THINQ Media Podcast

Much of what's happening in the American justice system remains overlooked. America boasts the highest rate of incarceration in the world, but even more alarming are the system’s endemic injustices. Minority communities are far more afflicted by the justice system, a reality that affects the psyches of the children who grow up in them. Additionally, our system treats you much better if you’re rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent. Bryan Stevenson believes these realities are fundamentally changing our world, and he’s devoted his life’s work to finding solutions.

Jackie Hill-Perry knows that a life well lived speaks volumes in a world of contradiction. As individualism becomes common and pursuing your deepest feelings and desires is perceived as heroic, denying one's self is revolutionary. Her story of denying sexual desires to pursue true flourishing gives witness to a better way. A spoken word artist, Jackie will help us think through how self-denial can be what it was always meant to be inside our churches.

Over half of children think their parents check their phone too often, with a quarter of parents agreeing they want to look at their devices less. Yet it's difficult to pry ourselves away from technology, so social media is in large part making us less social. Andy Crouch reflects on these issues in his forthcoming book, The Techwise Family, and will help us think through utilizing tech in a way that contributes to relationships instead of taking away from them.

Drought. Food shortages. Conflict. These are deadly forces that children throughout East Africa are facing. Areas in South Sudan and Somalia are on the brink of catastrophe. Kenya and Ethiopia face severe drought. Tens of thousands of children could starve to death because of food and water shortages. But this crisis isn't hitting the news as it should. 25.5 million people, our brothers and sisters, are at risk of starvation. This hunger crisis is likely to be the most devastating since we were kids and witnessed Ethiopia's famine. Rich Stearns (President, World Vision US) and Gabe Lyons share a heartfelt conversation on the details and scope of this hunger crisis and what you can directly do about it today and the days to come. Want to learn more about the hunger crisis and what you can do? FAMINE & HUNGER IN AFRICA: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW MAKE AN IMPACT THROUGH GIVING & SHARING

The very last words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew are summed up in The Great Commission, a call for the Church to make disciples. Yet the Church has approached this process in different ways throughout history. How are today’s Christians carrying out the Great Commission, and what are the unique challenges to disciple-making in the 21st Century? Ed Stetzer presents new research on this topic as he paints a portrait of the future of discipleship. 

Gabe Lyons had a conversation with Jeremy Courtney about how the idea of loving anyway is changing lives in Iraq and Syria. Jeremy is the founder and president of Preemptive Love, an organization serving the refugee, the oppressed and the most vulnerable. 

For thousands of years, mystics and Church fathers have understood the havoc the seven deadly sins reap in the human heart. But in a culture disinterested in a vocabulary of sin, these shadow sides can fester. Author and Enneagram expert, Ian Cron, suggests we each have blind spots—areas of temptation we’re uniquely prone to—that keep us from being who God has made us to be. 

We are increasingly losing touch with what it means to be human: how we treat one another, where meaning is derived from, and what purpose we are here to serve. Mark Sayers sees this not as a reason to despair, but as an opportunity for the church to meet the needs of this moment through discipleship. As the culture fails to meaningfully address what it means to be human, what opportunities might that create? 

Forty percent of Americans believe that those with opposing political views pose a threat to the nation. In many ways, we are more divided than ever before: from race, to women’s rights, to conservative and liberal policies. But when we focus on differences it’s impossible to move toward creating community. Hip-hop artist, Propaganda, reminds us that the solution is to be intersectional. As a prophetic voice for reconciliation, he encourages us to find common ground.

In a wide-ranging conversation interspersed with song, author of The Sacredness of Questioning Everything David Dark and musician Dave Bazan (formerly, of Pedro the Lion) will discuss the struggles of a questioning faith. They’ll wrestle with the joys and tensions of attempting to sustain a creative and neighborly livelihood without lying or going crazy.