At Sea with Justin McRoberts

This episode airs in February of 2020 and gyms all over the country are wrapping up their New Year’s deals to entice newcomers. It’s a poorly kept secret in the fitness world that most gyms (24 hr Fitness, Planet Fitness and the like) harvest the majority of their memberships in January and then.. come February or March, actually count on you not showing up much at all, if at all. In other words, the expectation and intention of most of these campaigns has less to do with satisfying your actual need to live healthily and more to do with capitalizing on it and benefiting the financial health of the gym. Crossfit gyms are some of the few exceptions to that model. Started in Santa Cruz CA, (which is about an hour south of where I live), Crossfit (as a philosophy, a culture and eventually a network of gyms) has continued to upend and revolutionize not only the fitness world, but also the lives of many of its adherents. Of course, Crossfit has a good number of detractors as well. Some because of gyms and coaches who’ve gone off the rails and distorted a purer Crossfit culture and sometimes because folks flat out don’t like or agree with Crossfit’s core philosophies. Jeremy Jones is my guest on this episode. Jeremy was one of the early adopters of Crossfit as well as one of its first gym owners and coaches. A whole lot of what I’ve learned about physical health and exercise, I’ve learned from Jeremy, particularly as he’s developed what is now called “Thrivestry,” which you’ll get the chance to learn about over the course of our conversation. Check it out.  Links For Justin:Read Justin's SubstackOrder In The Low - NEW Book with Scott EricksonCoaching with JustinOrder In Rest - New Book of PoemsOrder Sacred StridesJustinMcRoberts.comSupport this podcastNEW Single - Let GoNEW Music - Sliver of HopeNEW Music - The Dood and The BirdThe Book - It Is What You Make itHearts and Minds Amazon Barnes and Noble

In a recent poll of Australians, 70% of those polled claimed to mistrust religious leaders. Of course, I don’t spend a lot of time searching Australian polling data. I saw this because I pay attention to author and missiologist Michael Frost. Michael,  has spent much the past two decades tilting his ear towards those who live well beyond the walls of the institutional church, because… It is impossible to fulfill the Christian imperative to love my neighbor if I don’t know my neighbor. Michael’s work might be most poignantly categorized as a valiant and persistent effort to help us love those we live near. He is as a professor at Moorling college in Sydney and the author of 12 books, including his most recent: “Keep Christianity Weird.” He is also my guest on this episode of the @ Sea Podcast. Check it out.  Links For Justin:Read Justin's SubstackOrder In The Low - NEW Book with Scott EricksonCoaching with JustinOrder In Rest - New Book of PoemsOrder Sacred StridesJustinMcRoberts.comSupport this podcastNEW Single - Let GoNEW Music - Sliver of HopeNEW Music - The Dood and The BirdThe Book - It Is What You Make itHearts and Minds Amazon Barnes and Noble

In his early letters to Jesus followers the Apostle Paul regularly and specifically warned against a religious philosophy called Gnosticism. In short, Gnosticism valued immaterial things and particular devalued the human body. Over 2000 years later, it seems to me that disembodiment of various kinds continues to pose a threat, not just to a healthy Christian practice of faith but to a healthy practice of life together with others, as neighbors, regardless of religious preference.      My guest’s debut book “This Is My Body: A Memoir of Religious and Romantic Obsession,” reads like an invitation to full, human embodiment. Which is to say, it serves as a kind of remedy to the disembodied value system continually looming in American religious, economic and political life. Cameron Dezen Hammon is an essayist, an author and the host of her own podcast (called The Ish). She is also my guest on this episode of the @ Sea Podcast. Check it out.  Links For Justin:Read Justin's SubstackOrder In The Low - NEW Book with Scott EricksonCoaching with JustinOrder In Rest - New Book of PoemsOrder Sacred StridesJustinMcRoberts.comSupport this podcastNEW Single - Let GoNEW Music - Sliver of HopeNEW Music - The Dood and The BirdThe Book - It Is What You Make itHearts and Minds Amazon Barnes and Noble

The power of those who identify, translate and communicate current events is truly massive; sometimes frighteningly so. In 1978, Science fiction writer  Philip K. Dick warned against the power of what he called “the media,” writing… “I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind.”  I think that’s a fair warning. At the same time I also think that entitles like FOX, CNN, The NYT, USA Today are inextricable from American culture; they’re not going anywhere. Sure, the names will change, but there will always be centralized sources whose role and responsibility is to identify, translate and communicate current events.  The question for me then becomes “What kind of person do I trust with that kind of influence?”  Kiresten powers has been and continues to be that kind of person. Former podcast guest and author Jonathan Merritt once described her as “that feisty, funny commentator on CNN” and she certainly is those tings. She also has a keen eye for nuance in otherwise 2 dimensional news stories and a practice of self examination the likes of which I rarely see in any kind of public figure, be they pastors or rock stars or politicians.  She is a journalist, an author, a podcaster and my guest on this episode of the @ Sea podcast. Check it out.  Links For Justin:Read Justin's SubstackOrder In The Low - NEW Book with Scott EricksonCoaching with JustinOrder In Rest - New Book of PoemsOrder Sacred StridesJustinMcRoberts.comSupport this podcastNEW Single - Let GoNEW Music - Sliver of HopeNEW Music - The Dood and The BirdThe Book - It Is What You Make itHearts and Minds Amazon Barnes and Noble

World suicide prvention day is Sept 10 this year. If you’ve been around my life or work for any stretch of time, you know that suicide, depression and related realties have played a significant role for me, in the show of my father’s suicide in may of 1998. I can trace back just about all the work I do as an artist and advocate to some threat extending from that moment. Regardless, the conversations I’ve had more directly about suicide have been, at times, clumsy, awkward, confusing… and I don’t think that’s always been because the topic is hard to approach emotionally. I think, as much as anything, we aren’t culturally well practiced at it; we lack sufficient language and expression, much less common language and expression .Jamie Tworkowski, through the organization he started TWLOHA, has been invested in that conversation for nearly a decade and a half. His book, #IfYouFeelTooMuch, along with recording the somewhat accidental beginnings of that journey, is also a long look at Jamie’s experience in the culture and conversation around mental health, self care, cutting, and suicide; it’s a way to say “yes, this stuff can be strange and difficult, but it’s worth the effort to learn to do this well because the people we’re talking about, the people we’re talking with are wroth it; and you might be one of them.”Check it out. Links For Justin:Read Justin's SubstackOrder In The Low - NEW Book with Scott EricksonCoaching with JustinOrder In Rest - New Book of PoemsOrder Sacred StridesJustinMcRoberts.comSupport this podcastNEW Single - Let GoNEW Music - Sliver of HopeNEW Music - The Dood and The BirdThe Book - It Is What You Make itHearts and Minds Amazon Barnes and Noble

I met Sarah Thebarge in Houston at a gathering of speakers and artists focused on advocating for children in poverty. I was immediately struck, not only by how articulate she was but by the depth and breadth of her definition of human flourishing. That depth and breadth runs through all her work and every conversation I’ve had with her, including this one. Check it out. Links For Justin:Read Justin's SubstackOrder In The Low - NEW Book with Scott EricksonCoaching with JustinOrder In Rest - New Book of PoemsOrder Sacred StridesJustinMcRoberts.comSupport this podcastNEW Single - Let GoNEW Music - Sliver of HopeNEW Music - The Dood and The BirdThe Book - It Is What You Make itHearts and Minds Amazon Barnes and Noble

I first met Christena Cleveland across the street from a conference where, later that day, she would speak on issues of race and the long road towards unity among Christians. Her presentation was 3 minutes long.What I left that conference with was’t just what I heard Dr. Cleveland present in her few minutes.. but I left eyes somewhat newly opened to a system/culture that was comfortable nodding towards that which was non-white or non-male, but far less interested in fully investing. I also left with an awareness of my complicity. Since then, I’ve paid attention to Dr. Clevelands work as an author, blogger speaker and culture creator. I’ve looked forward to this interview for quite a while..Which brings me to this somewhat unfortunate and somewhat comical production note: My 2 year old has developed an interest in all my electronics and had her way with the input controls just a few moments before I go Dr. Cleveland on the line. You’ll year my voice peak off and on throughout the conversation. That said.. Dr. Clevelands voice is clear as day and full of wisdom for this moment. Check it out.  Music for this episode is by Podington Bear. Links For Justin:Read Justin's SubstackOrder In The Low - NEW Book with Scott EricksonCoaching with JustinOrder In Rest - New Book of PoemsOrder Sacred StridesJustinMcRoberts.comSupport this podcastNEW Single - Let GoNEW Music - Sliver of HopeNEW Music - The Dood and The BirdThe Book - It Is What You Make itHearts and Minds Amazon Barnes and Noble

That songwriting is an art is widely understood. What can be messy or confusing is what becomes of any art, and particularly songwriting, when it becomes a job, a business or an industry. And then, what becomes of the people who identified as professional artists when the season changes and the industry evolves? Part of what makes Andrew Osenga a standout artist, aside from his clear capability as a songwriter, is the posture he lives in towards the making of music, the people who make music and the business of making music a job. He is an artist, through and through. I enjoyed my conversation with him and expect you will as well. Check it out:  Links For Justin:Read Justin's SubstackOrder In The Low - NEW Book with Scott EricksonCoaching with JustinOrder In Rest - New Book of PoemsOrder Sacred StridesJustinMcRoberts.comSupport this podcastNEW Single - Let GoNEW Music - Sliver of HopeNEW Music - The Dood and The BirdThe Book - It Is What You Make itHearts and Minds Amazon Barnes and Noble

For a season, Aaron Niequist worked at a church called Willow Creek in the Chicago area; a church that functioned as a kind of flagship for mainline christian Chruch practice. He also served at Mars Hill in Grant Rapids Michigan, a church whose culture was often seen as a next step away from (if not a remedy for) the culture and practice of churches like Willow Creek. In my conversation with Aaron, I found someone who is sincerely and profoundly concerned with the actual formation of actual people. His concern as well as his expertise stem form having been in the mix and invested in these various expressions of faith through multiple seasons of change, Aaron is a husband, dad, a liturgist and a writer. His recent book “The Eternal Current” is the focus of our conversation and a helpful look at the practices that hold form and hold together a life and a culture. Check it out. Links For Justin:Read Justin's SubstackOrder In The Low - NEW Book with Scott EricksonCoaching with JustinOrder In Rest - New Book of PoemsOrder Sacred StridesJustinMcRoberts.comSupport this podcastNEW Single - Let GoNEW Music - Sliver of HopeNEW Music - The Dood and The BirdThe Book - It Is What You Make itHearts and Minds Amazon Barnes and Noble

Welcome to Season 4! And what a way to kick it off! In the fall of 2018, I got to spend a few weeks on the road with Jen Hatmaker and Nichole Nordeman on their Moxie Matters tour. For 15 nights, I got to play songs and then watch  rooms full of women (and a few men), find a kind of home in the space Jen and Nichole provided as artist/storytellers.  Between stops in Texas, I sat down with Jen Hatmaker to talk about the origin of the tour and where she saw her work heading in the long run. Check it out.  Links For Justin:Read Justin's SubstackOrder In The Low - NEW Book with Scott EricksonCoaching with JustinOrder In Rest - New Book of PoemsOrder Sacred StridesJustinMcRoberts.comSupport this podcastNEW Single - Let GoNEW Music - Sliver of HopeNEW Music - The Dood and The BirdThe Book - It Is What You Make itHearts and Minds Amazon Barnes and Noble