Down to Earth Conversations

Dale Campbell has a diverse background in justice related jobs and has done a lot of good thinking about how not to do more damage while trying to be helpful. He also challenges us in this kōrero to think well about what it actually looks like to love our enemies - how to resist evil while still seeing the humanity of others.

A content warning, issues of sexual and physical violence are mentioned in examples given, so be kind to yo...

Jess Hall, current Master of Theology student, joins me to talk about both her post graduate research project and her art, both of which explore the intersections of living as an embodied human and faith.

While talking about things like menstrual bleeding on a podcast might be a bit jarring for some, it is important to normalise things that are actually very normal for many people, and help to reduce the stigma. By exploring this t...

Petra Zaleski is a chaplain at Auckland University, which we talk about a little in the kōrero. However, the main focus is on her own story of finding transformational love in the midst of pain. Complex PTSD leading to substance abuse threatened to ruin Petra's life but, instead, she found how powerful love is and began a journey towards wholeness. Her journey has filled her with compassion and shapes how she lives out her life...

Having grown up in the Exclusive Brethren, Lindy Jacomb came to a crisis point where she no longer believed everything she was being asked to believe.

Years later, having made a life outside the Exclusive Brethren, Lindy is now heading up efforts to offer support to anyone else who is looking to leave high demand religious groups.

We talk about her own experience in the Exclusive Brethren Church and the challenges of leaving, what ...

Benjamin Cremer is a pastor who spends his time these days in the online space in the intersection of Christianity and politics. Having grown up in white Christian nationalism in the U.S.A. Ben now gracefully explores how faith in Jesus offers a critique to policies and ideologies that many Christians actively support.

We talk about his upbringing, the changes in his faith, the costs of those changes on relationships, and how his m...

Kate and Alex are the co-founders and co-directors of Common Grace Aotearoa.

Common Grace is an organisation doing advocacy work and organising the church around key justice issues. While the Church is involved in much justice work at the coal face, there is also a need to work towards changing systems that oppress and marginalise, systems that cause some of the problems we then see. Common Grace Aotearoa is working at that systems...

Phillipa Hunt is a wife, mum, engineer, and the founder and chairperson of Satisfy Food Rescue. We talk about the environment, food poverty, Satisfy, working to our strengths, partnering with others, and where faith fits into all that for her.

Check out Satisfy Food Rescue on their website, on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

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Cathy Marston and Steven Goulstone, the hosts of the Changes Ahead Podcast, a Baptist New Zealand podcast hosting conversations that discuss the changes the church needs to think about if it is to have a meaningful presence in the future.

We talk about the unheard voices of our church communities, the desire to be faithful by keeping things the same, when perhaps faithfulness demands change, hearing people's stories rather than...

Sharon 'Rocky' Roggio has spent years in the film and television industry, working in a variety of roles on many well known shows (e.g. House of Cards, Parks and Recreation) and films.

In this conversation we discuss her directorial debut film, '1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture'. The film has won over 25 awards at film festivals around the world.

The film documents the first time the word homosexual was...

Jaimee van Gemerden holds a PhD in theology but, unlike some academics, is great at connecting deep thought about God with real issues in and around the Christian faith in a way that the average person can connect with. 

With her friend Andrew, she is the founder of Metanoia, a platform for hosting conversations about faith in public spaces that might otherwise be held behind closed doors, if they are had at all.

We talk about how ...

As I release this, today marks one full year since the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel, and the beginning of a horrendous campaign of genocide that Israel began in Gaza as a result. Violence that has, in the past week or so, spread into surrounding territories as the western world sits back and watches. 

Today's guest, Cole, is a visual journalist, capturing stories through photos and videos. While many of us were simply...