A pastor and an agnostic bond over loss: Tom and Dani take One Small Step from StoryCorps

What happens when you sit down a former Air Force chaplain to sit down with a former evangelical Christian who has left the church? In this case a budding friendship.

Central Florida Public Media, in partnership with StoryCorps, brings strangers with different political views together for a guided conversation.

Brevard County resident and lifelong Republican Tom Unrath sat down to talk with Brevard County resident Dani Combs. Unrath is retired from the Air Force as a chaplain and is a retired pastor, while Combs identifies as a former evangelical who has become agnostic.

“I feel like human connection is really hard these days,” Combs said. “I’m the parent of a pre-teen and a teenager, and I feel like all the time we spend on screens and texting, on social media and one-sided algorithms has made it very difficult for people of all generations to to connect. ”

Unrath agreed.

“I’ve seen the division happening in the world, and in so many ways I want to help people understand that we need each other,” Unrath said. “We have to work together.”

Meet Tom Unrath

Tom Unrath was born into a military family.

He eventually went to seminary and served as a chaplain in the Air Force for 22 years. He is also passionate about conservation.

The biggest influence on his life? His daughter Nicole Unrath.

She died in a car accident en route from Tampa to Melbourne in 2003.

“The things she taught me are to love without holding anything back, to care for everyone, to always smile and to hug people as often as possible,” Unrath said. ‘She taught me that love between people lives on, long after death.’

Meet Dani Combs

Dani Combs was born and raised in South Louisiana, but lived all over the place as part of a military family.

Her husband retired from the Air Force in 2021 and she lives in Melbourne with two children. She is a personal trainer, podcast host, actor, bartender, and book review blogger.

Like Unrath, her life was affected by loss: her father died by suicide when she was eleven years old. She said this has taught her to really pay attention when asking how people are doing, and to be involved in mental health awareness.

“He was very outgoing and had a huge personality,” Combs said. “I get a lot of my personality traits from him. He was a great mask… of his internal struggle.”

The takeaway

Ultimately, Unrath and Combs realized that the way they describe their political values is similar.

Unrath said people need to take care of each other — “whether that’s from a libertarian point of view or from a Green Party point of view, or from a Republican or a Democrat, whether someone considers themselves conservative or liberal.”

Combs said when she votes, she thinks about the impact it will have on the greater good and the most vulnerable.

“It’s interesting because before we started our interview, we were told that we had different political views,” Combs said. “The way you describe your personal views is more or less the same. That brings us full circle to how we started this conversation and why it’s so important.

Unrath said this conversation taught him he has a “new friend.”

“We all live in the same space, we all breathe the same air,” Unrath said.

StoryCorps’ One Small Step and the Radio Station Hubs are made possible by the Dutch Public Broadcasting Company.