Podcast
Nomad Podcast
Hosted by Nomad · EN
For more than 15 years, Nomad Podcast has been an independent, listener-supported space for open-hearted conversations about faith, doubt, and belonging, offering a British perspective shaped by voices from across and beyond the Christian story.
13episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Mark Vernon - Silence and the Search for God (N368)
4d ago01:24:26Tap to summarizeWhat if the deepest encounters with the divine are not dramatic or ecstatic, but quiet, steady, and hidden in ordinary life?Mark Vernon returns to Nomad to explore silence, mysticism, and the search for God after disillusionment. Reflecting on his own journey through priesthood, contemplative practice, psychotherapy and spiritual direction, Mark speaks about finding a form of Christianity rooted less in performance or certainty, and more in attention, presence and the inner life.In this conversation, Tim and Mark discuss The Cloud of Unknowing, Julian of Norwich, William Blake, spiritual homelessness, and why the mystical tradition may still have something vital to offer those who feel drawn to Christ but no longer fit easily within institutional church life.Following the interview Nomad hosts Tim and Anna reflect on their own relationship with mysticism, and the way it has shaped their evolving faith. Interview starts at 12m 48sBooks, quotes, links →The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Homegrown Conversations, and Nomad Revisited.If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug!If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here.Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group.And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.
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Giles Goddard, Halima Hussein & Natasha Chawla - Where Rivers Meet: Three Faith Traditions in Conversation (N367)
3w ago01:17:52Tap to summarizeIn this conversation, Giles Goddard and Halima Gosai Hussein are joined by Natasha Chawla for a wide-ranging exploration of faith, change, and the unexpected places where different spiritual rivers meet. Drawing on their journeys within Christianity, Islam, and Hindu philosophy, they reflect on the traditions they inherited, the moments that reshaped them, and what it means to remain rooted while allowing faith to evolve.Along the way they explore rivers as both metaphor and reality: places of origin, transformation, and encounter. The conversation moves between story and reflection — from pilgrimage and practice to ecology, justice, and the sacred in everyday life — offering a glimpse of how people from very different traditions can sit together with curiosity, generosity, and hope.Conversation starts at 19m 10sBooks, quotes, links →The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Homegrown Conversations, and Nomad Revisited.If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug!If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here.Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group.And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.
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Selina Stone – Why Do the Wicked Prosper? (N366)
Apr 600:44:00Tap to summarizeIn this special episode, theologian and author Selina Stone reflects on one of the oldest and most unsettling human questions: why do the wicked prosper?Drawing on scripture, history, and her own experience, Selina explores the anger, grief and moral disorientation that arise when cruelty and exploitation seem to flourish while justice is delayed.Rather than offering easy answers, she invites us to stay present to these realities — and to notice how hope, truth and resistance might still begin to stir within us.After Selina’s reflection, Nomad host Anna Robinson guides us into a contemplative space, helping us sit with what we’ve heard and attend to what might be emerging in our own lives.The episode is woven together with original music by Jon Bilbrough (Wilderthorn), creating a meditative soundscape to hold the journey.Books, quotes, links →The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Homegrown Conversations, and Nomad Revisited.If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug!If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here.Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group.And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.
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Lucy Sixsmith - Soul Survivor, Surrender & the Cost of Being Special (N365)
Mar 2001:38:08Tap to summarizeLucy Sixsmith joins Nomad to explore the world of Soul Survivor and the wider charismatic culture that shaped so many young Christians in the 1990s and 2000s. Drawing on her new book When the Music Fades, Lucy reflects on surrender language, “chosen generation” spirituality, and the subtle ways power can operate in spaces that feel warm, funny and down to earth.Together we ask what happens when revival language, humility and the longing to be part of something bigger become tangled up with pressure, disappointment and the cost of being “special”. This is a conversation about youth, worship, authority, memory and what, if anything, remains when the music fades.After the interview, Tim and Nick reflect on their different experiences of Soul Survivor and the charismatic culture around it. They explore surrender, revival, and the pressure of “changing the world”, asking whether what felt like surrender to God was sometimes also a surrender to the culture itself. It’s a thoughtful conversation about power, disappointment, and what a more grounded faith might look like when the intensity fades.Interview starts at 17m 22sBooks, quotes, links →The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited.If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug!If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here.Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group.And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.
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Rupert Sheldrake - Psychedelics, Mysticism and the Mystery of Consciousness (N364)
Mar 901:36:51Tap to summarizeRupert Sheldrake joins us for a wide-ranging conversation that begins with psychedelics and quickly opens into bigger questions. Why do some experiences feel “more real than real”? What happens when the familiar boundaries of self dissolve, and the world returns charged with meaning, beauty, and presence?Along the way Rupert reflects on his own encounters with psychedelics, the long ritual history behind them, and why he thinks they’re just one doorway into a much larger landscape. From dreams and near-death experiences to prayer, music, nature and the possibility that mind might not be contained by the brain, this episode doesn’t aim to settle the questions so much as to sit inside them — and see what they reveal.Following the interview, Nomad hosts Tim and Joy reflect on curiosity, caution and the strange tension between breakthrough moments and slow formation. From therapy and music to dogs, dreams and those hard-to-explain moments of connection, they explore what it might mean to live in creative puzzlement before a world that still feels charged with mystery.Interview starts at 13m 5s. Books, quotes, links →The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited.If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug!If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here.Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group.And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.
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Meggan Watterson - Silenced Voices, Lost Christianities (N363)
Feb 2301:30:00Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Tim speaks with feminist theologian and author Meggan Watterson about the Gospel of Mary and the Acts of Paul and Thecla — early Christian texts that didn’t make it into the New Testament. They explore what these stories reveal about the diversity of early Christianities, the formation of the biblical canon, and the ways women’s voices were preserved, reshaped, or silenced. What does it mean that some communities treasured these texts enough to pass them on — and how might Christianity have looked if Mary and Thecla had been read alongside Paul and Peter?The conversation moves from history into questions of authority, embodiment, and discernment. Meggan reflects on what drew her to these texts and what she means by “inner authority,” while Tim probes the tension between personal revelation and communal accountability. Together they ask what kind of faith might emerge if we loosen our grip on a single master story without losing our grounding.Following the interview, Nomad hosts Tim and Joy reflect on growing up with a narrow vision of “the early church,” the uneasy relationship between canon and power, and what it means to reclaim inner authority without losing community.Interview starts at 14m 01sBooks, quotes, links →The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited.If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug!If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here.Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group.And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.
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Hiroko Yoda – Half Belief Half Doubt and the Art of Paying Attention (N362)
Feb 901:25:58Tap to summarizeIn this gentle and quietly unsettling conversation, Hiroko Yoda invites us into a world where spirituality doesn’t begin with belief, but with attention. Drawing on her Japanese upbringing and her book Eight Million Ways to Happiness, Hiroko reflects on grief, ancestors, everyday ritual, and the idea of “half belief, half doubt” — a way of living that makes space for ambiguity rather than trying to resolve it. From small shrines in city parks to the simple act of taking a walk, she describes spirituality as a set of tools for pausing, noticing, and staying connected to the living world around us.Together, Tim and Hiroko explore what happens when faith becomes less about certainty and more about participation: how joy and play find their way into sacred spaces, why traditions can be blended and remixed without anxiety, and what it might mean to belong without needing to define what you believe. It’s a conversation that gently challenges Western ideas of religion and invites listeners to experiment with a slower, softer, more attentive way of being in the world.Following the interview, Nomad hosts Tim and Anna reflect on the disorientation and gift of meeting a spirituality that doesn’t play the same “belief game,” exploring simplicity, attention, and the idea of spiritual practices as tools rather than tests.Interview starts at 17m 53sBooks, quotes, links →The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited.If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug!If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here.Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group.And if you're up for sharing your own story, we regularly post reflections from listeners on our blog—all with the hope of fostering deeper understanding, connection and supportive relationships. If you'd like to share your story on the blog, contact us for more information here.
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Rachel Mann — Identity, Darkness & Divine Mystery [Revisited] (N361)
Jan 2301:33:31Tap to summarizeIn this Nomad Revisited episode, we return to a 2017 conversation with Anglican priest, poet, and writer Rachel Mann. As the first trans person interviewed on Nomad, the exchange unfolds in a spirit of curiosity and vulnerability, with questions that are sometimes tentative and awkward, met by Rachel’s remarkable patience, clarity, and generosity of spirit.The conversation explores identity as something lived into rather than solved, faith as something encountered in vulnerability rather than certainty, and God as a presence found in darkness, woundedness, and becoming. Rachel reflects on transition, embodiment, sexuality, and the slow work of becoming a self who can live a life rather than perform one — offering not answers so much as an invitation into mystery, nuance, and transformation.After the interview, Nomad hosts Tim and Nick reflect on what it means to live with questions rather than conclusions — exploring identity as something embodied, evolving, and discovered over time, rather than fixed or declared.Interview starts at 17m 43sBooks, quotes, links →If you’ve found Nomad helpful and would like to support the ongoing work of the podcast, you can make a one-off donation via our secure Stripe donation page. Any amount is genuinely appreciated and helps us keep Nomad sustainable into 2026.DONATE HERESmall monthly donations are Nomad's financial life blood. If you're able to support us in that way, visit our Patreon page.
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Fundraiser Special – The Guests Get Curious (N360)
Jan 801:41:26Tap to summarizeThis episode began life as our 2025 Patreon fundraiser — but we’re releasing it here, freely, on the main feed, with a new intro and two additional questions!For this special episode, we invited last year’s guests to turn the tables and ask us whatever they liked. What came back was a rich, surprising mix of the playful, the personal, and the deeply searching. Questions came in from Rowan Williams, Brian McLaren, Selina Stone, Chine McDonald, Lamorna Ash, Gareth Higgins, Jennifer Bird and many others.Along the way, we talk about: • the gap between what we believe and how we actually live • remembering joy in a world wired for disappointment • scripture, inspiration, and what still feels life-giving • whether love really does conquer everything • faith, imagination, childhood toys, books we’d reread forever, and the strange magic of 1980s technology • and which portrayals of God in the Bible we find hardest to love or respectWe also talk openly about why we ran a fundraiser in the first place, what we learned from it, and why we ultimately decided to make this episode freely available to everyone.Supporting Nomad:If you’ve found Nomad helpful and would like to support the ongoing work of the podcast, you can make a one-off donation via our secure Stripe donation page. Any amount is genuinely appreciated and helps us keep Nomad sustainable into 2026.DONATE HEREAnd if you’re not in a position to give, you are still completely welcome here. No pressure. No guilt. Just thanks for listening.
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Jarel Robinson-Brown – Love in a World on Fire (N359)
Dec 2200:41:42Tap to summarizeIn this special episode, writer, priest and theologian Jarel Robinson-Brown reflects on the power of love in a world that so often feels fragile, unjust, and burning at the edges.Drawing on the story of his grandmother’s resilience and tenderness, the radical imagination of Mary, and the embodied life of Jesus, Jarel invites us to see Christian truth not as a text but as a life — love made flesh, love that puts its body where its heart is.After Jarel’s reflection, Nomad host Anna Robinson guides us into a contemplative space — a gentle invitation to sit with the stories we’ve heard, notice what stirs, and discern how love might ripple outward in our own lives.The whole episode is woven together with original music by Jon Bilbrough (Wilderthorn), creating a meditative soundscape to hold the journey.Books, quotes, links →The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us, you gain access to Nomad’s online spaces—like the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge, and Book Club—as well as bonus episodes such as Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections, and Nomad Revisited.If you’d like to join our lovely community of supporters, head over to our Patreon page. You might even be rewarded with a Nomad pen or our coveted Beloved Listener mug!If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here.Looking to connect with others nearby? Check out the Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook group.
Transcribe →