EPISODE 171
Kaitlin and Scott hold down the SWEpisode fort this week as a stomach bug invades the Elliott household. They chat about grown-up things like microwave covers and saving money, and Kaitlin meets with a spiritual director.
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Valorie Stafford Lurry's story is one of unimaginable trauma, incredible resilience, and the long road toward healing.
At just 14 years old, Valorie was kidnapped and held captive for 24 hours. She takes us through that terrifying experience and the years of healing that followed, sharing honestly about trauma, forgiveness, grace, and what it looks like to move forward after something that changes your life forever.
It’s a conversation about the things we carry, the complicated process of healing, and finding grace in places we never expected.
Shannon Popkin is an author, speaker, Bible teacher, and host of the Live Like It’s True podcast. Shannon has spent years helping people engage Scripture in practical ways, and her latest work explores one of the habits that quietly damages our relationships more than we realize: judgment.
In this conversation, we talk about why judgment feels so unavoidable. Why do we feel judged so often? Why are we so quick to judge others? Shannon unpacks the hidden roots of our critical thoughts—from comparison and insecurity to assumptions we don't even realize we're making.
We also wrestle with an important question: Why do Christians sometimes seem especially judgmental? Shannon explains the crucial difference between discernment and judgment, and offers practical ways to replace criticism with curiosity, compassion, and grace.
Allison Byxbe is a writer, speaker, and advocate for honest conversations about grief, healing, and faith in the midst of life’s hardest realities.
Allison shares her story of walking through profound loss and heartbreak, including her sister’s stillbirth, her own miscarriage, a difficult genetic diagnosis for her son, and seasons of struggle within her marriage. She opens up about the questions, fears, and grief that accompanied those experiences, and the slow, often messy journey toward healing.
One of the most powerful parts of Allison’s story is the role journaling played along the way. We talk about how putting words to our pain can help us process emotions instead of suppressing them, why reflection is such an important part of healing, and how journaling can create space for God to meet us in our hardest seasons.
Emily and Matt are vindicated about the existance of water table fountains. Is Ariana Grande okay? Is it okay for society to be commenting on women’s bodies if they’re underweight? The 1 tillion different terms for women’s haircuts and styles that hairstylists are absolutely making up. How long is too long to wear an item of clothing before deciding to return it? Kaitlin has a ruin with a librarian. Matt doesn’t understand how libraries work. Does renting everyday clothes make any sense? The Black Tux is the best. Norah faces her first walking related injury (don’t worry, she’s okay…Emily? Not so much). Go Knicks!
