Episode 1283: The Top Young Adult Faith Questions, Weird Guinness Records & CITIZENS Frontman Zach Bolen
The RELEVANT Podcast
RELEVANT Magazine
4.6 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2026
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we tackle the biggest faith questions young adults are asking right now (according to the recent Passion Conference) — from evidence for God’s existence and the tension between free will and predestination, to suffering, salvation and thoughts on hell. It’s an honest conversation about doubt, belief and why curiosity might be essential to spiritual growth.
From there, Emily sits down with CITIZENS frontman Zach Bolen to talk about the band’s new album Museum, being in the Christian music bubble while feeling like an outsider and why art doesn’t need to explain itself to be meaningful.
Plus, Jesse has some thoughts over the increasingly unhinged Guinness World Records, from pigs on skateboards to LEGO-related pain tolerance, and the crew plays a round of “Overrated, Underrated or Just Right,” covering reboots, word-of-the-year culture and more!
Highlights:
3:10 New Year check-in
4:20 The Crown
5:25 Why New Year’s TV is terrible
9:55 Fireworks gone wrong
14:15 RELEVANT BUZZ
17:05 The top faith questions young adults are asking at the Passion Conference
31:00 Awards season highlights
38:30 Zach Bolen of CITIZENS
42:10 Faith, deconstruction, and the Nashville bubble
46:20 Curiosity as a spiritual discipline
50:10 SLICES
50:14 Guinness World Records need a reboot
56:20 OVERRATED, UNDERRATED, OR JUST RIGHT?
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's episode 1283 and it's a relevant podcast. Welcome to 2026 here in Orlando. I'm your host, |
| 0:12.1 | Cameron Strang, and joining me from Loverland, Virginia, is Jesse Carey. Hello, hello. |
| 0:16.5 | From Nashville, our managing editor downtown Emily Brown. Hey y'all. |
| 0:22.2 | And it's just us. |
| 0:28.4 | Derek has meetings and Marty could not get up early enough to record because we're recording at a different time than normal. |
| 0:30.1 | Actually, I think he said he was on babysitting duty, which I guess is just parenting, |
| 0:34.2 | not babysitting duty. |
| 0:35.2 | But yeah. |
| 0:36.7 | Yeah, it's always weird when dads say I'm babysitting the kid. |
| 0:41.6 | That never went over well. |
| 0:44.6 | And I understand why. |
| 0:46.1 | Like, it is like a co-parenting deal, you know. |
| 0:49.7 | That is famously how co-parenting works is there are two parents. |
| 0:53.7 | Yeah, there is no, once you become a father or a mother, there's no babysitting. |
| 0:58.6 | There's just parenting, you know? |
| 1:00.4 | Like, yeah, there's no difference. |
| 1:01.9 | But either way, I understand not wanting to try to wrangle in a baby while podcasting. |
| 1:07.3 | I can't say I haven't tempted it myself, but. |
| 1:09.4 | I mean, wait, you have? You've tried... You've had a baby off camera while recording the podcast? |
| 1:16.2 | I'm sure, I'm certain over the years. Like, I'm not recently. I mean, my children are babies, |
| 1:21.8 | but I'm certain they were... We used to have... |
| 1:24.6 | When I first had my son and I was doing a lot of work from home and in the first |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from RELEVANT Magazine, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of RELEVANT Magazine and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.