Shifting Culture

Shifting Culture Network
Shifting Culture Network
  • 4.9 (72)
  • Christianity

On Shifting Culture we have conversations at the intersection of faith, culture, justice, and the way of Jesus. Hosted by Joshua Johnson, this podcast features long-form conversations with authors, theologians, artists, and cultural thinkers to trace how embodied love, courage, and creative faithfulness offer a culture of real healing and hope. 

SHIFTING CULTURE NETWORK

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  1. Sep 15 • Subscriber Early Access

    Ep. 460 Annie F. Downs - When Something is Stolen, Killed, or Destroyed, How Do We Keep Going?

    In this episode Annie F. Downs joins me to take John 10:10 apart. Steal, kill, destroy — we tend to read them as one sentence, but Annie treats them as three different losses asking three different things of us. Something stolen still exists somewhere. Something dead doesn't come back. Something destroyed has to be cleared before anything gets built there. We talk about courage borrowed from artists, grief that never fully resolves, why resurrection never looks like restoration, and why none of this can be worked out alone. Don't let that hold you back. Annie F. Downs is a New York Times bestselling author, sought-after speaker, and successful podcast host based in Nashville, Tennessee. Known for her engaging and honest style, Annie makes readers and listeners feel like long-time friends. She is the co-founder of the That Sounds Fun Network, home to her flagship podcast, That Sounds Fun and host of the television talk show I Gotta Ask. Annie's Book: Don't Let That Hold You Back Annie's Recommendation: Calamity Club Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Ep. 460 Annie F. Downs - When Something is Stolen, Killed, or Destroyed, How Do We Keep Going?

  2. 5h ago

    Ep. 459 Sarah Stankorb - Millions of Women Have Left the Church in the Past Decade. What's Happening?

    In this episode Sarah Stankorb joins me to talk about Damned If She Does and the sixteen million American women who have walked away from the church in the last decade. Sarah is a journalist who covers religion, and someone who left herself, and she argues that women leaving isn't a side story but a signal we have about where American faith is going. We follow the threads back decades, sort through what the numbers do and don't show, and talk about what women are finding after they go. Some have left faith entirely. Some are still following Jesus without the institution.  Sarah Stankorb is a journalist, essayist, and author. Hundreds of her pieces have been featured in publications including: VICE, ELLE, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Republic, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and others. The award-winning writer tends to break taboos, offering women a platform to discuss the quiet hurts and joys that define their lives. Stankorb's beat spans religion, politics, gender, and power, but is informed by questions of basic morality.  Sarah was born in Youngstown, Ohio, and often found escape in books. She studied world religions and philosophy at Westminster College, and a chance to study abroad in Northern Ireland and then Israel further opened her eyes to how faith (and conflict) can shape people’s everyday existence. She earned her master’s degree from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, where she studied ethics and South Asian religion and history.  She’s more fun than all this sounds. Sarah lives in Ohio with her husband and two children, and she writes regularly about the quirks of American faith for her Substack, In Polite Company. Sarah's Book: Damned if She Does Sarah's Recommendation: The Conspiracists The Magicians Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Ep. 459 Sarah Stankorb - Millions of Women Have Left the Church in the Past Decade. What's Happening?

  3. 11h ago • Subscribers Only

    Ep. 459 Sarah Stankorb - Millions of Women Have Left the Church in Past Decade. What's Happening?

    In this episode Sarah Stankorb joins me to talk about Damned If She Does and the sixteen million American women who have walked away from the church in the last decade. Sarah is a journalist who covers religion, and someone who left herself, and she argues that women leaving isn't a side story but a signal we have about where American faith is going. We follow the threads back decades, sort through what the numbers do and don't show, and talk about what women are finding after they go. Some have left faith entirely. Some are still following Jesus without the institution. Sarah Stankorb is a journalist, essayist, and author. Hundreds of her pieces have been featured in publications including: VICE, ELLE, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Republic, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and others. The award-winning writer tends to break taboos, offering women a platform to discuss the quiet hurts and joys that define their lives. Stankorb's beat spans religion, politics, gender, and power, but is informed by questions of basic morality. Sarah was born in Youngstown, Ohio, and often found escape in books. She studied world religions and philosophy at Westminster College, and a chance to study abroad in Northern Ireland and then Israel further opened her eyes to how faith (and conflict) can shape people’s everyday existence. She earned her master’s degree from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, where she studied ethics and South Asian religion and history. She’s more fun than all this sounds. Sarah lives in Ohio with her husband and two children, and she writes regularly about the quirks of American faith for her Substack, In Polite Company. Sarah's Book: Damned if She Does Sarah's Recommendation: The Conspiracists The Magicians Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Ep. 459 Sarah Stankorb - Millions of Women Have Left the Church in Past Decade. What's Happening?

  4. 3d ago

    Ep. 458 Kristin Kobes Du Mez Returns - Positive Thinking, Holiness Theology, and the Power Women Were Promised

    In this episode Kristin Kobes Du Mez traces how holiness theology and New Thought merged into a faith that promised women power right where they stood, and taught them that naming what was wrong was itself the sin. We follow the thread from Hannah Whitall Smith to corporate campaigns against the New Deal, from a YMCA small group in 1910s China to postwar evangelical totalism, through MLMs and Christian bookstores to the blogosphere and Beth Moore. If confession can heal and confession can control, how do you know which one you're inside? Kristin Kobes Du Mez is a New York Times bestselling author and Professor of History at Calvin University. She is a Senior Democracy Fellow with the Public Religion Research Institute. Her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Religion News Service, and Christianity Today, and has been interviewed on NPR, CBS, and the BBC, among other outlets. Her most recent books include Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation (2020) and Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made (September 2026). Kristin's Book: Live Laugh Love Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Ep. 458 Kristin Kobes Du Mez Returns - Positive Thinking, Holiness Theology, and the Power Women Were Promised

  5. Sep 4

    Ep. 457 Jeff Woodke - After Six and a Half Years as an Al-Qaida Hostage, What Remained?

    In this episode, Jeff Woodke tells me what six and a half years as a hostage in the Malian desert stripped away. We talk about the day he was taken, the years of false promises that killed hope first, the months in a box, and the depression he couldn't outrun once he was the only one in the room. We talk about forgiving his captors daily in their own language, about praying until he couldn't, about losing his religion and finding his faith, and about why he says God got him through but people got him out. Love is the bedrock. Everything else burns. Jeff Woodke is a speaker, writer, poet, and hostage advocate. He and his family worked with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Niger, West Africa, for decades and served their community by digging wells, establishing primary schools, assisting with land regeneration and famine relief, and advocating for climate change adaptation. He won a Sasakawa Award in 2009 from the United Nations for disaster risk reduction work in Niger. In 2016, he was taken hostage by terrorists linked to al-Qaida and held for six and a half years in northern Mali. Released in 2023, he returned to his wife, children, and grandchildren in California with PTSD and stories that needed telling. His book debut, All the Way Home, is available nationwide this September. Jeff's Book: All the Way Home Jeff's Recommendation: The Crucifixion of the Warrior God Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Ep. 457 Jeff Woodke - After Six and a Half Years as an Al-Qaida Hostage, What Remained?

  6. Sep 3 ·  Bonus

    Introducing: Jesus and... Everything

    Jesus and... Everything is a space for those of us who want a faith that is deeply spiritually alive, but also rooted in the big framing issues of the world. Every week, Pete Portal sits down with a guest, and has an honest conversation exploring how faith in Jesus can help us navigate big issues and topics, but also how real life in the real world can challenge our own perspectives that we may have held without much thought. There'll be no easy answers here; just some honest wrestling. So, if you're looking for a podcast that doesn't ask you to leave your mind or your faith at the door, then pull up a chair Follow Jesus and... Everything anywhere you get your podcasts. Jesus and... Everything is a part of the Shifting Culture Podcast Network Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Introducing: Jesus and... Everything

  7. Sep 1

    Ep. 456 W. David O. Taylor Returns - How Artists Bear Witness to the Fullness of God's Creation

    In this episode, W. David O. Taylor joins me to talk about To Set the World Aflame and the artist's calling to bear witness to the fullness of God's creation. Artists work with the sensory, the imaginative, the emotional, the metaphorical, the material stuff of the world, and in doing so they help the rest of us see what's actually there. We talk about what an artist really is, why belovedness comes before output, and how the calling has shifted across centuries without losing its center. We linger on abundance: seven thousand kinds of apples, more wine than anyone could drink, a God who delights in more than enough. W. David O. Taylor is Associate Professor of Theology & Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary and the author of ten books, including For the Beauty of the Church: Casting a Vision for the Arts and To Set the World Aflame: How Artists Bear Witness to the Fullness of God’s Creation. An Anglican priest, he has written for The Washington Post, The Gospel Coalition, Religion News Service, and Christianity Today, among others, and has contributed scholarly essays to the T&T Clark Companion to Theology and the Arts, Theology, Modernity and the Visual Arts, and Contemporary Art and the Church. He served on the board of Christians in the Visual Arts and is part of a three-year scholarly project, "Theology and the Visual Arts," hosted by King's College London. He lives on twenty-one acres of land east of Austin with his artist wife (Phaedra) and children. He posts about art and faith on Substack (@wdavidotaylor) and Instagram (@davidtaylor_theologian). David's Book: To Set the World Aflame Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Ep. 456 W. David O. Taylor Returns - How Artists Bear Witness to the Fullness of God's Creation

  8. Aug 28

    Ep. 455 Derwin Gray Returns - We've Made our Wounds our Identity: It's Time to Heal

    In this episode, Derwin Gray and I talk about what it actually takes to heal. He noticed years ago that people were making their wounds into their identity, and It's Time to Heal is his answer - be honest, expect it to be hard, accept what happened without letting it define you, live from love instead of for it. We get into salvation as healing rather than a one-time event, why the fleshly desires still call after we become believers, and what forgiveness cost him in his own story. We also talk about why healing that stays personal has stopped short of the gospel. Dr. Derwin L. Gray is the co-founding and Lead Pastor of Transformation Church, just outside of Charlotte, NC. Dr. Derwin L. Gray was named the recipient of the John M. Perkins Justice Award. The award is given to a visionary leader whose life and work exemplify the principles of biblical justice. He is also an award-winning author who has published several books, including “How to Heal Our Racial Divide: What the Bible Says, and What the First Century Christians Knew about Racial Reconciliation" and NEW RELEASE "Lit Up With Love: Becoming Good-News People To A Gospel-Starved World". You can follow him at @derwinlgray on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as www.derwinlgray.com. Derwin's Book: It's Time to Heal Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Ep. 455 Derwin Gray Returns - We've Made our Wounds our Identity: It's Time to Heal
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4.9
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About

On Shifting Culture we have conversations at the intersection of faith, culture, justice, and the way of Jesus. Hosted by Joshua Johnson, this podcast features long-form conversations with authors, theologians, artists, and cultural thinkers to trace how embodied love, courage, and creative faithfulness offer a culture of real healing and hope. 

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