Join Brandon and Hannah for a special Happy New Year Hunker. Grab a mug of candy cane green tea, because today we’re talking dogs, nativities, dogs in nativities, preaching, prayer, pizza, and more.

In this episode, we celebrate our listeners, and we share who we are and what we’re about.

Get to know Brandon:

Brandon Nappi, DMin, is the Executive Director of Leadership Programs at Berkeley Divinity School. With twenty years of retreat ministry, Brandon founded Copper Beech Institute, a worldwide contemplative community of 50,000 people from over 50 countries dedicated to sharing contemplative practice to heal our aching world. Brandon’s life has been deeply nourished by Christian mysticism, mindfulness, interreligious dialogue, and Zen practice. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Yale Divinity School, he holds a Doctor of Ministry degree in Homiletics from Aquinas Institute of Theology. Brandon walks alongside seekers, divinity students, and healers as a spiritual director and mentor.

Get to know Hannah:

Hannah Black, PhD, grew up in Southern California and had a first career as a dancer at Disneyland. She went on to earn an MPhil and a PhD in theology at the University of Cambridge. Now, she is the Assistant Director of Leadership and Communications at Berkeley. She is also a Research Fellow at Yale Divinity School’s Jonathan Edwards Center, where she is collaborating on a book project. Hannah is writing a translation for St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press’s Popular Patristics Series of seven short works by Gregory of Nyssa on the life of virtue. She is also working on a book project based on her doctoral work on Gregory of Nyssa’s use of imagery for salvation as a resource for feminist soteriology. 

Download the transcript.