The Life After Podcast
Deconversion
Episodes
Tuesday May 07, 2019
Cults Inside Out (Deprogramming x High Pressure Communities) with Rick Alan Ross
Tuesday May 07, 2019
Tuesday May 07, 2019
Renowned cult deprogrammer and expert Rick Alan Ross Ross joins Chuck, Brady and special guest host Corey Pigg (Season 1, Episode 20, host of Failed Missionary) to discuss the everything related to harmful cult communities. From how to define a cult and how they work, to assessing what is and isn’t a cult, to discussions about the effects of cults on politics and popular culture. Ross is a dynamic thinker, a clear communicator, and a true expert in his field.
Rick Alan Ross is the author of Cults Inside Out, the founder and executive director of the Cult Education Institute (culteducation.com), has acted as an expert cult consultant for everything from best-selling video game Far Cry 5, to Television and Movies. Rick has intervened in over 500 deprogramming cases aimed at getting people out of dangerous cults.
Find links for The Life After Community (our secret Facebook group), subscribing, rating, and/or reviewing on iTunes here: linkin.bio/thelifeafterorg
Tuesday Apr 16, 2019
Leaving the Fold (Religious Trauma x Breaking Free) with Marlene Winell, PhD
Tuesday Apr 16, 2019
Tuesday Apr 16, 2019
Dr. Marlene Winell (human development consultant, educator, and writer) joins Chuck and Brady to discuss her life-changing book, "Leaving the Fold," and her ground-breaking research on Religious Trauma Syndrome.
They discuss how and why people are often trapped in Christian Fundamentalism and most importantly, how to break free and recover.
Visit Marlene's website to learn more about Religious Trauma Syndrome, to purchase your copy of "Leaving the Fold," and to sign up for one of her up-coming weekend retreats for people recovering from oppressive religion: https://journeyfree.org
Happy Deconstructing!
Find links for The Life After Community (our secret Facebook group), subscribing, rating, and/or reviewing on iTunes here: linkin.bio/thelifeafterorg
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Religion of Trauma (Biblical Origins x Psychedelics) with Andrew Jasko
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Andrew Jasko (lifeafterdogma.org) joins Chuck and Brady. He tells his story growing up passionate about Christian Fundamentalism and leaving it all behind. They discuss the Charismatic Movement, damage of sexual repression, the mind-blowing origins of Yahweh and El, how humans respond to suffering, and how the Bible seems to have been pieced together as a response to societal trauma.
Andrew ends by talking about the healing he is finding in psychedelics, meditation, and Eastern Spirituality.
Andrew's Story: Andrew's father was an Assembly of God pastor. Before he was born, Andrew was prophesied to be a spiritual warrior. As he grew up, he planned to win 1,000,000,000 souls to Jesus. His whole life pointed toward a future as a pastor or missionary. He got a Theology degree from Wheaton College and worked on another at Princeton. He had plans to go to India and start saving the world. But things weren't adding up.
A faith that promised joy was exhausting him. His doubts got louder, but most of all, he clearly saw how the faith, despite its use of language about peace, produced never-ending anxiety.
Andrew reluctantly studied and gave air to his doubts. Though losing one's faith feels like dying, he kept going. Driven to improve his mental health, he sought to understand how the faith kept him for so long and how he can heal.
Understanding how humans respond to trauma changed his life. He saw similar patterns in the Bible's history. Psychedelics and Eastern Spirituality gave him a new sense of purpose and understanding his life after dogma. He writes about spiritual healing on his blog and coaches others to heal from spiritual trauma.
Find links for The Life After Community (our secret Facebook group), subscribing, rating, and/or reviewing on iTunes here: linkin.bio/thelifeafterorg
Friday Mar 01, 2019
Friday Mar 01, 2019
Last season, Chuck and Brady spoke with Curtis, who lived through gay conversion therapy. This season, a former leader of Love in Action (gay conversion therapy) and author, Tim Rymel, tells his experience.
TW: This episode can be triggering for those who had to disassociate from their sexuality to survive in Evangelical envirnoments and others.
Tim promoted the notorious gay conversion therapy organization he helped organize and led. But over the years, he realized that the organization wasn't honest. His inquisitive mind compelled him to keep asking questions and not making excuses when there was no good answer to be found. In addition to leaving Love in Action, Tim eventually left the faith he always knew.
But that is where he found himself.
The episode includes several gripping coming out stories.
Find links for The Life After Community (our secret Facebook group), subscribing, rating, and/or reviewing on iTunes here: linkin.bio/thelifeafterorg
Wednesday Feb 06, 2019
The Way I Am (Liberal Christianity x Musical Expression) with Jennifer Knapp
Wednesday Feb 06, 2019
Wednesday Feb 06, 2019
Grammy-nominated songwriter, author, and advocate Jennifer Knapp joins the show to discuss coming out, liberal Christianity, and her music career.
Jennifer Knapp runs Inside Out Faith, a non-profit focused on confronting non-affirming churches to encourage more inclusive faith communities. Her memoir, “Facing the Music: My Story,” is available on Amazon, and she is promoting her newest album “Love Comes Around,” which can be found on Spotify, Apple Music, and wherever you stream music. For more information, you can visit her website: Jenniferknapp.org.
The Life After Podcast and Community | We hold space for people leaving Christian Fundamentalism.
Find links for The Life After Community (our secret Facebook group), subscribing, rating, and/or reviewing on iTunes here: linkin.bio/thelifeafterorg
Thursday Jan 24, 2019
Deliver Us From Your People (Spiritual Abuse x Therapy) with Angie Jay
Thursday Jan 24, 2019
Thursday Jan 24, 2019
TW: This episode includes mentions of sexual abuse, extreme spiritual abuse, and a suicide attempt.
Angie Jay, spiritual abuse survivor and political activist, joins Chuck and Brady to share her horrifying Evangelical experience when she served as a missions intern at the age of 18. Far from home and family, the missions organization leadership forced her to describe -- in mixed company and with great detail -- the long history of sexual abuse she had experienced, which started when she was only 2, in order to "heal." When the leaders felt Angie wasn't responding to their abusive counsel in the way they wanted, the main male leader took the situation to a horrifying new level. Her told her the sexual abuse left a demon in her that he needed to remove. And, without her consent, that's what he attempted to do.
The complex nightmare continues when she returned home and much of her home church leadership believed her abusers over her or showed her no empathy.
Listen to see how Angie discovered a better life after on this episode of The Life After Podcast, hosted by Chuck Parson and Brady Hardin.
Find links for The Life After Community (our secret Facebook group), subscribing, rating, and/or reviewing on iTunes here: linkin.bio/thelifeafterorg
Monday Jan 07, 2019
Exvangelical with Blake Chastain (Season 2 Premiere)
Monday Jan 07, 2019
Monday Jan 07, 2019
Blake Chastain of #Exvangelical Podcast joins Chuck and Brady to discuss his life after.
Find links for The Life After Community (our secret Facebook group), subscribing, rating, and/or reviewing on iTunes here: linkin.bio/thelifeafterorg
Friday Nov 09, 2018
BONUS EPISODE! Chuck and Brady at Ethical Society Mid Rivers
Friday Nov 09, 2018
Friday Nov 09, 2018
Here is some bonus content to hold you over until Season 2 premieres!
Chuck and Brady were recently invited to present at the Ethical Society Mid Rivers in Saint Peters, MO. They shared the history of the podcast and discussed topics commonly tackled on the show, such as indoctrination, spiritual abuse, religious trauma syndrome, and religious gaslighting.
Season 2 coming soon!
The Life After Podcast and Community | Live Real-LifeWe Hold Space for Those Leaving Their Faith in a Secret Facebook Group and Slack Channel.thelifeafter.org
Tuesday Jul 31, 2018
Tuesday Jul 31, 2018
Chuck and Brady interview a new friend they met purely because of the show, Joey Hill. Joey shares his story of overcoming a gauntlet of obstacles after leaving harmful religion. Determined to keep going, Joey found a unique way to shape his future… but it didn’t go as planned. Brady and Joey discuss how hard it is to bounce back from leaving religion, especially for those who built their futures around plans of being in the ministry. But over time, Joey found his footing and kept going and going and...
After their interview with Joey, Chuck and Brady take time to reflect on what the first season of the podcast has meant to them, sandwiched by audio messages left by the wonderful listeners.
Thursday Jun 14, 2018
Pushing Beyond (Being Othered x Theology) with Verdell Wright
Thursday Jun 14, 2018
Thursday Jun 14, 2018
On this episode of The Life After, we are talking with our friend, Verdell Wright. Verdell is a theology nerd in the purest sense. Boasting theology degrees from Rutgers, Howard and Wesley Theological Seminary. Verdell is also black, and gay. Put all those things together, along with a very intelligent and well conceived deconstruction and you get a powerful thinker, writer, and advocate. Verdell very recently published a piece for for the Black Youth Project about how he went from being a sought after minister to leaving the Christian faith. Or, pushing beyond the Christian faith as he likes to put it. In our interview with Verdell, we cover everything from the problem of theodicy, to coming out, to what it’s like to be the token Black guy in a quote ‘progressive’ white church.
Find links for The Life After Community (our secret Facebook group), subscribing, rating, and/or reviewing on iTunes here: linkin.bio/thelifeafterorg