Typology
This Christmas, we’re delighted to bring back one of our most beloved conversations with Enneagram Three, pastor, and author AJ Sherrill. In this replay, AJ joins me to revisit the Nativity story—not as the sentimental tale we often breeze past each year, but as a rich, multilayered narrative pulsing with mystery, courage, vulnerability, and divine surprise. AJ shares his own journey into spiritual direction, what it’s teaching him about listening, presence, and compassion, and how the Enneagram continues to shape his inner world. We explore why the season invites us to slow down, pay...
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With the holidays just around the corner, we’re bringing back a conversation that continues to deliver relational gold. Whether you heard it the first time or you’re discovering it now, this replay with author and Enneagram teacher Christina Wilcox offers a beautifully practical and deeply compassionate look at how the Enneagram can transform the way we show up for one another during the most emotionally charged season of the year. In this episode, Christina shares her journey of discovering herself as an Enneagram Six—along with the courage, clarity, and self-understanding that...
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What happens when the life you built—carefully, faithfully, and publicly—splits down the middle in a single night? On this episode of Typology, I sit down with bestselling author and beloved cultural commentator Jen Hatmaker to talk about her stunning new memoir, Awake. Jen, an Enneagram Three with a courageous streak that can look a whole lot like an Eight, opens up about the “before-and-after date” that changed everything—July 11, 2020—when her 26-year marriage ended, and her whole world cracked open. Together, we explore what it means to wake up in midlife: to grief and...
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This week on Typology, we welcomed the incomparable Lynn Smith—former national news anchor turned communications strategist, executive coach, and proud (and newly discovered) Enneagram Three with a Two wing. And friends… buckle up. This conversation is a masterclass in emotional intelligence, presence, and what it means to pursue success without losing yourself in the chase. Fresh off taking the Typology Assessment, Lynn joined us in that familiar Three-ish blend of humor, candor, and high-octane energy, joking that the results made her want to immediately call her therapist. What...
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German-born spiritual teacher and self-help author Eckhart Tolle once wrote, "Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance." I found this to be true in my life as well, and as it turns out, expressing gratitude isn't just a sound spiritual practice. It's essential to our emotional and physical well-being. According to a recent study performed at Harvard Medical School, "Gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their...
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What happens when an Enneagram Two (or…maybe a Four?) takes a deep dive into the ache beneath our desire to be good, loved, and whole? This week, I sit down with Heath Hardesty, pastor and author of . What begins as a conversation about the Enneagram Two’s longing to help soon unfurls into an exploration of the soul — the ache for beauty, the mystery of shame, and what it means to live authentically before God. Together we explore: The difference between helping and hiding Why our “ache” might actually be a form of divine homesickness How beauty, poetry, and the transcendent...
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In this heartfelt, humorous, and deeply human conversation, Ian sits down with longtime friend — artist, filmmaker, professor, and Enneagram Seven — Steve Taylor. You may know him as the legendary provocateur who “invented irony for Christians,” but in this episode, we explore the terrain beneath the creativity, the energy, and the relentless forward motion that has defined so much of his life. Together we wade into the deeper waters of the second half of life — aging, character, grief, spiritual maturity, limitations, and the sacred invitation to move from doing to being. Steve...
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What happens when two high-achieving Enneagram Threes sit down with an Enneagram Four? You get an electric, honest, and surprisingly tender conversation about ambition, fear, and what it really means to live courageously. In this episode, Ian sits down with Jenny Wood, former Google executive and author of Wild Courage: Go After What You Want and Get It, and her Chief of Staff, Carlina Daugherty, for an unfiltered look at the drive and depth behind the Enneagram Three. Together, they explore: · Why fear — not talent — is often the real barrier to...
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), a popular Substack celebrating literary culture. He is the author of several books, including (forthcoming, November 2025). His writing has appeared in Reason, the Washington Post, American Spectator, and National Review. He lives outside Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, kids, dogs, and more books than space. Available now for pre-order: Follow on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player to learn more about the Enneagram and personal growth.
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On this week’s episode of Typology, I’m joined by two remarkable guests who sit right at the intersection of faith and psychology: Dr. Les Parrott, a clinical psychologist and author, and pastor Judah Smith, who brings a preacher’s honesty and a comedian’s timing to our conversation. Together, they’ve written a new book called . It’s a lively and deeply honest dialogue between theology and therapy—between the pulpit and the couch. We dive into what Les calls the five “toxic thought patterns” that keep us stuck—guilt, shame, insecurity, entitlement, and...
info_outlineHow do our early stories shape who we become, and what would it look like to embrace healing and grace along the way?
In this heartfelt episode of Typology, we welcome Melanie Shankle, an Enneagram 9 with an 8 wing and author of Here Be Dragons: Treading the Deep Waters of Motherhood, Mean Girls, and Generational Trauma.
Melanie opens up about the impact of a turbulent childhood, the people-pleasing patterns that followed, and what it took for her to confront her past with honesty and compassion. Together, we explore how writing her book became a profound path of self-understanding and generational healing.
Whether you’re reflecting on your own childhood, parenting, or your inner growth as an adult, this honest and hopeful conversation invites you to embrace grace, compassion, and deeper self-awareness.
Tune in and discover that healing often begins when we dare to face the stories we thought we had to hide.