Hello, dear listeners.
Megan Phelps-Roper here – proud friend and colleague of Longview co-founders Andy Mills and Matt Boll. You may have heard my name in the credits on projects like The Last Invention, The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling, and previous episodes of Reflector.
Today, we come to you with a bit of an experiment. It’s something of a story within a story, and a return to something that I had long felt was verboten, off-limits, a no-man’s-land for someone like me. It’s something that I had largely rejected, and that I felt had somehow rejected me – but that I’ve felt inexorably drawn to of late:
The Bible.
Not to the doctrines or the dogma. To the stories.
As a non-believer for more than a decade now, I honestly feel pretty sheepish about this. But for reasons we discuss in this episode of Reflector, I notice more and more how these stories continue to shape me in surprising ways – and why, in spite of myself, I can’t seem to let them go.
In The Hallelujah, I return to the Bible not as doctrine, but as literature – as a collection of human stories about beauty and passion, transgression and remorse, destruction and redemption.
Maybe you’re someone who already appreciates these stories. Or maybe you’re like me – a non-believer or ex-believer who feels some friction with this ancient book. Or maybe you’re new to these tales that humans have been telling for thousands of years, curious about what they might have to say about life and human nature. If you’ve ever walked away from a belief system that formed you, or if you’ve never really understood why these ancient stories still echo through our culture: I made this for you.
I hope you’ll listen.
And whether it resonates or repels, I would genuinely love to hear from you.
Send me and the Reflector team a note with your thoughts at hello@longview.report. We read every word.
Thanks for listening, and we can’t wait to see you again in 2026 with so much more.
– Megan
