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PODCAST

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar

Randy Knie & Kyle Whitaker

Mixing a cocktail of philosophy, theology, and spirituality.We"re a pastor and a philosopher who have discovered that sometimes pastors need philosophy, and sometimes philosophers need pastors. We tackle topics and interview guests that straddle the divide between our interests.Who we are:Randy Knie (Co-Host) - Randy is the founding and Lead Pastor of Brew City Church in Milwaukee, WI. Randy loves his family, the Church, cooking, and the sound of his own voice. He drinks boring pilsners.Kyle

religion & spirituality philosophy

All Episodes

75:25

How Latino Voters Are Reshaping American Politics

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/11/01

Text us your questions! We talk with political strategist, author, and Lincoln Project member Mike Madrid about data, culture, and why both parties keep getting the Latino vote wrong. Mike takes us inside the Lincoln Project’s 2020 strategy and the personal costs of resisting Trumpism, then draws a sharp line between principled conservatism and punitive nationalist populism. From energy policy to border security to employee ownership, we explore how Democrats ended up carrying a slate of cla...

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83:28

What Conservative LGBTQ+ Christians Can Teach Us...

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/09/29

Text us your questions! Dawne Moon and Theresa Tobin are back to discuss their book Choosing Love, which represents the culmination of their research over the last several years into the community of conservative LGBTQ+ Christians. This book expands on many of the topics we covered in our first conversation while adding insightful material on the varied ways this community understands their conservative Christian identity, how it intersects with other aspects of their identities, how they und...

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82:46

Deconstructing the Culture Wars with Laurie Johnson

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/09/14

Text us your questions! What happens when political labels lose their meaning? Dr. Laurie Johnson, political philosopher and president of the Maurin Academy, joins us to unpack the tangled roots of America's culture wars and explore pathways toward overcoming our divisions. We discuss her book The Gap in God's Country: A Longer View on Our Culture Wars. The conversation begins with a clarification of political terminology. Laurie explains how American understandings of "liberal" and "conserva...

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66:58

Reframing the Bible with Zach Lambert

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/08/26

Text us your questions! Ready to transform your relationship with the Bible? Zach Lambert, pastor of Restore Church in Austin and author of Better Ways to Read the Bible, offers a healing pathway for those wounded by scripture in this candid conversation. Growing up in a Southern Baptist megachurch during the "fundamentalist takeover," Lambert experienced firsthand how the Bible can be weaponized. Disagreeing with the pastor's interpretation is often treated as disagreeing with God. This aut...

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79:31

Do You Still Pray?

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/07/26

Text us your questions! What happens to prayer after you rethink religion and spirituality? Does it feel empty, confusing, or even impossible? If so, you're not alone. In this episode, the three of us discuss our journeys from structured, wordy, and sometimes demonstrative prayer lives to something altogether different. Randy reflects on his charismatic past where intercessory prayer dominated his spiritual practice, Kyle raises philosophical questions about whether prayer "works" in a tradit...

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71:28

Gender, Faith, and Privilege after Transitioning:...

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/06/29

Text us your questions! What happens when a successful religious leader transitions genders and loses everything? Reverend Dr. Paula Stone Williams takes us on her extraordinary journey from privilege to authenticity. Paula once stood at the pinnacle of evangelical success – CEO of a large nonprofit, television host, magazine editor. But beneath this accomplished exterior lived a truth she'd known since childhood: she was transgender. When she finally answered what she describes as a "callin...

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69:23

Adding to the Good Pile: Women's Ordination and the...

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/06/13

Text us your questions! How did the role of "pastor's wife" replace ordination for women in church history? Is the news that there was women's ordination in church history hitting you unexpectedly right now? It's cool, we get it; take a moment and come back when you're ready. Historian and actual pastor's wife Beth Allison Barr returns for a potentially revelatory conversation about her latest book, Becoming the Pastor's Wife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman's Path to Ministry. D...

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83:11

Sexual Ethics, Queer Theology, & Responding to...

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/05/31

Text us your questions! Matthew Vines returns to discuss how the revised edition of his book addresses critiques from prominent theologians, the distinction between affirming theology and queer theology, and the possibility of affirming, orthodox Christianity. Matthew unpacks the scholarly consensus that modern sexual orientation concepts simply didn't exist in biblical times—a fact many prominent theologians like NT Wright dismiss without substantial engagement. This historical disconnect c...

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74:54

Pope Francis' Legacy: A Global Church in Transition

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/05/06

Text us your questions! Pope Francis, a man who inspired even many Protestants and non-Christians with his refreshingly prophetic voice, has died. The process to select his successor is ongoing as we release this. To help us understand what's happening, as well as its historical significance, we're talking with our friend and returning guest Shaun Blanchard, a Catholic theologian and theological historian. He helps us understand the significance of Francis's papacy and what might come next. A...

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58:39

Does the Bible Affirm LGB Relationships? Interview...

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/04/29

Text us your questions! Matthew Vines is here to discuss the revised and expanded edition of his influential book God and the Gay Christian, marking eleven years since its initial release. The book sent shockwaves through evangelical Christianity and remains a powerful and compelling case for an affirming reading of the Bible for those who want to hold onto biblical authority (if you're counting, that's exactly one of the hosts of this podcast). Matthew shares the backstory behind the book, ...

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72:56

We Need to Talk About It

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/04/13

Text us your questions! This is a conversation we've been avoiding: how are we doing now that Donald Trump is president again? As we had a break between interviews, we decided to try to unpack how we're feeling, what we're doing, what we've learned about ourselves, and what we're worried and hopeful about. This is an unusually impromptu and unpolished conversation for us. We didn't plan much and the emotions and the thoughts are raw and relatively unprocessed. We hope that resonates, but if i...

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62:25

Re-Release - Outrage Porn, Echo Chambers, and the...

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/03/28

Text us your questions! This is a re-release of an episode from our second season when we spoke with philosopher C Thi Nguyen. We think it bears re-listening in our current moment. ===== What happens when we seek simple answers in a complex world? Philosopher C Thi Nguyen takes us into the machinery of belief, understanding, and value formation, exploring how we navigate information landscapes designed to manipulate us. Thi introduces the concept of "moral outrage porn"—representations that g...

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79:50

What Happens When You're Done with Religion Altogether?

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/03/14

Text us your questions! What happens when the foundation of your identity crumbles beneath you? When the lens through which you understood the world no longer works? Psychologist Dr. Daryl Van Tongeren joins us to explore this profound transition that one-fifth of Americans have experienced—leaving religion behind. Drawing from eight years of groundbreaking research across multiple countries, Van Tongeren walks us through what he calls "the great disillusionment," which he documents in his b...

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80:45

Unpacking Open and Relational Theology: Interview...

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/03/02

Text us your questions! Tom Oord is back! This time, we're discussing his "main thing": open and relational theology. We explore what it means and its significance in reshaping our understanding of God, love, prayer, and more. Tom answers our questions graciously, and we try to convince Randy that he's wrong. How is open and relational theology different from classical theism? What does it imply about prayer or freedom or evil and suffering? What does love have to do with it? Is it all just a...

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85:46

Will Deconstructing End My Marriage? A Conversation...

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/02/15

Text us your questions! This episode explores the complexities of spiritual evolution and its impact on marriages and relationships. Our friend Keri Ladouceur shares her wisdom, and we discuss stories of navigating changing faith and the strain it can place on intimate partnerships. We cover how questioning beliefs impacts relationships, emotional labor amidst change, the stigma and fear surrounding deconstruction, open communication and mutual support, and what hope there is for couples unde...

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72:43

When Seeking Jesus Drives You Out of the Church:...

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/02/01

Text us your questions! Faith deconstruction has become a defining trend in American Christianity, and disagreement persists about what’s driving it. In this episode, we talk with Scot McKnight and Tommy Preson Phillips about their book Invisible Jesus, which considers why so many Christians are critically re-examining their faith. Rather than treating deconstruction as a problem to be solved, they argue that it's a response to real issues—abuse of power, rigid fundamentalism, and a version o...

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71:46

Nicholas Ma on Division, Vulnerability, and Doing...

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/01/20

Text us your questions!This is one of our favorite interviews we've ever done. Nicholas Ma (son of famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma) is a filmmaker best known for producing the 2018 documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? about Fred Rogers. We speak with him about his latest documentary Leap of Faith, which follows a group of Christian pastors from diverse sociocultural and demographic backgrounds in the Grand Rapids, MI area for a year as they attempt to form community across theological and social divi...

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85:02

Re-Release - Holy Balls: Power, Masculinity, and the...

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2025/01/06

Text us your questions!This is a re-release of an episode from our first season: our first conversation with Kristin Kobes Du Mez, which happened to fall just after January 6, 2021. It seems fitting to revisit it now.=====In this episode, we chat with Kristin Kobes Du Mez about her book that's been making waves and is brilliantly titled Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. This book is probably our favorite of 2020 and is a must-read. Du...

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68:17

Brian Zahnd on The Brothers Karamazov

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2024/12/22

Text us your questions!Brian Zahnd is back with us to discuss his favorite novel, Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. Brian is starting a public online course going through the book, which is notoriously philosophically and theologically rich, so we thought it would be fun to have him on to discuss its major themes and why it has been so influential in his life. We cover Dostoevsky's famously powerful presentation of the problem of suffering, the implications for theodicy, how Jesus f...

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73:18

Jonathan Merritt on Family, Evangelicalism, and...

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ·

2024/11/27

Text us your questions!Jonathan Merritt joins us to discuss his children's book My Guncle and Me. We also discuss what it was like to grow up with a dad who was the president of the SBC, his experience being involuntarily outed, and how to maintain relationships across serious ideological and personal divides.=====Want to support us?The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute thro...

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139 results

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