16-year-old Jordan Davidson got wisdom beyond his years the hard way: fighting his marijuana addiction. Now age 22, Legislative Affairs and Youth Outreach Coordinator working on Capitol Hill for Smart Approaches to Marijuana, Jordan details his journey out of the smoke, where denial and isolation nearly destroyed him.

Additional resources:

learnaboutsam.org

Smokescreen: What the Marijuana Industry Doesn't Want You to Know by Kevin A. Sabet

poppot.org

Our guest began activism with fighting abortion--now he confronts root causes such as poverty, "marriage deserts," and housing problems.  Colin LeCroy, co-Founder of Life on Belay, pours the intellectual foundation for better outcomes for moms in crisis, and their children. 

Additional Resources:

lifeonbelay.org

Patrick Brown--Are Marriage and Parenthood Only for the Wealthy? https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2022/11/85947/

Timothy Carney--Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive while Others Collapse

Danielle Del Plato--The Obvious Answer to Homelessness https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/01/homelessness-affordable-housing-crisis-democrats-causes/672224/

Marvin Olasky--The Tragedy of American Compassion

Charles Murray--https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/charles-murray-us-class-society-is-losing-its-exceptional-characteristics

Ross Douthat--Does American Society Need Abortion?  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/14/opinion/abortion-america.html

Are walkable cities ableist utopias?  What about strollers on subways, baby seats in Ubers, and Grandma's walker on the bus?  Internationally-acclaimed city planner Jeff Speck graciously and sagaciously parries these types of thrusts from Leah, in a conversation that will leave you looking at your city or town with new eyes.  Jeff Speck, the 2022 winner of the Seaside Prize, was Director of Design for the National Endowment for the Arts and now heads Specks and Associates as a private design consultant primarily for American cities.  His TED talks and YouTube videos have been viewed more than 5 million times and his book Walkable City was the best-selling city-planning book of the last decade.  His Harvard course in the Graduate School of Design is detailed at https://execed.gsd.harvard.edu/walkable-city

Additional Resouces: 

Resources by Jeff Speck:

Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time, Tenth Anniversary Edition, 2022

Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places, 2018

Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, 2001, with Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk

"Nine Keys to Safe Downtown Streets" Public Square, https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2020/01/07/nine-keys-safe-downtown-streets

"Why Walkable Communities are the Best Communities for Older Adults"

https://www.aarp.org/livable-communities/livable-in-action/info-2018/walkable-communities-jeff-speck.html

jeffspeck.com

This episode can be found on YouTube in video form here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc_RFQ2x6vE

Our Yuletide surprise is a poignant short story.  Read by the charming and talented Abigail Broeker, "The Gifts of the Child Christ" was written in 1882 by George McDonald, whose fiction and faith inspired C.S. Lewis.  This Victorian tale is an Ironic, perceptive, but ultimately hopeful portrait of a marriage, a set of parents, a courtship and even an employment relationship that will all converge and mature because of unexpected losses.  Okay, it's a tear-jerker--think Charles Dickens at Christmas time!

We were able to simplify the piece for modern ears, since it's in the public domain.

Additional resources:

The Gifts of the Child Christ: Fairy Stories for The Childlike by George MacDonald, edited by Glenn Edward Sadler, Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1973.

www.worksofmacdonald.com

www.george-macdonald.com

Sleep expert Dr. David Gozal gives us a good-natured look at sleep in the stages of infancy, childhood, and adolescence.  He enlightens us on topics like sleep apnea, co-sleeping, swaddling, and the connection between sleep disorders to nightmares and attention problems in youngsters.  Teaser: We are having him back in a few weeks to survey the features of and problems with sleep in young adults, midlife, and the elderly.

Additional resources

https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/10.1164/rccm.201504-0767SThttps://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1164/ajrccm.183.6.826a

https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/45/5/zsac055/6543951

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/infant-and-toddler-health/in-depth/baby-sleep/art-20045014https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/01/18/kids-teens-more-sleep/

How can grandparents stay close and connected to grandchildren who are being raised with different values?  Legacy Imperative, headed by Dr. Robert Petterson,

inspires and guides grandparents in maintaining warm relationships with chilly adult children.  In this first of 2 episodes we did with him, Dr. Petterson mentions that 5 million kids in the U.S. are not in touch with their grandparents, and what humility, good listening, and vacations together do to help build bridges.

Additional resources:

Legacyimperative.org

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4615302.Robert_Petterson

https://youtu.be/h6lUdxyHPNU

Tom Lutz hangs with Leah to talk about Millennials in the workplace, why people of no faith should listen to him, burnout and vision, why Pope John Paul II decided to keep his job, "marketplace chaplains," and what's wrong with the film version of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.

Additional resources:

1. Dorothy Sayers, "Why Work?" https://www1.villanova.edu/content/dam/villanova/mission/faith/Why%20Work%20by%20Dorothy%20Sayers.pdf

2. www.convenenow.com

3. Timothy Keller, "Faith and Work" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2ZUeFYlk-I  (includes Spanish translation)

4. Listeners can purchase Tom's book here: Hendrickson Publishing Group | Equipping Christians for Kingdom Purpose in Their Work (hendricksonrose.com) and use the code WORK30 to get 30% off at checkout from 11/2-11/30/22.

Medical marijuana and recreational cannabis are big business, and they want your kids to consume.  Ken Finn, MD, a board-certified pain management physician in Colorado and expert on marijuana, speaks with compassion and objectivity to your astonished host.

It's estimated that $4 trillion of church real estate will be distressed in the next 40 years.  About 70 churches close every week. But Blake Schwarz, a former Presbyterian church staffer, sees rich opportunity to benefit the church and the needy world in this environment: his doctoral work at the intersection of faith and economics is helping him reimagine church.  Leah talks with him about the loss of "third spaces," the rosary, how he inspires young professionals, systemic blindness in Dallas, and why he keeps a "rusty, gnarly pipe" on his shelf.

Thepegasusinstitute.com

Centralcommons.org

A megachurch pastor shares practical wisdom about visiting the elderly and ill, deriving joy and benefit from times that many people find uncomfortable.  Skills for such times with the aging, infirm, or dying can be learned, and the time is now!

Additional resources:

Dymer, C. S. Lewis

"There is a Land of Pure Delight"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qElMRKRZNzU

https://www.beliefnet.com/wellness/health/2004/07/advice-on-visiting-the-sick.aspx