Academy Podcast

In this month’s episode, Shalom Agtarap is joined by Amy Oden—professor, theologian, and longtime Academy faculty member. Amy reflects on her first encounter with the Academy and how its rhythms of silence, spaciousness, and community reshaped her pedagogy and her life. She shares about her teaching on hospitality, Christian spiritualities, Protestant traditions, and mindfulness, weaving in voices that have shaped her, from Julian of Norwich to Howard Thurman.Together, they explore how the Academy’s rhythm of retreat and return develops “muscle memory” for attentiveness, how practices of Sabbath and simplicity resist the demands of empire, and how spiritual formation is always tied to justice and reconciliation. Amy also speaks candidly about privilege, formation, and what it means to steward our social location faithfully.Whether you are discerning participation in the Academy or seeking to deepen your own practice of pausing, listening, and being present, Amy’s insights offer an invitation into the open spa