The RELEVANT Podcast

This week Cory Asbury joins us. He walked away from worship music five years ago—we talk about what pulled him back and why it's different this time. His new worship record, Outsing the Angels, is out September 18.
In Slices, Jesse brings up the Tesla Cyber Cab, which is now driving around Austin with no steering wheel, no rearview mirror and no brake pedal, and the federal government has questions. (He also has a theory about what’s actually driving them.) Derek tells us how Skilla Baby’s prayer took over The Breakfast Club this week, and Marty tells the story of the 1986 Zelda art where Link is kneeling in a church praying to Jesus.
Also, water parks are the last lawless place in America, and somebody in Virginia Beach burned down a 50-foot gorilla named Hugh Mungus.
Then One Has to Go closes it out: find out what slow jams, Good Charlotte, and Fast and Furious have in common.
Highlights:
03:00 — Water parks: the last lawless place in America
06:22 — Hugh Mungus, the 50-foot gorilla an arsonist burned down
11:17 — Slices: Tesla's Cyber Cab shipped without a brake pedal, and the feds noticed
18:48 — Marty walks away from a Waymo wreck
21:38 — Skilla Baby's prayer alarm goes off on The Breakfast Club
26:06 — Link was praying to Jesus, and Nintendo of America took it out
31:53 — Bible Adventures, bootleg cartridges and the Christian Marvel comics
33:52 — Cory Asbury on leaving worship music and what brought him back
42:39 — One Has to Go

This week SEU Worship joins us — we talk about the SEU Outpouring and their new album 'Found in the Field.' 
In RELEVANT Buzz, 'Scary Movie' star Anna Faris opens up on Chelsea Handler's podcast about her 14-year-old son and the conversations he keeps having with her about Jesus. Then the biggest artist in music right now, Ella Langley, is rewriting the record books and getting bolder about God from the stage. We play what she said at a recent show. Then there's 'Death of the Pastor's Wife,' the new Netflix series about Mica Miller, the South Carolina pastor's wife whose death became a national story.
In Slices, a 47-year-old Bay Area pastor made a college football roster and is now a defensive end at a community college. And scientists have worked out how to turn plastic bottles into protein cookies for disaster zones and deep space crews (nobody has actually eaten one yet). 
We close the show with a bracket game ranking five years of Emily’s time at RELEVANT: the Eras Tour, girl dinner, jalapeño poppers, a church prom photo. It's her last episode with us, and we send her off the right way.
Coincidentally, we also let you know about some new job openings over at RELEVANTmediagroup.com. 
Highlights:
02:24 — Derek on teenagers again
04:52 — The lame duck era
08:59 — Derek's Dell call center exit stories
13:37 — Jesse quits Kmart
17:06 — RELEVANT Buzz: Anna Faris on her son Jack's faith
21:58 — Ella Langley's record-breaking run and her mini sermon
26:26 — 'Death of the Pastor's Wife' on Netflix
30:33 — SEU Worship on 'Found in the Field'
38:34 — Slices: a 47-year-old pastor makes a college football roster
44:09 — Slices: plastic bottles into protein cookies
47:17 — The Emily Brown Bracket Challenge
58:34 — Five years of Emily Brown
59:37 — We're hiring

This week we're joined by Michael Cochren, the soul-and-blues frontman of Cochren & Co. He talks about the eight years he spent waiting on an answer from God and why he refuses to say God is good just because things finally worked out. We spotlight the band's new album, 'Runs in the Blood.'
In RELEVANT Buzz, Cory Asbury posted and deleted a shirtless workout photo, apologized for it and then got roasted by every friend he has in Christian music. Also, survivors launched the first national database of Protestant leaders accused of abuse, years after the SBC voted to build one and then let it die. And The Promised Land, the Moses workplace mockumentary that started as a YouTube pilot, just signed Lionsgate and got a second season.
In Slices, Columbia House is finally shutting down, which mostly raises the question of how it was still open, and one of us confesses to running a stack of accounts under slightly different names to get free CDs as a teenager. And a woman in New Zealand went into cardiac arrest in a supermarket parking lot, got revived by a stranger and then got a parking ticket for it. 
Also in here: a follow-up on the resting heart rate situation, a public service announcement about energy drinks, and the actual reason last week's episode showed up five days late.
One Has to Go closes it out. And we're still taking answers to last week's question: What's something you wish you'd known going into your freshman year of college? Drop it in the comments or @ us. We're running your answers in a piece this week.
Highlights:
01:21 — Marty's new house and the California no-AC problem
04:07 — Is the house haunted
06:15 — The resting heart rate follow-up and a Celsius warning
07:48 — C4, Sour Patch Kids flavor and two hours of pins and needles
11:35 — David Blaine, stunt magic and the four kinds of magician
19:15 — Emily is podcasting from what appears to be a TJ Maxx dressing room
21:04 — Kohl's cash
22:13 — RELEVANT Buzz: Cory Asbury takes down the shirtless photo and apologizes
28:08 — Survivors launch the first national database of accused Protestant abusers
30:09 — The Promised Land gets a second season and Lionsgate
31:33 — Michael Cochren of Cochren & Co.
39:12 — Slices: Columbia House is shutting down after 71 years
43:34 — She died in a parking lot and still got a ticket
48:34 — Why last week's episode was late
50:05 — One Has to Go

This week, "This Is How We Do It" singer Montell Jordan joins us. He and his wife, Kristin, went from platinum records and world tours to planting a church, and they talk about what was missing in the middle of all that success. Also on the show, Ryan Ellis, who spent a decade writing worship music and now shows us what else he’s got. We spotlight his new album, ‘No Halo.’
In RELEVANT Buzz, Saints quarterback Drew Brees went into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and built his speech around the day Christ changed his life. In other sports news, the Chicago White Sox handed out a record-breaking number of Pope hats. A new Harvard study suggests the loneliness epidemic may not be for the reasons we assume. And Stranger Things actor Caleb McLaughlin opens up about his faith journey.
In Slices, the FAA solved its air traffic controller shortage by advertising the job to gamers, and a guy in San Francisco bought a billboard for an AI chatbot that turns out to be him. One Has to Go closes it out, and we tell you about four open positions we’ve posted at relevantmediagroup.com.
Editorial Question of the Week: What's something you wish you knew before starting your freshman year? Drop it in the comments or on our socials. We'll read the best ones on next week's show and turn them into an article at relevantmagazine.com.
Highlights:
01:53 — Derek on teenage boys 
04:15 — New York smells and we fix it
08:36 — Cameron's resting heart rate becomes a group intervention 
17:20 — RELEVANT Buzz: Drew Brees' Hall of Fame speech 
19:03 — The time Oprah tried to wipe off Drew Brees' birthmark on live TV 
23:11 — The White Sox gave away 40,000 Pope hats 
26:02 — Harvard says loneliness tracks with income, not gender 
31:05 — Caleb McLaughlin on the faith he found on his own 
34:41 — Montell and Kristin Jordan 
40:30 — Ryan Ellis 
47:34 — Slices: The FAA recruited gamers to run air traffic control 
51:26 — The San Francisco AI chatbot that is one guy typing 
59:10 — Editorial Question of the Week 
59:45 — One Has to Go

This week we're joined by Lily Hooten of Housefires, the Atlanta worship collective, to talk about their new album House Church Vol. 001. She talks with Emily about how the record came together and where the collective is going from here.
In RELEVANT Buzz, “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” singer Mike Posner is going public about finding faith, his baptism and laying out what he thinks being a Christian actually requires of him. We also get into a Gen Z trend that gives singleness a rebrand, plus the A-list artists selling mystery concert tickets for a low price to combat rising concert prices. 
In Slices, The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers says he's thinking about quitting music and points at his dad as the reason, and Cameron brings a story about maybe the real reason people are stealing those Flock surveillance cameras. Somewhere in there Jesse invents the meeting poncho, which he is convinced is a great idea. And Emily has a can’t-miss announcement at the end of the show.
Editorial Question of the Week: What's a worship song lyric you can't unhear once you notice it? Drop your answer in the comments or @ us. We're reading them on next week's episode.
Highlights:
02:52 — Jesse's home alone and after 10 hours the house is already destroyed
11:22 — The meeting shirt, and the case for a back flap
16:07 — SkyMall is somehow still online
18:19 — Sharper Image vs. Brookstone, peak capitalism
22:27 — RELEVANT Buzz: Mike Posner gets baptized
28:06 — Gen Z, dating apps and solo maxxing
33:24 — Mystery concert tickets, with one catch
36:15 — Lily Hooten of Housefires
43:36 — Slices: Brandon Flowers on quitting music
47:35 — Google's AI said Flock cameras are full of gold
52:50 — Editorial Question of the Week
53:43 — Emily has an announcement