PZ's Podcast

About the show

From "Telstar" to "Vault of Horror," from Rattigan to Kerouac, from the Village of Bray to the Village of Midwich, help PZ link old ancient news and pop culture. I think I can see him, "Crawling from the Wreckage." Will he find his way? This show is brought to you by Mockingbird! www.mbird.com

PZ's Podcast on social media

Episodes

  • Episode 238 – Motivate!

    December 12th, 2017  |  21 mins 41 secs

    This is a short talk on motivation and love. What motivates a person to do something; to REALLY do something. As opposed to remaining endlessly exhausted and trapped, within a cycle of inner conflict and desuetude.

  •

    Episode 237 – One Monkey

    October 15th, 2017  |  20 mins 37 secs

    You listen to the group Honey Cone, described today as early feminists, and they are talking about a universal truth and in memorable pop terms.

  • Episode 236 – Psychosis

    September 27th, 2017  |  22 mins 53 secs

    Psychosis is a very strong word for a cultural phenomenon. But it allows us to speak of a fissure over against reality, when groups of people see things around them in a way that is divorced from the facts.

  •

    Episode 235 – The Year We Make Contact

    September 12th, 2017  |  24 mins 9 secs

    I'm talking about pastoral contact, which is just another way of talking about personal contact. How do you get through to somebody? How do they get through to you? What establishes direct contact with the person that you really are?

  •

    Episode 233 – The Story in Your Eyes

    September 11th, 2017  |  19 mins 58 secs

    We've all got a story in our eyes! The Moody Blues, and in particular their inspired songwriter Justin Hayward, caught that "Silent-Running"; fact in the 1971 single that starts this podcast. We've all got a story in our eyes.

  •

    Episode 234 – Turning Point

    September 11th, 2017  |  21 mins 41 secs

    This theme of the insuperability of at least one problem in your life continues to absorb me, and in the light of hope and hopefulness. I tell the story of a woman who recently attended a meeting of church executives, almost all of whom are absorbed by current issues and questions of identity in political terms.

  •

    Episode 232 – Easier Said Than Done

    September 4th, 2017  |  23 mins 36 secs

    Sometimes when I hear a sermon or address that stresses the presence of God in catastrophic situations, let alone God's presence in the midst of sin and sinners, I want to stand up and ask (tho' I never do): "Do you really believe what you are saying?"

  •

    Episode 230 – Question (LIVE)

    August 28th, 2017  |  23 mins 45 secs

    The fact that the mainstream churches are hiding their Light under a bushel is the primary reason for their atrophy. The fact that most of our churches are "missing in action" when it comes to the seemingly insuperable pain of living that we bring to them and to their representatives; well, that, I believe, is the main cause of their numerical decline.

  •

    Episode 231 – On the Road to Love

    August 28th, 2017  |  24 mins 48 secs

    One more on the paucity of mainstream church to the hungry and hurt visitor, let alone the hungry and hurt regular; but with hope: Justin Hayward is sometimes accused of sentimental romanticism. I don't agree.

  •

    Episode 228 - Eternal Return

    February 13th, 2017  |  20 mins 48 secs

    I keep trying to make sense of the divisions we are almost all feeling currently. How can one get "under" them, i.e., in hopes of lessening them a little? Does anyone who is reading this enjoy feeling estranged from others, especially old friends, for example, because of political opinions? Very few, I'll bet. But it's happening.

  •

    Episode 211 - Son, This Is She

    February 8th, 2016  |  24 mins 52 secs

    There is this amazing supposed contrast between the God Who comes to us from without, and the God Who speaks to us from within. Historic Christianity generally hears the First. Eastern religion generally hears the second.

  •

    Episode 210 - Saved!

    January 31st, 2016  |  25 mins 55 secs

    When you were in a tight spot, how did help get through to you, assuming help did get through to you?Did God speak from out of the whirlwind -- of crisis, panic, and despair? Or did aid come from inside yourself -- a 'how-to' or random thought that proved serviceable in the midst?

  •

    Episode 209 - How To Be Popular If You're a Guy

    January 25th, 2016  |  25 mins 16 secs

    The answer to that question has to lie, somehow, in whatever explains the popular success of Rodney Marvin ('Rod') McKuen. Rod McKuen died a year ago, and did you know he sold 100 million records? No kidding. Rod McKuen sold 100 million records.

  •

    Episode 208 - Five O'Clock World

    January 7th, 2016  |  24 mins 52 secs

    Now we think that reality, the "real world", is what happens "between nine and five", that is, what happens at work, in the office, at school, in career, and so forth. And a lot of people want to tell us that's true.

  •

    Episode 207 - Is Paris Burning? (1966)

    November 15th, 2015  |  25 mins 36 secs

    Here are a few thoughts concerning the atrocity attacks in Paris. I talk about Islam (and "Islamophobia"), Syrian migration into Europe, Original Sin and "low" vs. "high" anthropology, reaction-formations among young men when drones are over their heads and they have no control, let alone "buy-in"; and finally, a threatening experience Mary and I had on Times Square recently. Call this PZ's perspective on a current (big) event.

  •

    Episode 206 - The Rich Man and Lazarus

    November 9th, 2015  |  20 mins 49 secs

    I keep getting requests for a sort of "early morning Bible study" -- giving the 'treatment', you might say, to a New Testament text that stings, and also helps. So that's what I'll do for a few episodes, beginning with this one.