Teaching in Higher Ed

Teaching the Literature Survey Course

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Teaching the Literature Survey Course

As I mentioned on episode #210 with James Lang, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy reading Teaching the Literature Survey Course as much as I was some of the other books in the West Virginia University Press Teaching and Learning in Higher Education series. Teaching the Literature Survey Course was thought of  as “eating my veggies” and as part of my obligation as part of West Virginia University Press' overall sponsorship of the Teaching in Higher Ed transcripts project.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Teaching the Literature Survey Course addresses two key challenges, which are often characteristics of general survey courses:

  • “Too much” to adequately “cover” in a single course
  • Lack of opportunities for deeper learning

In each of the classes I've taught in my career, I can’t ever recall a time when I didn’t feel at least some tension around wishing I could “cover” more. At the same time, my greatest desire in my teaching is that students would experience learning that would stay with them for the long haul and would be of great relevance in their lives.

Teaching the Literature Survey Course book coverIf you also find yourself feeling like you have too much to cover in a given class, or you want to find ways to have your students experience deeper learning, it is worth picking up a copy of:

Teaching the Literature Survey Course, Edited by Gwynn Dujardin, James M. Lang, and John A. Staunton

While the examples they provide are specific to literature classes, they are wide-ranging enough to have it be likely that you might find inspiration for teaching in a different discipline.

Leveraging Maps in Your Teaching

One area that really inspired me was involving using maps in our teaching. This is an approach I have never experimented with before, but have found myself regularly thinking about since I read Teaching the Literature Survey Course.

Two related tools that I regularly see people reference when talking about using maps in their teaching are Google Maps and Google Earth. I was confused about the difference between them, but found this explanation on Quora that cleared it up for me:

“Google Maps contains all of the navigation, lightweight mapping power and points of interest with just a small hint of satellite imagery, while Google Earth has complete 3D satellite data and just a small subset of information on places, without any point-to-point navigation.”

Todd Gardiner described them as related products. He advised that we think of them as a suite of products, like we would Microsoft Office.

Within that suite of products is Tour Builder (a Google Earth experiment), where you can “put your story on the map.” Instead of only seeing a map that was composed by others, we can add to an existing map points of interest, the way we might give someone a tour of our neighborhood. Google suggests that you:

“See how people are using Tour Builder on the site – From a nonprofit documenting its global missions, to a teacher transforming American history.”

sample google maps tours

While maps might at first seem primarily useful to those who teach history or other social sciences, Tom Barrett decided to use Google Maps to teach math. While his example comes from K-12, it provides us with enough inspiration to get us started thinking…

If you do teach history, there are plenty of sites that are great examples of ways to leverage Google maps in your teaching. Other disciplines will find inspiration on how to: “Pin point a book’s setting, use detective skills, measure distances” and more from Jessica Sanders. The Google Earth example categories are: history, science, space science, math, and geography, yet Teaching the Literature Survey Course is a perfect illustration of how to extend beyond those disciplines and into literature.

Doing something for one of my classes at this exact moment feels out of reach for me, until I become more familiar with the tools and what’s possible. However, I was thinking that I could start small and tackle the sixth suggestion from The Thinking Stick and to:

Create a Map for My Community

They gave an example of creating a map for friends who were visiting China with their favorite restaurants, places to visit, etc.

 

I could see making one for our local community and getting some practice with the tools. My colleague studies homeless populations and I imagine that maps like this could be very useful for his research (even if it started solely as a means for delegating the student researcher observations).

personalized book from WonderblyEven book publishers are starting to make use of Google maps in their creations. We ordered The Incredible Intergalactic Journey Home from Wonderbly for our son a couple of years ago. When he gets to the pages of the book that mean that he’s almost home, it is a picture of our neighborhood that is shown from Google maps. The book is customized much more than just the maps, but also throughout the book.

But Wait, There’s More

It is hard for me to stop writing at this point, because I have so many more notes I am reflecting back on after having read Teaching the Literature Survey Course. I started to think to myself that I should write ten posts about some of my take-aways, but then I thought I was getting a little ahead of myself with all of that.

Part of our work as educators is discovering new possibilities. But, there’s also the important step of beginning to experiment and increasing our tolerance for (or perhaps even delight with):

Not Yet-ness

As Amy Collier said all the way back on episode #70:

“When you embrace not yet-ness, you are creating space for things to continue to evolve.” – Amy Collier

Thank you to the editors and authors of Teaching the Literature Survey Course. You have given us so many ways to embrace not yet-ness in our teaching and contribute to deeper learning for our students. 

A Most Important Checkmark to Uncheck When Embedding YouTube Videos

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A student asked if he could talk to me after class. I said absolutely, wondering about the serious tone of his request. His tendency toward humor was nowhere in his question.

After class, he told his story clumsily. He clearly felt awkward at confronting me with my own apparent missteps. He had been watching my pencasts with loyalty, but was experiencing something at the end of each video.

After hearing my voice and seeing the beautiful images I had drawn in the pencasts (cough, cough… I draw only slightly better than our six year-old does), he kept seeing very inappropriate videos show up at the conclusion of each of my videos. He said that my suggested videos were showing up on everyone’s computers and he thought I would want to know.

I thanked him for telling me and assured him that I would look into it. I found it curious, since my YouTube browsing history would be highly unlikely to show scantily clad women in sexual poses.

Instead, my current YouTube “prescriptions” include things like:

Those recommendations make sense to me, based on videos I have watched in the past (or my kids have watched). However, the descriptions of the kinds of videos the student was describing didn’t seem like any kind of viewing habits that YouTube would have ever seen from me or my family members.

Those of you with a better understanding of YouTube’s algorithms already know how this story ends. I discovered that the videos that showed up after my students watched one of my pencasts had nothing to do with what videos YouTube recommends to me. Instead, they have to do with the person watching the video’s viewing habits.

I let the student know that maybe his roommates had been watching inappropriate videos on his computer, or somehow YouTube had decided that these were the kinds of videos he enjoys watching. I let him know how to fix his history and start fresh with the suggestions YouTube was making.

The other thing I did was make it a more habitual practice to uncheck the box when I embed a YouTube video that says:

“Show suggested videos when the video finishes.”

My story is super tame when compared to the ones shared in The New Yorker and tweeted about by zeynep tufekci. There’s a lot more to do than just checking off one more box. However, if it helps us avoid having students think that we are recommending videos to them that are actually coming from their own viewing habits, I think it is worth it to try to spread the news on this small step.

In writing this post, I linked to a pen casting blog post I wrote to help people make their own and realized that the video on that page wasn’t embedded correctly (the setting was not unchecked to show suggested videos when the video finishes). So, when I got to the end of the pendcasting video, this is what I saw as the recommended videos:

My “personalized” recommendations all made sense for that video, except for the one in the lower left-hand corner:

While YouTube can be a good option for hosting videos we want to use in our teaching, the recommendations that come at the end of each video are more suited to serve YouTube's business needs than they are our students' ongoing learning. I hope this post reminds you of a most important checkmark to uncheck when embedding YouTube videos and keep the attention on the next part of their learning within your class content. 

Your Turn

What other guidance do you have for when embedding YouTube videos to help our students have a better viewing experience?

The Spark of Learning

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I recently have had the opportunity to revisit my reading of Sarah Rose Cavanagh’s The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion.

The book is part of a series of books:

Teaching and Learning in Higher Education book series from West Virginia University Press, edited by James M. Lang

West Virginia University Press has sponsored the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast transcripts project. As a result, I get the honor of interviewing the series’ authors and the chance to read their books.

Sarah’s book is the first in the series and has much to say about how we can better facilitate learning for our students by considering the element of emotions. In this post, I share some of the ways that her book has stayed with me since reading it more than a year ago. Here are just a couple of practices that are still with me after my first read of The Spark of Learning.

Generate Curiosity

“When you burn to know what comes next, you are feeling curious” (Cavanagh, 2016, p. 121).

Dave (my husband) shared on a prior episode about his chemistry teacher who ended class on the first day by taking the lit candle that had been sitting on his desk, putting it in his mouth, and proceeding to swallow it.

You can bet that the class was wondering what was going to happen next for the rest of the semester. No, we don’t have to put our lives at stake by attempting the eating of a candle in our particular discipline. But, we can work to find ways to create a healthy tension between students’ current knowledge and what might be possible with further learning.

This might be something as simple as a puzzle, an activity more resembling a mystery, or even introducing a debate that explores two different viewpoints or options.

Encourage Mindfulness

We got to hear about some of Sarah’s and her colleagues’ forthcoming research on the effects of teaching students about mindfulness on episode #204. In The Spark of Learning, she reminds us of the detrimental impact of test anxiety and how the practice of transparency can assist our students in reducing stress and enhancing learning.

Sarah describes Brunye’s research on how learners with math anxiety experienced more of a sense of calm and better results on a math exam when engaging in breathing exercises as compared to other variables.

I’ve been finding big benefits when following a simple mindfulness practice introduced by Asao B. Inoue on episode #209 (airs 6/14/18). I’ll let you hear about it straight from him, but I hope this mention of it causes you to listen extra careful to episode 209’s recommendations segment.

Your Turn

What ways are you discovering to leverage The Spark of Learning in your pedagogy?

2018 Summer Reading

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Books by Susan Yin on Unsplash
Photo by Susan Yin on Unsplash

Sara asked on the Teaching in Higher Ed Facebook group:

“What’s on your summer reading list?”

At first, it felt like she was asking just me, but I realized that she was probably asking everyone in the group. I think I got overly excited, initially, for two reasons:

  1. It has been a while since I felt giddy about writing a blog post and writing about the books I have been reading inspired me.
  2. I have always loved summer reading programs and posts and thought it would be fun to contribute to conversations like that.

When I was a kid, I used to sign up for every reading group I had access to in the summers. At the Carlsbad library, I remember we got to have some sort of paper creatures (fish, animals, etc.) that would appear with our names on them each time we read a book and shared it with the library. It was so fun for me to see evidence of the stories that had so captured my imagination during that season in such a visible and colorful way.

In this post, I’ll share some recent books that I think should be on your summer list. Finally, I will let you know what I am hoping to read this summer.

Recent Reads

I have enjoyed many of the books I have read recently. Any of these would make for great summer reading for those in higher education.

The books listed above are all excellent and are highly recommended. There was only really one book that I read recently that left me wanting more. The Year of Less really fits more into the memoir category and doesn’t really provide any practical advice to someone wanting to live with less. I suppose it could be said that I don’t have as much in common with her and therefore couldn’t find ways to take her experience and make it fit my own aspirations.

Summer Reads

I didn’t realize this until just now when writing this post, but all of these books are already in my Kindle app and just waiting for me to read or finish them.

Agile Faculty: Practical Strategies for Managing Research, Service, and Teaching – by Robecca Pope-Ruark – I have already started reading this one and am starting to get my head around ways we might take inspiration from the programming world’s practices and use them to make progress on multiple goals at once and with complex projects.

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness – by Austin Channing Brown – I began reading this book a few days ago and am already captivated. Channing puts into words her experience of growing up as a black child in predominantly white schools and churches and then navigating the changes when spending summers in a mostly-black community. Her stories of transitioning into the workplace are full of stark reminders of the ways we make it challenging for people of color to thrive and have a voice in our white-dominated schools, churches, and workplaces.

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy – by Ta-Nehisi Coates – I’m realizing as I type this how many of my summer reads I have already started. I love reading Coates’ writing, yet this one isn’t grabbing me as much. I find I would rather read present-Coates’ versus the articles he wrote during those eight years. It is still a wonderful book; I am just feeling even more captivated by some of the other books I have started and more of his recent articles and find I am not opening this book up as much.

Lifelong Kindergarten: Cultivating Creativity through Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play – by Mitchel Resnick – I think I saw someone mention this on Twitter and it looks wonderful. The more I see how our young kids’ teachers approach learning, the more I wish these techniques could carry across to teaching college and beyond.

Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism – by Safiya Umoia Noble – George Woodbury regularly comes through with great Teaching in Higher Ed podcast guest recommendations, including his idea to invite Safiya Umoia Noble onto the show to talk about her book. I left a message on her website a couple of months ago and haven’t heard back. Maybe I will try other methods to see if I can reach her and get her interested in coming on to talk about this important work.

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City – by Matthew Desmon – I bought this book for my Mom for Christmas last year and she said it was very powerful. I have seen many news stories where Desmon is cited, but haven’t taken the plunge yet on his book. My understanding is that he tells stories of specific individuals who are in poverty to help us confront our misinformed beliefs about what it means to be poor in America.

Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel – by Mark Sullivan – I don’t remember how I came across this book suggestion, but maybe because I had liked Unbroken and All the Light We Cannot See. From Amazon: “Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, the USA Today and #1 Amazon Charts bestseller Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man’s incredible courage and resilience during one of history’s darkest hours.”

The End of Violence: A Novel – by Tom Drury – This one was recommended by John Warner on episode #172. From Amazon: “Welcome to Grouse County — a fictional Midwest that is at once familiar and amusingly eccentric — where a thief vacuums the church before stealing the chalice, a lonely woman paints her toenails in a drafty farmhouse, and a sleepless man watches his restless bride scatter their bills beneath the stars. At the heart of The End of Vandalism is an unforgettable love triangle set off by a crime: Sheriff Dan Norman arrests Tiny Darling for vandalizing an anti–vandalism dance and then marries the culprit's ex-wife Louise. So Tiny loses Louise, Louise loses her sense of self, and the three find themselves on an epic journey.”

I will also be doing a bunch of reading this summer to support my partnership with West Virginia University Press’ Teaching and Learning in Higher Education book series.

Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Book Series from West Virginia University Press

As you may recall, they provided financial support for the first 200 episodes’ transcripts of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast. In exchange, I get the opportunity to talk with many of the authors of the series and read their books. Pretty fortunate, aren’t I? It’s like sending me straight into the briar patch.

How Humans Learn – by Joshua R. Eyler

Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education – by Thomas J. Tobin and Kiesten T. Behling

Teaching the Literature Survey Course – Edited by Gwynn Dujardin, James M. Lang, and John A. Staunton

I had already read and truly enjoyed Sarah Rose Cavanagh’s The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion. Watch for a forthcoming blog post about it and check out the two episodes that Sarah has done with me about this book:

All of these authors are superb educators and I appreciate the opportunity to learn from all of them and pass as much as I can on to the Teaching in Higher Ed community.

Your Turn

What are you planning on reading this summer? Any recommendations for those looking for something good to read?

2018 Podcast Greats

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2018 Podcast Greats

When people hear that I have a podcast, they often ask me what podcasts I like to listen to… It is a harder question to answer, since it is like asking what books one has enjoyed reading. I find myself first wanting to ask, “How much time do you have?”

This post will already take hours for me to write. I won’t allow myself to consult my older Podcast Greats posts, lest I find myself changing my mind from their influence. However, you may want to have a look at them, or at some others’ lists of favorite podcasts.

My Past Podcast Posts

Others’ Favorite Podcast Posts

My 2018 Podcast Greats

I listen to podcasts for an average of an hour a day. It varies greatly, depending on whether I have a long drive in store that day, or a large amount of dishes to do or laundry to fold.

Higher Education

The majority of the higher education podcasts I listen to are related to teaching. I also enjoy those podcasts that can help me be more effective at pursuing my goals and just having more joy in my life, overall.

You’ve Got This with Dr. Katie Linder – Such an uplifting an encouraging podcast – we can do this – with Katie’s help.

The Black Goat – “Three psychologists talk about doing science.” Great hosts (Sanjay Srivastava, Alexa Tullett, and Simine Vazire), talking through important issues in higher education (recent episodes were on finding a job in higher ed and starting out in a new job)

EdSurge On Air – They find terrific guests to interview about what’s happening in higher ed. I was even on an episode in Feb 2018.

Educate: APM Reports – Not restricted to higher ed, but high quality content about education at large

Leading Lines – “A podcast on educational technology, produced out of Vanderbilt Center for Teaching, the Vanderbilt Institute for Digital Learning, and Office of Scholarly Communications at the Vanderbilt University Library.”

Teach Better – Doug and Edward (the hosts) find such gifted educators to inspire us toward better teaching. I enjoy the end of each episode, where the guest shares a failure that provided a great learning experience. 

Tea for Teaching – Discovered this one very recently and have been enjoying it. Hosted by the individuals who lead the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at the State University of New York at Oswego

AcademiGig with Drs. Katie Linder and Sara Langworthy – These two are so much fun to listen to and are encouraging for those exploring “gigs” outside of the traditional academic track. “A podcast for current and aspiring academic creatives, freelancers, and entrepreneurs.”

Ask the Flipped Learning Network – “A podcast for and about the Flipped Learning Network”

The Contrafabulists Podcast – with Audrey Watters and Kin Lane – “discussion of the latest technology (and politics of technology) news.” They regularly challenge me to think more critically about educational technology.

The Deeper Learning Podcast – There haven’t been many episodes, but check out #1 for an incredible, lesser known court case that “shattered many of the legal justifications for segregating public schools and laid the foundation for the famous Brown v. Board of Education decision.”

Student Caring – A current colleague of mine (David) and a former one (Daniel) encourage us to thrive in our teaching and better serve our students.

HybridPod – “Explores conversations of critical digital pedagogy, listening for ways to empower students and champion learning.” It’s been a year or so since I saw a new episode, but as soon as I do see one, I know it will be wonderful.

Context

I have become obsessed with the idea of context and how most of my failings as a teacher have involved my lack of it in some way. I try to regularly digest content that helps me expand my understanding of other people’s contexts. I’m thankful for friendships that help me do that, as well.

Code Switch – Conversations about race and identity

Pod Save the People – “Organizer and activist DeRay McKesson explores news, culture, social justice, and politics through deep conversations with influencers and experts, and the weekly news with fellow activists Brittany Packnett and Sam Sinyangwe, and writer Clint Smith” – this one goes to the top of my queue every time. Hear about the news from the context of black activists and influencers…

Ear Hustle – Explores a context most of us are unfamiliar with… “Ear Hustle brings you the stories of life inside prison, shared and produced by those living it.”

Politics and News

I’m grateful that podcasts are available for shows that air in other media channels (such as television and radio), as I love the opportunity to listen on my own schedule. These podcasts help inform me on how to vote, how to be a better citizen, and how to engage in some forms of activism to try influence within my community and beyond. They also help me stay informed on what is happening in the business world.

Up First from NPR – Just ten minutes of news to start your day with

Planet Money from NPR – Fascinating look at economics

The Political Gabfest – Three wonderful hosts take on the week’s top three political news topics and then each make a recommendation at the end of the show (a little thing they call “Cocktail Chatter”).

Radiolab Presents: More Perfect – Absolutely brilliant podcast about the Supreme Court. Haven’t seen an episode since January 30, 2018 and am missing them so…

Democracy Now – A podcast of the Democracy Now television show. Independent, global news.

The Economist: Babbage – Podcast on science and technology. I listen when the episode topic is of interest.

The Gist – This one has moved up in my episodes queue. Mike Pesca invites on a guest each time to explore a topic in depth. Then, he performs that he calls “The Spiel” – which is typically a humorous look at a topic related to politics, the news, or something totally unexpected.

Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates – Smart debates about current topics

APM’s Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal – Great way to catch up with the news, using a lens oriented toward business and economics

Pod Save America – “A political podcast for people not yet ready to give up or go insane… Breaks down the week’s news and helps people figure out what matters and how to help.” Hosted by three individuals who worked for the Obama administration: Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor.

Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! – Very funny game show done weekly to keep us up on the important and just plain bizarre news. I often skip the two middle segments: One where you try to figure out which story of three is the one that really happened and one with a celebrity guest where they quiz them on random stuff. I enjoy those parts, but there’s only so much podcast listening that’s available to me.

Under the Influence from CBC Radio with Terry O’Reilly – Fascinating stories about marketing. I regularly find episodes that relate to the classes I teach.

Social Sciences

My undergraduate degree was in social sciences and I still quite enjoy learning more in this discipline. In many ways, all the podcasts I listen to probably belong in this category.

Hidden Brain – “Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, and shape our choices and direct our relationships.”

This American Life – It was hard to know where to classify this one – It is a little bit of everything and some of the best storytelling I’ve ever encountered

Very Bad Wizards with Tamler Sommers and David Pizarro – “A philosopher and psychologist ponder human morality (warning: they self admittedly have “a market inability to distinguish sacred from profane”)

Revisionist History with Malcolm Gladwell – Each episode goes “back and reinterprets something from the past: an event, a person, an idea. Something overlooked. Something misunderstood.” 

Bonni and Dave podcasting

Leadership and Management

My doctoral degree is in organizational leadership, so it probably isn’t too terribly surprising that I have carried my interest in these topics beyond my dissertation.

Coaching for Leaders with Dave Stachowiak – Spoiler alert – I’m married to the host and am on the podcast once a month for our Q&A episodes. In the remaining three weeks, Dave interviews fabulous guests that challenge us to keep developing ourselves as leaders.

The Look and Sound of Leadership with Tom Henschel – Wish it came out even more often – great advice for leaders in every episode

Women at Work from Harvard Business Review – Only lasted for four episodes – but well worth a listen – excellent podcast

Lead to Win with Michael Hyatt – Solid leadership advice with effective storytelling throughout

WorkLife with Adam Grant – Only recently started listening and am enjoying every episode

HBR IdeaCast – Weekly podcast “featuring the leading thinkers in business and management”

Productivity and Personal Effectiveness

Another unsurprising area of interest is in productivity. In fact, I even wrote a book on the topic.

The 1-3-20 Podcast with Daniel Pink – 1 book, 3 questions, and it all takes less than 20 minutes

Akimbo: A Podcast from Seth Godin – “A podcast about culture and how we can change it. About seeing what’s happening and choosing to do something.” I find much of his content to relate to marketing, which isn’t surprising, given what he is known for…

Better Off with Jill Schlesinger – Terrific financial literacy podcast, sponsored by Betterment (a forward-thinking investment company)

The Productivity Show by Asian Efficiency – I don’t listen to every episode, but the topics that are of interest to me always contain excellent advice and resources

Getting Things Done – It doesn’t come out very often, but when it does, they take content from their paid membership and make it available to those of us who are waiting for the table scraps of productivity advice

Technology and Science

I worked for eleven years for a computer training company, right after graduating with my BA degree. My passion for technology started at that organization – and hasn’t ended. Only in recent years have I found more interest in science and am grateful for the podcasts that help me cultivate that curiosity.

Note to Self with Manoush Zomorodi – Really enjoy their discussion of technology that is more oriented to the ethics side of things and social change

Mac Power Users – Just plain techy fun for Mac users. I was even on an episode back in 2015.

Reply All – “‘A podcast about the internet’ what is actually an unfailingly original exploration of modern life and how to survive it.” – The Guardian

RadioLab – I wish they were my science teachers in my younger days. Who knows what would have happened?

Accidental Tech Podcast – “A tech podcast we accidentally created while trying to do a car show, featuring Marco Arment, Casey List, and John Siracusa. I don’t listen to every episode, but am

Parsing Science – “The unpublished stories behind the world’s most compelling science, as told by the researchers themselves.” Hosted by: Doug Leigh (a former professor of mine and friend) and Ryan Watkins. “Both are professors, at Pepperdine University and George Washington University, respectively. ”

Religion and Spirituality

Thank God for opportunities to reflect on my faith and to hear from people who get me asking even more questions…

On Being with Krista Tippett – On Being is one of my most treasured podcasts. Krista talks with diverse thinkers about “the big questions of meaning in 21st century lives and endeavors – spiritual inquiry, science, social healing, and the arts. What does it mean to be human? How do we want to live? And who will we be to each other?”

St. Mark Presbyterian Church – This is our family’s church community. When we wind up missing a service, it is nice not to have to have missed the sermon. “Our diverse congregation is comprised of people from different religious and non-religious backgrounds who are seeking personally authentic ways to live in faith today. We connect with others who are wrestling with questions about God and religion, who care about taking action on social justice issues and the environment, and how we can be agents of change and reconciliation in a world so in need of compassion and healing.”

God Complex Radio – I can’t recall who first told me about God Complex Radio, but I have thoroughly enjoyed every episode I have ever heard. They talk about race, social justice, non-profits that are doing transformative work, and religion.

House for All Sinners and Saints – My favorite episodes are the ones when Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber is preaching. She’s like if Anne Lamott had a podcast and was also covered in tattoos.

Your Turn

What are some of your favorite podcasts? I’m almost afraid to ask this question, as you can no doubt tell I am behind on my listening queue 100% of the time… But, yet – I can’t resist learning about even more great podcasts.

It’s your turn now.