Nomad Podcast

On this episode we’ve invited Liz Pattison and Jim Robinson to have a conversation around their experiences of death. Jim lost both his parents at quite a young age, and Liz recently lost her partner. They share their experiences of grief and loss, how friends, family and church responded, and how their faith has evolved through these experiences. It’s an honest, real, insightful, moving and hopeful conversation. Conversation starts at 21m 32s Show Notes → Nomad is able to host conversations like these because a group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over to our Patreon page and our own members page to donate. You might also want to have a look at our blog, which we use to share the stories of the evolving faith of our podcast listeners. And if you're looking for other people to share this journey with, then register on our Listener Map and our Nomad Gathering Facebook page, and see if any other nomads are in your area.

Miles Irving has been foraging since childhood. Having journeyed through Pentecostalism, he returned to his first passion for wild foods, and began to discover that our relationship to what we eat bears deeply on our relationship to everything. In this episode, Miles and David Blower spend a day eating nothing but foraged food and talking through the joys, trials and transformations that come of eating what grows out of the soil where we live. Interview starts at 15m 15s Show Notes → Nomad is able to host conversations like these because a group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over to our Patreon page and our own members page to donate. You might also want to have a look at our blog, which we use to share the stories of the evolving faith of our podcast listeners. And if you're looking for other people to share this journey with, then register on our Listener Map and our Nomad Gathering Facebook page, and see if any other nomads are in your area.

Many of us inherited a faith that had a lot to say about life after death. But as our faith shifted and evolved we were left increasingly unsure whether these beliefs had any basis in reality, or were just fairly tales. Well, it turns out science has an increasing amount to say on the subject. So, we interviewed Dr Bruce Greyson, a self proclaimed “skeptical scientist”, who as well as being a very well respected psychiatrist, has also spent the last 50 years pioneering near death studies. He went into this field confidently expecting to find a physiological explanation for what people were claiming to have experienced as their bodies were shutting down. But what he discovered challenged all his preconceived ideas. After the interview, Nomad hosts Tim Nash and Nick Thorley chat about the understanding of the afterlife they inherited, how their deconstruction challenged this, and how they might integrate Dr Greyson’s finding into their spirituality.  Interview starts at 17m 02s Show Notes → Nomad is able to host conversations like these because a group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over to our Patreon page and our own members page to donate. You might also want to have a look at our blog, which we use to share the stories of the evolving faith of our podcast listeners. And if you're looking for other people to share this journey with, then register on our Listener Map and our Nomad Gathering Facebook page, and see if any other nomads are in your area.

In this episode Jemimah McAlpine talks about her transformative experience of dance and her thinking about the theological significance of dancing. She and David Blower discuss dualism and embodiment and how reconnecting with our bodies can lead to an experience of wholeness and connection with the earth and everyone around us. Jemimah shares how embodiment has changed her understanding of God and enjoyment of life. Interview starts at 12m 32s Show Notes → Nomad is able to host conversations like these because a group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over to our Patreon page and our own members page to donate. You might also want to have a look at our blog, which we use to share the stories of the evolving faith of our podcast listeners. And if you're looking for other people to share this journey with, then register on our Listener Map and our Nomad Gathering Facebook page, and see if any other nomads are in your area.

It’s always a pleasure to have author, activist, and public theologian Brian McLaren on Nomad. This time we talk with Brian about the vital role that doubt plays in our faith development. Brian breaks down the faith journey into four stages - simplicity, complexity, perplexity and harmony. He talks about the struggles and joys of each stage, and how it’s only when we embrace our doubts that we can grow and move onto the next stage. After the interview, Nomad hosts Tim Nash and Nick Thorley ponder the role doubt played in the evangelicalism they inherited, and in the deconstruction and reconstruction of their faith. Interview starts at 20m 14s Show Notes → Nomad is able to host conversations like these because a group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over to our Patreon page and our own members page to donate. You might also want to have a look at our blog, which we use to share the stories of the evolving faith of our podcast listeners. And if you're looking for other people to share this journey with, then register on our Listener Map and our Nomad Gathering Facebook page, and see if any other nomads are in your area.

In this podcast, David Benjamin Blower converses with musician, podcaster and activist Samantha Lindo on the subject of music: music as a wisened friend, music as a gatherer of people and radical energies, and music as a kind of prayer that can halt the Powers that Be, even just for a moment. Interview starts at 23m 44s Show Notes → Nomad is able to host conversations like these because a group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over to our Patreon page and our own members page to donate. You might also want to have a look at our blog, which we use to share the stories of the evolving faith of our podcast listeners. And if you're looking for other people to share this journey with, then register on our Listener Map and our Nomad Gathering Facebook page, and see if any other nomads are in your area.

In this episode we speak with author of The God Who Riots, Damon Garcia. Damon talks to us about how he found meaning in the God of liberation theology after questioning his beliefs and leaving the faith he inherited. We explore the importance of embodiment and community in faithful practice and how our context shapes our ideas about God. We talk about reading the Bible from the perspective of the marginalised through the example of the Magnificat and the call to listen to those on the underside of power. After the interview, Nomad hosts Tim Nash and Jemimah McAlpine chat about Damon’s ideas, and the role liberation theology might in play in the reconstruction of their faith.  Interview starts at 14m 41s Nomad is able to host conversations like these because a group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over to our Patreon page and our own members page to donate. You might also want to have a look at our blog, which we use to share the stories of the evolving faith of our podcast listeners. And if you're looking for other people to share this journey with, then register on our Listener Map and our Nomad Gathering Facebook page, and see if any other nomads are in your area.

Ched Myers is a theologian, and author of the explosive Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark's Story of Jesus. We asked Ched to reflect on the theology and ecology of rivers for this extended devotional podcast. He takes us on a journey down the Ventura river, where he lives in California, and goes on to open up the radical political imagination of the many biblical visions of rivers, in a world where colonisation and empire habitually steal water and turn fertile places into deserts.  Ched has recently co-authored, with Elaine Enns: Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization. If you'd like to listen to devotionals like this one every month, then head over to our Patreon page and our own members page to donate. There you can also gain access  to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and further bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! You might also want to have a look at our blog, which we use to share the stories of the evolving faith of our podcast listeners. And if you're looking for other people to share this journey with, then register on our Listener Map and our Nomad Gathering Facebook page, and see if any other nomads are in your area.

Before the October Rebellion of 2019, we interviewed Dr Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, for the Everybody Now podcast. However, the whole conversation was so utterly fascinating that we wanted to upload it in its entirety, especially at a time when the freedom to protest is under threat. We talked to Gail about climate emergency and civil disobedience, and also about prayer and spirituality, science and wonder, sacredness, love and the radical power of women. We talked to Gail about climate emergency and civil disobedience, but also about prayer and spirituality, science and wonder, sacredness, love and the radical power of women. After the interview, Nomad hosts Tim Nash and David Blower chat about Gail’s activism and spiritual journey and ponder how it might shape their own spirituality.  Interview starts at 19m 21s If you'd like to help us fund our public domain podcasts project, head over to our gofundme page. Nomad is able to host conversations like these because a group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over to our Patreon page and our own members page to donate. You might also want to have a look at our blog, which we use to share the stories of the evolving faith of our podcast listeners. And if you're looking for other people to share this journey with, then register on our Listener Map and our Nomad Gathering Facebook page, and see if any other nomads are in your area.

In this episode we talk about Jesus with Franciscan friar, founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation and author of The Universal Christ, Richard Rohr. Fr. Richard believes Jesus is the personification of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. Consequently, he sees faith as being less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognise the Creator’s presence all around us and in everyone we meet. So we ask Fr. Richard how his faith has been reshaped by this discovery, what the implications of the loss of this worldview have been for the Church and the world, where the atonement fits in, whether there’s still any need for religion, and many more questions. Following the interview, Nomad hosts Tim Nash and Nick Thorley reflect on how the idea of the Cosmic Christ challenges the evangelicalism they inherited, and might be a foundation for their reconstructed faith.  Interview starts at 17m 53s Nomad is able to host conversations like these because a group of faithful listeners help us pay the bills. Our supporters gain access to the Nomad community - which manifests as Nomad Book Club and The Beloved Listener Lounge - and bonus episodes, such as Nomad Contemplations, Nomad Devotionals and Nomad Revisited. And you may find yourself the proud owner of a Beloved Listener mug! Head over to our Patreon page and our own members page to donate. You might also want to have a look at our blog, which we use to share the stories of the evolving faith of our podcast listeners. And if you're looking for other people to share this journey with, then register on our Listener Map and our Nomad Gathering Facebook page, and see if any other nomads are in your area.