The Habit

Episodios

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  Leaving Home Stories: S.D.G. Morgan, Heather Cadenhead, and Karen Wells 20.07.2026 1h

  In this especially wistful episode, S.D.G. Morgan tells about returning to a childhood home that has been condemned since he lived there, Heather Cadenhead remembers one of her childhood homes with mixed feelings, and Karen Wells tells about her senior year of high school, when it was time to leave her childhood home and she wasn't able to. "Leaving Home Stories,” is a special summer series in which writers from The Habit Membership read personal narratives on the theme of leaving home, literally or metaphorically, temporarily or permanently. Sponsored by The Habit Membership.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Leaving Home Stories: Reagan Dregge, Rachael Watson, Michelle Watson 13.07.2026 51m

  In this episode, Reagan Dregge gets congratulated for her beautiful Midwestern accent, a taxi driver teaches Rachael Watson about hospitality, and Michelle Watson misbehaves in Italy. "Leaving Home Stories,” is a special summer series in which writers from The Habit Membership read personal narratives on the theme of leaving home, literally or metaphorically, temporarily or permanently. Sponsored by The Habit Membership.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Leaving Home Stories: Beth Matheson, Jamie Vanbiber, Greg Finley 06.07.2026 48m

  In this episode, Beth Matheson leaves home fifty times, Jamie Vanbiber has reason to wish she had stayed home, and Greg Finley leaves for college in an especially vulnerable moment in his life. "Leaving Home Stories,” is a special summer series in which writers from The Habit Membership read personal narratives on the theme of leaving home, literally or metaphorically, temporarily or permanently. Sponsored by The Habit Membership.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Leaving Home: Summer, 1976, by Judith McQuoid 03.07.2026 8m

  In this special Fourth of July episode, Irish writer Judith McQuoid reads a story of her first arrival in the United States, in the summer of 1976. This beautiful reflection is a love letter to America, and a reminder of what this country can still mean to people from around the world.   This episode is part of a special summer series called “Leaving Home Stories,” in which writers from The Habit Membership will read personal narratives on the theme of leaving home, literally or metaphorically, temporarily or permanently. Judith McQuoid is the author of Giant, a fictional retelling of CS Lewis’s boyhood in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Sponsored by The Habit Membership.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Andrew Wilson on the Spirit of 1776 (from the archives) 29.06.2026 41m

  Andrew Wilson is Teaching Pastor at King’s Church London, and has degrees in history and theology from Cambridge (MA) and King’s College London (PhD). He is a columnist for Christianity Today, and has written several books. The most recent is Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West. Historian Mark Noll wrote, “Andrew Wilson’s book is extraordinary in every way: extraordinary in the breadth of research; extraordinary in the multitude of world-significant events that Wilson identifies for 1776; extraordinary in the depth of his insight on what those events meant (and continue to mean); extraordinary in the verve with which he makes his arguments; and, not least, extraordinary in the persuasive Christian framework in which he sets the book. Remaking the World is a triumph of both creative historical analysis and winsome Christian interpretation.”Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Warren Kinghorn Doesn't Think You're a Machine. (from the Archives) 22.06.2026 45m

  Dr. Warren Kinghorn is a psychiatrist and theologian at Duke University, where he holds joint appointments at Duke Divinity School and the Duke University Medical Center. Warren’s work focuses on the intersection of theology, mental health, and human flourishing—and he brings an integrated, humane perspective to questions that too often get reduced to biology or technique. His new book is Wayfaring: A Christian Approach to Mental Health Care. In this episode, Warren Kinghorn and Jonathan Rogers discuss how the metaphor of the human being as a machine has shaped mental health care—and what is gained by reclaiming the older metaphor of the human as wayfarer; they talk about the ways that Thomas Aquinas’s teleological vision of human behavior opens up a richer account of freedom, agency, and virtue; and they talk about the possibility that the meaning of life is an active participation in blessing. This episode, brought to you by The Habit's Writer Development Cohorts, first ran in 2025.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Russ Ramsey on Van Gogh and Friends (from the Archives) 15.06.2026 48m

  Russ Ramsey is a gifted storyteller and a trusted guide in the world of art. He is the author of Rembrandt is in the Wind and Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart: What Art Teaches Us About The Wonder and Struggle of Being Alive. In this episode from October 2024, Russ and Jonathan Rogers talk about sunflowers, the sublime, and the connection between suffering and wonder.  This episode is sponsored by The Habit's Writer Development Cohorts.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Sarah Clarkson Gets Quiet. (from the Archives) 08.06.2026 44m

  Sarah Clarkson is a writer whose work centers on beauty and grief, story and quiet. She has written of herself, “I’m trying to write well about my own sorrow, and my own encounters with the beauty that defied my darkness and drew me into a life of creativity, quiet, and wonder.” She studied theology at Oxford University. She is the author or co-author of six books, most recently Reclaiming Quiet: Cultivating a Life of Holy Attention, which she wrote to answer her own questions about what it means to have a quiet mind in a fallen, screen-driven world. In this episode, Sarah and Jonathan Rogers discuss a better definition of quiet, the importance of physical presence, the dangers of screens, and the value of boredom. This episode is sponsored by The Habit's Writer Development Cohorts, a small-group intensive for fiction and nonfiction writers. Apply at TheHabit.co/cohorts.  Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Mick Donahue and Andy Patton on Serial Publishing 01.06.2026 47m

  In recent years there has been a resurgence of serial publishing on Internet platforms. In this episode Mick Donahue and Andy Patton talk with Jonathan Rogers about serial publishing. Mick and his wife Rachel are is the co-founder of the new serialization platform, Flicker.Press. Andy, besides being the Rabbit Room’s Director of Content, is the author of the serialized novel The Ill Starred Knight, published on the Royal Road platform under the pen name Ix.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Jeffrey Overstreet Loves Movies. 25.05.2026 52m

  Jeffrey Overstreet is a novelist, creative writing professor, and film critic at the intersection of art, faith, hope, and love. His new book, Lost and Found in the Cathedral of Cinema, is a memoir in essays about film. He has described it as “a celebration and an expression of gratitude for the films that shaped my young imagination, that helped me recognize the glory of God's work in the world that God loves, and that then set me free to learn to love the world — the whole world — myself.” If you’ve ever been moved by a movie, you will enjoy this conversation with Jeffrey Overstreet.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Malcolm Guite on Galahad and the Grail 18.05.2026 47m

  Priest and poet Malcolm Guite has become something of a regular on The Habit Podcast. And yet familiarity breeds ever more amazement at what a gift Malcolm is to the reading world. Galahad and the Grail is Book 1 of Merlin’s Isle: An Authuriad. This four-part epic poem in ballad form will retell the whole story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. In this episode, Malcolm and Jonathan Rogers talk about poetic forms, the beginnings of Malcolm's own work on Arthur, and the old legends about how the grail got to the British Isles.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Tish Harrison Warren Grows in Weary Lands 11.05.2026 48m

  Tish Harrison Warren is an Anglican priest, a former columnist at the New York Times and Christianity Today, and a writer of wise and thoughtful books about living lives of connection and meaning. Her new book, What Grows in Weary Lands, explores a reality that early Christians often grappled with but that we rarely talk about in contemporary life: at times, God seems to abandon the soul, leaving us feeling as if we are alone and left to our own resources. These are times of futility, when work and relationships feel hard, when prayer feels unsatisfying, and we question whether our efforts amount to anything. In this conversation, Tish and Jonathan Rogers talk about the possibility that aridity, languishing, and even burnout are an invitation to deeper, more connected, and more fruitful life and work. This episode is sponsored by The Habit's Writer Development Cohorts. Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Angela Alaimo O'Donnell's View from Childhood 04.05.2026 49m

  Angela Alaimo O'Donnell is a poet, professor, and scholar whose work sits at the crossroads of faith, memory, and the literary imagination. She teaches literature and creative writing at Fordham University and serves as Associate Director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies. Her latest poetry collection is The View from Childhood. She has said, “We all have a place that we come from that has helped shape us into who we are. We all have memories that stay with us, bring us joy, and haunt us, and we all face the daily decision of what to do with those memories—to preserve them or to let them fade. My vocation, as a poet, compels me to turn them into story and song. These poems tell my stories, and I also hope they, in some way, tell the reader’s.” In this episode, Dr. O’Donnell and Jonathan Rogers talk about origin stories, Flannery O’Connor, and the idea that any writer who has survived childhood has enough material to last a lifetime.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Lee Camp On The Good Life (from the Archives) 27.04.2026 44m

  Besides being an award-winning teacher and professor of theology & ethics at Lipscomb University, Lee Camp hosts No Small Endeavor, a podcast that asks What does it mean to live a good life? What is true happiness? What are the habits, practices, and dispositions that facilitate human flourishing? Lee Camp explores these and similar questions with some of the most influential authors, scientists, artists, psychologists, philosophers, and theologians. In this episode, Dr. Camp and Jonathan Rogers talk about ethics, virtue theory, and writerly habits.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Alan Noble Tries to Live Well 20.04.2026 47m

  Professor Alan Noble is a voice of good sense in a world where good sense seems to be in short supply. His new book is To Live Well: Practical Wisdom for Moving Through Chaotic Times. It is a call to return to the old paths as laid out in the seven virtues of Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance, Faith, Hope, and Love. In this episode, Alan and Jonathan Rogers talk about the limits of technique, a respect for reality, and largeness of spirit, among other topics.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Jennifer Trafton on Lilias Trotter 13.04.2026 55m

  Jennifer Trafton’s new book is If Only We Could See: Reimagining Creativity, Compassion, and Calling Through the Extraordinary Life of Lilias Trotter. An historian, a visual artist, and a novelist, Jennifer is uniquely qualified to tell this story. In this episode, Jennifer and Jonathan Rogers talk about the remarkable life of artist and missionary Lilias Trotter. They also talk about the empathetic imagination, the value of seeing what is actually in front of you, and the role of humility in seeing clearly.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Théa Rosenburg and Leslie Bustard Were Strong Allies 06.04.2026 37m

  Leslie Bustard did a lot of thinking, teaching, and writing about what God made women to be–as distinct from what women can and can’t do. She was working on a book on this topic when she died in 2023. In the last months of Leslie’s earthly life, writer and editor Théa Rosenburg came alongside to help Leslie get the book over the finish line. As it happened, Théa had to finish the work without Leslie. The book, called Strong Allies, released in 2026. Jonathan Rogers sat down with Théa at the Square Halo Conference in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and recorded the following conversation before a live audience.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Jamie Quatro's Two-Step Devil 30.03.2026 47m

  Jamie Quatro is the author of Two Step Devil, a southern Gothic novel very much in the tradition of Flannery O’Connor. The Booklist review of Two-Step Devil describes it as "Brilliantly paced and exquisitely detailed, this striking novel takes on such weighty themes as faith, humanity, and frailty without a touch of melodrama . . . A spectacular masterpiece.” Bookpage called Quatro "a saint of Southern discomfort. Jamie Quatro and Jonathan Rogers recorded this conversation in front of a live audience at the Illuminate Conference near Chattanooga.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Joy Clarkson Thinks You Are a Tree (from the archives) 23.03.2026 46m

  Joy Clarkson is the author of Aggressively Happy and host of the podcast, Speaking with Joy. She is the books editor for Plough Quarterly and a research associate in theology and literature at King's College London. Joy completed her PhD in theology at the University of St Andrews, where she researched how art can be a resource of hope and consolation. Her new book is You Are a Tree: And Other Metaphors to Nourish Life, Thought, And Prayer. In this episode, Joy and I talk about the ways that figurative language shapes the way we think about the world and ourselves, and Joy tries to convince Jonathan that the distinction between simile and metaphor is meaningful. This episode originally aired January 2024.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Timothy Jones is Fully Beloved 16.03.2026 40m

  Timothy Jones is a pastor and author known for helping people uncover greater warmth and depth in their relationship with God. His new book is Fully Beloved: Meeting God in Our Heartaches and Our Hopes. As Sandra Mccracken says, Fully Beloved “names the ache of loneliness and our lifelong quest for belonging.” In this episode, Tim Jones and Jonathan Rogers talk about the Trinity, Julian of Norwich, and the creative energy that is released when you realize that you are more loved than you thought.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.