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PODCAST

Design and Religion

Van Shea Sedita And Rev Dr. Nate Phillips

We envision a world where design and religion work together to spread love, empathy, and charity faster than divisiveness, selfishness, and hate. To achieve this, we aim to bring the stories of those driving this change—both big and small—into the spotlight, allowing ideas for positive transformation to spread quickly and reach those who need them most.

society & culture philosophy

All Episodes

49:31

Look for the Helpers 12: Dignity, Love and Respect

Design and Religion ·

2026/03/30

In this episode of Design and Religion: Look for the Helpers, Kim Eppehimer shares the deeper logic behind her work with Friendship House, Limen Recovery + Wellness, and the broader “One Big House” vision. She explains that the partnership between these organizations grew from a clear need: people seeking housing stability, recovery, and support are often forced to navigate a fragmented system that pushes them from one place to another. Her central conviction is simple and powerful: people ne...

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48:46

Look for the Helpers 11: Food & Community

Design and Religion ·

2026/03/26

This episode of Design and Religion continues the “Look for the Helpers” series with Cathy Kanefsky, President and CEO of the Food Bank of Delaware. The conversation opens with the larger theme of help itself: what it means to become a helper, how people are shaped by hardship, and why some leaders are drawn into work they never originally planned to do. Cathy shares her own path into nonprofit leadership through deeply personal experience. She reflects on raising twin sons born extremely pre...

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45:08

Look for the Helpers 10: Building Homes and Hope

Design and Religion ·

2026/03/24

This episode centers on Kevin L. Smith’s long vocation of service through Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County and the way his housing work and Christian calling have grown together over time. Kevin describes a formative sense of calling, “be with my people,” which led him through a Mennonite volunteer program to Habitat for Humanity in Fresno and then back home to Delaware, where he has now spent three decades building homes, community, and hope. He also reflects on his more recent ordi...

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48:26

Look for the Helpers 9: Community & Mental Health

Design and Religion ·

2026/03/18

This episode of the Design and Religion Podcast explores the role of community helpers through a conversation with leaders from NAMI Delaware, the state chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Van Shea Sedita welcomes Marie Wenzel, CEO of NAMI Delaware, and Jenny Graham, who leads development and engagement efforts. The discussion focuses on how NAMI supports individuals living with serious mental illness, their families, and the broader community through free support groups, educ...

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45:09

Look for the Helpers 8: Food and Dignity

Design and Religion ·

2026/03/12

This episode centers on Dan Zauderer, founder and CEO of Grassroots Grocery, and his effort to address food insecurity through a model rooted in dignity, volunteerism, and neighborhood connection. Dan explains that Grassroots Grocery is not simply a food distribution nonprofit. It is a movement built around a simple but powerful idea: neighbors helping neighbors. The work uses food as the medium, while the deeper mission is to rebuild community and belonging. A major strength of the co...

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43:02

Look for the Helpers 7: Erasing Medical Debt

Design and Religion ·

2026/03/09

In this episode of Design and Religion – Look for the Helpers, Van Sedita and Pastor Nate Phillips speak with Michelle Santoro, Associate Director of Philanthropy at Undue Medical Debt, about a quiet but powerful movement working to eliminate medical debt across the United States. Undue Medical Debt purchases large bundles of unpaid medical debt from hospitals and debt collectors—often for pennies on the dollar—and then abolishes it entirely for those who qualify. The organization targets peo...

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48:16

Look for the Helpers 6: Unlocke the Light

Design and Religion ·

2026/03/06

This episode of Design and Religion – Look for the Helpers features Chris Locke, founder of SL24: UnLocke the Light and Sean’s House in Newark, Delaware. Chris shares the story of losing his son Sean in 2018 to suicide just weeks before his 24th birthday and how that tragedy reshaped his life and mission. Sean appeared to have everything: he was a Division I athlete, a team captain at the University of Delaware, and someone widely loved in his community. Yet he was quietly battling depression...

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53:40

Look for the Helpers 5: Hard or Soft?

Design and Religion ·

2026/02/27

In this episode, Nate and Van sit down with Alex Kocman to discuss his theological framework and his new book, Ordered to Love. The conversation explores the tension between "localism"—focusing on one's immediate family and community—and the global missionary mandate. Kocman argues against treating the church like a digital media company, suggesting instead that the local church is a primary countermeasure to the isolation of the digital age. The trio engages in a candid debate ov...

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46:03

Look for the Helpers 4: Children and the American...

Design and Religion ·

2026/02/20

In this episode of Design and Religion – Look for the Helpers, Van and Pastor Nate welcome Dan McGarvey Esq., a criminal youth defense attorney in Colorado. Dan works daily with children charged in the juvenile system—and sometimes prosecuted as adults. He explains the profound gap between how the legal system treats youth and what neuroscience tells us about adolescent brain development. The brain, he notes, is not fully formed until at least age 25, sometimes later. Yet teenagers often face...

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57:25

Look for the Helpers 3: Empathic Witness

Design and Religion ·

2026/02/16

In this Look for the Helpers episode, Van and Pastor Nate sit down with researcher and social scientist Julie Krohner, who defines her work simply: helping people cultivate self- and other-empathy. Julie’s premise is: Safety and attention can create transcendence. When order enters the nervous system, it frees cognitive bandwidth. That’s when people feel expansion, unity, and source-connection. It doesn’t require supernatural causation to be sacred. There is only one “you,” and yet you ...

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55:11

Look for the Helpers 2: Courage Without Applause

Design and Religion ·

2026/01/31

In this episode of Design and Religion: Helpers, we sit with Jason Baxley, a police lieutenant, tactical flight officer, and paramedic whose work exists at the intersection of authority and compassion. Baxley describes a nontraditional path into law enforcement, beginning in medicine rather than criminal justice. That decision shaped how he approaches crisis. Not as a problem to control, but as a human moment that demands judgment, restraint, and care under pressure. In the aviation unit, he ...

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60:55

Look for the Helpers 1: Dignity and the Math of Poverty

Design and Religion ·

2026/01/27

In the first episode of Look for the Helpers, we talk with Jamie Moulthrop of Table of Plenty about what food insecurity actually looks like in suburban America. Jamie shares what he’s seeing on the ground, including how demand has grown since COVID, how housing costs have outpaced income for working families and seniors, and why dignity and relationships matter as much as food itself. This is a quiet, honest conversation about care, constraint, and the everyday work of helping where systems ...

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54:39

Innovation

Design and Religion ·

2026/01/13

This episode examines religious innovation through three distinct lenses. Philip Jones, a retired Presbyterian pastor, brings institutional honesty. He names the anxiety beneath the language of innovation: declining membership, aging volunteers, and a shrinking financial runway. From inside the church, he explains how innovation often functions as a survival strategy, and why small groups, digital formats, and community service have become central attempts to rebuild connection—sometimes with...

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69:58

Islam & First Impressions

Design and Religion ·

2025/12/05

Van invites Drew Marshall to explore the world of Islam through the lens of architecture as a living expression of belief, migration, conflict, humility, community behavior, and identity. Drew, an Islamic Studies expert and community advocate, guides us through the evolution of mosque design from Abraham and early Mecca to its global adaptations across the centuries. The conversation delves into the lived experience of entering a mosque, exploring transitional spaces, ritual washing (wu...

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50:18

Spiritual Maintenance

Design and Religion ·

2025/11/21

This episode brings together Rev. Dr. Pamela Adams, Van, and Pastor Nate for a deep, candid conversation about what actually happens at the intersection of mental health, spirituality, accountability, and human struggle. What emerges is a picture of healing that is warm and joyful, but also grounded, gritty, and human. Pam begins by breaking down why therapy scares people: not because therapy is dramatic, but because sitting in a room and talking about yourself is uncomfortable. And she doesn...

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59:44

Heart of Judaism

Design and Religion ·

2025/11/10

In this thought-provoking episode, Van Sedita and retired Presbyterian pastor Phil Jones speak with Mark Friedman, author of Come Now, Let Us Reason Together. The conversation explores what authentic Judaism means beyond stereotypes of rigid law and ritual. Friedman recounts his journey from Reform Judaism through years among Chabad communities, describing how neither liberal editing nor strict orthodoxy fully capture Judaism’s heart. He argues that after the Second Temple’s destruction, the ...

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54:13

Men's Health

Design and Religion ·

2025/11/02

In this candid conversation, Van Sedita, Nate Phillips, and John Molina-Moore take on men’s health through stories of stress, faith, and vulnerability. What starts with beard lotion jokes quickly opens into a serious and deeply honest exchange about how men process—or avoid processing—emotions. John shares how stress physically manifested as back pain despite being in the best shape of his life, revealing how the body often tells the truth before we do. Nate connects that experience to learne...

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45:14

Indelible Experiences

Design and Religion ·

2025/09/25

What makes an experience unforgettable—and how do we design for it? In our latest Design & Religion, Van and Pastor Nate sit down with UX legend Jared Spool to unpack “indelible experiences.” From Disney’s crisis-ready hospitality to tissues in the pew and playful product micro-moments, we explore how the best teams: Exceed expectations (the stuff people can’t stop talking about)Anticipate latent needs (needs users don’t know they have—yet)Eliminate burden (so meaning, not friction, takes...

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47:19

Artificial Intelligence

Design and Religion ·

2025/09/19

In this lively episode, Van and Pastor Nate dive into the hype and hope of AI—asking what it means for creativity, conscience, and the Church. From Black Mirror-style “hollow people” to very real ways AI can prep you for doctor visits, job interviews, and tough conversations, they wrestle with the promise and the peril: Can a tool that doesn’t “feel” still help us live better lives? Send us a text message letting us know what you think of this episode! We envision a world where design and rel...

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50:55

Endurance

Design and Religion ·

2025/09/12

Nate and Van are joined by design researcher Oxana Loseva to explore endurance—how we keep going without losing ourselves. They contrast resilience with endurance, and Nate shares how gratitude in pastoral work turns burden into privilege. Oxana reflects on stress, health, and identity, while Van reframes tough days as “things we get to do.” Together they discuss removing small choices to save energy, the limits of helping—especially in abusive situations—and Edwin Friedman’s “bridge” fable a...

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51 results

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