Podcast
The Biggest Table
Hosted by Andrew Camp | Lumivoz · EN
This podcast is an avenue to dialogue about the totality of the food experience. Everything from gardening, to preparing, to eating, to hospitality, to the Lord’s Table, with an eye toward how this act that we all have to engage in helps us experience the transformative power of God’s love and what it means to be human.
27episodes
Episodes
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Bacon & Its Cultural Significance with Mark Johnson
Yesterday01:07:44Tap to summarizeHost Andrew Camp welcomes historian Mark Johnson, author of “American Bacon,” who explains how his work on Alabama barbecue led him to study bacon’s shifting meanings. Johnson describes food as a narrative device for telling difficult histories and highlights a recurring theme of performance, including his claim that modern bacon enthusiasm can resemble minstrel-like impersonation, exemplified by a 1983 New York Times “In Praise of Bacon” cartoon mocking yet admiring a “Georgia mountain man.” The conversation traces bacon’s role from a broad term for cured pork in colonial America, both staple and insult, through English associations of respectability with beef and mutton, and early U.S. debates that sometimes reclaimed bacon as humble republican virtue. In the 19th–20th centuries bacon became linked to Southern “backwardness,” fat, and health fears; by 1977 the USDA considered banning it over nitrites/nitrates. Bacon’s resurgence is tied to distrust of dietary experts, low-carb culture, fast food, and upscale “rustic” Southern cuisine that can romanticize marginalized peoples without materially benefiting them, prompting discussion of systemic change, food deserts, and “culinary colonialism.”MARK A. JOHNSON, originally from Milwaukee, earned a PhD in history from the University of Alabama. Previously, he earned an MA from the University of Maryland and BA from Purdue University. He currently teaches at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and is the author of An Irresistible History of Alabama Barbecue: From Wood Pit to White Sauce and Rough Tactics: Black Performance in Political Spectacle, 1877–1932. His most recent book is American Bacon: The History of a Food Phenomenon. He resides in Knoxville, TN with his wife, Kate, and two cats, Peri and Remy.Follow Mark on Instagram: @baconscholarBuy American Bacon: The History of a Food PhenomenonFollow Andrew CampFacebook: andrew.camp.9Instagram: @andrewcamp80Substack: @thebiggesttableThis episode of the Biggest Table is brought to you in part by Wild Goose Coffee. Since 2008, Wild Goose has sought to build better communities through coffee. For our listeners, Wild Goose is offering a special promotion of 20% off a one time order using the code TABLE at checkout. To learn more and to order coffee, please visit wildgoosecoffee.com.
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Belonging, Disability, & Hospitality with Erik Freiburger
2w ago01:08:10Tap to summarizeHost Andrew Camp interviews writer and theologian Erik Freiburger about disability, belonging, and hospitality. Erik, a wheelchair user since a 1994 spinal cord injury, describes how his understanding of the word “disabled” matured, and explores whether disability is blessing or curse, concluding it is both/and, shaped by social exclusion, ableism, and human limits. They discuss prejudice and “whitewashing” (“aren’t we all disabled?”), and how churches can treat disability as peripheral. Erik explains his pushback to a prior AI conversation, rooted in his wife Bonnie’s 2014 loss of swallowing and their house church’s struggle to practice Eucharist when she couldn’t eat, leading them to broaden hospitality beyond food toward relationship and communal belonging. He urges churches to create cultures of care, advocate for dignity by going with marginalized people, and let neighbors shape theology (“the room is my theology”). Erik shares painful church experiences, links exclusion to “disgust” and purity logics, and finds hope in disabled Christians’ perseverance.Erik Freiburger is a writer, theologian, creator, and storyteller whose work explores the intersections of disability, dignity, and hope. Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Theology and a Master’s degree in Religious Education with a focus on Missional Leadership, he brings both scholarly depth and lived experience to questions of belonging, justice, identity, and transformation within the disabled life. Writing on his Substack, At the Bottom of the Well (atthebottomofthewell.com), and hosting the Well Dwellers Podcast, Erik is creating spaces for voices from the margins and reflections on the sacred work of becoming. Rooted in a commitment to wonder and the dignity of all bodies, his work invites readers and listeners into deeper attentiveness to the mysteries unfolding at the edges of who we are and where we find ourselves in our society. Erik enjoys spending time with his wife, Bonnie, working out in his basement gym while listening to his expanding record collection, wheeling the park pathways around his city home, reading in-depth literature, and watching creative movies.This episode of the Biggest Table is brought to you in part by Wild Goose Coffee. Since 2008, Wild Goose has sought to build better communities through coffee. For our listeners, Wild Goose is offering a special promotion of 20% off a one time order using the code TABLE at checkout. To learn more and to order coffee, please visit wildgoosecoffee.com.
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Lessons for Faith from the Garden with Matt Erickson
4w ago00:57:43Tap to summarizeHost Andrew Camp welcomes Matt Erickson, senior pastor of Eastbrook Church in Milwaukee and author of The Pastor as Gardener, to discuss gardening as a metaphor for pastoral ministry and discipleship. Erickson shares his family roots in gardening, favorite crops, and how crises—including the pandemic, racial justice tensions, and a friend’s moral failure—led him to agrarian biblical imagery such as 1 Corinthians 3:5. He describes how themes like seed, compost, pruning, soil, and seasons reshape views of suffering, formation, place, and community, critiquing technological distraction, rootlessness, and efficiency-driven “exploiter” mindsets in favor of care and attentiveness. Practical steps include contemplative prayer and guarding attention. They explore how churches face seasons, including “winter” in North American decline, and why resurrection-shaped hope sustains faithful cultivation. BioMatt Erickson is a pastor, writer, speaker, and disciple of Jesus. Since 2010, Matt has served as the Senior Pastor at Eastbrook Church, an urban, multiracial church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Matt received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Christian Education from Wheaton College (IL), a Master of Divinity degree from Northern Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Western Theological Seminary (Holland, MI) in connection with the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination. He is the author of the recently published book The Pastor as Gardener: A Renewed Vision for Ministry. Matt is married to Kelly, who has served in various ministry roles and operates her own spiritual direction practice. Matt and Kelly are parents of three children, all in college or beyond.Follow Matt Erickson:Website: mwerickson.comSubstack: @mwericksonFollow Andrew CampFacebook: andrew.camp.9Instagram: @andrewcamp80Substack: @thebiggesttableThis episode of the Biggest Table is brought to you in part by Wild Goose Coffee. Since 2008, Wild Goose has sought to build better communities through coffee. For our listeners, Wild Goose is offering a special promotion of 20% off a one time order using the code TABLE at checkout. To learn more and to order coffee, please visit wildgoosecoffee.com.
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Rethinking Wellness & Food Culture with Liz Bucar
Apr 2101:02:13Tap to summarizeHost Andrew Camp interviews religious ethicist and Northeastern professor Liz Bucar about her book, "Beyond Wellness: How Restoring the Religious Roots of Spiritual Practices Can Heal Us." Bucar shares her path into religious studies and explains how “spiritual salad bar” approaches—popular among Gen Z and driven by personalization and algorithms—can miss religious context, community, and ethical depth, sometimes causing harm. She critiques wellness culture’s individual optimization and “toxic diet culture,” including moralizing food, ascetic restriction, and valorizing thinness, tracing these in part to mainstreamed strands of Christian theology. Bucar highlights religious resources for healthier food ways, using Ramadan to show fasting as communal, virtue-forming, and bounded by exemptions, and discusses Ayurvedic balance as an alternative to rigid good/bad food categories. The conversation emphasizes communal eating, hospitality, and flourishing beyond personal control.Liz Bucar is a religious ethicist and professor of religion at Northeastern University, as well as a certified intenSati and Kripalu yoga instructor. Her popular writing has appeared in The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, Teen Vogue, and The Wall Street Journal, and she is the author of four books, including the award-winning Stealing My Religion and Pious Fashion. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts. For more about how religion shapes us all, even if we don't believe, subscribe to Liz’s newsletter at LizBucar.com.Follow Liz Bucar:Order Beyond WellnessWebsite: lizbucar.comInstagram: @lizbucarSubstack: @lizbucarFollow Andrew CampFacebook: andrew.camp.9Instagram: @andrewcamp80Substack: @thebiggesttableThis episode of the Biggest Table is brought to you in part by Wild Goose Coffee. Since 2008, Wild Goose has sought to build better communities through coffee. For our listeners, Wild Goose is offering a special promotion of 20% off a one time order using the code TABLE at checkout. To learn more and to order coffee, please visit wildgoosecoffee.com.
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Wine, Faith, and the Edge of Belief with Jeremy Jernigan
Apr 701:15:05Tap to summarizeHost Andrew Camp welcomes writer and fellow podcaster Jeremy Jernigan to The Biggest Table to discuss faith, hospitality, and wine while comparing two pinot noirs: California’s Meiomi (engineered for consistent, fruit-forward sweetness) and Oregon’s Lemelson single-vineyard pinot (limited production, terroir-driven complexity). Their tasting becomes an analogy for faith, contrasting mass-produced certainty with nuanced growth. Jernigan shares the story behind his book The Edge of the Inside: after two decades in ministry and a dream lead-pastor role, conflicts during 2020 over engaging COVID and George Floyd’s murder led to an elder-board ultimatum, his resignation, loss of community, and years in “liminal space.” The book traces moving from the “center” to the “edge,” rethinking inherited theology, and imagining how to move forward, emphasizing curiosity, composting past faith, and finding new communities.Jeremy Jernigan is a writer, speaker, and recovering megachurch pastor. After two decades in full-time ministry, including serving as a Lead Pastor, he now focuses on helping people rebuild their faith after it breaks. He’s the author of The Edge of the Inside, and he hosts the weekly Rebuilding Faith series and the biweekly Cabernet and Pray podcast. Jeremy lives in Arizona with his wife and five kids.Follow Jeremyjeremyjernigan.comEdge of the Inside bookThis episode of the Biggest Table is brought to you in part by Wild Goose Coffee. Since 2008, Wild Goose has sought to build better communities through coffee. For our listeners, Wild Goose is offering a special promotion of 20% off a one time order using the code TABLE at checkout. To learn more and to order coffee, please visit wildgoosecoffee.com.
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A Table to Hold Our Grief & Desires with Hannah Miller King
Mar 2400:50:54Tap to summarizeHost Andrew Camp interviews Anglican priest and writer Hannah Miller King about her book Feasting on Hope and how the Eucharist reframed her grief after her father died of cancer. King describes needing a bigger theological framework than “pray and hope,” finding healing and belonging through weekly communion, and seeing the Lord’s Table as both comfort and a foretaste that stokes longing for God’s coming kingdom. They discuss what churches miss when communion is infrequent, the formative power of embodied ritual, vulnerability in receiving with “empty hands,” and the wide-angle social implications of the meal for community, reconciliation, and justice, including responses to scarcity and food insecurity. King offers counsel for those hurt by church to grieve, be patient, and take manageable risks toward worship and relationship.Hannah Miller King is a priest and writer in the Anglican tradition. She has been a campus minister among conservatory musicians, an apartment minister in an urban highrise, and a parish pastor in large and small churches. She currently serves as the Associate Rector at The Vine Anglican Church in Western North Carolina. She is a contributing writer for Christianity Today and Holy Post Media, and is the author of Feasting On Hope: How God Sets A Table in the Wilderness. Hannah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Westminster Choir College and a Master of Arts in Religion from Redeemer Seminary. She is currently being schooled in the minutia of Star Wars (and other galactic battles between good and evil) by her three kids. Hannah's Website: hannahmillerking.comThis episode of the Biggest Table is brought to you in part by Wild Goose Coffee. Since 2008, Wild Goose has sought to build better communities through coffee. For our listeners, Wild Goose is offering a special promotion of 20% off a one time order using the code TABLE at checkout. To learn more and to order coffee, please visit wildgoosecoffee.com.
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The Table as a Foil for AI's Technology with Michael Morelli
Mar 1001:13:14Tap to summarizeHost Andrew Camp welcomes theologian and ethicist Michael Morelli to discuss artificial intelligence in relation to humanity, modernity, and the Christian table. Morelli defines today’s “AI” as machine learning and generative systems that process vast data, perform tasks, and simulate personality, while noting debate about true sentience. They address AI’s ubiquity, marketing that frames it as neutral, embedded biases in data and design, and the need for critical thinking and formation rather than shortcuts, especially in education. The conversation situates AI within late-modern acceleration, power, and influencer culture, alongside declining trust in institutions. Morelli contrasts AI’s dot-connecting with the sacramental and communal power of baptism and Eucharist, which reveal deeper reality and foster unlikely relationships, shaping everyday eating and hospitality. They close with food reflections and Morelli’s podcast and social links.Michael Morelli is the Associate Professor of Theology & Ethics at Northwest College & Seminary and ACTS Seminaries. Both are affiliates of Trinity Western University. He’s also an adjunct professor of theology of at Trinity’s Religious Studies and Nursing Schools. He has a PhD in Theological Ethics from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland and is the author of Theology, Ethics, and Technology in the Work of Jacques Ellul and Paul Virilio: A Nascent Theological Tradition (Lexington Books) and editor of Desert, Wilderness, Wasteland, and Word: A New Essay By Jacques Ellul and Five Critical Engagements (Pickwick). Follow Michael MorelliInstagram: @mchlmorelliSubstack: Personalist Manifesto(s)Podcast: Personalist Manifesto(s)This episode of the Biggest Table is brought to you in part by Wild Goose Coffee. Since 2008, Wild Goose has sought to build better communities through coffee. For our listeners, Wild Goose is offering a special promotion of 20% off a one time order using the code TABLE at checkout. To learn more and to order coffee, please visit wildgoosecoffee.com.
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The Potluck as an Image of Flourishing with Amar Peterman
Feb 2401:03:19Tap to summarizeHost Andrew Camp welcomes Amar Peterman, a constructive/public theologian, to discuss Peterman’s forthcoming book, "Becoming Neighbors: the Common Good Made Local" (Eerdmans), releasing March 12. Amar argues the common good must be built locally by actually knowing and loving the people across the street, rather than assuming a universal or national common good. Using the potluck table as the book’s guiding metaphor, Peterman contrasts potluck with the “melting pot,” emphasizing that people bring distinct “dishes” (stories, beliefs, traditions) that can be appreciated alongside one another in a shared, community-owned space where everyone is both host and guest. They address why interfaith engagement matters, warning that a “common good” good only for one group becomes tyranny, Christian nationalism, or authoritarianism. Drawing on Augustine’s “use and enjoyment,” Peterman cautions against using neighbors or the table instrumentally and argues neighbors are to be enjoyed as ends in themselves in God; he critiques control and domination as things wrongly treated as ends. Peterman outlines practices of neighbor love—compassion, humility, translation, resonance (via Hartmut Rosa), lament, and accompaniment (via Paul Farmer, Partners in Health, and Gustavo Gutiérrez), presenting accompaniment as long-term, dignifying companionship rather than short-term charity. They discuss joy as intertwined with hope and resurrection while rejecting shallow “happy” platitudes that avoid lament, and they reflect on compost and gardening as slow, local work that can yield surprising “new life” beyond one’s control. Amar D. Peterman is a constructive theologian, working at the intersection of faith and public life. He is the founder of Scholarship for Religion and Society LLC, and the former assistant director of civic networks at Interfaith America. Peterman holds an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary and is currently a PhD student at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School. He is the author of Becoming Neighbors: The Common Good Made Local (published by Eerdmans). His writing and research have been featured in Sojourners, Christianity Today, The Christian Century, The Fetzer Institute, The Berkley Forum, and The Anxious Bench. He also publishes regularly on his Substack, This Common Life.Follow Amar Peterman:Instagram: @amarpetermanFacebook: @amarpetermanSubstack: This Common LifeThis episode of the Biggest Table is brought to you in part of Wild Goose Coffee. Since 2008, Wild Goose has sought to build better communities through coffee. For our listeners, Wild Goose is offering a special promotion of 20% off a one time order using the code TABLE at checkout. To learn more and to order coffee, please visit wildgoosecoffee.com.
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Transforming Disgust into Love with Paul Hoard and Billie Hoard
Feb 1001:08:14Tap to summarizeIn this episode of The Biggest Table, host Andrew Camp delves into the intersections of food, theology, and the psychological theory of disgust with Paul and Billie Hoard, who co-authored the book Eucontamination. Paul, a licensed counselor and psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and Billie, a trans woman and writer, discuss how concepts of disgust operate at both individual and sociological levels, impacting relationships within the church and society. They explore the theological implications of disgust, the transformative power of love, and how practices like the Eucharist and foot washing can help Christians move past disgust reactions to foster intimacy and community. They also share personal anecdotes, discuss their fondest and least favorite foods, and emphasize the critical importance of sharing meals to experience God's love and grow in fellowship.Paul Hoard, PhD, LMHC, is a licensed counselor, psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and associate professor of counseling psychology at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. His scholarship focuses on Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, sexuality, white-body supremacy, perpetration-induced traumatic stress, and the theological logic of disgust. He has spoken and published internationally on topics including purity culture, trauma, eucontamination, and the intersections of theology and psychoanalysis. In addition to his academic work, Dr. Hoard maintains a private counseling practice and provides clinical supervision and consultation. He is the co-author, with his sister Billie Hoard, of the book Eucontamination: Disgust Theology and the Christian Life.Paul's Substack Billie Hoard is a trans woman, teacher, writer, and something of an Anabaptist radical. Together with her brother Paul, she is the author of "Eucontamination". Billie holds an MA in liberal arts from St. John's College & she writes about queerness, fairy tales, C. S. Lewis, theology & philosophy.Billie's SubstackThis episode of the Biggest Table is brought to you in part by Wild Goose Coffee. Since 2008, Wild Goose has sought to build better communities through coffee. For our listeners, Wild Goose is offering a special promotion of 20% off a one time order using the code TABLE at checkout. To learn more and to order coffee, please visit wildgoosecoffee.com.
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What the Bible Says about Alcohol with John Anthony Dunne
Jan 2701:13:36Tap to summarizeIn this episode of The Biggest Table, host Andrew Camp talks with Dr. John Anthony Dunne, an associate professor of New Testament at Bethel Seminary. Dr. Dunne shares his journey from a fundamentalist Baptist background in Las Vegas, Nevada, to becoming an aficionado of fine beverages and an expert on the biblical theology of alcohol. The conversation covers the best craft beers shared at academic receptions, the significance of wine, beer, and spirits in both his personal life and biblical texts, and the profound impact of these elements on Christian worship and spirituality. Dr. Dunne also discusses his latest book, 'The Mountain Shall Drip Sweet Wine: A Biblical Theology of Alcohol,' which explores the nuanced themes of alcohol in the Bible and its implications for modern believers.Dr. John Anthony Dunne earned his PhD in NT at the University of St Andrews (in Scotland) under the supervision of Prof. N. T. Wright. He is an associate professor of NT at Bethel Seminary (in Saint Paul, MN), where he has taught since 2017, and he's the author or editor of ten books, including, most recently, The Mountains Shall Drip Sweet Wine: A Biblical Theology of Alcohol (published by Zondervan Academic). Born and raised in Las Vegas, NV, John enjoys hosting cocktail parties, tasting events, and the annual SBLAAR reception at AAR/SBL each year, which is an international craft beer bottle share event.Connect with John Anthony DunneTwo Cities PodcastInstagram: @johnnypepper2Facebook: @johnnypepper2This episode of the Biggest Table is brought to you in part by Wild Goose Coffee. Since 2008, Wild Goose has sought to build better communities through coffee. For our listeners, Wild Goose is offering a special promotion of 20% off a one time order using the code TABLE at checkout. To learn more and to order coffee, please visit wildgoosecoffee.com.
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