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 73 - When I'm 64

    November 3rd, 2011  |  28 mins 8 secs

    Can the "young" be instructed by the "old"? Can Nigel Kneale's "Planet People" be even saved by the over 70s? To put this another way, are there two messages to life: one of the first half and another for the second? Ultimately, no. There is one message. Alack! It comes through suffering. Pump up the volume.

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    Episode 72 - Making Plans for Nigel

    October 31st, 2011  |  31 mins 52 secs

    Nigel Kneale (1922-2006) was absolute murder, in the Reggae sense. No writer of English science fiction thought more originally than Nigel Kneale, who mostly wrote teleplays for the BBC. His "Quatermass (pro. 'Kway-ter-mass') and the Pit" from 1959 attempted to explain the whole history of religion via Martians. It strangely works.

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    Episode 71 - Removals Men II

    October 21st, 2011  |  30 mins 54 secs

    Rejoicing at someone's execution, in "disturbing images," is hard enough to absorb. To add the unaccountable silence of Christians in relation to such joy is almost impossible to absorb. What's to love in this world, in this planetary race of not so human beings? We're hoping to get a little help today from Harnack and Huxley.

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    Episode 70 - Removals Men

    October 21st, 2011  |  28 mins 30 secs

    This is about the use of language to cover an unpleasant reality. It's not just about the "removal" of an al awlaki or a "new chapter in the history of Libya" accomplished by means of the murder of a POW who was captured alive. It's about resigning yourself to something you cannot change.

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    Episode 69 - Pipes of Pan

    October 15th, 2011  |  24 mins 8 secs

    Arthur Machen meets St. Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 11, Verses 16-19. You can try to make your voice heard with an engaging, danceable tune, and ti will pass like a show over the water. (Think "Men Without Hats.") Or you can try it in a shrill, scratchy key, and it will still be forgotten, fast. (Think P.J. Proby.)

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    Episode 68 - The Inward Voice, Pt. 2

    October 9th, 2011  |  34 mins 50 secs

    There is nothing quite like the Inward Voice of "Mark Rutherford," the novelist whose real name was William Hale White. He wore a mask over a mask, and his six novels constitute a kind of ultimate Inward Voice within Victorian fiction. Today we look at his "Revolution in Tanner's Lane (1890), which reveals the worst and also the best of the Romans 7 understanding of human nature.

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    Episode 67 - The Inward Voice, Pt. 1

    October 9th, 2011  |  34 mins 50 secs

    Here is a two-parter concerning your inward voice: What is it, and how do you find it? From a Romans 7 point of view, the inward voice (and voices) is almost all that matters. Now get it down! Write it down! Put it on paper, or else it'll probably just "Fade Away" (Rolling Stones). This is personal archaeology, yours and mine, and it involved digging, and lifting.

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    Episode 66 - Altars by the Roadside

    October 5th, 2011  |  21 mins 12 secs

    Now here's a find: a passage in the novel "Revolution in Tanner's Lane" (1890) by "Mark Rutherford" (aka William Hale White), in which the author answers the question I set in the previous cast. If there is a word from religion to the middle-aged and "mature"—i.e., a word of humbled acquiescence to the disillusioned and shaken—what is religion's word to the young?

  • Episode 65 - One Message or Two?

    October 1st, 2011  |  34 mins 14 secs

    Does life-wisdom offer the same message to the non-disillusioned, who are often on the younger side, as it does to the disillusioned, who are often over-50? It's a live issue for me, since a gospel of hope to the shattered can sound depressing to people who are working on wresting something like success from life.

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    Episode 64 - My New Law Firm

    September 27th, 2011  |  32 mins 10 secs

    My new law firm is called "Scrambling, Rattled, and Bracing, P.A." It is a firm devoted to the project of complete control. It helps me "scramble" to contain unexpected problems; prevents me from getting "rattled" by unexpected threats; and gets me "braced" in anticipation of feared outcomes. In other words—you guessed it—my new law firm helps me get control of my life.

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    Episode 63 - One Step Beyond

    September 18th, 2011  |  36 mins 36 secs

    This ancient show, much of which is now richly available on YouTube, let alone DVD, understood something important. It understood about the "collective unconscious" and the nature of the Love that exists underneath human loves. The several great episodes in this terse ancient treasure, from 1959 to 1961, depict reality so unflinchingly that you can barely look—and, the underlying reality of God.

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    Episode 62 - What part of you isn't angry?

    September 10th, 2011  |  33 mins

    Anger—it's everywhere. The question is, at whom or at what are you NOT angry? Well, you can't be angry at anyone or anything you love. Or rather, you can't be angry at that part of anyone or anything that you love. This podcast is about seismic anger—into which the internet is just a current window. Every age has its window. This podcast hunts for an answer.

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    Episode 58 - The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

    August 14th, 2011  |  45 mins 34 secs

    This gorgeous 1964 film is everything people say it is, and makes you wonder sometimes whether its director and writer, Jacques Demy, was too good for this world. Let's also hear it for Michel Legrand, who wrote the score. What I wish to eyeball, and what this podcast is about, is its vision of romance, for "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" is about first love, lost love, best love, et enfin, true love.

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    Episode 57 - Beyond the Time Barrier

    August 5th, 2011  |  20 mins 16 secs

    Lord Buckley broke down a barrier that is exceptionally hard to break down. He broke down the barrier between the Sacred and the Profane. Several of his "hipsemantic" monologues, once you begin to study them, are fascinating expression of Christian ideas, but expressed in the terms of an offbeat and wacky nightclub personality. I don't know of anything like them.

  • Episode 56 - Lord Buckley

    July 31st, 2011  |  28 mins 12 secs

    Lord Buckley (aka Richard Myrle Buckley, 1906-1960) was a "way out" nightclub comic and monologist, who created "hipsemantic" routines based on famous people—very famous!—and famous works of literature. Lord Buckley's most famous monologue was called "The Nazz" and is a "hipster" re-telling of three miracles of Our Savior, which was Lord Buckley's frequently invoked term for Christ.

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    Episode 54 - My Sharona

    July 9th, 2011  |  32 mins

    This is My Sharona of faith, a series of four theses, briefly explained, that express an approach to everyday living, and understanding. I hope you like them.