Give and Take

My guest is Shenequa Golding. She doesn’t aim to speak for all Black women. They're too vast, too vibrant, and too complicated. As an adult, Golding begins to own her boldness, but growing up, she found herself “kind of in the middle,” fluctuating between not being the fly kid or the overachiever. Her debut collection of essays, A Black Girl in the Middle, taps into life’s wins and losses, representing the middle ground for Black girls and women.

Golding packs humor, curiosity, honesty, anger, and ultimately acceptance in 12 essays spanning her life in Queens, NY, as a first-generation Jamaican American. She breaks down the 10 levels of Black Girl Math, from the hard glare to responses reserved for unfaithful boyfriends. She comes to terms with and heals from fraught relationships with her father, friends, and romantic partners. She takes the devastating news that she’s a Black girl with a “flat ass” in stride, and adds squats to her routine, eventually. From a harrowing encounter in a hotel room leading her to explore celibacy (for now) to embracing rather than fearing the “Milli Vanilli” of emotions in hurt and anger, Golding embraces everything she’s learned with wit, heart, and humility.

A Black Girl in the Middle is both an acknowledgment of the complexity and pride of not always fitting in and validation of what Black girlhood and womanhood can be.

Special Guest: Shenequa Golding.

My guest is Mark Oppenheimer. In a recent NY Times piece David Brooks describes his own complex journey of faith. Mark Oppenheimer has written a piece questioning why David Brooks consistently continues to refer to himself as a Jew, despite affirming the central tenets of the Christian faith. Mark returns to the show to discuss his piece and what it tells us about the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.

You can find David Brooks' piece "The Shock of Faith: It's Nothing Like I Thought It Would Be" here.

You can find Mark's response here.

Special Guest: Mark Oppenheimer .

My guest is Edward J. Watts. He holds the Alkiviadis Vassiliadis Endowed Chair and is professor of history at the University of California, San Diego. He's the author and editor of several prize-winning books, including The Final Pagan Generation and Mortal Republic. He's been on the show before and he returns to talk about Ridley's Scott's new movie Gladiator 2.

Special Guest: Edward J. Watts.

My guest is Thane Rosenbaum. Thane is a law professor, legal and Middle East analyst, novelist, essayist and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University. He's an all around Renaissance man. We talk about a host of issues including antisemitism, identity politics, and the true nature of liberalism.

Special Guest: Thane Rosenbaum.

My guest is Leah Paulos. Leah Paulos, the founder of Press Shop PR, has worked at the intersection of books and media for over 25 years. She’s led publicity campaigns for hundreds of authors, helping them line up media attention and events and supporting them as they navigate the (somewhat bizarre) world of publishing. She has long wanted to offer publicity support to more authors than Press Shop PR can accommodate for full media campaigns. Book Publicity School is her answer, allowing her to bring her decades of experience and passion for championing authors to more writers at an affordable price. We talk about the process of birthing a book, what it takes to promote it, and what it can teach us about life.

Special Guest: Leah Paulos .

My guest is Todd McGowan. Todd teaches theory and film at the University of Vermont. In his new book Embracing Alienation, McGowan offers a completely different take on alienation, claiming that the effort to overcome it is not a radical response to the current state of things but a failure to see the constitutive power of alienation for all of us. Instead of trying to overcome alienation and accede to an unalienated existence, it argues, we should instead redeem alienation as an existential and political program.

Engaging with Shakespeare’s great tragedies, contemporary films such as Don’t Worry Darling, and even what occurs on a public bus, as well as thinkers such as Descartes, Hegel, and Marx, McGowan provides a concrete elaboration of how alienation frees people from their situation. Relying on the tradition of dialectical thought and psychoanalytic theory, Embracing Alienation reveals a new way of conceiving how we measure progress — or even if progress should be the aim at all.

Special Guest: Todd McGowan.

In this episode best selling author and filmmaker David Shields returns to the show. We have a wide ranging conversation about the recent Presidential election. We consider what it tells us about Trump, the culture, and most importantly ourselves.

Click here for David's book, No One Hates Trump More Than Trump.

Special Guest: David Shields.

My guest is Beatrice Marovich. She teaches in the Department of Theological Studies, at Hanover College. Her work offers provocative reflections on the way that strange and ancient religious figures and ideas remain at work in our cultures, in our politics, and in our bodies in both beautiful and deeply unsettling ways. We covered a vast array of topics including poltical theology, the nature of death, and karaoke.

Special Guest: Beatrice Marovich.

My guest is Fabienne Doucet. Her new book is Love Is Still Winning. When a little one sees their parents overwhelmed with the aftermath of distressing news, they remind themselves of the love that still shines through and all of the ways love is showcased in the simplest of actions that we often overlook. Whether helping a neighbor or reminiscing the beauty of a sunset with a loved one, love triumphs all. This inspiring picture book will encourage your little ones to practice seeing the good that exists all around us. Parents will adore this bilingual English-Spanish picture book as it introduces little ones to possibilities in which they can bring love and kindness into the world.

Special Guest: Fabienne Doucet.

In this episode Scott is joined by return guest and friend of the show David Shields. The two talk about the assassination attempt on former President Trump, the messianic response by some, and what it means for the upcoming election.

Special Guest: David Shields.