Krista Tippett: Hope Is A Muscle

For All Ears this week, Abby hosts a rare and revealing interview with On Being host, Krista Tippett. Krista talks about growing up in Shawnee Oklahoma, and the enduring influence of her grandfather, a Southern Baptist minister, on her life’s work. Krista describes the experience of going from a sheltered, church-centric upbringing, to throwing herself into big, bold life experiences (Brown University, a Fulbright Scholarship in Bonn, a job at the US Embassy in Cold War Berlin) and the disorientation that unsettled her once she realized that powerful people in important jobs don’t necessarily have steadfast principles or rich emotional lives. Her subsequent path to divinity school and the creation of the On Being Project have been a process of defining what a “moral imagination” is, and why we, as a culture and as a country, need it. Krista and Abby also discuss how we can learn from one of the most trying and tragic years in our nation’s history, and where we can find hope, which Krista says, “is a muscle that keeps us moving and acting and doing.” It’s a fitting conversation to end the year on, and we wish you all the best for this holiday season. Our next episode drops on Thursday, January 7. See you in 2021!

Find Krista on Twitter: @kristatippett and @OnBeing

EPISODE LINKS
On Being with Krista Tippett
New York Times’ Stringer Reflects On Life In The East (The Berlin Observer, 12/13/85)
Choruses from “The Rock”, by T.S. Eliot (Poetrynook.com)