WESTMONT, IL—InterVarsity Press is pleased to announce that sociologist and pop-culture expert Nancy Wang Yuen will be the host for the third season of The Disrupters podcast. With more than two hundred thousand downloads, the next season of the weekly podcast is set to launch on December 2.
Yuen is the author of Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism and coeditor with Deshonna Collier-Goubil of Power Women: Stories of Motherhood, Faith, and the Academy. She serves as an associate professor of sociology at Biola University. She has appeared on PBS, NPR, MSNBC, CBS News, NBC News, BBC World, and Dr. Phil. She is a guest writer at CNN, Elle, Los Angeles Times, NBC, and Newsweek.
Yuen said, “This season of The Disrupters invites a diverse group of believers, many of whom are some of the biggest names in their fields and changing popular culture as we know it. I think listeners will be surprised, challenged, and delighted by how they talk about faith, identity, and their creative work.”
The first two seasons were hosted by Fr. Esau McCaulley, author of Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope, assistant professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. Interviews with guests like Beth Moore, Sho Baraka, Tish Harrison Warren, Dominique Gilliard, and others focused on a specific disruption—a break, interruption, or disturbance—in the church. This season the focus will move from a negative disruption of the evangelical church to a more positive posture of disruption of the secular spaces. By speaking with guests who are actively living out their faith in places of cultural importance, the third season of The Disrupters will demonstrate how faith can be lived out in peaceable, but nonetheless, disruptive ways to improve the world.
“We loved what Esau McCaulley brought to The Disrupters for the first two seasons, which made the show what it became, a hybrid of theology, biblical studies, and culture that fit him perfectly,” said Helen Lee, one of the executive producers of the podcast. “It has been a gift to have him as our host the first two seasons. But once he stepped down, we became excited about the prospect of disrupting The Disrupters with a new direction for season three, and Nancy Wang Yuen gives us that opportunity. Given Nancy’s unique place at the intersection of popular culture, Asian American identity, and faith, she will bring a fantastic, fresh lens to this season, and we can’t wait to showcase the conversations she is having with guests who you may not have even realized were Christian but whose faith is shaping what millions of people are watching, hearing, and reading. I think this season will both captivate our current listeners and potentially have an evangelistic impact on new listeners as they hear stories of faithful living that will surprise and inspire them.”
Some of the confirmed guests for the third season include:
- Min Jin Lee, author of Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, a National Book Award finalist and one of the New York Times Ten Best Books of 2017.
- Terence Lester, author of I See You and When We Stand. He is the founder of Love Beyond Walls, a not-for-profit organization focused on poverty awareness and community mobilization.
- Peace Amadi, author of Why Do I Feel Like This? She is a psychology professor, speaker, children’s book author, content creator, and host.
- Gene Luen Yang, American-born Chinese cartoonist whose first graphic novel from First Second Books was a National Book Award finalist. His two-volume graphic novel Boxers & Saints won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was a National Book Award Finalist.
- Scott Derrickson, the director and screenwriter of The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Doctor Strange.
- Jason Chu, a rapper and activist whose work has been presented on the National Mall in Washington DC and curated in the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs virtual exhibition.
“I look forward to talking with a diverse group of culture movers and history makers who live out their faith in unexpected ways,” Yuen said. “I hope this season’s conversations with people of faith who disrupt culture in creative ways will inspire listeners to do the same. I always do my research and believe in bringing depth and authenticity to every conversation.”
The Disrupters podcast will be available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other major podcast distributors. For a sneak peek, check out the trailer for the third season of The Disrupters at ivpress.com/the-disrupters-podcast.
