@ Sea With Justin Mcroberts

In her landmark book “Caring For Words in a Culture of Lies” Marylin McEntyre writes… “If language is to retain its power to nourish and sustain our common life, we have to care for it in something like the way good farmers care for the life of the soil, knowing nothing worth eating can be grown in soil that has been used up, fertilized or exposed too many toxic chemicals.” — There may not be a cultural sphere in greater need of that kind of word-care than that of American Christianity. My guest is author, journalist and cultural critic Jonathan Merritt. His most recent book is entitled “Learning to Speak God From Scratch” and is, in my reading of it, a courageous and wise effort to care for the words that shape contemporary religious life. In my conversation with him, we dig into his recent book, its history and a few other pieces of the soil beneath out feet. Check it out.

This is part two of my interview with visual artist and storyteller Scott Erickson. If you haven’t had the chance to check out part one, it’s not necessary to hear it first .. but… it might be helpful.. and it’s a great conversation. The second half of our conversation turns more specifically to the role of art in personal life and well as communal and religious life. We also dig a bit into the difficult of spoken language vs the freedom of visual expression and look, as best as we can into the future. Check it out…

My guest on this episode is long-time friend and co-creator Scott Erickson. He and I created and released the book “Prayer: 40 Days of Practice” a few years ago and his partnership has been not only enjoyable but enriching and transformative. Scott’s work as a visual artist and storyteller comes from and carves out what I consider a vital and sincerely unique place in American Religious culture. Unique to such a degree that I’ve divided this interview into two parts, of which this is part one… I intend to give you the opportunity to be challenged, inspired and moved by an artist whose work I consider right for this shared moment in our history. Check it out.

Jan 1 2018 was a landmark day for marijuana legalization in CA. For many, the moment was another stumbling misstep towards even more compromised societal norms. For others, including my guest, it was a hard-fought-for moment emblematic of a culture coming to its senses and embracing a kind of inevitable tide. Either way, It was a divisive moment, charged with the energy that often comes from social, economic and interpersonal difference. It was a moment I decided this podcast needed to enter into. My guest, Matt Shotwell, has been in the weed business for over a decade and was featured on Discovery Channel’s reality show “Weed Country.” He’s also a son to his parents, brother to his siblings, an adoptive parent to a piranha named Brittany,  a person of faith and a long-time friend of mine. So, I’m inviting you into a conversation about a real-life cultural shift. I’m inviting you into a conversation with someone whose world you may not be at all familiar with or comfortable. I’m also inviting you into a conve

“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. – Amos 8:11 You may have noticed a bit of a lag between episodes of this podcast. If you’ll allow… that lag as been rather intentional. I’ve not known what to say, what to this shared cultural moment of ours… I didn’t honestly know if it was even my place to say or add anything. I don’t want to just be making noises. Even if they’re pleasant noises. So, I spent some time doing the thing I’m learning is the key to not only a good/great podcast, but a well -lived life: I listened. My guest on this episode is Michael McBride. And just as he did in Season 1 of the @ Sea podcast. He offers an invitation, a challenge and a wisdom that not only clarifies my place in the world around me, but also the path before me, through that world, as a culture maker. I hope and expect this conversation may do the same for you. Check it out.

You may have heard the rumor or legend or sorts that certain cultures throughout history have been at least suspicious or cautious about photography in fear that something of the soul was captured in the process. The other side of that coin is that, to many purveyors of the arts, a great portrait actually has to do just that. I came across Jeremy Cowart’s work in the weeks and months after a horrific earthquake nearly flattened Port Au Prince, Haiti in January of 2010. With the project, entitled “Voices of Haiti,” Jeremy captured the collision of and tension between ruin and resolve, hope and despair,.. all of which to say, his work captured, set against the backdrop of a devastating natural disaster, a very human picture. His work since then has continued to range from photo shoots with some of the most recognizable names in entertainment to the development of a hotel that will, when it comes to life, will revolutionize the way we stay somewhere when we’re not home. Check it out….

The question “What do you do?” or “What do you do for a living?” it’s not so much a question about work as it is a way to figure out who someone is; a question of identity. And that relationship between who I am and what I do can be tricky,… even confusing. Too closely tying my identity to my work can lead towards a dehumanized, utilitarian view of my own humanity… while drawing a thick black line between who I am and what I do can lead to a kind of dysphoria … Carlos Whittaker has developed apps, written and performed songs, led an online weight loss program, taught courses on the proper use of Instagram as well as having written two books, including his most recent work “Kill The Spider.” As I think you’ll hear in my conversation with Carlos, his process and evolution has been one in which he relentlessly pursues a sense of his place in the world at the cost of safe career steps and even, at times, at the cost of safe religious conclusions. All the while, he invites his readers and listeners to join him alo

The ways we move into and out of one another’s lives… the modality of relationship, is a matter of art. In fact, I resonate with Seth Godin’s definition of art as anything that facilitates human connection… including, in my own iteration of the definition, a relationship with one’s self. For nearly two decades Sandra McCracken has been making music that not only facilitates human connection, but has done so with a particularly thoughtful attentiveness. In our conversation, we consider whether or not it is that connection that makes art sacred… rather than a particular setting or use. Check it out.

Welcome to episode 1 of season 3 of the @ Sea Podcast. My guest is Dominique DuBois Gilliard. Dominique is the director of racial righteousness and reconciliation for the Love Mercy Do Justice Initiative of Evangelical Covenant Church. He is also the author of Rethinking Incarceration, which is the focus of my conversation with him. We pick up as I’m finishing setup (full disclosure: we were both late to the interview site and I had to start before I was completely ready. Regardless, from the outset and throughout this unedited conversation, we cover some vital and rarely trod ground in the areas of race, justice and a redemptive view of both political and religious power. Check it out.

in 1981, in Yorkshire, England, Peter William Sutcliffe was convicted of the murder of 13 women over a span of about 5 years. Police were criticized for there slowness of the investigation, the pace of which which appeared to pick up only after one of Suttcliffe’s victims turn out *not* to be a prostitute. Among those leveling criticism was Julie Bindel, who is my guest on this episode of the podcast. A teenager at the time, Julie took part in a series of protests, including one in which the public suggestion was made my that, instead of women staying off the streets for their own defense, as was suggested by the police, men should stay off the streets in order to ensure the safety of women. That kind of insightful and poignant expression continues to mark Julie Bindel’s work as a journalist and as a political activist. She is also the author of two books, “Straight Expectations” and, more recently, “The Pimping of Prostitution: Abolishing the Myth of Sex Work.” This episode was recorded during a live @ Sea E

I’m going go out on a limb and suggest that almost every music listener, even more casual fans, has been privy a conversation revolving around the idea of “selling out.” A conversation focused on what is happening or might happen to a band who is suddenly faced with the seemingly intractable dilemma…  of making money. A conversation often highlighted by expressions and declarations of how much we liked their early work and how so and so might dig this band now, but doesn’t really get what they’re actually about. For an artists on the other side of that conversation, what once were joyful and highly motivating dreams of doing what she loves and paying for her life are now thoughts weighed down by the possibility that many of those who helped her get there might leave… because she’d made it. Art, like charity or justice work, has an odd public relationship with money. For many onlookers, the moment a creator turns even slightly one way or another towards a paycheck, the whole of their work is thrown into questi

Artists and critics have a famously contentious relationship. It can seem, at least, that the discipline of critiquing stands at odds  to the discipline of creating it. Yet, I can’t think of really any professional artist who doesn’t hold some very pointed opinions about the work they consume (as well as their own. And I’ve yet to meet a professional critic whose attention to an art form didn’t at least begin in a sincere admiration for… if not love for… that same art form. My guest on this episode is poet and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib. In our brief conversation, I think you’ll find a vision of art, pop culture, industry and creativity in which there aren’t hard lines between diagnosis or analysis and a long, loving gaze and what human hands have made. Our conversation actually begins with him reflecting on a grammy moment in which Adele used time during her acceptance speech to suggest that Beyonce was perhaps, more deserving of the award. Check it out.

Some of my guests make national news. They win Grammys or national book awards. But this will never be a podcast about what’s most popular or what’s trending, per se. My interest is in connecting you with great culture makers, because I believe what they do deepens and enriches our lives. My guest on this episode is Civil Rights professor and cultural curator Dr. Todd Allen. Since 2002, Dr. Todd has not only taught in the classroom on the history of the Civil Rights movement, but has led a bus tour to many of the sites vital to that movement. In doing so, he connects dots that might otherwise live in desperate parts of his guests hearts and minds. I caught up with him briefly in Pittsburgh, PA and I think our short conversation might help us connect some of those same dots. Check it out.

This Friday, June 16, the Tupac Shakur Biopic “All Eyez on Me” hits theaters. The film is  named after the rapper’s remarkable 1996 release “All Eyes On Me.” Since his death in September of that same year, conversation around and engagement with Tupac and his work has never really gone away. He’s one of those artists whose impact on his genre and culture is so deep that it still bears noting, two decades after his last contribution. For many of his listeners, the connection wasn’t just Tupac’s incredible talent, but the unapologetic way he granted the world access to his story; a story in which millions of people recognized a bit of themselves and their own story. The “All Eyes On Me” album reached the very rare sales status known as “Diamond Status,” denoting the sale of over 10 million copies in the United States. Tupac’s depiction of life within his own home and hometown is regularly recognized as not just important, but in many eyes, prophetic. My guest on this episode of the podcast is one such person. D

My guest on this episode of the podcast is actually my first 2-time guest, Michael Wear.  During season 1, Michael shared his unique angle on not just the idea of politics, but the human practice of politics.  As someone who has lived and worked in Washington DC with the women and men who often end up characterized as either heroes or demons, Micheal sees the human interplay and the redemptive arc of American politics. His book, aptly entitled “Reclaiming Hope,” had not hit shelves last time we talked and I think it possesses a very intriguing corner of the public conversation this side of the 2016 election. For that reason and many more, I figured it was time for something of a check-in with Michael Wear. Check it out.

My guest on this episode is Mark Labberton. Mark is the author of three deeply insightful books and is most likely better known as the President of Fuller Theological Seminary. Mark’s work and friendship have often been, for me, a lifeline to hope when it comes to the communal, institutional practice of faith. When it comes to a particular group of human beings, practicing religious faith together, and the economic, political, vocational, racial soup that often is, there’s nothing I’ve seen that he hasn’t seen, nothing I know that he doesn’t know. And he not only continues to hope for, but joyfully work towards the enrichment, growth and flourishing of The Church in its many forms, including its more traditional manifestations. This podcast seeks to highlight great culture makers because what they do deepens and enriches our lives.  My conversation with Mark Labberton ranges from excavating key words in western religious culture to early musical loves and first purchases to what it looks like to faithfully en

A few nights ago, I took my newborn daughter, who was crying, into the small office space where I do most of my work, including recording and editing this podcast. I deftly navigated my laptop while holding her in the other arm… and started playing through some of my favorite songs. We listened to… Sigur Ros Jonsi and Alex Josh Ritter Kendrick Lamar and some older stuff from Tribe Called Quest. I could feel her breathing change with the music. She was captured, are are most people, by this incredible gift we’ve been given. She’’s only 12 days old at the time of this recording and won’t remember this moment… but put my face close to hers and whispered “This is music. It might be the best thing we’ve done as humans.” There’s something physical, emotional as well as spiritual about the human connection to song. My guest on this episode is Ryan O’Neil whose work bears the name “Sleeping At Last.” Ryan is an artist who is keenly and intentionally aware of that unique connection between listeners and the music they

My guest on this episode of the podcast is hip hop artist Propaganda. I have a somewhat poignant recollection of my fist real experience with hip-hop. On April 18, 1992, I was standing in the outfield of the Oakland Coliseum with thousands of other people like me.  It was about 1 hr before Bono and U2 took the stage for a Bay Area stop of the Zoo tour and on the mic was an MC named Chuck D,. He was pacing the stage, delivering powerful, poetic lines with an authority and a focus I quite honestly hadn’t seen before in an artist … and have rarely experienced since. Chuck D was (and is) a singular performer and lyricist. But as much as I was being swept up by the brilliance of Public Enemy… what I was primarily experiencing was the full force of hip hop. I was invited into a narrative and a narrative form with which I was mostly unfamiliar… but one that would eventually take a prominent place in the center of public life and dialogue. I can’t think of a popular art form as broadly accessible while being so polit

The line between what is sacred and what some may call “secular” or “profane” is a famously difficult line to navigate. Volumes have been written and argued over regarding where that line is, how to recognize it and how to communicate that line to others. My guest on episode 11 is songwriter and advocate, Audrey Assad. Her work suggests that the real task might not be so much finding, navigating and communicating a line between where God is and where God isn’t … but sifting, granularly, through one’s own human experience in expectation and hope of discovering a multitude of divine moments and expressions. That’s a practice my faith tradition calls “discernment.” And among the many admirable characteristics I think you’ll discover in Audrey Assad during our conversation, perhaps most notably is that she is faithfully and generously discerning. Check it out. — NOTE: You can support the @ Sea Podcast and be part of the community that makes this work possible. 

My guest on Episode 10 of the @ Sea Podcast is author David Dark.  I call him an “author,” perhaps because that’s what he may be best known for. But David is also a professor at Bellmont University in Tennessee, a huge music nerd, a collector of insights and wisdom and a kind of translator between the world as it is and the world we might expect/want it to be. Rather than living in or pointing to the clouds with visions of things as they ought to be, David, in just about all areas of his work, bends low to the ground, picking up clues busier minds (like mine) would otherwise have missed; clues that lead to the hope and expectation that this, in fact, a good world, pregnant with meaning and potential. In fact, asking David to lead off this Second season of the podcast felt really appropriate because he lives out so well what I seek to achieve with this podcast: to reframe the way we see ourselves, our neighbors and God (and maybe more appropriately) to break the frame and allow/invite a more broadly receptive