Makers & Mystics

The Monster Revealed: Art, Horror, and The Christian Imagination | Dr. Kutter Callaway

**This episode contains sensitive subject matter** Can horror become a means of redemption? What might the stories that frighten us reveal about ourselves, our faith, an

This Is a Door: Storytelling, Meaning-Making, and The Search for Identity | Daniel Nayeri

Why do we need stories? And what if the purpose of art is not simply self-expression, but a way of helping us understand what it means to be human? In this episode of Ma

Our Daily Breath: How Contemplation Feeds The Creative Life | Kayla Craig

Contemplation is the inhale, and creativity is the exhale. Author and spiritual director Kayla Craig shares how we can make space for both. Her devotional, Our Daily Bre

Memory Is a Musical Place with Composer Michael Anderson

What if memories were real entities that inhabit places, and what if music could give those places a voice? In this episode of Makers & Mystics, Stephen Roach sits down

Art As a Spiritual Gateway: Classical Music and Rediscovering Creative Joy

What happens when the art form you once loved becomes a way of proving your worth? For oboist, educator, and author Merideth Estevez, classical music began as a source o

The Art of Slow: Making Things That Last with Jake Weidmann

We live in a world of fast content, instant communication, next-day shipping, and things designed to be quickly replaced. But what happens when an artist chooses to work

Seeing Through The Tropes: How Art History Shaped Women's Identity | Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt

How do the images we see shape the way we understand ourselves and one another? In this episode of Makers & Mystics, Stephen Roach sits down with art historian and autho

Strange Glory: A Case for Unconventional Art

What does it mean to glorify God through art? For many artists, the desire to glorify God can become an expectation that their work should communicate an explicitly reli

The World Needs Your Art: The Spiritual Roots of Why Artists Suffer | Stephen Roach

Every great artist from Caravaggio to Frida Kahlo has fought the same invisible war, and Stephen Roach makes the case that it is not a coincidence. In this solo reflecti

Evelyn Underhill: Mother of Modern Mystics

Evelyn Underhill: The Mother of Modern MysticsArtist Profile Series 40 Who was Evelyn Underhill, and why does her work continue to shape the modern contemplative movemen

Making Room at the Table: Art, Justice, and The Stories That Shape Us | Steve Prince

What if art isn't simply something we admire, but something that asks something of us? In this episode, Stephen Roach sits down with acclaimed printmaker, educator,

Missionaries of Beauty: An Antidote to a Cultural Crisis with Sacred Artist Kate Capato

Can beauty change a person? A community? A culture?  Sacred artist Kate Capato believes it can. In this bonus episode of Makers & Mystics, Stephen Roach sits down with

One Last Monster: Gene Kim on Animation, Storytelling, and the Art of Human Transformation

Animation has a unique ability to carry profound truths beneath colorful worlds, unforgettable characters, and compelling adventure. Beneath the spectacle, the best stori

Threads of Beauty: On Fashion, Fabric and Theology

In this bonus episode of Makers & Mystics, Stephen Roach revisits The Pace of Beauty series with artist and designer Jennifer Sturrock.  Drawing from her background in c

The Problem with Beauty: From The Grotesque to The Sublime

Beauty is one of the most celebrated words in art and faith conversations, but it may also be one of the most misunderstood. Is beauty simply what pleases the eye, or is

The Beauty of Vulnerability | Zan Fiskum

What does it cost an artist to tell the truth? Singer-songwriter Zan Fiskum has built her entire creative life around finding out. In this episode, host Stephen Roach sit

Beauty As Survival: Breath, Embodiment, and The First Instrument

Beauty As Survival: Breath, Embodiment, and The First Instrument A conversation with Whitney Lynn In this episode, I sit down with embodiment coach, creative director,

Make Your Home In This Luminous Dark: Contemporary Art and The Path of the Mystics with James K. A. Smith

Make Your Home In This Luminous Dark A conversation with James K. A. Smith In this episode, I sit down with philosopher and author James K. A. Smith (Jamie) to explore

Taking Up The Tale with Malcolm Guite

What can ancient stories teach us about creativity, courage, and our own place in the modern world?  In this episode, Stephen Roach welcomes poet and priest Malcolm Guit

Making Space for Meaning: The Renewal of Myth and Storytelling with Jonathan Pageau

In this episode of Makers & Mystics, Stephen Roach sits down with cultural critic, writer, and iconographer Jonathan Pageau to explore the state of contemporary storytell