Plain-spoken theology for complicated public faith.
Crackers and Grape Juice brings theological conversation down from stained-glass abstraction into grief, politics, preaching, books, and church conflict. Its roundtable style is warm but serious, with guests often carrying the deepest work.
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Crackers and Grape Juice is a theology conversation show with a working pastor's feel for how ideas land in actual churches. It is not a devotional shortcut. Episodes linger over scripture, preaching, public crisis, books, and politics with a patience that lets tensions remain visible. The show often begins in a specific encounter: a guest's book, a public event, a sermon question, an election, or a community in pain. Jewish loneliness after October 7 and amid suffering in Gaza becomes a way to think about minority identity, representation, and grief. Walter Bruggemann's work opens into biblical literacy, prophetic speech, empire, and the vocation of pastors. Amy Mantravadi's Reformation fiction becomes a doorway into death, justification by faith, purgatory, Luther, and the burden of holiness. Fleming Rutledge's preaching draws the panel toward sin, grace, human potential, Satan, and the agency of God. Caleb Campbell's work on Christian nationalism turns political alarm into a question of mission, discipleship, idolatry, and neighbor-love. Even an election preview is framed through religion, calamity, and moral consequence rather than horse-race chatter. The show's best moments come when participants name an uncomfortable claim and then stay with it. The talk can be loose around the edges, but the underlying concern is exacting. Scripture matters here. So do history, doctrine, and the habits of ordinary parish life. The mood is warm without being soft. Jokes appear, usually as relief rather than escape. The show gives guests room to think at length, and it expects listeners to follow more than a single polished takeaway. It is for people who want faith discussed plainly, but not thinly. Its recurring question is not whether theology is relevant. It assumes theology is already implicated in grief, power, preaching, voting, death, and hope.
Made for: For listeners who care about Christian theology, preaching, scripture, and public life, especially pastors and thoughtful church people. It suits people comfortable with long conversations that hold grief, doctrine, politics, and humor together.
What sets it apart: The show pairs informal banter with unusually serious theological guests and subjects. It resists polished religious shorthand, preferring conversations where scripture, tradition, and present-tense conflict have to answer to one another.
Crackers and Grape Juice began in the spring of 2016 with a conversation between Jason Micheli and Teer Hardy. In the years since, two shows have been added to the lineup, Strangely Warmed and (Her)Men*You*Tics, but the goal has remained the same: talking about faith without using stained-glass language.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Candid guest conversations connect Christian theology and denominational life to power, public conflict, preaching, and grief.
Crackers and Grape Juice turns theological conversation into a candid exchange among hosts and guests, with Jason Micheli and Teer Hardy moving easily between doctrine, church life, and public conflict.
Teer Hardy asks a rabbi about Jewish loneliness over Gaza; your ready-made answers can wait.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A careful conversation about Gaza, Jewish loneliness, and the strain of being made to answer for a community's public actions.
Rabbi Joseph returns to Crackers and Grape Juice for a conversation that starts with Gaza's suffering and widens into the loneliness that can come with Jewish identity when public attention turns belonging into unwanted representation.
A candid pastoral conversation about biblical literacy, sermon craft, and the work of teaching.
Walter Bergman's conversation from the vault takes up a pastoral problem with political edges: how churches can rebuild biblical literacy when memorable sermon stories start to stand in for Scripture itself.
A Reformation-minded discussion of holiness, assurance, and the fear of death.
Broken Bonds opens at one of the Reformation's most personal pressure points: how to live before the face of God when the pursuit of holiness starts to feel crushing.
A warm, searching conversation on why Fleming Rutledge keeps God's agency at the center.
Crackers and Grape Juice puts Will Willimon and Tony Robinson in a warm, learned conversation about Fleming Rutledge's preaching and writing, with particular attention to the way her work unsettles easy confidence in human goodness.
A searching theological conversation about loving Christian nationalist neighbors while rejecting government power as a tool for enforcing Christian identity.
Crackers and Grape Juice takes up Christian nationalism through a hard pastoral question: what does it mean to love a neighbor whose Christian identity is bound up with political power?
A clear Methodist review of the UMC's global breadth and its fault lines around sexuality, polity, marriage, and ordination.
Methodism comes through here as a tradition shaped by Anglican and Episcopal ties, flexible Eucharistic practice, and a United Methodist Church presented as one global body.
Indian politics, reported from the ground.
One university, heard through its own people.
Two Bible translators unpack Scripture's hardest passages, from Revelation's 666 to the Witch of Endor.
MJ Dorian's solo deep dives trace genius through Blake, McQueen, da Vinci, and Jung's Red Book.
Tommy introduces an episode where Jason interviews Sarah Henlicke-Wilson about her Kickstarter for a new book on the Transfiguration.
An interview with Brad East about his new book on the church, discussing theology and the people of God.
Interview with Brian about his new book on a poetic theology of the cross, discussing its inception and the centrality of the cross in Christian faith.
Dan Van Voorhis hosts Jason Micheli, a United Methodist pastor, on the 'Meet a Real Live' series to explain Methodism.
Crackers and Grape Juice’s Episode 438 follows Slice Penny’s account of drug trafficking, addiction, prison, and a Methodist preaching call.
Crackers and Grape Juice episode 460 has Tyr Hardy and Jason talking with Rabbi Joseph Edelheit about Gaza, Jewish loneliness, and how Christians should respond to the war.
["Crackers and Grape Juice revisits a 2017 vault conversation with Walter Brueggemann about resistance, empire, Sabbath, and Jubilee.", "Tyr Hardy, Jason, and Taylor host the discussion and identify themselves as United Methodist pastors in Virginia, while Brueggemann is introduced as an Old Testament scholar, prophetic preacher, and writer on the Psalms and the Prophets.", "Brueggemann says resistance is not mainly about Trump, naming 'military consumerism,' Pharaoh, and Roman power, and he ties 'Jesus is Lord' to the claim that 'Caesar is not Lord.'", "He pushes churches toward community organizing, intentional biblical teaching, and Sabbath as a challenge to the production-consumption machine."]
Amy Mantrovadi discusses Broken Bonds, volume one in her Reformation novel series, with Tier Hardy and Jason, and she also mentions the follow-up volume Face to Face.
Crackers and Grape Juice episode 457 brings Tier Hardy, Jason Michelli, Bishop Will Willimon, and Tony Robinson together to talk about Fleming Rutledge's preaching and writing.
Crackers and Grape Juice host Tier Hardy talks with Caleb Campbell, author of IVP's Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor, about why he treats Christian nationalism as a mission field.
An election preview episode featuring political expert Gretchen Purser discussing the upcoming election outcomes and stakes.