A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar
Randy Knie & Kyle Whitaker
Mixing a cocktail of philosophy, theology, and spirituality.
We're a pastor and a philosopher who have discovered that sometimes pastors need philosophy, and sometimes philosophers need pastors. We tackle topics and interview guests that straddle the divide between our interests.
Who we are:
Randy Knie (Co-Host) - Randy is the founding and Lead Pastor of Brew City Church in Milwaukee, WI. Randy loves his family, the Church, cooking, and the sound of his own voice. He drinks boring pilsners.
Kyle Whitaker (Co-Host) - Kyle is a philosophy PhD and an expert in disagreement and philosophy of religion. Kyle loves his wife, sarcasm, kindness, and making fun of pop psychology. He drinks childish slushy beers.
Elliot Lund (Producer) - Elliot is a recovering fundamentalist. His favorite people are his wife and three boys, and his favorite things are computers and hamburgers. Elliot loves mixing with a variety of ingredients, including rye, compression, EQ, and bitters.
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Top 10 A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
What Happens When You're Done with Religion Altogether?
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar
03/14/25 • 79 min
What happens when the foundation of your identity crumbles beneath you? When the lens through which you understood the world no longer works? Psychologist Dr. Daryl Van Tongeren joins us to explore this profound transition that one-fifth of Americans have experienced—leaving religion behind.
Drawing from eight years of groundbreaking research across multiple countries, Van Tongeren walks us through what he calls "the great disillusionment," which he documents in his book Done: How to Flourish After Leaving Religion. We discover that most people who check "none" on religious surveys were previously religious believers—what he calls the "dones." Their past faith doesn't simply disappear but leaves "religious residue" that continues influencing their thoughts, behaviors, fears, and values long after they've walked away.
This conversation ventures beyond theory into practical wisdom for navigating life's deepest questions. Van Tongeren shares his personal journey through faith crisis after his brother's tragic death and how it shaped his research. We explore why rigid faith systems often collapse under scrutiny while flexible faith proves more resilient, how former fundamentalists frequently jump into new ideological extremes, and why developing "existential distress tolerance" might be the most crucial skill for our anxious age.
Whether you're questioning faith, have left religion behind, or simply want to understand this massive cultural shift, this episode offers profound insights into finding meaning and purpose at the intersection of psychology, philosophy, and spirituality. Van Tongeren challenges us to courageously engage life's existential realities rather than avoiding them—suggesting this honest confrontation might be the only path to flourishing.
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Want to support us?
The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.
If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.
Other important info:
- Rate & review us on Apple & Spotify
- Follow us on social media at @PPWBPodcast
- Watch & comment on YouTube
- Email us at [email protected]
Cheers!
Abortion and American Nationalist Religion: A Conversation with Rob Schenck (Part 1)
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar
08/25/23 • 51 min
Season 4 is here! To kick it off, we've got a 2-parter for you with Rob Schenck, a former Washington insider and heavy hitter in the evangelical Christian lobbying industry. Rob was an influential voice in the pro-life movement for decades, but lost his position, and his funding, when he began to question the consistency of the evangelical position on guns with their stated pro-life convictions. His story is featured in the Emmy Award-winning 2016 documentary The Armor of Light. In Part 1, we speak with Rob about his background, his anti-abortion activism, and how his views have evolved on that issue. Part 2 will focus on evangelical gun culture and its consistency with a pro-life ethic.
The beverage featured in this episode is New Glarus Pilsner. Jump to 7:29 to skip the tasting.
You can find the transcript for this episode here.
Content note: This episode contains graphic discussion of abortion.
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Want to support us?
The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.
If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.
Other important info:
- Rate & review us on Apple & Spotify
- Follow us on social media at @PPWBPodcast
- Watch & comment on YouTube
- Email us at [email protected]
Cheers!
Philosophy in the Wild: Aaron Simmons
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar
01/26/24 • 79 min
Philosopher Aaron Simmons joins us to discuss his new book Camping with Kierkegaard. It's all about living life in a way that is "worthy of your finitude," avoiding becoming an "asshole capitalist," and learning how to value the things in your life with the help of folks like Kierkegaard and Simone de Beauvoir. We discuss living faithfully, being present, living on purpose toward something you've chosen, and a lot more. There's a LOT to unpack in this one, and a couple interesting tangents that didn't make it into the final cut, so Patreon supporters, look out for those.
The whiskey we tasted in this episode is the Fercullen Irish Whiskey Blend from Bardstown Bourbon Company.
Content note: this episode contains some mild profanity. But it's philosophy, so it's fine.
To skip the alcohol tasting, go to 6:46. You can find the transcript for this episode here.
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Want to support us?
The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.
If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.
Other important info:
- Rate & review us on Apple & Spotify
- Follow us on social media at @PPWBPodcast
- Watch & comment on YouTube
- Email us at [email protected]
Cheers!
A Conversation with Stanley Hauerwas
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar
09/09/22 • 37 min
Stanley Hauerwas. Do we need to say more? The man is the preeminent living American theologian and has formed and shaped Christian thought and practice for decades. Stanley is a gift to the Church, and we loved chatting with him. We talked about sola scriptura, Kierkegaard, pacifism, how to be a Christian in America today, and much more. The audio for this episode is not to our regular standard. We apologize for that, and hope you can hang in there. It's worth it when we're talking to a treasure like Stanley.
The books mentioned in this episode are:
- Hannah's Child - Stanley Hauerwas
- Prayers Plainly Spoken - Stanley Hauerwas
- Unleashing the Scripture: Freeing the Bible from Captivity to America - Stanley Hauerwas
- The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godson - Stanley Hauerwas
- Beginnings: Interrogating Hauerwas - Stanley Hauerwas and Brian Brock
- War and the American Difference: Theological Reflections on Violence and National Identity - Stanley Hauerwas
- The Politics of Jesus - John Howard Yoder
We tasted the incredible 12 Year Glenfarclas. Don't pass it by if you find some.
The beverage tasting is at 4:45. To skip to the interview, go to 7:52.
You can find the transcript for this episode here.
Content note: this episode contains some mild profanity.
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Want to support us?
The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.
If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.
Other important info:
- Rate & review us on Apple & Spotify
- Follow us on social media at @PPWBPodcast
- Watch & comment on YouTube
- Email us at [email protected]
Cheers!
What Is Truth: Wrestling with Absolutism, Relativism, and Alternative Facts (Re-Release from S01E21)
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar
12/30/22 • 76 min
For New Year's, we're re-airing an episode from Season 1 in which we discuss the question "What is truth?" We think it's as timely now as it was when we first released it and probably deserves a bit more attention than it got then. We hope you enjoy re-listening or perhaps catching it for the first time. We'll be back on our regular schedule with new content on January 13.
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Truth is a tricky term these days, with everyone believing their own "facts" or having their own "truths" or "alternative facts." How does a philosopher see truth? What is a healthy pastoral way to approach and pursue truth? Is there such a thing as truth at all, let alone "absolute truth," as so many Christians attest?
Our resident pastor and philosopher dive in and bring us into a really fun and healthy conversation about truth that our society would do well to engage.
The whiskey we sample in this episode is Four Roses Small Batch Select from the always stellar Four Roses Bourbon. The beverage tasting is at 1:11. To skip to the main segment, go to 5:03.
The article that Kyle quotes in the conversation about humility can be found here. The episode that is referenced that had not yet been aired at the time of this recording is S01E23: "A Philosopher and a Philosopher Ruin Your Theology: Interview with Nick Oschman."
You can find the transcript for this episode here.
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Want to support us?
The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.
If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.
Other important info:
- Rate & review us on Apple & Spotify
- Follow us on social media at @PPWBPodcast
- Watch & comment on YouTube
- Email us at [email protected]
Cheers!
Disillusionment, Pyrotheology, and the Death of God: Peter Rollins, Part 1
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar
04/06/24 • 64 min
Break out your dictionaries folks, this one got in the weeds a bit. But if you're familiar with Peter Rollins, you're probably not too surprised by that. Peter is a philosopher, public intellectual, and self-described anti-guru who writes and speaks extensively about concepts like the death of God, negative theology, "pyrotheology," and Atheism for Lent. He's been on our list to talk to since we started the podcast, and we're finally making it happen. And wouldn't you know it, we had so much to dig into that we had to talk to him again, so this will be a two-parter.
Fair warning: Peter has some challenging things to say, pretty much regardless of where you land on the religious or political spectrum. His ideas are not easy to swallow or to understand, but we did our best to get to the bottom of some of them. And we had a great time doing it. Let us know what you think!
You can find the transcript for this episode here.
The bourbon we taste in this episode is Weller 12.
Content note: This episode has some adult themes and mild profanity.
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Want to support us?
The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.
If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.
Other important info:
- Rate & review us on Apple & Spotify
- Follow us on social media at @PPWBPodcast
- Watch & comment on YouTube
- Email us at [email protected]
Cheers!
Transforming: Gender, Trans Identity, and the Church with Austen Hartke
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar
10/21/22 • 65 min
Austen Hartke is a transgender Christian man who wrote the book Transforming: the Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians. The book is a gift to the trans Christian community, as well as to parents, church leaders, and the church in general. While the church and politicians debate and degrade transgender people's existence, they are trying to live lives without loneliness, isolation, and self-hatred. Austen's book does an incredible job of sharing the stories of real life trans and non-binary people who grew up in the church. He frames the conversation Biblically and theologically and shares his own story. We're excited to share Austen's voice and perspective, and to do something that far too few people are doing today--actually listening to the perspective and story of trans people who are trying to love themselves and love Jesus.
The resources Austen mentions in the interview are:
- Transmission Ministry Collective
- Transfaith: A Transgender Pastoral Resource - Christina Beardsley & Chris Dowd
The beverage we sample in the episode is Chicken Cock Kentucky Straight Rye from our friends at Story Hill BKC.
The beverage tasting is at 2:20. To skip to the main segment, go to 5:50.
You can find the transcript for this episode here.
Content note: this episode contains discussion of suicide that may not be suitable for younger listeners.
=====
Want to support us?
The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.
If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.
Other important info:
- Rate & review us on Apple & Spotify
- Follow us on social media at @PPWBPodcast
- Watch & comment on YouTube
- Email us at [email protected]
Cheers!
What Bar Culture Can Teach the Church: Patreon Bonus
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar
08/23/22 • 16 min
Why is "bar" part of the theme of our show (besides the obvious joke)? Kyle and Randy break this down with the help of an excellent article by Rich Manning called "The Complicated Journey from Holy Studies to Hospitality," which interviews various bartenders about their experiences in the seemingly contrasting spaces of the hospitality industry and the church.
The article gives us occasion to discuss why we do adult beverage tastings, why people are often more comfortable in bars than churches, Randy's time in the hospitality industry, what we think about the risk of alcoholism, and more. It also gives us an opportunity to tease our Patreon in our regular episode feed. If you're already a subscriber, catch the full conversation over at our Patreon page. If you're not, enjoy this teaser and consider subscribing at www.patreon.com/apastorandaphilosopher. Thanks for your support!
The bourbon featured in this episode is Noteworthy (Randy) and Bardstown Discovery Series (Kyle).
You can find the transcript for this episode here.
Production note: we don't typically use our usual fancy setup for bonus content, so apologies that the audio quality is a bit lower than our regular episodes.
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Want to support us?
The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.
If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.
Other important info:
- Rate & review us on Apple & Spotify
- Follow us on social media at @PPWBPodcast
- Watch & comment on YouTube
- Email us at [email protected]
Cheers!
Complementarian Cemeteries and Smashing the Patriarchy: An Interview with Beth Allison Barr
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar
04/21/21 • 75 min
Does the idea, or the very phrase, "Biblical Womanhood" make you shudder a bit? Us too.
In this episode, we interviewed Beth Allison Barr about her book The Making of Biblical Womanhood. Beth is a Historian at Baylor University, and her book makes a brilliant case that the idea of "Biblical Womanhood" is more of a product of the patriarchal world that the Bible was written in than it is a product of the Bible itself, much less God. Dr. Barr shares from her perspective as a historian, and as a woman who's been marginalized by the church herself in painful ways.
This is an important book that needs to be featured in the Church as we journey towards equality and the empowerment of women.
The scotch we sample in this episode is Oban Distillers Edition. It's a delightful treat.
As usual, if you share us on social media and/or leave a review, we'll love you forever.
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Want to support us?
The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.
If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.
Other important info:
- Rate & review us on Apple & Spotify
- Follow us on social media at @PPWBPodcast
- Watch & comment on YouTube
- Email us at [email protected]
Cheers!
Faith After Doubt: An Interview with Brian McLaren
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar
03/24/21 • 66 min
In this episode, we chat with the one and only Brian McLaren. Brian has given his adult life to the Church in many ways and has created space for followers of Christ who feel like they exist on the margins of faith and Christianity. Brian has written many influential and important books, and in this episode we chat about his newest book: Faith After Doubt. This is a beautiful and brilliant book that will give you all sorts of space and permission to let your doubts come into the light and let them mature and grow your faith (even if that sounds really crazy right now). This was a truly delightful conversation that we're excited to share with you.
Brian speaks to a number of different prayers, books, and resources in the episode. Here are all the things that were mentioned during the conversation:
Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic: Prayer Regarding Critics and Enemies
Miguel de Unamuno: San Manuel Bueno, Martir
Mary Doria Russell: The Sparrow
Barbara Kingsolver: The Poisonwood Bible
John Westerhoff: WIll Our Children Have Faith?
The two whiskeys featured in this episode are Snake River Stampede Small Batch and their 100th Anniversary Limited Release from Snake River Stampede Ale and Whiskey.
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Want to support us?
The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.
If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.
Other important info:
- Rate & review us on Apple & Spotify
- Follow us on social media at @PPWBPodcast
- Watch & comment on YouTube
- Email us at [email protected]
Cheers!
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FAQ
How many episodes does A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar have?
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar currently has 129 episodes available.
What topics does A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar cover?
The podcast is about Bar, Beer, Theology, Society & Culture, Spirituality, Faith, Discussion, Religion & Spirituality, Podcasts, Religion, Whiskey, Philosophy, Pastor and Church.
What is the most popular episode on A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar?
The episode title 'Exvangelicals and Parenting: An Interview with Bekah McNeel' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar?
The average episode length on A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar is 66 minutes.
How often are episodes of A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar released?
Episodes of A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar are typically released every 14 days.
When was the first episode of A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar?
The first episode of A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar was released on May 10, 2020.
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