Spiritual Misfits Podcast

Amar D. Peterman joins Will to discuss his forthcoming book Becoming Neighbors: The Common Good Made Local — a constructive vision for how Christians might practice radical neighbour love in a world that often rewards self-sufficiency and tribalism.

Born in India and raised between a Polish Catholic neighborhood and a white evangelical megachurch in Wisconsin, Amar knows what it's like to be a spiritual misfit. Now a PhD student at the University of Chicago and former assistant director of civic networks at Interfaith America, he's asking Christians a simple but radical question: What if we actually came to the table and loved our neighbours?

"What will we be to each other if the world doesn't end? When we believe our entire future depends on the outcome of an election or policy, we'll justify almost anything. But if we live knowing we'll still be neighbors tomorrow, it changes how we show up today."

Resources:
- Becoming Neighbors: The Common Good Made Local by Amar D. Peterman (Eerdmans, March 2026)
Amar's Substack: This Common Life
https://www.instagram.com/amarpeterman
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Simon Buckingham-Shum is Professor of Learning Informatics and Director of the Connected Intelligence Centre at the University of Technology Sydney. Learn more: https://Simon.BuckinghamShum.net
Abundant Intelligences (Abundant-Intelligences.net): Indigenous knowledge systems provide a way to rebuild AI's epistemological foundations - transforming tools that currently reinforce colonial practices of extraction and exclusion into engines of abundance that enable us to care better for ourselves, our communities, and our world.
Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti Brazilian/Canadian educator and researcher whose work invites a reckoning with the ontological assumptions driving systemic harm and extinction-level thinking. Author of the widely acclaimed "Hospicing Modernity" (2021) and more recent "Outgrowing Modernity" (2025). She has turned this scholarship to reframe AI within an ecological, relational ontology, aligned with many Indigenous knowledge systems. See Burnout From Humans (2024) and MetaRelational.AI.
In the podcast, Simon drew the parallel between the disposition that many of us in the Spiritual Misfits community bring to life’s questions and faith dilemmas, and the “meta-relational” disposition that Andreotti’s work calls us to bring to our planetary predicament, and AI specifically: "Meta-relationality is not a theory, but a practice of becoming-with. Of attuning to the fields we nest and are nested in. Of noticing the codes and the stories we carry, the systems we uphold, and the possibilities we’ve exiled. Of learning to hold space for complexity, plurality, tension, paradoxes and indeterminacy without turning away, throwing up, throwing a tantrum or throwing in the towel." https://metarelationaltech.ca/ 
Chatbots to Try:
Qreframer: Surfaces hidden assumptions behind your question and invites you to explore these, which may lead you to reframe your question
CoLearn: Walks you through guided conversation about anything you're learning, plus reflection on the quality of the conversation
ACI Designer: For challenges or ideas your group/organization is wrestling with - walks you through structured problem framing and solution exploration with emphasis on collective intelligence
Aiden
Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you.
The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide

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View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

Carolyn Meers offers a contemplative journey through the mystery of light across traditions, through time, into prayer. This episode includes a guided practice of holding yourself and others in the light of dawn, midday, and twilight.
At the end Caro reads Jan Richardson's blessing 'How the light comes'.
Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you.
The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide

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Christmas can be wonderful...and complicated. Especially when your beliefs have shifted and you're heading into family gatherings or other contexts where not everyone understands or agrees with where you're at now. 
In this conversation, Will sits down with pastor and spiritual director Carolyn Meers and therapist Linda Pesavento to explore why Christmas amplifies these tensions, how to navigate relational minefields with integrity, and what it looks like to create new meaning while honouring what remains beautiful from your past.
Whether you're facing judgment from family, translating yourself to preserve relationships, or trying to figure out what Christmas means when the old story doesn't fit anymore, this episode offers practical wisdom, honest stories, and permission to keep yourself safe at this time of year.
Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you.
The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide

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View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com

Anne Lanyon joins Will to discuss her work with the Faith Ecology Network (FEN), an interfaith network of people bridging conversations between science and religion. 
Anne shares about her formative years growing up as an Irish Catholic in rural Victoria, the work she has done for many decades at the intersection of peace, ecology and justice, and the way she hears the earth speaking a prophetic message we all need to heed. Anne and Will explore the powerful and underestimated role of wonder, and the role it can play in science, spirituality and community. 
Learn more about the Faith Ecology Network: https://www.fen.org.au
Explore the Ten Ways to Care for Biodiversity here: https://www.tenwaysbiodiversity.org

Want to reach out and let us know your thoughts or suggestions for the show? Send us a message here; we’d love to hear from you.
The Spiritual Misfits Survival Guide (FREE): https://www.spiritualmisfits.com.au/survivalguide

Sign up to our mailing list:
https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/

Join our online Facebook community:
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Support the pod:
https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/

View all episodes at: https://spiritualmisfits.buzzsprout.com