This week, Brandon brings some questions from a CS Lewis book on criticism to the pod. He and AJ discuss the difference between using art and being impacted on it and the dangers of using your passions.

This week, AJ and Brandon take their conversations about the pope and synods into a more personal conversation about how we are called to lead in our daily lives.

This week, Brandon asks AJ about the Synod on Synodality and what those crazy Germans were getting up to. It's not breaking news, but it's a relevant discussion with the advantage of avoiding hot takes.

This week, Brandon asks AJ some follow ups on papal elections. How much of the election of a pope is about human, political machinations? How much is divine guidance by the Holy Spirit? How can we tell?

This week, AJ brings up Pope Francis' current health situation and talks with Brandon about the Pope's broader role in Christianity. Even if you aren't Catholic, the Papacy remains influential.

In this week's episode, Brandon approaches AJ about his idea that our messaging on Christ is the source of a lot of people's confusions about Him. Specifically, that people overemphasizing Christ's humanity or divinity are a big part of the problem.

This week, Brandon wants to talk about the Jesus commercial in the Super Bowl. Does it make sense to take such a broad strokes approach to evangelization? Is it evangelization at all? Is that a good use of $8 million? What is the actual message they are spreading? Do any of these questions even matter?

Wrapping up their look at examples of priests, prophets, and kings in the Lord of the Rings, AJ and Brandon compare the rule of Aragorn and Denethor, steward of Gondor. They also crystalize some of the patterns between all three offices and think about what that means for their own lives.

This week, AJ and Brandon continue looking at Middle Earth and Christ's three offices being depicted. This time, it's with a look at the priesthood as seen in Gollum and Frodo (and Sam).

In this week's episode, AJ and Brandon discuss Tolkien's depictions of good wizards and bad as a parallel to the messianic office of the prophet. What do Gandalf and Saruman show us about the right and wrong ways to live the prophetic call?