
The Habit
Conversations with writers about writing, hosted by Jonathan Rogers.
Latest episodes

May 30, 2022 • 34min
Robyn Wall, Recovering Perfectionist
Robyn Wall is the author of the picture books My First Book of Beards and My First Book of Tattoos (Random House Kids), as well as a story in The Lost Tales of Sir Galahad. In this episode, she speaks with Jonathan Rogers about perfectionism, baby steps, and watercolor lessons.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 23, 2022 • 44min
Katy Bowser Hutson & Flo Paris Oakes
Flo Paris Oakes and Katy Bowser Hutson have been longtime songwriting collaborators through the Rain for Roots collective, which makes singable scripture songs for kids and grownups alike. Both children’s ministry directors, they think a lot and very deeply about the spiritual formation of children. In this episode, Flo and Katy discuss their most recent project, Little Prayers for Ordinary Days, a book of prayers for children that they wrote with Tish Harrison Warren.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 16, 2022 • 48min
Matthew Clark on Only The Lover Sings
Matthew Clark is a singer-songwriter, podcaster, and essayist. He’s exceedingly thoughtful and well-read, and all that thinking and well-reading makes its way into everything he makes–and every conversation. His most recent project is an album called Only the Lover Sings, and a companion book of the same title–a compilation of essays by various writers inspired by the songs on the album.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 9, 2022 • 42min
Esau McCaulley Feels Defiant Joy
Esau McCaulley is a Bible scholar and Assistant Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. He’s a contributing writer at Christianity Today, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. His book Reading While Black won the 2021 Christianity Today Book Award for the category “Beautiful Orthodoxy.” His most recent book is a picture book called Josey Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 2, 2022 • 39min
Sandra McCracken Sends Out Light
Singer-songwriter Sandra McCracken released her first book in 2021. Send Out Your Light: The Illuminating Power of Scripture and Song is a memoir of a creative life and a meditation on the creative process.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apr 25, 2022 • 44min
Galahad Lives! Editors Pete Peterson and Jennifer Trafton
The Lost Tales of Sir Galahad is a collection of "newly discovered" tales of the Arthurian knight's adventures in the Wild Forest. In this episode of The Habit Podcast, husband-and-wife editorial dream team Pete Peterson and Jennifer Trafton discuss their work in bringing this work to life.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apr 18, 2022 • 48min
Leslie Bustard Loves Children's Books
Leslie Bustard is a writer, a teacher, a conference organizer, a publisher, and a museum-goer, among other things. She recruited forty writers to contribute essays to Wild Things and Castles in the Sky: A Guide to Choosing the Best Books for your Children, a book she curated and edited with her daughter Carey Bustard and editor Thea Rosenburg.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apr 11, 2022 • 44min
Mitali Perkins Speaks for Outsiders
Mitali Perkins has been a nominee for the National Book Award. She was born in India, but has lived all over the world. So it comes as no surprise that her books for young readers all explore the crossing of borders of one kind or another. Her newest book, Bare Tree and Little Wind, is a picture book that tells the story of Holy Week. In 2021, she published her first nonfiction book for adults, Steeped in Stories: Timeless Children’s Novels to Refresh our Tired Souls. In this episode, Mitali and Jonathan Rogers discuss the benefits of being an outsider, the transmission of morality and hope, and literary "aunties and uncles."Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apr 4, 2022 • 45min
Tom Douglas Harnesses Hurt
Tom Douglas is a country songwriting legend and a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. He recently released a movie—a one-man show called Love, Tom: A Letter of Hope to a Desperate World, streaming on Paramount Plus. It's a beautiful, wise, and honest meditation on the creative process. In this episode, Tom Douglas and Jonathan Rogers talk about harnessing hurt and rejecting idolatry in the creative process, and steering a middle course between apathy and anxiety.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 28, 2022 • 37min
Jessica Hooten Wilson wants you to be a saint
Jessica Hooten Wilson is the Louise Cowan Scholar in Residence at the University of Dallas. She has written books about Flannery O’Connor, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Walker Percy, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Her most recent book is The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints. In this episode, Dr. Wilson and Jonathan Rogers talk about the ways that reading great works of literature cultivates an imagination that moves us toward holiness.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.