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PODCAST

Living On Common Ground

Does it feel like every part of your life is divided? Every scenario? Every environment? Your church, your school, your work, your friends. Left, right. Conservative, liberal. Religious, secular. From parenting styles to school choice, denominational choice to governing preference, it seems you"re always being asked to take a side.This is a conversation between a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist who happen to be great friends. Welcome to Living on Common Ground.

society & culture philosophy

All Episodes

43:17

Megachurches or Progressive Pews

Living On Common Ground ·

2026/02/26

Send a text Feeling squeezed into a side? We are too. This conversation pairs a progressive Christian with a conservative atheist who’ve stayed close friends, even as the world begs us to sort, label, and cancel. We start with a striking claim from a Durham campus: progressive churches with welcome signs aren’t drawing students, while a megachurch outside town is bussing them in. That observation sparks a deeper question—are young adults craving clarity and particularity more than broad vibes...

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44:08

Striving, Resentment, And The Path That Keeps Us Human

Living On Common Ground ·

2026/02/19

Send a text Feeling forced to pick a side? We chose friendship instead. A progressive Christian and a conservative atheist sit down to make sense of judgment, grace, and the strange way big ideals can both guide and haunt us. Using Jordan Peterson’s Sermon on the Mount lectures as a shared springboard, we reframe familiar teachings through psychology: the measure you use will be used on you, not as a scold, but as a real-world feedback loop that shapes communities and personal growth. Togeth...

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54:32

How Hanging Out With Everyone Can Save Us

Living On Common Ground ·

2026/02/12

Send a text Ever feel like belonging now requires an enemy list? We sat down as longtime friends—a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist—to push back on that reflex and ask a harder question: what would it take to build a community that includes both the marginalized and the establishment without creating new outcasts? Starting from the subversive image of Jesus sharing tables with tax collectors and widows alike, we unpack why true inclusion offends every camp, and why it’s still ...

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44:36

When Rules Erode And Armies Obey Men, Republics Learn...

Living On Common Ground ·

2026/02/05

Send us a text What makes a people trade a messy republic for the promise of a single, steady hand? We take you inside Rome’s long unraveling—where unwritten rules cracked, armies switched their loyalties from the state to ambitious men, and everyday citizens learned to equate strong leadership with survival. Starting with mos maiorum, the “way we do things,” we unpack how norms sustained Rome when laws fell short—and how prosperity after the Punic Wars quietly hollowed out the citizen-farme...

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44:08

Can Invitation Beat Outrage As A Path To Change

Living On Common Ground ·

2026/01/29

Send us a text Feeling squeezed to pick a side? We’re two longtime friends—a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist—who refuse the script and get honest about how change actually happens. Instead of scoring points against “the other,” we explore why declaring what we’re for creates room for unlikely allies, better policy, and more durable wins. We cue up Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” and sit with its power to invite a nation into its own ideals—equality by creed, dignit...

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49:03

When Ideas Evolve, Do We?

Living On Common Ground ·

2026/01/22

Send us a text Start with a simple question: when your world divides you into teams, how do you stay friends across the line? We stress-test that question by putting our own friendship on the table—a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist—and then follow the thread from art museums to ancient theology to modern Stoicism. The journey is winding, but it holds together: what you focus on, how you practice, and which stories you trust will shape the way you live. We trade museum storie...

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53:10

You Can Debate Politics Without Making Each Other The...

Living On Common Ground ·

2026/01/15

Send us a text Division sells, but it doesn’t solve much. We sat down—one progressive Christian, one conservative atheist—and stress-tested whether two people who disagree on faith and politics can talk through fear, foreign policy, and identity without turning each other into enemies. The short answer: yes, if we swap hot takes for honest motives and keep the relationship above the scoreboard. We start with a spiral: news about Venezuela and saber-rattling around Greenland sparks late-night...

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48:20

When Do Rights Require Others’ Labor

Living On Common Ground ·

2026/01/08

Send us a text Feeling squeezed to “pick a side” on every issue? We pull the lens back and ask a deeper question: what is a right, and what do we owe each other to make it real? With Elena joining the table, we test our friendship across belief lines—a progressive Christian, a conservative atheist, and a listener who pushes hard on language and policy—to map the territory between personal liberty, social duty, and the state’s role. We start by sorting fundamental rights from civil and social...

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44:43

We Don’t Know K‑Pop, But We Know Prime Rib

Living On Common Ground ·

2026/01/01

Send us a text Feeling tugged to pick a side—left or right, secular or religious, old school or ultra-online? We start the year by stress-testing a simple idea: friendship can thrive across deep differences. On one mic, a progressive Christian. On the other, a conservative atheist. What keeps us laughing, learning, and listening when the world rewards outrage? We warm up with Rose Bowl nostalgia, family fandoms, and New Year travel plans, then get practical about resolutions that stick. One ...

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19:48

Energy, Logos, And A Baby In Bethlehem

Living On Common Ground ·

2025/12/25

Send us a text What if Christmas isn’t magic from far away, but matter aligning with love right here? We open with holiday greetings and step into a reimagined Nativity that holds science and faith together. Starting from the Big Bang and the birth of consciousness, we explore the logos as the universe’s deep pattern—energy organizing toward truth, beauty, justice, and love—and we ask what changes when that pattern takes on skin. Mary’s yes and Joseph’s courage become more than pious moments...

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43:26

Joy Without Permission; Finding Common Ground At...

Living On Common Ground ·

2025/12/18

Send us a text Every December, something in us softens. The traffic is still bad and the lines are still long, yet we wait with a little more patience and offer a little more grace. We wanted to understand that shift without scolding or sanctimony, so we sat down to unpack holiday joy from two very different angles: a progressive Christian’s lens on incarnation and an atheist’s take on seasonality, nostalgia, and community. Our conversation starts with a sermon in progress and a question tha...

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48:23

Bridging Divides Without Losing Yourself

Living On Common Ground ·

2025/12/11

Send us a text Feeling cornered by purity tests and tribal litmus checks? We’ve been there. As a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist who happen to be close friends, we trade quick outrage for slow curiosity and ask a tougher question: are we building bridges or policing borders? From social media habits to Stoic clarity, we unpack how certainty hardens into fundamentalism and how to interrupt that slide before it fractures our families, feeds, and neighborhoods. We start with sm...

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44:34

Lines We Cross For Friendship

Living On Common Ground ·

2025/12/04

Send us a text What if a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist could argue hard topics, laugh at themselves, and keep choosing friendship? That’s the spirit of this conversation as we map common ground without sanding off our edges—tackling public education, healthcare, and the blurry line between rights and services. We start by calling out how split life feels and then test our labels. Music sparks a detour to Ayn Rand, Objectivism, and why compatibilism appeals to people who di...

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41:41

What If Survival Isn’t The Point, But Connection Is

Living On Common Ground ·

2025/11/27

Send us a text Division feels baked into everything—work, faith, politics, even friendships—yet the best conversations still start on shared ground. We sit down as a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist, grateful for a friendship that doesn’t need uniformity, and we follow a thread from holiday calm to the future of intelligence. Along the way, we ask hard questions about survival, connection, and what it really takes for people and systems to flourish. We begin with the quiet gr...

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43:32

What If Wisdom At Creation Was A Woman?

Living On Common Ground ·

2025/11/20

Send us a text When every headline demands a side, what if we started with a question? We sit down as a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist to explore how creation stories frame our deepest assumptions about chaos, order, and the feminine. From Genesis’ hovering spirit over the deep to the Babylonian Enuma Elish’s splitting of Tiamat, we trace how cultures turn raw potential into a livable world—and how those choices shape what we call sacred. We dig into wisdom literature where...

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43:48

Nihilism, Friendship, And Finding Meaning

Living On Common Ground ·

2025/11/13

Send us a text Feeling pulled to choose a side in every room you enter? We bring a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist to the same table to ask a harder question: if life doesn’t come preloaded with meaning, what should we build together? We start by untangling nihilism from its stereotypes. Passive nihilism stares into the void and shrugs; active nihilism treats the blank space as a canvas. From that lens, we revisit Joseph Campbell, Nietzsche’s much-misread “God is dead,” and ...

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43:04

How We Disagree Without Losing Respect

Living On Common Ground ·

2025/11/06

Send us a text Feeling squeezed into a corner by every conversation? We push back with a frank, funny, and steady exchange between a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist who’ve made a promise: stay friends, stay curious, and keep the hard questions on the table. Together we take on the urge to be right, the fear of feeling like a fool, and the hidden role ego plays when debates turn into dead ends. We dig into whether admitting “I might be wrong” weakens belief or actually makes ...

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57:29

God, Gum, And Emery Boards: A Surprisingly Deep Dive

Living On Common Ground ·

2025/10/30

Send us a text Ever catch yourself deciding that someone’s chewing or phone volume is a moral failure? We start there—small frictions that expose big assumptions—and climb toward the larger question: how do we live together with sharp differences, without losing honesty or hope? As a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist, we test the edges of our friendship by trading judgments for curiosity, and certainty for conviction. Jeff shares the heart of several writing projects, includin...

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48:19

Government Shutdowns, Stoicism, And What Really Matters

Living On Common Ground ·

2025/10/23

Send us a text Feeling tugged to take a side on everything? We zoom out from the outrage to ask a harder question: what actually matters enough to shape your day, your community, and your character. Starting with the government shutdown, we separate optics from impact—what really happens when federal spending pauses, why retroactive pay masks immediate pain for contractors, and how uncertainty moves markets more than ideology. It’s not financial doom, but it is a strain on real people who liv...

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47:52

From Trash Tomatoes to Climate Politics: How Ideas...

Living On Common Ground ·

2025/10/16

Send us a text Seeds don’t look like certainty—until you’ve seen them sprout a dozen times. We start with a backyard mystery of “trash tomatoes” and end up mapping how humans learn, trust, and pass on what we call truth. Along the way, we push into the hard question: when policies claim to be “for your own good,” are they honest stewardship or just control with better branding? We explore how knowledge travels across generations, why some explanations (like demon possession) once felt as rea...

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37 results

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