Insight with Karl Faase

Olive Tree Media
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Weekly

Hosted by Karl Faase, Insight delves into the big themes of life, faith, and culture through the power of story. Each conversation opens a window into the experiences of everyday people, leaders, thinkers, and creatives who have navigated life’s challenges and found hope along the way. Rooted in a Christian worldview but open to all, Insight aims to spark thoughtful reflection and encourage deeper engagement with the world around us.

  1. 9h ago

    Justin Brierley: Why Is Belief in God Making a Comeback?

    Justin Brierley is the man who put doubt, dialogue and debate at the centre of Christian broadcasting with his groundbreaking UK radio show, ‘Unbelievable?’ Justin had the idea for this radio show while working for Premiere Christian Radio. He wanted to invite Christians into conversations that would help them in their real lives by showing good dialogue between non-Christians and believers. Little did he know that he would launch the show right as the New Athiest movement was kicking off and his show became a key place where these ideas could be discussed and a Christian alternative presented. In this conversation, Karl and Justin also discuss why he now believes he's watching something unexpected happen: a quiet, surprising return to faith among a generation raised on New Atheism. Justin Brierley grew up near Northampton in a charismatic evangelical family, and traces his own faith to a single night at a youth camp at age fifteen - a "road to Damascus" moment friends say they could see in him afterward. At Oxford University he studied politics, philosophy and economics, acted and led evangelistic drama, and met his wife Lucy, who went on to be ordained in ministry. After a graduate posting at Premier Christian Radio, Justin created and hosted 'Unbelievable?' for almost twenty years. He is the author of The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God (2023), and now runs the media company Think Faith, where he hosts a new dialogue show, Uncommon Ground. Key Moments & Highlights Justin traces his faith to a single youth-camp night at fifteen - a "road to Damascus" moment that changed how people around him saw him, even though his wife Lucy's own faith journey was a slow, gradual awakening At Oxford, a friend's crisis of faith — "how do you know this isn't just all in your mind?" — sent Justin looking, for the first time, into the intellectual case for Christianity Justin met Lucy while acting in a student production of Guys and Dolls, where she was doing his stage makeup and, to her lasting exasperation, he didn't recognise her at the cast party afterward The couple spent eight months of their honeymoon on a mission station in northern Namibia, teaching in a school and helping build a Sunday school from scratch The origin story of Unbelievable? — pitched almost as an afterthought to his radio director as a way to help Christians "have better conversations" with the non-Christians in their lives How a 2012 magazine interview with Mark Driscoll spiralled into a public Twitter storm and became the most downloaded episode Justin ever released Why Justin now argues the confident "New Atheism" of Dawkins and Hitchens has given way to a quieter reassessment of faith among public intellectuals like Jordan Peterson and Tom Holland The evidence Justin points to for a genuine, if early, shift: rising Bible sales in the UK, a wave of young men returning to church across Scandinavia, and record numbers of adult converts at France's Easter vigil What happened when the Bible Society's "Quiet Revival" survey data had to be withdrawn and why Justin still believes something real is happening despite the flawed numbers Inside Justin's new show, Uncommon Ground, where he opens every episode by asking guests - including Richard Dawkins and Rowan Williams - to "steel man" each other's position before they debate   Resources Mentioned The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God - Justin Brierley (book) https://www.amazon.com.au/Surprising-Rebirth-Belief-God-Christianity/dp/1496466772 Uncommon Ground - Justin Brierley's current show, produced by Think Faith https://justinbrierley.com/uncommon-ground-podcast/    Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org   Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance Vision Christian Media

  2. Aug 26

    Scott Morrison: Highlights, Lowlights and The Faith That Carried Him Through

    Politics has a way of reducing people to headlines - the speeches, the elections, the controversies, the moments that dominated the nightly news. But behind every public leader is a private person, carrying the weight of decisions, the expectations of millions, and quiet questions about faith, family and purpose. For Scott Morrison, one of those quiet questions came into devastating focus on a February afternoon in 2020, when a mother named Layla Abdallah stood in front of a television camera - twenty-four hours after losing three of her children to a drug-affected driver - and said: "In my heart I know I forgive him." As Prime Minister, Morrison was already carrying the country through the Black Summer bushfires, and would soon face a global pandemic that tested his leadership like nothing before it. Throughout it all, his Christian faith remained central to who he was - sometimes a source of strength, sometimes drawing intense public attention. In this conversation, Scott reflects on the experiences that shaped him long before politics, the unseen cost of leadership, and what forgiveness, uncertainty and faith under pressure have taught him about an identity that's never found in a title. Scott Morrison served as Australia’s 30th Prime Minister from 2018 to 2022, leading the country through the Black Summer bushfires, the COVID-19 pandemic and many other intense and contentious issues. Before politics, he worked as a research economist and later for Bruce Baird, entering Federal Parliament in 2007. Raised in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire in a family shaped by service rather than ambition, Morrison has spoken openly throughout his career about the Christian faith that has underpinned his life and leadership, from a youth camp in Melbourne where he gave his life to the Lord, to the Tuesday-night prayer group he kept running throughout his time as Prime Minister. He is married to Jenny, with two daughters, and today works in business advisory and geopolitics while remaining closely involved with Danny and Leila Abdallah’s 'I Forgive' Foundation.   Key Moments & Highlights - The 2020 Sydney crash that killed four children and how Layla Abdallah's on-camera declaration of forgiveness “within 24 hours” stunned Morrison and the nation - Growing up as his father's unpaid “electorate secretary,” fielding constituents' phone calls before he was even a teenager - The fourteen-year fertility journey and ten failed treatments that preceded the births of daughters Abbey and Lily, including “screaming at God in the forest” in Wellington - Why he's never seen himself as belonging to a political “tribe,” and how Bruce Baird and John Anderson showed him it was possible to be a Christian, a husband and a father, and still succeed in politics. - The night he became Prime Minister through a contested leadership spill, and Malcolm Turnbull's differing account of events - Diverting the campaign plane to Tasmania on the eve of the 2019 “miracle election,” and watching both seats come in on the AEC refresh screen. - Tabling the Royal Commission report into institutional child abuse in 2018, and the moment he shut his office door afterward and wept. - Watching hospital footage from northern Italy at the start of the pandemic, and why he tuned out “ideological rubbish” about the virus being a threat to liberty   Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org   Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance Vision Christian Media

  3. Aug 19

    Stephen Driscoll: Made in Our Image: A Biblical Reflection On Artificial Intelligence

    When Stephen Driscoll's laptop started acting up, he asked an AI agent to take a look - twenty minutes later it had tracked down and fixed a problem that had been quietly running in the background for six months. It's a small, almost funny story, but Stephen uses it to make a much bigger point: AI has moved from mimicking us to genuinely acting on its own initiative, and the theological and ethical questions are moving just as fast. In this wide-ranging conversation, Karl Faase and Stephen dig into AI-directed drone strikes, the Pope's recent encyclical, transhumanism, campus culture, and Stephen's own decade-long wrestle with doubt.   About Stephen Driscoll: Stephen Driscoll is a university minister and self-described “tech realist” who tries to avoid both blind optimism and fear-driven doomism about artificial intelligence. He won the 2025 Australian Christian Book of the Year Award for his book Made in Our Image: God, Artificial Intelligence and You. Before moving into ministry, Stephen worked on a trading floor in finance, and has been fascinated by AI since his undergraduate years.   Get a copy of Stephen Driscoll's book here: Made in Our Image: God, Artificial Intelligence and You    Key Moments & Highlights Stephen's four-point framework for what modern AI actually is: brain-inspired, trained rather than designed, prediction-based, and radically general-purpose “Move 37”- the AlphaGo move against world champion Lee Sedol so unconventional it stunned commentators and convinced many that AI could be genuinely creative How reinforcement learning turns AI from a “debauched” mirror of the whole internet into a corporate “people-pleaser” with a morality borrowed from whichever company built it The Pope's AI encyclical and its warning, drawn from the Tower of Babel, about the danger of human unity turned toward evil The unsettling real-world stakes: AI-selected drone strikes, twelve-second human decision windows, and a strike on an Iranian school that killed around 100 children Why Stephen is less afraid of profit-driven AI companies than of AI controlled by authoritarian governments A working test for transhumanism: are we moving toward God's created order (like glasses or cochlear implants) or away from it (like losing our embodiment in a metaverse)? Stephen's own faith story: growing up in an Indonesian immigrant church, drifting through doubt reading the “new atheists” in his twenties, and finding his way back by actually reading the Bible Walking away from a trading floor career for full-time campus ministry and what convinced him within a week that he'd made the right call His read on why hostility to Christianity on university campuses peaked around 2022, and why he's now seeing more openness - especially among young men Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org   Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance Vision Christian Media

  4. Aug 12

    Dan Lyons: Sold for $500 - A Story of Abuse, Faith, and Forgiveness

    "You can have Daniel and Lyndall for five hundred dollars." That’s the sentence Dan Lyons’ mother used when his father tried to gain custody of him and his sister - the price she put on her own children. In this raw and confronting conversation, Dan takes Karl Faase back through years of alcohol-fuelled domestic violence, a mother who turned her own pain into abuse against her son, and the homeless, drug-affected years that followed - before two schoolmates and a four-word prayer changed the course of his life. This is a story about the long, unglamorous work of healing, and what it looks like to lead, parent, and forgive when you never had a template for any of it. Dan Lyons is the Director of Missional Culture and Leadership at Carinity, the care arm of Queensland Baptists, where he leads a team of pastors and around 100–125 chaplains serving in hospitals, prisons, aged care facilities, and schools across Queensland. He has been married to his wife Anita for 28 years, they have four adult children, and he recently became a grandfather for the first time. Behind that role is a childhood marked by extreme domestic violence and abuse, teenage homelessness, and a decades-long journey of faith and healing - which he shares candidly in this episode. Listener note: this episode discusses childhood abuse, family violence and suicide. Please take care while listening. Key Moments & Highlights Dan’s current role tethering Carinity’s ~2,000 staff and 100+ chaplains back to "the person of Jesus," and what "mission drift" really means for faith-based organisations Growing up moving across Queensland with his mother and three sisters, and the Friday-night ritual of alcohol-fuelled, rage-filled domestic violence between his mum and her partners The abuse turned personal: being interrogated, beaten, burned, and stabbed with a fork by his own mother The one adult - his boss at a butcher shop - who noticed the bruises and dared to intervene The night Dan finally pushed his mother off him and ran through the rain, hand-in-hand with his sister Lyndall, to find safety with his biological father His mother’s chilling offer to give up her own children for $500 Becoming homeless at fifteen, sliding into drugs and self-loathing, and a suicide attempt interrupted at the last second The four-word prayer: "God, please help me" and how two Christian classmates befriended him days later with no idea what he’d been through A physical, overwhelming encounter with God while reading the Bible for the first time, which Dan marks as the start of thirty years of healing A prayer-counselling breakthrough years later that helped him recognise where Jesus had actually been present in his worst childhood memories — and his candid advice for anyone currently in an abusive relationship   Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org   Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance Vision Christian Media

  5. Aug 5

    Tim Kelly: Finding Jesus at a Million Dollar Rodeo

    Tim Kelly grew up on a dairy farm in northern NSW, learning to ride poddy calves at five years old and by his late teens he was riding saddle bronc and bulls professionally, competing at the Calgary Stampede and winning the Saddle Bronc Junior World Championship. But behind the trophies, and the hard-partying rodeo lifestyle was a persistent emptiness Tim couldn't shake.  In this episode of Insight, Tim shares his journey from rodeo arenas across Australia and Canada to a life-changing encounter at a "million dollar rodeo" in 1982, the fear that nearly ended his career, the devastating breakdown of his marriage, and how faith reshaped his identity, and continues to reshape the lives of the bull riders he now mentors through his own riding schools. About Tim Kelly Tim Kelly is a former professional bull and saddle bronc rider from Tenterfield, NSW, who competed internationally through the late 1970s and 80s, including at the Calgary Stampede and Canada's rodeo circuit, and won the Saddle Bronc Junior World Championship. After coming to faith at a major rodeo event in 1982, Tim went on to run bull riding schools for over 40 years, training riders from across Australia while sharing his testimony with the next generation of the sport. He has walked through both the highs of competitive success and the deep personal cost of a marriage breakdown, and now speaks openly about failure, forgiveness, and restoration. Tim is married to Laura and continues to mentor riders and share his story of faith found in an unlikely place.   Key Moments & Highlights - The five-year-old's dream - Growing up in the middle of seven kids - Tim represented Australia at one of the world's biggest rodeos, competing in front of 70,000 people. - After what he calls one of the best rides of his life, Tim was disqualified on a technicality at the "million dollar rodeo" - the moment he decided to find out what other Christian riders "had that he didn't." - Giving his life to Christ — A bikie's testimony at a rodeo chapel service in 1982 became the turning point that led Tim to commit his life to God. - Tim recounts the terrifying accident that later triggered crippling fear, and watching another rider suffer a near-fatal version of the same fall. - How memorising and speaking out verses on fear allowed Tim to get back on a horse and keep riding. - Marriage breakdown and restoration - 40 years of bull riding schools    Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org    Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance  Vision Christian Media

  6. Jul 29

    Graham Clarke: It's Gonna Be Okay - A Husband's Story of Loss

    If life were a film, most of us can point to the moment everything changed. For Graham Clarke, that moment came as a phone call from a radiologist about his wife, Christy - a call that changed everything that came after. In this raw and moving conversation, Graham shares the story of walking with Christy through a terminal cancer diagnosis, parenting three young kids through unimaginable loss, and discovering that faith doesn't mean pretending everything is fine - it means bringing your honest grief to God and waiting for Him to meet you there. This is a conversation about lament, Shalom, single parenting, and the surprising, hard-won hope that things really can be okay again!! About Graham Clarke Graham Clarke spent most of his adult life in local church ministry as a senior pastor, most recently having stepped out of that role and looking toward a return to education - his first career, as a PE teacher and school chaplain. Raised in the Uniting Church in Brisbane, Graham met his wife Christy on the set of a Christian children's TV show in his late teens. They married young, had three children, and spent almost a decade leading a church in Geelong before returning to Brisbane. Key Moments & Takeaways - Early days and meeting his wife, Christy. - Christy's first breast cancer diagnosis came early and was treated as a full recovery - The phone call from the radiographer became Graham's own "sliding doors" moment - Graham and Christy independently sensed the same words in that moment: "it's gonna be okay" - a promise not about the outcome, but about the presence of God in the midst of it. - Graham unpacks the biblical idea of Shalom - Facing an eleven, ten, and seven-year-old, Graham and Christy chose honesty over shielding their kids. - A pastor's advice - "That's our job. You look after your kids" - freed Graham from having to hold the family's faith and its parenting at once. - Graham reflects candidly on "solo parenting" and the exhausting kindness of a grieving community. - He closes with the spirituality of lament - honesty with God in the middle of pain, and the hopeful expectation that mercy is renewed every morning.   Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org    Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance  Vision Christian Media

  7. Jul 22

    Rex Rigby: The Gospel Wrapped in Western Clothes

    He was taken from his family before he could walk, told for years he'd had polio when it was actually malnutrition, and labelled "dumb" by a school system that never diagnosed his dyslexia. Decades later, Rev. Dr. Rex Rigby became the first Indigenous Australian to lead a national denomination. In this honest conversation, Rex sits down with Karl Faase to talk about childhood abuse, being removed from his family as a toddler, and the shame he carried for years - and how those wounds became the foundation for a life devoted to reconciliation, empathy, and the gospel. Rex shares his story from an abusive home in Holland Park, to a stint as a chef on Brisbane's first luxury yacht, to twelve years as General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, to a doctorate exploring how Western culture has often been tangled up with the gospel message delivered to Indigenous people. Along the way, he shares hard truths about the church's mixed legacy in Indigenous communities and a hopeful, hard-won vision for what an intercultural church could look like.   Rev. Dr. Rex Rigby was the first Indigenous person to serve as national head of a denomination in Australia, spending twelve years as General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church - the longest tenure in that role. He is an elder of both the Kamilaroi and Bigambul peoples. Before entering ministry, Rex trained and worked as a chef, including a stint as the first chef aboard Brisbane's first luxury yacht. He holds a doctorate for his thesis "Social Cohesion Through the Eyes of an Indigenous Elder for the Application of the Intercultural Church," and today continues to teach at several Bible colleges.   Key Moments & Takeaways - Rex Rigby was the first Indigenous Australian to lead a national denomination, serving 12 years as General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. - He is an elder of both the Kamilaroi and Bigambul peoples, with ancestral ties on both sides of the Queensland/NSW border. - Removed from his family as a toddler due to abuse and neglect in the home, Rex spent three years in a home for children with disabilities - an experience that left him with a lasting sense of being unloved. - For years Rex was told he'd had polio; it wasn't until his late teens he learned his leg braces were actually the result of childhood malnutrition. - Undiagnosed dyslexia and an unstable home life meant school was a constant struggle - but Rex found his footing as an apprentice chef, eventually cooking for Brisbane's elite and serving as the first chef aboard the city's first luxury yacht. - A deep sense of calling pulled Rex out of the kitchen and into ministry, despite a rocky start in high-demand inner-city pastoral work that nearly burned him out early on. - His doctoral thesis examined how the gospel was often delivered wrapped in Western cultural assumptions - creating unnecessary shame for Indigenous believers. - Rex speaks candidly about the mixed legacy of mission work in Australia, while insisting Indigenous spirituality and Christian faith are not at odds. - He points to empathy and truth-telling as essential to reconciliation, urging people to look past the symptom to understand the cause. - Despite two bouts of cancer and a recent fall, Rex remains hopeful - still teaching, mentoring young Indigenous leaders, and working toward his vision of a genuinely intercultural church.   Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org    Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance  Vision Christian Media

  8. Jul 15

    Melanie Downes: Two Decades in Malawi - The "Warm Heart of Africa"

    "I live in Africa - waiting is never an issue." That was Melanie Downes' response when a string of technical hiccups left her and her husband Tim sitting patiently in the studio long past schedule. It's a small window into a life shaped by nearly two decades as a missionary in Malawi - a life of nine-hour queues, two-day border crossings, and a faith forged in a place most of us will never see. In this episode, Karl Faase speaks with Melanie about the road that took a "goofy" Rockhampton girl to a remote Yao village with a two- and four-year-old in tow. She reflects on her father's overnight conversion, her own childhood call to mission, and the enormous cost of obedience during cyclones, a critically ill baby, and the humbling task of asking others to "hold the rope." Melanie speaks with honesty about being a woman in an Islamic community (where it took eighteen months just to be seen as "not dangerous"), what the Yao have taught her about reading the Bible, and why she and Tim have spent years deliberately working themselves out of a job. It's a conversation about courage, contextual mission, the spirit world, and the quiet power of simply staying.   Key Moments & Highlights - A "wild boy" dad meets Jesus at a crusade and changes almost overnight and a young Melanie watches her whole family transform - Her own clear moment of call as a little girl - Growing up around mission in remote Aboriginal communities and deciding, as a teenager, that missionary life was "not for us" - Backpacking the world after 9/11, landing in Malawi, and falling for the "warm heart of Africa" - Counting the cost to actually go: a critically ill newborn, Cyclone Larry, financial strain, and grieving parents - Taking a two- and four-year-old to a Yao village, and the years of language and culture learning that followed - The challenge of being an Australian woman in an Islamic community - Why relationship with the women was the "secret weapon" that opened the whole community - Rethinking the missionary: not "great white saviours," but "accepted outsiders" handing leadership to the local church - Her two books, Jump and Spirit, the Camino, and the bittersweet homecoming    Find Out More Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org    Special Thanks To Excelsia University College Christian Finance  Vision Christian Media

See All (27)

Trailer

About

Hosted by Karl Faase, Insight delves into the big themes of life, faith, and culture through the power of story. Each conversation opens a window into the experiences of everyday people, leaders, thinkers, and creatives who have navigated life’s challenges and found hope along the way. Rooted in a Christian worldview but open to all, Insight aims to spark thoughtful reflection and encourage deeper engagement with the world around us.

Information

  • Creator
    Olive Tree Media
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    27
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Insight with Karl Faase

You Might Also Like