A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar

Randy Knie & Kyle Whitaker
  • 4.8 (145)
  • RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Mixing a cocktail of philosophy, theology, and spirituality.  We're a pastor and a philosopher who have discovered that sometimes pastors need philosophy, and sometimes philosophers need pastors. We tackle topics and interview guests that straddle the divide between our interests.   Who we are:   Randy Knie (Co-Host) - Randy is the founding and Lead Pastor of Brew City Church in Milwaukee, WI. Randy loves his family, the Church, cooking, and the sound of his own voice. He drinks boring pilsners.   Kyle Whitaker (Co-Host) - Kyle is a philosophy PhD and an expert in disagreement and philosophy of religion. Kyle loves his wife, sarcasm, kindness, and making fun of pop psychology. He drinks childish slushy beers.   Elliot Lund (Producer) - Elliot is a recovering fundamentalist. His favorite people are his wife and three boys, and his favorite things are computers and hamburgers. Elliot loves mixing with a variety of ingredients, including rye, compression, EQ, and bitters. 

  1. Why Preston Sprinkle Changed His Mind On Women Pastors

    3D AGO

    Why Preston Sprinkle Changed His Mind On Women Pastors

    Text us your questions! We talk with Preston Sprinkle about his book From Genesis to Junia and the long road from a John MacArthur shaped complementarian framework to an egalitarian view that affirms women teaching, preaching, and leading in the church. We dig into the passages that always show up in this debate (especially 1 Timothy 2, along with Paul’s wider world), but we keep pulling the camera back to ask harder questions about biblical interpretation and hermeneutics. Is the Bible a blank slate on gender roles, or does it carry the fingerprints of patriarchal ancient contexts even while pushing against them? What do we do with the fact that sincere Christians read the same Greek and Hebrew texts differently, and that those conclusions affect real people’s lives and callings? Then we press into methodology and authority. Preston lays out why he treats Scripture as the ultimate authority for Christian theology, and Kyle challenges what that claim means when canon, interpretation, and experience are always in the mix. Randy brings the pastoral angle, asking how we deal with morally troubling texts and why “the Bible says it” is rarely the whole story. We also touch the “slippery slope” fear that egalitarianism automatically leads to affirming views on sexuality and why Preston thinks that framing misses the mark. If you're just done with engaging with conservative, Bible-based approaches to these kinds of questions, we get it. But if you care how folks with a voice in that world are talking about women pastors, egalitarianism vs complementarianism, biblical authority, deconstruction, or church power, this one will interest you. ===== Want to support us? The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount. If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal. Other important info: Rate & review us on Apple & SpotifyFollow us on social media at @PPWBPodcastWatch & comment on YouTubeEmail us at pastorandphilosopher@gmail.comCheers!

    1h 8m
  2. Trump, Iran, and Where This All Might Be Headed: A Conversation With Mike Madrid

    MAY 1

    Trump, Iran, and Where This All Might Be Headed: A Conversation With Mike Madrid

    Text us your questions! The news cycle is moving so fast it’s training us to forget. We invited Mike Madrid, a longtime classical conservative political strategist, commentator, and Lincoln Project cofounder, back on the show to help us slow down and put the recent chaos into perspective. We start with crisis fatigue and the “flood the zone” feeling, then get concrete with the Minneapolis ICE crackdown and why masked, militarized enforcement collides with the conservative case for due process and constitutional limits. From there, Mike breaks down the hard truth about U.S. immigration reform: policy solutions have been obvious for decades, but politics rewards stalemate. We talk border security, pathways to citizenship, why comprehensive reform hasn’t happened since 1986, and how both parties have used immigration as an election weapon instead of a governing project. Following on from our previous conversation with Mike, we also discuss Latino voters. Mike argues Latinos are the closest thing to a true swing voter left, and the data says that affordability and cost of living outrank immigration for that group by a wide margin. That insight reframes midterm elections, party coalitions, and why dramatic vote shifts can show up across different Latino communities. Along the way, Mike gives a midterms forecast and also offers a prediction about future presidential nominees for both parties that you probably won't see coming. We close with the Iran war and why the Strait of Hormuz and the petrodollar system matter to our daily lives, from gas prices to broader economic stability. It’s heavy, but it’s not hopeless. Mike makes a historically grounded case that periods like this can forge a better version of the country, if we choose to build it. ===== Want to support us? The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount. If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal. Other important info: Rate & review us on Apple & SpotifyFollow us on social media at @PPWBPodcastWatch & comment on YouTubeEmail us at pastorandphilosopher@gmail.comCheers!

    1h 27m
  3. Thinking About Nature With Brian McLaren

    APR 17

    Thinking About Nature With Brian McLaren

    Text us your questions! Prayer doesn’t always happen in a church. Sometimes it happens under streetlights or beside old trees. We open with Randy’s simple practice of late night walks and how nature has slowly become the place where his spirituality feels dynamic again. That shift also brings a collision with old religious instincts: the inner voice that says connection is dangerous, that wonder is “worship,” that the world exists mainly to serve us. Brian McLaren joins us to widen the frame. We talk about childhood experiences of creation, why Genesis begins with the goodness and value of the world, and how Psalm 19 might be less about “the book of nature” and more about wisdom embedded in reality itself. Kyle presses on the honest question: what makes a mountain feel like God instead of just a mountain? From awe to fear, from humility to love, we explore why these experiences can be spiritually formative. The conversation then turns outward to ethics and survival. We dig into reciprocity versus domination, how capitalism trains us for transaction without relationship, and how Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” is often misunderstood. We also unpack pantheism and panentheism in plain language, wrestle with the moral weight of eating and harm, and return to the biblical tension of “till and keep” as both permission and responsibility. Finally, Brian shares why he wrote his sci fi novel The Last Voyage, how climate overshoot and oligarchy shape the story, and why resignation, whether optimistic or pessimistic, is the enemy of faithful action. ===== Want to support us? The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount. If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal. Other important info: Rate & review us on Apple & SpotifyFollow us on social media at @PPWBPodcastWatch & comment on YouTubeEmail us at pastorandphilosopher@gmail.comCheers!

    1h 23m
  4. Bart Ehrman: Is Jesus Responsible for Our Moral Common Sense?

    APR 3

    Bart Ehrman: Is Jesus Responsible for Our Moral Common Sense?

    Text us your questions! Bart Ehrman, an atheist New Testament scholar with a penchant for annoying evangelicals, now claims that the teachings of Jesus determined the moral instincts of the West. Bart joins us to talk about his new book Love Thy Stranger and why acts of care for immigrants, refugees, and people outside “our tribe” may be downstream of Jesus, even when the people doing the caring don’t believe in him. We get into what makes Jesus’ ethics so hard to swallow when you read them straight: giving up status, becoming last, serving the powerless, and treating “the least of these” as the real test of faith. Bart explains why many scholars see Jesus as an apocalypticist, how that urgency sharpens the radical demands, and why modern politics can feel like a relapse into the ancient ideology of dominance. Along the way, we ask what loving enemies actually means in real life, not as a feeling but as a set of actions aimed at the other person’s good. Then we discuss a theological lightning rod: the relationship between forgiveness and atonement. Bart argues they’re competing concepts and claims Jesus teaches forgiveness while later Christians developed atonement frameworks after the crucifixion. We also explore the historical ripple effects, like the rise of public charity and institutions like hospitals and orphanages, and we look for honest common ground between atheists and Christians around ethics, service, and human dignity. ===== Want to support us? The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount. If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal. Other important info: Rate & review us on Apple & SpotifyFollow us on social media at @PPWBPodcastWatch & comment on YouTubeEmail us at pastorandphilosopher@gmail.comCheers!

    1h 28m
  5. Human Is The New Vinyl: Micah Voraritskul

    MAR 20

    Human Is The New Vinyl: Micah Voraritskul

    Text us your questions! AI can now generate essays, photos, songs, and video that look real enough to fool experts. This impacts how and whether humans can trust one another, and it’s already reshaping how we learn, create, and relate to each other. Kyle sits down with Micah Voraritskul, author of Human Is the New Vinyl: Why Human Creativity Still Wins in the AI Revolution, to unpack why the vinyl comeback is more than nostalgia. Vinyl is inconvenient, physical, and slow, and that’s exactly the point. Micah argues we’re heading toward a similar “analog counterreaction” to generative AI: people will start seeking out work that is transparently human because it carries authorship, risk, and meaning. We get concrete about how that might work through Verified Human, Micah’s grassroots trust label. We talk about why watermarking and legislation won’t fully solve the “what’s real” problem, why “disposable content” changes the moral stakes, and why education may be the biggest battlefield. If writing is how we assess learning and AI can write for anyone, what does integrity look like in the global classroom? We also explore the philosophical via Nozick’s experience machine and the spiritual through possible applications to language, Babel, logos, and Pentecost. If you’re overwhelmed by AI slop but still curious about the tool’s benefits, this conversation offers a balanced, human-first framework. Disclaimer: This episode description was definitely written by AI. ===== Want to support us? The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount. If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal. Other important info: Rate & review us on Apple & SpotifyFollow us on social media at @PPWBPodcastWatch & comment on YouTubeEmail us at pastorandphilosopher@gmail.comCheers!

    1h 21m
  6. A Live Conversation on the Church, Healing, and Truth-Telling With David Gushee and Keri Ladouceur

    MAR 15

    A Live Conversation on the Church, Healing, and Truth-Telling With David Gushee and Keri Ladouceur

    Text us your questions! We recorded this live gathering in Chicago with the Post Evangelical Collective, and it still feels uncomfortably current. Alongside Dr. David Gushee and Keri Ladouceur (director of the PEC), we sit with a question that haunts a lot of post-evangelical and progressive Christian spaces: how do you keep loving the church after trauma, public rejection, and the weaponizing of God-language against vulnerable people? From there, we shift to the political and spiritual crisis so many families are living inside. We talk about Christian nationalism, authoritarian power, and the painful question of staying in relationship with people who support what you believe is harming democracy and your neighbors. David names the need to defeat destructive movements without surrendering our commitment to co-humanity, while Keri brings the conversation back to embodiment, connection, and the slow work of refusing the strategies that make us into the thing we oppose. We also dig into misinformation and “epistemic fragmentation,” that dizzying reality where we cannot even agree on what is real. We explore what churches can model instead: information integrity, truthful speech, and practices that rebuild trust. Then we turn to healing Scripture after it has been used as a weapon, learning to read a not-flat Bible with complexity and community. We close with a candid conversation about masculinity, shame, and brave spaces, and a final invitation into embodied resurrection where tending our own wounds becomes part of resisting what is happening around us. ===== Want to support us? The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount. If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal. Other important info: Rate & review us on Apple & SpotifyFollow us on social media at @PPWBPodcastWatch & comment on YouTubeEmail us at pastorandphilosopher@gmail.comCheers!

    1 hr
  7. Backyard Update

    FEB 12 ·  BONUS

    Backyard Update

    Text us your questions! We're still here! Stay tuned. ===== Want to support us? The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount. If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal. Other important info: Rate & review us on Apple & SpotifyFollow us on social media at @PPWBPodcastWatch & comment on YouTubeEmail us at pastorandphilosopher@gmail.comCheers!

    3 min
  8. Power, Love, and What God Can’t Do: More on Omnipotence With Tom Oord and Chris Lilley

    12/12/2025

    Power, Love, and What God Can’t Do: More on Omnipotence With Tom Oord and Chris Lilley

    Text us your questions! What kind of God is worth trusting when life falls apart? We pull up a chair with Thomas Jay Oord and guest Chris Lilley for a spirited, vulnerable conversation about omnipotence, evil, and why love may be the only measure of divine power that doesn’t betray our moral core. The stakes are high: beliefs about God’s power shape how we face suffering, talk to our kids about hope, and decide whether prayer is protest, surrender, or both. If you haven't heard our first conversation with Tom about God's power, we recommend checking that out first here. Tom lays out open and relational theism: God moves through time with us, gives and receives, and has a nature of uncontrolling love. From there he challenges three classic readings of omnipotence—doing anything, exerting all power, and unilaterally determining outcomes—arguing they either collapse logically or become morally intolerable in the face of real-world evil. Chris, a former Thomist and Reformed teacher now in the Episcopal ordination process, offers a thoughtful pushback: if omnipotence can be carefully qualified, should we abandon it, or teach it better? His turning point is painfully human: holding his newborn while teaching election and realizing he couldn’t preach a God who ordains every outcome and still call that good. We wrestle with creation, “almighty” in the liturgy, liberation theology’s demand for a God who not only intends justice but accomplishes it, and a hard question about the afterlife: could you rest eternally with a God who could have stopped your suffering? Tom reframes power as maximal influence—everlasting, universal, persuasive—rather than control. Kyle names the unresolved middle: if God could fix it later, why not now? The conversation doesn’t hand out easy answers; it invites you to weigh goodness against power and decide which vision of God you can actually pray to. If this episode challenges or helps you, share it with a friend, hit follow, and leave a review so others can find the show. ===== Want to support us? The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount. If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal. Other important info: Rate & review us on Apple & SpotifyFollow us on social media at @PPWBPodcastWatch & comment on YouTubeEmail us at pastorandphilosopher@gmail.comCheers!

    1h 19m
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Mixing a cocktail of philosophy, theology, and spirituality.  We're a pastor and a philosopher who have discovered that sometimes pastors need philosophy, and sometimes philosophers need pastors. We tackle topics and interview guests that straddle the divide between our interests.   Who we are:   Randy Knie (Co-Host) - Randy is the founding and Lead Pastor of Brew City Church in Milwaukee, WI. Randy loves his family, the Church, cooking, and the sound of his own voice. He drinks boring pilsners.   Kyle Whitaker (Co-Host) - Kyle is a philosophy PhD and an expert in disagreement and philosophy of religion. Kyle loves his wife, sarcasm, kindness, and making fun of pop psychology. He drinks childish slushy beers.   Elliot Lund (Producer) - Elliot is a recovering fundamentalist. His favorite people are his wife and three boys, and his favorite things are computers and hamburgers. Elliot loves mixing with a variety of ingredients, including rye, compression, EQ, and bitters. 

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