In November 2024, we were joined by the Rev. Dr. Lisa Barnett, Assistant Professor of American Religious History at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, OK. Our conversation explored the impact of settler colonialism on Native Americans, connecting with the lived experiences of American Indian people today, and how we honor the history of indigenous people and move forward together.

Our Guest for this episode:
Dr. Lisa Barnett earned her PhD in U.S. History at Texas Christian University in 2017, a Master of Theology in American Religious History from Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas in 2012 and her Master of Divinity Degree in 2008. Dr. Barnett is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She is the author of Peyote Politics: The Making of the Native American Church published by University of Oklahoma Press, 2025.

In this episode we explore the value of being culturally competent and sensitive at this moment in history. Our guest, Dr. Cynthia Taylor shares her experience working with the Cultural Competency Work Group of a local nonprofit, Project SUN of Kankakee County. Dr Taylor is the Director of Multi-Ethnic Student Services at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois and is a professional mental health provider as well.
During the episode, Robert and Shannon share in conversation about current dialogue concerning racial equity in our nation. Usually when we hear the phrase, "saying the quiet part out loud," reference is being made to overt racist language spoken by some popular or notable white person. In our episode, we explore the growing culture of white supremacy that is suppressing the language of racial equity in our midst.

In this episode we will be exploring the historical patterns of trauma on black bodies and white body supremacy in America. Black bodies have been labeled and treated differently from white bodies by everything from medicine to education, entertainment, civil and criminal law, and law enforcement throughout America’s history. This episode was Inspired in part by two books, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates and My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem.

In this episode we hope to model a racial healing conversation as we explore our own stories of racial identity and reconciliation.

In this conversation Shannon Swilley & Robert Bushey survey the landscape of segregation in the 20th century and discover how those patterns of division, specifically in housing and education, inform our conversations on racial equity today.

In this conversation we will examine how the progress and demise of reconstruction erected the foundation for segregation and racial hatred which continues to play out in our own backyards today. We discuss the historical roots of the Civil Rights Movement, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Black Lives Matter Movement.

In this conversation we explore the enduring impacts of racism and racial trauma upon our communities. We discuss the traumatic experiences of African-Americans from the Middle Passage to this current moment in history. We ask the question how does this history of trauma impact our conversations on race today.

Whenever we talk about racial identity, Whiteness or even Blackness, we believe the conversation must be rooted in history.

In this conversation we will discover that racial identities were created to provide freedom to dehumanize those who did not look like Anglo Europeans.

Our story is not a singular story of oppression, meaning it didn’t start with oppression. Who were we before the Transatlantic slave trade created African-Americans or Black people?