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

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Episodes

  • 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.

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    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?

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    Episode 205 - Unforeseen

    November 9th, 2015  |  20 mins 46 secs

    It's not an abstraction! It's more than something just to talk about or consider. It could happen to you. In fact, it probably will. I'm talking about unforeseen death.

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    Episode 203 - Pope Francis and the Historical Jesus

    October 1st, 2015  |  21 mins

    The music is "Good Vibrations" at the start, by The Beach Boys; and "I Knew Jesus (Before He Was a Super Star)", at the end, by Glen Campbell.

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    Episode 204 - Honest to God

    October 1st, 2015  |  22 mins 2 secs

    Pop songs about love are like a corkscrew for understanding the Bible. Songs like "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Don't Pull Your Love Out on Me, Baby," together with a zillion co-belligerants that are written and performed "In the Name of Love" (Thompson Twins), reveal the nature of love and loss, undoings and exaltings, and painful stasis and buoyed forward movement.

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    Episode 202: Pope Francis

    September 28th, 2015  |  21 mins 35 secs

    Did you cry at any point as you watched Pope Francis in action during his visit? If you did, when was it? What made you cry?

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    Episode 201: The Real Thing

    September 16th, 2015  |  24 mins 33 secs

    Is there anything to it? Is vertical religion -- not just calls to social justice, not just implied belief (system) -- but actual vertical religion rooted in anything resembling fact?

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    Episode 200: Catatonia

    August 12th, 2015  |  22 mins 43 secs

    This is not the Who's Final Tour. (They always come back.) So maybe it is the Who's Final Tour. Whatever it is, it's Podcast 200, and that's a benchmark. Somehow.

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    Episode 199: What Actually Happens

    August 8th, 2015  |  22 mins 26 secs

    If you don't factor in the element of romantic love -- or at least its possibility -- you'll surprise yourself when you start making decisions in life. Sometimes I wish I could give a college commencement address. (No one is ever going to ask.) But I should like to talk about romantic love, and its over-riding, over-reaching, superseding strength as an element -- the decisive element -- in personal decision-making.

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    Episode 198: Mirage Fighter

    August 8th, 2015  |  23 mins 11 secs

    Talk about being misunderstood! Artur London was one of the 11 most misunderstood men in the world,
    at least at the end of 1951. London was a defendant in the Slansky Trial, a "show trial" under Joseph Stalin.

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    Episode 197: The Sacraments Rightly Understood

    August 8th, 2015  |  21 mins 3 secs

    The church is today so vastly over-eucharisted that you can barely pause to catch your breath. This cast offers an alternative view of the Holy Communion, as well as of Baptism. The original Prayer Book definition of a sacrament was that it is 'an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace'. What a refined and powerful expression. So now Let Smokey Sing (ABC) and find...The Face Behind the Mask (1941). This cast is dedicated to Nancy W. Hanna.

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    Episode 196: Cimarron

    July 31st, 2015  |  25 mins 4 secs

    "The movie Cimarron, which was released in 1931, won the Academy Award for Best Picture that year. (Did you know this?) It's great blessing, Cimarron -- which was based on the novel Cimarron, written by Edna Ferber. But you'd never know it's a blessing if you relied on the critics.