Exciting news! New episodes are dropping on my Take the Next Step podcast, and I’m sharing this one here so you won’t miss out. Be sure to follow Take the Next Step with Amy Julia Becker wherever you listen so you are sure to get future episodes. https://pod.link/1838911087

More about Take the Next Step: amyjuliabecker.com/step/

___

What if inclusion in schools didn’t have to be a constant fight? Adrian Wood, PhD, shares what actually helped her son with autism thrive in their public school system. Adrian and Amy Julia Becker explore:

• Building trust with educators
• Collaboration and creativity
• Navigating IEPs and transitions
• Small changes that make a big difference

Ask Me Anything: Record (or email) your question for our upcoming Ask Me Anything episode: amyjuliabecker.com/qr/

04:30 Navigating Public School for Children with Disabilities
06:53 Creative Thinking and Working Together as a Team
15:55 Strategies for Success

__

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• VLOG: Tales of an Educated Debutante

_

WATCH this conversation on YouTube: Amy Julia Becker on YouTube

SUBSCRIBE to Amy Julia's Substack: amyjuliabecker.substack.com

JOIN the conversation on Instagram: @amyjuliabecker

LISTEN to more episodes: amyjuliabecker.com/shows/

_

ABOUT:

Adrian Wood is the creator of the vlog Tales of an Educated Debutante. She has a PhD in Educational Research and contributes to Today Parents, The Today Show, and the Love What Matters blog. She lives in rural eastern North Carolina with her family. She is the co-author of Autism Out Loud.

CONNECT with Adrian on her website (talesofaneducateddebutante.com), Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

__

Take the Next Step is produced in collaboration with Hope Heals. Hope Heals creates sacred spaces of belonging and belovedness for families affected by disabilities to experience sustaining hope in the context of inclusive, intentional, inter-ability communities. Find out more about our resources, gatherings, and inter-ability communities at hopeheals.com. Follow on Instagram @hopeheals.

We want to hear your thoughts. Send us a text!

Connect with me:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Website

Thanks for listening!

S9 E9 — Our culture feels like a battlefield, but perspectives and actions change when we see it as a garden we’ve forgotten how to tend. Artist and author Makoto Fujimura shares with Amy Julia Becker how art, wonder, and imagination can restore our capacity to love, hope, and tend culture with care. Together they explore his book Art Is: A Journey into the Light, slow art, spiritual imagination, and a gentler way to live faithfully in a fractured world.

00:00 Introduction to Makoto Fujimura and the Process of Art
07:08 Stewardship Responsibility for Imagination and Creativity
13:34 The Importance of Slow Art and Observation
19:19 Engaging with Darkness in Art
22:15 The Role of Artists within the Darkness of Society
29:07 Giving Away Beauty: The Heart of Art
34:07 Imagination, Faith, and Love
42:58 Culture Care: Changing the Metaphor
__

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Art Is: A Journey into the Light, Art and Faith: A Theology of Making, and Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life by Makoto Fujimura
• Embers International
• Amy Julia’s episode with Justin Giboney: “How the Civil Rights Generation Can Lead Us Out of the Culture War” with Justin Giboney
• Amy Julia’s Take the Next Step podcast - new episodes beginning February 4, 2026

_

WATCH this conversation on YouTube: Amy Julia Becker on YouTube

SUBSCRIBE to Amy Julia's Substack: amyjuliabecker.substack.com

JOIN the conversation on Instagram: @amyjuliabecker

LISTEN to more episodes: amyjuliabecker.com/shows/

_

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Makoto Fujimura is a leading contemporary artist whose process driven, refractive “slow art” has been described by David Brooks of New York Times as “a small rebellion against the quickening of time”. In addition to his work as an artist, Mako is an author whose latest work is entitled Art Is: A Journey into the Light. From 2003 to 2009, he served as a Presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts. He is a celebrated speaker and advocate for the arts and has received five Honorary Doctor of Arts degrees.

https://makotofujimura.com/

https://www.instagram.com/iamfujimura/

___

We want to hear your thoughts. Send us a text!

Connect with me:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Website

Thanks for listening!

S9 E8 — We're living through a season of deep division, political unrest, and global instability. Justin Giboney, political strategist and author of Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around, joins Amy Julia Becker to help us recover a moral imagination shaped by faith—one that resists polarization, refuses hatred, and offers a better way forward in public life.

00:00 Guidance from the Civil Rights Generation
07:18 The Black Church's Public Witness
10:00 The Civil Rights Movement vs Progressive Activism
13:52 Forgiveness and Redemption
17:28 Navigating the Culture Wars
25:39 The AND Campaign: Bridging Divides in Politics
28:51 Cultivating Moral Imagination
31:51 The Impact of Social Media
37:52 Practices for Living Out a Moral Imagination
__

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around: How the Black Church's Public Witness Leads Us out of the Culture War by Justin Giboney

• AND Campaign: andcampaign.org

• Church Politics podcast

• Amy Julia's Take the Next Step podcast: amyjuliabecker.com/step/

_

WATCH this conversation on YouTube: Amy Julia Becker on YouTube

SUBSCRIBE to Amy Julia's Substack: amyjuliabecker.substack.com

JOIN the conversation on Instagram: @amyjuliabecker

LISTEN to more episodes: amyjuliabecker.com/shows/

_

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Justin Giboney (JD, Vanderbilt University) is an author, ordained minister, attorney, and political strategist. He is the founder and president of the AND Campaign, a Christian civic organization focused on raising civic literacy, promoting civic pluralism, and equipping Christians to engage politics with the love and truth of Jesus Christ. Justin is dedicated to promoting Christ-centered values as the basis for engagement in politics and social issues.

BOOK: Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/justinegiboney/

We want to hear your thoughts. Send us a text!

Connect with me:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Website

Thanks for listening!