Looking Over Life

James and Shawn talk about gratefulness and how to instill the value into our children. We talk some about the book by Kristen Welch, Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World, but we mostly just share our thoughts and experiences on what we've learned or are learning about gratefulness.

We're certainly grateful for our listeners and your feedback. Please send us an email with ideas for James's science corner or with any feedback about the topic of gratefulness.

Email: [email protected]

Shawn and James talk about the glorious James Webb telescope! Well, we mostly talk about the pictures that James Webb has been sending back.

James—our James—has been very excited to talk about these photos. Shawn mostly stays quiet with his mouth hanging agape, but we do try describe our visual experience in this audio medium. Check out the links below to get a look at what we were enjoying.

Do you have a favorite James Webb photo? James would be delighted for you to share it with him and tell him a bit about what it means to you, and Shawn will agree that it is pretty. Send us an email.

Email: [email protected]

JWST Orbit

Legrange Points and Orbits

First Images from the James Webb Space Telescope | NASA

How JWST’s Images Compare to Hubble’s

JWST’s Image of Southern Ring Nebula

Hubble’s Image of Southern Ring Nebula

JWST’s Image of Carina Nebula

Hubble’s Image of Carina Nebula

JWST’s Image of Stephan’s Quintet

Hubble’s Image of Stephan’s Quintet

JWST’s Image of SMACS 0723

James and Shawn welcome guest Naoma Lee to talk with them about life as a single. 

It was a fun conversation going over the difficulties and the perks of being a single person. Naoma gave us some tips for how married folks can related to their single friends, and she even gave some suggestions for messages preachers should and should not preach!

Let us know what you think of the conversation. If you're a single, what has your experience been like? Do you have any tips or resources you could suggest? Send us an email.

Email: [email protected]

Singled Out for Him by Nancy Demoss Woglemuth

Penn Valley Singles Seminar - Next Week! July 22-24

Shawn and James beg for listener support before talking about why we find it so difficult to change. We discuss the idea of whether or not we are naturally good or if there is actually need to change, and if so, how we go about changing ourselves.

There's a good bit of philosophical talk, but we try to give some practical tips that you can put to practice on yourself.

How do you find self-work or self-improvement? Do you have any life hacks you can share with us? Please send us an email.

And if you would like to support the podcast, look us up on Patreon or recommend the podcast to a new listener. Thanks so much for your support!

Email: [email protected]

James and Shawn talk about writing... on a podcast. Is that weird?

James tried correcting Shawn about the butterfly effect, but Shawn rose to the challenge and proved he knows things!

We both enjoy writing and writing-adjacent things, so it was fun to have a conversation about the topic. We discussed why we write and why we think we need more contemporary writers. We went over some of our techniques for getting writing done and give you all some tips for making your writing a bit better.

We shared some favorite books on good writing with each other and gave you a request to send us some of yours. We're looking forward to your suggestions! Send us an email.

Email: [email protected]

Butterfly Effect

7 Laws of Teaching by Milton Gregory

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

Good Prose by Tracey Kidder and Richard Todd

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Elements of Style by Strunk and White

Essays of E. B. White

The Best-Loved Short Stories of Jesse Stuart

How Language Works: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning, and Languages Live or Die by David Crystal

Wikipedia - David Crystal (see the bibliography)

James and Shawn are back again, this time to talk about having babies!

As James mentions in the episode, we know this can be a tricky topic to navigate, but we hope you find the conversation interesting. We're sure that you may hold different views than we do, so we'd be glad to hear from you. Send us an email with any feedback or critiques. 

In this episode, we look a bit at the Quiverfull movement as it is active in the States and try to compare that with the heart God has for children. Some questions we ask are, "How big should a family be? Is God okay with us not having children or having very small families? What are children for?" We aim to put a bit of nuance into a conversation that can be somewhat polarizing at times.

Share this episode with a friend and get their thoughts on it, too. We look forward to your responses.

To hear the Patron episode where we first discussed this topic, visit our Patreon page.

Email: [email protected]

Ship of Theseus

Wikipedia - The Quiverfull Movement

Pew Research - Growing Share of Adults Who Plan to Never Have Children

Shawn and James welcome another James to the podcast. James Shank joins us to talk about fasting—at last!

We look at an old email from a listener and talk together about what fasting is or should be. We also discuss some of our own experiences with fasting and what we have learned along the way.

Thank you for your patience with us while we took a bit of a break. We're trying to gear back up and get back on schedule, hopefully. Our Patrons have been enjoying occasional episodes along the way, but we haven't had the time for a full LOL episode. We're excited to get back to it.

We're glad we had a listener email to prompt this episode. If you would like to hear your idea discussed, you can also send us an email for us to consider.

Email: [email protected]

God's Chosen Fast by Arthur Wallis

James and Shawn go on a bit of a ramble. We talk about the scale of everything and what orders of magnitude are before giving an update of our yearly themes. Shawn "lost" his phone, but a chivalrous lady in a corn field gave it back to him—it's a wild story. We then give everyone a heads up on our schedule over the next several months so that you can know what to expect.

If you don't want to miss out on hearing from us, you can always sign up to get the FWIW episodes for Patrons. And don't forget to let us know what you're doing for a yearly theme or goal. Please send us an email.

Email: [email protected]

Orders of magnitude

Observable universe

Light travel time from the Sun to Neptune

Distance to closest star

Planck length

God’s Chosen Fast by Arthur Wallis

Shawn and James talk about how institutions can get in the way of the gospel of Jesus. We discuss how all the trappings of the church as an institution can actually hinder the gospel and keep people away from coming to Jesus. How different are modern church institutions from the Pharisees Jesus condemned? Why is the church on the decline? Why is religion dying in the west?

If you have any answers to our many questions or any feedback about our discussion, please send us an email.

Email: [email protected]

Questions and Answers - How much of an atom is empty space? (jlab.org)

White Dwarfs Facts, Information and Photos | National Geographic

NASA - Neutron Stars

James Webb Space Telescope, the biggest ever built, fully unfolds giant mirror to gaze at the cosmos | Space

JWST Launched Inside an Ariane 5 rocket

All hail the Ariane 5 rocket, which doubled the Webb telescope’s lifetime | Ars Technica

Church Planting Movements by David Garrison

You Are Special by Max Lucado

James and Shawn go over their yearly themes. We first look back at how we did with our themes from 2021 before discussing our new themes and goals for the year ahead.

If you have a yearly theme, please let us know what you'll be doing. We would love to hear from you and gain some more inspiration.

Yearly Planning – Ink+Volt (inkandvolt.com)

Weekly Marriage Check-in

The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family by Patrick Lencioni

Deep Work by Cal Newport