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The Confessional with Nadia Bolz-Weber

The Confessional with Nadia Bolz-Weber

Forget the selfies and social media updates of everyone at their best, three-time New York Times best-selling author Nadia Bolz-Weber’s new podcast, The Confessional, invites guests to share stories about times they were at their worst. Guests talk honestly about what led to that moment, what they learned from it, and how they changed as a result. A former stand-up comic and a recovering alcoholic, Bolz-Weber is a Lutheran Pastor and the founder of House for All Sinners and Saints, in Denver, Colorado.

Everyone needs grace and healing, no matter your beliefs. Step into The Confessional with Nadia Bolz-Weber - a carwash for people’s shame and secrets.

Forget the selfies and social media updates of everyone at their best, three-time New York Times best-selling author Nadia Bolz-Weber’s new podcast, The Confessional, invites guests to share stories about times they were at their worst. Guests talk honestly about what led to that moment, what they learned from it, and how they changed as a result. A former stand-up comic and a recovering alcoholic, Bolz-Weber is a Lutheran Pastor and the founder of House for All Sinners and Saints, in Denver, Colorado.

Everyone needs grace and healing, no matter your beliefs. Step into The Confessional with Nadia Bolz-Weber - a carwash for people’s shame and secrets.

12hr 26min
Thumbnail for "The Confessional Trailer".
The first season of The Confessional with Nadia Bolz-Weber will drop weekly starting April 21.
Thumbnail for "Meg Lavery, Storyteller and Teacher".
“I knew that I had to do something, I was going to have to let him know, but I didn't let him know. I became paralyzed with fear of telling him.”
Thumbnail for "Crushed Episode 1: The Feel-Good Story".
Sportswriter Joan Niesen explores the complicated history of baseball and its heroes.
Thumbnail for "Rev. Jeff Grant, Minister and Co-Founder of Progressive Prison Ministries".
"I was dressed up looking the part, but deep inside, I was just vacant. I just was not someone I was proud of anymore."
Thumbnail for "Wilhelm Verwoerd, Researcher and Facilitator".
“We would also be very conscious of preaching anti-communism because people were saying that the African National Congress, you know, former President Mandela's political party, they were really not liberation fighters, they were terrorists.”
Thumbnail for "Nadia Bolz-Weber: "Panic on the Road to Jericho"".
“I spent the entire time praying, and cursing, and praying and cursing.”
Thumbnail for "Elizabeth Lesser, Co-Founder of Omega Institute".
"And that was the moment ... where I was like, 'Girl, you can be a good mother and a happy, embodied woman, but you can't be a good mother and a liar.'"
Thumbnail for "Dr. Ray Christian, Storyteller and Fulbright Specialist".
"I got the super squad, the dirty dozen. Nobody needs to know what's going on here; I'm handling everything."
Thumbnail for "Joshua Harris, Storyteller and Author of "I Kissed Dating Goodbye"".
"There is always going to be another person coming along with a book or a conference to sell that is going to tap into that (fear) and say, 'You're right, you're not doing enough. Let me show you how you can do more.'”
Thumbnail for "Claire Bidwell Smith, Grief Therapist and Author".
“I just remember the feeling of having his arms around me, and I just felt so sickened that I had chosen this instead of my mother.”
Thumbnail for "Sarah Edmondson, Actor and Former Member of NXIVM".
“I essentially told her to override that very important internal compass called your gut instinct... and I wonder where she'd be now if she'd just stayed in Vancouver and not done ESP."
Thumbnail for "Maria Hinojosa, Journalist".
“You know, it comes down to a human error, but one of massive proportions because you're dealing with humanity and people's lives.”
Thumbnail for "Amber J. Phillips, Storyteller and Reproductive Justice Activist".
“My attachment to success prevented me from doing the one thing that I value the most in my life, which is showing up for other black women.”
Thumbnail for "Jonathan Williams, Writer and Pastor".
“So what I ended up doing was being an incredible dick to my father. That's what I ended up doing.”
Thumbnail for "Joel Leon, Storyteller".
“But like being a father, I have to excel at that because a lot of people were expecting me not to.”
Thumbnail for "Kasey Anderson, Singer/Songwriter".
“I truly believed that we had gotten Bruce Springsteen to commit to this benefit compilation. And so when I went to present that to the group, I went back through my emails and there was no such communication.”
Thumbnail for "Abby Wambach, Soccer Star".
“I didn't feel like, oh, I need to call my lawyer or anything like that. I felt like I was totally with it. And then I did the breathalyzer and I can't remember exactly what number I blew, but it was like, I think, two times the legal limit. And I thought, this machine is broken.” 
Thumbnail for "Darin Strauss, Writer".
“And then all the emotions sort of flowed and I started crying in a way I don't think I have since or probably didn't before. I was just sort of heaving and then I thought, wow, this is going to ruin me. This is the end of my life. You know?”
Thumbnail for "Wilhelm Verwoerd, Researcher and Facilitator".
“We would also be very conscious of preaching anti-communism because people were saying that the African National Congress, you know, former President Mandela's political party, they were really not liberation fighters, they were terrorists.”
Thumbnail for "Forgiveness and Reconciliation with Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg".
“So it's not necessarily an overnight thing. And the only person, the only person or people who get to decide if a person should be forgiven, are the ones harmed.”
Thumbnail for "Melissa Febos, Memoirist".
“You know, it was like very hot - with that particular hotness of a terrible, terrible thing driven by desperation beyond the immediate situation.”
Thumbnail for "Mishka Shubaly, Singer/Songwriter".
“I held Nate's face as far away from me as I could so that he couldn't hit me. And then with my right hand I tried to destroy him”
Thumbnail for "Amy Brenneman, Movie Star".
“I just was super hungry sexually. I was super out there. I just didn't want to be the victim. You know, I wanted to run the show. And I did.”
Thumbnail for "R Eric Thomas, Columnist at Elle.com".
"So I just googled, 'how to tell if your boyfriend is a Satan worshiper.'"
Thumbnail for "Theresa Thames, Dean of the Chapel at Princeton University".
“On the playground, people would be singing this song, Yo Mama's on Crack Rock. … And I love that song because I love chanting it and everything. And I also loathe that song because it was my truth. I grew up in the height of crack cocaine in poverty, and my mother was on crack rock.”
Thumbnail for "Chris Schuhmacher, Software Developer".
“I came into software development relatively late in life. You know, I'm in my mid 40s and my training actually started in 2014 inside the walls of San Quentin.”
Thumbnail for "Lenny Duncan, Lutheran Pastor".
“I run into someone in Boulder, and they're like you want to do some speed? And I was like, 'hell, yeah.' And I do some speed, and I just fall off the map.... I didn't see my daughter for 13 years after that.”
Thumbnail for "Megan Phelps-Roper, Former Member of Westboro Baptist Church".
"Everybody around me, my family, the church members, we'd be celebrating and making plans to go and protest the funerals. And, you know, at the same time on Twitter, I'm seeing people mournful and grieving.”

The Confessional Trailer

Thumbnail for "The Confessional Trailer".
April 14, 20202min 35sec

The first season of The Confessional with Nadia Bolz-Weber will drop weekly starting April 21.

Do you have something you’re not proud of that you’d like to confess? Leave a voicemail at 618-CONFESS, that’s 618-266-3377, and we may play it on an upcoming episode.

Thumbnail for "The Confessional Trailer".
The Confessional Trailer
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02:35