Origami Elephants

Given the glut of new films about Artificial Intelligence, Bryne and JR. ask what counts as consciousness. We revisit Chappie, dive deeply into Ex Machina, and touch on Age of Ultron, Terminator: Genesys, Her, Avatar and Stephen King's The Jaunt. Packed with listern questions, we are ready to welcome our robot overlords!

Bryne and JR. catch up after a very busy season. They discuss Bryne's conference on Marion and JR.'s Easter celebration. Then they discuss the sensational new horror film It Follows.

Bryne and JR. investigate three recent instances of conflicts involving Islam and outside cultures and religions. From Charlie Hebdo to the Duke University Chapel to Oxford University Press, we wonder what is at stake in each circumstance and how we can be religious in non-religious spaces. BONUS: We also review SELMA.

Bryne and JR. catch up in the New Year. They review the best films of 2014 and spend some specific time praising the Babadook. They then use Allan Edwards' interview with NPR to examine what makes a marriage.

Bryne and JR. are joined by Clay Morgan of the StoryMen and Mikey Fissel of Reel World Theology to conduct a panel at the Baylor IFL Conference on Faith and Film. We explore the nature of possession films, and what they say about the Church and contemporary spirituality. A Q&A follows.

Just in time for Halloween (and the Baylor Film & Faith Symposium!), Bryne and JR. investigate the new "it" monster: Demons. From possession in popular culture to exorcising pastors, we ask how demons function in our world, and how we can respond to stories and experiences of possession.

After a tangent on horror films, Bryne and JR. discuss getting settled in their new homes. Both find themselves in communities divided by religious controversy - from gay marriage to atheist invocations. They consider what neighborliness looks like, and whether Civil Religion or Religious Civility is more important.

Bryne and JR. are going through some big transitions. After they process the last couple of big episodes, they explore the nature of change. How do we change well? What's at stake if we refuse to change? As a bonus, we add 20 minutes of off-the-cuff conversation about TV and film they've been watching recently.

Bryne and JR. welcome two pastors - Josh Butler and Eric Knox - to discuss the mess that is Ferguson, Missouri in the wake of the shooting of Michael Brown. We examine how the media shapes the story, how the militarization of police feeds the conflict, and the extent to which race and privilege shape and are shaped by the events in Ferguson.

Bryne and JR. return from busy summers to dive into the conflict between Israel and Gaza. We explore the history of the region, what's at stake for both sides and land on a discussion of Just War. Is violence ever morally permissible? Is Pacifism an effective, realistic alternative to violence? How can we become peacemakers?