FoC 186: How Not To Lose Your Mind With Politics And The News with Bonnie Kristian

How do we determine what’s true in a very disorienting time? How do we know what authorities, institutions, or media to believe when the world around us feels untrustworthy? How do we have deep conversations with friends and loved ones when the political landscape is so divisive? It’s a very difficult time to navigate and it’s easy to become cynical or even despairing.

Journalist Bonnie Kristian tackles some of these complicated issues in her fantastic new book Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community. Bonnie is a mom (of twins!), a graduate of Bethel Seminary, and the author of A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today. She writes and edits opinion pieces on foreign policy, religion, criminal justice, urbanism, civil liberties, electoral politics, and more. She’s written for Christianity Today, The Week, USA Today, CNN, Politico, and Time, to name a few. She is a great Twitter follow and just an insightful and fascinating voice on our strange political and religious landscape.

In this episode we talk about how to have a healthy relationship with news and media when the odds are stacked against us. We discuss how to love and maintain relationship with friends and loved ones who have accepted extremist ideologies. We explore the nature of the social media beast and how it works against our mental health and our reason. And we try to imagine how we can cultivate real community, truth, and goodness when things look very bleak. It’s a very interesting conversation and Bonnie has such wisdom to share. So grab a cup of tea and enjoy this episode!

Connect with Bonnie:

* Bonnie’s website

* Bonnie’s Twitter

Sponsor

We are thrilled to be sponsored for this episode by Happy Nest Home Goods.

Happy Nest Home Goods celebrates doing small things with great love with their modern Catholic embroidery art, patterns, and kits as well as their line of beautiful sacrifice beads for the whole family. 

Sacrifice Beads are a devotion practiced by St. Therese as a little girl using a string of sliding beads to track small sacrifices made throughout your day. So whenever you do a chore you hate, keep your temper, offer up a disappointment, or give someone else the better leftover from the fridge, just slide a bead towards the crucifix and unite your sacrifice to Christ’s on the cross. This beautiful practice will help foster your ability to see opportunities to offer every moment to God.

You can find a wide variety of sacrifice beads for men, women, and children at happynesthomegoods.com. Sacrifice beads make for a perfect spiritual stocking stuffer or gift for those receiving sacraments this year!

Happy Nest also has adorable beginner-friendly embroidery patterns and kits for every liturgical season, including Advent and Christmas, that are perfect to gift to the crafter in your life OR for you to add a handmade touch to your Christmas gifts this year!