Jeff interviews Dan about his upcoming book: Monsters. 

Spoken word artist Emily Joy joins us for a discussion of the ways in which poetry might change our world and help us gain empathy for those whose voices are sometimes silenced or ignored. We chat about Nashville weather, growing up in the evangelical world, adolescent sexuality, and the experiences of women in Christian communities. Our guest doesn't mince words or pull punches, so expect a lively conversation.

Check her work out at emilyjoypoetry.com, or buy her albums on Bandcamp or iTunes. 

This year, we are trying out yet another Lenten challenge: reading poetry or listening to it read instead of watching t.v. or playing background music. On this show, we discuss the ways in which poetry can inspire the imagination and also create silence and space for reflection and insight. We talk a bit about psychologist Paul "Stormy" Fairweather, lots about T. S. Eliot, especially his poems "The Hollow Men" and "Ash Wednesday". We also chat a bit about the Superbowl and Jeff's Broncos. Jeff read a list of global poetry, recommended by our colleague Adam Lee. Here's that list, since Jeff had a hard time with the pronunciations:

Ten poets I'd want to spend 40 Days Reading

Tomas Tranströmer (Sweden)
Wislawa Szymborska (Poland)
Ko Eun (South Korea)
Czeslaw Milosz (Czech)
Anna Akhmatova (Soviet Russia)
Fernando Pessoa (Portugal)
Derek Walcott (Trinidad)
Octavio Paz (Mexico)
Anne Carson (Canada)
Nikki Giovanni (USA)

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Why does every attempt at a perfect society always become such a drag? We discuss Jeff's run in with some KKK fellows, Zizek's book, Living in the End Times, the backstory to utopian literature, such as that of Thomas More, and some interesting examples of utopian societies.

Is there an ultimate sublime reality outside of our own opinions, emotions, and sentiments? We think so, but it isn't always easy to identify and like the good. Sometimes we are misguided intellectually, sometimes our hearts are in the right place. Such is life in the wasteland. The medicine is virtue. 

We discuss:

Dudes that Know (DTK), Zizek's Living in the End Times, C.S. Lewis' Abolition of Man, aesthetics, virtue theory, Aristotle, the ethics of belief, ethical habituation, elitism, Yelp, and the democratization of cultural criticism online and through social media. 

Can we really study war no more? Or is war inevitable, a natural and irremovable aspect of our human nature? We don't come to a final answer, but we explore the tough elements of the question with Dr. Caleb Karges, who specializes in military history and war in the eighteenth century. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of St. Andrews.

We also throw in a brief bit about the theories of Mark Juergensmeyer on cosmic violence, and René Girard on mimetic violence.

We share our reflections, review, and theories, regarding Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Joining us via Skype (sorry the audio gets weird once again because of connections) is Ted Giese, who writes thoughtful film reviews, when he isn't serving in his role as pastor (or maybe, that's part of the role). Spoilers abound, as you might expect from the title.

The first half is Jeff and Dan, the second half is Jeff and Ted.

Rev. Giese is associate pastor of Mount Olive Lutheran Church. Born in Edmonton, he grew up just outside the city in Stony Plain Alberta were he attended St. Matthew Lutheran Church and School. In his travels he has lived in Prince George, British Columbia and Halifax, Nova Scotia. He earned a Bachelors Degree in Fine Art from NSCAD in Halifax, a Masters of Theological Studies Degree (2000) and a Masters of Divinity Degree (2007) from Concordia Lutheran Seminary Edmonton. For eight years (1998 - 2006) he worked at Andy's Valleyview IGA in Edmonton, five of those years as a manager. From 2004 to 2006 he also worked as the night manager at Ronald McDonald House in Edmonton. 

Here's his film review site: http://lutheran-church-regina.com/news?topic=37466 

What stories really mattered in 2015? What can we expect in 2016 in culture and politics? 

What do we do when the euphoria of Christmas morning is past? We discuss the Persian holiday of Yalda, the future, a bit more about Christmas movies, and share stories about our family Christmases. 

The obligations of virtuous citizens, with respect to the Syrian refugee situation, Trump, Angela Merkel, journalism, and American self-imposed ignorance.

Uwe is a lay theologian and internationally-renowned journalist.  Siemon-Netto was born in Leipzig, Germany, where his devoutly Lutheran grandmother was the pivotal figure in his childhood in World War II. He is the former religion editor of United Press International.  He began his journalism career 1956 as a trainee at Westfalenpost, a large regional newspaper in southern Westphalia. In 1958, he joined the Associated Press in Frankfurt first as copy editor, then as slot editor and roving reporter, covering, among other things, the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. From 1962 to 1969, he worked as a correspondent for Springer Foreign News Service in London, Paris, New York, Vietnam, the Middle East and Hong Kong. His assignments included the United Nations, the U.S. civil rights movement, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War (over a period of five years), the Arab-Israeli Six Day War, and China's Cultural Revolution. From 1969 to 1973 Siemon-Netto was North American correspondent for the magazine, Der Stern, writing about many major news events in North, Central and South America, East Asia, France, and again Vietnam.From 1973 to 1986, Siemon-Netto served as Managing Editor for Hamburger Morgenpost, taught journalism at Hamburg's Journalistenschule Henri Nannen, worked as a freelance correspondent for German, Swiss, French and U.S. publications, and as a media consultant overseeing a variety of design and management tasks at publications in Germany and the United States.

In mid-career, at age 50, he began his theological studies, first in Chicago, then in Boston. During these studies, Siemon-Netto freelanced as a magazine correspondent. At the time of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and Germany's subsequent reunification, he served, concurrently with his academic work, as an editorial consultant and—as independent contractor—executive editor for Bild, launching its East German editions, helping plan newspapers for Leipzig and Dresden, training Eastern German journalists and developing a new curriculum for Journalistenschule Axel Springer.

From 1993 to 1994 he managed the redesign of Der Tagesspiegel, a Berlin daily, the Scientific American, in New York, and idea-Spektrum, a Protestant magazine in Wetzlar, Germany. He also co-founded CA-Confessio Augustana, a Lutheran quarterly magazine in Neuendettelsau, Bavaria. From 2000-2005, he was religious affairs editor of United Press International and a Washington-based columnist for a variety of German-language publications.

He studied for his M.A. in theology at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. His Ph.D. in theology and sociology of religion is from Boston University under Peter L. Berger, Carter Lindberg and Uri Ra'Anan. He spent a post-doctoral year at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, N.J. working on a project to bridge the gap between theology and the media.


He is the author of Duc: A Reporter's Love for the Wounded People of Vietnam, The Acquittal of God: A Theology for Vietnam Veterans, and The Fabricated Luther: The Rise and Fall of the Shirer Myth, One Incarnate Truth: Christianity's Answer to Spiritual Chaos.

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