Live Conversations
The Conversation the Podcast Can't Have
Once a month, James Spencer sits down with a scholar for a live conversation on Zoom. The conversation is unscripted, unhurried, and open to wherever the topic leads. Participants ask questions through the chat as the conversation develops.
What live conversations are
Theology in Real Time
The long-form podcast is itself a conversation, but it is a recorded conversation prepared for an audience that will hear it later. The Live Conversations are different. They happen in real time. The audience is in the room. Participant questions shape where the conversation goes.
Each session is a conversation between James and a guest scholar, beginning with a topic the two of them want to think through together and opening up to participant questions as the conversation develops. The format is closer to a faculty seminar than to a lecture or a webinar. There are no slides, no production polish, no edited final cut. The work is done in the open.
How the conversations work
Format
Each session opens with a conversation between James and a guest scholar on a topic neither of them has fully resolved. Participants follow along and add questions through the Zoom chat. James brings questions into the conversation as they fit, and the conversation continues from there.
Cadence
Monthly.
Length
Roughly two hours, with the first portion focused on the conversation and the latter portion focused on participant questions.
Setting
Zoom. Not a livestream broadcast; a working session with the participants in the room.
How to access
Available with Membership
Live Conversations are part of Membership. Access depends on the tier.
Patron
Invitations to live Q & A sessions via Zoom.
Companion
Monthly Live Conversations with Q & A submission rights and access to recording archives.
Where to go from here