Laughing at the Absurdity (with Rob Bell)

If you had told the twenty-something version of me that I'd do a podcast with Rob Bell, I likely would not have believed you. Or, I would have envisioned it happening in a much different context (for both of us). But life is funny.

Rob recently released a fictional sci-fi story called "Where'd You Park Your Spaceship?". Some people are confused as it doesn't feel like a "Rob Bell book." I suppose that's to be expected when you've written numerous New York Times bestsellers and have been labeled as one of the one-hundred most influential people in the world by Time magazine (or maybe it was the fact that he went on tour with Oprah). The point is Rob has been really good at communicating ideas for a really long time.

I enjoyed the latest book and thought it would be fun to discuss it with him. So I invited him to be on an episode of my podcast to drink wine with me and talk about life. He's not a big wine guy (he drinks a bee pollen ginger spirulina concoction on the episode that he claims "produces a similar effect"). But Rob quickly agreed to join me for a discussion.

Not only was it fascinating to talk through his latest book with him, but I also got to ask him a question I've wondered for over a decade. If you've been involved with the church world as I have over the years, you likely remember John Piper's famous tweet, "Farewell Rob Bell," after Rob released the wildly successful (and hotly debated) book Love Wins. I had never heard Rob talk about what that felt like for him, and he was kind enough to go there with me in the interview.

You can watch the video above, or below is the audio-specific format (also available wherever you listen to podcasts).

Click here for the Amazon link to the book.