the underview.

Mike Rusch
  • 5.0 (11)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

The underview is an exploration of the shaping of our place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness. The underview is a series of discussions within and about the community of Northwest Arkansas. The underview explores our collective understanding and beliefs about the place we live. These discussions will include topics that are foundational to the identity of our region, the history of our communities, the truth of conflict with the land and its people, and the current challenges and opportunities for our community.

  1. the united methodist church with Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris, part 2 (ep 3, 10).

    4d ago

    the united methodist church with Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris, part 2 (ep 3, 10).

    ⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains the tragedy of gun violence and suicide. Listener discretion is advised. In part two of this conversation, Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris gets into what First United Methodist Church Bentonville is doing right now in the community. The church's Second Street Pantry served 47,000 people last year. Beer & Hymns raised a record $50,000 in a single night for the NWA Children's Shelter. The building is open seven days a week to nonprofits who can't afford space anywhere else. And the lead pastor lives in an RV — because she cannot afford to buy a home in the city she serves. Morris describes the congregation's participation in the ULI Faithful Foundations program and what it would mean to put workforce housing on church-owned land in downtown Bentonville. The conversation turns to Christian nationalism, which Morris calls antithetical to Christianity. She draws a distinction between the Jesus of the Gospels and the Jesus of the culture — and says if you read the Gospels and don't get offended, you didn't read the Gospels. She describes what she calls the prophetic middle: not wishy-washy, but incredibly principled. A place where conservative members and lesbian couples worship side by side. Where the pastor shows up at city council to say quit fighting about God in a civic meeting. And where wholeness means the reign of God — unity without uniformity, all of us together, and that is what God looks like. https://www.theunderview.com/the-first-united-methodist-church-with-rev-dr-michelle-morris-part-1 About the underview: The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness. Send us a Voice Message at https://www.theunderview.com/ Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠ Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe Host: @mikerusch

    1h 2m
  2. the united methodist church with Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris, part 1 (ep 3, 09).

    4d ago

    the united methodist church with Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris, part 1 (ep 3, 09).

    ⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains the tragedy of gun violence and suicide. Listener discretion is advised. First United Methodist Church Bentonville has stood on the same corner since 1832 before Arkansas was a state, before the Civil War, and through nearly two centuries of transformation. In part one of this two-part conversation, lead pastor Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris shares her personal journey from outside the church to the pulpit, including a call to ministry born from a campus shooting at the University of Arkansas that killed her professor. The conversation moves through the Methodist connectional system, where a bishop tells you where to live and who to love, into what it means to lead a church with nearly two hundred years of complicated history, including its time as a Methodist Episcopal Church South. Morris doesn't hide from that inheritance. She reminds her congregation of it. Because you can't build a genuine welcome on top of a history you refuse to name. The episode explores the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, why Methodists sound wishy-washy when they're actually principled, and what it means to find God in Highway to Hell by AC/DC. It is a story about a tradition that has split over moral questions again and again and a church that keeps choosing to stay. https://www.theunderview.com/the-first-united-methodist-church-with-rev-dr-michelle-morris-part-1 About the underview: The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness. Send us a Voice Message at https://www.theunderview.com/ Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠ Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe Host: @mikerusch

    58 min
  3. the episcopal church with Rev. Evan D. Garner. (ep 3, 08).

    May 19

    the episcopal church with Rev. Evan D. Garner. (ep 3, 08).

    Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Fayetteville was organized on May 23, 1848, making it one of the oldest surviving church in the city. In this episode, Reverend Evan D. Garner, the church's rector, traces a tradition rooted in the Church of England's belief that a parish exists to serve everyone within its boundaries, not just its members. From the founding documents that carry the names of slave owners to a warming shelter that grew from six people to forty-seven in a single winter, Reverend Garner describes what it means for a 178-year-old institution to hold its history honestly while showing up for the most vulnerable people in a rapidly changing region. The conversation explores the Episcopal tradition's parish model, the difference between opening doors and genuinely belonging to a community, and how institutions that have historically held power can do the work of justice without becoming political actors. Reverend Garner articulates a theology where love is not abstract, it should lead to human flourishing, and where wholeness means all of the people, not most of them. Monica Kumar joins for the talk-back, where the two process what it means to hear a pastor say there is no limit to how far his church will go to care for those who are vulnerable. https://www.theunderview.com/the-episcopal-church-with-rev-evan-d-garner About the underview: The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness. Send us a Voice Message at https://www.theunderview.com/ Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠ Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe Host: @mikerusch

    1h 30m
  4. the catholic church with Father Jason Tyler (ep 3, 07).

    May 12

    the catholic church with Father Jason Tyler (ep 3, 07).

    ⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains references to the enslavement of Black communities and the impact of immigration enforcement on immigrant families. Listener discretion is advised. St. Joseph Catholic Church in Fayetteville has been part of Northwest Arkansas since 1844 — eight years after Arkansas statehood, before the Civil War, before the university. The earliest recorded baptisms in Fayetteville were performed at this parish in 1847, and they were baptisms of enslaved people: William, son of Bob and Alera; Judith, daughter of Kate. The parish's own history asks, "Would that more were known about these people." In this episode, Father Jason Tyler, pastor at St. Joseph for over a decade, traces the arc from those founding-era sacraments through nearly 180 years of Catholic life in the Ozarks to a congregation that now spans languages, continents, and cultures, with over 2,100 registered families and five weekend masses, including one entirely in Spanish. He reflects on what it means to be ordained for a place, the experience of learning to minister across cultures from Rome to Siloam Springs, and the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe as a bridge between communities. The conversation moves into the tensions this community is holding right now: immigrant families living in fear of deportation, the Catholic Church's complex global inheritance of both empire and resistance, and the role of Catholic social teaching, the preferential option for the poor, the dignity of work, solidarity, in a region shaped by corporate power and rapid growth. Father Tyler names isolation as his deepest fear and solidarity as his answer, while co-host Monica Kumar joins in a talk-back segment to process what she heard, from the radical welcome of an open door to the unresolved thread of what it means to reckon with a history that begins in enslavement and leads to one of the most diverse congregations in Arkansas. https://www.theunderview.com/the-catholic-church-with-father-jason-tyler-st-josephs-catholic-fayetteville About the underview: The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness. Send us a Voice Message at https://www.theunderview.com/ Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠ Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe Host: @mikerusch

    1h 18m
  5. the history of faith with Rachel Whitaker, part 2 (ep 3, 06).

    May 5

    the history of faith with Rachel Whitaker, part 2 (ep 3, 06).

    ⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains references to Indigenous removal, the history of enslavement, and the dehumanization of Black communities in the Arkansas Ozarks. Listener discretion is advised. In the conclusion of a two-part conversation, historian Rachel Whitaker of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History moves from the Civil War era into the twentieth century and the present day. Whitaker reveals the Ku Klux Klan's deep integration with church culture in 1920s Northwest Arkansas, reading from newspaper advertisements where the Klan pledged loyalty to local churches, describing ministers who invited congregations to Klan events, and documenting the organization's use of scripture and Christian vocabulary to justify exclusion, violence, and forced conformity. She traces the direct line between the social enforcement of early frontier churches and the Klan's more extreme methods, noting that the charges were the same, only the consequences had changed. The conversation also holds the stories of resistance and welcome. Whitaker tells the story of a Fayetteville congregation that voted overwhelmingly in the 1950s to welcome a Black college student, whose sister was one of the Little Rock Nine — over the objection of 39 members who signed a petition to block her membership. She names the women of Black churches who sheltered civil rights workers, and contemporary congregations doing justice work today. The episode closes with Whitaker's personal reflection on the relationship between faith and institutional power, and her advice to anyone navigating this landscape: read your sacred texts on your own, and if you're Christian, read the red letters. https://www.theunderview.com/the-history-of-faith-with-rachel-whitaker-part-2 About the underview: The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness. Send us a Voice Message at https://www.theunderview.com/ Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠ Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe Host: @mikerusch

    50 min
  6. the history of faith with Rachel Whitaker, part 1 (ep 3, 05).

    May 5

    the history of faith with Rachel Whitaker, part 1 (ep 3, 05).

    ⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains references to Indigenous removal, the history of enslavement, and the dehumanization of Black communities in the Arkansas Ozarks. Listener discretion is advised. In the first part of a two-part conversation, historian Rachel Whitaker of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History traces the arrival of faith in Northwest Arkansas from the 1820s through the Civil War era. Drawing on church meeting minutes, census records, and primary source documents, Whitaker reveals how early congregations functioned not just as spiritual communities but as institutions of social control, expelling members for minor infractions, defining who belonged and who didn't, and wielding moral authority before formal government existed. She examines the Cumberland Presbyterians at Cane Hill, the Methodist circuit riders, the early Baptist farmer-preachers, and the complex relationship between faith traditions and the institution of slavery in the Ozarks. Whitaker also brings her own story to the table, raised across multiple denominations from Jehovah's Witness to Pentecostal to Southern Baptist, offering a deeply personal perspective on the difference between faith and the institutions that carry it. The conversation traces how churches used scripture to justify both abolition and the continuation of slavery, how enslaved people like Squire Jehagen built their own congregations as acts of resistance, and how the dehumanization required to exclude people from community has never been limited to race alone. This episode establishes the historical ground for Season 3 of the underview. https://www.theunderview.com/the-history-of-faith-with-rachel-whitaker-part-1 About the underview: The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness. Send us a Voice Message at https://www.theunderview.com/ Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠ Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe Host: @mikerusch

    54 min
  7. the faith of Northwest Arkansas with Monica Kumar (ep 3, 04).

    Apr 28

    the faith of Northwest Arkansas with Monica Kumar (ep 3, 04).

    In Season 3 of the underview, we begin where every honest conversation about faith has to begin with a starting point. Monica Kumar joins as co-host for "the faith of Northwest Arkansas," and this episode is the Monica's story, the work of naming who we are, what we carry, and what we are afraid of as we step into a season-long exploration of how faith shapes place and belonging across the Arkansas Ozarks. Monica is the founder of Bridging Us, Interim Executive Director of Aiding Survivors of Human Trafficking & Child Abuse, and a former Strategic Consultant with Engage NWA. Born in London to immigrant parents from India and Uganda, she came to Northwest Arkansas twelve years ago and has spent the years since asking how community supports human rights and how a place becomes home. This conversation reaches into Hindu upbringing, evangelical Christian formation, brave versus safe spaces, the burden of the normative experience, and the common hope two very different people can carry together into a season of listening. https://www.theunderview.com/the-faith-of-northwest-arkansas-with-monica-kumar Music courtesy of https://brianhirschy.com/ About the underview: The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness. Send us a Voice Message at https://www.theunderview.com/ Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠ Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe Host: @mikerusch

    1h 8m
  8. the terms of faith with Mike Rusch (ep 3, 03).

    Apr 28 ·  Bonus

    the terms of faith with Mike Rusch (ep 3, 03).

    Before Season 3 moves further into the faith of Northwest Arkansas, this interstitial pause defines the five words the season is built on faith, religion, theology, church, and ideology and asks what happens when their differences are not fully understood. Faith is interior, personal, not available for public examination. Religion is what a tradition carries across generations. Theology is the public reasoning that tradition does about the sacred. Church, or synagogue, or temple, or mosque, is what an institution does in a particular place, with real power to welcome, to exclude, to bless, to bury, to speak, and to be silent. And ideology is a political orientation toward how the world should be ordered, which in our time and place has become very good at borrowing the language of the other four. https://www.theunderview.com/the-terms-of-faith-with-mike-rusch/ Music courtesy of https://brianhirschy.com/ About the underview: The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness. Send us a Voice Message at https://www.theunderview.com/ Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠ Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe Host: @mikerusch

    11 min
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5
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

The underview is an exploration of the shaping of our place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness. The underview is a series of discussions within and about the community of Northwest Arkansas. The underview explores our collective understanding and beliefs about the place we live. These discussions will include topics that are foundational to the identity of our region, the history of our communities, the truth of conflict with the land and its people, and the current challenges and opportunities for our community.

Information

  • Creator
    Mike Rusch
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    101
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 the underview.
  • Show Website
    the underview.

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