We interviewed Professor Andrew Bacevich on his new book The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. Bacevich is a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, and retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of colonel. He is the author of numerous op-ed pieces, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Bacevich contends that the United States is in the midst of a crisis of profligacy -- that is, a crisis of wanton extravagance, which drives addictive social, economic behaviors, which in turn drives our foreign policy and our militarism. Bacevich dedicated the book to the memory of his son, Andrew John Bacevich, who was killed in the war in Iraq in 2007. (Recorded for Tokens 04: "The Christmas Revolution")

We interviewed professor Randall Balmer of Columbia University, and visiting professor at Yale Divinity School, on his most recent book God in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush. Balmer describes himself as an evangelical, and his descriptions of evangelicalism in the United States have found their way into a public television series and the Norton Anthology of American literature. He has, however, been particularly critical of the Religious Right. We asked him why. We also discussed what Balmer calls the "abortion myth;" how Nixon's presidency prompted Christianity to come to the forefront of politics; how LBJ used the Golden Rule; and questions about whether Jesus is, after all, George W. Bush’s favorite political philosopher. (Recorded for Tokens 03: "The Politics of Jesus")

We joined Will Campbell at his log cabin in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Author of Brother to a Dragonfly, Campbell the southern Baptist preacher became a liberal social activist during rise of the Civil Rights era. We talked about the now-classic book Dragonfly, and that now-classic tragic story about the death of fellow civil rights activist Jonathan Daniels. We discussed with Campbell what happened that day, and a dialog with an agnostic friend that Campbell called his "conversion experience." [Contains explicit language.] (Recorded for Tokens 05: "Justice Songs")

We interviewed Professor Warren Carter, who teaches New Testament at Brite Divinity School, on his book The Roman Empire and the New Testament: An Essential Guide. Carter talks extensively on the manner in which the all-pervasive power of the Roman empire is an assumed backdrop to the work of Jesus. We also explains that Jesus proclaims and enacts a different sort of empire, and does so from the margins of society instead of the powerful center. (Recorded for Tokens 04: "The Christmas Revolution")

We caught up with Chris Haw and Shane Claiborne, fresh off their book tour. Chris and Shane are both founders of so-called “intentional Christian communities,” that some are calling the “new monasticism.” We talked with Shane in Philadelphia, and Chris in upstate New York. In Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals, Shane and Chris articulate a contemporary voice indebted to the tradition of reform going back to the Anabaptist or Radical Reformation of the 16th century. Like the Radical Reformers, Claiborne and Haw counsel Christians to let go of public power, and instead simply be a different kind of community, with a different sort of politic which does not withdraw from the world, but seeks to transform the world through being the change we want to see enacted in the world. (Recorded for Tokens 03: "The Politics of Jesus")

Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, a contributing writer for The American Conservative and National Review, and the author of Crunchy Cons. Rod shares with us his critique of what has become known as mainstream conservativism while describing a different, and for him more truly conservative, lifestyle. (Recorded for Tokens 02: "Jubilee - Land, Greed, & Grace in American Folk")

Melissa Fay Greene is an award-winning journalist contributing regularly to many major publications, including The New York Times and Good Housekeeping. She has authored severeal books, but her newest, There is No Me Without You chronicles the story of Haregewoin Teferra, a foster mother in Ethopia whose story is shaped by the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Greene shares with us stories local to Haregewoin as well as the larger political, economic, and social issues contributing to the AIDS crisis as a whole. (Recorded for Tokens 02: "Jubilee - Land, Greed, & Grace in American Folk")

AJ Jacobs is the recent author of the best-selling The Year of Living Biblically. The New York City resident, Jewish agnostic, and editor of Esquire magazine set out to follow the Bible, “as literally as possible” for one year. He read the Bible cover-to-cover, and wrote down a list of all the rules he could find, and reported to us on his experience. (Recorded for Tokens 01: "The Appalachian Longing for Home")

The United States incarcerates more people than any nation on the planet, measured both in terms of per capita rates, and in terms of raw numbers.  The huge numbers of people—typically poor—who are being run through a strapped system yields the possibility of all sorts of inequities.  We talked about such issues with Brad MacLean at his home in Nashville.  Brad worked successfully for years in corporate law.  After being invited to assist with the defense of a death-row inmate, Brad grew convinced that the system of capital punishment was riddled with all sorts of systemic problems. (Recorded for Tokens 05: "Justice Songs")

Brian McLaren is the best selling author of numerous books such as A New Kind of Christian and A Generous Orthodoxy. We talked with him about all sorts of volatile topics coming out of his new book, Everything Must Change. (Recorded for Tokens 01: "The Appalachian Longing for Home")

We talked to Marcus Rediker, professor of history at University of Pittsburgh, on his newly published and noteworthy book Slave Ship: A Human History. He opens his book with a quote from W.E.B. DuBois, famed early twentieth century author, social critic, and graduate of Fisk University here in Nashville: Dubois called the export of Africans for the slave markets of Europe and the Americas as the “most magnificent drama” of the last 1000 years. (Recorded for Tokens 01: "The Appalachian Longing for Home")

Mike Seeger, of the famed Seeger family of folk music fame, is both a singer-songwriter and folk musicologist. We asked him what he thought to be one of the most pointed folk music songs critiquing American greed. (Recorded for Tokens 02: "Jubilee - Land, Greed, & Grace in American Folk")

We had the opportunity to sit down with Jim Wallis, best selling author of God's Politics and most recently The Great Awakening. Jim is also the founder of Sojourners, early on a Christian community in Washington, D.C., but most recently the production house of the journal by the same name. A preacher, author, and activist, Jim lives and works in Washington D.C., seeking to build bi-partisan solutions, represented in the popular 2004 campaign which proclaimed, “God is not a Republican, or a Democrat.” (Recorded for Tokens 03: "The Politics of Jesus")