What does it mean that all life matters to God?

That’s the question that Russell Moore and his guests—musician and producer Charlie Peacock and writer Andi Ashworth—consider on this episode of The Russell Moore Show. The couple cofounded Art House America together and approach the conversation as artists and makers, exploring what it looks like to lead with empathy and love of neighbor. They talk about what it looks like to create as though the world is watching, how to model the character of Jesus, and the difference between being a jerk and being bold.

Their conversation covers Peacock and Ashworth’s new book, Why Everything That Doesn't Matter, Matters So Much, and why hospitality is essential to Christian life. They talk about art, music, and how Jesus draws us to himself.

Tune in for an episode that testifies to God’s faithfulness to weave our stories into the greatest story of all.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

• Why Everything That Doesn't Matter, Matters So Much: The Way of Love in a World of Hurt by Charlie Peacock and Andi Ashworth
• Francis and Edith Schaeffer
• John Coltrane
• Flannery O’Connor
• Douglas McKelvey
• Calvin University
• Steve Taylor
• Covenant Seminary
• L’Abri

Do you have a question for Russell Moore?

Send it to [email protected].

Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today.

“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today

Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper

Host: Russell Moore

Producer: Ashley Hales

Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill

Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens

Audio engineering by Dan Phelps

Video producer: Abby Egan

Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton

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Novelist and short story writer Flannery O’Connor once said her life was too boring for a biographer—all she did was write and feed chickens. And yet, nearly 100 years after she was born, O’Connor’s life and faith are explored in Wildcat, a new film from actor, writer, and director Ethan Hawke of Training Day, First Reformed, and Dead Poets Society fame.

On this episode of The Russell Moore Show, Hawke and Moore discuss what compelled Hawke to cowrite Wildcat with Shelby Gaines. They talk about how O’Connor’s work connected Hawke to his mother and, later, to his daughter Maya, who plays O’Connor in the film.

Moore and Hawke explore O’Connor’s forcefulness and faith. They discuss the joys and challenges of working with family, how audiences are engaging with the religious elements in Wildcat, and Hawke's attraction to exploring issues of faith in art. And they talk about the meaning of creative work, institutions, and relationships in a fraught era.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

• Wildcat
• Ethan Hawke
• Maya Hawke
• Shelby Gaines
• "‘Wildcat’ Is as Unsettling as Flannery O’Connor Would Have Wanted"
• The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor
• A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
• First Reformed
• The Good Lord Bird
• Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage?: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress by Jessica Hooten Wilson
• “A South Without Myths” by Alice Walker
• “Why did Flannery O’Connor detest ‘Gone with the Wind’?
• ”Richard RohrWatership Down: The Graphic Novel by Richard Adams, adapted and illustrated by James Sturm and Joe Sutphin

Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to [email protected].Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today.

“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today

Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper

Host: Russell Moore

Producer: Ashley Hales

Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill

Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens

Audio engineering by Dan Phelps

Video producer: Abby Egan

Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton

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What does it mean to be a “practicing Christian”? That’s the question that Russell Moore and his guest, author John Mark Comer, consider on this episode of The Russell Moore Show.

The two discuss Comer’s new book, Practicing the Way, which welcomes people into spiritual formation through ancient practices. They talk about discerning God’s will for our lives, how Comer decided to step away from his role as lead pastor of a church he planted, and what it looks like to invite people into discipleship. Comer shares how he met Jesus, what it’s like to talk about God on the West Coast, and why so many people no longer resonate with American church services. They explore how churches can cultivate richer discipleship, the power of deep friendships, and the practice of contemplative prayer.

Tune in for an episode that is replenishing, full of guidance, and sheds light on why being an apprentice to Jesus is less like learning chemistry and more like learning jujitsu.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

• John Mark Comer
• Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did. by John Mark Comer
• The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World by John Mark Comer
• Billy Graham Crusades
• Martin Luther
• John Calvin
• Where Heaven and Earth Meet: A Jesus-Centered Spirituality for Today by N. T. Wright
• The Critical Journey: Stages in the Life of Faith, Second Edition by Janet O. Hagberg and Robert A. Guelich
• Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Revised and Updated) by Robert D. Putnam
• Friends: Understanding the Power of our Most Important Relationships by Robin Dunbar
• When the Church Was a Family: Recapturing Jesus’ Vision for Authentic Christian Community by Joseph H. Hellerman
• Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian in Community by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Marjorie Thompson
• Mark Scandrette
• Eugene Peterson

Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to [email protected].

Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today.

“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today

Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper

Host: Russell Moore

Producer: Ashley Hales

Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill

Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens

Audio engineering by Dan Phelps

Video producer: Abby Egan

Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton

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Confusion and anxiety. Narcissistic tendencies. Spiritual abuses. As the host of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, CT’s director of media Mike Cosper explored how these themes can wreak havoc in a church. Now, he’s sharing his own experiences with harm and healing in church life through his latest book, Land of My Sojourn: The Landscape of a Faith Lost and Found.

On this episode of The Russell Moore Show, Moore hosts Cosper for a discussion of hurt and hope. They talk about Cosper’s work in church ministry, in his book, and while hosting the podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. Their conversation covers church polity, planting, and pastoring. Moore and Cosper talk about the importance of humility in an era of narcissistic spiritual leaders and discuss the importance of wisdom and suffering in tempering idealism.

Cosper and Moore talk about reconciling stories of hospitality and kindness about figures like Mark Driscoll with the damage and trauma they’ve inflicted on others. They respond to the critique that The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill has made pastoring more difficult and encourage listeners to consider the importance of telling the truth even—perhaps especially—when the truth is hard to accept.

Tune in for a discussion that is honest about the harm some churches have caused and hopeful about the church as a place of healing.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

• The Bulletin
• Land of My Sojourn: The Landscape of a Faith Lost and Found by Mike Cosper
• The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill
• William Carey
• “Jon Hamm on the Evolution of Don Draper on 'Mad Men’”
• Acts 29
• “Land of My Sojourn” by Rich Mullins

Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to [email protected].

Special offer for listeners: 

Russell Moore will join friends David French and Curtis Chang in Washington, DC, for The After Party LIVE! on April 19. As a faithful listener to the podcast, we’d love for you to join us and use this $20 off offer just for listeners! The After Party is a free six-part video curriculum designed for people and pastors alike, and offers “a better way” for Christians to engage in politics. Learn more and buy tickets here—we’ve saved a seat for you!

Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today.

“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today

Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper

Host: Russell Moore

Producer: Ashley Hales

Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill

Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens

Audio engineering by Dan Phelps

Video producer: Abby Egan

Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"God is never going to betray you—even if the church does.”

So says Nancy French, best-selling author and investigative journalist, on this episode of The Russell Moore Show. French, who is known for her groundbreaking reporting on abuse at one of America’s largest Christian camps, joins Moore to discuss her new memoir, Ghosted.

French talks about growing up in the Bible Belt, where she was sexually abused as a child by her Vacation Bible School teacher. She and Moore discuss the importance of righteous responses to people who have been harmed, the ways institutions too often cover up abuse, and how all of this shows up in partisan politics.

Their conversation highlights the power of love—specifically in the case of Nancy’s marriage to David French—in healing from trauma. Moore and French also talk about French’s experiences ghostwriting for high-profile families such as the Palins and the Romneys. They talk about shifts in political culture, the state of racism in America, and what it’s like to be part of a church family that is primarily made up of people outside of one’s ethnic culture. Their conversation also touches on adoption, online discourse, and the incredible work that God can do through personal relationships.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

• Nancy French
• David French
• Ghosted: An American Story by Nancy French
• Joan Didion
• Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance
• Flannery O’Connor
• Frederick Buechner
• “They Aren’t Who You Think They Are” by David French and Nancy French
• “What it’s like to experience the 2016 election as both a conservative and a sex abuse survivor” by Nancy French
• Curtis Chang
• “The Four Horsemen: Contempt” (The Gottman Institute)
• The After Party

Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to [email protected].

Special offer for listeners: 

Russell Moore will join friends David French and Curtis Chang in Washington, DC, for The After Party LIVE! on April 19. As a faithful listener to the podcast, we’d love for you to join us and use this $20 off offer just for listeners! The After Party is a free six-part video curriculum designed for people and pastors alike, and offers “a better way” for Christians to engage in politics. Learn more and buy tickets here—we’ve saved a seat for you!

Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today.

“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today

Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper

Host: Russell Moore

Producer: Ashley Hales

Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill

Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens

Audio engineering by Dan Phelps

Video producer: Abby Egan

Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ever since Jonathan Haidt joined us on The Russell Moore Show, listeners have been sending in questions for him. So, on this episode, Russell Moore welcomes Haidt back to the show for a discussion of his new book titled The Anxious Generation, the effects of the digital landscape, and the relationship between mental health and religion. 

Haidt describes how religious communities are taking the lead in providing some protection from mental health problems. He and Moore discuss the ways that modern life lends itself to overprotecting our children in the real world and under-protecting them online. They talk about what childhood is, how it’s been rewired, and the subsequent impact on young people. They consider the unique traits of Generation Z, the power of religious communities, and why people of faith are statistically happier. Moore and Haidt explore the common quest for meaning and purpose, how to shepherd children in a virtual world, and how to account for differences in boys and girls without resorting to misogyny. 

Their conversation also covers the damage of pornography, distractions in worship settings, and how to encourage friends and families to communally steward digital devices. 

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

• The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
• The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Jonathan Haidt
• The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt
• “Jonathan Haidt’s Way Forward for an Anxious Generation” 
• Jean Twenge
• Greg Lukianoff
• Zach Rasuch’s Substack
• Émile Durkheim
• “Joe Rogan Experience #2121 – Jonathan Haidt”
• “Table for Two” by Caedmon’s Call
• Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal
• The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
• Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life by C.S. Lewis 
• The Digital Fast: 40 Days to Detox Your Mind and Reclaim What Matters Most by Darren Whitehead
• Andrew Sullivan
• Richard V. Reeves’ Substack

Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to [email protected].

Special offer for listeners: 

Russell Moore will join friends David French and Curtis Chang in Washington, DC for The After Party LIVE! on April 19. As a faithful listener to the podcast, we'd love for you to join us and use this $20 off offer just for listeners! The After Party is a free six-part video curriculum designed for people & pastors alike, and offers "a better way" for Christians to engage in politics. Learn more and buy tickets here — we've saved a seat for you!

Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today.

“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today 

Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper 

Host: Russell Moore 

Producer: Ashley Hales 

Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill

Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens

Audio engineering by Dan Phelps 

Video producer: Abby Egan 

Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s time for the quarterly books episode of The Russell Moore Show!

Tune in as Russell and producer Ashley Hales talk about their recent reads ranging from politics to poetry. The two discuss a variety of topics including Augustine’s argument in City of God , how theological convictions become slogans, and the world of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). Their conversation considers what true joy looks like, why it’s okay not to understand everything we read (even in the Bible), and how books can give us words for our most deeply felt human experiences.

Books mentioned in this episode include:

• God Gave Rock and Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music by Leah Payne
• City of God by Augustine 
• God's Rascal: J. Frank Norris and the Beginnings of Southern Fundamentalism (America's Baptists) by Barry Hankins
• Joy: 100 Poems by Christian Wiman
• Zero at the Bone by Christian Wiman
• Four Quartets: A Poem by T.S. Eliot
• Lutheran Slogans: Use and Abuse by Robert W. Jenson
• A Shining by Jon Fosse
• The Inferno by Dante Alighieri
• The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
• The Maytrees: A Novel by Annie Dillard

Additional resources mentioned in this episode include:

• Petra
• Amy Grant
• Rich Mullins
• “Christian Wiman’s Work Against Despair” 
• George M. Marsden
• Eugene Peterson
• Music & Meaning with Charlie Peacock
• Owen Barfield
• C.S. Lewis
• J.R.R. Tolkien

Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to [email protected].

Special offer for listeners: 

Russell Moore will join friends David French and Curtis Chang in Washington, DC for The After Party LIVE! on April 19. As a faithful listener to the podcast, we'd love for you to join us and use this $20 off offer just for listeners! The After Party is a free six-part video curriculum designed for people & pastors alike, and offers "a better way" for Christians to engage in politics. Learn more and buy tickets here — we've saved a seat for you!

Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today.

“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today 

Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper 

Host: Russell Moore 

Producer: Ashley Hales 

Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill

Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens

Audio engineering by Dan Phelps 

Video producer: Abby Egan 

Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It was November 1, 1973, and Marvin Olasky—a then self-proclaimed atheist and communist—was reading an essay by Vladimir Lenin. Suddenly, Olasky began to have thoughts he couldn’t shake. 

What if this is all wrong?

What if there really is a God?

Within eight hours, Olasky had decided he was no longer an atheist or a communist. He became a Christian a few years later. Olasky went on to become a leader in Christian higher education and publishing—most notably as the editor in chief of World Magazine. 

On this episode of The Russell Moore Show, Olasky—author of 29 books, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, and affiliate scholar at the Acton Institute—joins Moore to discuss religion, politics, and philosophy. They talk about two of Olasky’s latest book releases: Pivot Points and an extensively updated Moral Vision, which includes a new foreword by Moore. 

Olasky shares thoughts on his conversion, his relationship with George W. Bush during his presidency, and the evangelical embrace of some politicians and rejection of others. He and Moore consider the state of journalism, Christian symbolism in political movements, and the danger of echo chambers. Their conversation covers abortion and the pro-life movement, the Hamas attacks, and American involvement in world politics. 

Olasky encourages listeners to live a life they’ll be glad to look back on, and offers words of wisdom for doing so.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

• Discovery Institute
• Acton Institute
• Zenger House
• WORLD Magazine
• Pivot Points: Adventures on the Road to Christian Contentment by Marvin Olasky
• Moral Vision: Leadership from George Washington to Joe Biden by Marvin Olasky
• Jonathan Edwards
• Cotton Mather
• John Cotton
• “Marilynne Robinson on Biblical Beauty, Human Evil and the Idea of Israel” on The Ezra Klein Show
• “Glenn Beck Comes to Town” by Chris Good
• March for Life
• Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End by David Gibson

Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to [email protected].

Special offer for listeners: 

Russell Moore will join friends David French and Curtis Chang in Washington, DC for The After Party LIVE! on April 19. As a faithful listener to the podcast, we'd love for you to join us and use this $20 off offer just for listeners! The After Party is a free six-part video curriculum designed for people & pastors alike, and offers "a better way" for Christians to engage in politics. Learn more and buy tickets here — we've saved a seat for you!

Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today.

“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today 

Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper 

Host: Russell Moore 

Producer: Ashley Hales 

Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill

Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens

Audio engineering by Dan Phelps 

Video producer: Abby Egan 

Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Author Marilynne Robinson has long brought layered characters and powerful plots to the page. It is perhaps no wonder, then, that she is looking to a book of Scripture that abounds with both. 

On this episode of The Russell Moore Show, Moore welcomes Marilynne for a discussion of her new release, Reading Genesis. They talk about what drew Robinson to Genesis and the Mesopotamian and Babylonian myths that are often compared to it. They consider how various disciplines—from science and physics to philosophy and theology—emerge in the text. They ponder the current cultural interest in multiverse stories, what makes a narrative compelling, and the likability (or lack thereof) of Biblical figures. 

Tune in for a rich conversation on justice and mercy, secularization, and how God reveals his character both in Scripture and in our lives today.

Books by Marilynne Robinson mentioned in this episode include:

• Reading Genesis
• Gilead
• Home
• Lila
• Jack
• Housekeeping



Resources mentioned in this episode include:

• Wendell Berry
• Walker Percy
• Frederick Buechner
• Jonathan Haidt

Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to [email protected].

Special offer for listeners: 

Russell Moore will join friends David French and Curtis Chang in Washington, DC for The After Party LIVE! on April 19. As a faithful listener to the podcast, we'd love for you to join us. The After Party is a free six-part video curriculum designed for people & pastors alike, and offers "a better way" for Christians to engage in politics. Learn more and buy tickets here — we've saved a seat for you! Use code RM SHOW for $20 off, just for listeners! Use code RM SHOW for $20 off, just for listeners.

Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today.

“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today 

Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper 

Host: Russell Moore 

Producer: Ashley Hales 

Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill

Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens

Audio engineering by Dan Phelps 

Video producer: Abby Egan 

Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton

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Is the term evangelical worth holding on to anymore? Is it imperative that Christians participate in elections? What is the way forward for families that have been fractured by political disagreements?

These are some of the listener questions that Russell and producer Ashley Hales address on this episode of The Russell Moore Show. Tune in for a discussion that digs deep into the political dynamics of modern American life while sharing universal truths for living Christianly in a broken world.

Questions addressed during this episode include:

• Does Russell read every book that shows up in his newsletter?
• What are some tips for reading more regularly?
• Is it okay for Christians not to participate in voting for president?
• How can Christians whose families are divided over politics prioritize God and one another
• What does the evangelical support of Donald Trump do to the term evangelical and its reputation?
• How can believers deal with Christian nationalism in their relationships?
• What is Christian nationalism?
• How might the upcoming election affect local churches?
• What hope is there for Christians discouraged by American politics?

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

• Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches by Russell Moore
• Russell’s newsletter
• “Should Christians Vote for the Lesser of Two Evils?” by Russell Moore
• “Incurvatus in Se”
• “C. S. Lewis on Chronological Snobbery”

Do you have a question for Russell Moore?

Send it to [email protected].

Special offer for listeners:

Russell Moore will join friends David French and Curtis Chang in Washington, DC, for The After Party LIVE! on April 19. As a faithful listener to the podcast, we’d love for you to join us and use this 20% off offer just for listeners! The After Party is a free six-part video curriculum designed for people & pastors alike, and offers “a better way” for Christians to engage in politics. Learn more and buy tickets here—we’ve saved a seat for you!

Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today.

“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today

Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper

Host: Russell Moore

Producer: Ashley Hales

Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill

Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens

Audio engineering by Dan Phelps

Video producer: Abby Egan

Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If Russell Moore’s inbox is any indication, listeners of this podcast want to talk about emotions. If you’re among them, this episode with Bible teacher, bestselling author, and founder of IF: Gathering Jennie Allen is for you. 

Moore and Allen discuss what she learned while writing her new book, Untangle Your Emotions: Naming Your Emotions and Knowing What to Do about Them. They talk about healthy and unhealthy ways to view emotions, how the COVID-19 pandemic affected emotional well-being, and how our brains try to protect us in traumatic situations. They talk about how God meets us in grief and suffering, how emotions show up in the body, and how honesty about emotions can lead to deeper relationships and family connections. 

Their conversation covers the power of memories, what the Bible has to say about emotions, and what it looks like to honor our emotions without letting them lead our lives.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

• IF: Gathering
• Untangle Your Emotions: Naming Your Emotions and Knowing What to Do about Them by Jennie Allen
• Asbury Revival
• Auburn baptisms

Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to [email protected].

Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today.

“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today 

Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper 

Host: Russell Moore 

Producer: Ashley Hales 

Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill

Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens

Audio engineering by Dan Phelps 

Video producer: Abby Egan 

Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices