You Have Permission

Nov 18 2024 319 ep. 80 mins 2k
You Have Permission Podcast artwork

So many of us have been given bad answers to good questions -- questions about God, suffering, prayer, fate, science, justice, and more -- often by people with pure intentions. But we needn't stop with those pat answers. You have permission to take both Christianity and the modern world very seriously, and this podcast will introduce you to people from across the Christian spectrum engaging these timeless and difficult questions in various ways.

  Religion & Spirituality
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Wonder As an Antidote to Religious Trauma (#298)

Nov 18 2024 35 mins  
Writer Sarah Southern joins me to share her deconstruction journey from fundamentalism to freedom. Sarah shares how her initial process was paralyzed by the infinite stakes of questioning faith, until wonder—particularly through Colorado's mountains—offered an unexpected path forward. Drawing on Abraham Heschel's wisdom about wonder as the foundation of religious experience, Sa

Psychedelics & Corporate BS with Comedian Tom Fell (#297)

Nov 12 2024 86 mins  
We're back with another comedian episode of YHP, this time featuring Tom Fell, whose brilliant social media videos skewer corporate speak and existential themes with painful accuracy. Our conversation centers on psychedelics and consciousness, where Tom demonstrates what I'd call "materialist wonder" - particularly in his story about encountering a whale shortly after taking mushro

Election Processing (#296)

Nov 07 2024 102 mins  
The You Have Permission team of Dan Koch, Josh Gilbert and Joy Vetterlein sit down to process the election a day later. Dan puts on his therapy hat and offers some general coping mechanisms and how to deal with the catastrophizing thoughts blue voters might have around a Trump presidency. We also discuss listener comments and questions, and talk through what we’re learning and ta

Is Dan a “Christian Agnostic”? (#295)

Nov 04 2024 85 mins  
Take a break from election coverage and enjoy this thoughtful conversation with Brandan Robertson, a pastor in Queens, NY, about "Christian agnosticism" and navigating faith with intellectual honesty. We explore how embracing uncertainty about religious claims can actually deepen rather than diminish faith, moving beyond the rigid certainty of our evangelical backgrounds toward a m

Dan, Josh & Kristen Get Personal with The Iron Claw (#294)

Oct 28 2024 50 mins  
Today I'm joined by frequent podcast collaborators Josh Gilbert and Kristen Tideman to discuss "The Iron Claw" (2023), a film that chronicles the tragic story of the Von Erich wrestling family during the territorial wrestling era of the 1980s. At its core, the film explores how patriarch Fritz Von Erich projects his unrealized wrestling ambitions onto his sons through conditional l

God & Love in “Nobody Wants This” (YHP After Hours) (#293)

Oct 24 2024 79 mins  
Join Dan Koch and Joy Vetterlein for another "After Hours" episode of You Have Permission as they dive into Netflix's hit series "Nobody Wants This." While a rom-com might seem like an unexpected choice for YHP, this show about an agnostic podcaster (Kristen Bell) falling for a progressive rabbi (Adam Brody) offers surprisingly rich material for exploring faith, doubt, and relation

Complex Religious Trauma with Hillary McBride & Preston Hill (#292)

Oct 21 2024 61 mins  
Therapists Hillary McBride and Preston Hill joined me discussing their Spiritual First Responders Project and the complexities of religious trauma. We explored how religious trauma uniquely impacts one's sense of meaning and community, often occurring over extended periods and becoming deeply ingrained in a person's worldview. Hillary highlighted how religious environments can inad

Creativity After Deconstruction (#291)

Oct 14 2024 92 mins  
Musician Jayne Sugg joins the podcast to discuss her journey through faith deconstruction and its profound impact on her creative process. Raised in a charismatic, Pentecostal church where her family led worship, Jayne's faith and music were deeply intertwined from a young age. This deconstruction process resulted in a significant creative crisis as Jayne struggled to find authenti

Purity Culture Regrets (YHP After Hours) (#290)

Oct 10 2024 37 mins  
In this special "after hours" episode of "You Have Permission," Dan and his old friend Lindsay share their biggest regrets from evangelical purity culture. They explore how this nonbiblical but influential sexual ethic affected both men and women during adolescence, acknowledging that women bore the brunt of its impact. Dan and Lindsay reminisce about cringeworthy memories, like bi

Chat-GPT Enneagram Full Episode (Patreon Preview)

Oct 08 2024 113 mins  
This is a Patreon Preview | *The exclusive half starts around the 53 min mark* In this special episode, Dan brings together his "Big Five" friends—Tripp Fuller, Myron Penner, Sarah Concepcion, and Sarah Lane Ritchie—to playfully mock and critically examine the Enneagram. Dan introduces the "Danneagram," an AI-generated personality system, sparking a lively discussion that osci