Kim Knowle-Zeller is a Lutheran minister as well as the author, most recently, of Small Steps: Blessings to Lift Your Soul on the Pilgrimage of Life. Small Steps comes out May 5 with Morehouse Publishing, and it is such a beautiful and important book.

Kim stopped by the show to talk about what a blessing is, how might we bless one another, and the power of a simple blessing to encourage and hearten us all.

As a pastor, I enjoyed reflecting on the influence our words and prayers can have when they are used to lift others up. As a parent, she inspired me to find gentle ways to bless my children. As a birder, I give a wholehearted amen to Kim’s reminder that framing the little joys and graces in our lives as God’s blessings can help remind us of the source of our delight.

Plus: we chat about Red-winged Blackbirds, the joy of a Midwestern spring, the Peace Corps, and why in God’s economy nothing is wasted.

Liv Ross is a monastic poet based in Missouri. Her most recent epic poem, The Blackbird Ballad, is a festival of mystery and intrigue interspersed, as is true of most good poems, with the ordinary things of life. It comes out this Eastertide with Solum Literary Press.

Today on the show, Liv joins us to talk about faithfulness, backyard birds, writing poetry, the goodness of God, and so much more. I enjoyed everything about this conversation, and I just know that you will, too.

Find out more about Liv at The Abbey of Curiosity, read more of her work with Solum Literary Press here and check out The Blackbird Ballad!

Professor, ornithologist, and wildlife ecologist Tim O’Connell joins us on the show today to chat about birds, spring migration, the Wilson Ornithological Society, and what he’s seeing in Oklahoma this time of year.

Tim is a great storyteller, from a random birder he picked up one day on the side of the road (and lived to tell the tale!) to interactions with his students, his professional societies, and the little delights birding brings him.

Check out his YouTube where he puts together educational birdy videos or follow him over on Twitter where he is just as delightful.

PLUS: one more hilarious story about why the Louisiana Waterthrush is the pinnacle of avian evolution. (Or is it?)

I could have talked to Ragan Sutterfield all day long. An Episcopal priest by trade, he is also a reviewer for e-Bird in Arkansas.

Ragan is a wealth of wisdom, kindness, and birdy-knowledge. He wrote the fabulous new book, Watch and Wonder: Birding as a Spiritual Practice, with Broadleaf Press.

Ragan’s perspective on birds, birding, and God is deep and wide and welcoming and filled with delight. The way he weaves together faith, nature, neighborliness, and the liturgical year is profoundly beautiful.

I’m excited to share this conversation with you, and I hope you’ll give Ragan’s fantastic new book a look. It’s a gem. Watch and Wonder comes out next week, but you can preorder it today anywhere books are sold.

Hannah Miller King is a brilliant writer and Anglican priest living in North Carolina. She’s the author of the brand-new book (just came out on February 17 with IVP!) Feasting on Hope: How God Sets a Table in the Wilderness. I devoured it in one sitting and I was so excited to get the chance to ask Hannah all about it.

From her ecumenical childhood in different denominations to the death of her father while she was still young, Hannah shares a story of discovering the richness, complexity, and grace of God through the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. (Or the Eucharist. Or communion, depending on your theological tradition.)

This book resists the urge to move toward easy answers or simple platitudes. Within its pages, Hannah acknowledges doubt, fear, uncertainty, and deep loss. She is a good and faithful guide into these far countries, while never leaving us without hope.

I loved this book and this conversation, and I know that you will, too.

Plus, her favorite bird surprised me in the most delightful way.

It can be a tender thing to launch a creative project into the world. That’s true whether you’re an actor, a baker, a musician, a quilter, or almost any other artisan. As a writer, releasing a book often feels like that scene in early Gray’s Anatomy where Meredith stands before Derek and says, “Pick me, choose me, love me.”

In short, it’s a little bit vulnerable.

When I launched my first book back in 2019, Daryl took me to see Sweeney Todd at our local theater, to distract me from all of the big feelings. (A murdering, singing barber will do that!) These days, I’ve learned to notice and honor the feelings as they come and pass. There are a lot of them, in the week leading up to a book launch.

And these feelings aren’t just about whether people will like the book. That’s part of it, for sure—no author wants to be panned or ignored. But they go beyond just wanting the book to hit well. They run the full gamut from excitement to terror. To paraphrase my writer-friend Ruth, the only thing scarier than no one is reading your book is people actually, you know, reading your book.

But here’s the thing: being part of the literary world is one of the great joys of my life. And that joy is a wonderful balm for all of the BIG FEELINGS™ that show up on launch week.

I love my writing communities. That’s you, beloved SubStack friends. It’s the writers who read early drafts of my work (thank you, Steve! thank you, Aarik!) and gave me honest feedback. It’s the writers whose books I love who have helped me grow in the craft. It’s fellow writers in the trenches being honest about what it takes to turn a beautiful phrase and keep pursuing what is beautiful and true in a world filled with AI slop and lazy shortcuts. It’s writers who are also bookstore owners (I love you, Nooks!) who foster community spaces where people can be together, heartened, seen, and read.

Each time I publish a book and begin to feel all the feelings (hooray! oh no! how are my numbers doing? what have I forgotten?), I remember that you and each fellow reader and writer out there are the biggest gifts of all.

I’d be honored if you’d give Weathering Change a look. Preorders matter, and this is the last week you can sneak one of those in, at Amazon or Nooks or anywhere you love buying your books. (You can also request it at your local library, which is free to you!)

But above all, please know that I am so grateful that you’re with me on this journey of words, seeking to make meaning out of life.

Today’s podcast is short and sweet—just 25 minutes. In it I read chapter one from Weathering Change. Many thanks to my publisher, InterVarsity Press, for giving me permission to share it with you today.

If you’d prefer to read it rather than listen to it, you can find it here.

Thank you for your love and support. I am so excited to share this book with you!

When I attend birding festivals, I love to go out on tours. There’s nothing like loading into a van with five or ten other bird enthusiasts and a couple of guides and see what we discover together. Plus: the guides carry the big, heavy spotting scopes, which is a nice perk on a long, hot day.

I don’t usually look into who my guides are before I sign up for one tour over another—I figure that if they’ve been hired, they’re qualified and know the area, and that I’ll have plenty of time to get to know them over the course of our day.

Last November I went to the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival. Highly recommend—it was so well-organized that there were volunteers standing outside of the tour vans at 5:30am just to hand out free lens wipes and make sure we had enough water! A great festival with astounding birds, many of which are found only outside the US and in the Rio Grande Valley.

One day I signed up for a “Big Day” trip—a full day of friendly competition. Ten or so vans filled with birders trying spot as many birds as we could within a specific window of time. One of my guides on that day turned out to be Derek Sallmann.

Derek is the co-founder of Badgerland Birding, an organization that does everything from education to conservation to tours. He has a delightful, educational YouTube channel that’s well worth perusing, and a podcast as well.

I didn’t learn any of this until I Googled him. In typical Midwestern fashion, Derek would never toot his own horn. In fact, I didn’t even think to look him up until our group stopped to try and find a Common Parauque and a nine-year-old birder from another van came up to us, looked at Derek, and said, “It’s YOU! I watch you ALL THE TIME!”

To be on a tour with a fellow Wisconsinite warmed my heart, and Derek was a wonderful guide through the Rio Grande Valley. I am delighted to know that Badgerland Birding exists, and I know that you will be, too. Join us as we learn from Derek about the birds of Wisconsin, what makes a good birding guide, and what he hopes to accomplish in 2026.

Today we’re joined on the show by Jennifer Grant, a Chicago author of books for children and adults. I’ve loved Jennifer’s work for years and was delighted to pick her brain about her newest work, Consider the Birds, a lovely picture book filled with wonder.

Jennifer talks all things children’s books, birds, and faith, including how her faith compelled her to take a stand against certain governmental practices in Chicago this autumn. Jennifer is a gentle soul and a wise guide, and I know you’ll be just as enriched by our conversation as I was.

Check out more of Jennifer’s work on her website, including fabulous books for adults like my favorite, Dimming the Day.