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Impossible Beauty

Impossible Beauty

By: Melissa Louise Johnson
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The brand of beauty we are so often sold is way too small. It divides and dis-integrates us. Melissa Louise Johnson is on a mission to re-discover authentic beauty. Not the counterfeit kind reserved for the toned and airbrushed, but a lasting kind of beauty. Eternal and sacred. Living and moving all around us. Join Melissa as she interviews men and women who exude internal and eternal beauty in order to reshape cultural scripts. It's time we re-discover what beauty truly is.Copyright Melissa Louise Johnson Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Episode 194: Lisa Diers RDN, LD, E-RYT-Is Diet Culture Disconnecting You from Your Body?

    Episode 194: Lisa Diers RDN, LD, E-RYT-Is Diet Culture Disconnecting You from Your Body?
    Aug 17 2026
    Diet and wellness culture have a way of disconnecting us from our bodies and a life-giving relationship with food. Thankfully, professionals like Lisa Diers are working to help people heal their relationship with their bodies and with food.

    Lisa Diers is a registered dietitian nutritionist and certified yoga teacher who specializes in supporting eating disorder and body image recovery. Lisa has a combined over 20 years of experience in nutrition and yoga services and previously served as the National Nutrition and Yoga Director for a large national eating disorder treatment program.

    In my time with Lisa, we discuss current lies associated with diet culture, how nutrition therapy and yoga can bring about reconnection with food and our bodies, and more about the Soul-Deep Beauty Retreat at Hinshon Farms on October 3rd. In a world where messages around food and our bodies can bring about confusion and disconnection, my hope is that this episode and the upcoming Soul-Deep Beauty Retreat might bring about grounding and reconnection. I can’t wait for you to listen.

    Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
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    34 mins
  • Episode 193: Lanta Davis-The Power of Your Imagination

    Episode 193: Lanta Davis-The Power of Your Imagination
    May 27 2026
    The truth is what our minds dwell on forms us. The stories and images we behold imprint themselves on us, shape who we become, and impact how we see the world. In this way, our imaginations are powerful. In today’s episode, Lanta Davis helps us better understand the power of our imaginations and how what we dwell on forms who are becoming.

    Lanta Davis is professor of humanities and literature in the John Wesley Honors College at Indiana Wesleyan University and the author of Becoming by Beholding: The Power of the Imagination in Spiritual Formation. Her writing has appeared in Christianity Today, the Christian Century, Smithsonian Magazine, Plough, and Christ and Pop Culture. In my time with Lanta, she discusses the importance of training our imaginations, why the imagination is a ‘stamp for the soul,’ and how and why it’s important to allow beauty to shape our imaginations.

    Lanta’s insights are fascinating and formational; I can’t wait for you to listen to our conversation.

    Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
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    46 mins
  • Episode 192: Kelsey McGinnis-The Dangers of Christian Diet and Wellness Culture

    Episode 192: Kelsey McGinnis-The Dangers of Christian Diet and Wellness Culture
    May 12 2026
    It seems like wellness influencers are everywhere these days: often touting diet and exercise habits, alongside a certain aesthetic, as the pathway to health and self-optimization. But what happens when this cultural trend gets conflated with Christian ideas, or as Kelsey McGinnis says it, when such ideas get “faith washed”?

    Kelsey Kramer McGinnis is a writer, musicologist, and the co-author of The Myth of Good Christian Parenting: How False Promises Failed a Generation of Evangelicals. Kelsey is also a regular contributor to Christianity Today, where she reports on worship practices, the music industry, and church culture. She also teaches music, theology, and social justice as a lecturer at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa.

    In my time with Kelsey, she shares research from her upcoming book, including what Christian diet and wellness culture is, its history, and how it can become problematic. We also discuss the rising prevalence of the fixation on ‘healthy eating,’ how certain Christian subcultures have adopted this trend, and when such a fixation might not be so healthy.This is such an important episode. I can’t wait for you to listen.

    Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.
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    54 mins
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