"We Don't Grieve Alone" with Amanda Held Opelt

After a series of miscarriages, the loss of her grandma, and then her beloved sister, Amanda Held Opelt found solace in an unexpected place, in exploring ancient grief rituals in practices. In her first book, A Hole in the World: Finding Hope in Rituals of Grief and Healing, Amanda explores how such ancient grief rituals and practices can be a vessel for honest expression, communal connection, and even healing.

Amanda is an author, speaker, and songwriter. She has spent 15 years serving in the non-profit and humanitarian aid sectors and lives in the mountains of Boone, North Carolina. In my time with Amanda, we talk about the complexity of living in a world that can be both stunningly beautiful and so very broken. She helps us see the beauty of ritual and community and how loss has the potential to deepen our capacity for love, faith, and healing.

"Aesthetic 'Perfection' Does Not Equal Wholeness" with Amy Julia Becker

Amy Julia Becker is an award-winning writer and speaker on personal, spiritual, and social healing. Amy Julia’s most recent book is To Be Made Well: An Invitation to Wholeness, Healing, and Hope. Becker is a graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv). She also holds a bi-vocational license with the Evangelical Covenant Church.

In this episode, Amy Julia challenges us to look at healing, wholeness, and health in a new way; a way that helps us see ourselves as multidimensional, interrelated beings. She talks about what operating in the world of disability has taught her about beauty, invites us to see others and ourselves through the lens of belovedness, and shows us how being a specimen of physical flawlessness is not the highest form of health and wholeness.

"Shedding Pretense and Perfection" with Hope Carpenter

Hope Carpenter is a pastor, author, wife, and mom. Along with her husband Ron, she pastors Redemption Church in Greenville, South Carolina and San Jose, California. She has also authored two books, The Little Pink Book, and most recently, The Most Beautiful Disaster. Hope’s heart and passion is seeing people’s lives changed and transformed so that they can be everything God has created them to be.

"Beauty, Shame, and Neuroscience" with Dr. Curt Thompson

Dr. Thompson is a Washington D.C. based psychiatrist, author, and speaker who integrates interpersonal neurobiology and a Christian view of what it means to be human. He seeks to educate and encourage others as they seek to fulfill their intrinsic desire to feel known, valued and connected. Curt’s insights about how the brain affects and processes relationships help people discover a fresh perspective and practical applications to foster healthy and vibrant lives, allowing them to get unstuck and move toward the next beautiful thing they’re being called to make.