ITS THE SEASON TWO PREMIERE! 🎙️ 1. Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin (Presbyterian) – ProgressiveChristianity.org & The Christian Left: Busting Myths About Progressive Christianity In this episode of The Sacred Slope, Alexis Rice is joined by Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin (@marksandlin), Presbyterian minister, writer, and co-founder of ProgressiveChristianity.org (@progressivechristianity) and The Christian Left (@the_christian_left). Mark has spent decades helping people recover a Christ-centered faith root...

🎙️ 35. Ike Ndolo (Catholic, Singer-Songwriter) - God in the Rubble, Honest Hymns & Freedom Songs Alexis Rice welcomes Ike Ndolo @ikendolo, a Nigerian-American Catholic worship leader and singer-songwriter whose voice refuses silence in the face of suffering. This episode is a powerful, honest conversation about faith with legs—faith that tells the truth, stands with the oppressed, and sings even when the world is on fire. Ike reflects on global Christianity, Catholic tradition, libe...

Highly encourage you to watch this episode on YouTube or Spotify to see art from The Naked Pastor we talk about! https://youtu.be/U2okGOpqGrA?si=_vb3UU346wydnpcV Alexis Rice welcomes David Hayward, the Canadian artist known globally as The Naked Pastor @nakedpastor, for a courageous, deeply human conversation about faith, power, grief, art, and what it actually means to follow Jesus right now. A former pastor of nearly 30 years, David’s minimalist cartoons have become lifelines for millions n...

This labor of love is my Christmas gift to you. I wasn’t planning to make this episode, but if it helps even one person this Christmas season, it was worth it. Over the past 7 months, I invited pastors, priests, and reverends from around the world to pray for those who haven’t been prayed over in a long time. This episode is a compilation of those prayers, woven together with music from singer-songwriters featured in Season One. There are some guests sprinkled in that will be in Season Two! B...

32. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde (Episcopal) – We Can Be Brave It’s not every day you get to sit down with one of your heroes. Bishop Budde has shaped my spiritual life - and my willingness to be brave - in these uncertain times. I hope this episode, my Christmas gift to you, fills you up with the same. - Alexis Rice What does Christian courage look like when fear dominates public life - and love still calls us to show up with dignity? In this episode of The Sacred Slope, Alexis is joined...

31. Rev. Elizabeth Ashman Riley (Episcopal) – Rage Prayers & What to Expect at an Episcopal Church What if the holiest prayer you could pray wasn’t polite at all—but a full-body, honest, angry, “Are you seeing this, God?!” In this episode of The Sacred Slope, Rev. Elizabeth Ashman Riley (@therevriley), Episcopal priest & author of Rage Prayers, invites us to bring our whole selves—grief, fury, doubt, and all—to God. We talk about queer-affirming faith, the beauty of small Episcopal co...

🎙️ 30. Jen Hatmaker (Relaxed in the love of Jesus) and Awake Alexis Rice welcomes NYT Bestselling author, podcaster, and spiritual trailblazer Jen Hatmaker (@jenhatmaker) for a tender, fierce, and raw conversation about her new memoir Awake. It's about the collapse of her marriage, and the systems that helped build the house that fell. Together they unpack patriarchy, purity culture, codependency, women’s leadership in the church, LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and how to survive the holidays with peopl...

29. Pastor Josh Scott – (Non-Denominational, Progressive, Open & Affirming) The Kind of Pastor I Wish I’d Had Growing Up What if the pastor you grew up with had made room for your questions instead of your fear? In this episode, Pastor Josh Scott (@josh_a_scott) shares how a kid raised in conservative Free Will Baptist Appalachia—where reading the NIV was considered “progressive”—became one of the most trusted voices in today’s progressive, Open & Affirming, non-denominational ...

28. Rev. Joash P. Thomas (Saint Thomas Christian / Evangelical Anglican tradition) – The Justice of Jesus & Decolonizing Our Faith Who taught me my theology - and who is missing from the table? From his roots in the ancient St. Thomas Christian tradition in India, through white American evangelicalism and Georgia Republican politics, to ministry in Canada, Rev. Joash shares how reclaiming his Global South perspective transformed his understanding of Jesus, justice, and the global church. ...

27. Mike Maeshiro (Ex-evangelical pastor) – God Made Me Gay: Healing from Spiritual HarmGrowing up evangelical, Mike was taught that being gay was sinful, dangerous, and something God would eventually “fix.” Today, he’s an ex-evangelical pastor helping thousands heal from spiritual trauma and rediscover a God who delights in them. In this episode, Mike shares his story with honesty, humor, and courage — from coming out, to losing his church community, to rebuilding a life rooted in joy, integ...

26. Dr. Jennifer Garcia Bashaw (Bible Scholar) – Wrestling with Scripture Beyond Literalism When “Bible-believing” meant literalism and inerrancy, many of us thought that was the only Christian option. Dr. Jennifer Garcia Bashaw—New Testament scholar, professor, and church practitioner—opens the door to a bigger, older, more beautiful Christian story. We unpack why inerrancy & literalism are relatively recent (1800s) theologies, how the Bible’s genres invite deeper reading, what Revelatio...

25. Bishop Guðrún Karls Helgudottir (Church of Iceland) – A Nation Led by Women, and a Bishop Who Says Queer People Should Be Safe in Christianity When a nation is led by women at the highest levels - the President, the Prime Minister, the Mayor of Reykjavík, the National Police Commissioner, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Bishop of Iceland - something becomes visible: women in power isn’t an exception, it’s normal. Into that context steps Bishop Guðrún - the second woman ever to se...

24. Rev. Gerlyn Henry (Anglican Church of Canada) – Communion over Control: The Faith that Frees When faith becomes about control instead of communion, something sacred is lost. Reverend Gerlyn Henry (@gerlynhenry)—an Indian-Canadian Anglican priest whose social media content about Jesus, justice, and women in ministry has reached millions and gathered hundreds of thousands of followers—joins Alexis Rice to talk about a faith that liberates instead of dominates. Together, Alexis & G...

23. John Fugelsang (Aspiring Christian) – Separation of Church & Hate Alexis Rice welcomes comedian, author, and radio host John Fugelsang (@johnfugelsang) — whose blend of humor, history, and theology cuts through America’s culture-war fog. His NYT bestseller Separation of Church and Hate challenges both the weaponization of Christianity and the silence that enables it. With his trademark wit, John dismantles the TV-made binary, tracing how power keeps hijacking Jesus’ message—from the C...

22. Pastor Joe Graves (United Methodist) – The Progressive Planter: Finding (and Building) the Church You Wish Existed When so many are walking away from church, Pastor and Author Joe Graves (@josephdavidgraves) is reimagining what it can be—clear, inclusive, justice-rooted, and grounded in grace. From launching free stores and violence-reduction funds to writing The Progressive Planter, Joe shares how “clear is kind,” why progressives must move from gatekeeping to organizing, and how we can ...

21. Malynda Hale (African Methodist Episcopal Church – AME) – Being the Good News Alexis Rice welcomes artist-activist, writer, and Executive Director at The New Evangelicals @TheNewEvangelicals, Malynda Hale (@malyndahale) — raised in the joy and lift of the Black church. African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church is one of the oldest historically Black denominations in the U.S., born out of resistance, faith, and community. Malynda’s story is a beautiful window into this tradition. This conve...

20. Brian Recker (Ex-Evangelical Pastor) – Hell Bent on Reclaiming Love Alexis Rice welcomes Brian Recker (@berecker) — former evangelical pastor, founding voice of Beloved on Substack, and author of Hellbent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love (out Sept 30) 👉 Order on ThriftBooks With honesty and pastoral clarity, Brian explores why hell-talk became the center of so many Christian upbringings—and how returning to Jesus’ core command to love can free our fa...

🎙 19. Sara Groves (Singer-Songwriter) – Faith, Fruit of the Spirit & a License to Love 🕊️ Reconciling Faith | 💜 Fruit of the Spirit | 🌱 Culture Care > Culture War | 🧠 Mental Health & Church This episode is for anyone holding grief, doubt, and hope at the same time—longing to keep Jesus at the center when public witness fractures. It’s for those learning to absorb harm without returning it, to practice active peacemaking, and to choose culture care in their actual neighborhoods. It’...

Alexis Rice welcomes Rev. Helen —a Church of England priest serving at St. Margaret’s, Ipswich—and our first guest from outside the United States. With warmth, candor, and a fierce pastoral heart, Rev. Helen shares how her late-in-life call to ministry grew from community, story, and wonder—and why an inclusive, justice-rooted Anglican faith speaks powerfully in today’s world. Stay til the end if you would like prayer. Together, Alexis and Rev. Helen dive into: How the Church of England works...

This week, Alexis Rice welcomes Pastor Paul Drees (@pastorpauldrees)—a Lutheran pastor of a local church. His online ministry, begun in 2021 in response to church trauma and toxic theology, has since reached 90M+ video views and drawn 650K+ followers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Together, Alexis and Paul dive into: Why grace comes first in Lutheran identity—communion as gift, not rewardHow Christianity has gone wrong whenever it chooses power over sacrificeThe history of w...