Christian apologetics with context and clarity.
Think Well is a Christian thought and apologetics show built around hard questions, biblical context, and public disagreement handled with care. Episodes move between book-study teaching, interviews, call-in debates, and reflection on how Christians face skeptical challenges.
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Think Well is a Christian apologetics and biblical studies show with a strong teaching spine. It treats belief as something that should be examined carefully. Ryan Pauley regularly frames episodes around the questions Christians hear from skeptics, callers, and people wrestling with Scripture. The show is direct. It does not avoid the hard passages. Recent episodes work through Old Testament laws, claims about slavery and violence, and the damage caused by reading isolated Bible verses without context. The repeated emphasis is interpretation. Scripture is read through storyline, history, culture, grammar, and the wider shape of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. Book-study episodes create a classroom rhythm, especially in the series around Dan Kimball's How Not to Read the Bible. Interviews broaden that rhythm. Dr. Ian Duguid brings Acts into a conversation about gospel boldness and the early church. Dr. John Marriott and Sean Wicks discuss assumptions that can lead people to see the Bible as harmful or unreliable. Debate episodes sharpen the format further. Callers question the Kalam Cosmological Argument, the resurrection of Jesus, and the logic of Christian belief. The exchanges are framed as disagreement that can remain thoughtful and respectful. That gives the show a practical edge. It is not only about accumulating answers. It is about preparing Christians to stay steady when faith meets opposition, doubt, or cultural change. The tone is earnest, organized, and occasionally informal, especially during live calls and listener questions. Think Well suits listeners who want apologetics connected to actual conversations rather than abstract talking points. Its best moments come when difficult texts and skeptical objections are slowed down enough to be handled with care.
Made for: Think Well is for Christians, students, and curious skeptics who want careful engagement with Scripture, apologetics, and cultural challenges. It especially suits listeners willing to sit with difficult Bible passages and live disagreement.
What sets it apart: The show mixes structured biblical teaching with call-in debate and author interviews, so ideas are tested in more than one setting. Its focus stays practical: preparing Christians for real conversations about faith, doubt, Scripture, and culture.
Training Christians to THINK WELL by curating conversations with Christian thinkers and giving a framework for engaging the culture with a biblical worldview.Ryan Pauly has been working with students for over a decade as a teacher, missionary, and apologist. He is the Founder and President of Think Well, the Director of Immersive Experiences at MAVEN, and an Adjunct Professor of Theology and Apologetics at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. His work creating online content, teaching, and speaking around the country focuses on equipping Christians to confidently and compassionately engage some of the most difficult cultural issues with a biblical worldview. Ryan holds a B.A. in Theo…
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A candid opening case for reading difficult biblical texts with context, evidence, and room to be wrong.
Why might reading the Bible unsettle belief instead of strengthening it? Ryan Pauley begins a 2026 study of Dan Kimball's "How (Not) to Read the Bible" with passages described as anti-women, anti-science, anti-gay, violent, or supportive of slavery.
Acts becomes a case for prayerful boldness and trust in the Spirit's work.
Think Well turns to Acts for a sober answer to a familiar Christian concern: what believers should say when they want to speak about the gospel. Dr.
A question-led Bible study invites Christians to think through difficult Old Testament passages with patience.
Think Well uses part five of its virtual book study to open up difficult and strange moments in the Old Testament, with Ryan Pauley framing the discussion as a place for questions before settled answers.
Two Bible translators unpack Scripture's hardest passages, from Revelation's 666 to the Witch of Endor.
Live sermons with Easter-shaped urgency.
Ryan Pauly discusses an atheist's 11 facts for evaluating claims about God and responds to audience comments.
Ryan Pauley discusses how people use personal outcomes like happiness as evidence for or against God, critiquing this reasoning.
This episode critiques atheist objections to the cosmological argument for God's existence, responding to Armin Navabi's book 'Why There Is No God'.
Ryan Pauley hosts part five of a virtual book study on Dan Kimball's 'How Not to Read the Bible,' focusing on strange Old Testament laws.
Host Ryan Pauly interviews Dr.
Think Well host Ryan Pauley interviews Dr.
Ryan Pauley introduces a series on strange Old Testament laws, inviting listener input for future episodes.
Ryan Pauley hosts a live call-in debate on the Kalam Cosmological Argument as evidence for God's existence, featuring four first-time callers.
Ryan Pauley discusses the importance of reading Bible verses in context, using Dan Kimball's book to explore proper biblical interpretation.
Ryan Pauley's Think Well interview with Dr.
Ryan Pauley hosts Think Well's episode 8 debate on whether Jesus's resurrection is fact or fiction, with Mirza challenging Christian historical arguments.
Think Well host Ryan Pauley introduces a 2026 study of Dan Kimball's How Not to Read the Bible, a book addressing anti-women, anti-science, pro-violence, pro-slavery, and other difficult passages.
Think Well host Ryan Pauley debates Shiloh, a Mormon caller, about hell, divine hiddenness, free will, and whether an all-loving, all-powerful God could save everyone.
Ryan Pauley opens with a Facebook post from Richard Suttles, "the Fallen Atheist," who says his church did "the exact same stuff that worked for them when they were kids, but the world changed." Using chapter 10 of Andrew and Christian Walker's "What Do I Say When?", Pauley says there is "now a social cost to being a Christian in many of America's most elite sectors," while rejecting both glamorizing persecution and labeling every disagreement as persecution.
Tanita Maddox, National Director of Generational Impact for Young Life, discusses her book on the seven questions Gen Z asks about God, including "Is God good?", "Can I trust you?" and "What is true?".
Think Well host Ryan Pauley interviews Moody Bible Institute professor Mikel Del Rosario about his book 'Did Jesus Really Say He Was God?', focusing on the blasphemy accusation in Mark 2:1-12.