The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
slip:4a1542.
Problems →
52 Sundays later →
Reading my previous journal entries (as I do every morning) I was surprised to find it’s been only a year since I move my 7 for Sunday weekly email off to its own site. (If you like reading my blog posts, you’ll love reading my weekly email. ;)
It was quite a lot of work, although I’d completely forgotten all about it. What a gift it was to my today-self; yes, the work to move the project making it even better, but more so the delight of being reminded to look back and appreciate the project now.
ɕ
Future →
The present moment was once the unimaginable future.
~ Stewart Brand
slip:4a1541.
Prime time →
Things were quiet the morning after coaching and volunteering at the 2025 Move NYC event. Coffee. Chill morning air. Sun rising through the trees. A snapshot to remind myself that sometimes I do get the rare privilege to be able to literally address the sun with sun salutations. And although I can stare at anything while meditating, when I find moss-covered balanced stones also in the direction of the rising sun… sublime. Thanks Ruby and Jesse!
ɕ
Faith with Cassian Bellino →
What happens when faith, logic, and vulnerability collide in a personal search for truth?
Cassian Bellino has turned personal doubt into a public quest for answers interviewing scholars about Christianity.
I think just, over time, you really understand that God invites these questions because He doesn’t want us to live blindly or have blind faith.
~ Cassian Bellino (36:55)
The conversation explores the origin and evolution of Cassian’s podcast, Biblically Speaking, focused on asking scholars direct, often difficult questions about Christianity. It begins with her internal conflict—wanting to live as a Christian while not fully understanding or agreeing with the faith—and follows her decision to start a podcast to resolve those doubts through dialogue. Cassian’s podcast is a place for intellectual exploration, built from personal curiosity and a desire for logical clarity rather than blind faith.
The discussion touches on content strategy, emotional challenges, and the mechanics of sustaining a solo creative endeavor. Cassian recounts her journey through building community platforms, hiring coaches, learning software systems, and dealing with burnout. Marketing, guest outreach, and pre-call preparation processes are shared in detail, alongside reflections on episodes that felt like failures but later proved meaningful to listeners. Throughout, the conversation centers on the power of asking questions and trusting intuition to guide the creative process.
Takeaways
Starting with doubt — A podcast was born from unresolved questions about faith and a desire for logical understanding.
Living authentically — The tension between personal beliefs and behavior pushed a transformation toward integrity.
Faith as inquiry — Rather than blind acceptance, the creator invites and pursues questions to deepen belief.
Community encouragement — Support from family and friends played a pivotal role in catalyzing the podcast’s launch.
No formal training — The project began without vision, planning, or marketing infrastructure, yet succeeded organically.
Scholarly access — Professors were invited via public contact information, creating opportunities for deep conversations.
Iterative development — The podcast and related projects grew through trial, error, and continuous refinement.
Strategic pivoting — Several initiatives were launched and later shut down based on response and sustainability.
Emotional cycles — Creative highs and lows are acknowledged as normal and are met with grace and reflection.
Guest preparation — Pre-calls, topic selection, and clear expectations ensure productive and respectful interviews.
Mismatch recovery — A seemingly misaligned episode later proved invaluable to a listener, showing the value of publishing anyway.
Platform building — Tools like Go High Level, automated funnels, and lead magnets were adopted through hands-on experience.
Future expansion — Plans include more complex episodes with multiple guests and potential sponsorship monetization.
Audience insights — The content resonates strongly with stay-at-home mothers and reflective older men.
Constructive doubt — A major theme is that God welcomes questions and wants people to understand their faith deeply.
Resources
bibspeak.com — The Biblically Speaking podcast’s official website, with guides and merchandise for its audience.
@thisisbiblicallyspeaking — Instagram
@thisisbiblicallyspeaking (TikTok) — TikTok
Biblically Speaking Podcast — YouTube
Go High Level — Platform used for building funnels, automating email, and managing community outreach.
intro.co — Platform used to connect with podcasting coaches and mentors.
testimonial.to — Tool for collecting and displaying user testimonials.
The Hansel and Gretel Code — Curtis Cates’s podcast mentioned by Craig that explores intuitive storytelling (particularly episode 31, The Power of Plan B.)
David Wasicki — Podcast coach mentioned by Cassian, who provided guidance on branding and emotional support.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
ɕ
First judgements →
[R]eject the first judgements and the objections that spring out of them because those objections are so often rooted in fear. […] This is radically different from how we’ve been taught to act. Be realistic, we’re told. Listen to feedback. Play well with others. Compromise. Well, what if the “other” party is wrong? What if conventional wisdom is too conservative? It’s this all-too-common impulse to complain, defer, and then give up that holds us back.
~ Ryan Holiday
slip:4a1538.
Root Glen →
There were several days with rain during a recent visit to Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. Lots of rain makes for gorge-ous greens and roaring streams. Here, in Root Glen.
ɕ
Desperation →
People are getting a little desperate. They might not show their best elements to you. You must never lower yourself to being a person you don’t like. There is no better time than now to have a moral and civic backbone. To have a moral and civic true north. This is a tremendous opportunity for you, a young person, to be heroic.
~ Henry Rollins
slip:4a1540.
A peony in bloom →
My wife is a Peony hybridizer—she’s really interested in growing, and creating new, Peonies. We recently visited the spectacular (even caveman-me could see that) collection of Peonies at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. I took one—exactly one!—photo of a Peony. She took a “few” more than I did.
ɕ
Between the two →
Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.
~ Steven Pressfield, from Writing Wednesdays: The Unlived Life
slip:4usete24.
For me there’s a huge tension between those two. I see so many things that I want to do—and I don’t mean binge-watch TV shows. I imagine something I’d like to write—for example, a weekly, emailed publication for paying subscribers—and the complexity of creating it overwhelms me. The writing is the easy part; Or, am I deluding myself? The only salve I’ve found is to remind myself over and over and over that I consistently overestimate what I can get done in a day, and underestimate what I can get done in a lifetime.
ɕ