There, I said it for all of posterity to record and one day synthesize into the VR / AI Sam-bot that my great grandkids can chat with in real time…
Dr. Thomas Whitley and the Rev. Sam Harrelson discuss nativity scenes, bad Christmas songs, Epiphany, the War on Christmas, and bad Apple (batteries).
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
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… it’s a good show 🙂
Can’t believe we’ve done 118 of these… but here’s my podcast with Thomas that was published today:
Dr. Thomas Whitley and Rev. Sam Harrelson discuss the uncomfortableness of whataboutism and its interplay with American Christianity and continue the Bible Bracket Challenge semifinals.
Follow along with the Bible Bracket Challenge here.
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Thomas is in Philadelphia this week but we still managed to sneak in a podcast episode. We start by going over the very important but often-overlooked general idea of hermeneutics and why we should take them seriously in the Age Of Trump (AOT from here on out). Then we hop into the Bible Bracket Challenge. Sorry, Ruth.
Dr. Thomas Whitley and the Rev. Sam Harrelson discuss the concept of hermeneutics and continue their ongoing quest to decide the best book in the Bible from the Thinking Religion Bible Bracket Challenge.
via Thinking Religion Episode 115: Your Hair Is Like a Flock of Goats
It annoys me beyond belief when people tell me our podcasts “should be 20 or so minutes” on Thinking.FM…
All-day podcasts and brick-sized books. Or, why 2015 was the year the long form fought back | Books | The Guardian: “There is something almost inexpressibly appealing about this, in an era when almost all other content – articles, podcasts, videos, TV shows – arrives doing jazz hands, anxiously soliciting the reader’s or listener’s or viewer’s attention by means of outrageous headlines or self-conscious gimmicks, in a determined effort to make things seem more interesting than, on inspection, they turn out to be.”
We (I think unfortunately) gave in to the loud minority on Thinking Religion, but I still very much personally enjoy the flexibility and personality of long form podcasts. And books. And blog posts. And thoughts.
Despite our newfound digital souls, we’re rekindling the notion that not everything can or should be “bite sized” to satiate our digital materialism.
“But Google isn’t just trying to create more Serial fanatics on Android. No, it wants to reach people that have never listened to podcasts. And it wants to broaden its media offerings in the fight with Apple, the frequent go-to platform for media producers.”
Source: Google Brings Podcasting to Play Music Streaming Service, Android | Re/code
I’m excited to see podcasting continue to expand into the “mainstream” of public consumption. Hopefully, NPR doesn’t suck all the air out of the room.
If you’re a business, group, church, school etc… you need to be podcasting. Get in touch if you need help (we’ve set up and continue to manage many podcasts for clients).
And support indie podcasters for a healthy podcasting ecosystem… like the fine folks at Thinking.FM.
Amanda Palmer did an AMA on the /books subreddit yesterday on the topic of her book The Art of Asking, so the Thinking.FM hosts pulled a Superfriends on Friday night and recorded 90 minutes of thoughtful discussion about Palmer’s tactics and the nature of the artist in an age of self-promotion.
I think it’s an interesting conversation that anyone seeking to go out on a limb and chart your own path (whether as a businessperson, artist, speaker etc) should consider:
“On this special episode of Thinking, Sam is joined by Elisabeth, Thomas, and Merianna (the other Thinking.FM podcasters) for a roundtable / Superfriends discussion of whether or not Amanda F. Palmer is a marketing genius. Along the way, they discuss the right and wrong ways to promote yourself whether you’re an artist, musician, author, professor, or civilian.”
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Thomas Whitley and I are really enjoying doing this podcast… we missed last week’s episode and it felt (to me) like a big part of my week wasn’t complete. As I said on another podcast that had me on as a guest today, we don’t really think of Thinking Religion as a podcast as much as it is a conversation we’d be having anyway. Thomas and I are just letting you be voyeuristic and listen to a little snippet of that much longer weekly chat (our chats routinely go 2-3 hours, so this 45 mins or hour of a produced show is one conscious part of that).
It’s probably why we don’t have guests on as well.
Anyway, it’s a good listen (I think):
One of the things Thomas and I try to do with Thinking Religion, as well as Elisabeth and Merianna on Thinking Out Loud (and all of our Thinking.FM podcasts) is sound different by sounding like ourselves.
“My Wife Quit Her Job podcaster Steve Chou is, like Nick Loper, another savvy online marketer who realizes the algorithm might be his most important audience member. Subscribers are another key piece of landing in the iTunes New & Noteworthy section, and without it, a podcast might fall off the radar.”
Source: Why podcasts have such terrible ads – Vox
I never want to do a podcast where we have to beg for ratings or use the same 5 generic ads that every other podcast uses.
However, I’ll be the first to tell you that’s not a very lucrative way to do podcasting. It’s definitely a losing proposition when you consider time, hosting costs, bandwidth etc. But, I think we’ll stick to our donation model for now (despite its poor performance in terms of actual revenue). As the hosts of No Agenda frequently remind us, “Value for Value” is a much more authentic and enjoyable stream of revenue for a medium such as podcasting.
The author of Big Magic speaks with the writer, comedian, and prolific podcaster John Hodgman about the boredom of mastery and the thrill of self-reinvention. This is an installment of Magic Lessons by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Source: Ep. #10: John Hodgman on “The Question of What Come Next” — Magic Lessons — Overcast
Beautiful and short podcast on mastery, boredom, risk, and self-reinvention.
Those of us who have taken the leap know the exhilarating highs and the devastating lows involved in reinvention but also continuing to push yourself to be open to new paths to explore and thrive.
Make the leap.
Thanks for the share, Merianna.
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Thomas Whitley and Sam Harrelson discuss the Prayer of Jabez, Sex and the Bible, pansexuality, the Pope’s new chair, and why Islam isn’t limited to the originating text.
Source: Thinking Religion: Jesus on the Kinsey Scale | Thinking.FM
