Religion on the Mind
Interviews with experts, writers, psychologists and more on the intersection between psychology, religion and spirituality… with a little bit of cussing. dan@religiononthemind.com
Episodes
May 4, 2026 • 34 mins
The nature vs. nurture debate is largely settled (spoiler alert: it's both), but the implications for how and when religious identity forms are striking. The research points to a surprisingly early window for faith formation, and what happens inside that window matters far more than most parents realize. Join me for what I'm calling Study Hall, where I bring you along as I study for my licensure exam and connect the concepts to rel...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 27, 2026 • 85 mins
Meredith Miller returns to talk about something many of us have been navigating in our personal lives: how do you raise kids with a meaningful faith after your own deconstruction? We cover the real reasons to consider church, what the research actually says about faith formation, and why doing nothing is still doing something.
Previous Episodes with Meredith:
How Can Deconstructing Parents Talk About God? (#257)
Helping Ki...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 20, 2026 • 103 mins
Brad Strawn of Fuller Seminary returns to unpack the four clinical and theological influences that shape his work as a therapist, pastor, and professor (Wesleyan theology, relational psychoanalysis, 4E cognition, and terror management theory), and we get into some genuinely good “inside baseball” about what all of this looks like in the room with actual clients.
Highlights:
Wesleyan theology: feelings first
Relational...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 15, 2026 • 34 mins
Things are, objectively, pretty rough right now! But honestly? We can't stop laughing at the "Trump AI Jesus" memes. Religion on the News is back with Mason Mennenga (A People's Theology), and today we're leaning more into the silliness and laughter of it all, with a hearty dose of psychology along the way.
Topics (full list on the full Patron-only episode): Trump/Jesus AI art, the resulting memes and parodies (*chef's kiss*), Ri...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 13, 2026 • 82 mins
Lillian Daniel returns after five years to discuss her new book Defrocked: Good News from a Bad Pastor for a Better Church — a candid, often funny, and deeply human account of the misconduct process she underwent in the UCC, what it taught her about identity, boundaries, and shame, and how she eventually found her way back to ministry.
Highlights:
Power, process, and accountability
Over-identification with vocation
...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 9, 2026 • 44 mins
This is the fifth and final installment of the Anxious Times series, and we're bringing it home by exploring what existential psychology has to say about community, belonging, and civic engagement. I’m joined by returning guest Kristen Tideman and Brian Adoff, founder of Join Philly, a directory and events platform helping Philadelphians connect with each other.
In the Patreon-only second half, we dig into how Kristen's own anxie...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Religion on the News is back with Mason Mennenga, and today we're tackling some heavy hitters: the Supreme Court's 8-1 ruling striking down Colorado's conversion therapy ban, the rise of the manosphere and what it means for young men, and the latest alien discourse from Obama and beyond.
Highlights:
Supreme Court conversion therapy ruling
First Amendment vs. public health
Evidence base for conversion therapy
...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 2, 2026 • 30 mins
Co-host Kristen Tideman and I work through the final two legs of Emmy van Dersen's triad — the impossible and the desirable — using Kristen's new motherhood, MS diagnosis, and ongoing religious change as real, lived test cases for the framework.
In the Patron-only second half, We move from naming what we can't have, to excavating the values underneath those wishes, to identifying what we actually can do about it — and end up so...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
March 30, 2026 • 67 mins
I sit down with clinical psychologist and author Dr. Jeffrey Rubin to explore his concept of meditative psychotherapy — a genuinely reciprocal integration of Western psychoanalysis and Eastern contemplative practice that goes far deeper than the usual mindfulness-lite approaches. We get into what meditation actually is (hint: not just stress relief), spiritual bypassing, the scandals that keep plaguing Buddhist communities, and why...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
March 26, 2026 • 32 mins
I'm joined by my co-host Kristen Tideman for the third installment of the Anxious Times series. We dig into Emmy van Dersen's concept of "the necessary" — the hard limits baked into existence that we can't change, only accept — and explore how resisting these limits is one of the biggest drivers of unhealthy anxiety, whether you're navigating religious deconstruction, a new diagnosis, or just being alive in a chaotic world.
In the...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
March 23, 2026 • 101 mins
I sit down with theologian and ethicist Dr. Jared Stacey to unpack his new book Reality in Ruins: How Conspiracy Theory Became an Evangelical Crisis, exploring what actually distinguishes a conspiracy theory from a real conspiracy — and why the answer matters more than ever in the wake of the Epstein file releases.
Jared on IG | @Jaredmstacy
Highlights:
Psychology of conspiratorial thinking
Modernity, agency panic...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
March 16, 2026 • 75 mins
We're not just individually stressed — we're living through a historic collision of crises that existential psychology has a name for. In this second episode of our Anxious Times series, Kristen Tideman and I explore why the anxiety so many of us feel right now isn't a personal failing, but an honest response to the world we've actually inherited. We explore things like:
What a "boundary situation" really is
Three overla...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
March 12, 2026 • 36 mins
In this episode, I sit down with Harper’s Magazine Editor Christopher Beha to explore why neither scientific materialism nor romantic idealism fully satisfies — and what a third path might look like. We ask questions like:
Does materialism account for consciousness?
Is hard determinism therapeutically dangerous?
Can we rationally care about others?
What breaks down in "radical authenticity"?
In the Patron...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
March 9, 2026 • 84 mins
Introducing a NEW five-part series called Anxious Times, focused on practical insights from existential psychology for navigating intense periods like the one we’re living through, both collectively and individually.
Drawing on thinkers like Karl Jaspers, Rollo May, and Emmy van Deurzen, existential psychology provides actionable tools to help you engage with (and not just avoid or manage symptoms of) the realities of our sociopol...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
March 5, 2026 • 44 mins
…In this sociopolitical economy, that is. I’m joined in today’s Generation Gap Culture Hour by regulars Josh Gilbert, Tony Jones, and we hear all about the newest generation to our experiment — Josh’s brand new baby! A rewatch of Last of the Mohicans has me seriously considering learning a new hobby, and Tony's 6% confidence in me is, frankly, offensive. We close out the first half of the episode sizing up the US-Israel strike on ...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
March 2, 2026 • 82 mins
In this episode, I sit down with Tim Burnette — founder of The Way Collective in Santa Barbara — to explore what it looks like to build a psychologically astute, contemplative Christianity for our fractured moment. We dig into the inner critic, anxiety, and how therapeutic practices like IFS, CBT, and acceptance and commitment therapy share a surprisingly deep resonance with contemplative traditions around the true self and nonviol...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
February 23, 2026 • 86 mins
In this conversation, Ryan Burge joins me to explore the evolving landscape of religion in America, focusing on the concepts of “nones” and “dones”—those who identify as non-religious or have distanced themselves from organized religion—and how we see these concepts playing out across society.
Highlights
05:36 The State of American Christianity
11:29 The Impact of Partisanship on Religion
14:28 Self-Worth and Life Satisfactio...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
February 19, 2026 • 27 mins
This is it — the finale of our four-part series on C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce, and Kristen Tideman and I go out with a bang.
We work through chapters 10-14, where Lewis's portrait of a controlling wife raises questions for us both. We also get into the lizard-turned-stallion scene, Lewis's theology of maternal love (I push back pretty hard), the soul-building argument for suffering, and a Sarah Smith moment I found a little to...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
February 16, 2026 • 70 mins
I invite previous guest Heather Patton Griffin back to the pod to discuss biblical counseling—but this time through the lens of AI. After our previous conversation about white evangelicalism's navigation system, I decided to test an AI biblical counseling app and share my findings with Heather. We unpacked what I'm calling "Bible facts"—authoritative claims that function as the foundation of biblical counseling—and examined the sin...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
February 13, 2026 • 30 mins
I'm back with Kristen Tideman for Part 3 of our conversation about C.S. Lewis's 'The Great Divorce,' and honestly, I wasn't prepared for how much these chapters would make me squirm. We're diving into chapters 6-9, where Lewis introduces us to ghosts who can't stop being their own defense lawyers—and the uncomfortable realization that we're all doing the same thing. Kristen admits she saw herself in the hard-bitten conspiracy theor...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Popular Podcasts
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.