Virtue In The Wasteland Podcast

South Africa, Yoruba, Christianity, excommunication, Nelson Mandela, women in African society, racism in America and one superb woman: Nokukhanya Shabalala. We play a clip from Micah Bournes.

This one is a messy but relaxed discussion of the big question of human culture: are we basically violent and chaotic, or cooperative and caring?  Should we embrace utopianism and primitivism?  Scotland voted to stay in the UK.  What does this mean?  Jeff thought he saw a sea monster.  Was it because of what Jeff failed to describe with the correct term, which is hyperactive agency detection device.  

All about the phenomenon of witch hunts, contemporary and old timey.  Salem, McCarthy, and Bewitched.

We discuss recent downfalls of evangelical Christian leaders, the vocation of the journalist, including the work of Janet Mefferd.  We check to see if the hosts are dogmatists or authoritarians using an old psychology questionaire.  We reflect on the structures that failed Mark Driscoll, Ted Haggard, and Bill Gothard.

We talk about the history of the Reformation as it affected the idea of vocation, the Max Weber thesis, the puritans, Theodore Beza, the practical syllogism, Slim Cessna's Auto Club, providence, Roger Williams, and Labor Day.

Civil engineer and League of Faithful Masks chairman of the board talks about vocation, David's story of deciding to leave seminary for a different, public calling, and the ways in which he has contributed to landmarks throughout Southern California.  It turns out, civil engineers save lives, quietly and behind the scenes.

You'll have to excuse us this week for sounding a bit like the odd couple.  Stemming from a conversation that began some time ago, Dan truly believes that we live in the greatest time period in human history (yeah, yeah, there are caveats of course) and Jeff is pretty sure that we aren't.  Dan is very unfashionable in some circles for his love of the Enlightenment, and Jeff is sometimes cautious when he talks about why he can dig the postmodernists.  Nevertheless, this show discusses just how good (or bad) we have it right now from a historical and philosophical perspective.  And if that seems a little too heavy, while we were recording, our favorite classicist CJ Armstrong strolled by the studio and we had him sit in and join the conversation and add a bit of levity (you might not get the Flinstone's reference, but Dan is still laughing about it). Enjoy!   We mention Jacobi, Hamann, Radical Pietism, Kierkegaard, Grundtvig, Continental Philosophy, Voltaire, Ovid, Art of Love, Metamorphoses.

Too often we get caught up using bad analogies.  While there are many commonly used poor analogies, we find the hitler/holocaust and "fall of rome" parallels particularly confusing and unhelpful. What do these events have that cause constant modern analogies? How might we better understand certain landmark historical events without taking them out of time and making a modern "version"?  In what ways are the present and future different?  We tackle these and other related topics.  Give it a listen.

Dr. Adam Francisco, a historian who specializes in Islam and Middle Eastern history, joins us as we discuss the current conflict in the between Israel and Hamas, and the possible future of Palestine.

We look back at the first full year+ of our podcast+.  We ponder what we might have done differently, what we enjoyed most, and where we are heading in year two.  We didn't miss a single week release and don't intend to in the next year.  Thanks for listening and engaging with us through facebook, the website virtueinthewasteland.com, and through our Twitter and Instagram presence.  Thanks especially for listening and spreading the word. Dan is in the mountains and Jeff is in Key Largo while this is dropping.  So, if you write a comment and we don't respond, we will get to it after our much needed breaks from the bustle and the hustle.      

What is a cult?  How do we balance tolerance and critical thinking when it comes to new religious movements?  Are their authoritarian personalties in my own, established religious community?  How are multilevel marketing and pyramid schemes like cults?  Is cult a bad word or is it a concept we need to preserve for the good of a safe and healthy society?  We wrestle with these questions and more.  We mention Jim Jones, Swedenborgianism, the Guru Maharaji, Amway, Scientology, and the FLDS. We love everyone.  Please don't sue us; we have no money and few assets, so it wouldn't be worth it.   Moreover, we are critical of ourselves and our own communities, various states that never really done nobody wrong, and the entire Inland Empire on occasion.  So it's all in good fun.  If we talk about your group, and you don't think we've represented it properly, feel free to explain where we were mistaken in the comment section.  Or, better, stage a press conference explaining why you think Virtue in the Wasteland is bad,

We discuss the promises and perils of making books into movies.  We focus on Steinbeck's East of Eden and Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, but we also mention and/or discuss the following: Ian Flemming's James Bond stories, Michael Crighton and Jurassic Park, Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, the Cohen Brothers and Huckleberry Finn, musicals, The Last Temptation of Christ, Jungian archetypes, the value of mythology, and the importance of fairy tales.  

We freestyle chat about the nature of the good life and the ways in which we measure life's success.  This is about vocational questions for young people looking to the future or folks who want to redirect their lives later in the game.  We mention Daoism, LeBron James and The Decision, Stoicism, and whether you might want to rethink your current path.

Whether you've read this book before or thinking about giving it a shot, you can join in.  We discuss important historical, religious, literary and philosophical themes in this important Russian Novel.  We talk especially about the Grand Inquisitor, the novel's most famous chapter.  

The 4th of July is upon us! Are you ready for the party? No, seriously. Are you ready? We've all been to parties with terrible hosts, terrible guests, poorly thought out games or ice breakers, etc...  On today's summertime show we break from our recent heavier topics and talk about how to throw a party.  As we were discussing this idea with our friends and colleagues we realized that there are some definite party do's and don'ts.  And maybe this isn't as frivolous as we first thought.  Hosting a party can be an important event in bringing together various people and opening a camaraderie in our ever self secluding world.

This one is just a bunch of fun conversation tossed together like your favorite salad.  But it all revolves around emotional wellbeing and how external factors like the food we eat or our physiology affect our mood.  We learn a bit too about what we are able to do to eat ourselves to a bit more happiness.  Check out this conversation about psychology and happiness.  We also check with her on the nature of addiction and prisons, following up on our last episode on the War on Drugs.

The history and ethical problems with the war on drugs.  We discuss the nature of addiction and why private prisons are an unethical place to house those who have substance dependency.  We argue that we should focus on actual data and seek to be virtuous toward our addict neighbors, rather than merely looking virtuous to our upstanding and "together" neighbors.  Discussion topics include initiatives to legalize cannabis, the history of the penitentiary system, methodone, and other social issues related to narcotics.

Happy Father's Day. Dr. Rod Rosenbladt, his son Ted Rosenbladt, Steve Byrnes, Dan Deen and other old friends try and capture the sort of conversation that has been happening for decades on the Rosenbladt deck.  Dan was out for this one, but he's got a history of joining in these back yard conversations. What is it to be a good father? What is it to be a true brother--or friend? We discuss answers to all this and a kind of love called philia.  Ted, of New Reformaion Press, also reveals some plans for an organization called 1517.  

Armageddon.  Apocalypse.  Rapture.  What do such words mean?  This show is about the end of the world, what it will be like according to several ideologies, and why it matters.  Even if you don't believe strongly in a particular religion or political ideology, you probably have an implicit theory of the end (eschatology), and your neighbors sure do.  Sometimes, our views about the end of the world have serious consequences for our life in the world today.  Even though we don't spend much time on the traditional theological conversation, we do mention the distinction between premillennial, postmillennial, and amillennial theologies. Oh, and Dan also lets us know whether Putin is bringing on a third world war.

It feels good to give.  But what we don't often realize is the uneven ways charities distribute our gifts.  We talk about the best and worst nonprofit organizations as regards their stewardship of donor money.  We talk about ways for young professionals to consider a career in the world of development aka fundraising.  Philanthropy is best done with knowledge.  This show gets us on the right track at least.