Celebrating 100 Episodes
Last week marked the 100th episode of the Allender Center Podcast. So this week, we’re taking a moment to look back on the first 100 and celebrate both where we’ve come and where we’re hoping to go. “It is a sweet moment of recognition that we have done an amazing thing for almost two years,” says Dan, “offering weekly, 20-minute engagements with some of the issues that we think to be very important with regard to trauma, abuse, and life itself.”
Dan talks about the need for honoring our suffering and holding the tension between death and resurrection, and saying that he hopes that has been one of the foundational convictions at the heart of this podcast. “That’s one of the central aims of this podcast, to invite all of us, myself in particular, into that experience of holding both death and resurrection, rather than allowing one to cancel out the other. If we have indeed invited you more into that experience, then I am grateful for the privilege of having the opportunity to do the 100th.”
After touching briefly on some stats—like that we’re on track to hit 500,000 all-time downloads before the end of the year—Dan recalls starting this podcast two years ago expecting that it would be an interesting experiment, but perhaps not much more than that. But then it turned out that the content explored in these episodes struck a chord with many, many people. “To have that sense that the Gospel, spoken in the midst of tension and the dialectic of death and resurrection, actually does invite people into a kind of remembrance that is unique—that’s been the sweet git.”
It’s like the joy of evangelism; there is something in us that loves to invite people to goodness.
Dan also shares about how, looking back on the formation of the podcast and the last 100, he has loved the experience of partnership, both with the team that helps put this together each week, and with all of the guests who have recorded with him—his wife Becky Allender, Cathy Loerzel, Abby Wong-Heffter, Rachael Clinton, Dr. Keith Anderson, Dr. Angela Parker, John Eldredge, John and Sue Cunningham, and others. Dan says he feels like he gets to invite his friends, people he loves and respects, to play with him through this podcast
The theme of partnership extends beyond our team and the podcast guests to the listening audience, and how thrilled Dan is when he hears from listeners or meets them in person. After all, you—your journey to healing and your growing capacity for fostering healing in others—are why we do what we do. So as we look toward the next 100 episodes, feel free to let us know anytime you have feedback, questions, or topics you would like to hear engaged. (You can email feedback to Beau Denton, Content Coordinator, at bdenton@theseattleschool.edu.)
“The privilege of being able to talk about things that matter so deeply to our hearts, and to be able to do so in a context with good friends, and to be able to do so in a manner in which time passes so quickly, I can hardly say what an immense privilege it is and has been. […] I hope that there has been some hope you have encountered, because I certainly know your words, your faces, your lives, give me sufficient hope to look forward to being able to do the next 100.”