In this final episode of 2025, I’m joined by Tripp Fuller from Homebrewed Christianity and Paul Hoard from the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. We talk about the Christmas story, and how, in so many ways, it moves in the opposite direction of the stories being told by artificial intelligence prophets, power brokers, and profiteers today.

So, wherever you are at in this advent season, I hope this conversation brings you a bit of hope as it reminds you of what it is to be human, what love truly is, and how, even when it seems so dark out there, the light of the world really has overcome that darkness.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I’ll see you in 2026.

Bios

Tripp Fuller is a podcaster, theologian, minister and competitive home brewer. Currently, he is visiting Professor of Theology at Luther Seminary. He received his PhD in Philosophy, Religion, and Theology at Claremont Graduate University. For over 12 years Tripp has been doing the Homebrewed Christianity podcast where he interviews different scholars about their work so you can get nerdy in traffic, on the treadmill, or doing the dishes. Last year it had over 3 million downloads. It also inspired a book series with Fortress Press called the Homebrewed Christianity Guides to topics like God, Jesus, Spirit, Church History and so on.

Paul Hoard, PhD, LMHC, is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and associate professor of counseling psychology at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology. His work sits at the intersection of Lacanian theory, theology, and culture, examining how desire, disgust, trauma, sexuality, and play shape our lives and imaginations. He maintains a clinical practice, provides supervision for therapists integrating psychoanalysis and theology, and is the co-author (with his sister Billie Hoard) of Eucontamination: Disgust Theology and the Christian Life, a book that reimagines the theological logic of disgust as a site of transformation rather than exclusion.

Tripp's Links

Website: https://www.homebrewedchristianty.com/

Substack: https://processthis.substack.com/

Bluesky: @trippfuller.bsky.social

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/homebrewed-christianity/id276269040

Paul's Links

Substack: https://paulhoard.substack.com/

Paul's Book: https://wipfandstock.com/9798385213726/eucontamination/

In this episode, I speak with two returning guests, political columnist and commentator David Moscrop and politician Jeff Wheeldon.

As you’ll discover, the origin story for what you’ll about to hear kicked off when David used the terms 'mutant socialist' and 'bad leftist' in our previous conversation.

There was something about those terms, and the thoughts surrounding them, that helped me feel very seen and understood. And it also reminded me a lot of the conversation I had with Jeff on this show.

The three of us all lean to the left in our politics, but that doesn’t mean we feel totally at home within what constitutes ‘The Left’ today. And for me personally, this reality actually goes a fairly long way in accounting for why I started Personalist Manifesto(s): to explore what it could look like to venture into uncharted political territory in our fraught right, left, and centre, landscape today.

And so, I thought, “Well… Maybe I—maybe we—are mutant socialists?” And then, the idea for this assembly was born: a mutant socialist assembly, a bad leftist conversation, where we talk politics in ways that do and don’t fit with many of the options on offer today, and we see if that resonates with ourselves and anyone listening.

We cover a lot of ground here: 90s pop culture, technology, institutions, localized politics, and lots in between. And we hope, in covering this ground, you feel encouraged to practice touch the grass, love your neighbour, politics wherever you happen to be. And so with that, here’s my conversation with David and Jeff—the mutant socialist crew.

Bios

David Moscrop is a politics columnist, commentator, and author of Too Dumb for Democracy? Why We Make Bad Political Decisions And How We Can Make Better Ones. His work has appeared in outlets including Globe and Mail, the Washington Post, the Walrus, Time Magazine, the Guardian, and Jacobin. He holds a PhD in political science from the University of British Columbia.

Jeff Wheeldon blogs on municipal politics, and still occasionally publishes essays on politics, religion, and sociology.

Links

David's Book: Too Dumb for Democracy? Why We Make Bad Political Decisions and How We Can Make Better Ones: https://gooselane.com/products/too-dumb-for-democracyDavid's Substack: www.davidmoscrop.com

David's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/davidmoscrop.com

David's Twitter: @David_Moscrop

Jeff's blog: https://jeffwheeldon.ca/blog/

Jeff's publications: https://sociologyandchristianity.org/index.php/jsc/article/view/281

When genocides and political atrocities take place, it has become common for people to assemble in public, bear witness to what has happened, and address those events to reach a sense of… what, exactly?

Awareness? Truth? Understanding? Closure? Reconciliation? Healing? Reparation? Change?

And if these—or something else—are the aims of these assemblies, do they actually achieve these goals? Enter Jane Barter, and her new book Theopolitics and the Era of the Witness, to explore these and so many other important questions related to a phenomenon that has become so typical of our time that it is rare to encounter people thinking as deeply, and speaking as meaningfully to these questions as Jane does.

Bio

Jane Barter (she/her) is Professor of Religion and Culture at the University of Winnipeg. She has published three monographs, including her a recent book on witnessing to political atrocity, Theopolitics and the Era of the Witness (Routledge. 2025). She recently co-edited (with Doris Kieser, St. Joseph’s College, University of Alberta) a special volume of the Journal of Moral Theology on the papal visit and apology to survivors of Residential Schools in Canada. She is also general editor of the forthcoming (2026) multi-volume T & T Clark Encyclopedia of Christian Theology (Bloomsbury Press).

Links

Jane's new book: https://www.routledge.com/Theopolitics-and-the-Era-of-the-Witness/Barter/p/book/9781032615035