I’m not much of a podcast listener. There are a few I follow and occasionally listen to, but when I have “free time” (driving, exercising, doing menial tasks) I more often choose to listen to music, or nothing at all. Unmediated space to simply think or just be is an increasing rarity in our world, and I tend to guard whatever slivers of it I have. Hence my lackluster interest in podcasts.

The one podcast I often make time for is The Joe Rogan Experience (and even then, I listen to episodes inconsistently—they take me many days to get through!). What I love about his podcast is how open, all-over-the-map, and yet civil the conversations are—between two people who may be quite different but are truly interested in listening to what the other has to say. The dialogues on the show are also not bound by the predictability of echo chambers and reductionist partisan talking points; they’re more interested in getting at the truth, which is refreshing.

As Beth Smith writes in the article below, Rogan’s hospitable posture—inviting “the kind of free-thinking, open-to-being-persuaded conversations sorely lacking in mainstream public forums”—can also be a model for Christians in how we engage in conversations about complex issues and ideas in contemporary society.