The Nothing Human Podcast

Michael Minkoff, Jr. · michaelminkoff.com

The Nothing Human podcast is a biblically-informed thinkspace for exploring and articulating all the ways we make or break sense of human experience. Join thinker and author Michael Minkoff as he investigates and interrogates meaning-making and thought categories in an effort to articulate a more cohesive understanding of human information within the superstructure of God’s truth.

29 episodes

8d ago latest

monthly cadence

English language

▶ Play latestRSS feed Website Religion Spirituality Christianity Society Culture

https://michaelminkoff.com/feed/podcast/the-nothing-human-podcast/

Episodes 29

Ep. 29: The Lord’s Prayer, pt. 5: Give Us This Day
8d ago · 47:38
Michael digs in to the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” focusing particularly on the translation of the mysterious word epiousion, usually translated “daily,” as well as the expansive connections between the prayer’s requested daily bread and Jesus’ understanding of the manna narrative. LINKS Michael’s Patreon Epiousion
Ep. 28: The Lord’s Prayer, pt. 4: Your Kingdom Come
1mo ago · 50:11
Michael unpacks the second and third petition of the Lord’s Prayer (“Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”), spending considerable time discussing the nature of the kingdom of God from heaven, and what it would mean for it to fully arrive on earth. LINKS Michael’s Patreon
Ep. 27: The Lord’s Prayer, pt. 3: Hallowed Be Your Name
6mo ago · 32:38
Michael explores the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Hallowed be your name,” digging into its grammatical peculiarity, its Old Testament roots, and its connection to the larger topic of the “name of God.” LINKS Michael’s Patreon
Ep. 26: The Lord’s Prayer, pt. 2: Our Father
9mo ago · 40:35
Michael explains details connected to the preface of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father who is in heaven.” He also closes by reading his poem “Praying as a Child,” from his first book of poems, The Landfill of Discount Messiahs. LINKS Michael’s Patreon
Ep. 25: The Lord’s Prayer, pt. 1: Introduction
9mo ago · 33:31
Michael covers some introductory material for a new series on The Lord’s Prayer. He discusses the forms, purposes, context, and uses of the Lord’s Prayer as well as general implications we can draw from it as a whole. This series was requested by Patreon supporters. Thank you all for your support! LINKS Michael’s Patreon
Ep. 24: NH Conversations: Three Powers Recap with Christa, pt. 3
11mo ago · 1:17:10
Michael and Christa return for part three of their recap on the Three Powers series. They discuss will-oriented biases in anthropology, singular and composite human being, sushi, evangelism and the affections, and much more. LINKS Michael’s Patreon Michael’s YouTube Livestream Link for October 8, 2025 The Chrysanthemum and the Sword Jiro Dreams of Sushi The Peanut Butter Falcon The Faithful Preacher, ed. by Thabiti Anyabwile
Ep. 23: Why Doesn’t God Just Make Us Perfect Already?
1y ago · 48:12
Michael tackles a listener question: “Why doesn’t God just make it so believers cannot sin after conversion?” The answer to this question balloons rather quickly to touch on many other things, including, in keeping with the trend of this podcast, the nature of reality. Enjoy! LINKS: Michael’s Patreon Human Nature in Its Fourfold State Impeccability NH Ep. 17: The Origin of the Soul (where you’ll find a discussion of the human nature and flesh identity of Jesus beginning at ~50:18) NH Ep. 18: Physical and Spiritual, Heaven and Earth (for a discussion of visible/invisible) Monergism Atlanta Stor
Ep. 22: NH Conversations: Three Powers Recap with Christa, pt. 2
1y ago · 1:21:42
Michael and Christa return with the second part of their conversational recap on the three powers. This one covers the evil of diets and the moral limitations of your survival instinct, the nature of truth and fact, the age of the Spirit and the reformation of the affections, and more. LINKS Michael’s Patreon Ep. 20: Good and Evil, Righteousness and Wickedness Norbert Wiener Second-Order Cybernetic Philosophy (Super Observer concept) Black Swan, by Nassim Taleb Nobel Speech (1970), by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn TRANSCRIPT 00:00:01:01 - 00:00:10:02 Michael This is episode 22 of the Nothing Human po
Ep. 21: NH Conversations: Three Powers Recap with Christa, pt. 1
1y ago · 1:05:25
Michael is joined by his sister, Christa, for an extended conversational recap on the Three Powers Series. In this first part, they discuss a wide range of things in unedited conversation. The origin of the podcast name Nothing Human. The meaning of Augustine’s pears. Will-oriented academics. Lifting up your subject power. And more. LINKS Michael’s Patreon Terence, “Nothing human is alien to me” Maya Angelou “Nothing Human” Interview Aquinas on Affections as Bodily Appetite Sack of Rome (AD 410)—Augustine lived from AD 354–430 William Lane Craig on Light/Dark Good/Evil Plotinus Great Chain of
Ep. 20: Good and Evil, Righteousness and Wickedness
1y ago · 1:01:35
Michael explains the important distinction between good/evil as affectional categories and righteousness/wickedness as moral categories. He explores the problem of evil, common grace, the last petition of the Lord’s Prayer, and numerous other biblical texts, recovering an understanding of how the moral and material are on a trajectory toward distinct union in the new heavens and new earth. LINKS Michael's Patreon The Problem of Evil has an “Evil” Problem, by Michael Minkoff, Jr.
Ep. 19: Joseph’s Bones and Resurrection Trees
1y ago · 44:53
Michael takes you on an exegetical journey into the biblical significance of bones as a lasting memorial of a person awaiting the resurrection. Find out about the curious burial of the bones of Joseph, terebinth oaks as memorials of the dead, the connection of land inheritance and honorable burial, and the significance of Jesus’ secondary burial, or lack thereof. LINKS Michael’s Patreon Ossuary for Ossilegium Philo of Alexandria “Secondary Burials in Palestine,” by Eric Meyers Synecdoche “Why Did God Choose Circumcision?” by Peter Leithart “Under The Oak And Terebinth Trees,“ by Jonathan Lipni
Ep. 18: Physical and Spiritual, Heaven and Earth
1y ago · 59:22
Michael investigates the distinction of physical vs. spiritual, exploring its Platonic roots and destructive consequences. Michael then discusses other, more strictly biblical distinctions, beginning with “heaven and earth.” LINKS Michael’s Patreon Review: What is the Mission of the Church?, by Michael Minkoff, Jr. Goethe’s Theory of Colors
Ep. 17: The Origin of the Soul
1y ago · 1:18:33
Where does the soul come from? Is it created by God or does it come from our parents and ultimately from Adam? Michael explores Creationism and Traducianism as it relates to the origin of the human soul, explaining them along the way. LINKS Michael’s Patreon Ep. 16: Body and Soul, Flesh and Spirit Traducianism “Creationism,” from Systematic Theology, by Charles Hodge “Against Two Letters of the Pelagians,” by Augustine “Human Nature in its Fourfold State,” by Thomas Boston (drawing from Augustine)
Ep. 16: Body and Soul, Flesh and Spirit
1y ago · 53:01
Michael investigates our misconceptions concerning the body and soul, exploring the Platonic and NeoPlatonic influences on Christian thought, which has produced dualistic and body-dismissing conceptions of human nature and the source of sin. Some of this relies on our misunderstanding of the Apostle Paul’s use of the word "flesh," which Michael explores in detail. He considers also the immortality of the soul. In sum, he drives at a more biblical understanding of body and soul. LINKS Michael’s Patreon “Did C.S. Lewis really say ‘You don’t have a soul’?” “The Body in Calvin's Theology,” James C
Three Powers, Pt. 15: Three Powers, Trauma, and “Redeeming Heartache”
1y ago · 31:48
Michael unpacks how the three powers relate to trauma by drawing from the book Redeeming Heartache: How Past Suffering Reveals Our True Calling, by Dr. Dan Allender and Cathy Loerzel. Allender and Loerzel helpfully categorize trauma into three biblical categories: the traumas of orphan, stranger, and widow. They then go on to connect these trauma categories to the three offices of prophet, priest, and king, claiming that the path to healing your core trauma is by pursuing the redemptive calling that trauma reveals. Michael integrates and clarifies their insights with three powers categories, r
Three Powers, Pt. 14: More on Internal and External Standards
1y ago · 42:38
Michael digs deeper into the internal and external standards for all three powers, discussing how we set or discern values of good, right, and true, and how we achieve equilibrium between individual and collective values. LINKS Michael’s Patreon Nominalism vs. Realism The Structure of Scientific Revolution, by Thomas Kuhn “Aliens Cause Global Warming,” by Michael Crichton (where he condemns the idea of “consensus science”)
Three Powers, Pt. 13: More on the Affections
1y ago · 53:46
At your request, Michael explores the affections a little more deeply, particularly concerning the “ordering” of the affections. After establishing some foundational axioms for affective change, Michael explores some baby steps to processing and ordering the affections, particularly as modeled in the Psalms and Job. LINKS Michael’s Patreon Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry, by David Mason and John Frederick Nims “The Sentimentality Trap," by Benjamin Myers “We Sin Because We Have Bad Taste,” by Michael Minkoff, Jr. Shame and Attachment Loss, by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi AEDP Institute (founded
Three Powers, Pt. 12: Three Powers and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
1y ago · 54:39
Michael explains how the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Bible relate to the three powers of the human spirit. He explains how the offices of Jesus—of prophet, priest, and king—continue to be represented in the church’s verbal and embodied witness through the diverse gifting of the Holy Spirit in individual members. Michael goes on to describe how this variety and diversity can contribute to discord and hierarchies within churches and denominations, yet God’s intention and desire in giving these gifts is to build up and unify the church. Post-Apostolic (Non-Miraculous) Gifts of the S
Three Powers, Pt. 11: Self-Awareness and the Overlap of the Powers
1y ago · 1:00:16
Michael explores the importance of self-awareness and the difficulties we have in self-awareness because of the way the powers often overlap each other. He then provides some language for articulating these overlaps or agreements between the three powers. Particularly, he talks about how desire marks the overlap of the will and the affections, plan marks the overlap of the will and the intellect, and dream marks the overlap of the intellect and the affections. He then discusses the standards for these overlaps, habit for desire, conviction for plan, and taste for dream. Here’s a visual guide t
Three Powers, Pt. 10: Superiority and Submission
1y ago · 46:01
Michael discusses the touchy topics of superiority and submission, explaining how an understanding of domain, power, and authority helps us navigate both the internal submission necessary to become whole people and the external submission that grants peace and productivity in communities. LINKS Michael’s Patreon Voluntary Submission: The Art of Becoming Bigger than Yourself, by Michael Minkoff, Jr. Perichoresis Jesus is Dead, Long Live Jesus, by Michael Minkoff, Jr.
Three Powers, Pt. 9: Three Powers, Faith, and Salvation
1y ago · 41:06
Michael investigates the ways that the three powers of the human spirit relate to Christian faith as the instrument of salvation. He begins with a discussion of the intellectual aspects of faith, and another damaging corollary of the primacy of the intellect error in the West. He thens goes on to discuss historical Christian definitions of faith, in both confessions, texts, and practice. Most address faith in terms of both intellect and will, but still fail to address the affectional aspects of faith and salvation. Michael explores some of the biblical conceptions of affectional faith, closing
Three Powers, Pt. 8: Three Powers and Anthropology
1y ago · 1:00:23
Michael applies the three power framework to anthropology—the study of humankind—with a wide-ranging conversation on gender, ethnic groups, global missions, and denominations. LINKS Michael's Patreon StackExchange Discussion of Man and Woman Made in God's Image Arianism Augustine, On the Trinity Man or Bear Question Women Marrying Up, “Hypergamy” Male vs. Female IQ James Brown, “It's a Man's, Man’s, Man’s World,” Live at the L’Olympia, Paris, 1966 Ozymandias, by Percy Bysshe Shelley Ode to the Mothers in their Sisyphean Joy, by Michael Minkoff, Jr. Traducianism The Chrysanthemum and the Sword,
Three Powers, Pt. 7: On the Intellect
1y ago · 48:58
Michael explores the intellect, truth, fact, bias, imagination, and experience to arrive at a more relational and integrated understanding of the spirit of the mind. He explores disorders of the intellect, which contribute to everything from sociopathy to sloth, and establishes humility as the only virtue that can cut through self-deception. LINKS Subscribe to Michael’s Patreon Facial Scar Experiment “Believing Into Christ,” by Living to Him Ministries How Christian Rationalism Turned Me Into a Psycopath, by Michael Minkoff, Jr. Bartleby, the Scrivener The Prophetic Imagination, by Walter Brue
Three Powers, Pt. 6: On the Will
1y ago · 41:30
Michael explores the power of the will on its own terms, the difference between good/evil and righteousness/wickedness, the nature of divine righteousness, the location of the self, and various disorders of the will. LINKS The Problem of Evil Has an “Evil” Problem Civil Forfeiture Kant’s Categorical Imperative
Three Powers, Pt. 5: On the Affections
1y ago · 47:31
Michael traces a bit of the human and Christian history on the devaluation and dismissal of the affections, explaining along the way some of the reasons for that low assessment. He then outlines some biblically-informed objections to our collective abuse of the affections (and affectional people), and proceeds to discuss the distinction between the affections and the emotions and some ways to order and cultivate the affections. LINKS On the Nicene Creed The Holy Spirit in the WCF "The Enticing Sin of Empathy,” by Joe Rigney “The Sentimentality Trap,” by Benjamin Myers Discussion of the Passion

Episodes

Reading the feed…

More Religion shows

The Nothing Human Podcast

Episodes 29

Ep. 29: The Lord’s Prayer, pt. 5: Give Us This Day

Ep. 28: The Lord’s Prayer, pt. 4: Your Kingdom Come

Ep. 27: The Lord’s Prayer, pt. 3: Hallowed Be Your Name

Ep. 26: The Lord’s Prayer, pt. 2: Our Father

Ep. 25: The Lord’s Prayer, pt. 1: Introduction

Ep. 24: NH Conversations: Three Powers Recap with Christa, pt. 3

Ep. 23: Why Doesn’t God Just Make Us Perfect Already?

Ep. 22: NH Conversations: Three Powers Recap with Christa, pt. 2

Ep. 21: NH Conversations: Three Powers Recap with Christa, pt. 1

Ep. 20: Good and Evil, Righteousness and Wickedness

Ep. 19: Joseph’s Bones and Resurrection Trees

Ep. 18: Physical and Spiritual, Heaven and Earth

Ep. 17: The Origin of the Soul

Ep. 16: Body and Soul, Flesh and Spirit

Three Powers, Pt. 15: Three Powers, Trauma, and “Redeeming Heartache”

Three Powers, Pt. 14: More on Internal and External Standards

Three Powers, Pt. 13: More on the Affections

Three Powers, Pt. 12: Three Powers and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Three Powers, Pt. 11: Self-Awareness and the Overlap of the Powers

Three Powers, Pt. 10: Superiority and Submission

Three Powers, Pt. 9: Three Powers, Faith, and Salvation

Three Powers, Pt. 8: Three Powers and Anthropology

Three Powers, Pt. 7: On the Intellect

Three Powers, Pt. 6: On the Will

Three Powers, Pt. 5: On the Affections

Episodes

More Religion shows

Sermons from The Chapel Gainesville

Steve Farrar

The Church on Melrose Sermons

The Catholic Cafe

Teaching for today

Reality Carpinteria (Audio)

Episodes 29

Ep. 29: The Lord’s Prayer, pt. 5: Give Us This Day

Ep. 28: The Lord’s Prayer, pt. 4: Your Kingdom Come

Ep. 27: The Lord’s Prayer, pt. 3: Hallowed Be Your Name

Ep. 26: The Lord’s Prayer, pt. 2: Our Father

Ep. 25: The Lord’s Prayer, pt. 1: Introduction

Ep. 24: NH Conversations: Three Powers Recap with Christa, pt. 3

Ep. 23: Why Doesn’t God Just Make Us Perfect Already?

Ep. 22: NH Conversations: Three Powers Recap with Christa, pt. 2

Ep. 21: NH Conversations: Three Powers Recap with Christa, pt. 1

Ep. 20: Good and Evil, Righteousness and Wickedness

Ep. 19: Joseph’s Bones and Resurrection Trees

Ep. 18: Physical and Spiritual, Heaven and Earth

Ep. 17: The Origin of the Soul

Ep. 16: Body and Soul, Flesh and Spirit

Three Powers, Pt. 15: Three Powers, Trauma, and “Redeeming Heartache”

Three Powers, Pt. 14: More on Internal and External Standards

Three Powers, Pt. 13: More on the Affections

Three Powers, Pt. 12: Three Powers and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Three Powers, Pt. 11: Self-Awareness and the Overlap of the Powers

Three Powers, Pt. 10: Superiority and Submission

Three Powers, Pt. 9: Three Powers, Faith, and Salvation

Three Powers, Pt. 8: Three Powers and Anthropology

Three Powers, Pt. 7: On the Intellect

Three Powers, Pt. 6: On the Will

Three Powers, Pt. 5: On the Affections