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Another Week Ends: Snowden Psychology, Child Stars Grown Up, Sleep Perfomance, the Science of Risk-Management, and Ira Glass on Jesus Freaks
America / Art / Celebrity / Children / Film / Humor / News / Psychology / Radio / Technology

Another Week Ends: Snowden Psychology, Child Stars Grown Up, Sleep Perfomance, the Science of Risk-Management, and Ira Glass on Jesus Freaks

by Ethan Richardson on Jun 14, 2013 • 2 Comments

1) I guess the graduation speeches were of quite the well-suited ilk this year—fitted more for the heart and less the diploma. Jonathan Safran-Foer spoke at Middlebury’s graduation (the transcript was then printed for the Times), and talked a lot about today’s ease of communication and, thus, today’s relational retreat. Entitled “How Not To Be Lonely,” he catalogues some of the cultural and social restraints of technology, something we love…to…talk…about, but what’s more interesting is the focus he takes on power of intervention and attention.

He remembers sitting in a park, next to a woman who crying in public. Not knowing…

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It’s Funny ‘Cause It’s True: Tig Notaro Has Breast Cancer
Humor / Radio / Suffering / Theology

It’s Funny ‘Cause It’s True: Tig Notaro Has Breast Cancer

by Matt Schneider on Jun 10, 2013 • 1 Comment

I’ve been thinking a lot about what we can learn from stand-up comedians. I recently came across an amazing, tragic, deeply personal, and therefore hilarious stand-up set by Tig Notaro, which aired on This American Life last October (you really should listen to it here). I am approaching this from my perspective as a preacher and teacher, but I believe anyone trying to get a message across, especially in some public forum, could learn so much from stand-up. For example, read what I wrote on comedian Jim Gaffigan’s work here. I will focus on Notaro and her set that was featured on…

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Selling Out to Keep It Real: Indie Currency in the Decade(s) of Dysfunction
America / Art / Books / Celebrity / Identity / Money / Music / Radio

Selling Out to Keep It Real: Indie Currency in the Decade(s) of Dysfunction

by Ethan Richardson on May 21, 2013 • 2 Comments

n+1 has a new piece on the changing landscape of the “sellout,” and the assertions of authenticity that have been re-shaped in the relationship between art and commerce. Evan Kindley is writing a review on a few books in the topic, one of which is spotlighted, by Timothy Taylor, The Sounds of Capitalism: Advertising, Music, and the Conquest of Culture. Going back to the origin of music being used for advertising ends, the book archives the radio-days of musicians crafting Lucky Strike jingles, all the way to the  visual age of musicians having their own songs (and personas) implanted into…

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Another Week Ends: Forgiveness, Giving Trees, Therapists, and Aging with Grace
Children / Forgiveness / Grace in Practice / Radio / Relationships / Technology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Forgiveness, Giving Trees, Therapists, and Aging with Grace

by Bryan J. on Apr 19, 2013 • No Comments

1. Forgiveness and apology seems to be a theme in the news as of late, or at least it was prior to Monday’s heartbreaking news from Boston. CNN’s belief blog highlighted the story of one man’s quest to forgive and restore the man who killed his brother when they were teens. I found the story enlightening as it ping-ponged between the two poles of forgiveness by grace (the victim’s brother) and forgiveness by works righteousness (the recently released killer). Quote: “I think for me, forgiveness will come in doing good works, trying to help others. But as far as forgiving…

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From One Juliet to Another: Sufferers Comforting Sufferers
Church / Everyday / Forgiveness / Grace in Practice / Literature / News / Psychology / Radio / Relationships / Suffering / Theology / Theology/Religion

From One Juliet to Another: Sufferers Comforting Sufferers

by R-J Heijmen on Apr 16, 2013 • 9 Comments

One of the criticisms of Gospel preaching is that it can, at times, be gloomy. “Do we have to hear about sin again?”, the complaint goes, “Do you have to be so down on humanity?”, “Can’t we talk about how great life is sometimes?”, “Can’t you give me some self-improvement tools?”

To these voices the Gospel preacher replies that life is often (perhaps mostly) hard, and that as much as we might crave a word of optimism, a little fuel for the part of us that longs to live in blissful ignorance (or denial), what we really need is not to…

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Sorry Not Sorry
Forgiveness / News / Psychology / Radio / Theology

Sorry Not Sorry

by Michael Sansbury on Apr 2, 2013 • 2 Comments

The Vances lived in number seven. They had a different father and mother. They were Eileen’s father and mother. When they were grown up he was going to marry Eileen. He hid under the table. His mother said:

– O, Stephen will apologize.

Dante said:

– O, if not, the eagles will come and pull out his eyes.–

Pull out his eyes,
Apologize,
Apologize,
Pull out his eyes.
Apologize,
Pull out his eyes,
Pull out his eyes,
Apologize.

James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Chapter 1

Apologies are not hard; they are impossible. From the time we are children, we are forced to say that we’re sorry for things…

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Is Google Searching Me?
Identity / Radio / Science / Technology

Is Google Searching Me?

by Ethan Richardson on Jan 18, 2013 • 2 Comments

After reading this very short clip from Nicholas Carr over at NPR’s Marketplace, I immediately had to order his book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. For now, I’ll suffice it to say this won’t be the only post on Carr; he’s a terrific writer of science and the brain and it doesn’t keep him from speaking confessionally, or leading off Chapter 1 with 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s not so much neuroscience as it is a scientist’s probe into a very “being” shift that is happening here in the internet age–you know, as if streaming…

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Lunatic Faith, Computer Digits, & the Myth of Money
America / Bible / Books / Economics / Everyday / Money / Radio

Lunatic Faith, Computer Digits, & the Myth of Money

by jason redcay on Jan 15, 2013 • No Comments

This American Life and Planet Money recently produced an episode titled “The Invention of Money.” You can listen to it here.

The story places the concept of money into the framework of faith, mainly due to the fact that money is no longer a physical object with tangible value like gold. Instead, it is fiction, myth, a number generated on a computer, passing through the internet. With just the push of a button, we’ve got the genesis of currency; something they call in the story “Opening the Fed Window.” The only way this money-myth has value is if people have faith…

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From This American Life: When Freedom Means Getting Caught
Everyday / Forgiveness / Music / Radio

From This American Life: When Freedom Means Getting Caught

by Mockingbird on Jan 2, 2013 • 2 Comments

This comes from Jonathan Adams, co-pastor at Village Church Vinings in Atlanta, GA.

A few Saturdays back I was taking my weekend run and listening to my favorite radio show This American Life.   This time it was Episode 477: “Getting Away With It.” Famous host Ira Glass had just finished the Prologue and already my wheels were spinning on how many times I’ve gotten away with it, or at least thought I did.

Act 1 is enjoyable, but then Ira does something unusual. In Act 2 he opens the phone lines for people to call in and tell their deepest, darkest…

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This Just In: In the Quest for Self-Improvement, Ideals Hinder, Don’t Help.
Law / News / Psychology / Radio / Science / Social Science / Theology/Religion

This Just In: In the Quest for Self-Improvement, Ideals Hinder, Don’t Help.

by R-J Heijmen on Jan 2, 2013 • 1 Comment

To be filed under “no duh” for any Mbirder (or anyone with the least bit of self-knowledge) comes this piece of news from NPR this morning: Skinny Models Undermine Dieting Goals.

Dr. Anne Klesse, a researcher at Tilburg University in the Netherlands (as I’ve always said, if you ain’t Dutch, you ain’t much:) and her colleagues recently conducted an experiment to see what effect skinny models had on dieters…

…They recruited female volunteers who signed up for a weight-loss program and gave them diaries in which the volunteers could note down precisely what they ate and when — a standard technique in weight-loss programs nowadays.

But half the…

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Humor / Radio

‘Dinner Party Timeout’ by S.H. Carlyle

by DPotter on Nov 19, 2012 • No Comments

Looking for a brief, satirical piece about trying too hard at dinner parties?  We’ve got you covered…

Dinner Party

‘Do you remember how it feels to absolutely crush every other couple in the room?’

You Can’t Argue With Grace: Fathers, Sons, and This American Gospel
Books / Forgiveness / Radio / Relationships

You Can’t Argue With Grace: Fathers, Sons, and This American Gospel

by Mockingbird on Aug 7, 2012 • No Comments

Another from Mockingbird’s most recent publication, This American Gospel: Public Radio Parables and the Grace of God. Based on the evocative power of NPR’s This American Life, Mockingbird writer Ethan Richardson touches on the theological potency of selected episodes of the program. This excerpt discussses TAL episode 432, “Know When to Fold ‘Em” and the memoir of David Dickerson, about his return to the evangelical home he had shunned for six years. Bitter about his conservative upbringing, he comes home from college ready to exact revenge on the faith he grew up in, particularly on the father whose faith had…

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The Beautiful Identity Crisis of Radiolab
Everyday / Identity / Radio / Science

The Beautiful Identity Crisis of Radiolab

by Ethan Richardson on Aug 6, 2012 • No Comments

“Comfort zone” speak is generally relegated to those who live life, you know, really take it on. I’m reminded of the crew of bros driving that snazzy Cadillac ATS full bore through those Chinese mountain tunnels and laughing and talking about the extremeness of it all. Those guys, the ones who relish taking jumps over waterfalls with helmet cameras, are bent on motivating themselves and others to “push beyond.” And beyond isn’t just testosterone-based; there’s plenty of ways to be someone who goes beyond, just like there’s plenty of ways to be uncomfortable. You can adopt a child, you can…

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Grace in Practice / Literature / Philosophy / Radio / Theology

Update on PZ’s Podcast

by Mockingbird on Jul 26, 2012 • No Comments

The good news is, the podcast is officially up on the new server! The less good news is, it probably won’t be available on iTunes for a few more days. In the meantime, though, you can get three new episodes by (re-)subscribing directly to the podcast via its updated feed. It’s actually really easy:

1. Copy the link to the new podcast feed (http://www.mbird.com/wp-content/uploads/paulzahl/podcast.xml) You can copy this link by right clicking on the link and selecting copy. Or you can click on the link and copy the link from the address bar on your browser.

2. Open up iTunes and go to the Advanced menu located on the top left of iTunes. Within the Advanced menu, you will see Subscribe to Podcast as the third listing. Choose this option and a dialogue box will open up asking for a URL. Paste the link to your Podcast Feed into the dialogue box and click OK. You have now added this podcast to your subscribed podcasts.

Blurbs appeared for two of the three new episodes a few weeks ago, but the casts themselves never made it up. So the three new casts are:

Thanks again for your patience!

The Perils of Bait-and-Switch: or Why do WWII Veterans Still Hate the Red Cross?
Economics / Radio / Theology

The Perils of Bait-and-Switch: or Why do WWII Veterans Still Hate the Red Cross?

by Todd Brewer on Jul 20, 2012 • 8 Comments

Last week’s Planet Money Podcast unknowingly stumbled upon a Law-Gospel goldmine! Exploring the economic dynamics of “free” (see also here!), the podcast specifically looks at what happens when something that was free is now no longer free. What happens when you charge money for something that was once free of charge?

Ask any veteran of WWII about the Red Cross and surprisingly to this day many distrust and despise what most people consider to be a beacon of benevolence (Katrina debacle notwithstanding). Apparently it all goes way back to the Red Cross’s decision during WWII to begin to charge soldiers for…

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