Tent Talks with Dr Stephen Backhouse

While we are no longer producing new Tent Talks episodes every now and then we will take the opportunity to point listeners to new projects. Tent producer and co-host Chris Marchand has just begun releasing a new podcast we wanted you to be aware of: Wall of Silence. Here is the description: In this first episode we introduce the sexual abuse case of lay pastor Mark Rivera. From there we begin to look outward to see how church lead...

The start of the new season in 2024 marks the end of the current season for Tent Talks. We are bringing our podcast in to land, with a series of final thoughts from former guests, hosts and friends of the show. Join Stephen Backhouse in a series of conversations as we explore The Last Word. This final episode contains conversations with Eve Poole and our first ever guest, Golibe Omenaka.

You can listen to the first episode of Tent T...

The start of the new season in 2024 marks the end of the current season for Tent Talks. We are bringing our podcast in to land, with a series of final thoughts from former guests, hosts and friends of the show. Join Stephen Backhouse in a series of conversations as we explore The Last Word. Episode Three features co-host Sean McCoy in a conversation with Rachel Howell about what faith looks like when so much about our lives has cru...

The start of the new season in 2024 marks the end of the current season for Tent Talks. We are bringing our podcast in to land, with a series of final thoughts from former guests, hosts and friends of the show. Join Stephen Backhouse in a series of conversations as we explore The Last Word. Episode Two features co-host Chris Marchand offering a coda to his series on "Women in Church Leadership" with conversations from sociologist L...

The start of the new season 2024 marks the end of the current season for Tent Talks. We are bringing our podcast in to land, with a series of final thoughts from former guests, hosts and friends of the show. Join Stephen Backhouse in a series of conversations as we explore The Last Word.  Episode One features Brad Jersak, Natasha Beckles and friends.

You can find Brad HERE. :) More about Natasha can be found HERE.

Lots of Tent Talks ...

Left, Right, or in the middle? Guest host and previous guest to the Tent Sheyi Martin-Allens presents a series of conversations with black and brown friends from across the political spectrum to discuss their thoughts on having Britain's first Asian prime minister along with a government containing an increasing amount of ethnic minorities. The series works through a number of conflicting questions, such as does having someone with...

Left, Right, or in the middle? Guest host and previous guest to the Tent Sheyi Martin-Allens presents a series of conversations with black and brown friends from across the political spectrum to discuss their thoughts on having Britain's first Asian prime minister along with a government containing an increasing amount of ethnic minorities. The series works through a number of conflicting questions, such as does having someone with...

Left, Right, or in the middle? Guest host and previous guest to the Tent Sheyi Martin-Allens presents a series of conversations with black and brown friends from across the political spectrum to discuss their thoughts on having Britain's first Asian prime minister along with a government containing an increasing amount of ethnic minorities. The series works through a number of conflicting questions, such as does having someone with...

Left, Right, or in the middle? Guest host and previous guest to the Tent Sheyi Martins-Allens presents a series of conversations with black and brown friends from across the political spectrum to discuss their thoughts on having Britain's first Asian prime minister along with a government containing an increasing number of ethnic minorities. The series works through a number of conflicting questions, such as does having someone wit...

Dr. Emily Hunter McGowin has entered the Tent to take part in Chris Marchand's annual Christmas episode. She has just released her new book Christmas: The Season of Life and Light which offers reflections, insights, and gentle challenges about how we celebrate the holiday season. The conversation dwells on the major themes Chris addressed in his own Christmas book as well as past episodes, namely, the political nature of serving ot...

Austin M. Freeman, professor at Houston Christian University, joins the tent for another bonus episode to discuss J.R.R. Tolkien's views on non-violence and war. Who exactly is the "pacifist" in The Lord of the Rings and why isn't it Tom Bombadil? In two archival episode segments Melody Green, dean of Urbana Seminary, is featured with her owns thoughts about Tolkien. Dr. Freeman is the author of the book Tolkien Dogmatics and Dr. G...

Musician, songwriter, and worship leader Rachel Wilhelm joins the Tent with Chris Marchand to discuss her new album Jeremiah and how she approached writing songs that speak truth to leaders in power while also calling for communal repentance. Though a bonus episode, this conversation pieces together a number of elements from previous Tent Talks series: 1) Rachel contributed the theme song to Chris's series Women in Church Leadershi...

One of the episodes we received the most feedback about was when Clare Backhouse, Stephen's wife, appeared in our "How to Love" series. Clare, a qualified and registered nutritional therapist, is now launching her own podcast, "Nutrition With Love." Her first episode, which we are releasing as a bonus, goes into her background story and why nutrition plays such a vital role in our overall health.

You can find out more about Clare an...

Previous Tent guests Danielle Shroyer and Thomas Jay Oord join Sean for the fifth episode of the Disagree series to offer their perspective on how to enter into difficult conversations with calmness and an inner peace that does need to force other people to switch to your side of an argument. It may take us years to do so, but they point the way to helping engage with sharp disagreements in ways that still manages to offer people g...

Ryan Walker joins Sean McCoy for the fourth episode of the Disagree series to discuss the ins and outs of being a lobbyist and policymaker within the U.S. Government. Taking a relational approach Ryan hopes to help groups in Washington D.C. "wade through the bureaucracy and manage the increasing unpredictability of politics" in order to help them come to make difficult decisions for complex solutions.

You can read more about his bac...

Dr. Anika Prather is a literature professor, classical educator, and author. She is currently the Director of High Quality Curriculum and Instruction at Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and with her husband founded The Living Water School. She joins the Disagree series to discuss with Chris Marchand how to approach teaching about and having difficult conversations about race and racism. Using an approach of love, grace,...

Pete Wehner is an American writer and former speechwriter for the administrations of three Republican U.S. presidents. He is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and a contributing editor at The Atlantic, He joins Stephen Backhouse for a respectful and honest conversation on violence, patriotism and the Christian witness: topics about which Pete and Stephen deeply disagree.

You can find out more about Pete and his wo...

This is the first episode in our new series "Disagree". We are talking with people from different sides of different aisles and from people on the frontlines of some of the most contentious issues of the day. How can we disagree well?  What is the value of disagreement? Is it worth it? Can be it good? What happens when it goes bad? To help kick off the series we spoke with Simon Croft. Simon is a mediator and a practitioner of non-...

In the final episode of her series on Interrupting Serious Youth Violence Rev. Natasha Beckles covers how the Compassionate Communities toolkits are centered around helping churches to work within their communities to interrupt serious youth violence. Using the meaning behind the figure of the Pieta as a foundational image (Mary holding Jesus after being taken down off the cross) she also discusses the many projects and resources s...