In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer

Caroline Bicks spent a year studying Stephen King’s personal archives, including early drafts of Carrie, The Shining, Salem’s Lot, Night Shift, and Pet Sematary. She was also able to do something rather extraordinary: bring what she found back to King and ask him about it.We talk about what those manuscripts reveal about King’s writing process, his extraordinary attention to language, his childhood and life in Maine, his relationship with Tabitha King, and the fears and moral questions beneath his stories.Caroline’s new book is Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King. I went into it as someone who had never read a Stephen King novel. I came out thinking I’d read one of the best books about writing I’ve encountered._____LINKShttps://carolinebicks.comMonsters in the Archives_____I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times.Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said.  Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle, and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free.Support the show_____In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip.Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube.https://frankschaeffer.substack.comhttps://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaefferhttps://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_arthttps://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_arthttps://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaefferhttps://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTubeIn Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast

Shadi Hamid joins Frank to discuss Can Religion Save Democracy?, the book he co-authored with Christian theologian Matthew Kaemingk.Their friendship doesn’t depend on pretending their religious differences don’t exist. They disagree about some of the biggest questions a person can ask.That becomes the starting point for a larger conversation about democracy.Frank and Shadi talk about humility, certainty, forgiveness, political idolatry, cancel culture, and the possibility of treating disagreement as something democracy must learn to live with rather than eliminate._____Can Religion Save Democracy?Baker PublishingBookshop_____I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times.Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said.  Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle, and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free.Support the show_____In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip.Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube.https://frankschaeffer.substack.comhttps://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaefferhttps://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_arthttps://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_arthttps://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaefferhttps://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTubeIn Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast

Jennifer Breheny Wallace, an award-winning journalist and author, explores what it means to feel valued and useful. She reflects on her father’s gift for making people feel seen, parenting beyond achievement, and finding purpose through everyday connection. The conversation also examines life transitions, technology’s erosion of human closeness, and AI’s challenge to our sense of significance.

Daisy Fancourt, a UCL professor and leading arts-and-health researcher, explores how music, stories, creativity, and shared artistic experiences shape wellbeing. She discusses empathy, childhood development, aging, dementia, crisis, arts funding, and the rise of arts-on-prescription healthcare. Frank Schaeffer recalls how Mozart helped him overcome severe dyslexia, adding a deeply personal note to this fascinating conversation.

April Reynolds, novelist, editor, and creative writing professor, joins a conversation about The Shape of Dreams. They explore publishing in a distracted age, students’ love of reading, and the Black church as community infrastructure. Reynolds discusses East Harlem and South Dallas during the crack and AIDS epidemics, writing a mother’s devastating loss, neighborhood memory, immigration, democracy, and the stories that connect us.

Gretchen Sisson, author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood, joins me for a conversation about what adoption looks like when we begin with the experiences of mothers who relinquished their children.Many of the women Gretchen interviewed wanted to parent. Poverty, unstable housing, lack of child care, and other pressures often made that choice feel impossible.We talk about reproductive autonomy, abortion, religion, family values, the history of forced adoption, the economics of private adoption, and the danger of treating human beings as commodities. We also look ahead to reproductive technology and ask a question that is becoming harder to avoid: who will have the power to decide which families are supported and which are not?At the center of the conversation is a simple idea. If someone wants to raise their child, perhaps our first response should be to help them do it._____LINKSRelinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood_____I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times.Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said.  Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle, and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free.Support the show_____In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip.Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube.https://frankschaeffer.substack.comhttps://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaefferhttps://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_arthttps://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_arthttps://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaefferhttps://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTubeIn Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast

Richard Bruxvoort Colligan has spent years living with, studying, singing, and rewriting the Psalms.What interests me is that he doesn’t turn them into easy answers.We talk about his book Dangerous Songs, his experience with severe depression, the strange honesty of Psalm 88, grief, gun violence, joy, gratitude, and the human need to know we are not alone.The Psalms have lasted because they tell the truth. Life can be heartbreaking and wonderful at the same time._____LINKSDangerous Songs: The Psalms and a Gloriously Disrupted Lifehttps://www.worldmaking.net_____I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times.Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said.  Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle, and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free.Support the show_____In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip.Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube.https://frankschaeffer.substack.comhttps://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaefferhttps://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_arthttps://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_arthttps://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaefferhttps://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTubeIn Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast

Frank talks with Dr. Craig Yorke, author of Steep: A Black Neurosurgeon’s Journey, about growing up in Boston, the fierce expectations of his parents, Harvard and medical school, race and colorism, his years as a neurosurgeon, and the family and community that eventually gave his life another measure of success.Craig describes his memoir as an attempt to understand whether the past incarcerates us or whether we can learn to see it with greater perspective. Their conversation is about achievement, but also about its price, the armor we inherit, and what it means to gradually put some of that armor down._____LINKSSteep: A Black Neurosurgeon's Journey_____I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times.Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said.  Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle, and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free.Support the show_____In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip.Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube.https://frankschaeffer.substack.comhttps://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaefferhttps://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_arthttps://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_arthttps://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaefferhttps://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTubeIn Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast

Michael O. Emerson, sociologist studying religion and race, and Glenn Bracey, Villanova sociologist focused on race, social movements, and law, discuss their book. They explore how whiteness takes on sacred qualities in many white Christian circles. Conversation touches on betrayal in multiracial churches, opportunity hoarding, symbolic worship of racial identity, and links to contemporary politics like MAGA.

Frank Schaeffer talks with David Dault about his book The Accessorized Bible and the difference between treating the Bible as an object and living Scripture as a practice of responsibility and love.The conversation explores faith, conversion, institutional corruption, moral seriousness, Pope Francis, Cornel West, and what Christianity looks like when vulnerable people become the center of the story._____LINKSThe Accessorized Bible_____I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times.Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said.  Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle, and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free.Support the show_____In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip.Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube.https://frankschaeffer.substack.comhttps://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaefferhttps://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_arthttps://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_arthttps://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaefferhttps://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTubeIn Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast