Living On Common Ground
Does it feel like every part of your life is divided? Every scenario? Every environment? Your church, your school, your work, your friends. Left, right. Conservative, liberal. Religious, secular. From parenting styles to school choice, denominational choice to governing preference, it seems you're always being asked to take a side.
This is a conversation between a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist who happen to be great friends. Welcome to Living on Common Ground.
Episodes
37 episodes
Megachurches or Progressive Pews
Feeling squeezed into a side? We are too. This conversation pairs a progressive Christian with a conservative atheist who’ve stayed close friends, even as the world begs us to sort, label, and cancel. We start with a striking claim from a Durha...
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43:17
Striving, Resentment, And The Path That Keeps Us Human
Feeling forced to pick a side? We chose friendship instead. A progressive Christian and a conservative atheist sit down to make sense of judgment, grace, and the strange way big ideals can both guide and haunt us. Using Jordan Peterson’s Sermon...
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44:08
How Hanging Out With Everyone Can Save Us
Ever feel like belonging now requires an enemy list? We sat down as longtime friends—a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist—to push back on that reflex and ask a harder question: what would it take to build a community that includes...
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54:32
When Rules Erode And Armies Obey Men, Republics Learn To Love Kings
What makes a people trade a messy republic for the promise of a single, steady hand? We take you inside Rome’s long unraveling—where unwritten rules cracked, armies switched their loyalties from the state to ambitious men, and everyday citizens...
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44:36
Can Invitation Beat Outrage As A Path To Change
Feeling squeezed to pick a side? We’re two longtime friends—a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist—who refuse the script and get honest about how change actually happens. Instead of scoring points against “the other,” we explore why...
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44:08
When Ideas Evolve, Do We?
Start with a simple question: when your world divides you into teams, how do you stay friends across the line? We stress-test that question by putting our own friendship on the table—a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist—and then f...
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49:03
You Can Debate Politics Without Making Each Other The Enemy
Division sells, but it doesn’t solve much. We sat down—one progressive Christian, one conservative atheist—and stress-tested whether two people who disagree on faith and politics can talk through fear, foreign policy, and identity without turni...
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53:10
When Do Rights Require Others’ Labor
Feeling squeezed to “pick a side” on every issue? We pull the lens back and ask a deeper question: what is a right, and what do we owe each other to make it real? With Elena joining the table, we test our friendship across belief lines—a progre...
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48:20
We Don’t Know K‑Pop, But We Know Prime Rib
Feeling tugged to pick a side—left or right, secular or religious, old school or ultra-online? We start the year by stress-testing a simple idea: friendship can thrive across deep differences. On one mic, a progressive Christian. On the other, ...
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44:43
Energy, Logos, And A Baby In Bethlehem
What if Christmas isn’t magic from far away, but matter aligning with love right here? We open with holiday greetings and step into a reimagined Nativity that holds science and faith together. Starting from the Big Bang and the birth of conscio...
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19:48
Joy Without Permission; Finding Common Ground At Christmas
Every December, something in us softens. The traffic is still bad and the lines are still long, yet we wait with a little more patience and offer a little more grace. We wanted to understand that shift without scolding or sanctimony, so we sat ...
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43:26
Bridging Divides Without Losing Yourself
Feeling cornered by purity tests and tribal litmus checks? We’ve been there. As a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist who happen to be close friends, we trade quick outrage for slow curiosity and ask a tougher question: are we buil...
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48:23
Lines We Cross For Friendship
What if a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist could argue hard topics, laugh at themselves, and keep choosing friendship? That’s the spirit of this conversation as we map common ground without sanding off our edges—tackling public ...
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44:34
What If Survival Isn’t The Point, But Connection Is
Division feels baked into everything—work, faith, politics, even friendships—yet the best conversations still start on shared ground. We sit down as a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist, grateful for a friendship that doesn’t need...
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41:41
What If Wisdom At Creation Was A Woman?
When every headline demands a side, what if we started with a question? We sit down as a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist to explore how creation stories frame our deepest assumptions about chaos, order, and the feminine. From G...
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43:32
Nihilism, Friendship, And Finding Meaning
Feeling pulled to choose a side in every room you enter? We bring a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist to the same table to ask a harder question: if life doesn’t come preloaded with meaning, what should we build together?...
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43:48
How We Disagree Without Losing Respect
Feeling squeezed into a corner by every conversation? We push back with a frank, funny, and steady exchange between a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist who’ve made a promise: stay friends, stay curious, and keep the hard question...
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43:04
God, Gum, And Emery Boards: A Surprisingly Deep Dive
Ever catch yourself deciding that someone’s chewing or phone volume is a moral failure? We start there—small frictions that expose big assumptions—and climb toward the larger question: how do we live together with sharp differences, without los...
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57:29
Government Shutdowns, Stoicism, And What Really Matters
Feeling tugged to take a side on everything? We zoom out from the outrage to ask a harder question: what actually matters enough to shape your day, your community, and your character. Starting with the government shutdown, we separate optics fr...
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48:19
From Trash Tomatoes to Climate Politics: How Ideas Take Root
Seeds don’t look like certainty—until you’ve seen them sprout a dozen times. We start with a backyard mystery of “trash tomatoes” and end up mapping how humans learn, trust, and pass on what we call truth. Along the way, we push into the hard q...
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47:52
School, Civics, and the Battle for Young Minds
What happens when a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist ask whether public schools are built to indoctrinate—and refuse to turn the question into a shouting match? We start with history, not heat, tracing Horace Mann’s citizen-maki...
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49:08
Can Compassion Have Conditions?
Homelessness is one of America's most divisive issues, with battle lines seemingly drawn between compassion and accountability. But what happens when a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist sit down to tackle this thorny topic? Surpr...
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53:04
Holy Tax Exemptions: Should Churches Keep Their Political Opinions to Themselves?
The line between faith and politics has always been contested ground, but in today's hyper-polarized climate, the question burns more intensely than ever: Should churches that promote political messages maintain their tax-exempt status?...
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58:59
When Violence Divides Us: Finding Common Ground After Tragedy
When violence enters our political landscape, can meaningful conversation still survive? In this timely episode, recorded just hours after a high-profile political shooting, two friends from opposite sides of the ideological spectrum wrestle wi...
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59:13
Deglobalization, Military Power, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves
What happens when we question the stories nations tell themselves? In this thought-provoking episode, we tackle the complex question of whether American military operations worldwide ultimately help or harm US interests.The conversation...
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