So What? Exploring Big Ideas and Why They Matter

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Welcome to ’So What?” with Michael and Trevor as they invites us on a journey of big ideas. Join them as they talk about their mission to dig into thought-provoking ideas through diverse experiences of wisdom and voices. They bring a spacious perspective, a heap of curiosity, and a deep desire to see big ideas actually ’matter’ and be embodied in real life. Let’s be real - ideas can be fascinating, however if big ideas don’t lead us to more love, more peace, and more beautiful connections in the world - ’so what!’ Thanks to Jim for production and Rebekah for the voice behind the scenes. This podcast is produced by McKillop; Living Sacred Relationships.

  1. 13h ago

    Episode 13 - Featuring Thomas J. Oord: What do we do with the word 'God'?

    Episode 13 - What do we do with the word 'God'? Welcome to So What? Exploring Big Ideas and Why They Matter. Michael and Trevor are so excited to be joined by Thomas J. Oord.   In this episode, they explore what to do with the word 'God'.  The 'god' word has so many meanings and consequences.  Their exploration comes through the life experience of Thomas as well all his studies and reflections about the word 'God'.  Give it a listen and see what resonates with you.  Thanks for joining us. Thomas Jay Oord, Ph.D., is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. Oord directs the Center for Open and Relational Theology and doctoral students at Northwind Theological Seminary. He is an award-winning author and has written or edited more than fifty books. A gifted speaker, Oord lectures at universities, conferences, churches, and institutions. He’s known for his contributions to research on love, science and religion, open and relational theology, the problem of suffering, and advocacy for the full inclusion of queer people.   Website: thomasjayoord.com Substack: @thomasjayoord   For a free ebook of Oord's best-selling writing, sign up for his newsletter at this link: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/u2e9c6   Thanks to Jim for production and Rebekah for the voice behind the scenes. If you enjoy this episode, please like it, subscribe, consider rating it, and sharing it with family and friends. This podcast can also be found on Podbean, Spotify, Apple, and other platforms. This podcast is produced by McKillop; Living Sacred Relationships.

  2. Oct 30

    Episode 12 - Featuring Jonathan Foster: What do you think love is?

    Episode 12 - What do you think love is? Welcome to So What? Exploring Big Ideas and Why They Matter. Michael and Trevor are so excited to be be joined by Jonathan Foster, a good friend of Michael's. In this episode, they explore 'what is love?'. Their exploration comes through the life experience of Jonathan as well as his journey, grief, work, and academic exploration. Jonathan's definition of love gives us a lot to feel and think about. Thanks for joining us.   Jonathan J. Foster is a partner of one, a father of three, a former church planter, and someone who's spent years thinking deeply about faith and community. When he's not writing or podcasting, he's the chief advocate for lovehaiti.org, an organization doing healthcare and education in some of the most overlooked and underserved areas of the Western Hemisphere. He holds a doctorate in theology from Northwind Seminary, where he studied under Thomas Jay Oord. His dissertation turned book, is titled Theology of Consent: Mimetic Theory in an Open and Relational Universe. His book indigo: the color of grief has been featured on dozens of podcasts and endorsed by a host of interesting thinkers and authors, including Peter Rollins, Jack Caputo, Rob Bell, Paul Young, Catherine Keller, and Brian McLaren. After thirty-plus years of ministry—including being asked by his former denomination to surrender his credentials over his insistence on full LGBTQ+ inclusion—Jonathan experienced firsthand the tension between love and institutionalism. This led him to co-found thecurian.network, which resources and credentials pastors, chaplains, spiritual directors, theologians, and counselors who are interested in love-driven local mission over dogma-driven global conformity. Jonathan's Online Presence: https://www.jonathanfosteronline.com/ https://fosterj.substack.com/ https://lovehaiti.org/ Jonathan's Books: "Indigo: The Color of Grief" if you’re looking for thoughts about love, death, loss, and grief. (https://www.indigo.ca/products/indigo-10) or (https://www.amazon.ca/indigo-color-Jonathan-J-Foster/dp/1737664968) "Theology of Consent: Mimetic Theory" in an open and relational universe if you’re looking for thoughts about well, exactly what the subtitle says. ( https://www.amazon.ca/Theology-Consent-Mimetic-Relational-Universe/dp/1737664941) Other titles can be found at his amazon page. (https://www.amazon.ca/stores/author/B06XH4HXXZ/) Some of Jonathan's popular podcast episodes: With the Rev Ben Cremer (https://fosterj.substack.com/p/rev-ben-cremer-and-the-worlds-lament?r=yu4kf) With Rob Bell (https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/with-rob-bell/id1479338607?i=1000638690489) Why it’s a good time to go open and relational with Andrew Davis (https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/why-its-a-good-time-to-go-open-relational-with-andrew-davis/id1479338607?i=1000650544016) With Ilia Delio (https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/7-5-people-im-listenting-to-ilia-delio/id1479338607?i=1000624559759) Thanks to Jim for production and Rebekah for the voice behind the scenes. If you enjoy this episode, please like it, subscribe, consider rating it, and sharing it with family and friends. This podcast can also be found on Podbean, Spotify, Apple, and other platforms. This podcast is produced by McKillop; Living Sacred Relationships.

  3. Apr 27

    Episode 11 - Featuring Michael Rose and Uncontrolling Love

    So What? Exploring Big Ideas and Why They Matter Welcome to Episode 11 - Uncontrolling Love We are excited to explore with Michael his new book:  Made by Love for Love:  Reimagining God, Power, and Faith in the Light of Relentless Love.  Made by Love for Love, invites readers to reimagine Christianity - not as a drama of sin and obligatory appeasing sacrifice, but as a cosmic love story still unfolding.   Michael Rose is a spiritual director, grief specialist, and theologian who’s spent over three decades walking with people through the beautiful, messy realities of faith, loss, and transformation—and occasionally trying to make sense of it himself. His work explores what happens when we take love seriously, drawing on Open and Relational Theology and the evolutionary vision of Teilhard de Chardin. He’s the author of Made by Love, For Love: Reimagining God, Power, and Faith in Light of Relentless Love, where he gently (and sometimes provocatively) rethinks the stories we’ve inherited about God. Michael lives in Alberta, Canada, and supports individuals and communities in seasons of spiritual reimagining.  Learn more at www.IamSignificant.ca    To order Michael's new book go to: https://www.amazon.ca/Made-Love-Reimagining-Power-Relentless/dp/1968136401/ If you enjoy this episode, please like it, subscribe, consider rating it, and sharing it with family and friends. This podcast can also be found on podbean, Spotify, Apple, and other platforms. Thanks to Jim for production and Rebekah for the voice behind the scenes. This podcast is produced by McKillop; Living Sacred Relationships.

  4. Jan 16

    Episode 10 - Featuring John Paul Sydnor and The Great Open Dance

    So What? Exploring Big Ideas and Why They Matter Welcome to Episode 10 - The Great Open Dance:  A Better Story of God What if faith isn’t dying—it’s growing up? Jon Paul Sydnor joins us for a wide-ranging conversation about a spirituality you can actually live in your body and your real life. We talk about love as the thread that ties us together (he calls it “loving inseparability”), why God isn’t a cosmic puppeteer, and why the best kind of church is backstage: honest, safe, unpolished, and full of people learning to carry one another toward healing and flourishing. Jon Paul Sydnor is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Emmanuel College, theologian-in-residence at Grace Community Boston, and a podcaster at The Progressive Sacred. He studied at the University of Virginia, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Boston College, where he received his PhD. He practices theology in conversation with other religions, especially Hinduism and Buddhism. To find out more about Jon Paul, join his substack the Great Open Dance:Progressive Christian Theology (https://jonpaulsydnor.substack.com/) or you can buy his latest book, "The Great Open Dance:  Progressive Christian Theology (https://www.amazon.ca/Great-Open-Dance-Progressive-Christian/dp/1666775150)  .To explore nondualism, read the book edited by Jon Paul Sydnor and Anthony J. Watson entitled: "Nondualism:  An Interreligious Exploration" from Lexington Books. If you enjoy this episode, please like it, subscribe, consider rating it, and sharing it with family and friends. This podcast can also be found on podbean, Spotify, Apple, and other platforms. Thanks to Jim for production and Rebekah for the voice behind the scenes. This podcast is produced by McKillop; Living Sacred Relationships.

  5. 12/05/2025

    Episode 9 - Featuring Brent Saccucci and Practicing Discomfort

    So What? Exploring Big Ideas and Why They Matter Welcome to Episode 9 of ‘So What’ as Brent Saccucci joins Michael and Trevor as they explore the big ideas of practicing discomforto as to be accomplices with personal and social change to bring liberation and healing and joy to the world. Is it hard or easy?  Find out as you listen! Brent Saccucci has worked as a K-12 teacher and equity consultant in schools and universities across Canada for over a decade. He is now a faculty member in the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge, where he teaches courses in the social, cultural, and political contexts of education as well as critical media literacy. Before UofL, Brent taught social justice and literacy education at both the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta. Brent is a Senior Research Fellow at the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies and serves as Faculty Advisor of the inaugural Leading Social Change in Schools Cohort for over 60 teachers looking to make change in Southern Alberta schools and communities. He is also a doctoral student at Western University in social justice education, where he studies theocratic government’s curriculum censorship of queer and trans voices. Brent is also writing an open-access, multimodal textbook with queer and trans students as a way to combat misinformation on ‘gender ideology’ in education; and he co-created a new cross-faculty course on “Misinformation” with six other faculty on the UofL campus to help equip undergraduate students with the tools needed for an increasingly polarized information world. Most recently, Brent was recognized as the 2025 Alberta Human Rights Champion by the John Humphrey Centre for Peace & Human Rights.    You can find more from Brent at https://www.learningwithbrent.com/about-brent If you enjoy this episode, please like it, subscribe, consider rating it, and sharing it with family and friends. This podcast can also be found on podbean, Spotify, Apple, and other platforms. Thanks to Jim for production and Rebekah for the voice behind the scenes. This podcast is produced by McKillop; Living Sacred Relationships.

  6. 10/03/2025

    Episode 8 - Featuring Tori Owens and Julian Norwich

    So What? Exploring Big Ideas and Why They Matter Welcome to Episode 8 of ‘So What’ as Tori Owens joins Michael and Trevor as they explore the big ideas of Julian Norwich an English anchoress of the Middle Ages who lived through the Black Death. Tori Owens is a full-time therapist and spiritual director, a part-time doctoral student in Open and Relational Theology, most definitely an everyday mystic, just trying to blend it all in such a way that it might be a little healing.  You can find her writing at Love, Tori (toriowens.substack.com). Tori co-hosts a series of conversations with public theologians, writers, and creatives with Jonathan Foster on Substack (https://fosterj.substack.com/). She is an ordained minister and serves on the board for the Open Table Network (opentable.network). She recently joined the advisory board for SPARKS, a creative initiative of the Center for Process Studies (ctr4process.org), launching this fall. If you enjoy this episode, please like it, subscribe, consider rating it, and sharing it with family and friends. This podcast can also be found on podbean, Spotify, Apple, and other platforms. Thanks to Jim for production and Rebekah for the voice behind the scenes. This podcast is produced by McKillop; Living Sacred Relationships.

  7. 06/19/2025

    Episode 7 - The Balcony View: Exploring the Body and Somatics

    So What? Exploring Big Ideas and Why They Matter Welcome to Episode 7 as we join Michael and Trevor from the balcony, like Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets - as they explore the last episode’s big ideas and why they matter. This week Michael and Trevor explore the amazing ideas of Stacey Madden is the founder of Mindful Somatic Wellness and a certified Somatic Movement Educator and Mind Body Therapist and of what it means to really inhabit these 'big' ideas about the body and somatics. If you enjoy this episode, please like it, subscribe, consider rating it, and sharing it with family and friends. This podcast can also be found on Podbean, Spotify, Apple, and other platforms. Thanks to Jim for production and Rebekah for the voice behind the scenes. This podcast is produced by McKillop; Living Sacred Relationships.

  8. 06/06/2025

    Episode 6 - Featuring Stacey Madden and Somatics

    So What? Exploring Big Ideas and Why They Matter Welcome to Episode 6 of ‘So What’ as Stacey Madden joins Michael and Trevor as they explore the big idea Somatics. Stacey Madden is the founder of Mindful Somatic Wellness and a certified Somatic Movement Educator and Mind Body Therapist. She specializes in helping people reconnect with their bodies, emotions, and nervous systems through curiosity and compassion—not correction. Stacey brings a grounded, trauma-informed approach to everything she does, from one-on-one sessions to international workshops. She had a blast joining So What? to talk all things somatics, nervous system care, and the magic of moving at the speed of trust. You can find more of her work at: Website: www.mindfulsomaticwellness.com YouTube: https://youtube.com/@mindfulsomaticwellness?si=42L0doJIpVh3eiUT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/15LsdFF2bp/?mibextid=wwXIfr Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulsomatics?igsh=MWU2OHphYWJ6cmR1ZQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr If you enjoy this episode, please like it, subscribe, consider rating it, and sharing it with family and friends. This podcast can also be found on podbean, Spotify, Apple, and other platforms. Thanks to Jim for production and Rebekah for the voice behind the scenes. This podcast is produced by McKillop; Living Sacred Relationships.

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Welcome to ’So What?” with Michael and Trevor as they invites us on a journey of big ideas. Join them as they talk about their mission to dig into thought-provoking ideas through diverse experiences of wisdom and voices. They bring a spacious perspective, a heap of curiosity, and a deep desire to see big ideas actually ’matter’ and be embodied in real life. Let’s be real - ideas can be fascinating, however if big ideas don’t lead us to more love, more peace, and more beautiful connections in the world - ’so what!’ Thanks to Jim for production and Rebekah for the voice behind the scenes. This podcast is produced by McKillop; Living Sacred Relationships.

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