In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer

Hosted by Frank Schaeffer

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Episodes

293

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Oct 2026

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EN-US

About the show

Conversations with the Artists, Authors, Activists, and Change-Makers Who Are Shaping Our World Today.

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60 recent

October 16, 2026Episode 411 hr 9 min

Stephen O’Connor on How Fascism Returns and Why We Look Away

Frank Schaeffer talks with novelist Stephen O’Connor about We Want So Much to Be Ourselves , a novel exploring psychoanalysis, self-deception, and ordinary life during the rise of Nazi Germany. Stephen began writing the book in 2016, before Donald Trump’s first election. As he researched Hitler’s rise to power, he began recognizing parallels with contemporary American politics. Their conversation explores how ordinary people accommodate authoritarianism, how institutions surrender their principles, and why people often refuse to acknowledge dangers they can plainly see. Stephen also discusses his mother’s experiences under Nazi occupation in France, his relationship with his psychoanalyst father, and his visit to Auschwitz. At the heart of the conversation is a difficult question: How do we recognize fascism when it returns, especially when acknowledging it would require us to change the way we live? _____ LINKS We Want So Much to Be Ourselves _____ I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times. Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said . Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle , and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free . Support the show _____ In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip . Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/ Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube. https://frankschaeffer.substack.com https://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16 https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaeffer https://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_art https://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_art https://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaeffer https://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTube In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast

October 9, 2026Episode 401 hr 25 min

Inside Stephen King’s Archives with Caroline Bicks

Caroline Bicks spent a year studying Stephen King’s personal archives, including early drafts of Carrie , The Shining , Salem’s Lot , Night Shift , and Pet Sematary . She was also able to do something rather extraordinary: bring what she found back to King and ask him about it. We talk about what those manuscripts reveal about King’s writing process, his extraordinary attention to language, his childhood and life in Maine, his relationship with Tabitha King, and the fears and moral questions beneath his stories. Caroline’s new book is Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King . I went into it as someone who had never read a Stephen King novel. I came out thinking I’d read one of the best books about writing I’ve encountered. _____ LINKS https://carolinebicks.com Monsters in the Archives _____ I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times. Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said . Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle , and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free . Support the show _____ In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip . Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/ Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube. https://frankschaeffer.substack.com https://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16 https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaeffer https://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_art https://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_art https://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaeffer https://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTube In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast

October 2, 2026Episode 391 hr 8 min

Shadi Hamid: Can Religion Save Democracy?

Shadi Hamid joins Frank to discuss Can Religion Save Democracy? , the book he co-authored with Christian theologian Matthew Kaemingk. Their friendship doesn’t depend on pretending their religious differences don’t exist. They disagree about some of the biggest questions a person can ask. That becomes the starting point for a larger conversation about democracy. Frank and Shadi talk about humility, certainty, forgiveness, political idolatry, cancel culture, and the possibility of treating disagreement as something democracy must learn to live with rather than eliminate. _____ Can Religion Save Democracy? Baker Publishing Bookshop _____ I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times. Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said . Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle , and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free . Support the show _____ In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip . Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/ Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube. https://frankschaeffer.substack.com https://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16 https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaeffer https://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_art https://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_art https://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaeffer https://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTube In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast

September 25, 2026Episode 381 hr 1 min

Jennifer Breheny Wallace on Being Seen, Being Needed, and Mattering

Jennifer Breheny Wallace joins me to talk about her book Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose . We talk about her father and the way he made people feel seen, what she has learned from raising three children, why achievement alone isn’t enough, and what happens when the roles that once gave us meaning begin to disappear. We also talk about technology and AI and a question that is becoming harder to avoid: What happens to us when human beings begin to feel replaceable? This is really a conversation about something much simpler. We need each other. We need to know that we matter to other people, and that they matter to us. _____ LINKS Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose https://www.jenniferbwallace.com/ _____ I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times. Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said . Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle , and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free . Support the show _____ In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip . Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/ Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube. https://frankschaeffer.substack.com https://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16 https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaeffer https://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_art https://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_art https://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaeffer https://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTube In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast

September 18, 2026Episode 3758 min

Daisy Fancourt: How Art Can Change Our Health and Our Lives

Frank Schaeffer talks with Professor Daisy Fancourt, author of Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives , about something many artists, parents, teachers, and grandparents have understood intuitively for years: art matters to our health. Daisy Fancourt has spent years studying how music, painting, literature, dance, theater, storytelling, and everyday creativity affect our minds and bodies. Daisy and Frank discuss the science connecting arts engagement with anxiety, depression, loneliness, cognition, aging, dementia, and physical health. They also talk about what happens when children grow up with creativity, why the arts are so easily dismissed in education and public policy, and what health systems are beginning to learn about arts on prescription. Frank also shares the story of a teacher who used Mozart to reach him when he was a severely dyslexic child struggling to read, and why Daisy Fancourt’s research speaks so directly to his own life as an artist, father, and grandfather. Art Cure by Daisy Fancourt is the September selection for the It Has to Be Read Book Club. _____ I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times. Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said . Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle , and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free . Support the show _____ In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip . Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/ Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube. https://frankschaeffer.substack.com https://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16 https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaeffer https://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_art https://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_art https://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaeffer https://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTube In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast

September 15, 2026Episode 361 hr 8 min

April Reynolds on The Shape of Dreams, Grief, and Community

Frank talks with novelist and creative writing professor April Reynolds about her novel The Shape of Dreams , set in East Harlem during the crack and AIDS epidemics of the 1980s. They discuss the changing experience of publishing and reading books, April’s childhood in South Dallas, the role of the Black church, the loss that helped shape the novel, and the difficult experience of writing about a mother whose young son has been murdered. The conversation eventually turns toward the present and what stories can teach us about neighbors, immigrants, community, democracy, and the things we still have in common. _____ LINKS https://www.instagram.com/theshapeofdreamsbook/ The Shape of Dreams https://bookshop.org/a/99692/9780593316863 _____ I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times. Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said . Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle , and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free . Support the show _____ In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip . Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/ Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube. https://frankschaeffer.substack.com https://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16 https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaeffer https://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_art https://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_art https://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaeffer https://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTube In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast

September 4, 2026Episode 351 hr 19 min

Gretchen Sisson: Adoption, Reproductive Justice, and Supporting Families

Gretchen Sisson, author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood , joins me for a conversation about what adoption looks like when we begin with the experiences of mothers who relinquished their children. Many of the women Gretchen interviewed wanted to parent. Poverty, unstable housing, lack of child care, and other pressures often made that choice feel impossible. We talk about reproductive autonomy, abortion, religion, family values, the history of forced adoption, the economics of private adoption, and the danger of treating human beings as commodities. We also look ahead to reproductive technology and ask a question that is becoming harder to avoid: who will have the power to decide which families are supported and which are not? At the center of the conversation is a simple idea. If someone wants to raise their child, perhaps our first response should be to help them do it. _____ LINKS Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood _____ I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times. Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said . Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle , and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free . Support the show _____ In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip . Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/ Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube. https://frankschaeffer.substack.com https://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16 https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaeffer https://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_art https://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_art https://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaeffer https://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTube In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast

August 28, 2026Episode 341 hr 2 min

The Psalms Don’t Ask You to Get Over It with Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Richard Bruxvoort Colligan has spent years living with, studying, singing, and rewriting the Psalms. What interests me is that he doesn’t turn them into easy answers. We talk about his book Dangerous Songs , his experience with severe depression, the strange honesty of Psalm 88, grief, gun violence, joy, gratitude, and the human need to know we are not alone. The Psalms have lasted because they tell the truth. Life can be heartbreaking and wonderful at the same time. _____ LINKS Dangerous Songs: The Psalms and a Gloriously Disrupted Life https://www.worldmaking.net _____ I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times. Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said . Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle , and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free . Support the show _____ In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip . Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/ Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube. https://frankschaeffer.substack.com https://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16 https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaeffer https://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_art https://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_art https://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaeffer https://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTube In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast

August 21, 2026Episode 331 hr 19 min

What Do We Do With the Past? Dr. Craig Yorke on Race, Memory and Medicine

Frank talks with Dr. Craig Yorke, author of Steep: A Black Neurosurgeon’s Journey , about growing up in Boston, the fierce expectations of his parents, Harvard and medical school, race and colorism, his years as a neurosurgeon, and the family and community that eventually gave his life another measure of success. Craig describes his memoir as an attempt to understand whether the past incarcerates us or whether we can learn to see it with greater perspective. Their conversation is about achievement, but also about its price, the armor we inherit, and what it means to gradually put some of that armor down. _____ LINKS Steep: A Black Neurosurgeon's Journey _____ I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times. Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said . Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle , and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free . Support the show _____ In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip . Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/ Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube. https://frankschaeffer.substack.com https://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16 https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaeffer https://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_art https://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_art https://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaeffer https://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTube In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast

August 18, 2026Episode 321 hr 19 min

The Religion of Whiteness with Michael Emerson and Glenn Bracey

Frank talks with sociologists Michael O. Emerson and Glenn Bracey II about their book The Religion of Whiteness: How Racism Distorts Christian Faith . Their research asks why racial division remains so persistent within American Christianity. Their conclusion is unsettling: for many white practicing Christians, whiteness has taken on religious qualities of its own. They discuss Christians of color and experiences of betrayal in multiracial churches, racial inequality, the legacy of American slavery, Christian nationalism, MAGA, opportunity hoarding, and the difference between Christianity being racialized and race itself becoming religionized. The conversation ends with a harder question: Can this actually be changed? _____ LINKS https://www.villanova.edu/university/experts/expert-detail.html?expert=glenn.bracey https://www.bakerinstitute.org/expert/michael-o-emerson _____ I have had the pleasure of talking to some of the leading authors, artists, activists, and change-makers of our time on this podcast, and I want to personally thank you for subscribing, listening, and sharing 100-plus episodes over 100,000 times. Please subscribe to this Podcast, In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer, on your favorite platform, and to my Substack, It Has to Be Said . Thanks! Every subscription helps create, build, sustain and put voice to this movement for truth. Subscribe to It Has to Be Said. The Gospel of Zip will be released in print and on Amazon Kindle , and as a full video on YouTube and Substack that you can watch or listen to for free . Support the show _____ In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a production of the George Bailey Morality in Public Life Fellowship. It is hosted by Frank Schaeffer, author of The Gospel of Zip . Learn more at https://www.thegospelofzip.com/ Follow Frank on Substack, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube. https://frankschaeffer.substack.com https://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16 https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaeffer https://www.instagram.com/frank_schaeffer_art https://www.threads.net/@frank_schaeffer_art https://www.tiktok.com/@frank_schaeffer https://www.youtube.com/c/FrankSchaefferYouTube In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer Podcast

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