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 359 - Better Late Than Never

    May 12th, 2023  |  22 mins 54 secs

    Why isn't God intervening to make the world a less harsh and broiling place? 'Where are you, God? Come on, already.' Another way of putting it: What's taking You so long?

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    Episode 358 - The Wisdom of... Los Straitjackets

    April 24th, 2023  |  22 mins 17 secs

    To me the music of Los Straitjackets gives hope for the last third of life.

  • Episode 357 - 'Mockingbird' en France

    April 20th, 2023  |  21 mins 42 secs

    Thanks to my college friend, I've gotten hooked on a French mystery program -- in episodes of an hour and a half -- entitled "Murder in...". The producers fill in the blank with a stunning regional locale each week -- Albi, Carcassonne, Blois, Colmar, you name it.

  • Episode 356 - Happy Imputation Day

    April 12th, 2023  |  19 mins 14 secs

    This cast reflects on "The Power of Love" (Huey Lewis & the News, 1985), and specifically the mind-blowing power of imputing love to create (unlooked-for) change. It's been done to me, and I'll bet it's been done to you.

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    Episode 355 - The Story of My Life (1957)

    April 5th, 2023  |  16 mins 3 secs

    What you observe empirically, both in others and typically in yourselves, is that the closer you feel to God, as a married couple, the closer you feel to each other. Moreover, a shared vertical commitment offers decisive help to your relationship when the storms start coming and the losses begin to add up.

  • Episode 354 - Beep Alonia

    March 21st, 2023  |  21 mins 16 secs

    Here I am thinking about contact with the supernatural, with God, really: the curtain coming down between "God and man". Are you, dear listener, actually open to divine encounter? Or do you simply dismiss such a possibility, at least in practice?

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    Episode 353 - The Monster Swim

    March 20th, 2023  |  20 mins 26 secs

    The supernatural is real. It is not the only means of navigating our lost and fallen world. But it is true nevertheless, at least in my opinion. When we die, our souls go somewhere. Loose ends need to be tied up; explanations, offered; assurances, given. I know this for sure now.

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    Episode 352 - Thou Shalt Not Steal

    March 1st, 2023  |  21 mins 15 secs

    One is constantly trying to shoehorn reality into a preconception. So I want to believe a particular person is this way, i.e., my way; but he or she is not. They are their way. I'm desperate for someone to approve of me who doesn't, while all the time not seeing the person who does approve of me and who is actually right there in front of me. This is why I love Ritchie Blackmore.

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    Episode 351 - "Been Invited to a Party"

    February 28th, 2023  |  15 mins 38 secs

    There is so little one knows. Here one thought one had a "deep bench" when it comes to foreign films, and yet I knew nothing of Julien Duvivier!

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    Episode 350 - Don't Sell Me a Semi-Automatic

    February 21st, 2023  |  22 mins 6 secs

    One's response to the Gospel is automatic. When you are "One-Way-LUV'd", you automatically wish to respond -- with love! Belovedness engenders loving back. That's the point of this 350th Episode of PZ's Podcast.

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    Episode 349 - Atlantic Twist

    February 21st, 2023  |  19 mins 29 secs

    This is a follow-up to "Joe Meek Is God", and observes the non sequiturs of one's life. I believe they are Providential, those decisive non sequiturs; and are best observed in the absence of a "narrative" or personal story-line.

  • Episode 348 - Joe Meek Is God

    February 17th, 2023  |  19 mins 14 secs

    I've talked about Joe Meek before, but think I've finally gotten to the spiritual wisdom that lies beneath his many records. (Meek was an English independent record producer in the 1950s and '60s.)

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    Episode 347 - Perpetual Motion

    February 15th, 2023  |  19 mins 4 secs

    What could really do it? What could actually revive the beneficent influence of the Christian Gospel on our current masochistic/sadistic world? "What Does It Take/To Win Your Love for Me" (Junior Walker, 1969).

  • Episode 346 - Dumb Head

    February 8th, 2023  |  20 mins 30 secs

    I'm not talking about dying these days in order to be a downer. What I am talking about now is the question of where one goes immediately after death.

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    Episode 345 - The KA of Gifford Hillary

    February 4th, 2023  |  22 mins 10 secs

    Dennis Wheatley was an author "on the margins". In other words, he was a flawed writer who was not taken seriously by most critics. But his distinctly marginal themes and observations gave him a kind of crossbow into truth that endow more than one of his novels with Inspiration.

  • Episode 344 - The Israelites

    January 30th, 2023  |  24 mins 22 secs

    The recent death of an old friend (i.e., of 52 years' standing) has brought vividly to mind a vital distinction: the distinction between what actually took place in one's life and the interpretation/s we place on events in retrospect. This cast proceeds to unlock the so-called "Synoptic Problem", let alone the historicity of ... the Israelites in the Old Testament, from Dan to Beersheba.