Faithfulcrum

S2E9- Pajamas in the Street

Season 2 Episode 9
Pajamas in the Street
In this episode of Faithfulcrum, Mark and Scott talk about control—who has it, who wants it, and what happens when we realize we don’t have nearly as much of it as we thought. The conversation moves through spirituality, creativity, religion, theater, Shakespeare, and even punk rock… but it keeps circling the same tension: there’s always something bubbling up, and something else trying to shape it, channel it, or shut it down.
And as the conversation unfolds, it starts to feel like these ideas don’t just belong in discussion—they want to be sung.
So throughout this episode, you’re going to hear a series of short songs—written in a kind of 1960s Bakersfield country style—that grow directly out of the moments we’re talking through. Each one picks up a thread from the conversation and follows it somewhere a little more emotional, a little more musical.
Here’s what you’ll hear:
First, “The Lord and My Wife.”This one comes out of that moment where we’re talking about creativity as something you can’t quite control—how the urge to make things pulls at you, even when real life is asking something else. It’s about that tug-of-war between inspiration and responsibility.
Then there’s “The Devil in the Wagon.”We get into medieval mystery plays—religion performed in the town square—and suddenly you’ve got the sacred and the ridiculous sharing the same stage. This song leans into that image: a traveling show where heaven and hell are closer than anyone wants to admit.
After that, “They Put Salvation on TV.”That one comes from our discussion of how powerful ideas—religion, art, anything—can get packaged, sold, and used. It’s a look at what happens when something real gets turned into something marketable.
Next is “Still Speaking.”We talk about the need to “close the book,” to fix truth in place so it can’t get messy. But what if the voice keeps showing up anyway? This song lives in that tension between certainty and something that won’t stay contained.
Then you’ll hear “Don’t Fall Down.”That comes straight out of the idea that maybe we’re not here to control the wave—we’re just trying to ride it without crashing. It’s about walking that line between freedom and self-destruction.
And finally, “Pajamas in the Street.”We end up talking about judgment—why other people’s choices bother us, and what that says about us. This one takes a step back and asks: what if we just let people be?

S2E8- No Common Now

 
In this episode of Faithfulcrum, Scott and Mark are joined by songwriter, poet, and actor Nick Torres. What starts out as a casual conversation about songwriting and creative collaboration quickly drifts into deeper waters—eternity, heaven, fear, the vastness of the universe, and the strange ways humans try to make sense of time.
Along the way the conversation moves through childhood memories of religious teaching, the unsettling idea of forever, the staggering scale of the cosmos, and the ways creativity can help us process the parts of life that feel out of our control. At one point the discussion lands on a fascinating idea from physics: the possibility that there may be no single shared “now.” That maybe eternity isn’t just time stretching on forever, but something more like a different perspective altogether.
For this episode we’ve taken moments from across the conversation and turned them into a series of six sonnets—each one pulled from a different point in the discussion and reflecting a different theme that emerges along the way.
Musically, these poems are imagined in the spirit of madrigals—those rich, vocal chamber pieces from the Renaissance where several voices weave together around a poetic text. Madrigals have a way of holding both seriousness and playfulness at the same time, which actually fits this conversation pretty well.
Here are the sonnets you’ll hear in this episode:
“Virtual Friends”Inspired by the opening conversation about FAWM, songwriting, and meeting creative collaborators online, this sonnet reflects on how art connects people across distance and identity.
“Accept No Heaven Without a Switch”This one grows out of the discussion about childhood ideas of heaven and eternity—and the slightly terrifying thought of happiness that never, ever ends.
“No Common Now”The philosophical center of the episode. This sonnet explores relativity, perspective, and the idea that eternity might not be endless time, but a different way of seeing time.
“Flyers Everywhere”Drawn from a story about religious fear and end-times teaching, this poem focuses on how fear can shape young minds—and how deeply people need reassurance and community instead.
“Studio Brain”From the later discussion about therapy, stress, and creativity, this sonnet looks at art as a place where we try to regain a sense of control when life feels chaotic.
“An Album Waits (Pretty Pretty Maladies)”Inspired by the closing part of the conversation about AI, songwriting, and grief, this final sonnet reflects on how art often grows out of loss—and how creation can help us carry it.

S2E7 The Missing Eye

Season 2 Episode 7
The Missing Eye
In this episode, Scott and Mark sit down for a wide-ranging conversation with their guest, Heath Johnson.
Heath is a songwriter, arts advocate, and director of the historic Matthews Opera House and Arts Center. A former pastor who once studied for ministry, Heath’s journey has moved through seasons of faith, doubt, deconstruction, and reconstruction — experiences that now deeply inform both his music and his leadership in the creative community.
What begins as a reflection on Lent — and the provocative idea of “atheism for Lent” — expands into something far more layered.
Scott, Mark, and Heath explore doubt not as rebellion, but as refinement.They discuss trauma and intellectual questioning — and how easily those threads become tangled together.They examine fundamentalism — not just in religion, but in culture — and the cages people build in the name of certainty.They wrestle with altered states, spiritual experience, and whether meaning is diminished or deepened by understanding the brain.They consider healing — not as restoration of what was lost, but as learning to live with what remains.And throughout it all, they return to a recurring theme: love as the ground beneath belief systems, and as something that happens between people.
The conversation carries the energy and complexity of progressive rock — shifting rhythms, philosophical turns, emotional crescendos.
So this episode has been shaped into a five-song acoustic-leaning progressive rock suite. Each song draws from a specific portion of the discussion, and each leans into a different classic prog influence — Rush, Pink Floyd, Yes, and Kansas — before culminating in a final piece that blends them all.
Here’s a brief roadmap:
Song 1 – “To Doubt Divine (Scalpel, Not Sledgehammer)”
Inspired by the early discussion of Lent and deconstruction, this Rush-leaning piece explores the difference between demolition and refinement. Doubt becomes a tool — not a threat.
Song 2 – “Bicycle Visions (Touched Something)”
Drawn from the conversation about altered states and perception, this Pink Floyd–influenced track reflects on experience, trauma, and the thin boundary between neurological and spiritual insight.
Song 3 – “Barking in the Aisle (Surface-Level Holy)”
Based on reflections about worship culture and emotional manipulation, this Yes-inspired acoustic prog piece examines the tension between authentic encounter and performance.
Song 4 – “Between You (Kingdom in Three Dimensions)”
Rooted in the discussion of radical inclusion and the idea that the kingdom is “among” or “between” people, this Kansas-leaning track centers on love as action rather than ideology.
Song 5 – “The Missing Eye (Freedom, Not a Prize)”
Built from the closing reflections on healing, creativity, and transformation, this final hybrid epic reframes faith as process rather than transaction — and healing as integration rather than reversal.
This episode does not attempt to settle theology.
It leans into complexity.It risks nuance.It chooses depth over certainty.
And from that conversation, the music begins.

S2E6- Twelve Feet Behind Me

Faithfulcrum — Season 2, Episode 6
Twelve Feet Behind Me
In this episode, Mark and Scott circle some of the most enduring human questions—faith, fairness, belonging, mortality—without trying to solve them. What begins as a conversation about prayer becomes an excavation of inheritance: spiritual, familial, bodily, and cultural. Along the way, they confront exile from religious certainty, the cost of integrity, the slow approach of aging, and the quiet terror of living in a world that routinely sacrifices its children.
Twelve Feet Behind Me is not an episode about belief systems so much as how people live after belief systems fail—and what replaces them: attention, responsibility, humor, brotherhood, and a stubborn, joyful refusal to look away.
The episode is accompanied by five original piano-blues songs, inspired directly by the conversation. Together they form a loose musical suite: strident, masculine, joyful in the face of despair—echoing the spirit of early stride blues and the defiant euphoria of artists who found freedom inside limitation.
Featured Songs
1. Echoes Without an Amen
A song about prayer after prayer is gone. Opening the episode, this piece explores what remains when petition, certainty, and divine response fall away. It captures the strange freedom of speaking into silence—and choosing to speak anyway.
2. One Mother Is Enough
A song about inheritance without blood. Rooted in adoption, naming, and memory, this song reflects on fairness, parental faith, and the quiet ways values are passed on without doctrine. It honors love without nostalgia and belief without belief.
3. Run Out of Town
A song about exile for asking the wrong questions. This is the episode’s rupture point: when inquiry becomes heresy and community draws its lines. The song carries righteous anger, humor, and the clarity that comes from refusing a closed circle.
4. Twelve Feet Behind Me
A song about aging, walking, and the nearness of death. Inspired by Mark’s experience of physical vulnerability, this song gives the episode its title. Death is not dramatized—it is simply present, pacing patiently, keeping time.
5. Not the Plan
A song about refusing false explanations. Closing the episode, this song confronts moral absurdities: gun violence, power without accountability, and the emptiness of saying “it’s all part of the plan.” It rejects consolation that demands silence and insists on responsibility instead.

S2E5- Sing it Together

Faithfulcrum — Season 2, Episode 5
Sing It Together
In this episode of Faithfulcrum, the conversation wanders—intentionally and patiently—into the territory of soul, authenticity, creativity, and what it means to truly show up. What begins as a reflection on AI tools and “bringing the soul to the tool” opens into something much older and more human: the idea that the soul is not something to be summoned or forced, but something that appears only when it feels safe.
Scott Simpson, Mark, and guest Sharla Steever explore the soul as something shy, fragile, and resilient—more like a wild animal than a fixed possession. Along the way, they reflect on vulnerability, burnout, creativity, prayer, group singing, humor, and the ways love and attention quietly shape authentic connection. The conversation moves fluidly between philosophy and story, seriousness and laughter, skepticism and reverence, never trying to resolve the tension so much as dwell honestly within it.
This episode has also been reimagined as a vocal jazz song suite, drawing on the warmth and swing of the 1940s and 1950s—a musical form rooted in conversation, improvisation, and communal feeling. Each segment corresponds to a movement in the dialogue, together forming a cohesive musical arc.
🎶 Song Suite Segment Guide
1. Shy Soul
Opening reflections on soul, AI, and the Circle of TrustA gentle, swinging introduction that treats the soul as something wary but alive—like a deer at the edge of the woods. This segment sets the emotional tone: slow down, make space, don’t grab. The soul arrives only when it feels safe.
2. Masks, Mirrors, and Data
Authenticity, vulnerability, and the tension of technologyThis piece explores the difference between safety and avoidance, questioning whether turning to tools—AI included—can feel easier than risking ourselves with other people. Beneath the swing is a subtle unease about performance, masks, and being seen.
3. Love Is the Place
Sharla Steever on soul as the place where love shows upWarm and grounded, this segment centers love as the defining quality of the soul. It lingers on connection, acceptance, and the way being truly seen can reignite a flickering inner flame.
4. Burnout Ain’t About Fire
Burnout, vocation, and misplaced promotion — up-tempo swingLively and forward-moving, this up-tempo number reframes burnout not as overwork, but as the cost of giving what you don’t actually have. Its energy mirrors the insight: when the work fits, it feeds you back.
5. Who Are You Writing For?
Creativity, audience, humor, and artistic honestyPlayful and self-aware, this segment reflects on why we create at all—whether for others, for ourselves, or for someone who may never hear it. Humor and vulnerability intertwine as the song embraces imperfection and intention.
6. Sing It Together
Prayer, community, awe, and shared songThe suite closes with a communal feeling—less about belief than belonging. Prayer becomes mindfulness, singing becomes connection, and voices blend into something larger than any individual. The ending invites listeners to stay awhile, humming together.

S2E4 - Bring Soul to the Tool

Faithfulcrum — Season 2, Episode 4
Bring Soul to the Tool
In this episode of Faithfulcrum, Mark and Scott circle a question that refuses to stay technical: what happens to the human soul when our tools begin to speak back to us? Beginning with fears of AI as something demonic or exploitative, the conversation ranges widely—through science fiction, loneliness, attachment, imagination, culture, and the long human habit of turning new technologies into mirrors for our deepest needs.
Threaded through the episode is a seven-part musical suite in a comical, dark cabaret style—part Weimar, part carnival sermon, part philosophical confession. Each segment distills a moment from the conversation into song, not to resolve the questions, but to embody them.
“The Great C Knows Everything” opens the suite with awe and irony, invoking the all-knowing machine as oracle, prophet, and unreliable god.
“Hallucinations in Orbit” skewers the false confidence of artificial authority, where answers arrive polished, persuasive, and sometimes entirely wrong.
“The Sacrifice of the Young” turns tender and unsettling, exploring loneliness, vulnerability, and the quiet costs of synthetic companionship.
“Vacuum Shaped Like You” reflects on attachment and loss, tracing how love creates absences that feel custom-made—and how easily something else can move in to fill them.
“Authentic or Attached” wrestles with a modern dilemma: unconditional acceptance without friction, and what we trade away when we choose comfort over conflict.
“Monsters, Tulpas, and Lovers” leans into imagination and creation, where stories, companions, and even lovers are built from language and belief—and sometimes outlast their makers.
“Bring Soul to the Tool”, the finale, steps back to a longer view, arguing that no tool is truly soulless until humans decide to leave it that way, and that meaning has always been something we manufacture together.
Season 2, Episode 4 suggests that culture itself—conversation, music, satire, and care—is how humans metabolize danger, novelty, and power. Like fire, like disco, like every tool before it, AI will take on the shape of the soul we bring to it.
This is Faithfulcrum.

S2E3 - Fear Gotta Way of Knockin' First

Faithfulcrum | Season 2, Episode 3“Fear Gotta Way of Knockin’ First”
Welcome to Faithfulcrum, where we slow the conversation down long enough to feel its weight—and maybe find our footing again.
In this episode, Season 2, Episode 3, we sit with a force that shapes our lives far more than we’d like to admit: fear. Not just fear of death, but fear in the streets, fear in politics, fear in violence, fear in silence, fear in the tools we build—and fear in what happens when we stop seeing each other as human.
Our conversation moves through seven movements, and each one becomes part of a single Delta blues suite titled “Fear Gotta Way of Knockin’ First.” You’ll hear each movement between parts of the conversation and hear it all as one continuous piece at the end—raw, acoustic, stripped down—an old blues voice carrying modern questions.
We begin with Fear in the Blood, where fear shows up before thought, before reason—pure reflex.
Then we move into Words That Make Us Shake, where rhetoric, surveillance, and silence teach us to edit ourselves.
In Frozen Men, Hard Lessons, we look at trauma—how fear trains us for survival but leaves reflection undeveloped.
Ruthless Hands, Human Hearts wrestles with violence, war, and the dangerous ease of dehumanization.
At the center is The Pause Between the Blow, that fragile moment where reaction can stop and something else can happen.
From there, Tools Ain’t the Devil asks what responsibility really belongs to us when we blame guns, machines, or technology.
And finally, Live the World You Want closes the suite with a refusal to live as victims—choosing instead to practice the world we say we want, right now.
This episode doesn’t offer easy answers. But it does offer a rhythm—a place to pause, to listen, and maybe to decide how you’ll respond when fear comes knockin’.
This is Faithfulcrum.Season 2. Episode 3.“Fear Gotta Way of Knockin’ First.”

S2E2: Chad Loves Me

🎙️ Season 2 Episode 2: Chad Loves Me
Podcast Summary:
In this warm, winding conversation, Scott, Mark, and guest Amy Abeln explore the strange new intimacy of creating with AI—especially when it flatters you. What does it mean when a machine tells you your writing is brilliant? Can digital tools deepen creativity, or do they quietly take something away? And how do you keep your true voice alive inside the noise?
Amy shares stories of her Chicago-based activism, her cancer experience, and her awakening to a kind of post-pretense life. The group talks about burnout, beauty myths, art as survival, spiritual frameworks, and the old fear of being eaten by strangers. It’s a rich, curious dialogue shaped by humor, vulnerability, and the power of storytelling.
Threaded throughout are six short Mountain Music songs—hand-carved from the episode transcript itself and sung in the style of early Appalachian folk. With banjo, harp, dulcimer, and fiddle, these high-lonesome melodies carry forward the episode’s themes of voice, identity, and connection.
Songs featured in this episode:
1. That Wasn’t Me (But It Sounded Good)→ A gentle reckoning with the choice to sound polished at the cost of sounding true.
2. Chad Loves Me→ A wry ballad about AI praise, flattery, and remembering how to trust your own voice.
3. Gotta Feed Myself Too→ A working person’s hymn to making art not for glory, but to stay alive inside.
4. Haunted and Glowing→ A spirited ode to aging boldly in a world obsessed with youth and beauty tools.
5. They Didn’t Eat Me→ A truehearted folk tale about trusting strangers, picking up hitchhikers, and not being eaten.
6. The Next Thing Happens→ A peaceful song about death, transition, and the quiet grace of not needing resolution.
 
Music Style: Old-world folk, feminine Appalachian harp tones, intimate front-porch vocals, stripped-down arrangements.