So what happens when a college football player becomes a minister only to realize the very faith

community he's dedicated his life to isn't actually where he feels like he belongs?

And what if that moment of truth reveals something far bigger about why an entire generation is

walking away from organized religion and what they might be walking toward. These questions

kind of crackled through the conversation I had with Dante Stewart as we explored what it

really means to stand in your truth when the cost of authenticity feels devastatingly high.

What started as a discussion about spirituality and religion in modern life transformed into a

profound exploration of courage and belonging and the fierce grace that it takes to grow beyond the

boundaries other set force. Dante is an award-winning writer, cultural critic, and minister whose

work appears in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Washington Post, and more. His critically

acclaimed memoir, Souten in the Fire examines faith, identity, and belonging in a racially fractured America.

And a former college football player turned theologian, an essayist, Dante brings both

intellectual rigor and just raw emotional honesty to every conversation. Through powerful,

personal stories, he really shines a light on what becomes possible when we just trust our evolution, even as others want us to stay the same. And his surprising take on

how to metabolize suffering rather than avoid it really got me thinking so excited to share

this conversation with you. I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project.

There's a question that I would love to get your take on. I think it was just last week. I saw one of the sort of like giant survey agencies came out with a poll that looked at religiosity over, you know, like a period of, like

a long window of time. And they broke it down for the first time that I saw by boomers, um, Gen Xers,

millennials, and Gen Z. And I think we've all heard that people on the whole are getting less

and less religious over time was really

surprising for me to see was that Gen Z in particular there's been a massive exit from

religion from like basically all faiths. I'd love your take on that. What are your thoughts on that?

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