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A Commitment to Reality

A Commitment to Reality

By: Christian Research Institute
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About this listen

 Hosted by Dave Hanegraaff

A Commitment to Reality is a podcast for a post-truth—and increasingly post-reality—age. We are living through one of the most disorienting periods in human history—leaving many to wonder: What is reality? As artificial intelligence accelerates and institutional trust erodes, our shared sense of what is real continues to crumble. Reality is the way the world truly is—independent of our beliefs, opinions, or illusions. If truth is the map by which we navigate our lives, then it is no surprise that we feel disoriented when we live by lies. The post-truth, post-reality crisis is not merely an intellectual problem; it is an existential one. A commitment to reality is a dedication to discerning what is true and developing the discipline to live in alignment with that truth—with reality. This podcast is an apologetic for reality—each episode serving as an intentional act of grounding our existence together as we commit to what is beautiful, good, and true.Copyright Christian Research Institute Spirituality
Episodes
  • What Part of You Has Come Here to Die? Recovering a Wild Christianity with Martin Shaw

    What Part of You Has Come Here to Die? Recovering a Wild Christianity with Martin Shaw
    Mar 10 2026
    “What part of you has come here to die?”

    It’s a question that Martin Shaw—one of our great living storytellers—is famous for asking.

    Shaw offers these kinds of provocations to a Western world where Christianity has largely been domesticated and desperately needs to recover its wildness.

    Prayer doesn’t feel real to you?

    Rip up a twenty-dollar bill every time you pray.

    On your phone too much?

    Smash it with a hammer.

    Have something you need to confess but are afraid to tell another living soul?

    Dig a “confessional hole” in the ground with your bare hands and shout it into the earth.

    In this episode of A Commitment to Reality, Shaw joins Dave Hanegraaff to explore how to recover a wild Christianity in a world where faith for many has become cold, abstract, and domesticated.

    Thank you for joining A Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff. Follow A Commitment to Reality wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube for full episodes + clips: https://www.youtube.com/@ACommitmenttoReality

    (Timestamps below.)



    0:00 — Intro / Friends in Common Recovering Wild Christianity
    2:20 — Belief is cool again—Atheism is for old people
    3:45 — Aesthetic Arrest
    6:45 — You don’t want persona, you want presence
    8:00 — Make a covenant with limit in a culture of excess
    13:55 — Growing up the son of a preacher man
    17:15 — The cost of becoming religious
    23:05 — What is myth? (And why is it not what we think?)
    27:30 — On Sectarian Christianity
    30:00 — Theology without practice is the theology of demons
    31:35 — Night vigils and reclaiming initiation rites
    35:50 — What part of you has come to die?
    42:15 — His home burned down—Discussion of losing everything.
    45:00 — What is a saint?
    46:35 — Death — how can we breathe new life into death?
    50:40 — The value of a good cry
    53:45 — How to tell our stories differently
    56:00 — On your phone too much? Smash it
    57:10 — Struggling with prayer? Rip up money when you pray
    59:20 — Confessional holes—dig a hole with your hands and confess into the earth
    1:00:40 — In a world that feels unreal, what feels real?
    1:02:30 — Johnny Cash had a Boy Named Sue. Glen Hansard has a Boy Named Grace: Dave tells the story of naming his son Grace.
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • When Ideas Meet Reality — Economics, AI, and Fasting with Jay Richards

    When Ideas Meet Reality — Economics, AI, and Fasting with Jay Richards
    Feb 24 2026
    Jay Richards and Dave Hanegraaff explore why reality requires commitment, embodiment, and disciplined practices that keep us grounded when our digital lives lead us into abstraction.

    This is a wide-ranging conversation, beginning with the reality of economics before diving deep into the accelerating presence and authority of AI and why the tech debate is ultimately about anthropology—what a human person is, and what we’re becoming.

    Jay makes the case for why the forgotten discipline of fasting is a forgotten fountain of fortitude—for body, mind and soul—especially in a culture of excess increasingly out of touch with reality.

    Follow A Commitment to Reality wherever you listen.

    TIMESTAMPS

    00:00 – Intro
    00:30 – I used to hate you—the value of conversation and actually listening
    03:00 – How to change your mind
    05:15 – How social media bubbles create reality distortion
    07:35 – Go outside—embracing embodiment in a digitized world
    11:15 – Intentionality and going analog in an increasingly digital world
    15:10 – Beneficial uses of AI
    18:40 – We can’t stop AI: fear, inevitability, and panic
    20:20 – Metaphysics/anthropology: the real battleground beneath AI debates
    22:14 – Is AI demonic? What’s actually happening “under the hood” with AI tech?
    26:45 – “AI” is a marketing term—how that language shapes fear of AI
    28:30 – How AI could create a massive class divide
    32:25 – Mamdani and socialism—the power of images vs reality
    36:45 – The benefit of being able to say “I used to think that”
    41:25 – How to be productive
    45:00 – Why did most Christians stop fasting?
    50:00 – The appeal of ascetic practices in a culture of excess
    55:15 – Combatting spiritual warfare with fasting
    58:00 – Physical benefits of fasting explained—and how to begin
    1:08:30 – Why flipping the old food pyramid is a great idea
    1:13:00 – I hate talking about fasting—but we need to talk about fasting
    1:16:20 – How Eastern Christianity can lead a revival in fasting for all Christians
    1:18:10 – The forgotten gift of fasting seasons like Advent and Lent
    1:19:00 – “A feast without a fast is a strange, half-finished thing”
    1:23:30 – Fasting is a skill—how to start
    1:26:00 – Best practices for grounding us in reality
    1:27:40 – Where are we most eager to look away from reality?
    1:31:55 – Understanding what A Commitment to Reality means
    1:32:35 – In a world that feels increasingly unreal, what feels real to you?
    1:34:00 – New Atheism is dead
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    1 hr and 36 mins
  • Making a Commitment to Reality — with Frederica Mathewes-Green

    Making a Commitment to Reality — with Frederica Mathewes-Green
    Feb 24 2026
    Welcome to A Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff.

    Frederica Mathewes-Green and Dave Hanegraaff explore the importance of “shared reality” in a post-truth age—and why the most important word in the title might be commitment.

    This is a wide-ranging conversation about what it means to live in alignment with reality, while also hitting topics such as how the internet is optimized for outrage, why our social muscles are atrophying, and why AI feels different from every other tool: it presents itself like a person—earning trust and authority fast.

    Along the way we explore how to respond with everyday practices that re-align us with reality.

    Follow A Commitment to Reality wherever you listen.

    TIMESTAMPS

    00:00 – Intro
    00:49 – What A Commitment to Reality means
    07:17 – Who is Frederica Mathewes-Green?
    12:35 – The Glenn Beck moment: how listening changes conceptions
    15:23 – How is your soul?
    17:20 – What breaks your heart?
    19:15 – Social atrophy—why can’t we communicate anymore?
    23:44 – TV and the Internet—Architects of Anger
    25:15 – Why is it so hard to change our minds?
    29:05 – Charlie Kirk and the courage to speak up
    35:00 – Theology in West vs East: knowing about God vs. knowing God
    40:55 – Feelings and emotions are not the same (why that distinction matters)
    48:20 – How important is getting it right when it comes to truth?
    49:55 – Truth as living reality—alive like a forest, not dead like a cold statue
    56:15 – The Replication Crisis—A Modern Tower of Babel?
    59:30 – AI is dangerous, irresistible and irreversible
    1:01:00 – My cat died and ChatGPT comforted me—why AI feels real (and scary)
    1:14:25 – Are we experiencing true “Future Shock” today?
    1:16:13 – AI as the anti-Eucharist
    1:19:30 – AI is already an authority and everywhere in our lives
    1:21:30 – Practices that can re-orient us to reality
    1:28:00 – The pursuit of imperfection in a world where everything is the same
    1:31:00 – Do we need to follow the news?
    1:35:15 – Why reality must include the miraculous
    1:40:10 – Frederica Mathewes-Green is writing a new book?
    1:43:40 – How well does ChatGPT handle profoundly spiritual topics?
    1:47:10 – In a world that feels increasingly unreal—what feels real to you?
    1:48:45 – Synesthesia
    1:50:15 – Public challenge to Frederica’s son—David Mathewes to write a song about “A Commitment to Reality”
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 53 mins
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