Regent College Podcast

Today we are joined by a favourite past (and future) summer professor who teaches in the Literary Arts, Dr. Karen Swallow Prior. We are focusing on her new book, You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful, which releases on August 5, 2025. In our conversation, Karen dismantles some contemporary thought around calling (in the Instagram world) to present a vision of a good, true and beautiful life – even when we are not paid to do what we love. She brings years of mentoring and advising college students to her book, while drawing on her own recent experience with unexpected direction changes. Her extensive knowledge of literary characters who grapple with questions of work and vocation is also carefully woven in, giving helpful examples. Karen’s main premise is that in order to have a calling, you need to be called. She also identifies ways in which the culture around us is skewing our understanding of passion and purpose. Listen in and consider: who is calling you, and who are y