At Sea with Justin McRoberts

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 politically aware, so culturally aware and so self-aware, My guest on this episode of the @ Sea Podcast is hip hop artist Propaganda. Our conversation picks up on a topic (or a reality) a lot of great hip hop artists focus on relentlessly and redemptively…. “home” and a sense of place. Check it out. Music for this episode is taken from two of Propaganda’s albums, both of which you can find at iTunes. You can dig deeper into his work by visiting http://www.humblebeast.com/propaganda/. If you dig what we’re up to, please leave us a review at iTunes and share this episode with a fiend or 10. And lastly…  if you’d like to support this podcast, hop over to Patreon and help us shape a bit of the future. 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 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.  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

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 and joyful human experience. The @ Sea podcast puts you in touch with great culture makers, because I believe what they do helps to deepen and enrich our lives. As we venture into the second season of the @ Sea podcast, join me in letting David Dark set the tone for our journey and our process. Music for this episode is provided by the wonderful Sarah Dark, who works under the musical moniker Sara Masen. You can support the this podcast through Patreon and be part of shaping what the expression and practice of faith looks like in the future. I’d love to have you on the team. 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 2 of The @ Sea Podcast! Before we get into the actual interviews and guests that will make up Season 2, I thought it appropriate to look back at a few of the highlights from Season 1; moments that defined the season and helped see me what the podcast was actually about. We are learning to navigate the turbulent waters in which the practice and expression of faith finds itself.  The past few years have been marked by a series of honest, poignant and in many cases, helpful critiques of religious culture. that the spaces and places in which we would normally or traditionally have gathered to see ourselves, one another and God more clearly… well, those places and spaces don’t quite connect or work they way they used to… or the way they were promised to… The @ Sea Podcast is not only a way to navigate those turbulent waters waters but to help shape what it looks like to think spiritually, humanly… to actually practice faith without the safe harbors we might have once counted on. We’re doing that by highlighting great culture makers because what they do deepens and enriches our lives. These are women and men who are also building into what comes next regarding the expression and practice of faith. You can keep up with the podcast by visiting AtseaPodcast.com and now, you can become an integral part of this work and this community. Meet me at patreon.com/justinmcroberts and support the podcast in whatever way and at whatever level you can. As I mentioned at the top, the @ Sea Podcast is not only a way to navigate the turbulent waters we find ourselves in, but to help shape what it looks like to think spiritually, humanly and actually practice faith in the world as it is… which for many of us, means doing so without the safe harbors we might have once counted on. Join me for Season 2… as a listener, as a participant, as a patron and as a member of this community. 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

My guest on episode 8 is author and journalist Katelyn Beaty. Christianity Today made Katelyn the first female managing editor in the magazine’s 60-year history. She also happened to be the youngest managing editor during that same time span.  Earlier this year, she released her first book, Entitled “A Woman’s Place: A Christian Vision for your Calling in The Office, The Home and the World.” Most of our conversation focused on that book, which I found to be not only insightful but timely. This podcast puts you touch with great culture makers because I believe what they do deepens and enriches out lives, What strikes me most about Katelyn is the way she handles somewhat onerous and technically nuanced cultural ideas by keeping those ideas in close proximity to a human narrative, … very often her own. If authority is best used, as we discuss in our conversation, to create room for others, Katelyn exemplifies that practice, by letting her story provide room for people like you and me to more fully identify ourselves and flourish as human. One note before you dig in: In order to give the conversation more space, we’ve excluded the interludes you may have come to expect during previous episodes. I’d love to know what you think of the longer, more seamless conversation format. 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

Songwriter and artist David Bazan is my guest on Episode 7 of the @ Sea Podcast. David has been making music professionally since 1995, most notably, As the frontman for Pedro The Lion, the mind behind Headphones and most pertinent to the purposes of this podcast, as a solo artist. Among the many things I enjoy about David is that he is not a brand, nor does he aspire to be. He is an artist. He is a man making music and musical culture he believes benefits the lives of those who consume it. We get into his odd role as a prophetic voice in a religious culture that often considers him an outsider, the value of setting vocational goals but holding them loosely and the extremely rare beginnings of his career, during which his parents quite literally encouraged him to quit school to give rock and roll a try. ONE NOTE about this episode of the podcast, this is the first episode to be labeled “explicit” because of language. I don’t make this note to warn you about bad words, in fear that you can’t handle it… instead, I’d like to use this opportunity to borrow from the brilliant Christena Cleveland, who has, on more than one occasion suggested that, if I’m to honestly and sincerely listen to someone else’s story, I don’t get to dictate the mode, tone or delivery of that person’s storytelling. This podcast puts you in touch with great culture makers because I believe what they do deepens and enriches out lives. We called it @ Sea, in part because of the Nietzschean notion that “the sea is stormy… but that everything is at sea.” A pursuit of human truth necessarily leads me into waters that are wilder and well beyond my control. If you and I are to discover and hold up the goodness, truth and beauty I believe permeates every square inch and every corner of this world, that will mean spending time in places that are unfamiliar and uncomfortable. One of the great values I find in David Bazan’s work is not only his willingness to navigate unfamiliar and uncomfortable waters in his own world and psyche, but also his relentless desire to invite you and I into those spaces with him. 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

Jeremy Courtney is my guest on episode #6 of the @ Sea Podcast. Along with his wife Jessica, he is the founder of the Preemptive Love Coalition, an organization describing themselves as “a global movement of peacemakers changing the way the world engages polarizing conflict by confronting fear with acts of love.”  Here’s why I’ve asked Jeremy to be a guest: On August 2nd, 1990, Operation Desert Shield began, called by some the Persian Gulf War. I remember that time period clearly. I found myself blocking roadways in my hometown with groups of friends, each of us carrying cardboard signs with anti-war slogans. My response to that war was as emotional as it was uninformed. All I knew was that people my age, were dying violently and i reacted.  I didn’t know the politics or the sociology; I just knew I didn’t like the idea of war. Fast forward over a decade to the mid-2000’s and meet Jeremy Courtney who, in the shadow of the Iraq War, which began in March of 2003, moved his family to Iraq. Not because they had a plan or mountains of cash to throw at a problem and not because they were giving in to an uninformed emotion. They moved to Iraq because there were people there.  The binary vitriol they Courtney family heard concerning the Iraq war didn’t touch the people it would most directly and dramatically affect, and the Courtney family wanted to touch those people. That was the beginning of what is now called the Preemptive Love Coalition. The @ Sea podcast puts you in touch with great culture makers because what they do deepens and enriches our lives… Jeremy’s work enriches many lives, including mine. I caught up with him between Preemptive Love operations in Iraq, 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 Dallas, Texas On July 7th of this year, a heavily armed shooter fired upon a peaceful demonstration and the police officers who had been assembled to ensure the safety of those demonstrating. Two demonstrators were hurt. 5 officers died. the shooter was, reportedly, angered by the deaths of black men at the hands of police officers, specifically recent police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota… both of which were highly publicized and scrutinized as further evidence of the injustice dealt black citizens at the hands of law enforcement. And while there have been many violent moments in this cyclical history of ours, there was, in my experience, an almost palpable difference between this moment and recent moments. There seemed to be a kind of pause. There were fewer reactions. Fewer monologues. Fewer detached voices offering simple solutions to complex problems. There were far more expressions like…  “I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do.” And I found myself among them; I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to do. That’s an oddly unfamiliar space for me…  to feel as if my voice didn’t matter and that my actions could possibly be inconsequential. That is, as I’ve come to understand, part of what it means to be privileged; that I generally know (or believe) my voice and ideas matter – that my actions have consequence. But there I was feeling… powerless… silent. In my humbling immobility, I turned my attentions to Michael McBride. Often called “Pastor Mike,” he is, as you will clearly note, a Pentecostal pastor. He is a graduate of Duke University’s Divinity School, a member of the Presidents advisory council on Faith-based and Neighborhood partnerships. He is National Director for Urban Strategies/LIVE FREE Campaign with the PICO National Network, and the founder and Lead Pastor of The Way Christian Center in Berkeley, CA. I met up with Michael on a night during which he had assembled and hosted a panel focused on gun violence. It was a vibrant and powerful evening which left me with the clear impression that there is a qualitative difference between conversations in which participants are primarily interested in making a point and conversations in which participants are primarily interested in making a difference.  Like the panel he assembled that night, Michael McBride is a man for whom political points and Facebook likes are next to meaningless, but for whom the lives of real people mean everything. I normally introduce each episode with the declaration that the At Sea Podcast puts you in touch with great culture makers because I believe what they do helps us live deeper and richer lives. The reality is that what Michael McBride does ensures that some people get to live at all. Our conversation ranged from real-world statistics and solutions regarding gun violence, to the nature of racial hierarchy, to the socio-philosophical ramifications of Star Trek… 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

Jars of Clay has been living and working at the intersection of art, religion and advocacy for over 20years. We talked about early expectations for a successful band to how valuable that success is. We also discussed the usefulness of the word “christian,” and what it takes for a group of people to stick together for two decades. Because this was recorded during one of the dozen or so events the @ Sea team has hosted over the past four years, you’ll hear be start the evening with a bit of our philosophy and vision. You’ll also hear me laugh into the microphone quite loudly throughout the evening. Check it out at iTunes. NOTE: If the iTunes link gives you trouble, you can hear all the podcasts at our Stitcher page.) 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

My guest for episode 3 is Michael Wear. Buzzfeed calls him one of President Obama’s “ambassadors to America’s believers.”  Having worked in the White House office of Faith-Based initiateves, Michael Wear is recently the author of a book entitled “Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith In America.” We talk about working at the intersection of politics and faith, the relationship between House of Cards and reality and whether or not it actually matters if people participate in the political process. Michael is also a Buffalo Bills fan, which means he and I share the pain that comes from backing historically underachieving teams (go Raiders). 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