Our Top 5 Episodes of the Year

Download the transcript and discussion questions.

Discussion Questions

1. What moments from the podcast stood out to you this season? Why?
2. Did you ever feel called to action during an episode? Have you followed through with this call?

Georgia: Hello everyone. I’m Georgia Sparling.

Jon: And I’m Jon Watts.

Georgia: And on this bonus episode, we’re taking a look back at our second season by way of a top five episodes countdown. 

Jon: It’s been a big season! We released our 46th episode in November.

Georgia: 51 if you count bonus episodes!

Jon: Right—that’s prolific! There were 27 episodes in season 2 alone, so if you’re just now joining us, there’s a ton of great Quaker audio content for you to go back and enjoy.

Georgia: This season we covered quakers and civil rights, we asked some frequently asked questions, and we featured some well known Friends. 

Jon: We had some weighty Friends on the show! So good to have Carrie Newcomer, Michael Birkel, Brent Bill, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the Quaker astrophysicist, and George Lakey, just to name a few. We’ve had quite the 2024! 

Georgia: Certainly! So this is our countdown episode and today we’ll hear some of the most poignant and thoughtful moments from the episodes that have resonated the most with our listeners.

Jon: Right, so Georgia, you’re going to walk us through the top 5 episodes of the season here, and then I know you have a personal announcement?

Georgia: Yeah that’s the plan!

Jon: Ok so let’s get started and I hope you’ll stick around to hear Georgia’s news at the end of the episode.

Georgia: Number 5 on our list is “How To Vote Like a Quaker.” On this episode we took a look at how incredibly difficult it is to be a Quaker in government and we did that by exploring the rise and fall of the Pennsylvania Quaker legislature. But the clip I’m going to share with you today is from the second half of our episode which was from our first ever live Zoom event called “Help! There’s an Election Coming!” Obviously that election has now passed, but our guests — Diane Randall and Emily Provance — both focused not only on the election at hand but how Quakers can center themselves in the midst of turmoil. They also urged Friends to be engaged year round — election or no. 

So, in this clip, we’ll hear from Emily, who has been conducting workshops on election violence. She offers some perspective for Friends who are feeling overwhelmed by what’s going on in the world. It was really helpful to me and a reminder that there are injustices happening no matter where you live and most of us can engage with our elected officials and advocate for those who don’t have a voice. Here’s Emily.

Emily Provance: I am not saying that our experience of urgency and crisis is not real. I am saying that we need to not be swamped by it, that these big waves that may be coming at us require us to hold on to what we know can be our anchor, and for that, we go back to those Quakers practices that our people have been doing for centuries. 

I’m going to name just three of them. One is discernment. We know that when we have a sense of urgency, that when things start to happen very fast, that when there is a taste of crisis in the air. Sometimes we feel like we cannot take the time to slow down or stop and listen deeply to God, but we also know that if we try to act fast or by ourselves, without our communities, that we are likely to outrun our guide. The second practice I want to name is integrity. We know how important it is to be consistent and truthful and telling the whole truth and not part of the truth. This is how we become people that other people trust, because we never stop telling the truth. But there is a lot of pressure today to declare one’s loyalty and say this side of the political aisle is my side, and it is so important that we win, that I will say what needs to be said and not say what needs to not be said in order to make sure that that happens. 

But the actual truth, as Diane said, is that none of our political leaders are perfect. The situation is almost always complex. And so when we are talking about politics and the conditions in the country, can we be truthful about all of the complexities? And the last one that I want to name is relationship. I think about all of our Friends throughout history who have been witness types of people, and who have sat down at kitchen tables and said, I want to talk to you about this or that, because I am concerned about your soul. And when we do this, when we say, I have a concern for you, Friend. I want to be in relationship with you, Friend. I want to talk to you. I want to listen to you. I want to learn from you. 

We are acting in a way that’s counter-cultural, because so often these days, the message we hear is if you engage with the quote, unquote, other side, then you are in solidarity with them. You are helping them. You are in some way, falling into impurity, and that’s not okay. But we know that change and transformation comes in the context of relationship, we know that. We have known that for so long, and so remembering that dedication to relationship and to integrity and to discernment, I think those are the pieces that we hold on to. 

Number 4 on our list is from Jon’s interview with Quaker musician Carrie Newcomer. The title is actually “Quaker Musician Carrie Newcomer Finds Songs Out of the Silence.”

Carrie is an award-winning singer-songwriter who discovered Quakerism in college as well as her calling to music. In the interview, she said silence is really crucial to her spirituality and her songwriting, but in this clip she also talks about the importance of community and how music can bring people together, especially during challenging times. I think what you’re about to hear really compliments the clip I just shared from Emily about how to respond faithfully when we feel swamped and overwhelmed. Carrie’s answer is — at least in part — to sing. Here’s Carrie:

Carrie Newcomer: The mysticism of Quakerism definitely drew me, as well as the Quaker witness for justice in the world, that idea of balancing the two, you go deep. You go to the well, you ground yourself and expand through that, that spiritual practice, and contemplative time and relationship to the mysteries. And sometimes you really need grounding. 

I mean, we live in such challenging times, such divisive times, and there have been hard challenging times that Quakers have navigated through history. But this is a very challenging time — socially, politically, for our planet. I have written songs that are meant to be sung like anthems or you could walk and march with this song. I didn’t do that at first. I didn’t write songs that you could sing along with. I did more the singer-songwriter thing. But I remember at a certain point, like, there’s something so powerful when we sing together. 

I read a study that said, when we sing together, our hearts sync up, I mean, our hearts literally start to beat together if we sing together. It’s like three and a half minutes of empathy. It’s like, we recognize one another at a time when, you know, we’re being encouraged to not recognize one another as kindred. You know, so that’s really been important to me. A lot of times I’m writing about human condition, and human journey, and that process of going deep. 

Who am I? What do I value? What do I love? Where is hope found? Where is it sustainable? I’ve always said, I’ve never written a song because I had an answer. You know, I write songs, because I have questions. And I think good questions, deserve to be asked, and then revisited and revisited. 

Georgia: Before we take a short break, I wanted to share one of the songs Carrie performed for us. It’s called “Sanctuary” and she says she wrote it after feeling both “personally and politically heartbroken.”

Carrie: Will you be my refuge

My haven in the storm

Will you keep the embers warm

When my fire’s all but gone?

Will you remember

And bring me sprigs of rosemary

Be my sanctuary

‘Til I can carry on

Carry on

Carry on

This one knocked me to the ground

This one dropped me to my knees

I should have seen it coming

But it surprised me

Will you be my refuge

My haven in the storm

Will you keep the embers warm

When my fire’s all but gone?

Georgia: We’ll be right back

Jon: Hi friends. It’s Jon here. Well, it’s been quite a year. You know, beside everything that’s been in the news, we here at Thee Quaker Project have been very busy. There’s this project, the podcast, which you’re already familiar with. We just passed 100,000 downloads. We have listeners in 132 countries, and this year we won a big award, Best in Class from the Associated Church Press. But did you know we have a vision that goes far beyond this podcast. This year, we launched our second project, which now over 2,000 people wake up to every day, and we’re in the pilot phase of our third project where we partner with Quaker meetings to tell their stories. 

So why are we doing all of this? Well, we believe that those who control the narrative control the future. We believe that times of great upheaval are times of great opportunity, and we believe in the power of faithful storytelling. So Friends, it’s giving season, and so I’m here to ask for your support. Thee Quaker Project is a 501c3, and that means that we run on donations. We couldn’t do any of this work without your help. 

You know, we don’t have Elon Musk money, so we’re not going to be able to buy a social media platform, but with your help, this expanding network of media projects can have a serious impact, and it already has, so I’m going to pop into your feed once a year and ask you to please consider a larger one time gift to the Quaker project that will help build this platform for Quakers today and many years to come together, we’re bringing Quakerism into the 21st century. 

You can find more details at theequaker.org/support, and the link will be in the show notes. Thank you so much.

Georgia: We’re on number three in our countdown, and this one was all about cultivating a spiritual practice as Quakers and hey, it’s called “How to Build a Daily Quaker Practice!”

This episode was part of our announcement that our Daily Quaker Message had launched. If you aren’t familiar with it yet, the Daily Quaker Message is an email to enrich your spiritual practice with short meditations, exercises, and queries. It’s free and you can sign up at DailyQuaker.com.

For this episode, we asked a few people to try out the Daily Quaker Message for themselves and record an audio journal of their reflections each day. I’m going to share a response we got from Emily Felt. She has a lot on her plate as a mom, including one child with a rare disease, so she’s balancing doctors’ appointments, school drop offs and pickups and all the other things that go into being a parent. And I thought it was really helpful to hear how the Daily Quaker  — although designed for a broad audience — resonated with her. In the following clip, Emily is responding to a quote by Patricia McBee which says:

“The great spiritual traditions suggest that the relationship with God is cultivated like other relationships: as we turn our attention toward God we open the possibility of a fuller relationship. Entering into this relationship does not so much require a change in our behavior as a shift of attention.”

Here’s Emily:

Emily Felt: I opened the email, the topic was about relationship with God. And as I read it, I could just already feel it affecting me emotionally, it’s been kind of a rough couple of weeks. And so I could just feel the prompt and the message kind of slowly working into me. And I think that’s because it talks about having a fuller relationship with God. And what this brought up for me was, right now that I’ve been working on that in a really devoted way for the past few years. And as I find that relationship growing, it feels somewhat like a roller coaster. 

This deep relationship with God, right now in my life, it looks like issues coming up where I have more of an opportunity to turn towards God, and trust and have faith. And that involves seeing how I can find peace even during struggle or conflict. And above all, uncertainty, which is very hard to sit with.

So the prompt and reflections have kind of a calming effect. It’s like part of the practice. And there’s also just a little lingering anxiety underneath, which was something that I woke up with in the morning today. With, you know, with a lot of things to do. 

So I’m aware that these prompts come in by email, and they’re mixed in with like, a lot of other things that could be stressful. But they do I do, I like them. I like having that, you know, five minutes of a little bit of joy, a little bit of something powerful amidst all of those things. 

Georgia: We’re down to number two on our list and this was one of my favorite ones to report on this year. It’s called “What Do Quakers Wear?” This is a much Googled question, and so we wanted to take our own stab at answering it. As with any question about Quakerism, there is no one answer. We talked to Quakers who dress in bright colors and others who dress plainly — and there are a lot of different ways dress plainly, as I found out. And most Quakers don’t dress differently than anybody else, though they may choose economy or sustainability over high fashion. For a few Friends, it does mean wearing traditional clothes like a bonnet and a long dress. 

One of the people I interviewed for this episode was Lloyd Lee Wilson, a Friend who lives in North Carolina and who attended his first Quaker meeting as a student  back in 1969. Here’s his story of becoming a plain-dressing Friend.

Georgia: So what prompted you to wear plain dress?

Lloyd Lee: Well, I didn’t want to. I had my first real job after leaving college. For the first time I had money to buy clothes. And I enjoyed it.

Georgia: Lloyd Lee absolutely relished wearing a suit and tie every day, but while spending some time journaling, he got a message. 

Lloyd Lee: And it was given to me that I had a bad attitude about clothing. That it was being a place where I was letting pride and vanity into my life in ways that were not healthy. God told me don’t do that. And it started out very simply, it was don’t wear a tie. And then it was give away your suits and your sports jackets. And eventually it came to be give up the collars on your shirts. 

Because I dress plainly, I have a constant reminder of who I am and who I want to be, and it also keeps me from unconventionally conforming to the demands of society that are inappropriate, unneeded, or unjust. 

Georgia: As I said, we also have some non-plain dressers on that episode, so go have a listen and hear about the various ways that Friends approach clothing. By the way, we’ll have a link to all of the Top 5 in the show notes.

Ok, drumroll, we’re on to the Number 1 episode of Thee Quaker Podcast season 2! And it is…“What Do Quakers Believe?”

If you’re a Quaker, this may come as no surprise to you. I get asked this when I tell people I work for this podcast. And it’s another of those most googled questions. And, again, there is no simple answer to this question, so we spoke with a variety of Friends to get their perspectives and of course, got a variety of answers. In this clip, we’ll hear how Nancy McCormick responds when her students at Wilmington College ask her what Quakers believe.

Nancy McCormick: I believe in a loving Creator who wants us to figure out how to love one another. And for me, it is the experience of the Christ, who I have had a personal experience with and do on a regular basis. My belief, my Quaker belief is one of peace. We have to stop killing one another. We have to quit dropping bombs on one another. Physical bombs, emotional bombs, spiritual bombs, that we are here to build the kingdom of God on earth while we are here. I am greatly convinced that I am to make a difference while I am here. And that means that big four letter word, love and to give people a place to breathe, to let go of the angst that troubles me that troubles them. And to sit and let God lead us guide us as we walk alongside. 

Georgia: So those are our Top 5 Episodes of Season 2! Thank you all so much for listening to Thee Quaker Podcast this year. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season with family and friends. 

As a reminder, we will have links to all of the episodes mentioned today in our show notes. I hope you’ll check them out or revisit them! 

Jon: Thanks Georgia! It’s been a great season. So I’m sure listeners are curious… do you want to share your announcement?

Georgia: I do. Dun dun dun…So…this is tough for me to say, but I am leaving Thee Quaker Podcast. 

I have really enjoyed my time here. It’s been hard work launching and developing the podcast, but it’s been a great experience. I’ve learned so much about creating a show of this kind and also so so much about Quakers. In the past almost two years I’ve really felt welcomed by Friends from around the world. I’ve just had so many positive interactions. It’s been a joy, so a big thank you to all of you who have listened and been so encouraging about this project.

Jon: Well… thank you Georgia for your steady hand and hard work on our first two seasons. I’ve really appreciated seeing everything you’ve brought to this project, and especially your passion for storytelling, your skilled approach to editing, and—something that a lot of our listeners have shared their appreciation of—your hosting voice. We are so grateful for your time at Thee Quaker, and we know you’ll go on to do even more great things. Speaking of which, do you want to share with listeners what’s next for you?

Georgia: A few things. I have a few podcast ideas that I’ve really been wanting to work on…one is about a rooster, which I promise will be interesting, and another is about books, which is a topic I could talk about all day every day, and then I also have a growing ceramic jewelry business which is totally different. So, I’m hoping to be able to spend part of my time working in the audio world and part of it by making things with my hands. But we’ll see how it all works out.

Jon: Sounds great… so how can people keep up with you?

Georgia: I am most often on Instagram, so you can follow me there – Georgiaonyrmnd (spell it) and PatentPendingCeramics and I have a fledgling audio website which is linked in our credits on the website and I’ll put all that in today’s show notes as well. Please do find me on there!

Anyway, you will hear me on another bonus episode or two, but Jon, do you want to let everyone know what to expect in the coming months?

Jon: Right, yes. So to begin with, we’ve launched the search for our next podcast producer. If there’s anyone in your world that comes to mind as a skilled audio storyteller, please send them our way. You can see the details at theequaker.org/jobs, and we’ll put the link in the show notes.

We will be returning for season 3 in the Spring but you can expect an extended offseason as we conduct the search for Georgia’s replacement. You’ll still see some bonus content in your feed about once a month. 

I think that’s about all the housekeeping. Thanks again Georgia for a great two years, and we wish you all the best with your next ventures.

Georgia: Thanks so much Jon and again thank you to all of you out there and I can’t wait to see what Thee Quaker does next.

As a reminder, there are links to all of the episodes mentioned today in our show notes. I hope you’ll check them out or revisit them. I’d like to say a special thank you to all of our guests this season and of course to all of you who took the time to listen, who became monthly donors, and who shared the show with your friends. And if you haven’t told any of your friends yet, why not think of two or three right now and send them a text? We’ve found that a friendly recommendation is one of the most effective ways to grow our listenership and it’s a great way to support the show.

This episode was hosted me, Georgia Sparling and also Jon Watts. Jon also wrote and performed the music. Studio D mixed the episode.

If you like what you hear, please consider becoming a Podcast supporter — you can do that on a monthly or a yearly basis. Head to QuakerPodcast.com and click on Support to learn more.

Recorded, written, and edited by Georgia Sparling. Co-hosted by Jon Watts.

Original music and sound design by Jon Watts (Listen to more of Jon’s music here.)

Mixed and mastered by Studio D.

Supported by listeners like you (thank you!!)

Listen to our top five episodes:

• How to Vote Like a Quaker
• Quaker Musician Carrie Newcomer Finds Songs Out of the Silence
• What Do Quakers Wear?
• How to Build a Daily Quaker Practice
• What Do Quakers Believe?

We’re hiring a new podcast producer. Check out the job opening at theequaker.org/jobs.