Posts tagged "NPR"
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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Another Week Ends: Poptropica Love, Retrospective Bullies, Foolish Proof, Colbert Logs, Lucille Bluth, and the Nabokov-Anderson Connection
America / Art / Film / Food / Identity / Relationships / Theology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Poptropica Love, Retrospective Bullies, Foolish Proof, Colbert Logs, Lucille Bluth, and the Nabokov-Anderson Connection

by Ethan Richardson on Feb 22, 2013 • No Comments

1) Club Penguin is one of several multimedia and game sites geared towards tweens from the ages of seven to twelve. Club Penguin itself has over 200 million registered users worldwide, and was purchased by Disney not long ago.  And there are plenty of others: Poptropica, Wee World, Moshi Monsters, Fantage. Alongside the sheer breadth of these programs’ appeal to children, they also seem to picking up the tendencies of commensurate older-kid web lives. In other words, 8-year-old kids are getting boyfriends and girlfriends online, ht JD.

Kids pair off by asking “say 123 if u want me” and break up…

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Expectation Hangovers and Twentysomething Nones
Church / Identity / Religion / Social Science / Week In Review

Expectation Hangovers and Twentysomething Nones

by David Zahl on Jan 25, 2013 • 9 Comments

A slightly unconventional week end column this time, in which we take a closer look at a single subject, but through the lens of a handful of different articles. The focus this time being the state of twentysomething life in America, its particular pressures and obstacles, as well as the apparent lack of religiosity which seems so constitutive of the current generation, at least if the data is to be trusted. The instinct tends to be (and I’m pointing the finger chiefly at myself) blaming abstract forces like Secularization, Science! etc rather than trying to understand the dearth/flight of twentysomethings…

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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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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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The Most Important Word in Any Language (and the Least Socially Acceptable Emotion)
Children / Law / Psychology

The Most Important Word in Any Language (and the Least Socially Acceptable Emotion)

by David Zahl on Nov 14, 2012 • 1 Comment

A frankly amazing interview took place last month on The Diane Rehm Show (NPR), one that was too rich not to share here. Diane sat down with Dr. Henry Kellerman, a renowned psychoanalyst, to talk about his new book, Personality: How it Forms. A broad subject for a discussion, but one which quickly took an interesting–and highly relevant–turn. According to Dr. Kellerman, while there is a strong inborn element to who we are, much of the “nurture” aspect of our personality is shaped by our history with the word No. Specifically, what we do and where we go with the…

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Another Week Ends: Crimson Despair, Teacher Expectations, MJ’s Bad, Improvement Narratives, Neil Young, Neurospeculation, The Master, and Conf Update
Celebrity / Conferences / Education / Grace in Practice / Identity / Music / Psychology / Religion / Suffering / Theology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Crimson Despair, Teacher Expectations, MJ’s Bad, Improvement Narratives, Neil Young, Neurospeculation, The Master, and Conf Update

by David Zahl on Sep 21, 2012 • 1 Comment

1. An incredibly moving account of “Depression and Despair at Harvard” in response to the suicide of a classmate by Jordan Monge on The Harvard Ichthus. With real vulnerability, Monge touches on the crushing power of expectation, the vicious circle of shame and fear, the grace of defeat, even the toxic and tragic way Christians revert to the Law, post-conversion. It’s a courageous testament to the reality that we are not saved us from pain, but in and through it, ht AZ:

via indexed.com

Admitting my weakness feels like admitting that I am not good enough to bear my own name.…

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The Lovable Lostness of Jesse Pinkman
Forgiveness / Law / TV

The Lovable Lostness of Jesse Pinkman

by Ethan Richardson on Aug 28, 2012 • 7 Comments

[Spoiler Alert!] According to the Fresh Air interview with actor Aaron Paul, his character, the impulsive young Jesse Pinkman in AMC’s Breaking Bad, wasn’t supposed to make it out of the first season. He tells Terry Gross he didn’t even know that was the plan and so:

…instantly my heart kind of dropped and slowed down a bit, and (Vince Gilligan) goes, “but we don’t think we’re going to do that anymore.” And I was just – I was like, “What do you mean? What are you talking about? Like, what’s the plan?” And he’s like, “No, we just – I…

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Another Week Ends: Dumb Smart People, VeggieRemorse, Pixar Tips, Transfigured Authority, Profanity Laws, Fiona Apple and Mad Men
Children / Church / Everyday / Identity / Law / Music / Psychology / Religion / Social Science / Theology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Dumb Smart People, VeggieRemorse, Pixar Tips, Transfigured Authority, Profanity Laws, Fiona Apple and Mad Men

by David Zahl on Jun 15, 2012 • 4 Comments

1. You’ve probably heard the classic arithmetic question, “A bat and ball cost a dollar and ten cents. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?” If your kneejerk response is in the double digits, well, think again. Jonah Lehrer kicked off his new post at The New Yorker with a couple of terrific new pieces. “Why We Don’t Believe in Science” was the first and “Why Smart People Are Stupid” is the latest, and it in particular warrants some excerpting here. Another cogent reminder that self-knowledge (or knowledge in general) is not…

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Virginia, Love and the Rolodex
Film / Relationships

Virginia, Love and the Rolodex

by Ethan Richardson on May 21, 2012 • No Comments

If you’ve seen the trailer for Virginia, Dustin Lance Black’s newest film, you would be hard-pressed to find something resembling the narrative simplicity of his greatest inspiration, When Harry Met Sally. There’s guns, sons babying moms, politician affairs, and yet his favorite scene–his most returned-to scene, he told NPR–is that emblematic Meg Ryan-Carrie Fisher “Rolodex Scene.” When Harry Met Sally is the classic rom-com. Palatable love loss, recovery, reuniting–it’s the narrative spun in most of its kind following, a love against all odds, a love returned. It’s a narrative, I think Black understands quite rightly, that we all long for.

It…

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Creditors, Debtors, Forgiveness, and God
Economics / Forgiveness / Money / Radio / Theology

Creditors, Debtors, Forgiveness, and God

by R-J Heijmen on May 18, 2012 • 10 Comments

Among the podcasts to which I subscribe is NPR’s excellent Planet Money, a program which was born out of the Great Recession and guides listeners through the intricacies of the global financial system, both past and present. Sounds really boring, I know, but it isn’t, and has been very helpful to this New Yorker, living in a finance town with no finance knowledge or experience. And it’s great for sermon illustrations, as you will soon see…

A recent episode caught my attention – “History Is a Battle between Creditors and Debtors” - in which the hosts discuss how the kind of tension…

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Another Week Ends: Attachment Parenting, Sendak on Innocence, Self-Disclosure, Fraudulent Psych, Prometheus, Avengers, and Josh Hamilton
Children / Film / Gender / Identity / Radio / Social Science / Sports / Testimony / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Attachment Parenting, Sendak on Innocence, Self-Disclosure, Fraudulent Psych, Prometheus, Avengers, and Josh Hamilton

by David Zahl on May 11, 2012 • No Comments

1. Why Is This Attractive Woman Breast-Feeding This Giant Child? asks Hannah Rosin over at Slate, in response to Time’s, um, eye-catching cover this past week. You know the one I’m talking about – at least you do if you’ve seen it (below). The story within, bearing the not-so-subtle title of “Are You Mom Enough?”, profiles the controversial world of radical attachment parenting and the man behind it, Dr. Bill Sears. Now I’m as big a proponent of breastfeeding as the next guy (…), so the reason I include the article here has nothing to do with developmental health or…

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This American Life and The Foolish Wisdom of God
America / Conferences / Everyday / Radio / Theology

This American Life and The Foolish Wisdom of God

by Ethan Richardson on Mar 28, 2012 • 1 Comment

Are you an NPR junkie? Do you never jones for public radio human interest stories, but feel peace knowing you’re not the only one telling hardness-of-life, love-of-God stories week after week? In other words, are you a This American Life listener? If so, you’ve come to the right place. This American Gospel: Public Radio Parables and the Grace of God is Mockingbird’s latest publication and we couldn’t be more excited about it. So excited, in fact, that we’ve decided to give you a taste of the introduction.

Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of…

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If You Build It, They Will Come: The Pitfalls of the “Community” Garden
America / Law / Relationships

If You Build It, They Will Come: The Pitfalls of the “Community” Garden

by Ethan Richardson on Mar 23, 2012 • 1 Comment

It’s spring now, and the lines are gathering at Lowe’s for the outdoor projects–the hammers, the nails, the pavers and edgers, the crabgrass preventer, the mulch.  And lately if there’s anything this means, it’s that community gardens by the hundreds will be poking up like new year’s resolutions around your town, little buds and bulbs being planted by the Channings, the Arnolds, and the neighbors whose names you’ve never gotten but whose beagle seems to be on some kind of new death-howling-at-4-AM routine right outside your bedroom window. It’s a gorgeous Saturday spring morning, neighbors caring for neighbors, caring for…

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