Amber Cantorna spent her childhood, among other things, as a voice actor on the popular evangelical children's radio program "Adventures in Odyssey." Her own adventures, though, took her on a path out of evangelicalism as she came out, got married, and began working as an author and activist to help other queer folks from conservative religious ...…

Ben Grace doesn't think the world has to get worse before it gets better. Here, this singer-songwriter transplant from Australia shares his story, from growing up in a cult to eating fried chicken naked on a front porch in Texas. BenGraceMusic.com @BenGraceMusic Support Heathen on Patreon to help others feel less alone and more alive: patreon.c ...…

Mathew Mitchell is here to free you from the plagues of basic-ass struggle. It's a new season of Heathen and we're diving in headfirst with some talk about meditation and more. Includes some ACTUAL meditative practice you can do with us—wow! Learn more about Mathew and his work at www.BelovedTogether.com.…

Hiatus is so close to being over, heathens. We're back in action and can't wait to bring you a new season of godless spirituality. Just wanted to pop into your feeds to do a quick catch up before we release the first conversation of Season 3 in just a few days. Here's to the Heathens! ♥

Hi, heathens! Even though we're in-between seasons right now, we wanted to send you some quick love at Thanksgiving. We know that with Thanksgiving often comes family, and with family—when you're a heathen—often comes a lot of discomfort, awkwardness, and downright difficult situations. So this is just a "we love you" voicemail to remind you th ...…

Season 2 finale. We can't believe it's been a year since Heathen started. In today's closer to season 2, we're reflecting on how we've changed and the things we learned along the way. There will be beauty, and there will be pain. Knowing and accepting this is part of our journey, and makes it possible to navigate through impossible circumstance ...…

Megan Posner grew up in a Jew-"ish" household. She shared with us stories of leading the congregation at her own bat mitzvah, birthright trips to the Holy Land, and experiences with depression and learning to care for her own mental health.

It's time to slide down another slippery slope here at Heathen. Meet Tess Meissner, certified clinical hypnotherapist and shamanic practitioner. Settle in for an enlightening conversation about how Tess helps people heal through ancient shamanic practices, breaking trances, and reconnecting with our own bodies and souls. In this super-sized epi ...…

Sexy selfies and provocative pictures: not something our conservative religious upbringings looked too kindly upon. But there is some magic we've missed out on in being closed-off to sensual self-admiration, as Karyn discovered when she decided to book a boudoir photography session with today's guest, Debra Alison. Together, they rip through mo ...…

Say hi to the heathenest pastors you'll find: ours. Kate Christensen-Martin and Colby Martin are co-founders of Sojourn Grace Collective, a podcast called The Kate and Colby Show, and four fantastic boys, among other things. They are also some of our dearest friends—dearer still after this powerful, poignant, playful conversation about their ch ...…

By the time she was 25, Jennifer Knapp had gone about as high as you could go in the 1990s Christian music industry. Three records and nearly a million album sales in, she walked away. When she came back seven years later, she was ready to tell more of her story. We're so excited to bring you this conversation with Jennifer Knapp. JenniferKnapp ...…

This week, meet Amy Canton and Clark Williams, my (Matthew's) sister and brother. I couldn't be prouder of them, or more excited for you to hear about our shared history and their own personal journeys out of religious trauma. The conversation took some very unexpected turns: parts of our own stories were rewritten in real time as we shared and ...…

In our ongoing commitment to explore *all* the territory religious fundamentalism won't, it's time for a new Sexisode! Welcome James Johansen, a sex therapist with a special interest in polyamory and non-monogamy. This conversation is about understanding eroticism vs. intimacy, agency over our own bodies, and the ethical way to have sex, no mat ...…

Sometimes you can't find the thing you need, so you have to make it yourself. After years of deconstruction and reshaping of her faith, Crystal Cheatham found herself wanting a place to find inclusive, queer-affirming, non-gendered writings—and Bibles—that she could use in her own spiritual practice. But the resources out there weren't willing ...…

Carly Gelsinger is the author of the upcoming memoir "Once You Go In," a powerful story of shipwrecked faith. We got the early scoop and are excited to bring you this lively conversation with a former Pentecostal who is finding a new way. Check out Carly's work at carlygelsingerauthor.com

"Success is making a good thing in a vile time." This thought from Myles E. Johnson was part of the inspiration for this week's episode, which is a collection of good things. Words we love, music and poetry to give perspective, comedy specials on Netflix that help us bear the unbearable. After what's been one of the harder weeks in a long seaso ...…

Alisha Jade just wants to know why she can't take the best parts from all religions and make her own? She describes herself as a seeker, and her curiosity has taken her all over the spiritual map. Today we're talking sex, yoga, post-election blues, and privilege with Alisha Jade. Support Heathen: patreon.com/heathenpodcast…

Undoubtedly, sex is one of the most fraught aspects of life for folks coming out of oppressive, conservative, restrictive religion. That's why we're doing Sexisodes: episodes about sex that are here to untangle, unburden, and enlighten us about our bodies, our relationships, and more. In today's (very NSFW) conversation, we welcome fellow heath ...…

Hi, heathens. It's been a week. We want you to know there is love for you. ♥ If you are well, take care of the family and friends you have. If you are numb or in pain, if you are struggling, if it feels too heavy: know that these podcasting nerds over here at Heathen headquarters love you. If you're able to ask for help—and there is NEVER any s ...…

Anissa Nishira Cornelius joins co-host Karyn Thurston for a conversation from the She Is Called conference in Denver. Join these theatre geeks on a journey from Anissa's Baptist upbringing in San Diego to her role as a birth worker in Oklahoma. Anissa shares her experience growing up black in predominately white evangelical circles and challeng ...…

(This conversation centers on sexual assault.) It's our first literally-on-the-road episode. We drove to Hollywood on a whim to be in the audience for the taping of comic/writer/actor/podcast host extraordinaire Cameron Esposito's new special called "Rape Jokes." It was a provocative, hilarious, beautiful evening that inspired a conversation we ...…

Wendy Holland is a minister in the Disciples of Christ tradition and came to Heathen to share why she's still ministering after a lifetime of frustration over the direction of the church in America. Her journey has led her to belief in an inclusive gospel, and she's wrestled with—and answered for herself—why faith and Christian spiritual practi ...…

First things first: a trigger warning. We recognize the seriousness of alcohol and its effects in so many of our lives. Today's discussion centers around the cultural stigmas and attitudes towards alcohol in the evangelical systems we were brought up in and includes conversation and stories about our changing behavior and beliefs when it comes ...…

Eva Cruz Pena is exploring the boundaries of irreverence. In Heathen’s first all-woman episode, we’re following the winding path of her journey from Puerto Rico, where she grew up leading worship and being reminded her voice and questions were a bit “too much” for a good Christian girl, to her tenure as the only woman of color in a sea of beard ...…

Today, we're reading through some stories and feedback sent to us by listeners to Heathen, and damn—y'all are amazing. Thank you for sharing your stories, we love hearing them. We started off defining what we mean by "bad Christianity." It's a phrase we use around here that strikes some as aggressive, and to others might just be shorthand for d ...…

Today: a real treat. We're delighted to welcome Derek Webb to Heathen. Derek has been a professional musical artist for nearly 25 years, as a founding member of the folk band Caedmon's Call and then as a solo artist. He's held a unique place in the Christian music world, often speaking to the injustices he saw in the church while also caring de ...…

Slippery Slopes is a new series we are bringing to Heathen! Remember all the things from your religious upbringing that were taboo? PG-13 or R-rated films, dancing, anything "spiritual" that wasn't directly tied to Jesus? And of course, as we grew, so did the list: anything sexual, all drugs, how much of your body is displayed, types of events ...…

Welcome to Season 2 of Heathen! We're so excited to introduce Heathen's new co-host, Karyn Thurston! Karyn was a guest in season 1—you can listen to her two-part conversation in the episodes titled "This Hurts, And It Feels Like Love" and "God Is A Flash Mob." To kick things off, we're spending some time reflecting on what Heathen has done for ...…

Kate Christensen-Martin—who has a panic attack at being asked to write a one-line bio about herself—closes out Season 1 of Heathen telling us how she became a Pastor of Unbelief. I love this conversation about our bodies and souls, prayer, the nature of God, and more really light, easy topics. It's a great way to close out a season that has tak ...…

Haley Hill—who started her music career rapping for Jesus—brings the beats to today's episode of Heathen. She wasn't raised in a super-conservative evangelical family like so many of my guests have been, but conservative evangelicalism found her anyway. She has a story about finding and then losing a God that ultimately wasn't able to weather t ...…

James G.—who aspires to live a life worthy of retelling through flannelgraph—gives some of the most thoughtful ruminations on apostasy I've heard so far. A Ph.D. student and music professor, James had done a lot of focused, intentional work in his journey away from evangelicalism prior to when I met him, which was half-drunk at a Beer & Hymns C ...…

Alana Kalinowski—who will at least acknowledge when she's staring at you—has a story for you. Did you see the movie Captain Fantastic, with the off-the-grid family growing up in the woods? Cast them as ultra-conservative evangelical rapture preppers and you get just a little bit close to Alana's upbringing. Honestly, it's a trip, and all I can ...…

Jeremy Fackenthal—who is a widely self-proclaimed expert adventurer, and an IPA drinker with a theology problem—teaches us some German on today's episode. Vergangenheitsbewältigung is hard to say and also hard to do, as it means "coming to terms with difficult things that happened in the past." Jeremy shares his ideas on theology of remembrance ...…

Listen on iTunes here. Karyn Thurston—who is a contact cryer convinced that hyperbole is her spiritual gift—rounds out a two part conversation that had me feeling things, y'all. Between a tale about an atheist soap opera star and a dynamic discussion of feminism lies a story of breaking down the God she was given and discovering a different sor ...…

Karyn Thurston—who is a contact cryer convinced that hyperbole is her spiritual gift—kicks off a new year of spiritual conversations for the godless. We had so much to talk about that I decided to make this a two-part episode. Today, we get into the process of deconstruction and how lonely and final it can feel to lose a faith that meant everyt ...…

Micah Turner—who was raised by a mime and a puppeteer—brings a little Christmas spirit to Heathen in this special holiday episode. We geeked out about being theatre kids, talked about hippie churches, sorted through some of the difficult aftermath of being in missions and evangelizing our peers, and wrap it up with some talk about feminism and ...…

Damian Ludwig—who has visited more churches than the Pope and who's smile rivals Joel Osteen's—is here to tell tales about separatist Anabaptist movements, churches that didn't know what to do with him, and being a resource to Christians figuring out their position on queerness.

Matt Haeck—who is equally uncomfortable at church with the family on Christmas and at the bar with the cool kids on Tuesdays—stops by Heathen to sing some songs and talk with me about where we hid our porn growing up, who's really deciding who goes to hell, and how lucky we are to show up in the universe with a set of eyes to take it all in. Ge ...…

Jami Bamat—who remembers dog names before people names, and thinks prairie dogs might be ACTUAL dogs because of how cute they are—gets into some heathen conversation about deciding at age 12 she wouldn't be a Lutheran when she grew up, finding spiritual fulfillment in social work, and how bad sex ed was in Christian schools.…

Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or other platforms. Becky Branch—who loves breakfast burritos but is allergic to eggs—sits down on Heathen to talk about the stories in our bones, putting on personas, and how crazymaking it can be trying to fit in with Christians when you're brand new to the faith.

Listen on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or other platforms. Joshua Romero—who smiles every time he sees a grey squirrel (ground squirrels are gross)—visits from Oregon to talk about whether pets go to heaven, getting college credit for holy living, and why it's so hard to believe we are loved.

Jaz Persing—who is almost positive she was supposed to come of age in the '60s but is making the most of these modern times anyway—sat down to talk about baking black holes, leaving the church you've grown up in, and how she learned to stop being afraid of screwing it up.

PILOT EPISODE. LeAnn—who wishes pizza made you thin—graciously offered to be my first guest on HEATHEN. We had a great time talking about Fern Gully, Amy Grant-ing, and the difficult journey that brought her to a new understanding of who she believes God to be.