“I think part of what it means to live in an honest way with a religious tradition is to live with its ragged edges.”

It’s not unusual to assume that one of religion's prime functions is to give us answers. But what if some of life’s hardest questions weren’t meant to be answered, but rather perpetually asked?

In this episode, Rabbi Shai Held, author of the book, "Judaism is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life,” exemplifies this possibility, engaging the messiness and joy of life with honest grappling. He argues that some Jews have internalized traditional anti-Jewish bias and he seeks to help recover what has been lost. He shows that love and grace are at the center of a good life.

Show Notes

Resources mentioned this episode:

Judaism Is About Love by Shai Held

Similar No Small Endeavor episodes:

Amy-Jill Levine: A Jewish Take on Jesus

Jesuitical: How Young Catholics See the World

Miroslav Volf: A Theology of Joy

Pete Enns and Jared Byas: The Bible for Normal People

PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes

Episode Transcript

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This is our unabridged interview with Pete Enns and Jared Byas.

“It was our curiosity about the Bible that is now leading to conclusions that are no longer welcome in these institutions.”

Pete Enns and Jared Byas host The Bible for Normal People, a podcast which is loved by some, lambasted by others. They started it as a way to have honest conversations about the Bible, for folks both religious and non-religious -- conversations that cost them both previous jobs at religious institutions.

In this episode, they discuss the complexity of the Bible, and what their work has taught them about courage, curiosity, humility, and the dangers of certainty.

Show Notes

Resources mentioned this episode:

The Sin of Certainty by Pete Enns

How the Bible Actually Works by Pete Enns

Love Matters More by Jared Byas

The Bible for Normal People

PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes

Transcript for Abridged Episode

Similar No Small Endeavor episodes:

Amy-Jill Levine: A Jewish Take on Jesus

Jesuitical: How Young Catholics See the World

N.T. Wright and the Bancroft Brothers: Theology and Poetry

JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, and discounts on live shows

Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

“It was our curiosity about the Bible that is now leading to conclusions that are no longer welcome in these institutions.”

Pete Enns and Jared Byas host The Bible for Normal People, a podcast which is loved by some, lambasted by others. They started it as a way to have honest conversations about the Bible, for folks both religious and non-religious -- conversations that cost them both previous jobs at religious institutions.

In this episode, they discuss the complexity of the Bible, and what their work has taught them about courage, curiosity, humility, and the dangers of certainty.

Show Notes

Resources mentioned this episode:

The Sin of Certainty by Pete Enns

How the Bible Actually Works by Pete Enns

Love Matters More by Jared Byas

The Bible for Normal People

PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes

Transcription Link

Similar No Small Endeavor episodes:

Amy-Jill Levine: A Jewish Take on Jesus

Jesuitical: How Young Catholics See the World

N.T. Wright and the Bancroft Brothers: Theology and Poetry

JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, and discounts on live shows

Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

This is our unabridged interview with Stanley Hauerwas (Part II).

“This is my life. I want no other.”

Time Magazine has recognized Stanley Hauerwas as the best theologian in America. But you don’t get that title by making everybody happy. Stanley's enigmatic personality is loved by some, lambasted by others. His dogged pacifism is laced with profanity. He’s a stereotypical Texan, but is a vocal opponent of gun ownership. Many think him to be a liberal, but he disavows liberalism. Others call him conservative, but his extreme dislike for evangelicalism and war-making dispute that claim.

Wherever you're coming from, you're in for a disarmingly candid episode on one man's life in his own words, a life spent relentlessly seeking the nature of a good life.

Show Notes:

Resources mentioned this episode

Hannah’s Child by Stanley Hauerwas

John Dear NSE Interview

PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes

Transcript for Abridged Episode

JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, and discounts on live shows

Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

This is our unabridged interview with Stanley Hauerwas (Part I).

“This is my life. I want no other.”

Time Magazine has recognized Stanley Hauerwas as the best theologian in America. But you don’t get that title by making everybody happy. Stanley's enigmatic personality is loved by some, lambasted by others. His dogged pacifism is laced with profanity. He’s a stereotypical Texan, but is a vocal opponent of gun ownership. Many think him to be a liberal, but he disavows liberalism. Others call him conservative, but his extreme dislike for evangelicalism and war-making dispute that claim.

Wherever you're coming from, you're in for a disarmingly candid episode on one man's life in his own words, a life spent relentlessly seeking the nature of a good life.

Show Notes:

Resources mentioned this episode

Hannah’s Child by Stanley Hauerwas

John Dear NSE Interview

PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes

Transcript for Abridged Episode

JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, and discounts on live shows

Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

“This is my life. I want no other.”

Time Magazine has recognized Stanley Hauerwas as the best theologian in America. But you don’t get that title by making everybody happy. Stanley's enigmatic personality is loved by some, lambasted by others. His dogged pacifism is laced with profanity. He’s a stereotypical Texan, but is a vocal opponent of gun ownership. Many think him to be a liberal, but he disavows liberalism. Others call him conservative, but his extreme dislike for evangelicalism and war-making dispute that claim.

Wherever you're coming from, you're in for a disarmingly candid episode on one man's life in his own words, a life spent relentlessly seeking the nature of a good life.

Show Notes:

Resources mentioned this episode

Hannah’s Child by Stanley Hauerwas

John Dear NSE Interview

PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes

Transcription Link 

JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, and discounts on live shows

Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

This is our unabridged interview with Jeffrey Rosen.

“In many ways, we're living in the founders’ nightmare,” says Jeffrey Rosen, president of the National Constitution Center. “All of the founders thought that we could not govern ourselves as a democracy unless we first achieved self-government as individuals.”

For Independence Day, Rosen shares how the "pursuit of happiness" mentioned in the Declaration of Independence is defined differently than our contemporary notion of the word. It includes a life in pursuit of self-mastery as what would ensure our individual and collective flourishing. Jeffrey also discusses the goods of stoic philosophy and touts the practice of deep reading as a potential antidote to civic issues the U.S. is facing currently.

Show Notes:

Resources mentioned this episode

The Pursuit of Happiness by Jeffrey Rosen

We The People Podcast

PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes

Transcript for Abridged Episode

JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, and discounts on live shows

Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

“In many ways, we're living in the founders’ nightmare,” says Jeffrey Rosen, president of the National Constitution Center. “All of the founders thought that we could not govern ourselves as a democracy unless we first achieved self-government as individuals.”

For Independence Day, Rosen shares how the "pursuit of happiness" mentioned in the Declaration of Independence is defined differently than our contemporary notion of the word. It includes a life in pursuit of self-mastery as what would ensure our individual and collective flourishing. Jeffrey also discusses the goods of stoic philosophy and touts the practice of deep reading as a potential antidote to civic issues the U.S. is facing currently.

Show Notes:

Resources mentioned this episode

The Pursuit of Happiness by Jeffrey Rosen

We The People Podcast

PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes

Transcription Link 

JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, and discounts on live shows

Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

This is our unabridged interview with Emi Nietfeld.

“When I was 13, I went to the psych ward for the first time,” recalls Emi Nietfeld.

After a childhood spent in manipulative therapy, institutional facilities, foster care, and even times of homelessness, Emi got into Harvard, and then went on to get a great job at Google. This is the classic American rags-to-riches story, of someone overcoming misery to find success and happiness, right?

Not exactly. “Those perfect human interest stories are fictions,” she says. “We really do expect people to be perfect in a way that I knew I was not.” In this episode, the nuance of learning to accept one’s pain, and yet refusing to stand for it.

** Please be advised that this episode contains details that may be upsetting to some listeners including references to suicide, sexual assault, and disordered eating. **

Additional resources are available at: 

SAMHSA

National Sexual Violence Resource Center

National Alliance for Eating Disorders

Show Notes

Resources mentioned this episode:

Acceptance by Emi Nietfeld

Quote from James Baldwin “Notes of a Native Son”

PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes

Transcript for Abridged Episode

JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, and discounts on live shows

Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

“When I was 13, I went to the psych ward for the first time,” recalls Emi Nietfeld.

After a childhood spent in manipulative therapy, institutional facilities, foster care, and even times of homelessness, Emi got into Harvard, and then went on to get a great job at Google. This is the classic American rags-to-riches story, of someone overcoming misery to find success and happiness, right?

Not exactly. “Those perfect human interest stories are fictions,” she says. “We really do expect people to be perfect in a way that I knew I was not.” In this episode, the nuance of learning to accept one’s pain, and yet refusing to stand for it.

** Please be advised that this episode contains details that may be upsetting to some listeners including references to suicide, sexual assault, and disordered eating. **

Additional resources are available at: 

SAMHSA

National Sexual Violence Resource Center

National Alliance for Eating Disorders

Show Notes

Resources mentioned this episode:

Acceptance by Emi Nietfeld

Quote from James Baldwin “Notes of a Native Son”

PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes

Transcription Link

JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, and discounts on live shows

Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

This is our unabridged interview with Charles Duhigg.

How do you form a good habit? How do you change a destructive one?

“It's up to us to decide which…habits that we wish to embrace,” says Charles Duhigg, author of the longtime bestseller "The Power of Habit." In this episode, he explains how to tackle new and old habits in an empowering way. 

Plus, Duhigg discusses his new book "Supercommunicators," in which he shares how to understand the type of conversation you're having with someone and how to show them your listening—hint, it’s not with your body language.

Show Notes:

Resources mentioned this episode

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg

PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes

Transcript for Abridged Episode

JOIN NSE+ Today! Our subscriber only community with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, and discounts on live shows

Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Google | YouTube
Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter
Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com

See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.