Category: Status

Elisabeth and Merianna talk about the power of false climaxes to turn a plot and making your characters more interesting. They also cover the importance of soul feeding as you transform from writer to author, and the importance of sticking to your draft while saying all the words (and not taking short cuts).

Next week is the big 100th episode!

Show Notes:

• The Martian
• Allegiant
• Dr. Who
• The Office
• Book Lover’s Anonymous
• Book Architecture
• Magic Lessons
• Elisabeth Kauffman

What are Elisabeth and Merianna reading?

The post Thinking Out Loud 99: Speaking of Happily Ever Afters appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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Show Notes

• The Religion and Politics of South Carolina: A State Portrait from PRRI’s American Values Atlas | Public Religion Research Institute
• Hard Choices | Michelle Goldberg
• Ted Cruz Preaches at South Carolina Church: “There Is a Spirit of Awakening, A Spirit of Revival… Sweeping This Country” | Gateway Pundit
• Christian conservatives pivotal in the South, and feeling under siege | McClatchy
• Why evangelicals are splintering and what it means for the GOP | Los Angeles Times
• Scalia’s top 5 hits (or misses) on religion | RNS

The post Thinking Religion 66: The Barbeque Equation of Religion and Politics appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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Elisabeth and Merianna talk about the importance of developing a personal brand as well as a professional brand. They talk about public profiles and David Bowie as well as upcoming projects. Of course they talk about the upcoming Episode 100!

Show Notes:

• Book Architecture
• Writer’s Digest
• Writing Excuse Podcast
• 25 Hard Facts about Writing and Publishing

What are Elisabeth and Merianna reading?

 

The post Thinking Out Loud 98: Putting Yourself Out There appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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This week, Thomas and Sam discuss the live streaming of life and debates, the Trump Red Zone™, Presidential endorsements by leading religious figures, the myth of evangelicalism, and performativity in public religion.

• The Loss of Solitary Exploration | Sam Harrelson
• New Ways to Stay Informed About Presidential Politics | Google
• Christian First, American Second: On Prioritizing (and Performing) Presidential Identities | Marginalia
• Jeb Bush questions Donald’ Trump’s faith | CNN
• Evangelical Leader Jerry Falwell, Jr. endorses Trump | Washington Post
• Tony Perkins Endorses Ted Cruz for President | TIME
• Donald Trump and The Myth of the Evangelical Voting Bloc | Marginalia
• Bernie Sanders: “I Am Not Actively Involved with Organized Religion”
• Bernie Sanders and the God Factor | NY Mag
• Hillary Clinton Gets Personal  on Christ and Her Faith | NY Times
• HuffPost adds note to its stories calling Trump ‘racist’ | The Hill

The post Thinking Religion 65: Gotta Have Faith appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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Elisabeth and Merianna talk about the use of said in a manuscript and how it can’t be overused. They talk about other bad writing advice that writers take to heart and winter weather and good books.

Show Notes:

• Are You Overusing Said?
• Debunking Writing Myths 
• These Words
• Stop Using Said Bookisms
• Tom Swifties
• fail better
• Why I Am Giving Up ebooks in 2016

What are Elisabeth and Merianna reading?

The post Thinking Out Loud 97: Say What You Need to Say appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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Friend in Christian ministry who read my earlier post today replied via text:

So, what you’re saying is that churches should treat their members like adults who can decide if they can / cannot make it to services or events because of weather or some other circumstances? I agree. 

I like that summation (asked if I could share and they approved). 

This week, Thomas and Sam discuss their favorite bags to carry their everyday items, what’s wrong with college admissions, Two Corinthians, Climate Change, Dura Europos, and the intentions of heavily armed angry white men.

Show Notes:

• ThisIsGround Mod Tablet 2
• Sam’s Maxpedition Case
• Harvard calls for admissions revolution | Boston.com
• “This is what being outraised looks like.” | Clinton Supporter Email
• Is The Bern Surge for real? | Slate
• Who Would Make a Good President? | Pew 
• What Bernie Sanders Has that Hillary Doesn’t | Vox
• “Too Big to Fail” and Hillary | HuffPo
• Iowa’s key evangelical voters | MSNBC
• Ted Cruz is making people vote for Donald Trump | HuffPo
• Donald Trump or Ted Cruz | NY Times
• The National Review Takes on Trump | Politico
• Marco’s Crisis of Faith | Politico
• 2015 was warmest year on record | NY Times
• Coming recession / depression | USA Today
• Oregon Militants Go ISIS on Native American Relics | DailyKOS
• DURA! (sad) | American Magazine

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The post Thinking Religion 64: Two Corinthians Walk Into a Bar… appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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Elisabeth and Merianna talk about the deaths this week of some great creative geniuses and how it impacts them. They also talk about inspiration in artists and characters and how true great artists teach us something about ourselves.

Show Notes:

• David Bowie
• Alan Rickman
• Snape
• Brian Bedford
• Elisabeth’s Blog Post 
• Stacy’s Blog Post 
• Chuck Wendig’s Post
• Mary Robinette Kowal
• Wompad 

What are Elisabeth and Merianna reading?

 

The post Thinking Out Loud 96: Crying for Strangers appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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This week, Thomas and Sam discuss some of their New Year’s Resolutions (and how they are holding up), tonight’s Republican Debate in North Charleston, and how early christianities developed orthodox beliefs and creeds from the contentious arguments over the nature of their faith.

Show Notes:

• Republican Debate Tonight – 9pm, North Charleston, SC | Fox Business
• This is what makes Republicans and Democrats so different | Vox
• Memeorandum
• Caucus Schedule
• Episcopal Church Suspended from Anglican Communion | RNS
• How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee | Bart Ehrman

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The post Thinking Religion 63: Defining Yourself By The Controversies Around You appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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Thomas and Sam discuss the demise of Evernote but their renewed use, why app stores are the new platform, their love of This Is Ground products, and how Christians should and could deal with violence.

Show Notes:

• Lame-O | Urban Dictionary
• Evernote’s Demise and the 5% Problem | VentureBeat
• Riff | This Is Ground
• Liberty University president urges students to be armed | CNN
• Should Christians Be Encouraged to Arm Themselves? | John Piper
• “Go Buy a Sword!” Luke 22 and Christian Gunslingers | Patheos
• A Reply to Dale Martin’s JSNT Essay (Part 1) | The Jesus Blog
• A Reply to Dale Martin’s JSNT Essay (Part 2) | The Jesus Blog
• Pleasing the Lord in Oregon | Thomas in Marginalia

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The post Thinking Religion 62: No one gets crucified for being too nice appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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Elisabeth and Merianna talk about their New Year’s Resolutions including reading, writing and personal challenges. They also talk about how far they have come since they first started podcasting and some exciting plans for 2016!

Show Notes:

• 10 Best Workout Apps | Tom’s Guide
• RunKeeper
• Nike Plus
• G Map-Pedometer
• Map My Run
• Chuck Wendig
• Query Shark

What are Elisabeth and Merianna reading?

The post Thinking Out Loud 95: We’ve Come A Long Way, Baby appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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Most popular shows by downloads:

• Episode 45 – 2,280
• Episode 41 – 1,990
• Episode 39 – 1,810

Our favorites:

• Best Conversation: The Death (and Salvation?) of Religious Studies: A Conversation with Carrie Schroeder
• Best Title: Jesus on the Kinsey Scale
• Most Interactive: Religion and the GOP Debates – What to Expect

Looking ahead

You should subscribe to the show rather than listening here in the browser!

The post Thinking Religion 61: “We took the toys out of the box and now we get to play with them a little bit.” appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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Elisabeth and Merianna talk about when your writing is ready to reveal to someone else. They talk about the danger of releasing it too soon when you haven’t had enough time to mold it and shape it. They also discuss that if you put your writing out there too soon, then it’s going to impact the writing itself.

Show Notes:

• Cirque Du Soleil
• Star Wars Force Awakens
• Jaws
• Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft
• 3 Pillars of Reading

What are Elisabeth and Merianna reading?

The post Thinking Out Loud 94: There Are Sharks in This Water appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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This week, Thomas Whitley and Sam Harrelson examine the When / Where / Why of the Nativity and discuss historical accuracies of the stories as we’ve interpreted them in our present culture.

Show Notes:

• 6 Misconceptions about the Nativity | The Blaze
• Crossan on the Nativity | BeliefNet
• The Nativity Story | IMDB
• Life of Brian Wise Men Scene
• Jupiter and Venus Converged to Create the Star of Bethlehem in June | CBS News

Thinking Religion is 22 minutes long.

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The post Thinking Religion 60: The When, Where, and Why of the Nativity appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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Elisabeth and Merianna are reunited and it feels so good! They discuss finding reason, meaning, and purpose in writing in decisions we make as writers. They also discuss creating purposeful pauses rather than head-scratching confusion. They also ask how can I revise to achieve the effect I want in the reader?

• My Reviews Are Disappearing
• Amazon Reviews
• Chuck Wendig 1 Star Review of New Star Wars Book
• Aftermath
• Jane The Virgin
• Top Chef

What are Elisabeth and Merianna reading?

The post Thinking Out Loud 93: Working Out the Wrinkles as Writers appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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Thomas Whitley and Sam Harrelson discuss domestic terrorists and the Carolinas, the myths of American Progressivism, creation stories, Trump’s views of citizenship, hate licenses, and the soft cultural underbelly of fear.

Show Notes:

• Why Franklin Graham says Donald Trump is right about stopping Muslim immigration | The Washington Post
• Jerry Falwell Jr. is the worst thing to happen to god in a while | Huffington Post
• Ted Cruz’s Plan for Toppling Donald Trump in South Carolina? Divine Intervention | National Journal
• The GOP Establishment May Need Religious Voters To Stop Donald Trump | FiveThirtyEight
• The Terrorists Among Us | Salon
• Trump Joins the War on Christmas | Daily Beast
• You’re worried about Trump? In 100 years, robots might be running for president | Washington Post

Thinking Religion is 22 minutes long.

Sign up for the Thinking Religion newsletter … delivered weekly and full of interesting tidbits, ideas, links, and thought provoking analysis that complements the show.

The post Thinking Religion 59: Trump and Symptoms of a Deeper Problem appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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Thomas Whitley and Sam Harrelson discuss the issues involved with marketing and personal branding in an academic environment, whether academics and graduate students should blog, the demise of peer reviewed journals and scholarship, and whether or not MOOCs were ever a good idea.

Show Notes:

• My Female Students Don’t Seem As Impressed With Me As They Used To | The Toast

Thinking Religion is 50 minutes long this week.

The post Thinking Religion 58: Personal Branding and The Academy appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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Thinking of how great it would be to add a member to your family?

Looking to have a baby soon?

Pregnant?

Buy one of these…

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite or Voyage.

Trust me.

Your friend… Sam, the newborn dad at 3am on a Wednesday morning.

Elisabeth is joined by author Stacy N. Sergent this week (Merianna is out for family leave) to talk about great pups, NaNoWriMo, writing as a lonesome experience and also a communal experience, the role of editing, and the psychological flow of being a writer.

• Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
• How to be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis
• Devil in the Details by Jennifer Traig
• Sleeping with Cats by Marge Piercy
• The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer
• stacynsergent.com
• Stacy on Twitter
• Harrelson Press

The post Thinking Out Loud 92: Let’s Talk About Self-Editing appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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We like to think pictures that we take (of ourselves and other things) digitally are eternal and won’t disappear into the digital abyss. 

However, is that true it will our JPGs and PNGs (not to mention associated metadata) slip into the digital dark age canyon we’re construction for our ancestors?

“If only they had used more permanent materials” our archaeologists lament about the past. I imagine that will be a similar lament in the future.