PODCAST · religion
Unchurchable
by Clare Heath-McIvor
For some, church is pretty simple. For others, it can be pretty complicated. So if faith and spirituality is a "heck yes" but church is a "hell no", welcome to Unchurchable - the place where we are able to participate in faith in our own way whether it is taking on taboo topics or exploring the unknown. After all, an examined faith is a strong one.
Episodes
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Celeste Mott - How a Kid from Perth Joined (and Escaped) a Vampire Cult in New Orleans
Celeste Mott lives in New Orleans these days - a professional TikToker and practicing Witch who educates other new brooms on witchcraft. But once upon a time she was a UK born, Perth raised teenager whose love for Ann Rice's vampire novels saw her join a fan group. Little did she know she was…
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Cynane Shay - A Thousand Years of Bullshirt (The Taxil Hoax)
Yes, I used "The Good Place" naming paradigm for this one. Cynane Shay joins me to talk about the wildest thing I've heard in a while. Well, the wildest thing I've heard since this morning when I read the latest Trump Headlines, because thats the world we live in at the moment. Cynane is a…
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Celeste Irwin - the exvangelical trans life in Trumps America
I've been wanting to get Celeste on the podcast for a while. As an out and proud trans woman who doesn't hold the same hatred for church as what the modern day Church seems to hold for trans people, she is a gentle and calm voice in a turbulent sea. In the lead up to the second inauguration of...
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Renee Spencer - Estranged Parents are cult victims too. A survivor story
Today's episode is a special one. When my friend and co-runner of the Victorian Cult Survivors Network told me she had finally found the courage to tell her story in its full and raw form, I shot my hand up to host it here with the Unchurchables. Renee lost her daughter to the Kidney Cult (also...
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Ari Sherwood and a Jesus Named Jeff
This episode comes with a content warning: we are discussing heavy themes including coerced marriage and modern slavery. Please look after yourself as you read. This is an important episode. Art Sherwood, host of the DisAllusioned podcast, joins me to talk about how she applied for a job as a...
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The Pipelines - Under the hands of Gods General to exposing the New Apostolic Reformation
This episode lands at a crucial point of religiopolitical history, as we talk about all things New Apostolic Reformation. Academic Jon Sawyer joins me as we talk about some juicy, heavy hitting topics - conspiratorial demonology, weaponisation of testimony culture, self-invisible LGBT Christians,...
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The Pipelines - Closetted to Out, Proud Academic Researcher
When Dr Luke Wilson reached out to me with a copy of his book, I was struck by the most obvious thing in the world - I'm the ex-wife of a gay conversion therapy survivor but I've never had someone on the podcast who could actually talk in depth about that very thing. I guess it was too close to...
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The Pipelines - "Jane Kennedy Must Save the World" to "She Doesn't Actually"
In this episode of "The Pipelines" series, we meet Jane Kennedy. While she is now a religious trauma therapist and co-founder of the Religious Trauma Collective in Australia (which compiles resources and religious trauma-informed therapists for those of us who are recovering), she was once a…
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Blake Chastain - Christian Nationalism, the wild right-wing lurch and how to fight back
In an episode that was recorded two days after the Trump victory, and less than 200 days from the next Australian Federal Election, this episode could not be more important or timely. In it, I chat to Blake Chastain, who launched the Exvangelical Podcast back in 2016 as he talks about his new…
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William Egginton - Borges, Kant, Heisenberg and the meaning of self and the universe
You know I like to get existential. This time last year, I sat down with author and academic, William/Bill Egginton to talk about his book, "The Rigor of Angels." I'd been contacted by his publicist and was intrigued about the book and what it might offer exvangelicals who are reinventing...
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The Pipelines! From PK to Forest Witch (or something like that anyway) with Jess Manusama
Its quite a journey to go from eldest pastors kid, with full worship leader, Sunday school teacher, 'dating revelation' adherent and homeschool survivor to forest walking animistic spiritualist who runs womens circles. But that's Jess Manusama. She's a breath of fresh air. She runs the insta...
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The Pipelines! Part One: Christian professor to Asian American Apostate With R. Scott Okamoto
Unchurchable is back from a long hiatus, and kicking off "The Pipelines" series is the incredible R. Scott Okamoto. Scott was a teacher at a Christian college when his deconstruction started. Rather than solidifying a waning faith, Scott got the same Sunday School answers to life's big questions....
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Teaser: Unchurchable is coming back!
Hey all! Yes, I know I disappeared. But I'm back, and so is unchurchable. If you've got ten minutes, have a listen to this teaser and, if you feel like it, slide into my DM's on twitter (@clare_mcivor) or on Instagram @unchurchablepod or @clare_heathmcivor) to let me know your thoughts. This…
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Ronna Derrick -What if we let women tell their own stories?
In this months episode, the lovely, courageous, intelligent Ronna Detrick joins me to talk about her newly-released book "Rewriting Eve." It started from a simple place: in seminary, when the guys translated a passage of scripture, it came out vastly different to how the women's translations came...
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Cynane Shay - A Crash Course in Conspiracy Theories and Totalitarianism
This is a "Listen hard" kind of episode. What do conspiracy theories, anti-semitic handbooks, lizard people, space lasers, Qanon, 5G towers and cults have in common? It's mindboggling how the checkered history of Evangelicalism is imbued with anti-semitism and white supremacy. I'm not sure why…
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Troy Waller and Brian McDowell - Teenage Fundamentalists Learn to Call Bullshit
In this episode, the voices from the "I was a teenage fundamentalist" podcast join me to talk about the things they've learned along the way as exvangelicals, as people, as podcast hosts and community builders...and as two guys who had to learn to call bullshit sometimes. Troy Waller and Brian...
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Brent Hodgson - Australian Political Dumpster Fires and the Right Wing March to the Fringe
Planetshakers, politics, porn scandals, branch stacking, coercive control, puppy dogs and exvangelical life - this episode has it all. Brent Hodgson is a political commentator, campaign data guy and marketing guru who provides immense insight into the trends and tendencies in the Australian...
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Emma Ocean - Post-church philosophy, escaping the panopticon and duvet dilemmas
It was hard to know what to call this one. Emma Ocean is, pun intended, an ocean of wisdom based on the lived experience of escaping toxic religion and the qualified experience of a psychologist with a bit of mysticism, cosmetology, philosophy and shadow-working brilliance thrown in. It was a...
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Angela Herrington - Grief, deconstruction and this quirky sort of elevator thing
Angela Herrington is a deconstruction coach. What exactly is that? She's not going to tell you, because every deconstruction journey is different. But one thing is for sure, we all need someone in our corner who will hold space for us, refuse to embody any sort of control or coerciveness, and who...
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Andrew Lang - How to not skim over the depths of your own life and other misc. wisdom
This session lead off with me forgetting to cancel the podcast, dropping the kids off at school late, and turning up to do an interview unprepared, unshowered, and without a stitch of makeup. For reference, Kit Kennedy is glam af and never unprepared. But Andrew lead off with "if it aint messy it...
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Becki Beasley - Rage humor, boundaries, and being whoever the hell you want to be
In the first episode of unchurchable for 2022, I chat with Becki from "Also Your Daughters" on Instagram. Her's is a brand of deconstruction that I so badly needed to witness: a woman calling things what they are and doing it with humor. It's a strange muscle to have to learn to flex when you've...
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Rev. Dr Beverley Dale - Sex positive Christianity
A big part of deconstruction is re-looking at anti-feminist theology, purity culture and the way these impacted attitudes to women, sexuality, sensuality and pleasure. Now look, I'll be straight up and say I'm only just learning to be comfortable talking about it and I still feel a bit heretical...
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Meg Cowan - Recovering from purity culture and finding sexual freedom
The wonderful Meg Cowan has been on my list of interviewees for a while - a fellow Southern Hemisphere girl from across the ditch in New Zealand. Her work as a sex and intimacy coach has seen Meg in the long grass of helping purity culture survivors reclaim and heal their relationship with their...
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Steven Denler - But what is sin, really?
I'm more than happy to admit it: I'll happily talk about a lot of things in the deconstruction space, but sin hasn't been one of them. Its been too big of a concept - too scary even. It's also a confusing one when you delve into it. If God is love, why are we all "born with a sin nature" that…
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Jordan White - Deconstructing towards social justice (and holding on to your hobbies while you do it)
This is one of those fortuitous internet meetings where you go "Hey! This person is interesting! I'm gunna interview them." Jordan White and I began talking on instagram about parenting post deconstruction when I realised this guy had managed to do something I had failed miserably at: he held on…
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Tia Levings - Self-Empowerment after Religious Trauma and Domestic Abuse
She married "the one God sent." Like so many of us, she did so without knowing fully what she was getting into. When the relationship became abusive, she sought help inside the church but what she found was advice tantamount to entrapping her in what she calls "church sanctioned domestic abuse....
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Angry Church Kid - Everything is a Dick Joke
Now, I'm sure that's not a title you expected to read on a podcast for people who are navigating life post-church and deconstructing their faith. But can I point something out? Deconstruction is hard work. And it's not even like you get to choose whether or not to deconstruct. It seems to choose...
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Marc-Henri Sandoz Paradella - Dethroning Toxic Jesus and Finding Spiritual Healing
In Sunday school, kids learn about the golden calf - the moment the Hebrews banded behind Moses' brother Aaron and made a god of their own to worship while their leader was up on the mountain. It was the perhaps the first time in recorded history, but certainly not the last time that we would…
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ALPHAMAMA - The Journey to Authentic Spirituality and Personal Agency
What do you do when you move away from a form of spirituality that came with a prepackaged set of rules, regulations and existential dread? For many if not most, you feel a little lost at sea. Anchorless. So how do you find purpose and the freedom to explore spirituality within healthy boundaries...
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Jess Hugenberg - Welcome to the Process
In this session, Jess Hugenberg and I talk about two topics that could not be more important as we walk through recovery from all the things that 2020 brought us: spiritual bypassing, spiritual integrity, and the importance of churches being trauma informed. It's important for a number of…
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Nia and Katie Chairamonte - Love in the face of all the things
I've always been of the belief that the best relationships were the ones where partners are able to see and celebrate the evolution that occurs over the lifetime of their spouse. It takes grace, commitment, self-awareness, consideration, selflessness and no one embodies this better than Nia and...
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Brit Herbert - Globe Trotting, Spiritual Colonialism, and the Do Better Church Movement
Brit Herbert's journey with Christianity started in a rather unique manner, and as a youngster she was quickly plunged into a world of missions work in countries as far flung from Louisiana USA as Russia. It's a powerful story of recognising the good in the bad and the bad in the good, of…
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Dr Anica - Race Positive Approaches to Hard Conversations, and PTSD in the real world (Double Episode)
Sometimes a guest comes along with such an impressive CV that you really have to get her to cover off on two different topics. Dr Anica is that lady. A proud woman of colour, daughter of immigrants, clinical psychologist and general badass, she is the pioneer behind the "Race Positive" program...
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Jonathan Merritt - The ongoing evolution of faith and church
I've long watched on as Jonathan Merritt has penned noteworthy books, and written a swath of articles that have helped me understand and grapple with the big issues in Christianity as I deconstructed from conservative faith to something markedly more progressive and affirming. Yet as I lost faith...
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Sanny - Churching, Dechurching, and handing the power back to the marginalised
I met Sanny on the great connector called Instagram. I instantly knew we had a lot in common, but also that hers was a perspective on the phenomenon of deconstruction that would be quite different to mine as well. And thus, I knew I wanted to interview her. You see, deconstruction can lead us to...
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Abby Norman - Parenting Post Deconstruction
Growing up inside evangelicalism, its likely you knew what "Train up a child in the way he should go" meant. It was clear how parenting should be done. We already knew all the answers - God's way or the highway. Enter deconstruction, and all the things once taken for granted about how we would...
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Tim Fall - Running for Judge
When Tim Fall mentioned that he had some availability for podcast interviews, I was pretty darn quick to put my hand up and say "pick me!" His is a fair, reasonable voice in an often polarised and adversarial world. It stands to reason, then that the man is a judge! What ensued was a conversation...
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Phil Drysdale - Deconstructing Faith and Surviving It
When Phil Drysdale first started speaking at churches on the topic of deconstruction, it didn't take him long to realise it was happening in epidemic proportions. Years on, he has devoted his professional life to supporting the people who started pulling at the thread of doctrine and…
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Cait West: faith, feminism and leaving patriarchy
Cait West grew up inside a form of Christian patriarchy that many wouldn't have even heard of - the stay-at-home-daughter movement. This form of conservative Christianity protected male headship to the point where courtships were quite strict and women were meant to serve men in the home. Her...
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Zach Cave: Purity Culture, Klinefelter Syndrome and Trauma Recovery
Trauma recovery is difficult enough when it is a single issue. But when you layer complex trauma with purity culture, religious pressure, murder, suicide, Klinefelter syndrome (also known as being Intersex), you have a potential recipe for disaster. Zach Cave is now a therapist, and has waded his...
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Keith Kristich: Contemplative spirituality, finding silence and connecting with God within
Many of us have grown up in a Christian tradition with many good things about it: activities, study groups, upbeat worship, active prayer traditions are more. But the downside to this is that, when we deconstruct our faith or find ourselves unable to engage with church, there can be a feeling of...
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Blair Rabun - Talk Purity To Me
Contains adult content: Arguably, one of the most memorable movements of the 1990's or 2000's was the purity movement. Marked by songs like DC Talk's "I Don't Want It" and Rebecca St. James' "Wait for me," and of course Joshua Harris's book (now pulled from circulation) "I kissed dating goodbye."...
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Erica Smith - Navigating sex and reclaiming sexuality post purity culture
When I read the term "Purity Culture Dropout" on Erica Smith's instagram page - I knew I had to talk to her, because frankly, this isn't a topic I'm comfortable with. And it should be. I'm in my thirties now! Purity culture was a significant movement during my formative years as it was for people...
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Kevin Garcia Bad Theology Kills
A chat with Kevin Garcia is always insightful, fun, challenging (in a good way) and a bit mind-bending. This session is no different. The original intent was to have Kevin stop by and talk about their new book "Bad Theology Kills" - and perhaps there is no better time in history to have this...
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Mike Phillips: Religious Trauma Recovery and Reclaiming Your Core Self
No episode of this podcast has had as wide-reaching topic material within it as this one. We talk about cults, toxic groups, the Black Lives Matter movement, dominions, toxic evangelicalism, sexuality, trauma recovery, and the reclaiming of your core identity and autonomy after religious trauma....
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Tonya Nash - Autism, faith and inclusion
Tonya Nash, the pioneer behind the Autism Faith Network, takes us on an insightful journey through the challenges faced by families and churches when it comes to making church a beautiful experience for families and carers of people with autism or other disabilities. She offers up some simple...
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Lance Pyburn - Resilience and authenticity on lockdown
As large portions of the population sit on lockdown, awaiting the decline of coronavirus, many of us sit alone with our thoughts, dreams, relationships and lives. It might be a time for asking "Is the living I'm living congruent with who I am on the inside?" and indeed for reflecting on whether…
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Carrie Maya - Reclaiming Spirituality and Releasing the Fear of Hell
Leaving a church is a big deal. Leaving a religion & choosing to explore spirituality on your own terms is an even bigger one. Carrie Maya has carved out an empowered spiritual practice that aligns with her values rather than dictating them. She is wise & intuitive, and honest about the times…
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The Brave Network - Making Church safe for LGBTQIA+ people of faith
Church should be the safest place in the world. It should be a place of safety and refuge for all who want to follow Jesus. Yet the data paints a bleak picture for LGBTQIA+ (especially questioning) people of faith. Nathan Despott and the Brave Network have been working to change this. In this…
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D-D-Divorce: Reclaiming Faith When "Til Death Do Us Part" Didn't Work Out
For this weeks pod, I interviewed the fabulous Gretchen Baskerville, author of "the Life Saving Divorce." Gretchen has been working with people in the divorce recovery space for the past 20 years. Tune in for a well-needed discussion on breaking down the unhelpful narratives around divorce,...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
For some, church is pretty simple. For others, it can be pretty complicated. So if faith and spirituality is a "heck yes" but church is a "hell no", welcome to Unchurchable - the place where we are able to participate in faith in our own way whether it is taking on taboo topics or exploring the unknown. After all, an examined faith is a strong one.
HOSTED BY
Clare Heath-McIvor
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Unchurchable have?
Unchurchable currently has 50 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Unchurchable about?
For some, church is pretty simple. For others, it can be pretty complicated. So if faith and spirituality is a "heck yes" but church is a "hell no", welcome to Unchurchable - the place where we are able to participate in faith in our own way whether it is taking on taboo topics or exploring the...
How often does Unchurchable release new episodes?
Unchurchable has 50 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Unchurchable?
You can listen to Unchurchable on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Unchurchable?
Unchurchable is created and hosted by Clare Heath-McIvor.
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