Welcome back, to The Well Dwellers Podcast. I’m your host, Erik Freiburger, and I’m so glad you’ve returned to the well as we begin season 2.
In season one, we opened the space to wonder about the disabled life – its meanings, identity, what good news looks like, faith, and community. This season, it is my hope we can lean closer into the voices of disabled people and everyday life—their stories, their wisdom, their struggles, and their hope. Because as theologian Nancy Eiesland once wrote, “Disability is not a punishment from God, but a vivid reminder of the fragility and beauty of human life.” That’s where we begin—by listening to life as it is, not as we imagine it should be.
This season we’ll also ask questions that really matter; things that have really been percolating in my thoughts and personal life over the past few months. Questions like:
What does it mean to be called God’s elect in 1 Peter 1 and be a displaced disabled people?
How can creativity & the arts create divine encounters?
What are the positive & negative impacts of AI in the disabled world?
What is a disabled theology?
How does intersectionality between marginalized groups matter in a social justice movement against ableism?
And, others!
We’ll hear from voices across the spectrum—missional thinkers, disability advocates, artists, theologians, and from some of my other friends. Alan Hirsch once reminded us that “the church is always at its most faithful when it exists at the margins.” As we, the disabled overlooked, journey through that existence in a multitude of ways, we are able to embody that faithfulness and carry a story of great endurance needing to be heard by all.
We’ll listen to Keith Dow’s reflections on creativity and divine encounter, and Michael Morelli’s insights on the tricky polsrizing entanglement of AI and disability. I hope to spend some time with Zachary Weeks as he presses us toward a disability justice in society, and Fern Buszowski as she gently reminds us of hope’s endurance. And I hope we’ll get to engage with Richard Beck and his deep challenge that “the slavery of death is not simply about mortality—it’s about how fear dehumanizes us.” And his thoughts around how our joy has a geometry, a shape. We must learn to look outside ourselves to find it. It is also my hope to connect with my old prof and friend Dr. Mark Love to talk about pneumatology – the theology of the Holy Spirit, missional theology, and how they might meet with disability theology.
In all of this, we’re reaching for what Angela Reitsma Bick calls the “undone”—the courage to embrace unraveling, to see that in our undoing there might also be the seeds of a new wholeness.
And along the way, I’ll share short Well Dweller Moments—breaths of reflection, invitations to pause, and glimpses of how dignity and hope show up in unexpected places.
My fellow Well Dwelllers, season two is about stories, but it’s also about us. It’s about being human together—fragile, resilient, undone, and remade. As Howard Thurman once said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
So before I sign off on this season 2 opener, I want to ask you… what makes you, as people at the bottom of the well, come alive? I want to invite you to join me here in the Well Dwellers Podcast and be a guest on the show who shares their personal story and journey. No need for expertise, religious or spiritual affiliation, or feelings of exceptionalism. Just someone willing to share some of your journey and how you might answer these 3 simple questions:
How do you find meaning in the language of disability?
Where does dignity take root in your life?
And what is it that brings you hope—not only for tomorrow, but for today?
If you might be willing to join us here on the show, email me at erikfreiburger@substack.com. I hope we are able to meet you and get to know you more in the near future. Simi Linton said it best that, “By telling our stories, we claim space in a world that would rather we stay silent. Each story is a thread, and together they weave a tapestry of resistance.” Together in a world that would rather keep us invisible, let’s stand out, been seen, and be heard. Nothing about us without us.
So come with me. Draw deeply. Listen well. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll find life together at the bottom of the well.
Until next we meet!
