This summer, devastating floods struck Central Texas, leaving families, camps, and entire communities grieving and in shock. In response, the Echoes team hosted two live webinars to support parents, educators, and caregivers facing an urgent question: How do we help our kids cope with something like this?

In this season one finale, we share highlights from those gatherings—including two heartfelt conversations with trauma expert Dr. Jamie Aten. A seasoned psychologist and co-creator of Spiritual First Aid, Jamie has spent over 20 years responding to the world’s hardest disasters and has lived through personal trauma himself.

He’s joined in the second conversation by Kent Annan, host of the Better Samaritan Podcast, for an honest and hopeful dialogue about grief, parenting, and self-compassion. Together, they offer practical tools and spiritual insight for those walking children—and themselves—through fear, confusion, and loss.

Whether you're a parent, pastor, educator, or community leader, this conversation offers grace-filled wisdom for showing up with love, clarity, and resilience when it’s needed most.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Spiritual First Aid, co-created by Dr. Jamie Aten
• Philippians 4 and the Lord’s Prayer
• The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones
• Letter-writing reflection exercise: “Who helped you through this crisis?”
• 1 Corinthians 16:13 – “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith…”
• The Better Samaritan Podcast from Christianity Today
• Additional mental health resources related to the podcast episode
• Full recordings of the webinars included in the podcast excerpt

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We live in a difficult time. People have their opinions about how to solve problems, but distrust runs deep. People make promises—especially our politicians—but they can’t always deliver on those promises. In our season one finale, bestselling author and columnist David Brooks joins The Echoes Podcast to explore what’s really missing—and how we might find it again. Brooks helps us see that what’s broken in our world is not simply political, but spiritual and relational. He shares stories of moral formation and vulnerability, and together we practice the simple but powerful act of asking good questions. Along the way, we reflect on the limits of AI, the enduring power of art, and why overinvesting in friendship might just be the hope we need.

David Brooks is the author of The Road to Character, The Second Mountain, and How to Know a Person. A columnist for The New York Times and The Atlantic, he’s known for exploring the intersection of politics, culture, and morality.

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Road to Character and How to Know a Person by David Brooks

• East of Eden by John Steinbeck

• The Gift by Lewis Hyde (referenced contextually)

• Ronald Reagan’s address at the Laymen’s Leadership Institute in 1974 (excerpted clip begins at 6:50).

• “Remembering Jim Lehrer” on PBS

Subscribe to Echoes Magazine at hebfdn.org/echoes/subscribe/ to receive a beautiful, free print magazine each quarter.

What does it mean to create something beautiful—not despite our limitations, but because of them? We talk with bestselling author and artist Austin Kleon about creativity as resistance, the tension between process and product, and the courage to show our work. From crushed oyster shells to pink conchas, from ancient nun rhythms to the modern grind, this episode reminds us that creativity is not about abundance—it’s about attention. And it might just save our souls.

Our guest this week, Austin Kleon, is the New York Times bestselling author of Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work, and Keep Going. Known for his accessible insights into the creative process, he writes a widely followed weekly newsletter and shares his own journey of making art with words and pictures.

Notes

• Steal Like an Artist, Keep Going, and Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
• The Gift by Lewis Hyde
• Makoto Fujimura at Laity Lodge
• Pink concha painting by Eva M. Marengo Sanchez
• Get a beautiful quarterly print magazine for free at echoesmagazine.org