Cultivating conversations about the intersection of the arts and faith in order to liberate Christian creativity.
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Michael is joined for the second part of his conversation with Chase Tremaine about AI. This time they delve into some of the tendencies of over-reliance on technology, and the ways that affects and disrupts human creation. They then explore Chase’s three rules of thumb for using (or not using) AI, especially as it relates to artistic creation. Chase also mentions his upcoming single, “More Changed than Changing” in this episode. It would mean a lot to us if you would pre-save it (https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/chasetremaine1/more-changed-than-changing) and check it out when it releases. LI
Chase Tremaine joins Michael to discuss recent developments in AI news, as LLMs and Machine Learning have begun to touch on most every aspect of our lives. Is AI inevitable, or is its bubble ready to burst? LINKS AI IPOs and the Bubble (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/ai-led-boom-ipos-raises-123807445.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANwQNnbJSMoZDbbgAzNPNKE_HKntMTw5TGFcEMS7ijOVUOFX9jAAcwhaUJ7zKL69NugKldqXCmKJEFnj97IptE8FkjSJ3ksniPnTkKU0SG73ww8r-2Aqa56ViYIMfypqw_T9UAUIJBif2Tjr6lddQGze3G10UguJd18EB0fRBLZX) Debt Margin at Reco
Michael is joined by songwriter and songwriting teacher Aryn Michelle to discuss both her new songwriting textbook, Play Shape Create, and her new album, Bloodline, set to release in July. Stay tuned at the end to hear Aryn Michelle’s “Upper Hand (Tamar) (https://open.spotify.com/track/21g5jFPgHyfKOcgLqNcv3B?si=128de0d5973a4f13)” from Bloodline. LINKS Play Shape Create: The Joyful Art of Songwriting (https://www.amazon.com/Play-Shape-Create-Joyful-Songwriting/dp/1967262225), by Aryn Michelle Calhoun Aryn Michelle discography (https://www.arynmichelle.com/music/)
Michael is joined by long-time friend and Renew the Arts Creative Director, Rusty Hein, for a different take on AI and related topics. LINKS Chatbot Thinks Upside-Down Cup is Prank (https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3fYiLXVfPa4) Steve McDonald (artist who collaborates with AI) (https://www.instagram.com/stevedmcdonald) Elon Musk on AI surgeons (https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1916573094367625556) Audiofeed Music Festival 2026 (https://audiofeedfestival.com/) Porchlight Festival Save the Date! (https://porchlight.art/festival)
Michael continues his exploration of AI and its impact on the arts, discussing why he has hope the AI revolution will produce positive unintended consequences for artists of integrity and discipline. LINKS Iain McGilChrist, The Master and His Emissary (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary) Chatbot Thinks Upside-Down Cup is Prank (https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3fYiLXVfPa4) Ep 69 on Exploited Art (https://renewthearts.org/podcast/exploited-art-propaganda-pornography-pomp-and-product/) “Has God Really Called You to be an Artist? (https://renewthearts.org/has-god-really-calle
Michael begins the 2026 season of the Renew the Arts podcast with an exploration of the benefits and costs of technology, the history of the book, and how the adoption of AI will force humanity into a crisis of meaning and discipline. LINKS Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (https://www.amazon.com/Technopoly-Surrender-Technology-Neil-Postman/dp/0679745408) The Homeric Question (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeric_Question) dactylic hexameter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dactylic_hexameter) oral tradition (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_tradition) John Mil
Michael answers an international mailbag full of great questions to close out 2025 on the Renew the Arts podcast, including discussions of how Christians should approach non-family-friendly biblical content, what makes art good, baking and cooking as an art, the Holy Spirit’s role in improvisational art as a prayer offering, and much more. Stay tuned at the end for “Spirit Move (https://civilizedcreature.bandcamp.com/track/spirit-move),” by Civilized Creature, featuring Isaac Wheadon, from the 2024 album Whose House (https://civilizedcreature.bandcamp.com/album/whose-house). Merry Christmas an
Michael collects together the top five things he thinks churches should communicate to their artists, based on his decades of work in the Christian arts space. One thing you might realize after listening to this episode: these five things should be communicated to pretty much every member of a church. Nonetheless, Michael discusses why artists typically don’t hear or feel these things communicated in most churches. LINKS Two Biggest Lies Christians Believe about the Arts (https://renewthearts.org/podcast/episode-1-two-biggest-lies-christians-believe-arts/) Why Are So Many Christian Artists At
Michael explains the popular dismissal of fiction and the imagination, and explores the edifying uses of fiction for overcoming the limitations of one’s own lived experience and to bypass our natural resistance to the truth. LINKS “Are Sermons Enough to Preach the Whole Counsel of God?” (Part 1 (https://renewthearts.org/are-sermons-enough-to-preach-the-whole-counsel-of-god-part-1-of-2/) and Part 2 (https://renewthearts.org/are-sermons-enough-to-preach-the-whole-counsel-of-god-part-2-of-2/)) “If You Don’t Get Poetry, You Don’t Get the Bible” Ep. 58: Art and the Evangelical Imagination (with Kar
Michael compares and contrasts the great way that seeks first worldly prominence with the little way of the cross, defending and explaining the priority that Renew the Arts has placed on the little things that actually accord with obedience to God. Stay tuned at the end to hear “Love Everybody (https://justinjamessinclair.bandcamp.com/track/love-everybody-2),” a track from Be Alive (https://justinjamessinclair.bandcamp.com/album/be-alive), the just-released new record from Porchlight artist Brother James (https://app.porchlight.art/artists/brother-james). LINKS The Screwtape Letters, Chapter 6
Michael goes solo to talk about exploited art in its four forms: propaganda, pornography, pomp, and product. He discusses why subjecting art to an agenda undermines the powerful purpose of art, and why the church should be the place artists feel most free and empowered to pursue their callings with integrity. LINKS Why Are So Many Christian Artists at Odds with the Church? (article (https://renewthearts.org/why-are-so-many-christian-artists-at-odds-with-the-church/) and podcast (https://renewthearts.org/podcast/008-why-so-many-christian-artists-are-at-odds-with-the-church/)) 12 Years a Slave:
Join us for a generous sampling of the “Porchlight Mini-Conference on Hospitality” we held on July 6, 2025 at Audiofeed Music Festival (https://audiofeedfestival.com/) in Urbana, Illinois. Featuring presentations from Cary Brege and Michael Minkoff, a host panel on art hosting and hospitality, and a selection from Porchlight artists who performed to close out the day, we hope this episode inspires you to pursue a deeper involvement with the beautiful work of art hospitality. 03:45 — Cary Brege (https://renewthearts.org/behind-the-porchlight-havenwood-hosts-embrace-creativity/), “Hospitality an
Michael talks with Ciara Reyes-Ton (https://www.mountcarmell.com/founder) about science, art, and faith. Ciara is a cellular and molecular biologist, singer-songwriter, and founder of Mt. Carmell Worship Collective (https://www.mountcarmell.com/). In this conversation, Ciara talks about her history as a scientist and an artist, and how both science and art interact in the Christian’s spiritual life. Stay tuned to the end to hear “To Become Human (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B5qd7RSqP4),” the first song Ciara wrote at the intersection of faith and science.
Michael is joined by film-maker and YouTuber Houston Coley (https://www.youtube.com/@houston-coley) to discuss Coley’s feature documentary, A Kingdom of Tea and Strangers (https://www.labridocumentary.com/), which follows five strangers as they spend a summer together at English L’Abri. They discuss the film and touch on community, communal art, hospitality, imagination, Christian art, and more. A Kingdom of Tea and Strangers will be available to watch on YouTube on the Art Within channel (https://www.youtube.com/@artwithinofficial) May 10, 2025. Stay tuned to the end to hear “Living Room Song
Michael welcomes Chase Tremaine (https://chasetremaine.com/) to the Renew the Arts podcast to discuss the impact of technology on the way we make and receive art. Just a few generations ago, all art was received communally, with live performances and in-person reception the only possibility. Now, recording technology and internet connectedness has completely transformed the arts. Chase and Michael discuss what this massive shift has meant for us. Technology has certainly benefitted the arts, making it more accessible and attainable, and potentially more democratic. But at the same time, this s
Michael returns for the 2025 RTA podcast season with an offering of three word-pictures for patrons and artists. First, “Space Station Christianity” seeks to answer the question, “Are the arts and beauty actually essential?” Second, “Antibiotic vs. Probiotic Culture” seeks to show the distinction between Culture War and Culture Care. Finally, “Miniature for Scale” frames some advice for making art about larger-than-life realities. We hope these word-pictures help to clarify your relationship to the arts as we delve this season into “flourishing” with the arts. Stay tuned until the end to hear
For the final episode of this year, join Michael to discuss your questions for a Christmas mailbag episode. Michael answers questions about Kevin Kelly’s “1,000 True Fans Principle,” the difference between pride concerning earned skills and narcissism concerning gifts, how Christians should approach magic in fantasy books and/or movies, what fiction Michael has been reading and why he cares about fiction, and whether or not Christians should buy cheap, plastic Nativity scenes for their yard. Stay tuned at the end for the album version of Civilized Creature’s “Humble and Lowly (https://civilize
Michael discusses narcissism, why it seems so prevalent among artists, and how to address it. Using an excellent podcast from Martyr Made’s Darryl Cooper called “The Underground Spirit (https://www.martyrmade.com/featured-podcasts/the-underground-spirit) (https://www.martyrmade.com/featured-podcasts/the-underground-spirit)” as his jumping-off point, Michael explores Dostoevsky and Nietzsche, the meaning of narcissism, the nature of giftedness, the struggle of prodigies, the isolation of the artist, and the resentment and pride of communities, recommending tools for addressing narcissism and pr
Michael interviews Roy Sneed, a missions specialist who trains cross-cultural workers in the four uses of storytelling for missions and evangelism. With seasoned wisdom and disarming humor, Roy explains his storytelling approach, telling a few of his stories along the way. Stay tuned until the end to hear a track from Physick, “In the Whirlwind,” from the unreleased EP Shoal Creek Valley. Resources: Missions and Oral Preference Learning (from Mission to the World) (https://www.mtw.org/stories/details/ministering-to-oral-cultures-in-the-21st-century) Art and Incarnational Evangelism (https://mi
In this promised second part of our podcast on the problem of fame, Michael discusses how an uneven distribution of support in the arts harms patrons, patronage, and communities. He then explores some ways artists and patrons can solve this problem. Stay tuned at the end of the episode to hear “5 Year Town (https://open.spotify.com/track/187FbdIb75wMKG0i0HK5ld?si=be44670777a143a8)” by Jacob Davis Martin (https://open.spotify.com/artist/7C6G03p2coJ5rTYvq2ohE5?si=f4658db757a74d27), from his record Ain’t It All Just Golden (https://open.spotify.com/album/0luWTHb7q1RxJvwmTRgMYS?si=T4fFoewhR3i4iZ4v
In this first part of two, Michael explores the problem of fame as it relates to artists. What is the problem of fame? How does it negatively affect both successful and unsuccessful artists? Stay tuned until the end to hear “I’ve Found Love in Mississippi” by Porchlight artist Trailand Eltzroth (https://app.porchlight.art/artists/trailand-eltzroth) from his record For My Friends and Family (https://trailandeltzroth.bandcamp.com/album/for-my-friends-and-family). Articles on Inequality of Popularity Among Artists “How Much Money Do Visual or Contemporary Artists Make?” (https://www.contemporarya
Reader, Author, Thinker, and Teacher Karen Swallow Prior (http://karenswallowprior.com) joins Michael for a discussion of her book, The Evangelical Imagination (https://www.amazon.com/Evangelical-Imagination-Stories-Metaphors-Created/dp/1587435756), and particularly, how the ideas of that book apply to the arts. In their wide-ranging conversation, they touch on metaphor, language, fact and fiction, redemption stories, the connection between sentimentality and power, and much more. Stay tuned at the end of the episode to listen to “Don’t I Know?” by Physick, from their record, All the Days (htt
Poet, Author, and Editor Paul J. Pastor (https://www.pauljpastor.com/) joins Michael for a conversation on poetry. From a more general discussion of the uses and benefits of poetry to a more specific exploration of some of Pastor’s favorite poetry, get inspired to explore poetry more deeply. Check out Paul’s work at his website (https://www.pauljpastor.com/). Read the article we referenced (https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/may-web-only/pastor-apple-ipad-ad-apology-crush-reality.html) that Paul wrote for Christianity Today about the crushing Apple advertisement. You can also read our a
For this episode, Michael is joined by Brian Brown (https://www.anselmsociety.org/people-1/2019/6/9/brian-brown), founder and executive director of the Anselm Society (https://www.anselmsociety.org/), about the importance of the arts in the practice of communal meaning-making. Along the way, they discuss the work and vision of the Anselm Society, the difference between communal and individual experiences of the arts, why art is not gratuitous to human flourishing, what each of us can do to participate in our communities through the arts, and much more. Stay tuned at the end to hear the studio
In the episode, Michael goes solo to discuss why Christians should develop better taste. Then he goes on to discuss some practical ways that can be achieved. This episode was inspired by an insightful comment from Lisa Hood on episode 49 (“Do Poor People Make Poor Patrons?” (https://renewthearts.org/podcast/do-poor-people-make-poor-patrons/)). Stay tuned at the end for “Infinite Rail (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p56N42z_3Gg),” the first single off of Make Sure’s recently released June (https://ffm.to/makesurejune), available through Tooth & Nail Records and used with permission. You might
