Finally Pulled the Plug

Now it’s all here.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

My first foray into online writing was on the Blogger platform. Who remembers those days? Then I moved to Typepad as that platform offered a few more bells and whistles. After reading a friend’s blog I emailed and asked if I borrowed the logic of his title. Just Todd became the second iteration. Then I moved everything to Wordpress. There I opted for a line from a Richard Rohr piece for the title, The Edge of the Inside. When audio was added, I began podcasting. Mostly I offered interviews with authors, leaders, and thinkers I had met or had been suggested to me.

About ten years ago, I took quite a break from podcasting and slowed way down my online writing. Yes, there is a long story to that one.

A few years ago, maybe a few before the Covid pandemic, I jumped back in with a crowdsourced title - patheological. The mashup of Pastor and Theologian was an attempt to suggest the need for Pastoral Public Theology. Try as I might, I did not keep a regular schedule and the intermittent habit waxed and waned. I still included podcasting and thus the podcast title - patheological: a podcast for the pastor theologian.

Wordpress became more and more cumbersome. Yes, it has some very powerful tools. But, I preferred to write and more easily add a podcast or audio piece than what it increasingly took. Hosting prices increased and increased. I provided space for a couple of others in my hosting package. Those spun out or off.

Late last year, I learned about Substack. I reminded me of the old Blogger and early Typepad days, even the early Wordpress. I like the interface and the ease of use. Over time Substack has added features that make sense and yet maintain the simplicity of its functionality.

Heading into 2026 I have decided to make a change here at Can We Talk? the latest iteration of my online interactions. Over the past year a few of you have become paid subscribers. For that I am grateful. I actually used that to keep my website up. Recently I cancelled my hosting package and turned off my Wordpress site. Much of that content I had already moved over here. There could be some posts that I need to restore the audio to but that will take time, maybe more than I am willing to give.

All of that to say that all content here will now be Free. There will still be an option to be a paid subscriber. For those that choose this gracious act, I will use those resources to maintain the domains I own that will all point here. I will add my personal domain to Substack and that requires a one-time fee.

You have noticed over the past six months or more, I have been part of Substack Live hosted by my friend Jason Micheli. We used a couple of other platforms but the to the market to dos became more tedious. Now we are using Substack Live for our Monday Night Live Classes. We worked our way through different books or articles. Recently we did a series on Karl Rahner’s Advent sermons in The Great Church Year and then Sergious Bulgakov’s, The Burning Bush, his work on the veneration of Mary in the Orthodox tradition.

I have also begun to include the sermons I offer at our church, Snow Hill Baptist Church. We spent almost five months exploring many of the miracles of Jesus. Next up will be a series on Psalm 119 beginning January 11 and running to Easter.

All of this to say there will be a Monday Night Live Classes most weeks, one sermon from the previous Sunday, and as time allows, another written piece or two inspired by something I am reading, a conversation that raised something of interest to me, or a social-cultural event that is better thought through here rather than a Sunday morning sermon. From time to time I will share notes with quotes or links to other Substack’s I read and or subscribe to.

Thank you for reading, sharing, liking, commenting . . . All the things.

Happy New Year!