Alumni Feature: Joseph Holmes (’16)
“I’ve always seen my calling as one where the creative and intellectual life of my mind were to be in service to God and His kingdom, but attending King’s helped me to clarify what God’s kingdom is supposed to look like and what it means to restore it.”
This fall, we connected with a number of young alumni from The King’s College to hear how they’re spending their time. How do they reflect on their years at King’s, and what has it looked like in practice for them to pursue the mission of shaping institutions? Read more alumni stories here.
Name and Graduation Year
Joseph Holmes, B.A. Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, 2016
Current Occupation
Film critic and culture writer (Religion Unplugged), podcast co-host (The Overthinkers), Direct Support Professional at a residency for the developmentally challenged (Life’sWorc), and independent filmmaker
What does a typical day look like for you?
I usually work in the evenings at Life’sWORC so my typical day starts late in the morning. I begin by checking social media and answering emails and messages to keep the ball rolling on whatever projects I am juggling at the time. I try to fit in some writing before I go to work, either for this week’s podcast script, my next film screenplay, or an upcoming film or culture article, and then I try to read on the subway on my way to work. A typical day at Life’sWORC involves bathing, playing games with, feeding, solving conflicts with, and putting to bed the residents at the home. After that, I come back home around midnight and either do some more writing or watch something to turn my brain off before bed. Thursday evenings are free and on those days my team (fellow King’s alum Nathan Sherrer and my co-host Nathan Clarkson) meets at Nathan Clarkson’s place to record the podcast before we have an evening of fellowship, dinner, and movies.
How did your experiences as a King’s student (either in class or outside of it) give you a deeper perspective that you now use in your day to day?
King’s was a boot camp for the intellectual and the social life. King’s exposed me to resources, people, and habits for engaging with the world of ideas and people, pushing me to excel in both. I use these skills all the time in my life now, whether it’s navigating relationships at work or in my creative projects. I’ve always seen my calling as one where the creative and intellectual life of my mind were to be in service to God and His kingdom, but attending King’s helped me to clarify what God’s kingdom is supposed to look like and what it means to restore it.
In what ways do you see your current work contributing to God’s restoration of the world (or whatever larger purpose you see yourself as part of)?
I see my Direct Support Professional (DSP) work and my creative work are both parts of the work in restoring God’s world. As a DSP, I spend time caring for people who can’t care for themselves, making sure that they still can live lives with joy and dignity, making their world a little bit more like what God imagines for all of us.
As a culture writer, podcast host, and filmmaker, I see my job as building and redeeming the cultural imagination. When I write film reviews, I help people think rightly about what they are consuming, so that they can better engage with it.
As the podcast host of The Overthinkers, I discuss big ideas on a weekly basis that help people to realize that they can have fun thinking deeply, while also integrating faith, creativity, and intellectual rigor. I also see the fan base we’ve generated over the past year, with Christians, atheists, liberals, and conservatives all engaging our ideas with conviction and charity, as a part of restoring the world to how God intended it to be.
As a filmmaker, I see my work as an opportunity to help people see in pictures the way that God imagines the world—how He sees us, how He sees what we could be, and how He wants us to bridge that gap. I am deeply grateful to have the opportunity as an artist to do that for people.