Saved by the City

Religion News Service
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  • CHRISTIANITY
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Roxy and Katelyn grew up in the white evangelical American heartland. Both were warned moving to a supposed bastion of secular culture would be dangerous to their faith. While navigating a city where people sleep in on Sunday mornings and the chaste motto “true love waits” isn’t a thing, the two have found a renewed, vibrant faith that has been both strengthened and stretched in the metropolis.

  1. The Religion Stories Behind the Headlines: 2025 Recap With Jack Jenkins + Adelle Banks

    JAN 14 · BONUS

    The Religion Stories Behind the Headlines: 2025 Recap With Jack Jenkins + Adelle Banks

    A Special Episode from The State of Belief! We’re sharing a special episode from The State of Belief — a wide-ranging conversation with Religion News Service reporters Jack Jenkins and Adelle M. Banks on the faith angles you don’t hear in the standard year-end news wrap. From immigration and church-state battles to DEI backlash, workplace shocks, and the shock of an American pope, they trace what 2025 revealed about power, justice, and public trust — and what questions we should be asking as 2026 approaches. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    54 min

  2. 12/18/2025

    On Saying Goodbye to Singleness: What You Gain, What You Lose

    Can we talk about the beard hair in the sink? Getting engaged is exciting! But saying goodbye to singleness is not so straightforward — especially when you've spent years defending and celebrating the single life. On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy admit letting go of being single felt more complicated than they expected. Sure, you have someone else to eat with ... but you also have to figure out who is getting groceries. You gain a life partner ... but you lose a lot of alone time. Did we make an idol out of singleness? Maybe. But also our joy in that identity felt hard-won and we were proud of the lives we'd carved out on our own.  But, hey, it's the end of a season (literally, it's our last episode of 2025!) and it's time to let go. Katelyn is getting married and moving in with a man and we are here for it. We talk all the logistics — and also the profound shifts that are bound to come when you merge your life with another person's. Plus: a quiz to test just how chill Katelyn really is about cohabitation (spoiler: not very), some marriage advice from Roxy, and why it's OK to grieve a good season of life even when you're genuinely excited about what's next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    42 min
  3. From Pulpit to Protest: The Clergy Resisting ICE + Michael Woolf

    12/11/2025

    From Pulpit to Protest: The Clergy Resisting ICE + Michael Woolf

    There's even an ICE Nativity. Baby Jesus in zip ties. Mary and Joseph in gas masks. Roman centurions wearing ICE vests. This December, nativity scenes are getting political. Lake Street Church in Evanston, Illinois sparked national attention with their ICE-themed nativity. Sean Hannity called it "woke" and a "war on Christmas." The Daily Show covered it. But it's just one example of clergy around the country participating in immigration activism — getting arrested outside detention centers, accompanying people to immigration hearings, taking food and the Eucharist to migrants too afraid to leave their homes.  On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy talk with one clergy person, Michael Woolf, who has long been involved in immigrant activism and who was recently arrested outside an ICE detention center near Chicago. His church was responsible for the aforementioned provocative nativity and he believes clergy should be willing to put their bodies on the line in this moment. We are also joined by RNS reporter Jack Jenkins, who has been reporting on clergy efforts to resist ICE around the country.   GUESTS: The Rev. Michael Woolf is a senior minister of Lake Street Church of Evanston, Illinois, and the author of “Sanctuary and Subjectivity: Thinking Theologically About Whiteness and Sanctuary Movements.” He also has an upcoming book, "Confronting Islamophobia in the Church: Liturgical Tools for Justice," co-written with his wife, Ana Piela. Jack Jenkins is a national reporter for Religion News Service and has covered immigration issues and progressive clergy for a decade at least, including in his book on the religious left: "American Prophets: The Religious Roots of Progressive Politics and the Ongoing Fight for the Soul of the Country." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    53 min
  4. God, Glam and the Good Wife: The Rise of the Womanosophere

    12/04/2025

    God, Glam and the Good Wife: The Rise of the Womanosophere

    They’re stylish, savvy, with podcasts, book deals, and massive Instagram followings. And they’re calling women back to the kitchen. A new wave of conservative Christian women, many balancing high-powered platforms and hard-charging careers with old-fashioned family values, are gaining influence by promoting traditional gender roles, homemaking aesthetics, and “biblical womanhood.” But beneath the sourdough and matching family outfits is a politically resonant ideology that’s shaping national conversations around gender, faith, and power. On this LIVE Saved By the City episode, recorded in Austin at the Texas Tribune Festival, Katelyn and Roxy host a lively panel to look at what’s behind the rise of these “tradwife” voices, what their popularity says about the cultural moment and why women are leading the charge to rewrite women’s roles. GUESTS: Emma Goldberg is a reporter for The New York Times, covering cultural, societal and economic change. Her articles “‘Less Burnout, More Babies’: How Conservatives Are Winning Young Women”  and "The Moms of ‘Momcon’ Are Stressed, but Ready to Party" are essential reading on this topic. Christine Emba is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a contributing writer for the New York Times, and author of the book Rethinking Sex. Lauren Southern is a former political activist. Her new memoir "This Is Not Real Life" chronicles her experience as an online conservative influencer and how trying to be a tradwife nearly destroyed her. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    53 min
  5. Best of SBTC: A Ross Douthat Guide to Fairies, UFOs ... and Church

    11/28/2025

    Best of SBTC: A Ross Douthat Guide to Fairies, UFOs ... and Church

    Exploring the mystical, the skeptical, and the spiritually surprising with Ross Douthat. What’s your woo level? In this episode, Katelyn and Roxy run through their most mystical instincts—angels, ghosts, manifesting, energies, astrology—and ask whether modern Christians have grown a little too allergic to spiritual experience. Then New York Times columnist and UFO enthusiast Ross Douthat joins to talk about the persistence of the supernatural, why he thinks religion is still the most rational bet, and the dangers of patchwork spirituality. A funny, curious, and unexpectedly grounding conversation about what might be lurking just beyond the empirical. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    53 min
  6. Millennial Christians Were Set Up for Burnout + Karen Swallow Prior

    11/20/2025

    Millennial Christians Were Set Up for Burnout + Karen Swallow Prior

    Let's call it 'passion fatigue'... In the days of the early 'aughts, as Millennials began embarking into the workplace, companies noticed these young employees wanted a mission — wanted to feel connected to the work they were doing, even inspired by it. No longer was a paycheck enough, these bright-eyed twentysomethings wanted purpose. And in Christian circles, this generational trend was sanctified and spiritualized. Careers became callings. Jobs became vocations. And all of it could and should be done for the glory of God and for the common good. Extra bonus points if your deepest passions met the world's deepest needs. On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy examine this impulse to elevate paid work to sacred calling — how it has served us and how it has hurt us. We are joined by Karen Swallow Prior as we discuss all the different ways callings can present themselves in our lives. (That's right - callings, plural!). GUEST: Karen Swallow Prior is the 2025-26 Karlson Scholar at Bethel Seminary. She is a columnist for RNS and the author of several books, including her most recent: "You Have a Calling: Finding your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    57 min
  7. Cosmetic Surgery Today Is Scary Good … and That Scares Us

    11/13/2025

    Cosmetic Surgery Today Is Scary Good … and That Scares Us

    Is it the holy spirit or is it a ponytail facelift? What does it even mean anymore to age with grace in the era of deep plane facelifts and eyelid surgeries and celebrity procedures that have women looking 40 years younger? On this episode of the podcast, Katelyn and Roxy wrestle with tensions and fears about aging ... about why our faces just do not look like our faces in the mirror anymore. And we ask: Is "having some work done" becoming inevitable? Instagram and TikTok are full of posts on the dramatic changes these procedures can create — and they are no longer limited to celebrities. Social media is showing us just how accessible — and gosh darn effective — today's cosmetic procedures have become. But at what cost? Certainly at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars. But what else are we losing if we refuse to grow old?   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    40 min
  8. Holy Rizz and the Power of Hype + Molly Worthen

    11/07/2025

    Holy Rizz and the Power of Hype + Molly Worthen

    Beware the charismatic pastor? America has long had a love affair with celebrity — be that of the Hollywood variety or the political ilk. From superstar athletes to celebrity chefs, their woo is not wasted on us. And the history of American Christianity was shaped by men (and a few women) who possessed that irresistible gravitational pull. They held evangelistic revivals, founded denominations and even new religions, and inspired movements. They also sometimes amassed huge amounts of personal wealth, had scandalous affairs and led their followers to commit deadly acts. Charisma has been a powerful tool in the American church and on this episode of the podcast, Katelyn and Roxy talk to historian Molly Worthen about how that tool has been used for good and evil ... and how charismatic politicians have begun to fill the void as religion declines. Plus: we take a personal Rizz Quiz GUEST: Molly Worthen is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina, where she focuses on North American religious and intellectual history. She is the author most recently of Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    56 min
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About

Roxy and Katelyn grew up in the white evangelical American heartland. Both were warned moving to a supposed bastion of secular culture would be dangerous to their faith. While navigating a city where people sleep in on Sunday mornings and the chaste motto “true love waits” isn’t a thing, the two have found a renewed, vibrant faith that has been both strengthened and stretched in the metropolis.

Information

  • Creator
    Religion News Service
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    158
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2021
  • Show Website
    Saved by the City

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