Episode vibe: peace walks, monks, “loving kindness,” Dolly’s gospel side, and the return of our favorite radical nun.

What we get into

• Dorothy’s new obsession: monks (and specifically the Walk for Peace) — two dozen monks and a dog walking from Texas to the White House, stopping to pray with people and bring “loving kindness” to communities along the way.
• Kindness over niceness: why “loving kindness” hits different, and what it looks like when it’s lived in public.
• A mission story from Cambodia: Dorothy shares a moment from a Mending Kids trip that changed how she thinks about reverence, culture, and what comfort can look like when touch isn’t allowed.
• Birthdays + meaning: Dorothy honors her mom’s heavenly birthday, and Jason celebrates Dolly Parton (plus MLK Day) — which turns into a deep dive on Dolly’s spiritual music.
• Dolly’s “Light of the Clear Blue Morning,” reimagined: a new version sparks Jason’s full-on rabbit hole and leads to a curated Chasing Faith Dolly playlist for the community.
• Back with Sister Chris: the episode continue our conversation with the bold, brilliant Sister Chris Shenk — and the conversation goes straight to the heart of women’s leadership in early Christianity, Mary Magdalene’s real story, and the future of the Catholic Church.
• Doing good, loudly and quietly: Dorothy and Jason invite listeners to share stories of people making the world better (big gestures or small ones), and Dorothy gives a quick plug for Mending Kids and their upcoming fundraiser.

Featured guest / segment highlight: Sister Chris (Radical Nun Return)

Sister Chris covers:

• Mary Magdalene: not a prostitute; a commissioned apostle and first witness of the Resurrection.
• Women leaders in the early Church: research and archaeology suggesting women’s influence was far larger than most people were taught.
• FutureChurch: founded in 1990, focused on the future of Catholic life (including access to Eucharist, leadership, and reform).
• Parish closures + canon law: advocacy, appeals, and organizing to protect vibrant faith communities.
• “God is bigger than the Catholic Church”: a faith view roomy enough for mystery, humility, and other traditions.

Dorothy’s “doing good” spotlight

Mending Kids (Dorothy’s long-time charity)

• Volunteer-driven surgical missions serving kids around the world (and in the U.S.).
• Fundraiser gala: March 21.

Call to action (aka: don’t just listen, join us)

• Tell us who you know doing good — in your town, your church, your workplace, your family, anywhere.
• Follow on Instagram and share the story (or DM it).
• If you like the show: rate, review, and share with a friend.

Mentioned in the episode

• Walk for Peace (monks walking from Texas toward the White House)
• “Loving kindness” (a Buddhist concept that becomes a theme)
• Dolly Parton spiritual songs + Jason’s curated playlist
• FutureChurch
• Mary Magdalene as apostle/leader
• Crispina and Her Sisters: Women in Authority in Early Christianity (Sister Chris’s book)
• Bending Toward Justice (Sister Chris’s book on parish closures/canon law advocacy)
• Mending Kids + gala on March 21

Episode closer

“Come chase faith with us.”

What happens when “midlife crisis” becomes midlife awakening? In this episode, Dorothy Lucey and Jason Ball sit down with Marianne Williamson, spiritual teacher, author, activist, and founder of Project Angel Food, for a conversation that feels like a soul massage with a little tough love. 💥💛

Marianne joins from London🇬🇧 (between grandbaby time 👶👶) to talk about her new book Midlife Awakening, why the soul doesn’t age, and how to stay engaged in the world when anxiety and overwhelm make you want to hide under the covers.

This episode is about choosing love, reclaiming your agency, and becoming the person God wants you to be one small decision at a time. 🙏✨

Throughout the episode, the conversation returns to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, including his reminder that:

“Your life begins to end the day you stop talking about things that matter.”

It’s a powerful throughline for this moment especially on a weekend dedicated to honoring Dr. King’s work, courage, and insistence that love must be active, disciplined, and brave. 🕊️

In this episode, we talk about:

🌿 Midlife Awakening vs. Midlife Crisis: reframing this season of life as opportunity
🧠 Training your mind when negativity becomes a “river” you can’t stop
💛 The prayer that hits hardest: “Make me the person you want me to be.”
🔥 Why love is active — and what “showing up” actually looks like
🕊️ Peaceful protest and leadership without losing yourself to anger
🤝 Service as the antidote to anxiety: “How can I help?”
🏳️‍🌈 The legacy of the AIDS crisis and why it matters right now
👵 The “Conscious Samaritan” question: Why are there so many beggars?
🕯️ Forgiveness as freedom (and the line between processing vs. indulging)
🦋 The “butterfly wing” idea: small acts that ripple into big change

📚 Featured book:

Midlife Awakening by Marianne Williamson
If you’ve been feeling stuck, tired, numb, or “is this it?”… this one might light you up.

🎧 Watch / Listen / Subscribe

If this episode moved you, don’t keep it to yourself:
✅ Watch the full episode
✅ Listen wherever you get podcasts
✅ Subscribe so you don’t miss the next conversation
✅ Leave a rating + review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (it helps more than you think!)
✅ Share with a friend who needs a little hope + a loving kick in the ass 💛

And we want to hear from you:
📩 Know someone doing good in the world—big or small?
DM us and tell us who we should talk to next. 👀✨

#ChasingFaith #DorothyLucey #MarianneWilliamson #MidlifeAwakening #FaithJourney #SpiritualGrowth #CourseInMiracles #ChooseLove #Service #HopeInAction #ToughLove #ProjectAngelFood #Purpose #Forgiveness #MakeMeThePersonYouWantMeToBe #PodcastLife #NewEpisode

What happens when a Lutheran minister becomes a politician and brings her faith with her? In this episode, Dorothy and Jason sit down with Sarah Trone Garriott, an Iowa State Senator and candidate for Congress (IA-03), to talk about calling, courage, public service, and how faith can shape politics without turning into a weapon. 🙏🏽🗳️

We also open with a surprise spiritual moment from an unexpected place: Alanis Morissette singing “Ave Maria”🎶💛

🔥 In this episode:

• 🎵 The Alanis “Ave Maria” curveball and why it matters
• 🏠 Dorothy reflects on the one-year mark since the Palisades fire: grief, displacement, and the loss of “memory objects” like kids’ ornaments
• ⛪️ Sarah’s path from AmeriCorps domestic violence work to ministry to public office
• 🏥 What it’s really like being a hospital chaplain, including caring for children and families in crisis
• 🧠 “Don’t just do something, stand there” the chaplain’s approach to presence and pain
• 💬 Faith + politics: why Sarah believes they should talk to each other
• 🗳️ The moment she decided to run: reproductive health, bad policy, and leaders who didn’t understand basic medical realities
• 🩺 How she talks about being Christian and pro-choice
• 🍞 Food insecurity = hunger (say it plainly) and why food is where communities can still unite
• 📈 The leap from state senate to Congress: scale, costs, and staying human in a bigger race
• 🤝 Refusing to “play dirty” and choosing hope as a strategy

💡 Quote that sticks:

Sometimes what people need most isn’t the perfect words. It’s not being alone. 💛

👀 Coming next week:

The “ultimate wise woman” (Jason’s words 😄): Marianne Williamson 🌟📚

📺 Watch the full episode
🎧 Listen on your favorite podcast platform
🔔 Subscribe so you don’t miss the next “Wise Woman”

And follow us on Instagram: @chasingfaithpod📲✨
Dorothy wants to hear about your faith journey—and so do we. Come chase faith with us. 🤍

#ChasingFaith #DorothyLucey #SarahTroneGarriott #FaithAndPolitics #ThreeWiseWomen #IowaPolitics #IA03 #CongressionalCandidate #ProgressiveFaith #ChristianDemocrat #PublicService #Chaplaincy #HealingAndHope #CommunityFirst #Vote #CivicEngagement #ChasingFaithPod 🎙️✨

This week on Chasing Faith, Dorothy and Jason sit down with the unstoppable Shelene Bryan, author, speaker, and founder of Skip1 (skip1.org), for a conversation that’s equal parts heart, truth, and holy kick-in-the-pants.

Shelene doesn’t just talk about faith. She moves with it. And she’s here to challenge all of us to stop playing it safe and start living like what we do actually matters.

✨ In this episode:

• 🔥 “I’m not worried you’ll fail… I’m worried you’ll succeed at something that doesn’t matter.” (Whew.)
• 🌍 How a $40/month child sponsorship turned into a life-altering trip to Uganda and the moment Shelene heard: “I know, mom.”
• 🛏️ The simple request that changed everything: “I’d love a bed.”
• ☕ The birth of Skip1: skip one small thing (latte, lunch, nails, whatever) and redirect it to change a life
• 📖 Why reading the Bible isn’t about being a scholar—it’s about showing up with childlike faith (even if you’re dozing in Leviticus 😅)
• 🤝 Why community matters: “God sent the disciples out two by two… we were never meant to do this alone.”
• 🛟 Comfort + safety can be paralyzing and stepping out of the “boat” is where faith gets real
• 🍽️ The legendary Skip1 gala story: guests paid for dinner… and ended up skipping dinner to build a kitchen and save lives

💥 The takeaway:

Faith isn’t a vibe. It’s a decision.
And Shelene’s message is clear: get up and do something—not to look good, but because love requires motion. ❤️

✅ CTA: Watch • Listen • Subscribe

🎥 WATCH the full episode
🎧 LISTEN wherever you get your podcasts
🔔 SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss Week 3 of Three Wise Women (a Lutheran minister + congressperson from Iowa who talks politics and religion like it’s her cardio 😄)

📲 Come hang with us on Instagram and tell us about your faith journey—come chase faith with us. ✨

#ChasingFaith #DorothyLucey #SheleneBryan #Skip1 #SkipOne #FaithInAction #ChristianPodcast #PurposeDriven #DoSomething #GetOutOfTheBoat #ServeOthers #BibleTalk #FaithJourney #PodcastLife #WatchListenSubscribe #ThreeWiseWomen #CommunityMatters #MakeItCount

Christmas may be behind us, but the wisdom is just getting started. In this episode, Dorothy and Jason kick off their “Three Wise Women” series with Julie Bennett and she does not tiptoe.

Julie opens up about the messy, holy middle: moving on a clear calling… then getting a cancer diagnosis… then living out the kind of joy you can’t fake. She talks about what it means to be content in all circumstances, how God doesn’t cause suffering but doesn’t waste it, and why what you believe about God’s character shapes how you survive what life throws at you.

You’ll also hear a conversation that hits hard (in the best way) about the difference between being nice vs being kind to others, and to yourself. (Spoiler: “nice” can be a mask. “kind” tells the truth.)

And yes… there’s a moment involving an Airbnb, a closet, chemo, Christmas chaos, and a nine-year-old who thinks his mom needs discipline. 😅

✨ In this episode:

• The “Three Wise Women” series begins 👑👑👑
• Julie’s story: calling, chaos, cancer, and the wild grace to stay
• Joy + anguish can coexist (and that might change how you see your life)
• “God is fully sovereign… but not controlling” 🤯
• Nice vs Kind: why kindness is deeper, harder, and more honest
• “True confession” = telling the truth to God (no performance required)
• Memorial stones, surrender, and learning to stop “explaining yourself”
• A reminder you’ll want to replay: delays are not denials

🔥 Quote-worthy moments:

• “When I’m anxious, I’m in control mode. When I’m at peace, I’m in surrender.”
• “God doesn’t give you something bad to teach you something… but He won’t waste it.”
• “What you believe about God will dictate how you see life around you.”

▶️ Your next move (CTA)

✅ Watch the episode
✅ Listen on your favorite podcast app
✅ Subscribe so you don’t miss the next Wise Woman
✅ Leave a rating + review — it helps more than you think ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✅ Comment on Instagram: What’s one thing you’re learning in your faith journey right now? 💬

⏭️ Coming next week:

Wise Woman #2: Shelene Byran — Dorothy calls her “God’s CEO,” and Jason calls her a kick-in-the-pants call to action. 🙌

#ChasingFaith #DorothyLucey #JulieBennett #FaithJourney #ChristianPodcast #HopeInHardTimes #JoyInTheStorm #CancerSurvivor #KindnessOverNice #SpiritualGrowth #HonestFaith #PodcastRecommendations #WatchListenSubscribe 🎧📺✨

Holding on to joy when the world feels heavy plus a big warm dive into Christmas traditions (and the surprising history behind them).

This week on Chasing Faith, Dorothy and Jason start in a very real place: grief, shock, and exhaustion after a brutal news cycle. From the shooting at Brown University to a horrific mass shooting in Australia, the conversation wrestles with what it means to look for “comfort and joy” when comfort feels absent and joy feels out of reach.

From there, Dorothy invites Julie Bennett (pastor’s wife and future guest) to help make sense of it. Julie offers a grounding reframing: joy isn’t a reward for having it all together. Joy is fuel. Strength. Something given, not earned.

And then, because it’s Christmas week, the episode turns toward tradition, memory, and meaning with holiday historian and author Ace Collins (aka “Doc Holiday”), who brings the kind of Christmas lore that makes you laugh.

In This Episode

The hard stuff we’re carrying

• Dorothy reflects on the horror of school shootings and how it lands differently when you’ve lived breaking-news chaos in a newsroom.
• Jason shares a personal gut-punch memory: hearing about a school shooting near where he grew up while his mother was teaching.
• The ache of the season: students coming home, families gathering, and the world still feeling unsafe.

Holding on to joy (Guest: Julie Bennett)

Julie shares what she calls a “bubbling up” scripture: Nehemiah 8:10 “The joy of the Lord is our strength.”
Her takeaways:

• Joy is not a trophy for being okay.
• In the Biblical context, the people had messed up badly, and God offered joy instead of shame.
• Peace makes space for joy, and joy becomes strength for the moment you’re in.

Christmas week detour (and the fun stuff we need)

• Dorothy’s December lifestyle: Christmas movies + See’s Candy (nonstop).
• Jason shares a childhood memory of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” and reading it to his grandparents.

Main Guest: Ace Collins (aka “Doc Holiday”)

Holiday expert. Prolific author (over 100 books). Christmas historian. Story machine.

What Ace brings:

• Why It’s a Wonderful Life flopped at first (wrong cultural moment, wrong season, film noir era vibes) and how TV resurrected it into legend.
• Why Christmas songs make you “immortal,” and what it takes for a song to become a multi-generation touchstone (yes, Mariah comes up).

Wild Christmas history highlights:

• “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” helped shift America’s Christmas from rowdy to family-centered.
• Christmas trees were once hung upside down from ceilings in parts of Europe (picture the ladder chaos).
• Martin Luther gets credit for putting candles on trees (and inventing the first major Christmas fire hazard).
• The first widely affordable electric Christmas lights took off in the late 1800s.

“O Holy Night” the story inside the song:

• Written from a poem commissioned for a Christmas Mass in 1840s France.
• Played in 1906 during what Ace describes as the first wireless broadcast of a song.

Dorothy shares a tender thread running through this season: ornaments as memory. She talks about friends who lost homes in the Malibu fires and how Christmas decorations hit differently when “the stuff” is actually history—handmade preschool ornaments, keepsakes, family markers. Dorothy saved her meaningful ornaments, but they’re still being cleaned, so for now it’s a “Charlie Brown” little tree and hope.
Jason and Dorothy close with a simple Christmas wish and a reminder to rate, review, and subscribe.
Merry Christmas from Chasing Faith. 🎄✨

It’s the third week of Advent, the week of joy, and it’s also the first day of Hanukkah. Dorothy and Jason dive into what it means to live wide awake to God’s presence, even in seasons of grief, confusion, and…Wordle streaks. They’re joined by the deeply wise and wonderfully warm Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson, whose stories about faith, autism, Hanukkah, and learning to “live for the yes” leave everyone on the verge of tears.

Along the way, they talk radical joy, gratitude as a “gateway drug” to joy, why we pray the way we do, and what it looks like when different faiths stop competing and start blessing each other. 💛

In This Episode 💬

• 🕯 Advent joy & Hanukkah light
• 💥 Radical joy in a broken world
• 💗 Gratitude as the gateway to joy
• ✡️ Being “chosen” and living wide awake
• 🧠 Autism, love, and angry faith
• 🙏 How do we actually pray?
• 🔥 Bible, justice & everyone having a story
• 🎄✨ Gio Benitez, confirmation & Christmas preview
• 🔠 And yes… Wordle
• 🕎 A Hanukkah blessing for everyone listening

About Our Guest 👤

Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson is a rabbi, author, and dean at American Jewish University in Los Angeles, as well as a dean in Germany. He writes and teaches on theology, philosophy, Bible, justice, and what it means to live awake to God’s presence in a complicated world. He’s also a devoted dad, especially to his son Jacob, whose joy-filled faith reshaped Rabbi Artson’s own relationship with God.

Listen If… 🎧

This episode is for you if:

• You’re grieving and wondering if joy is even allowed right now
• You’ve ever felt mad at God or silent with God
• You’re curious about Judaism, Hanukkah, and interfaith friendship
• You love Wordle and wonder if your prayer life could use a reset
• You’re chasing faith but not always sure what you believe (or how to practice it)

Call to Action 💌

If this conversation about joy, grief, faith, Hanukkah, and Wordle spoke to you:

• ⭐️ Follow / Subscribe to Chasing Faith so you don’t miss next week’s Christmas episode
• 💬 Leave a rating & review—tell us how you are chasing faith and where you’re finding radical joy right now
• 📲 Share this episode with a friend who’s walking through loss, doubt, or change and needs a reminder that light still breaks in
• 💛 DM us on Instagram and tell us:

How are you chasing faith and joy this Advent/Hanukkah season?

Come chase faith with us. ✨

Suggested Hashtags 🌐

#ChasingFaith #RadicalJoy #AdventJoy #Hanukkah #WideAwakeFaith #RabbiArtson #Wordle #GratitudePractice #FaithJourney #Interfaith #ChasingFaithPodcast

When the news cycle feels like a constant gut punch, how do you keep chasing faith? In this episode, Dorothy and Jason sit down with Sister Chris Schenk, CSJ, a nurse midwife turned church reformer, founding director of FutureChurch, and longtime National Catholic Reporter columnist to talk about finding God when the headlines are bleak, why doubt is part of faith, and why it’s absolutely okay to get mad at God.

In This Episode

• Advent Week Two: Peace in a noisy world
  Jason and Dorothy reflect on Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers” – and why peace feels both fragile and essential right now.
• Journalists chasing faith As two longtime news people, Dorothy and Jason talk honestly about reading hard headlines every day and how this podcast is changing the way they experience faith, trust, and even technical glitches.
• Meet “the radical nun” Sister Chris Schenk Nurse midwife who served low-income families in Cleveland for years. Founding director of FutureChurch, an international church reform organization focused on lay participation and justice in the Church. One of three nuns featured in the award-winning documentary Radical Grace and a regular columnist for National Catholic Reporter.
• Where is God when the headlines are so bleak?
  Sister Chris shares what pushed her to the edge of disbelief during the Vietnam and civil rights era, how a Jesuit mentor helped her reframe God and human freedom, and why she now sees her primary identity as rooted in faith rather than nationality.
• Good vs. evil, and why the arc still bends toward justice
  She reflects on Jesus facing corrupt political and religious systems, the long view of history, and why she still believes “good is bigger than evil” even when everything looks like it’s falling apart.
• “Good trouble” inside the Church
  From sanctuary work for Central American refugees to expanding Medicaid access for low-income pregnant women, Sister Chris talks about getting in “good trouble” for justice, and why she refuses to abandon the Church to its own sinfulness.
• A very human vocation story
  How a Baptist friend, a deep season of depression, and a Perry Como love song all played a part in a deeper conversion moment that changed the trajectory of Sister Chris’ life.
• It’s okay to be angry with God
  Why many of us are more furious with God than we admit, and how naming that anger can actually open the door to a more honest relationship with the divine.
• Daily practices that keep her grounded
  Sister Chris shares her rhythm of Scripture, journaling, and centering prayer – and why two days without it leaves her “out of joint.” She also offers practical ideas for people who struggle to make space for God in a noisy life.
• Looking ahead: from nun to rabbi
  Jason and Dorothy tease next week’s episode with Rabbi Bradley Artson, recorded as Hanukkah approaches, and talk about what it means to spread light in a dark season.

Key Takeaways

• Faith isn’t a one-and-done decision; it’s daily work – every choice, every moment.
• You can question, doubt, and even be angry at God and still be deeply rooted in faith.
• Peacemaking is not passive; it’s an active stance in a world that often rewards power over compassion.
• The history of Christianity is far more inclusive of women’s leadership than many of us have been taught.
• Prayer, community, and honest conversation can lighten the heaviness of the news cycle and help us stay engaged without being consumed.

Subscribe, follow, and share
If this episode helped you breathe a little easier in the middle of the headlines, share it with a friend who’s struggling to hold onto hope and come keep chasing faith with us.