About this podcast
Because (eternal) life is hard. We all need help; with life, work, love, and everything else. Make Saints is a podcast about that side of life. The part that's hard but seems like it's supposed to be easy. And that moment when we realize that none of us is perfect.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 95 episodes
- Biblical Marriage · 6 min · Season 6 Episode 95Episode 95 of the Make Saints podcast For the last few weeks, the lectionary has put us in a soap opera following the Patriarchs in a sequence that upends traditional views of…
- Speech Recognition · 4 min · Season 6 Episode 94The software in our phones makes it easier to send messages, but they are missing something. The inflection, the emotion, that makes us human. READ For more, visit drewdowns.net…
- Radioactive Language · 13 min · Season 5 Episode 93The words we aren’t just their definitions. Emotions ride their coattails and the truth can be obscured by the political truths we avoid. Photo by Shelby Miller on Unsplash READ…
- It’s not controversial just because you say it is. · 11 min · Season 5 Episode 92Some treat the word “controversial” as neutral. But it is anything but. It is entirely based on the common act of determining what’s right. Photo by Mapbox on Unsplash READ For…
- It's a thousand things · 14 min · Season 9 Episode 91When we think there is only one thing (solution, answer, problem, thing to focus on) we miss exactly what is causing our frustration. Photo by Xavi Cabrera on Unsplash READ For…
- We see more than fish · 16 min · Season 5 Episode 90In the US, we treat every issue as being in need of simplifying—through this we can uncover an essential truth. We couldn’t be more wrong. Photo by Charles Tumiotto on Unsplash…
- What it means to be a Christian · 20 min · Season 5 Episode 89In which I talk about the way we talk and define what it means to be Christian and who wants to silence and disappear its diversity. Photo by Skull Kat on Unsplash READ For more…
- Peacemakers · 8 min · Season 5 Episode 88In a bishop’s sermon, the unhinged response, and the completely normal need to make things normal (we’re normal, right?) we might squeeze a glimpse of truth. Photo by Christopher…
- For the welfare of all · 9 min · Season 4 Episode 87In the person of William Temple, we have the example of courage, vision, and the wisdom to shape the world after World War II. The text of the reflection can be found here. Photo…
- Another All Saints · 7 min · Season 4 Episode 86In the celebration of All Saints Day, we are given the chance to demystify the the life and work of the people we lift up, to see what we too are capable of. Photo by Viktor…
- "The culture war" is the rhetoric of abuse · 13 min · Season 4 Episode 85When we treat a portion of Christians as speaking for all Christians and their rhetoric is of domination and certainty, we all become its victims. Photo by Agnieszka Stankiewicz…
- How to misunderstand with great effort · 23 min · Season 4 Episode 84When we misunderstand each other, is it always a mistake? Or something to fix? Sometimes we work hard to keep misunderstanding each other. On purpose. Photo by Christina @…
- Killing in the name of · 18 min · Season 4 Episode 83When the public is chilled by an assassination attempt, our responses can be reactionary, ill-conceived, and quite dangerous. Photo by Jack O'Rourke on Unsplash READ For more…
- Revisiting Literalism · 18 min · Season 4 Episode 82The thing about being literal is that we think we’re being accurate, but we’re often being pedantic. And refuse to see it. Photo by team voyas on Unsplash READ For more, visit…
- Active Adaptation · 12 min · Season 4 Episode 81We have to start preparing ourselves to proactively adapt for the future to put less pressure on our future selves. Here’s what I mean about the struggle we have with recognizing…
- Getting used to it · 15 min · Season 4 Episode 80Our brains have a natural capacity to adapt. But we often use this natural capacity to refuse to learn, or pretend we were always right. Photo by Transly Translation Agency on…
- Literalism doesn’t mean much anymore · 12 min · Season 4 Episode 79We’re driving the very concept of “literal” to such an extreme that it is becoming meaningless. And we’re all actually avoiding the truth. Photo by Robert Anasch on Unsplash READ…
- Magical Thinking · 9 min · Season 4 Episode 78The way we see the world is full of optimism and pessimism. It is also full of blindspots and assumptions for how things will be. Photo by Anthony Tori on Unsplash READ For more…
- Being Different · 9 min · Season 4 Episode 77The long, strange history of the call to being different is now mostly found in chicken-little cries of oppression and demands for hegemonic culture. Photo by Ricardo Arce on…
- Protest Again · 10 min · Season 4 Episode 76Many of us have become so disconnected from what it means for the state to respond to protest—for we cannot kill for peace, or for safety. Photo by Spenser H on Unsplash READ For…
