Humanize Me

Game designer Logan Dean talks with Bart about the nature of play, storytelling, community, competitiveness and how playing games can help us understand others.

A classic episode! Amber Scorah was raised as a Jehovah's Witness. She tells the story of her 'deconversion' in her book, 'Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life'. In this conversation with Bart Campolo, Amber talks about what it was like to believe fully, what it's like to disbelieve now, how her relationships were affected, the death of her young son Karl on his first day in childcare, her views on life now, and much more.

Bart and John respond to a question from a listener who worries that, having started a journey out of his faith, he is now becoming incompatible with his Christian girlfriend. Bart thinks their difference in worldview is a reason for lots of caution and reflection, while John wishes romance could rule the day. Along the way, they land on some ancient advice: ‘Know thyself!’

The evangelical culture of sexual purity has left many who grew up in it hurt and sometimes even traumatized. In this episode, Bart and our guest, counselor Jenny McGrath, discuss purity culture, dynamics between evangelical men and women, power structures of race and gender, sex before marriage, the mechanics of desire, and much more. You can discover more about Jenny here: indwellmovement.com

John and Bart are back in the studio together on this week’s episode to discuss the nature of character and how to evaluate the character of others.

Bart and chaos witch Vanessa Walilko discuss her playful approach to belief, and to helping others through witchcraft. Bart, a witchcraft sceptic, even gets his tarot read! Find out more about Vanessa and her work at https://linktr.ee/kalibutterfly

Bart responds to a question from a listener who says they have less tolerance for social interaction since society 'opened back up' after the pandemic lockdowns.

Bart muses an experience he's heard recently: a former Christian who, in the process of re-evaluating their lives, begins to consider opening their relationship. Is it a good idea? Bart has seen it work, but has lots of words of caution.

After a podcast hiatus, Bart and John attempt to answer this listener question:  "When I read about the war in Ukraine, I find my stress level rising. I guess I could just avoid the news, but that doesn’t seem healthy either. How stressed out is it logical to be at this moment in history for an average American, and how much should I let it get in the way of enjoying my life?"

Bart reflects on the state of the evangelical movement he was once a part of, particularly by taking a moment to see it through his father Tony's lens. Mentioned in the episode: Leaving My Father's Faith, the documentary by John Wright, now available to watch in its entirety on YouTube.

How should we deal with irrational or difficult people? And what are some good strategies for establishing healthy boundaries with such people in our lives? As a very pro-social podcast, we realized this may be our weakness after we talked to Chrissy Stroop in Episode 618. Chrissy, a trans woman, told us she did not feel it her responsibility to keep toxic or unsupportive people in her life, and Bart pushed back because he feels building bridges across such divides is so important. Where should the healthy limits of our empathy, tolerance and relationship-building be set? Mark Goulston is a psychiatrist, author, professor and consultant to corporations and large organizations who is known for a process called 'surgical empathy' among many other things. His book Talking to Crazy was the reason we wanted him on, but he has many others available everywhere books are sold. In this conversation with Bart, Mark talks about validation therapy, the mirror neuron gap, surgical empathy, connecting with people in pain

Let's be honest: some people just don't inspire our empathy! In this last episode of 2021, Bart responds to a post on the Humanize Me Facebook Group, in which a woman feels unempathetic about consequences suffered by her sister due to the sister's own bad decisions. She feels like "a bad person", she says, but should she? And how should we feel about our own lack of empathy in such situations? To resurrect a previous term on Humanize Me, this episode is a bit of a 'salmagundi': we also talk about Christmas traditions, whether kids who do good things just to stay on Santa's 'nice' list are doing it for valid reasons, and about a Pew poll showing that people with no religious beliefs outnumber evangelicals for the first time in American history. Oh, and: Happy New Year!

Bart with a solo episode on how we create meaning in our lives, and get access to meaning as we live in connection to the universe.

Chrissy Stroop is a writer and scholar who, despite being an 'exvangelical', remains interested in, and critical of, evangelical culture. When she recently mentioned Bart Campolo in an article, we reached out to ask her if she wanted to have a conversation about how evangelicals think and talk about those who leave the faith. But the conversation took a different turn, becoming a friendly disagreement over whether or not we should try to form friendships with people who don't share our core values, or when there's a big ideological divide. Chrissy, a trans woman, thinks not, because she doesn't believe that friendships should involve attempts to change other people, while Bart thinks influencing others is a key part of relationships. Read Chrissy's article, Exvangelicals and the limits of evangelical empathy. And see her website at cstroop.com.

Bart responds to a question from a listener who wants to know why he doesn't talk more about his time as a Christian minister in poor urban neighborhoods, and what his experiences make him think about the possibility of future change. Also mentioned: Mt. Joy - Silver Lining on YouTube

Derek Gaunt in an educator and author with 20 years of experience as a hostage negotiator for law enforcement agencies in the Washington DC metro area. In this conversation with Bart Campolo, Derek talks about 'tactical empathy', emotional intelligence, controlling how someone feels about you, building trust, truly listening to someone's story, understanding motivation, looking for hidden messages and meaning, how to respect the person even if you don't respect their decisions or actions, and how to focus on what's important in the time you have with someone. Derek's book is 'Ego, Authority, Failure'.

Bart tells his story at the progressive Christian Wild Goose Festival.

Bart talks about a 'combo platter' leading to a big mental block recently, and asks whether we can learn to overcome them more effectively when they happen.

Does the mind have an immune system? It turns out it does, according to Andy Norman, who applies the emerging science of cognitive immunology to our divided, post-truth culture. In this conversation with Bart Campolo, Andy is pushed to explain how the concepts in his book 'Mental Immunity' can help people navigate our chaos of disinformation, propaganda, hate, and division. Andy is an award-winning author who appeared most recently on The Joe Rogan Experience. He can be found online at AndyNorman.org.

Bart and John talk about the current status of life in a waning pandemic, including: the psychology of lockdown, the permanency or otherwise of the changes, appetite for social life, impact on infants and high school seniors, the prospect of a rebounding economy and whether or not we took advantage of the 'magic' of the pause.