Afleveringen
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Doug talks chiasmus with Dr. Andrew Harvey (aka X-Mule). We start with the basics of chiasmus as a rhetorical device with words placed in a mirroring structure: ABBA ("Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country") and consider different kinds of chiasmus (words, letters, sounds). We discuss chiasmus in major poetry, from Virgil to Eliot, and then delve into the theological significance of chiasmus, taken in the Christian world as the mark of the Cross (the Chi or X). In the highest chiasmus, found in Athansius' "On the Incarnation," God became man that man might become God. Plus, Dr. X's Top Ten Instances of Chiasmus.
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Doug and Shawn read through T. S. Eliot's "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Much of the problem folks have with reading poetry (especially 'important' poetry) is that they don't trust themselves. We try to deal with the poem in a way that connects it to our everyday experience.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Doug and Caren are back together to talk about Flannery O'Connor's most famous short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find." After a brief digression on summer road trips, they turn to the most famous account of a family trip gone horribly wrong. We delve into the nature of evil, the nihilist tendencies of the age, and the possibility of grace. A sample of Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" provides the epigraph. Plus, our Top 10 Road Trip Ideas
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Doug and his geographer-wife Shawn talk through what we lose when we lose physical maps and the ability to read them. The younger generation has lost the ability to read maps, relying (as we all do) on Google Maps and navigation. This brings about an inability to locate ourselves in space, in relation to other places. Existing in a virtual space is the same as existing in a non-place, which worsens the crisis of selfhood. We discuss other cultures in which spatial orientation is fundamental. We talk about maps as art, the impulse of children to map-making, and, most important, the development of the self through an ability to navigate the real world.
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Doug talks with Dr. Robert Schaefer about Athens and Jerusalem, the ancient confluence of classical philosophy with Christian revelation. We pay particular attention to the case of the Nicene Creed. Plus, our Top 10 works of political philosophy.
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Doug is joined by poet and teacher Will Justice Drake for a discussion of the place of poetry in preserving the human and renewing our lives and communities. Starting with Walker Percyâs analysis of the loss of language and viable selfhood, we consider the fundamental difference between true poetry and common language. How does poetry resist the devaluation of words and the evacuation of things (including people)? How is it a form of resistance to the disorder of the age? How might the recovery of language through poetry spark a renewal of our selves and the possibility of communion? We have poetry from Dickinson, Stevens, and Eliot scattered throughout, but our centerpiece is âSummer Storm (Circa 1916), and Godâs Graceâ from Robert Penn Warrenâs book Promises.
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Doug and his wife Shawn, a cultural geographer, talk through the essentials and purpose of pilgrimage. Today, âpilgrimageâ can mean most anything, from going to Graceland to sanctifying the daily grind. But what is the traditional understanding of pilgrimage (particularly from a Catholic perspective)? We establish some crucial elements and talk through why a restored, traditional, sense and practice of pilgrimage answers to our age of anxious, directionless âfreedom.â We pay particular attention to the Camino, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella in Spain. Our epigraph is, of course, from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
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Doug and Caren talk over Katherine Anne Porterâs great short story âFlowering Judas.â We start with a bit of background on her life and career, including her conversion to Catholicism and failed marriages, but our focus is on the story itself. Porterâs craft and technical mastery left an enduring mark on the American short story, including the work of writers like Flannery OâConnor and Eudora Welty. âFlowering Judasâ is set in the revolutionary upheavals of Mexico, which Porter had experienced firsthand. Laura, the primary character, is a young American woman caught up in larger events but strangely detached from her own life and governed by fear.
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In our second Jordan Peterson episode, we look more closely at his bestselling new book, 12 Rules for Life. Our epigraph is from T.S. Eliot's "Little Gidding." We go rule by rule, looking at the main thrust of each and the repeated themes that emerge from the book. Peterson's book is far from a standard self-help book. It ranges from practical advice on breaking negative cycles to a ringing call for heroism in the face of nihilistic despair. It's how to make the world a little more like Heaven and a little less like Hell.
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Caren and Doug talk over the controversy that has launched Dr. Jordan Peterson, a University of Toronto Clinical Psychologist, to international celebrity. Some of his ideas on the biological basis of gender, the respective roles and inclinations of women and men, and his resistance to the radical Left have provoked a firestorm. We step back a bit to look at the controversy and what it says about the polarized state of our culture. We also talk through some of his foundational claims. Next week, we will delve into his new bestselling book, 12 Rules for Life.
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Go on Etsy and you'll find quotations of all sorts emblazoned on pillows and painted on canvases. Doug and Caren talk through our culture's fascination with wise or motivational quotations. What function do they serve? After an epigraph from Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, we delve into the good and bad. What is the relation of the deep wisdom of the Beatitudes, for example, and a vacuous contemporary slogan? What need in us to these sayings serve? On the troubling side, how might they serve for indoctrination and social control? We end with our Top 10 Quotations.
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On this inaugural Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, Doug and Caren reflect on the significance of this day and the importance of Mary's place as Mother of the Church. We deal with some of the things that seem strange in the eyes of our non-Catholic brethren. A Marian poem from Gerard Manley Hopkins provides our epigraph. This Lady, first of disciples, whose "Yes" made it possible for all of us to say "Yes" with her. We consider her unique place in salvation history and the life of the early church and the ways our devotion to the Mother always leads us deeper into the life of her Son.
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On Caren's 50th birthday, she and Doug talk over Catholic writer Flannery O'Connor's short story "Revelation." What is the purpose behind O'Connor's strange characters and often disturbing situations? What makes for the moral blindness of the good and upright folk such as Ruby Turpin? A look into the violent regions of grace in one Catholic writer's vision. We end with our Top 10 O'Connor Tidbits.
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Doug and Caren talk about the pain of failure and ways to grow through it. Failure is inevitable, whether our daily failures in love and virtue or truly catastrophic failures, such as the loss of a marriage or career. We talk through the psychological, social, and spiritual impact of failure and how we can begin to recover and grow. Milton's Satan provides our epigraph from Paradise Lost. We close with our Top 10 Ways to Grow Through Failure.
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Doug and Caren talk over the significance of food in film and TV, whether in a 'food film' proper, a scene, or a TV show. After Caren tells us a bit about the Indy 500 prep and the joys of succotash, we get into the endless appeal of food movies. How does food reflect the nature of man as a rational animal? What does it do to ground film in the lived experience of daily life? How is the status of food raised and restored to its proper place through art? Our Top 10 Food Movies allow us to get into some particular films in the last third of the show.
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Doug and Caren talk over the advantages of physical books vs. e-books. A soliloquy from Shakespeare provides our epigraph (in honor of his birthday). Kindle and other e-books provide some advantages, but at what cost? We weigh the heft of physical books, in terms both sentimental and metaphysical. Finally, our Top 10 things you can do with a real book that you can't do with an e-book.
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Doug and Caren talk Walker Percy and the vagaries of the self in our age. We focus our discussion on Percy's immensely entertaining Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book after an epigraph from The Moviegoer. We touch on what brought about our predicament, a few of Percy's non-selves, and a glimpse of the way forward. Our discussion includes other novels and his essay "The Loss of the Creature" in passing. Lastly, our Top 10 Ways to Fight Malaise.
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Caren and Doug talk over our culture's obsession with personality profiles and the instruments to construct them, ranging from "What is Your Hogwart's House?" to Myers-Briggs and Big Five Factors. We also touch on StrengthsFinder, Gretchen Rubin's Four Temperaments, and the Five Love Languages. What drives our fascination with these, at the personal and institutional levels? What are they good at identifying and what do they distort? More important, is the whole enterprise misguided? Walker Percy's Lost in the Cosmos provides the (delayed) epigraph.
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Dr. Bethany Hebbard joins us to talk about the fiction of George MacDonald, the father of modern Christian fantasy. Bethany provides us with with an overview of MacDonald's career, setting the biographical and historical context. We focus our discussion on MacDonald's wonderful short story, "The Light Princess." In the Top 10, Doug and Caren recommend some books for younger readers.
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This Holy Week, Doug and Caren reflect back on their own entry into the Catholic Church at Easter and offer some advice to those preparing to be received this week. G.K. Chesterton provides our starting point. We recall the wonderful strangeness of the Catholic world to a convert's eyes and finish with our Top 10 recommendations for those entering the Church.
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