“Good stuff. We’re at the 20 minute mark.”
“This might be a good time to transition to…”
“Can you sit a little further away from your mic?”
These are a few of the Zoom chat messages I’ve sent to our host Chris Orme, while sitting in on each recording session as ‘the producer’ for Season 3 of the Do Justice podcast. It sure sounds fancy to me, being ‘the producer,’ but it mostly means I’m responsible for the straight-forward details like making sure we’re recording, the live transcript is running, and that we’re staying (relatively) on time. It also means - and this is my favorite part - that I get to be a fly on the wall for some great conversations with folks involved in all different areas in the justice sphere.
Like a tour guide eager to tell visitors key facts about their hometown, there are a few things I want you to know about this season that I think will increase your enjoyment of these episodes. The first is to look for the anchoring question that threads through the season. In some form or another, we asked all of our guests this question: we’ve been in a season that is unsettling, a time where many injustices came into collective center focus--has this spotlight on what is broken impacted your work? How?
The second is that --shocker-- our guests are real people too. The individuals who have started organizations working toward racial reconciliation and lead multi-ethnic church plants are also people who wear cool hats and like tomato sandwiches. It has been a gift to get to know a little bit more about them in the short time we had together and to learn from their wisdom and experience. I’ll save the drop-the-mic moments for the podcast episodes themselves, but here are a few behind-the-scenes glimpses into our interview conversations that point toward the delight it has been to learn from these folks as they work toward justice in their day-to-day lives.
Mae Elise Cannon: Mae had her poodle next to her during the episode and two Great Danes sleeping nearby. Our ‘prayer for peace over puppies’ was answered as the furry friends did not make a vocal appearance in the episode.
Dennae Pierre: Dennae joined us from Arizona, where it was already over 100 degrees F that morning - that was a 60+ degree difference from the just above 40 degree temps where I was coming from in Michigan! Dennae had a sleeveless blouse; I wore a sweater.
Lisa Van Engen: Lisa joined our Zoom call from a room in her house with a metal light fixture/chandelier. It hung behind her head in such a way that it looked like a tiara - maybe for the queen of ‘talking about social justice with kids’!
David Bailey: David was rocking a cool hat during our interview. My knowledge in styles of hats is limited to ‘baseball cap,’ so I can’t tell you what kind of hat it was, but it was not a baseball cap and it was ‘cool.’
Sylvia Keesmaat: You'll actually hear about this in the episode, but Sylvia and Chris talked about tasty heirloom tomatoes, and the mouth-watering goodness of a slice of tomato on hearty bread. This podcast producer now has a craving for a tomato sandwich that will not be satiated until peak tomato season, so fair warning, you may want to have tomatoes nearby after this episode. (We saved it for last; so tomatoes will be in season then. You’re welcome.)
The Reformed family is a diverse family with a diverse range of opinions. Not all perspectives expressed on the blog represent the official positions of the Christian Reformed Church. Learn more about this blog, Reformed doctrines, and our diversity policy on our About page.
In order to steward ministry shares well, commenting isn’t available on Do Justice itself because we engage with comments and dialogue in other spaces. To comment on this post, please visit the Christian Reformed Centre for Public Dialogue’s Facebook page (for Canada-specific articles) or the Office of Social Justice’s Facebook page. Alternatively, please email us. We want to hear from you!
Read more about our comment policy.