church, the first Arabic worshiping community in the Episcopal Church, both in Dearborn, Michigan, and the Rev. Lauren Grubaugh Thomas, church-planting priest of a year-old Episcopal community called Holy Companion, located south of Denver, Colorado. In this episode, they discuss racial justice work in small churches, specifically as it is manifested around Arabs, Arab Americans, and Palestinians in our churches and our...2025-02-2047 min
Small Churches Big Impact PodcastRacial Justice as Relationship: Advocating for Arab CommunitiesThe Rev. Leyla King, Canon for Mission in Small Congregations for the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, sits down with guests the Rev. Halim Shukair, Priest-in-Charge at Christ Episcopal Church and Priest-in-Charge at Mother of the Savior Church, the first Arabic worshiping community in the Episcopal Church, both in Dearborn, Michigan, and the Rev. Lauren Grubaugh Thomas, church-planting priest of a year-old Episcopal community called Holy Companion, located south of Denver, Colorado. In this episode, they discuss racial justice work in small churches, specifically as it is manifested around Arabs, Arab Americans, and Palestinians in our churches and...2025-02-2047 min
A Soulful RevolutionSeason 3, Ep. 1: J.P. Hill – "People want real freedom"J.P. Hill is a teacher, worker, and aspiring community organizer. He also tweets too much, and thinks a lot about how we can use social media as a tool to help build a better world. He also writes a newsletter called New Means where he hopes to help others both shift their perspectives on the world and take meaningful action to build something better for us all.Read JP's newsletter: https://www.jphilll.com/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus...2025-02-191h 00
A Soulful RevolutionEpiphany for a Free PalestineHappy New Year, dear Soulful Revolutionary!I’m writing you today in anticipation of Epiphany, celebrated in Western Christianity on January 6. Epiphany is about the manifestation of Christ’s light and truth to all the peoples of the earth. The Magi — wise ones from the East — visit the Christ Child with their gifts. They then defy the autocrat who wants nothing more than to destroy the hope this child represents. Refusing to divulge Jesus’ whereabouts to King Herod, the Magi return to their homes by another way. The king then enacts a genocide, ordering the killing of all boys t...2025-01-011h 25
A Soulful RevolutionImmigration attorney Marissa Montes on justice as an act of loveH. Marissa Montes considers every encounter with a client to be sacred ground. An immigrant herself, Montes knew from a young age that she wanted to be an attorney. She co-founded the Loyola Law School Immigrant Justice Clinic in her 20s, and for the last decade she has been consistently recognized as a powerful advocate for the immigrant community in Los Angeles and beyond — with a recently established presence in Guadalajara, Mexico taking her work international. She has mentored many young attorneys, empowering them to root their work, as she has, in love.Attentive listeners will notice th...2024-12-1157 min
A Soulful RevolutionEducational equity advocate Ishmeet Kalra on fighting for the right to learn and growMeet Soulful Revolutionary Ishmeet KalraIshmeet was born and raised in New Delhi, India. She immigrated to California with her family and pursued her passion for science, earning a Master's degree in Molecular Biology & Microbiology with a minor in Humanities from San José State University.Since 2008, Colorado has been her home and she loves the stunning natural beauty and the majestic mountains. She is actively involved with the Douglas County School District which has allowed her to gain a deeper understanding of the needs of students, families, educators, and administrators. She is a long time a...2024-11-2751 min
A Soulful RevolutionPhilosophy for a world on fire: Erin Choi on the power of pausing to reflectRooted in the timeless philosophical tradition of dialogue, this conversation with philosophy of religion scholar Erin Choi is a welcome pause from the blur of changemaking activity around us — a chance to center yourself in your values and discern what is yours to do in the work for justice. About my guest:Erin Choi is a PhD Candidate at the University of Oxford. She is currently working on virtue ethics--specifically focusing on the virtue of humility within a Platonic framework. Through her work on humility as a moral and epistemic virtue, she envisions applying this vir...2024-11-0653 min
A Soulful RevolutionUPDATED! Joy as healing resistance with the Rev. Lizzie McManus-DailIt was an absolute delight to interview my friend and colleague, the Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dail, as this month’s Soulful Revolutionary. Lizzie's joy is absolutely contagious, and it emerges authentically from her profound spirituality and firm commitment to justice.Catch the unabridged video version of this conversation by becoming a Paid Subscriber on Substack.Lizzie (she/her) has lived all over the world, with her boots now rooted in Austin, Texas. She’s living her dream as the founding planter of Jubilee Episcopal Church! She is passionate about evangelism for a God who makes each of u...2024-09-0659 min
A Soulful RevolutionOn Palestine with SuperHumanizers Katie Bogen and Hani ChaaboI am delighted to feature two soulful revolutionaries on this episode: Katherine Bogen and Dr. Hani Chaabo. Bogen is an antizionist Jewish woman and Chaabo is the grandson of a Palestinian refugee. Both work in the field of mental health, both are queer, and together, they are the hosts of the SuperHumanizer podcast, where they unpack Israel-Palestine and seek to promote empathy and understanding across polarizing viewpoints through the power of story.Our conversation delves into the difficulty of healing moral injury amidst an ongoing genocide. We talk about the spirituality that gives these activists strength. And...2024-08-141h 22
A Soulful RevolutionHealing ancestral spiritual rupturesThis month’s Soulful Revolutionary is Ananth Das, an artist and kundalini yogi currently pursuing their doctorate in clinical psychology.Ananth bring immense delight and insight to this wide-ranging conversation about mysticism, decoloniality, neurodivergence and spiritual practice.Ananth graciously allowed us to highlight one of their pieces on the Soulful Revolution Substack. Check it out here.Connect with Ananth on Instagram via their personal page @ananth.the.alien and their artist page @alien.daydreams. View more of Ananth’s work at their website: www.aliendaydreams.life/our-work This is a publ...2024-06-0550 min
A Soulful RevolutionWeaving change with Two-Spirit Indigenous wisdomThis month’s Soulful Revolutionary is the Rev. Dr. Jerry Maynard (he/they), aka the People's Priest. A spiritual renegade, social revolutionary, and Two-Spirit Indigenous Person (Xochihua), Father Jerry strives to offer healing medicine at the intersections of church & society through pastoral care & public witness in Houston, TX. “My activism began in my hospital bed,” Fr. Jerry says. The child who advocated for their well-being grew into a youth who participated in antiwar demonstrations in the early 2000s, and then an adult whose activism has included serving as a water protector at Standing Rock, protesting the NRA’s annual...2024-05-0140 min
A Soulful RevolutionA Soulful Revolution Podcast: Liz Cooledge JenkinsMarch is Women's History Month, underscoring the importance of my conversation with this month’s Soulful Revolutionary, Liz Cooledge Jenkins, and her recently released book, Nice Churchy Patriarchy: Reclaiming Women’s Humanity from Evangelicalism.Liz is a writer, preacher, former college campus minister. She writes at the intersections of faith, feminism, and social justice, and her work can be found at places like Sojourners, The Christian Century, Christians for Social Action, and Feminism and Religion, as well as her blog lizcooledgejenkins.com. She is on Instagram as @lizcoolj and @postevangelicalprayers. Liz lives in the Seattle area with her...2024-03-0640 min
A Soulful RevolutionA Soulful Revolution Podcast: The Rev. Nitano Muller on the delight and vulnerability of embracing our innate goodness“Yeah, I am a Black, queer, young man, and I believe with every fiber of my being that God embraces me as I am.”So says the Rev. Nitano Muller, this month’s Soulful Revolutionary. The 35-year-old hails from Ocean View, a small fishing-community outside of Cape Town, South Africa. As a trained elementary school teacher, ordained Anglican Priest and social justice activist; Nitano's passions lie at the intersection of education, faith and justice issues. He describes himself as a juggler of books, chalices and a social life. He currently serves as the Rector of St Pete...2024-01-3144 min
Hope & Hard PillsWhy We Need a Soulful Revolution & What It Looks LikeThe Rev. Lauren Grubaugh Thomas (she/her) is a nurturer of faithful dissidents, empowering communities to embrace the sacred art of nonviolent social change. She is a priest reimagining local church ministry,a community organizer building safety through belonging in her neighborhood and beyond, and a writer and podcaster at A Soulful Revolution. A 2022 Trinity Leadership Fellow and a certified Kaleidoscope Institute dialogue Facilitator, she holds a Master of Divinity with an emphasis in Christian Ethics from Fuller Theological Seminary. She lives on Arapaho and Cheyenne homelands in Littleton, Colorado with her spouse Kurian and their twin toddlers.2023-12-1835 min
A Soulful RevolutionHow storytelling helps us faithfully face the truthThis month’s Soulful Revolutionary, the Rev. Leyla King, locates her call to the ministry within her grandparents’ experience of fleeing the 1948 Nakba in Palestine. The Palestinian-American Episcopal priest takes courage from the faith her ancestors kept amidst devastating loss and trauma as she advocates for Palestinian voices to be amplified within the church — which she understands as itself a sacred trust from many generations of Palestinian Christians before her — and society.For Leyla, storytelling and forgiveness are vital practices for navigating life and ministry, especially in this moment. She believes in the power of stories to unveil d...2023-12-0648 min
A Soulful RevolutionA Soulful Revolution Podcast: Andre Henry on resilience and revolutionThis month’s Soulful Revolutionary is Andre Henry, a hope-dealing artist contending for social change with clarity and courage in the public square. Our conversation highlights the powerful pairing of resilience (an essential “collection of inner strengths” for preserving well-being amidst the violence which oppression enacts on the body), with revolution (courageously striving against the status quo for the world that could be). For Henry, both are necessary — and so much the better when practiced in communities of belonging that value both grace and growth. Woven throughout this episode is the depth and delight of a decade-long friendship, and it bring...2023-11-0149 min
A Soulful RevolutionA Soulful Revolution Podcast: The Rev. Jean-Pierre Seguin on rituals for radicalsThis month’s featured Soulful Revolutionary is the Rev. Jean-Pierre Seguin (they/them), who serves as Priest-in-Charge of The Episcopal Church of Grace and Resurrection, East Elmhurst Queens. Living in Brooklyn, New York, they are active in collective projects for mutual aid and social transformation, especially in the areas of racial justice, housing, LGBTQ+ liberation, and care for migrants. They love their cats, biking, and playing music with friends.Our conversation covered a lot of (holy!) ground, including rituals for radicals (listen for the anarchist funeral and the goth wedding), what they learned at Standing Rock from In...2023-10-0442 min
A Soulful RevolutionA Soulful Revolution Podcast: Gabrielle Rivero is healing trauma through movementMy guest on the Souful Revolution Podcast today is Gabrielle Rivero, founder of the Lenae Release Method, a research-informed movement method that helps participants learn how to accept, express, and release emotions in the body through movement. Gabby received her BS in Recreation and Event Management with a double minor in Dance from the University of Florida and received her Master of Art in Theology from Fuller Seminary in 2018. With her background in dance and her extensive research on the rejection of dance throughout Early Christian History, she connects movement to the body and the emotions, as...2023-09-0651 min
A Soulful RevolutionA Soulful Revolution Podcast: Luke Melonakos-HarrisonMy guest on the podcast today is Luke Melonakos Harrison. Luke is an organizer with the Connecticut Tenants Union (@cttenantsunion), an organization he has helped build since it began in 2021. Like labor unions fighting for dignity and power in the workplace, tenant unions do the same but at home—for renters and anyone else without control over their own housing. Luke is an ecumenical Christian on a nomadic journey with God, and a recent graduate of Yale Divinity School.You can listen to this podcast in your browser, or download it via Apple Podcasts or Spotify. 2023-08-0235 min
A Soulful RevolutionHannah Curtis: A Soulful RevolutionaryMy guest today (and the first featured Soulful Revolutionary on the debut episode of this podcast!) is my dear friend Hannah Curtis. Hannah, whose pronouns are she/her, is a mother, spouse, lifelong learner, and Jesus enthusiast who resides en la frontera of El Paso, Texas. She never passes up a chance to discuss theology, abolition, musical theatre, radical parenting, Lucille Clifton’s poetry, and myriad other topics that point her toward awe, wonder, curiosity, and possibility. Hannah is currently a seminarian, studying remotely at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and this year she will also se...2023-07-1253 min