De-Influencing Ben Kirby (Preachers N Sneakers): You Won’t Believe This Conversation

De-Influenced with Dani + Jordan

Dani Austin

Society & Culture

4.5 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2026

⏱️ 97 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We missed you guys too much… so we’re dropping a SURPRISE episode of De-Influenced with Ben Kirby! Ben is the creator behind the viral “Preachers & Sneakers” account that shook the evangelical world. What started as a sarcastic Instagram post about a pastor wearing expensive sneakers quickly exploded into a cultural moment — gaining over 100,000 followers in its first month and sparking conversations across the church world. In this episode, Jordan sits down with Ben to talk about the story behind the account, what he discovered about modern church culture, and what it was like being at the center of one of the internet’s most controversial faith conversations. They discuss: How “Preachers N Sneakers” started by accident The unexpected backlash from pastors and churches The viral growth that changed Ben’s life What he learned about influence, power, and church culture Why the conversation is still relevant today This one goes deeper than expected — and you might not see everything the same way after listening. Subscribe to our official YouTube channel, @deinfluencedpodcast, and follow along on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your De-Influenced fix. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok at @deinfluencedpodcast. Thanks so much for listening and supporting the show! Produced by Dear Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The following podcast is a dear media production.
0:10.7	Okay, we got Ben from Preachers and Sneakers.
0:13.7	We talked a lot about this last week.
0:15.8	Danny is not in this episode.
0:17.9	I want to be super clear.
0:20.0	We talked about it. I don't think she's fully healed
0:22.7	from diet Prada. She's lumping you in the same category. We're going to figure out. Yeah, I listened
0:26.9	on the way and started to get a little concerned about the vibes heading into this. I was like,
0:32.0	this may not go well for me, given that the matriarch is on such a soapbox but I understood yeah her points and I
0:41.1	it's not the first time I've heard any of that and so happy to get into it with you I appreciate
0:45.4	you having me um it's funny because and we told this story last week but you know we were at a school
0:51.2	observation and um I recognize this guy across the room and I'm like,
0:55.5	who is this? And I couldn't figure out how I knew you. And I probably would have never said
1:00.6	anything and remembered it three days later. I've been bummed that we didn't talk. But then you came up
1:05.2	and said, hey, I think you complimented Danny and we're like, hey, appreciate how you live out
1:09.3	your faith online or something. And I was like, I know you. And then you told me, I'm Ben. I ran preachers and sneakers.
1:16.0	And I asked you to sit down and we talked for probably the whole hour. And you had said before
1:22.4	this podcast started that that was the first time in a long time. You had really kind of like
1:27.0	gone back and really
1:28.4	thought about that era of your life.
1:30.3	It's been years, yeah, because it's, I mean, I was doing the math.
1:34.5	I think it's been seven years or so since I started it.
	...

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