Why It's IMPOSSIBLE To Live Without Faith? (Grief, God & The Limits of Rationality)

In this raw, thought-provoking conversation, I sit down with Preston Zeller — entrepreneur, abstract artist, documentary filmmaker, polymath, and founder of projects like PsalmLog — from Mesa, Arizona.

Preston opens up about his profound return to Christian faith after film school, his intellectual deep dive into the Bible, theology, and other belief systems (from Eastern faiths and atheism to paganism and beyond), and why he rejects the false divide between religion and reason. He explores absolute vs. relative truth, the limits of hyper-rationality, the power of awareness over pure logic, and how everyday assumptions reveal that everyone lives by a form of faith.

The discussion turns deeply personal as Preston shares the catalyst for his journey: the death of his older brother Colin from a drug overdose after years of addiction and military service. This loss shattered his assumptions about grief, exposed how ill-equipped Western culture is to handle it, and sparked a transformative year-long project — painting one abstract piece every day for 365 days while documenting the process. That creative outpouring became the acclaimed documentary The Art of Grieving (streaming on Amazon Prime), which blends Preston’s intimate story with historical insights into how artists across time have used creativity to process loss. He reflects on adolescence as our first major grief (losing childhood innocence), the therapeutic power of art as a “better journal” for complex emotions, why words often fail us, and the risks of fueling creativity through endless pain.

Together, we wrestle with big questions: Why do we grieve if death feels so unnatural? What role does creativity play in turning suffering into connection and resilience? How do we balance objective truth with subjective experience in a world full of contradictions, linguistic manipulation, and arrogant dismissals?

Blending faith, philosophy, vulnerability, and artistic insight, this episode is a moving meditation on loss, meaning, intellectual honesty, and the human need to create amid heartbreak. Whether you’re navigating grief, questioning faith, or seeking better ways to process life’s hardest seasons, Preston’s story offers hope, validation, and a reminder that art — and faith — can help us endure and relate to one another more deeply.

Stay tuned for more episodes and content!