Hello, and welcome to another episode of Some Random Thoughts. I am your host, Ryan Mulkowsky. This season, we focus on our guests in the “What’s Your Passion” series. We continue this season with Scott Okamoto: author, podcaster, and musician.

In this episode, we discuss Okamoto’s background growing up with a passion for listening to music and how his parents fostered this passion. He talks about his family and how music informed his life before Christianity, while he was a Christian, and now as a post-Christian. Lots of discussions on both mainstream and CCM and our musings on both genres. He discusses the power of music and how evangelical Christianity can manipulate music to make people feel that supernatural happenings are occurring but in reality are not. Okamoto reflects on how earnest he was in his Christian beliefs and becoming a worship pastor but how ultimately those beliefs collapsed and new beliefs formed. We wrap the discussion about his many endeavors, his growing creativity as a musician, writing a book, assisting in podcast production and hosting, and many other fun and engaging topics.

Bio: Scott Okamoto is a former English professor, author of Asian American Apostate: Losing Religion and Finding Myself at an Evangelical University, the creator and host of the Chapel Probation podcast, and the editor and music supervisor for Axis Mundi Media.

-Asian American Apostate: Losing Religion and Finding Myself at an Evangelical University from Lake Drive Books-Creator of the Chapel Probation Podcast-rscottokamoto.com

You can connect with Scott @rsokamoto on Instagram, Threads, and X (Twitter).

Where to find Ryan:

@ryanmulkowsky on most social media platforms and at www.ryanmulkowsky.com

Select episodes of the podcast are available in video form on YouTube.com/ryanmulkowsky

Music Courtesy:

AlisiaBeats on Pixabay:

https://pixabay.com/music/future-bass-titanium-170190/