Poema Podcast

Today my friend Marie joins me to tell her deconstruction story. She talks about how she and her husband found their way into evangelical culture as adults, and how she slowly began to feel trapped in toxic religion. She shares her experience of purity culture and how this impacted her marriage & her faith. Marie then tells us how she began her journey out of of toxic religion and purity culture, and found true liberation on the other side.

**Trigger warning: Narcissistic abuse, spiritual abuse, emotional abuse** My friend Ana returns to the podcast today, to share her lived experience of narcissistic abuse within Christian fundamentalism.  It's a powerful, discomforting story which shows us the depths of narcissism within evangelical Christianity and patriarchy, and how challenging it is to break free of it.  Ana tells us how she found a way to freedom, her deconstruction, the challenges she faced along the way - and still does - and how she discovered freedom to be fully herself & embrace her identity an LGBTQIA native woman.     

Today I'm joined by John Howey, otherwise known as Bridge Livwat, who shares with us his personal, spiritual and creative journey. He talks about his faith deconstruction and the journey from aspiring worship leader into creating his own music, and his creative and spiritual journeys intertwined and interacted. We talk about our shared love of the work of Rob Bell, and how he's impacted each of our lives and journeys, including the principle of sabbath, and time. Ultimately, it's a story of how John escaped from a God and life which was caged and restricted, to a an uncaged life and spirituality, with a divine who is not contained by religion or structure.

My friend Cat, tarot reader, joins me today. They tell their powerful, challenging story from evangelicalism through deconstruction into tarot and spellwork, and coming out.  They also tell us about how they discovered the transformative power of tarot and spellwork, and the impact it's had on their life.  It's a discomforting but honest story, of Cat's experiences within an evangelical cult, the struggles of leaving it behind and the freedom from discovering & embracing their true identity. ***** My podcast is free, but if you want to support my work financially, you can do that either on PayPal or CashApp: PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jamesprescottwriter  Cashapp: @£JamesPrescott77

Today I'm joined by podcaster, creator, artist and spiritual mentor April Kling Meyer. April tells us her own story and talks to us about the intersection between creativity and spiritual journey. She shares through her story and experience how our spiritual and personal journeys inform our creative journey. Finally, we discover how we can use the energy of grief and trauma to transform our lives, our spirituality and allow us create something fresh, new and life giving.

I'm honoured to be joined again by my friends Jenna DeWitt & Holly Stallcup today, to explore healthy sexual ethics in the church and being sex positive. We explore topics like masturbation, sex toys and other things which rarely get discussed in church environments. We also go on to explore different sexual ethics, and how we should honour and respect each others sexual ethics, even if they're different.  We discuss how harmful it can be to force one sexual ethic on everyone, and how sexuality in our culture is very static. We share about how this static view differs from our basic biological make ups, which are all very different and how every ethical expression of sexuality - including things like abstinence and asexuality and waiting till marriage  - all belong.  Holly and Jenna have such wisdom in this area and talk with such honesty, in a way which is reassuring, inclusive and encouraging, without shame. 

I'm honoured today to be joined by Suzanne and Declan DeWitt Hall, authors, activists and Christians. They tell us their story as a couple, and in particular the journey of Declan to embrace his gender identity. Declan talks about his own journey of coming to terms with his true gender identity, being honest about this with herself, before God and the world, and beginning the transitioning into that identity.  It's a powerful, courageous story, which shows once again the divine loves and accepts us as we are, for who we are, and is fully inclusive of the LGBTQI community. 

My friend Trace Bell joins me for the first time today Trace has done a lot of work, some with his dad Rob Bell, on talking about spirituality, awareness, time and spiral dynamics. Today he shares his own spiritual journey, and in particular how his curiosity led him into an understanding of awareness. He shares how he began to see his own consciousness and awareness as separate from his body and even time itself, and how this impacted his understanding of spirituality, his work and his personal journey. We both share stories of experiences we've had which have given us a greater awareness that time and our bodies are constructs/people which exist within our awareness/consciousness, rather than the other way around. It's a powerful, eye opening and fascinating conversation you won't want to miss. 

I'm delighted to welcome back my friend, writer, author and coach Jim Woods to the show this week! Jim's just released his first novel 'Bite the Bullet', and today we talk about the creative process behind the novel, how long it took to write, and the experience of novel writing. Jim talks about the power of storytelling, why stories resonate with us why the best stories connect with us. He also tells me about the process of creating characters and writing their stories, and the interesting dynamic which can happen between author and character. Jim has such wisdom about story, and has great insight on the creative process. Well worth a listen. 

Today I'm joined by TED speaker and grief/loss facilitator Jennifer Mathews. Jennifer tells her own tragic, in some ways unique, and powerful story of loss...and how her response to the death of her life partner was not one she calls grief, and the lessons this experience taught her about dealing with loss. Jennifer explores how processing loss can lead to connection, and how she experienced this, and why it's so important for our healing and thriving that we confront our trauma and loss, rather than hide from it.

Today on the podcast I'm joined by author Kat Armas (MDiv and MAT), who shares her own story, and talks about the wisdom of women on the margins - mothers, grandmothers, sisters, daughters - and how & what it teaches us about spirituality and the divine.  Kat shares her own experiences and lessons she's learned, as well as some other powerful stories, and we see how some of the great theologians of our time have been previously overlooked women.

Today my occasional series on ADHD continues with therapist, mental health advocate and podcast host Robert Vore sharing his own story.  Robert shares his own unique experience of growing up with ADHD and then becoming a therapist and advocate himself and encountering/working with others with ADHD and trauma.  Robert gives us a valuable insight into the lived experience of ADHD and insight into working with others with the condition. 

Today my series on ADHD continues with the return of my friend Elle Rose, to share their lived experience of ADHD, and the challenges and stigma they have experienced growing up with ADHD and in getting a diagnosis.  Elle shares honestly, and with great courage, about their day to day experience of ADHD, patterns of behaviour which can be linked with the condition, and the difference getting a diagnosis and medication can make. They also share words of solidarity, encouragement and wisdom for those with ADHD and for those who know people with ADHD. I'm so grateful to Elle for sharing their story. 

Today I'm delighted to welcome my friend Sarah ('Sheologian' from Twitter) to the podcast for a new series of episodes focussing on ADHD. I myself have undiagnosed ADHD and there's a lot of stigma and misunderstanding about it. This series aims to raise awareness. Sarah shares her own story and experiences growing up with ADHD, in particularly in evangelical patriarchal culture, the day to day challenges she encounters, her own lived experience and lessons she's learned. She also talks about the challenges she faces as a therapist with clients who themselves often have ADHD.  Sarah has a lot of wisdom, solidarity encouragement and insight into living with ADHD and supporting people ADHD, this is a powerful episode we all need to hear.

Today in the vlatest of my 'Geek Philosophy' series I'm joined by good friend Emma Morrison, and we talk about the world of Star Wars and its links to deconstruction and processing trauma. Emma tells her own story, sharing how Star Wars - and in particular the character of Leia Organa - influenced her growing up, how she inspired her and how as she went her own deconstruction journey she saw this reflected in the character development of Leia and others in the Star Wars canon. We also explore the topic processing grief and how this ties in with the journey of Anakin/Darth Vader, the importance of Qui-Gon Jin, and how the Jedi and Sith can be metaphors for toxic religion and religious certainty. We talk about where we see embodiment and the journey of identity, and where we can see hope in these stories.  This was such a fun and insightful conversation, I hope you like it!

Today I'm joined by author and writer Kevin M Nye, contributing author of the book 'Theology of the Marvel Universe' to explore this subject in more depth. As the latest MCU movie 'Black Widow' hits theatres we explore some of the deeper themes behind several characters stories and different movies within the MCU. We talk about where we see metaphors for faith deconstruction, decolonialism, patriarchy and other massive issues/lived experiences which we see playing out in today's world and in the realms of spirituality. We also each discuss where we see stories in the MCU reflecting our own spiritual and personal journeys. We conclude by highlighting, how these movies, stories and characters can inspire and challenge each of us. 

In this new series, I explore with guests the philosophy, theology and mythology of geek world - superheroes, Star Wars, and more.  This episode, I talk to Mario-Francisco Robles of 'Superman on Film', about the mythology and philosophy around Superman and the early Superman movies. We each share our own experiences of this character and what he's meant to each of us. We also talk about Superman's journey, his experiences - including those of grief and loss - as well his identity and values. We explore how these have shaped each of us, and why they're more important than ever in our wider cultural context. This was such a fun and meaningful episode to do, one of my most personal too.

Today, historian and author Kristin Kobes Du Mez joins me to talk about her bestselling book "Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation". We talk about the forces in US evangelical culture which led to the rise and election of Donald Trump as President, dating back to the 70s and 80s and the Presidency of Ronald Reagan. We touch on the truths President Jimmy Carter confronted the US with...which they chose to ignore in favour of certainty.  We discuss the patriarchal and systemically racist system of evangelicalism and capitalism, how this has impacted wider US culture, and where we see this in the UK, where colonialism and patriarchal system had its genesis. In the process, we discover how the election of Donald Trump was almost an inevitable, and how this system counterintuitively sees white evangelical men percieve moral failings and law breaking almost as a badge of honour. We also explore how all of this has led to many people beginning to deconstruct their

In today's episode, recorded early on in the pandemic, I'm joined by Daliana May, who lives in South East Asia doing anti-trafficking work and advocacy for social justice.  Daliana tells us her story of being a missionary, and then how she moved into deconstructing her faith. She talks of the challenges she faced in her deconstructing her faith, leaving patriarchy behind and decolonising as a white woman with experience in missions, and how she discovered new meaning and purpose in anti-trafficking work and social justice activism.

Writer, speaker and podcaster Kate Boyd is my guest today. Together we explore and discuss how spiritual community has evolved and changed as more people deconstruct their faith, and how the pandemic will impact spiritual communities.  Kate shares what she's learned through her own story and work, and the challenges she's faced and that spiritual communities need to confront as we move forward post-pandemic.  We also talk about how churches can become safe spaces for those deconstructing, who've been hurt by the church. Finally we talk about the tough questions which leaders of spiritual communities - and the communities themselves - need to ask going forward.