Insight with Karl Faase

When Stephen Driscoll's laptop started acting up, he asked an AI agent to take a look - twenty minutes later it had tracked down and fixed a problem that had been quietly running in the background for six months. It's a small, almost funny story, but Stephen uses it to make a much bigger point: AI has moved from mimicking us to genuinely acting on its own initiative, and the theological and ethical questions are moving just as fast. In this wide-ranging conversation, Karl Faase and Stephen dig into AI-directed drone strikes, the Pope's recent encyclical, transhumanism, campus culture, and Stephen's own decade-long wrestle with doubt.
 
About Stephen Driscoll: Stephen Driscoll is a university minister and self-described “tech realist” who tries to avoid both blind optimism and fear-driven doomism about artificial intelligence. He won the 2025 Australian Christian Book of the Year Award for his book Made in Our Image: God, Artificial Intelligence and You. Before moving into ministry, Stephen worked on a trading floor in finance, and has been fascinated by AI since his undergraduate years.
 
Get a copy of Stephen Driscoll's book here: Made in Our Image: God, Artificial Intelligence and You 
 
Key Moments & Highlights
Stephen's four-point framework for what modern AI actually is: brain-inspired, trained rather than designed, prediction-based, and radically general-purpose
“Move 37”- the AlphaGo move against world champion Lee Sedol so unconventional it stunned commentators and convinced many that AI could be genuinely creative
How reinforcement learning turns AI from a “debauched” mirror of the whole internet into a corporate “people-pleaser” with a morality borrowed from whichever company built it
The Pope's AI encyclical and its warning, drawn from the Tower of Babel, about the danger of human unity turned toward evil
The unsettling real-world stakes: AI-selected drone strikes, twelve-second human decision windows, and a strike on an Iranian school that killed around 100 children
Why Stephen is less afraid of profit-driven AI companies than of AI controlled by authoritarian governments
A working test for transhumanism: are we moving toward God's created order (like glasses or cochlear implants) or away from it (like losing our embodiment in a metaverse)?
Stephen's own faith story: growing up in an Indonesian immigrant church, drifting through doubt reading the “new atheists” in his twenties, and finding his way back by actually reading the Bible
Walking away from a trading floor career for full-time campus ministry and what convinced him within a week that he'd made the right call
His read on why hostility to Christianity on university campuses peaked around 2022, and why he's now seeing more openness - especially among young men
Find Out More
Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org
 
Special Thanks To
Excelsia University College
Christian Finance
Vision Christian Media

"You can have Daniel and Lyndall for five hundred dollars." That’s the sentence Dan Lyons’ mother used when his father tried to gain custody of him and his sister - the price she put on her own children. In this raw and confronting conversation, Dan takes Karl Faase back through years of alcohol-fuelled domestic violence, a mother who turned her own pain into abuse against her son, and the homeless, drug-affected years that followed - before two schoolmates and a four-word prayer changed the course of his life. This is a story about the long, unglamorous work of healing, and what it looks like to lead, parent, and forgive when you never had a template for any of it.
Dan Lyons is the Director of Missional Culture and Leadership at Carinity, the care arm of Queensland Baptists, where he leads a team of pastors and around 100–125 chaplains serving in hospitals, prisons, aged care facilities, and schools across Queensland. He has been married to his wife Anita for 28 years, they have four adult children, and he recently became a grandfather for the first time. Behind that role is a childhood marked by extreme domestic violence and abuse, teenage homelessness, and a decades-long journey of faith and healing - which he shares candidly in this episode.
Listener note: this episode discusses childhood abuse, family violence and suicide. Please take care while listening.
Key Moments & Highlights
Dan’s current role tethering Carinity’s ~2,000 staff and 100+ chaplains back to "the person of Jesus," and what "mission drift" really means for faith-based organisations
Growing up moving across Queensland with his mother and three sisters, and the Friday-night ritual of alcohol-fuelled, rage-filled domestic violence between his mum and her partners
The abuse turned personal: being interrogated, beaten, burned, and stabbed with a fork by his own mother
The one adult - his boss at a butcher shop - who noticed the bruises and dared to intervene
The night Dan finally pushed his mother off him and ran through the rain, hand-in-hand with his sister Lyndall, to find safety with his biological father
His mother’s chilling offer to give up her own children for $500
Becoming homeless at fifteen, sliding into drugs and self-loathing, and a suicide attempt interrupted at the last second
The four-word prayer: "God, please help me" and how two Christian classmates befriended him days later with no idea what he’d been through
A physical, overwhelming encounter with God while reading the Bible for the first time, which Dan marks as the start of thirty years of healing
A prayer-counselling breakthrough years later that helped him recognise where Jesus had actually been present in his worst childhood memories — and his candid advice for anyone currently in an abusive relationship
 
Find Out More
Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org
 
Special Thanks To
Excelsia University College
Christian Finance
Vision Christian Media

Tim Kelly grew up on a dairy farm in northern NSW, learning to ride potty calves at five years old and by his late teens he was riding saddle bronc and bulls professionally, competing at the Calgary Stampede and winning the Saddle Bronc Junior World Championship. But behind the trophies, and the hard-partying rodeo lifestyle was a persistent emptiness Tim couldn't shake. 
In this episode of Insight, Tim shares his journey from rodeo arenas across Australia and Canada to a life-changing encounter at a "million dollar rodeo" in 1982, the fear that nearly ended his career, the devastating breakdown of his marriage, and how faith reshaped his identity, and continues to reshape the lives of the bull riders he now mentors through his own riding schools.
About Tim Kelly
Tim Kelly is a former professional bull and saddle bronc rider from Tenterfield, NSW, who competed internationally through the late 1970s and 80s, including at the Calgary Stampede and Canada's rodeo circuit, and won the Saddle Bronc Junior World Championship. After coming to faith at a major rodeo event in 1982, Tim went on to run bull riding schools for over 40 years, training riders from across Australia while sharing his testimony with the next generation of the sport. He has walked through both the highs of competitive success and the deep personal cost of a marriage breakdown, and now speaks openly about failure, forgiveness, and restoration. Tim is married to Laura and continues to mentor riders and share his story of faith found in an unlikely place.
 
Key Moments & Highlights
- The five-year-old's dream - Growing up in the middle of seven kids - Tim represented Australia at one of the world's biggest rodeos, competing in front of 70,000 people. - After what he calls one of the best rides of his life, Tim was disqualified on a technicality at the "million dollar rodeo" - the moment he decided to find out what other Christian riders "had that he didn't." - Giving his life to Christ — A bikie's testimony at a rodeo chapel service in 1982 became the turning point that led Tim to commit his life to God. - Tim recounts the terrifying accident that later triggered crippling fear, and watching another rider suffer a near-fatal version of the same fall. - How memorising and speaking out verses on fear allowed Tim to get back on a horse and keep riding. - Marriage breakdown and restoration - 40 years of bull riding schools 
 
Find Out More
Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 
 
Special Thanks ToExcelsia University College
Christian Finance 
Vision Christian Media

If life were a film, most of us can point to the moment everything changed. For Graham Clarke, that moment came as a phone call from a radiologist about his wife, Christy - a call that changed everything that came after. In this raw and moving conversation, Graham shares the story of walking with Christy through a terminal cancer diagnosis, parenting three young kids through unimaginable loss, and discovering that faith doesn't mean pretending everything is fine - it means bringing your honest grief to God and waiting for Him to meet you there. This is a conversation about lament, Shalom, single parenting, and the surprising, hard-won hope that things really can be okay again!!
About Graham Clarke
Graham Clarke spent most of his adult life in local church ministry as a senior pastor, most recently having stepped out of that role and looking toward a return to education - his first career, as a PE teacher and school chaplain. Raised in the Uniting Church in Brisbane, Graham met his wife Christy on the set of a Christian children's TV show in his late teens. They married young, had three children, and spent almost a decade leading a church in Geelong before returning to Brisbane.
Key Moments & Takeaways
- Early days and meeting his wife, Christy. - Christy's first breast cancer diagnosis came early and was treated as a full recovery - The phone call from the radiographer became Graham's own "sliding doors" moment - Graham and Christy independently sensed the same words in that moment: "it's gonna be okay" - a promise not about the outcome, but about the presence of God in the midst of it. - Graham unpacks the biblical idea of Shalom - Facing an eleven, ten, and seven-year-old, Graham and Christy chose honesty over shielding their kids. - A pastor's advice - "That's our job. You look after your kids" - freed Graham from having to hold the family's faith and its parenting at once. - Graham reflects candidly on "solo parenting" and the exhausting kindness of a grieving community. - He closes with the spirituality of lament - honesty with God in the middle of pain, and the hopeful expectation that mercy is renewed every morning.
 
Find Out More
Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 
 
Special Thanks ToExcelsia University College
Christian Finance 
Vision Christian Media

He was taken from his family before he could walk, told for years he'd had polio when it was actually malnutrition, and labelled "dumb" by a school system that never diagnosed his dyslexia. Decades later, Rev. Dr. Rex Rigby became the first Indigenous Australian to lead a national denomination.
In this honest conversation, Rex sits down with Karl Faase to talk about childhood abuse, being removed from his family as a toddler, and the shame he carried for years - and how those wounds became the foundation for a life devoted to reconciliation, empathy, and the gospel. Rex shares his story from an abusive home in Holland Park, to a stint as a chef on Brisbane's first luxury yacht, to twelve years as General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, to a doctorate exploring how Western culture has often been tangled up with the gospel message delivered to Indigenous people.
Along the way, he shares hard truths about the church's mixed legacy in Indigenous communities and a hopeful, hard-won vision for what an intercultural church could look like.
 
Rev. Dr. Rex Rigby was the first Indigenous person to serve as national head of a denomination in Australia, spending twelve years as General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church - the longest tenure in that role. He is an elder of both the Kamilaroi and Bigambul peoples. Before entering ministry, Rex trained and worked as a chef, including a stint as the first chef aboard Brisbane's first luxury yacht. He holds a doctorate for his thesis "Social Cohesion Through the Eyes of an Indigenous Elder for the Application of the Intercultural Church," and today continues to teach at several Bible colleges.
 
Key Moments & Takeaways
- Rex Rigby was the first Indigenous Australian to lead a national denomination, serving 12 years as General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. - He is an elder of both the Kamilaroi and Bigambul peoples, with ancestral ties on both sides of the Queensland/NSW border. - Removed from his family as a toddler due to abuse and neglect in the home, Rex spent three years in a home for children with disabilities - an experience that left him with a lasting sense of being unloved. - For years Rex was told he'd had polio; it wasn't until his late teens he learned his leg braces were actually the result of childhood malnutrition. - Undiagnosed dyslexia and an unstable home life meant school was a constant struggle - but Rex found his footing as an apprentice chef, eventually cooking for Brisbane's elite and serving as the first chef aboard the city's first luxury yacht. - A deep sense of calling pulled Rex out of the kitchen and into ministry, despite a rocky start in high-demand inner-city pastoral work that nearly burned him out early on. - His doctoral thesis examined how the gospel was often delivered wrapped in Western cultural assumptions - creating unnecessary shame for Indigenous believers. - Rex speaks candidly about the mixed legacy of mission work in Australia, while insisting Indigenous spirituality and Christian faith are not at odds. - He points to empathy and truth-telling as essential to reconciliation, urging people to look past the symptom to understand the cause. - Despite two bouts of cancer and a recent fall, Rex remains hopeful - still teaching, mentoring young Indigenous leaders, and working toward his vision of a genuinely intercultural church.
 
Find Out More
Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 
 
Special Thanks ToExcelsia University College
Christian Finance 
Vision Christian Media

"I live in Africa - waiting is never an issue." That was Melanie Downes' response when a string of technical hiccups left her and her husband Tim sitting patiently in the studio long past schedule. It's a small window into a life shaped by nearly two decades as a missionary in Malawi - a life of nine-hour queues, two-day border crossings, and a faith forged in a place most of us will never see.
In this episode, Karl Faase speaks with Melanie about the road that took a "goofy" Rockhampton girl to a remote Yao village with a two- and four-year-old in tow. She reflects on her father's overnight conversion, her own childhood call to mission, and the enormous cost of obedience during cyclones, a critically ill baby, and the humbling task of asking others to "hold the rope."
Melanie speaks with honesty about being a woman in an Islamic community (where it took eighteen months just to be seen as "not dangerous"), what the Yao have taught her about reading the Bible, and why she and Tim have spent years deliberately working themselves out of a job. It's a conversation about courage, contextual mission, the spirit world, and the quiet power of simply staying.
 
Key Moments & Highlights
- A "wild boy" dad meets Jesus at a crusade and changes almost overnight and a young Melanie watches her whole family transform
- Her own clear moment of call as a little girl
- Growing up around mission in remote Aboriginal communities and deciding, as a teenager, that missionary life was "not for us"
- Backpacking the world after 9/11, landing in Malawi, and falling for the "warm heart of Africa"
- Counting the cost to actually go: a critically ill newborn, Cyclone Larry, financial strain, and grieving parents
- Taking a two- and four-year-old to a Yao village, and the years of language and culture learning that followed
- The challenge of being an Australian woman in an Islamic community
- Why relationship with the women was the "secret weapon" that opened the whole community
- Rethinking the missionary: not "great white saviours," but "accepted outsiders" handing leadership to the local church
- Her two books, Jump and Spirit, the Camino, and the bittersweet homecoming 
 
Find Out More
Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 
 
Special Thanks ToExcelsia University College
Christian Finance 
Vision Christian Media

You've seen the Red Frogs at Schoolies, festivals and uni O-Week - the crew handing out lollies, walking people home, being the calm in the chaos. You might even know that Taylor Swift's team has called them in for support, or that Allen's donates 24 tonnes of frogs to the cause. What you don't see is the story behind one of the people who's helped build it and why he spends his life helping teens!
In this episode, Karl Faase sits down with Steve Davies, whose childhood was, in his own words, a "trainwreck life." Steve speaks with raw honesty about a home marked by violence and fear, the grief of losing the men who made him feel safe, the discovery that his biological father had taken his own life, and the years he spent trying to numb a broken heart. It's also a story of an almost unthinkable forgiveness - of a stepfather, a mother, and ultimately himself! What's remarkable is that it was a Bible courageously thrown across a room that set all of this in motion. This is a powerful conversation about pain, faith, and what it really takes to re-build a life after hurt. 
Listener note: this episode discusses childhood abuse, family violence and suicide. Please take care while listening.
 
Steve Davies is the General Manager of Red Frogs Australia - a national charity working to safeguard a generation by providing peer-to-peer support. He has also worked in business, ministry and politics. 
 
Key moments & highlights
Red Frogs today: 27 years on, from Schoolies and O-Week to concerts - plus the Taylor Swift call and Allen's 24-tonne lolly donation
A childhood of conflict, gambling and never feeling safe
Losing his father, then his beloved "Pop" and retreating into himself
Longing for a dad when everyone else had one
Stepfather Bob: favouritism, rage, violence, and being a "second-class son"
Praying in a cupboard and the dark turn into becoming a bully
Discovering his biological father had died by suicide
Self-destruction at 17, and fleeing to Townsville after a near-fatal fight
A Bible thrown at him, reading Mark then John, and "Father, forgive them"
2am at a church door: "Lord, if you're real…" and a picture of his heart being mended
"I forgive you" - the call to Bob, Bob's conversion, and Steve baptising him
Officiating Bob's funeral; forgiving his mother
His own marriage nearly ending and a dog's death that unlocked a buried memory
How Schoolies went from the "wild west" to far safer, and Red Frogs' work with the QLD Government
Find Out More
Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 
 
Special Thanks ToExcelsia University College
Christian Finance 
Vision Christian Media

In many of our churches, there's an unspoken script: grow up, find someone, get married, have kids. And if that doesn't happen - or hasn't happened yet - it can leave people quietly wondering: Is there something wrong with me? Is this just a waiting room?
Dr Dani Treweek has spent over a decade thinking, writing, and living these questions. In this episode of Insight with Karl Faase, she shares her journey of growing up in Sydney's eastern suburbs, studying at Moore Theological College, and completing a PhD that became the book The Meaning of Singleness.
Along the way, she's wrestled personally and academically with what it truly means to be single in the Christian life.
Whether you're single, married, widowed, divorced, or leading a church community, this conversation has something important to offer. As Dani shares, the Bible's vision for singleness is far more expansive and far more hopeful than most of us have been taught.
 
Key Moments and Takeaways:
- The "disenfranchised grief" of singleness - mourning something you've never had
- The moment in a Moore College ethics lecture that changed how Dani read the Bible
- What Jesus's words in Matthew 22 reveal about the eternal significance of singleness
- How the Reformation accidentally devalued singleness in Protestant churches
- The problems with dating apps and the deeper disembodiment crisis behind them
- What Paul actually means (and doesn't mean) by the so-called "gift of singleness"
- Why the church needs its single members as much as single members need the church 
 
Resources mentioned:
The Meaning of Singleness — Dani Treweek (IVP Academic)
Single Ever After — Dani Treweek (IVP)
Cross Related Ministry
"On Sitting Alone in Church" — article by Dani Treweek 
 
Find Out More
Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 
 
Special Thanks ToExcelsia University College
Christian Finance 
Vision Christian Media

What does it take to raise a good man in a culture that can't decide whether masculinity is a problem to be solved or a strength to be celebrated? In this episode of Insight, Karl Faase sits down with Simon Smart - a teacher, writer and Director of the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX). This is a wide-ranging, deeply personal conversation about boys, bullying, fatherlessness, the manosphere, and what it actually means to be a good man.
Drawing on his own brutal boarding-school years and his book The End of Men, Simon makes the case for a richer, more compassionate model of masculinity - one rooted in the example of Jesus.
Simon Smart is a teacher, writer and the Director of the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX), a media organisation working to promote a thoughtful, generous understanding of the Christian faith in Australian public life. Before CPX, Simon spent a decade teaching English and history in boys' schools, an experience that, alongside his own childhood in a tough country boarding environment, shaped his recent book The End of Men. He lives on Sydney's Northern Beaches with his wife and two adult children, and is, in his own words, "an average but enthusiastic surfer."
 
Key Moments and Takeaways:
Simon's education in masculinity and the moment everything shifted.
His slow road to faith.
An unplanned path to CPX.
The case for writing The End of Men.
Untangling "toxic masculinity."
Fatherlessness and the algorithm.
What actually makes a good man.
 
Find Out More
Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 
 
Special Thanks ToExcelsia University College
Christian Finance 
Vision Christian Media

What happens when the church's greatest virtue becomes its greatest blind spot? In one of the most important conversations on faith and institutional responsibility you'll hear, Karl Faase sits down with Roderick Best - a Sydney lawyer who spent decades at the coalface of child protection, and ultimately served as Senior Solicitor for Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Rod brings rare insight: the legal mind and perspective of someone who shaped national reform, and the honest thoughts of a committed Christian wrestling with what the church got wrong. This is not an easy conversation at times, but it's a necessary one.
Roderick Best is a Sydney-based lawyer with over four decades of experience across private practice and government. He served as the longest-tenured senior child protection lawyer in New South Wales before being appointed Senior Solicitor to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (est. 2013) — one of the most significant public inquiries in Australian history. 
A note before you listen: This conversation touches on child sexual abuse and the findings of Australia's Royal Commission. Rod speaks with care and without graphic detail, but if this is a sensitive topic for you, please be aware before listening.
Key Moments and Takeaways
The Royal Commission was deliberately scoped to institutional abuse — roughly 20% of all child abuse — because it was actionable. Family-based abuse, the larger problem, is far harder to legislate.
Rod was not surprised by the scale of abuse uncovered — but was surprised by the diversity across denominations, and by research showing celibacy made no statistical difference to abuse rates.
The key risk factor wasn't theology — it was vulnerability. Institutions working with the most vulnerable children had the highest rates of abuse.
The church's instinct to "move people on" rather than report was compounded by disbelief, reputational concern, and over-powerful old-boy networks in church governance.
Professor Patrick Parkinson identified the core theological error: the church drew the wrong line on forgiveness, treating it as a substitute for accountability rather than something that must coexist with structural safeguards.
Rod's framework for the failure is theological: the church forgot it was operating in a post-Fall world. Forgiveness doesn't reset human nature — it requires structures that account for ongoing human frailty.
Working with Children checks, introduced in the lead-up to the Commission, are already showing statistical results — particularly in reducing institutional sexual abuse.
The biggest ongoing child protection issue isn't sexual abuse — it's poverty and neglect, which remain largely unaddressed.
Rod still fields questions from former colleagues who say they "never understood why you go to church." Reputational damage is real and ongoing.
The church's greatest asset in a fragmented, anxious society is community — but it must normalize belonging and be seen as a safe, ordinary place for ordinary people.
Find Out More
Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 
 
Special Thanks ToExcelsia University College
Christian Finance 
Vision Christian Media

This episode features Simon Hood, a passionate advocate for children's ministry and faith-based creativity, sharing his journey from a puppeteer in Hornsby to a global influencer in children's evangelism. However, alongside growing a global ministry, he and his wife travelled a long road through infertility, IVF, international adoption, and living through the joys and challenges of neurodiversity. 
During some of the most painful years, Simon felt God continue to ask him: "Will you trust me, even when you don't know what I am doing?"
This conversation is powerful, emotional, and a helpful reminder about how to show up for people who are in grief and difficulty. 
Simon Hood is the founding director of Logosdor - a global ministry serving kids worldwide. He is a professional puppeteer and creative innovator in sharing the gospel with kids through media. 
 
Key Moments and Takeaways:
- The power of creative evangelism through puppetry and media
- Personal journey through infertility, adoption, and international ministry
- Navigating neurodiversity, mental health, and faith in family life
- The importance of movement thinking and multiplying Kingdom work
- Lessons on trust, lament, and resilience in suffering
 
Find Out More
Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 
 
Special Thanks ToExcelsia University College
Christian Finance 
Vision Christian Media
 

Professor Louise Baur has spent decades helping children and families navigate the complex realities of obesity, body image, and health. In this episode of Insight, host Karl Faase explores the deeply personal and often misunderstood challenges surrounding childhood obesity - from biology and mental health to social media pressure and stigma.
As both a leading pediatrician and a Christian, Louise shares how her faith shapes the way she approaches medicine, compassion, and care for vulnerable families. Together, Karl and Louise unpack the growing global obesity crisis, the impact of shame and judgment, and why Christians should lead with grace, empathy, and understanding when discussing health and body image.
They also explore the rise of medications like Ozempic and the cultural pressures young people face online today.
Louise also reflects on her calling to paediatric medicine, sharing how her Christian faith shapes the way she lives, works, and engages in both the workplace and the public square.
This is a thoughtful and compassionate conversation about health, identity, faith, and what it means to truly care for others.
 
Key Moments and Takeaways
The biological and environmental factors contributing to obesity across the globe
The psychological and health impacts of high body weight in children
The influence of social media on body image and eating disorders
The importance of compassionate, stigma-free support for families
The potential and challenges of medications like Ozempic and bariatric surgery
The role of faith and how Christians can advocate for body positivity and health
Louise's story of faith and the challenge of not being able to start a family 
The role of Louise's Christian faith in her work 
The future and next steps
 
Find Out More
Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 
 
Special Thanks ToExcelsia University College
Christian Finance 
Vision Christian Media

How does a gay man find faith in Jesus?
David Bennett's story is a must listen to. In this episode of Insight, Karl hears David share his story, which journeys from coming out as gay when he is a teenager in a Sydney private school - to studying and living in Oxford. 
The turning point of the story is when David meets someone in a pub who doesn't try to convince him that Jesus is the truth, but instead, embodies the compassion, presence and love of God. 
As she prays for him, something life-changing happens as David experiences the love of God not as words - but as an encounter. 
David Bennett is a now a Christian, a theologian, and a writer who works at Oxford University. He also identifies as gay - a reality that once felt completely incompatible with his faith. His story isn’t a simple one, and it doesn’t offer easy answers - but it does invite us into a deeper conversation about belonging, and the cost and beauty of following Christ.
 
Key Moments and Takeaways
- Faith Through Doubt: Explore how genuine faith is built through questioning and vulnerability.
- The Power of Presence: Discover the impact of empathy and presence in conveying love.
- Redemptive Suffering: Understand how hardship and rejection play a role in transformation.
- Trust in Scripture: Learn the importance of surrendering control and trusting divine authority.
- Identity in Divine Love: See how rooting identity in love offers stability beyond societal labels.
 
Find Out More
Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 
 
Special Thanks ToExcelsia University College
Christian Finance 
Vision Christian Media

What does theology have to do with winemaking?
In this fascinating conversation, Tim Kirk from Clonakilla Wines shares how faith, creativity, craftsmanship and the landscape itself all shape the wines he creates. From the cool climate to the spiritual symbolism of wine throughout the Bible, Tim offers a unique perspective on what makes great wine truly memorable.
Karl unpacks his story, his faith, his perspective on ministry and how he returned to the family business of making wine. Tim has such a passion for wine and understanding creativity as an expression of our faith - you'll love this conversation. 
 
Key Moments and Takeaways:
How landscape and terroir shape flavour
The story behind Clonakilla Wines
Why craftsmanship matters in winemaking
His journey from theology to wine
The spiritual significance of wine and creation
Building a reputation for quality and excellence
 
Find Out More
Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 
 
Special Thanks ToExcelsia University College
Christian Finance 
Vision Christian Media
 

Most people only see the surface of a life filled with trauma, adventure, and profound faith. Greg Low’s story reveals how even in the darkest moments - plane crashes, the loss of his mother, and dangerous war zones - there's a remarkable thread of hope, purpose, and discovery.
In this episode of Insight, Greg shares stories from decades of filming in the world's most volatile regions - from Rwanda to Somalia, Ethiopia to Mozambique - and how he’s confronted death firsthand more times than he can count.
Greg’s courageous stories aren't just about danger; they’re about finding good in the chaos and God’s presence in unexpected places.
Karl's guest, Greg Low, is an accomplished cameraman and author, whose career spans filming across war zones, natural disasters, and humanitarian crises around the globe. His experiences have shaped a life dedicated to capturing truth and living it with faith, despite the chaos. His story is a reminder that light and hope can be found in the darkest places! 
Buy Greg's book here: https://www.gdu.com.au/book
 
Key Moments and Takeaways:
- Greg's early career in media and how he transitioned from student to cameraman for major political moments in Australia.
- Experiences filming in war zones like Rwanda, Somalia, and Ethiopia, including close encounters with danger and death.
- The story of losing his mother and how that tragedy shaped his faith and outlook on life.
- Greg’s reflections on faith, how God met him through a Supertramp song, and his evolving relationship with spirituality.
- Personal stories of family, adoption, and balancing a life of danger with raising children.
 
Find Out More
Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 
 
Special Thanks ToExcelsia University College
Christian Finance 
Vision Christian Media