Don't be that guy.

The best popular culture and heroic news artifacts and events of the year.  

We break down the top songs that bring Christmas cheer.  

We share the best Christmas hymns (sacred songs).  We provide clips only of each; but listen all the way through and we share a classic: a hymn performed by Dr. Rod Rosenbladt in its entirety. 

We discuss the ethics, aesthetics, and humanitarian possibilities for those who have the vocation of architecture.  After some banter between our co-hosts, Jeff interviews Ian Lodge, who oversees the Cal-Earth Institute operation, in Hesperia, California.   This is the result of the humanitarian vision of Nadir Khalili, a Persian architect who was influenced by the Sufi mystic Rumi and brought his spiritual values, scientific training, and concern for humanity together through teaching methods of creating sustainable, economical, and artful housing. 

We do our best to define what we mean by nihilism, the history of reductionism, meaninglessness, and the ways in which this leads to indifference and narcissism.  

We explain the true, modern origins of the American national holiday of Thanksgiving.  Why do we get tired after eating the dinner?  Why do presidents pardon a Turkey each year?  

We follow up on old emails, messages, and questions.  We tell a story about loose ends, then conclude with two former students: Tim Olson, an ethnomusicology student and world traveler who sets the record straight on the Afghan national sport, and Lauren Yauk who traveled the world to find the best approach to global development.  Her story is helpful for understanding how young adults think about the world these days, and the obstacles they face as they seek to do good in the world.  

The often untold history leading up to the first Thanksgiving.  Jeff tells about one of his favorite topics in history: the Florida Holy Wars of the 1560s; this is the Thanksgiving that almost was.  Dan gives the true story of the Pilgrims' first thanksgiving meal.  We argue that Thanksgiving is a holiday with religious roots, but that the holiday as we have it today originates in the secular or "left hand" kingdom, and thus is of value to all people in the US.  Foreign listeners should listen to find out why we Americans have such a fetish for Turkey once a year, and for some interesting stories from early modern history.  

Filmmaker Lev Anderson joins us to talk about his move from city planning to directing documentaries, "Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone" and spend the bulk of our time discussing his upcoming project on the history and future of Irvine, CA the safest city in America, a model of urban planning that is copied around the world, and the epicenter for our podcast.  We start by discussing his recent documentary We discuss the ethics and art of city planning, and the ways in which it affects our lives.

Bonus B-Sides are in depth conversations with professionals who join us to talk about why they like what they like and how exercising their vocations can cultivate virtue in our cultural wasteland.

The second part of a two part conversation about the intersections of religion and politics.  In this episode, we focus on US Supreme court cases related to the exercise of religion.

What is the distinction between the two kingdoms?  Should faithful citizens want to merge the church and state?  Is America a Christian nation?  Where did James Madison get his ideas?  We rely heavily on Dr. Dan van Voorhis' knowledge of American history to help address these questions and more.

Renaissance wizards, strange stuff in general, and the closest thing the hosts have to direct ghost experiences.  

The history, cultural significance, and overall value of the movies.  We are joined by Micah Luce, who earned his MAR in Theology and Cinema from Yale Divinity School.  We also have with us Eleanor Pettus, Assistant Professor of History at Concordia University and Faculty in Residence for the CUI Bono Living-Learning Community, and Joel Oesch, former guest, and director of Christ College's MA program.  Several of us share our most memorable moviegoing moments.    Micah shares a recipe for geekdom movie marathons.  We ask whether moviegoing creates authentic community.  

Zombies in history and popular culture, the Walking Dead season premiere, and philosophical thoughts related to our time of technology and fragmentation.  Dr. C.J. Armstrong joins in this episode.

How culture faces death, with clacissist Dr. C. J. Armstrong.  A quiz game on world funeral traditions.  The history of funerals from the ancient word to today.  

What do you fear?  What do Dan and Jeff fear?  How do we face our fears?  We address this in this podcast that kicks off our October theme of things that scare us.  

Breaking Bad gets broken down.  Dan shares the top television shows of all time, by category.  We talk television but especially we talk about the choices we make in this chaotic world.  Break virtuous, friends.

Spoken word and hip hop artist Micah Bournes chats with us about life in Long Beach, faith and art, and contemporary hip hop culture.  We discuss ways in which people of faith can enter into their cultural conversation with good art, rather than with religious parodies of popular culture. Micah shares what he's listening to lately, a couple poems (one previously unheard). 

Former UFC fighter describes his work with the Mbuti Pygmies.  He tells heartbreaking stories but also uplifting developments in his work to fight for the freedom of these slaves, their reestablishment in hunter-gatherer land, and his future work to bring culturally-appropriate housing technology.  There was audio interference in almost every room and with every piece of equipment, but we pieced together the best parts from the day, especially Justin's presentation to students about Fight for the Forgotten.

UFC star and advocate for the Mbuti (Pygmy) people of the Congo joins us to answer the question whether it is virtuous to compete in and watch mixed martial arts competition.  Gladiators or artists?  You'll get a chance to find out the inner details of the sport and decide for yourself.  

Ethical dilemmas in our alleged wasteland.  Dan poses tough questions to college students and tells them "the right answer".  Syria, homeschooling, government internet snooping.  

Dan shares his top ten rules to follow before getting a tattoo.  Jeff's pop comes and explains why tattoos are a horrible idea.  Dr. Jack Schultz, an anthropology professor, discusses tattoos in traditional cultures.

Syria, Miley Cyrus, Club Music.  We share our takes on what's going on locally, in our own lives, and in the world.  This is a current events show [C-Side] that we record on the fly and post within 24 hours to provide commentary on what's going on in the news.  

The top 10 songs that talk about Jesus but aren't from explicitly religious artists.  We discuss the role of Jesus in Western culture, artist Mark Wallinger, the nature of blasphemy, and some interesting artists you might not have heard before.

We go deep into the cultural value of education, whether you should go or send your children, and the affects of reductionism and secularism on higher education in the West.  

Current events, including Egypt, Wikileaks, journalism and the nature of the news itself. 

The history, philosophy, and psychology of happiness.  Dr. John Lu, a colleague and social psychologist joins us.  We play a game to guess the happiest US states and countries around the globe.  We find out from Dr. Lu whether money can buy happiness.  

To help us understand our Muslim neighbors, and the ways in which thoughtful dialog can take place without being disengenous, we brought in an expert in historical and contemporary Christian-Muslim relations, Dr. Adam Francisco.  Adam is an Oxford alumnus, an author of a book on the topic and Assoc. Prof. of History at Concordia University Irvine.

Location, location, location.  Choosing where to live can be one of life's most important concerns, but it's also a decision we often give little sophisticated attention.  Chosing a hometown affects your and your children's ability to fulfil your vocation, and be as virtuous as possible.  It can also affect your potential earning power.  We share about our experience in suburban wastelands, ask whether a good person should live in an urban environment, and why some who grew up in the city are nervous in the country.

Alex Rodriguez, the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post.  Before we get to those trending stories, we share a couple anecdotes each about our wild week.  Not that wild, but fun.  

How can we effectively be good neighbors to human beings around the world?  Dan shares the top events that connected America to the world in history.  We interview Andrew Syed about various ways to care about others, including the nonprofit, NGO, and for-profit world.  

Interview with Dan Deen, philosophy prof, on the relationship between virtue and knowledge.  We talk about Dan's doctoral adviser Michael Ruse and ways of doing debate between atheists and theists.  

Should a virtuous person waste time on sports?  We chat with classical scholar (that means ancient Greece and Rome), Dr. C.J. Armsrong about the history and ethics of sports.  We share the top five banned sports and the top ten most culturally significant American sports moments. This is a show for people who are fanatics as well as those who hate professional sports.  It's about its prominent role in our world and it might be the most fun we've had to date thinking through this stuff.  

Dan and Jeff interview Prof. Joel Oesch about his doctoral research on facebook and theology.  

Dan and Jeff banter about technology and how we might have to fight killer robots.  We discuss the ways in which American society benefits from technology but also the need for true human associations.

We interview psychologist, Dr. Betsi Little-Van Fossen about the ways in which social networks, especially technology, affect our lives.  We also follow up on some aspects of evil, garnering insights about important historical experimental work in the field.  

After the first episode, we needed to have a bit more fun.  Here we discuss the nature of humor, share our list of topic comedies and comedians, and talk about the ways in which laughter is a sign of wisdom and transcendence.  We don't recommend you watch or listen to all the pop culture artifacts we discuss--especially with your mom--but we use these as a catalyst for understanding why it is important to take our engagement seriously, without failing to laugh at ourselves. We argue that humor is important for religious and political contexts.

We interview documentarian and former radio and television host Zeke Piestrup about his new film Apocalypse Later: Harold Camping vs The End of The World. After attending the premiere, we liked his work.  But we were just as intrigued with the story behind the filmmaker. Zeke exemplifies many of the virtues we are seeking in this podcast, so we are glad to present this as our first Bonus B-Side. Dan and Jeff love B-Sides in music, so we expect these to be some of the most interesting shows we release. Nonetheless, as they go into depth with professionals and professors, listeners can look at each topic to determine and select the in-depth conversations they think are most appealing.

We discuss the complexity of evil, especially by investigating its portrayal in film The show sets up the context for the podcast in general, and so it emphasizes the darker aspects of our culture.  Don't fret though, future episodes will cover toopics like humor and interviews with artists. Go to virtueinthewasteland.com for show notes or further information.  Please subscribe and give us a rating to help us get underway.