Nomad Podcast

Wellness culture promises us healthier bodies, calmer minds and longer lives. But what if that still isn’t enough?In this conversation, Beyond Wellness author and religious ethicist Liz Bucar explores what gets lost when spiritual practices are detached from the traditions, communities and worldviews that gave them meaning. We discuss the difference between wellness and genuine flourishing, why religion may have more to offer than belief alone, and whether we can responsibly borrow from traditions without ever really belonging to them. Along the way, we wrestle with authority, community, spiritual seeking, and what might be lost when religion becomes something we draw from without ever calling it home.After the interview, Nomad hosts Tim and Hannah reflect on what happens when spiritual practices are taken out of the communities that formed them — and whether sometimes the opposite can also be true. Drawing on their own evangelical backgrounds, they explore Sabbath, spiritual formation, cultural appropriation and the question of what kind of people our practices are actually shaping us into.Books, quotes, links →The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Homegrown Conversations, and Nomad Revisited.If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug!If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here.Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group.And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.

Pádraig Ó Tuama returns to Nomad for a conversation about the stories we inherit, the desires we’re taught to mistrust, and what happens when religious language gets tangled up with shame. We talk about scripture, poetry, anger, masculinity, friendship and the strange ways God can remain present even after religion has caused harm.Along the way, Pádraig reflects on exorcisms and reparative therapy, the body’s capacity to know before the mind catches up, and why anger can become a creative energy rather than something to fear. We also explore what it means to become “almost new” — not through a neat story of healing, but through friendship, attention, prayer, birds, and the slow work of learning how to live differently.After the interview, Nomad hosts Tim and Anna pick up some of the threads Pádraig left dangling: what do we do with anger once it stops being something to fear, why can faith remain strangely compelling even after it has caused harm, and what might our images of God reveal about us?Interview starts at 12m 22sBooks, quotes, links →The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Homegrown Conversations, and Nomad Revisited.If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug!If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here.Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group.And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.

In this episode we speak with Anglican Deacon and writer Jayne Manfredi, whose work explores the female body as a place of truth-telling, theological insight and spiritual transformation. Jayne talks with striking honesty about midlife, menopause and the shifting experience of embodiment — the leaking, aching, changing realities many women learn to hide — and reflects on the Church’s persistent discomfort with women’s bodies and the silence that often surrounds this life stage.Drawing on her book Waking the Women, Jayne describes menopause as a kind of wilderness: a time when old maps fail, identities unravel and a more authentic self begins to emerge. She speaks of rage, grief, liberation and the unexpected sense of resurrection that can follow the drying-up of long-held roles and expectations. Along the way she reflects on class and authenticity, the pressure to remain “nice”, and the ways midlife invites a more grounded, embodied, unapologetic faith.This is a conversation about bodies, meaning and the sacred work of becoming ourselves in midlife, told with warmth, humour and fierce honesty.After the interview Nomad hosts Tim Nash and Joy Brooks consider what Jayne’s insights stirred in them, reflecting on embodiment, ageing, social expectations, and the wide range of experiences that shape how different people navigate midlife.Interview starts at 12m 39sBooks, quotes, links →The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited.If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug!If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here.Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group.And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.

Palestinian peace activist Sami Awad has lived his whole life under military occupation. He’s witnessed violence, loss, and deep injustice. Yet rather than turning towards hatred or certainty, he’s journeyed into a spirituality rooted in compassion, healing, and what he calls Christ consciousness — a way of seeing that refuses separation and fear.In this conversation, Sami reflects on what it means to love your enemy amid war, to resist without hatred, and to awaken to the divine even in the midst of suffering. He speaks about his rejection of institutional Christianity, his lifelong commitment to nonviolence, and how ritual, grief, and steadfastness have become his practices of hope.Following the interview, Tim and Anna reflect on how Sami’s experience of faith under occupation challenges their own journeys. They discuss privilege, embodiment, and what it means to find Jesus beyond the institution. Together they explore sumud — steadfastness — as a contemplative form of resistance, and how love, rather than fear, can become the organising principle of faith.Interview starts at 17m 39sBooks, quotes, links →The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited.If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug!If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here.Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group.And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.

Many of us have left behind the religion we inherited. But what, then, are we reaching for? In this conversation, Celtic teacher John Philip Newell reflects on what he calls the Great Search—a deep yearning for soul, earth, and home at a time of...