Doubletake

Michael and Millie Shipe grew up in the era of “purity culture.” It was a big thing for about 20 years starting in the 1990s, and it focused on saving sex for marriage. There were conferences and purity rings and slogans, like “True Love Waits.”

But a lot of people say they’ve been deeply damaged by their experience in purity culture. There’s a growing genre of books by the “survivors” of purity culture. These are often bitter tales written by ex-evangelicals who use the term “deconstruction” to describe leaving orthodox Christianity.

Today on Doubletake, the rise and fall of purity culture, through the eyes of a couple who lived through some of its best features–and some of its worst. And, just a note: this episode involves relationships and sexuality. It’s not for kids.

Music/audio from:

CNN

South Park/Comedy Central

“Kiss the Girl” by Samuel E. Wright/Disney

“Someday My Prince Will Come” by Adrianna Caselotti/Disney

“I Survived I Kissed Dating Goodbye” by Joshua Harris

“Everyday Robots” by Damon Albarn



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WORLD Radio’s Jenny Rough was worried. Last year, her memory seemed to be slipping, and few things scared her more than descending into dementia as she got older. She also came across some recent research that tied dementia and Alzheimer's disease to a person’s ability to navigate–and Jenny has always had a little trouble with maps. Worst of all, her own mother had passed away from Parkinson’s disease a few years before.

So, naturally, Jenny went for a good long hike … and got lost.

On this episode of Doubletake we’re going to navigate—metaphorically and literally. We’ll explore the pathways of the human brain, hike trails in the Rocky Mountains, and journey along the road of grief.

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In 1968 Mallory Millett arrived in New York just in time to watch her sister Kate Millett turn into an icon of the radical Second Wave feminist movement. At first, Mallory thought of herself as a feminist. But soon Mallory began to realize that feminism wasn’t quite what she thought: “I’d been brought into something very, very weird.”

And the weirdness is still around. In fact, Mallory says that Kate’s radical ideas have shaped a new narrative about what it means to be a woman. In fact, says Mallory, these ideas have “taken over the world. Kate has taken over the world.”

So today, a story about a woman who took a journey with her sister, only to realize that she’d been led into some very dark places.

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When Thaddeus Hall was born, the room went silent. From then on, every day has been a struggle for survival–kind of a race, really. As Thad’s family pushes through the obstacles of raising a medically fragile child, it seems like life will never be the same. What do you do when something goes wrong? What does life look like? What do you lose—and what do you gain?

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Music licensed via podcastmusic.com from AMG, Atomica, and STKA. News clips from CNA News and HBO.

This is the story of two Iranian women who brought about a revolution in one of the world’s most notorious prisons–just not the kind involving protests and violence. It all came down to the courage to answer a few questions from a judge.

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Support sound journalism, grounded in facts and Biblical truth at wng.org/donate. 

Music licensed via podcastmusic.com from ALIBI, 5 Alarm, AMG, Atomica Music, Manhattan Production Music, and Strike Audio. 

News clips from ABCNews, the BBC, ITVNews, CBCNews, PBS, NBCNews, and NPR.

Ambient sound from Sound Effects Pod and Stockmusic. “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus” from http://youtube.com/instrumentalworship

Laurel Marr is a Christian who helps people find comfort and meaning in their last days. In the past, death was a preparation to meet God. But our secular culture today thinks this life is all there is. Laurel asks—and answers—the question: what does it mean to die well?

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Music licensed via podcastmusic.com from ALIBI, AMG, Atomica Music, and STKA. Amazing Grace keyboard by lorenzobuczek from Pixabay. News clips from Reuters and The Guardian. Audio clip from Ghost.

When he was 15, Connor Clough taught himself how to become aware he was dreaming while he was dreaming. It seemed kind of fun–until it wasn’t. Along the way he faced a question that has puzzled thinkers for millennia: Are dreams just collections of memories and emotions dredged up from our subconscious? Or are dreams really some sort of window into transcendent reality?

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Music licensed via podcastmusic.com from Strike Music, Figure and Groove, ALIBI, Atomica Music, and Pink Shark Music.

Song: “Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland” by The Mills Brothers.

In 2005 Tani Prroj was pastor of a small Albanian church and his wife Elona was a stay-at-home mom. But then Tani’s uncle shot and killed a mountain man, casting the family into a cycle of revenge that can go on for generations. Albania is one of the last places on earth that still practices “blood feud.” It’s a cultural imperative and an impulse most of us recognize all too well: the desire for justice–and then some.

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Music licensed via podcastmusic.com from ALIBI, Atomica Music, Strike Audio, Merge Music, Pink Shark Music



Audio clips from Taken 2, and Sons of Cain.

Two years ago Stewart Freeman built a church in a virtual reality app called VR Chat, reputedly one of the wildest places in the metaverse. On this episode we’ll tag along with Stewart and the VR ministry of Cornerstone Church as they try to bring the Gospel into virtual reality. Instead of allowing virtual reality to distort the Gospel that they preach. It’s the second in our short series exploring the implications of technology that shapes our perception of the world around us.



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Music licensed via podcastmusic.com from ALIBI Music, Strike Audio, Atomica Music, 5 Alarm, Manhattan Production Music

About three years ago Stewart Freeman went online, into virtual reality, to meet girls. Instead he found Christ through a California church called Cornerstone, one of a handful of ministries trying to preach the Gospel in a new digital world called the “metaverse.” Mark Zuckerberg predicts that within a few years a billion people will be in the metaverse–but at what cost?

It’s part one of our two-part series exploring the implications of technology that shapes our perception of the world around us.

Support sound journalism, grounded in facts and Biblical truth at wng.org/donate.



Music licensed via podcastmusic.com from ALIBI Music, 5 Alarm, Atomica Music

Short Story “Pygmalion’s Spectacles” by Stanley G. Weinbaum, produced by The MixVR