Uncovered: Life Beyond
Join the conversations of Rebecca and Naomi, two ex-Amish Mennonite women who jumped the proverbial fence in their younger years and later experienced college as first-gen, non-traditional students. They discuss pursuing formal education while raising a family, navigating the hidden curriculum of academia, and other dimensions of reimagining a life beyond high-demand religion. Send your questions to uncoveredlifebeyond@gmail.com.
Episodes
Rebecca and Naomi explore why curiosity requires courage, especially for those on the margins. We examine how gender, race, and religious upbringing shape who feels safe to ask questions and who faces consequences for challenging the status quo.
• Safety is a prerequisite for curiosity, but not everyone is equally encouraged to be inquisitive
• Women, particularly women of color, often face negative conse...
Celebrating Rebecca's recent college graduation has been a long time coming! In this episode, we reflect on the challenges and rewards she experienced as a midlife student as well as on the complicated transition to life after graduation.
• What it was like starting college without knowing all available options or having proper guidance
• How she learned to ask for help (including successfully advoca...
This episode recaps a family reunion we recently attended, tracing five generations back to our great-great-grandfather Daniel D. Miller, discovering unexpected connections and untold stories that shape how we see ourselves today.
• Rebecca and Naomi join with Margaret (Naomi's sister) to discuss their experiences at a gathering of the descendants of Daniel D. and Mary Miller's ten sons.
• The...
Tricia joins Rebecca and Naomi to share her journey from homeschooled student to college graduate and beyond, offering valuable insights for first-generation students navigating higher education without traditional guidance.
• Following curiosity and determination despite lack of traditional educational pathways
• Navigating college applications and standardized tests without guidance counselors
• Bal...
Patricia Lewis shares her remarkable journey from financial struggle to stability by challenging traditional gender roles and overcoming the shame of accepting public assistance. After marrying her husband who she met while teaching in Japan, they returned to the U.S. to start a family in the midst of the Great Recession. Through the birth of their five sons and many job changes, they faced years of financial hardship...
Rebecca and Naomi explore how men in progressive spaces often default to patriarchal behaviors when challenged, despite claiming to be allies and feminists.
• Deconstruction requires ongoing work rather than simply changing labels or terminology
• Tim Whitaker and The New Evangelicals controversy reveals common patterns of male entitlement
• Men who claim to be allies often revert to control tactics w...
Financial autonomy is crucial to everyone's wellbeing, but what happens when one partner refuses to engage in conversations about money? We explore the dynamics of financial stonewalling and share practical strategies for taking ownership of your adult responsibilities.
• Financial issues can become control mechanisms when one partner refuses to engage in good faith
• Both men and women have been so...
Financial autonomy for stay-at-home parents means having options and being able to exercise them without justification or permission, even when you're not collecting a paycheck. We examine how historical patterns like the law of coverture have evolved into modern expectations that devalue domestic labor while romanticizing the stay-at-home parent role.
• Economists estimate the unpaid labor of stay-at-ho...
Rebecca and Naomi tackle the often-taboo subject of financial freedom for women breaking away from restrictive traditions and relationships where money is used as a form of control. They explore the intentional ways financial dependence is created and maintained, especially in religious contexts.
• Many women go from parents' homes to married life with no financial experience or autonomy
• Financial ...
We're proud to introduce our friend, Rebekah Mui, who has traveled around the world in pursuit of education and more authentic faith expressions. Using her recent Facebook post as a point of departure, we discuss the role of mentorship in academia, the responsibilities of first-gen students to open doors for those who follow, and why deep learning necessarily leads to humility. (Content warning for a few spicy ta...
This episode is a call to reframe our past experiences in high-demand religious communities (especially those of Anabaptist origin) as preparation for meaningful action in our world today. Hosts Naomi and Rebecca explore the significance of core beliefs over outward symbols, advocating for a reclaiming of personal values and the potential for community engagement.
• The incongruity of Christian nationalism a...
In today’s episode, we explore the shifting beliefs within Anabaptism against the backdrop of growing Christian nationalism. We reflect on our own journeys, the influence of childhood literature, and the need for active compassion towards marginalized communities.
• The history of the Anabaptist movement and its relevance today
• Understanding the conflict between Anabaptist principles and contemporary ...
Join us as we share recent personal wins and take on a listener question about dealing with passive-aggressive communication. We discuss reasons why direct communication can feel so difficult for some of us and how we can learn to do it anyway. As we look back on our own life experiences, we talk about the questions that stumped us and people who inspired us.
- What's so toxic about following the rules and tryi...
What advice would we give our younger, deconstructing selves if we could go back in time a decade or two? Join us, Rebecca and Naomi, as we reflect on the process of discovering ourselves beyond the confines of a prescribed religious identity. Inspired by an Instagram post by religious harm recovery coaches Cara and Rachael, we share six transformative insights that anyone redefining their identity might find helpful....
We, Rebecca and Naomi, sit down to recap our holidays and reflect on the ways traditions and expectations have evolved over the years. Somewhere between the low-frills Christmas traditions of our background and the extravagant expectations of Pinterest and Instagram today, can we make meaningful memories without sacrificing Mom's sanity in the process? Is it better to sacrifice spontaneity to get the precise gift...
Last week we teased a book review for this episode, but--plot twist! We decided Julia Cameron's classic book, The Artist's Way deserves much more time than one episode. Instead, today we're discussing external and internal reasons we might doubt our creative abilities.
First, though, we catch up on each other's lives and congratulate Margaret Schrock on her recent publication, a natural ...
If you've had any exposure at all to evangelical cinema over the past decade, it's almost certain that you're familiar with the film God's Not Dead and maybe even the sequels it has spawned. Recently we (Naomi and Rebecca) watched it for the first time. Unsurprisingly, we have thoughts which we share in this episode.
First of all, we are very curious about the fever dream that must have ...
In this episode we discuss the recently release documentary, For Our Daughters, based on a chapter of Kristin Kobes Du Mez' bestselling book, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. This relatively short documentary exposes toxic power dynamics with the Southern Baptist Convention among other religious institutions where victims are often shamed while predators are p...
What happens when women in a tightly-knit religious community decide they've had enough? It's a scenario rarely considered. Join us as we reflect on the gut-wrenching film directed by Sarah Polley and based on the novel by Miriam Toews.
While the film and novel take a real-life tragedy as their starting points, neither attempts to retell actual events. Instead, they invite us to imagine what might ...
How did Naomi stumble into one of the most defining experiences of her life? In this episode Rebecca gets the scoop on Naomi's (scenic) route to grad school as well as the good, the bad, and the unexpected that happened along the way. They discuss Naomi's inner struggles over combining motherhood and grad school, the impact on her children, as well as the activism she found at this intersection in her life. ...
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