PZ's Podcast

Episode 366 - Our Movie

September 6th, 2023  |  19 mins 27 secs

In the cast I talk about soul and body, true self and false self, physical life and physical death: the promise of these things and the limitations of at least three of them.

Episode 365 - The Whole Loaf

August 14th, 2023  |  22 mins 53 secs

Part of the Loaf can be very good. But the Whole Loaf is better.

Episode 364 - How to Survive Being in Full Time Ministry

July 7th, 2023  |  22 mins 44 secs

Serving in full time ministry is as stress-full as any occupation can be. I can't prescribe a way-of-being or way-of-doing to help you. But I can describe what I have seen that works.

Episode 363 - In Quintessence

July 6th, 2023  |  20 mins 10 secs

The quintessence of one's continuing love of popular culture that embodies heart-to-heart communication is the subject of this cast. What makes a work of popular art "Christian"? Does it have to be explicit to qualify? Or implicit -- and therefore under the radar -- to really qualify?

Episode 362 - Midsummer Night's Dream

June 27th, 2023  |  17 mins 30 secs

Episode 361 - Outer Limits

May 17th, 2023  |  14 mins 58 secs

Verticality is a make-or-break attribute of the Christian Church. When we put horizontality before verticality, we run out of gas. Always. People cannot "keep up" horizontal good works and outreach if they are not being, as the English say, resourced.

Episode 360 - Outta Gear

May 13th, 2023  |  23 mins 38 secs

I think we probably all need to get "outta gear", at least to some extent.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!