The Leader's Way Podcast focuses on spiritual leadership in an election season

This Fall, The Leader’s Way Podcast, a show created to support Episcopal leaders, focuses on how to be a spiritual leader and navigate difference during election season. 

Hosts Brandon Nappi, DMin and Hannah Black, PhD of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale bring in leaders in the church to tell stories and tackle challenges together. 

Episode 21 features the duo’s colleague Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, who describes the making of white, Christian nationalism and illustrates a different path forward, following the teachings of Jesus. He walks us through the reality of the New Right in the 1970s as a way for us to understand America’s positionality headed into the 2024 election.

In Episode 23, Professors Amy Carr and Christine Helmer walk us through ideas from their book Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times: Justification and the Pursuit of Justice. The discussion addresses high-conflict times and how people can move from high conflict to good conflict. Carr and Helmer describe how Christians can create space for conversation because of their status of belonging owing to justification. 

In Episode 27, Professor Kwok Pui Lan urges us to a postcolonial perspective. In Episode 29, Yale professor Willie Jennings unpacks terms like Christian nationalism and Zionism, which have been floating around this election season. Jennings explains where these phenomena came from and how they are intertwined with the life of the church.

Episodes 30, 31, and 34 focus on learning from the experience of Episcopal leaders in Washington, DC. The Rev’d Rob Fisher, Rector of St. John’s Lafayette Square, tells stories and gives advice in Episodes 30-31. The Very Rev’d Randy Hollerith, Dean of the National Cathedral, outlines a “better way” for Christians to lead through political difference, inspired by Michael Curry’s Way of Love.

In Episode 33, Kaitlyn Schiess will join the conversation to describe the Bible’s use throughout American history on both sides of political divides—from loyalists and revolutionaries to the present day. 

Later this month, Berkeley students and New England locals are invited to the Berkeley Center for a podcast recording with a live audience. Bishop William Barber joins hosts Brandon and Hannah to talk about how to be a spiritual leader who engages in politics in a nonpartisan, faith-driven, values-focused way. 

Throughout this season of The Leader’s Way Podcast, listeners are encouraged to fix their eyes on God and maintain perspective, while striving for justice and peace.

You can listen to the podcast on your favorite podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts or Spotify. For the full list of where to listen, and for more about the show, visit berkeleydivinity.yale.edu/podcast.

Follow along on Instagram @theleadersway.podcast.