@ 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 w

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. 

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. 

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 a

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 cult

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.

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.

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: 

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.

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. 

Take a brief tour through some of the key moments in conversations that defined Season 3 of the podcast. My guests: – Dominique Dubois Gillard   – Sandra McCracken   – Carlos Whittaker   – Jeremy Cowart   – Michael Mcbride   – Matt Shotwell   – Scott Erickson   – Jonathan Merritt   – Matt Mikalatos (a reflection on the death of John Chau)   – Jer Swigart (a look at the “border crisis”)  

On March 25, 2018, women, men and children from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador began walking north toward the US border. As weeks passed, their numbers grew… and their story began to move toward the stoplight of major American News sources. Of course, the tint of that spotlight varied in shade depending on its source. For instance, the sitting administration warned of the potential threat this group of people posed should they reach San Diego; even suggesting at one point that there might be “unknown middle easterners” among the group… making it a kind of Trojan horse for a more recognizable international terror threat. On Sunday afternoon, Nov 25, what be are known as the “Migrant Caravan” finally began to the reach, and cross the southern border of the US, just north of Tijuana, Mexico. And as they reached the doorstep of America, the various and often opposing narratives surrounding them rose to a kind of peak volume. And, as is so often the case, .. somewhat quietly, under the buzz, dust and noise… t

Earlier this month, John Allen Chau was killed by members of one of the most isolated peoples on earth. According to his own journal, Chau was committed to sharing what he knew of Jesus with the Sentinelese people…  and even after being forcefully deterred several times prior, returned the island of North Sentinel on Nov 14, in some form of faith and hope that he would be received, along with his message. He wasn’t. This part of Chau’s story touches on and highlights themes that have moved their way close to the center several conversations on this podcast. Culture care What good religion looks like vs bad. And most pertinent to this moment… White supremacy, and particularly white supremacy as it relates to American Evangelicalism. It was because so many of these things seemed to collide in this story that I moved the podcast calendar around a bit to make room for this episode. My guest is Matt Mikalatos. Along with being a clever, thoughtful and oftentimes poignant author, he’s a fantastic guide in

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