On today’s episode, Ari spoke with Brooke Ashley Hall - one of the biggest creators on social media, across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. They talked about what an influencer’s day-to-day looks like; portraying motherhood from the Bible to TikTok; authenticity in traditional media vs. digital media; Brooke’s advice for aspiring creators; and much more!

On today’s episode, Ari spoke with the best-selling author and historian of English and American history Nick Bunker. They talked about the importance of King James I; the rise of English interest in Biblical Hebrew; the origins of the Puritans and much more!

On today’s episode, Ari spoke with the greatest character actor in the history of Hollywood, the legendary Stephen Tobolowsky, about his lifelong journey to understand the Hebrew Bible.

On today’s episode, Ari spoke with Joshua Berman, Professor of Bible at Bar Ilan University and author of “Created Equal: How the Bible Broke With Ancient Political Thought”, about the revolution that the Bible introduced into human affairs.

On today’s episode of Good Faith Effort, Ari sits down with Angel Adams Parham, award-winning author, professor, and a leading scholar in the Black Intellectual Tradition.

Ari sits down with Seth Rogovoy, writer, producer, cultural journalist, and author of Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet

On today’s episode, Ari spoke with Rainn Wilson, who’s not only the actor behind Dwight Schrute, one of the most iconic characters in TV history, but also the author of the magnificent new book on faith and culture, “SoulBoom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution” (Hachette Books). On today’s episode Ari and Rainn talked about some of life’s biggest questions. Why believe in a religion you got from your parents? How should you go about seeking truth? Why does willingness to travel have to do...

Attention, Good Faith Fam! We've been on a brief hiatus, but the podcast is making a triumphant return! We’ll resume our deep dives into the amazing world of the Bible, from the profound to the perplexing. We're talking politics, pop culture, and everything in between.  And... because you’ve all been so patient… just a cool little spoiler for you: our triumphant comeback will be with none other than Rainn Wilson - a.k.a. Dwight from The Office! Good Faith Effort is coming back soon, and it's...

Attention, Good Faith Fam! We've been on a brief hiatus, but the podcast is making a triumphant return! We’ll resume our deep dives into the amazing world of the Bible, from the profound to the perplexing. We're talking politics, pop culture, and everything in between.  And... because you’ve all been so patient… just a cool little spoiler for you: our triumphant comeback will be with none other than Rainn Wilson - a.k.a. Dwight from The Office! Good Faith Effort is coming back soon, and it's...

On today’s episode, Ari spoke with renowned Bible teacher and scholar Rabbi Yitzchak Etshalom about one of the most common question asked by Good Faith Effort listeners (or Why Read The Bible In Hebrew readers on Twitter!): what is the “Jewish” way of reading Scripture? Along the way they talked about developing a methodology for Scripture study; the difference between reading a text critically and “text criticism”; why it matters that the Biblical Hebrew vocabulary is relatively small; why...

On today’s episode, Ari spoke with the University of Utah’s Dean of Humanities, and renowned historian of 19th century literature and society, Hollis Robbins to talk about the state of the humanities in American education. As Hollis explains, reports of the humanities demise are greatly exaggerated. But just as important as understanding why the humanities are, in fact, flourishing, is understanding where and under what conditions they are flourishing. What lessons can we learn from answering...

On today’s episode, Ari spoke with American Jewish University resident scholar Rick Richman about the land, people and polity of Israel in Hollywood’s imagination. What does Hollywood storytelling about Israel—from Exodus in 1960, to Top Gun: Maverick in 2022—tell us about America’s perspective on the Holy Land, and perhaps more strikingly, America’s perspective on itself. In a wide-ranging discussion, Ari and Rick talked about Exodus (1960); Munich (2005); Top Gun: Maverick (2022); Dara...

On this week’s episode, Ari speaks with New York Times columnist and media personality David French about the future of American political and cultural virtue. What does it look like to stick to your principles in 2023, even if they’re unpopular? How do we escape the ideological traps of contemporary American political life? Along the way, they discussed the idea of an “exhausted majority”; the relationship between sports and politics; theological concepts like redemption and apocalypse and...

On today’s episode, Ari spoke with political philosopher Yechiel Leiter about John Locke—the thinker whose work undergirds all of American political philosophy. If you were to read Locke, one of the first things you’ll notice is that he quotes and relies upon texts from the Hebrew Bible far more than (almost to the exclusion of) any other. And yet, for centuries, Locke scholars have almost entirely ignored his Hebraic influences. Together, Ari and Yechiel discussed how a Hebraic reading of...

Every minority—every ethnic or religious subgroup—has its own internal conversations. Often, in the modern age, that’s resulted in specialized journalistic outlets. Jewish newspapers; Christian TV stations; Muslims journals. But just as fascinating are journalists who take their particular identity, and use it as a lens through which to help general audiences view the world. What, indeed, does it mean for a reporter who is Jewish—or Christian, or Muslim, or Buddhist—to write for The...

From ancient times until today, plagues and pandemics have played a transformational role in human history. And of all the intellectual and theological traditions that have reflected upon the significance of these devastating natural phenomena, perhaps the most famous and profound is the Bible. Just think, for example, of the narrative of the Ten Plagues in the Book of Exodus. So how have commentators on the Bible understood these reflections, and even developed them in new and surprising...

How should you read the Bible? Is the Bible just a collection of nice stories mixed in with a bunch of motivational poster one-liners? What’s the best way to plumb the artistic depths of this unparalleled literary and spiritual masterpiece? On this episode, Ari unpacked all of this with renowned podcaster and Biblical scholar Alastair Roberts. Over the course of this exciting, frenetic conversation, they talked about the Bible in the history and culture of England; why Alastair, a Protestant...

One of the great differences between Athens and Jerusalem is that while Athens was the early master of philosophical inquiry, Jerusalem became the early master of storytelling. The Bible is the source for the greatest stories ever told—what Rabbi Sacks call “philosophy in the narrative mode”. And at least in terms of scale, perhaps the greatest storytelling civilization after ancient Israel is America since the invention of modern media. And, of course, it’s no accident that one of the most...

Why do celebrity advertisements work? Why do wars happen? What makes the story of Cain and Abel so compelling? What if I told you the answer to all of those questions was…the same? Enter Rene Girard, an atheist-turned-Catholic philosophical anthropologist who was also deeply influential on some of the people who have most shaped our world today—from the biggest tech founders, entrepreneurs and investors. In this episode, Ari unpacked Girard’s thought with Jonathan Bi, master teacher and...

How did the American Founders read the Bible? What wisdom did they find there? How did their literary sensibilities interact with their political ones in reading the Bible? And how does this history stay with us today? To unpack all this, Ari spoke with Professor at the American University in Washington D.C., and author of “Reading The Bible With The Founding Fathers”, Daniel Dreisbach. They talked the Book of Deuteronomy in the Founding Era; political order in the Bible; the Bible on the...

The Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution…this was when we finally kicked religion out of public life, right? In fact, it was precisely in these moments that Western thinkers were most expansive and ambitious in their curiosity about religion—its texts, ideas, and practical implications. This was famously true in the case of the Bible, the greater focus on which prompted the revival of Hebrew study throughout Europe. But it was also true of the study of Jewish mysticism,...

The Bible is the most important work in the history of literature, so it seems like a pretty important priority should be to figure out how to read it well! What strategies can your average person use to uncover the Biblical text’s meaning? Which commentaries are most important to consult? Are there new insights we can, perhaps, discover on our own? If so, how? To unpack all this, Ari spoke with the founder of Aleph Beta, the legendary Biblical interpreter and teacher Rabbi David Fohrman. In...

Why are stories important? What exactly makes them so powerful? How should great stories—whether you encounter them in literature, poetry, painting, the cinema—help human beings cultivate the good life? And can great stories, as such, really be an important part of the religious experience? To unpack this, Ari spoke with Jennifer Frey, host of the extremely popular literature, philosophy, and theology podcast “Sacred And Profane Love”, and professor of philosophy at the University of South...

Who’s the most influential figure in American political history? Washington? Lincoln? Martin Luther King? The answer, for any student of American history, should be clear: it’s Moses. But how does this influence pan out? And how do Moses, and other Biblical figures, help us tell our own stories…even today? To unpack all of this, Ari spoke with bestselling author and New York Times columnist Bruce Feiler, author of “America’s Prophet: Moses and the American Story”. They talked about the Age of...