Dr. Doug Wheeler explores matters of the mind, body and spirit through conversation with artists, authors, educators, musicians, poets, scholars and activists who shape and change our modern world.
Senior staff scientist and UWA clinical professor Dr. Michele Andrasik returns to field questions about the COVID-19 vaccinations, their success rate vs. continued skepticism, and how misinformation and miseducation have endangered the truth.
In the second half of last week’s conversation, Don and Doug cover the American propensity toward zionism, both socially and politically, and the conundrum of how to judge a one-sided war.
Professor of Religious Studies Don Michael Hudson shares his learned perspective on the history, terminology and latest chapter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as how having once lived in a Palestinian village shapes his views.
Celebrated artist and local pastor Scott Burnett returns to discuss the interplay of working with colors on canvas and spiritual practices along with musings by sage scholar and friend of the show, Walter Brueggemann.
Artwork titled "Chosen" by Scott Burnett
Young, loving mother of two little daughters, Jess Hanson shares her incredible journey raising nine-month-old Ruby, who was born with a brain injury and diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy.
Daring filmmaker & photographer Frederick Taylor joins LA-based multi-talented musicians Marvin Etzioni & Willie Aron in a brave conversation about oppression and the creative acts that disrupt unchecked power.
Bestselling author and professor Kristin DuMez, seminary professor Jay-Paul Hinds, and independent filmmaker Caleb Wheeler deconstruct the many forms and origins of toxic, militant masculinity.
Professor and author Soong-Chan Rah, Bereavement Researcher Lynn Gibson, and Pastor Scott Burnett critique societal violence by identifying the lack of lament practices in our communities and offer remedies for restoration.
Paul Pearson, director of the Thomas Merton Center, talks about the late monastic monk’s most impassioned foresights about civil rights, non-violence and spirituality that resonate in 2021.
We at From the Belly want to let you in on some recent shifts in the show’s direction.
This podcast was initially a way to introduce and build an audience around Doug’s study and reinterpretation of the biblical story of Jonah, and his forthcoming book, Reimagining Jonah. Using music, philosophy, and academia to guide us, the vision was to distill the book’s intent through conversation with guests of all kinds and across all walks of life. What came of that intent was an effortless evolution toward wider themes of spirituality, social activism, racial inequality, grief recovery, toxic systems of power, and the ways art can embody it all.
We’ve expanded beyond the Jonah framework as we’ve seen how this greater spectrum of remarkable people and modern movements is something that cannot be ignored or rendered through a narrow perspective. Different beliefs systems, radical cultural thinking, passionate niche vocations… these diverse persuasions are the stuff of life and truly shape our world. Our pursuit is to help harmonize our existences and combat fragmentation, to mine the minds of fascinating people and discover the soul of creativity.
Thank you so much for learning and relearning alongside us in the name of exploration and love! The journey continues.
Scott Burnett describes the complex physicality of painting, finding redemption through "ruined art," and the importance of being stirred by our own creations.
Dr. Michele Andrasik talks about racial bias in healthcare, and the historical trauma and violence surrounding inhumane study of the "Black Body."
Falling backward into fear is common to us all. Jonah’s regression shows how comforting the false self can be until the true self emerges... from the belly.
Los Angeleno film director and editor Caleb Wheeler talks about spirituality in cinema, recontextualizing success and dismantling nationalism and white supremacy through consciousness and the arts.
Celebrated author and professor of history at Calvin University, Kristin Du Mez discusses her recent best-selling book Jesus and John Wayne, a sweeping deconstruction of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism and “militant Christian masculinity” in the age of Trump.
Longtime Community Building facilitators, Ellen Stephen, O.S.H. and Tim Dempsey, discuss M. Scott Peck’s vision for group intervention that teaches participants to transcend their diverse backgrounds, enter into difficult dialogue gracefully, and be of service to the hidden order at work in a shared group experience.
Pastoral theologian from Princeton Seminary Jay-Paul Hinds discusses his 2018 journal article, “The Son’s Fault: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Search for and Recovery of Sonship”, along with other thoughts on race and the current state of manhood in America.
Documentary filmmaker and photographer Frederick Taylor talks about seeking truth in his craft, empowering people’s stories “from Hollywood to the heartland and beyond” and how his company Tomorrow Pictures has made a home for itself in the bustling creative ecosystems of Atlanta and Nashville.
Distinguished Professor of Philosophy John Capps talks about his late father Donald Capps, pastoral theologian and renowned author of such books as “The Depleted Self”, as well as his own work in the topics of truth and reason, specifically in a 2018 seminar titled “Truth in the Time of Trump.”
American country-folk musician Ethan Coomer talks about drumming in his band “The Coomers,” the deep influences of John Prine, Levon Helm, Johnny Cash and others on his songwriting style, and how Kentucky is the home he’ll never leave. Featuring two live performances by Ethan from his home studio.
