Spiritual Misfits Podcast

Brad Watson spent years as a Salvation Army officer — humanitarian disaster responder, senior leader, insider. He's also gay. In this conversation, Brad shares what led him to research the lived experience of LGBTQ+ officers within the Salvation Army, and what he found: stories of moral injury, religious trauma, and quiet resilience, gathered from officers who trusted him with their experiences.
We talk about the Salvation Army's unusual dual identity as both beloved welfare organisation and conservative evangelical church, the concept of moral injury, and what genuine allyship actually requires when the cost becomes real. But we also go looking for hope — and find it in authenticity, unexpected ministry, and a theology of grace that refuses to stay within its own boundaries.
Brad's book Queer Blood and Fire is available now:
https://www.queerbloodandfirebook.com/
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Andrew Cox is a Filipino-Australian poet, performer, and the facilitator of Canberra Poetry Slam. In this conversation, we explore how poetry spaces can function as alternative spiritual communities — places of transcendence, vulnerability, and belonging outside traditional religious frameworks.
Andrew shares his journey from earnest young performer to community curator, wrestling with questions of colonial identity, the tension between certainty and conviction, and what it means to create spaces that are genuinely safe while still allowing for healthy challenge and growth.
Connect with Andrew:
https://andrewcoxpoetry.com.au/
https://www.instagram.com/andrewcoxpoetry
https://www.instagram.com/canberraslam
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:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast

Support the pod:
https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/

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

Justine Toh is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX) and a writer whose work appears regularly in The Guardian. In this conversation, Will and Justine explore the crisis of attention in our digital age — what we lose when our attention is fragmented, what it costs to reclaim it, and if the concept of 'a hidden life' might help us. This conversation doesn't offer simple answers, but genuine wrestling with how to live consciously within the systems we're part of.
Articles referenced:
Justine Toh, "As the year begins, don't look away from the headlines, look better and deeper" — The Guardian
Justine Toh, "A hidden life in the era of social media can still change history, as the story of Jesus shows" — The Guardian
Justine Toh, "The world is burning. Who can convince the comfortable classes of the radical sacrifices needed?" — The Guardian
Books referenced:
Johann Hari, Stolen Focus
Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks
Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation
Justine Toh, Achievement Addiction

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:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast

Support the pod:
https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/

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

What if the beliefs you were taught don't all have to stand or fall together? James McGrath, a New Testament scholar who went through his own faith reconstruction, joins Will to talk about what comes after deconstruction. Using the metaphor of DIY home renovation, James explores how we can take ownership of rebuilding our worldview without guilt - recognising that even the most conservative Christians are already "picking and choosing," doing it thoughtfully is what matters. We discuss the time machine thought experiment that revealed what's actually load-bearing in James' faith, why certainty and conviction are fundamentally different things, and how early Christian apologists actually sought to integrate the best of secular philosophy rather than argue against it. James makes the case that the most basic question about God — does ultimate reality exist? — is actually less debatable than we think, freeing us to focus on the more important questions about attributes, meaning, and how we live.
Order James's book: Beyond Deconstruction: Building a More Expansive Faith Available February 3, 2026 https://eerdmans.com/9780802884596/beyond-deconstruction/
Connect with James: 
Blog: Religion Prof (patheos.com/blogs/religionprof) 
X/Twitter: @ReligionProf 
Instagram: @jamesfmcgrath 
TikTok: @ReligionProf
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

Mitch and Will hang out with a cuppa in Mitch's lounge room and discuss the state of the world. They talk about raising kids in progressive faith communities, Australia's social media ban for under-16s, and why it's so hard to build thick community when everyone wants the benefits of belonging without the commitment. They wrestle with whether their kids are learning to intuit God or just vibing with religious practice, and Mitch shares what 13 years off social media has done to his tolerance for difference. Like all Pub Theology episodes, it's loose, it's free-form and Mitch  brings up universalism at least once. Settle in with your drink of choice and join us in Mitch's lounge room.
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:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/spiritualmisfitspodcast

Support the pod:
https://spiritualmisfits.com.au/support-us/

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