Why We're Investing in New Media
August 20, 2026
This fall finds us building a new media team at Chalmers to produce a podcast and an animated series.
Why should a nonprofit launched by economics professors make that kind of investment?
Chalmers was founded by some big ideas, like the ones in When Helping Hurts. Over time, we shaped our thinking into tools on the ground, like RESTORE and Faith & Finances.
We now want to bridge the space between academia and field practice – for everyday Christians. Whether you use our programs or not, we hope a podcast and videos become resourceful for you as you learn about poverty alleviation.
We want to follow Jesus. We find ourselves drawn to the work he began among people who are poor. But it’s hard to actually do it. As our friend Deanna Mason at The Needle Mover Effect shared:
The woman standing outside of the grocery store asking for money: I want to respond. I don’t know how to respond. So I come up with my own responses. Maybe I’ll just give ’em a gift card every time I see them, or maybe I’ll just keep some cash in the car. And the longer I did that, the more I started realizing I feel like that’s checking a box off for myself. I was feeling the tension of driving by without a response. So this at least removed some of that tension.
I felt like God started inviting me into seeing something different. There’s something more to be discovered. There’s something more that I wanna teach you about these image bearers in your city.
To live faithfully, to wake up and pursue Christ’s call, we need fresh ideas and practices. Where do we find them? If you’re like me, you’re shaped by the voices in your earbuds and the characters on your screen – as much as by the sermon you hear on Sunday.
This is where we at Chalmers want to meet you – with podcasts and videos that help you think through your own faithful action.
We want to offer you two things through our work: room for questions and characters you can follow.
Room for Questions
Jesus asked hundreds of questions. Can Christians who want to help alleviate poverty ask good questions together, in community? Can we share the answers we’re finding?
Our podcast hopes to be a kind of front porch – a place for collaborators in our field to sit, share, and ask questions.
Small questions, like Deanna’s: “How do we respond to the woman outside the grocery store?”
Big questions, like “How can churches step into funding gaps to address global poverty?”
We’re motivated by these questions. We think the answers we find can change us.
(Email [email protected] with your podcast ideas. We’d love to hear from you.)
Characters You Can Follow
Jesus asked his disciples to follow him. We’re all looking for someone to follow.
Thankfully, the Chalmers network is stacked with wise people who have followed Jesus into hard places. We want to capture their stories and begin to imitate them.
We also want to use what we learn as inspiration for an upcoming animation series. Stay tuned.
Signals of Welcome
Our namesake Thomas Chalmers wrote a piece called The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. He describes what it takes to exorcise the love of the world from our hearts: not self-discipline, he says, but a deeper affection for the kingdom that is coming.
When we start to perceive this kingdom, and hear its stories, we can sense “signals of welcome hung out, the light of its surpassing glories, and its sounds of sweeter melody.” That’s when we become able to “die unto the present world, and live to the lovelier world.”
We’re hanging out the welcome signals, and hoping you’ll join us there.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. -1 John 2:15, 17
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