PZ's Podcast

By MockingbirdSociety & Culture Religion & Spirituality Arts

PZ's Podcast episodes

October 21, 2011 Episode 70 - Removals Men
This is about the use of language to cover an unpleasant reality.
It's not just about the "removal" of an al awlaki or a "new chapter in the history of Libya" accomplished by means of the murder of a POW who was captured alive.
It's about resigning yourself to something you cannot change.
29 min
October 15, 2011 Episode 69 - Pipes of Pan
Arthur Machen meets St. Matthew's Gospel,
Chapter 11, Verses 16-19.
You can try to make your voice heard with an engaging, danceable tune,
and it will pass like a shadow over the water.
(Think "Men Without Hats".)
Or you can try it in a shrill, scratchy key,
and it will still be forgotten, fast.
(Think P.J. Proby.)
Whether it flops or not, however,
that's not the point .
Someone will probably eventually hear it, and take it up.
Think Joe Meek.
25 min
October 09, 2011 Episode 67 - The Inward Voice, Pt. 1
Here is a two-parter concerning your inward voice:
What is it, and how do you find it?
From a Romans 7 point of view, the inward voice (and voices)
is almost all that matters.
Now get it down! Write it down! Put it on paper, or else it'll probably just
"Fade Away" (Rolling Stones).
This is personal archaeology, yours and mine, and it involves digging,
and lifting.
35 min
October 09, 2011 Episode 68 - The Inward Voice, Pt. 2
There is nothing quite like the Inward Voice of
'Mark Rutherford', the novelist whose real name was William Hale White.
He wore a mask over a mask,
and his six novels constitute a kind of ultimate Inward Voice within
Victorian fiction.
Today we look at his "Revolution in Tanner's Lane" (1890), which reveals the worst and also the best of the Romans 7 understanding of
human nature.
Cradled in this unique book -- "Revolution" -- is a message I think the world's gotta hear.
I don't think it ever will, but STILL 'MarkRutherford' committed his Inward Voice to paper, and we know a lot more about ourselves because of him..
35 min
October 05, 2011 Episode 66 - Altars by the Roadside
Now here's a find:
a passage in the novel "Revolution in Tanner's Lane" (1890)
by 'Mark Rutherford' (aka William Hale White),
in which the author answers the question I set in the previous cast.
If there is a word from religion to the middle-aged and "mature" --
i.e., a word of humbled acquiescence to the disillusioned and shaken --
what is religion's word to the young?
Can the same message of experienced wisdom and non-identification,
which seems able to communicate with immediacy to the shattered,
have something to say to the young and engaged,
to the active members of this world, all "wishin' and hopin'" and
working and fretting?
The Rev. Thomas Bradshaw, the genuine-article preacher in Mark
Rutherford's great book, offers a word to "My young friends" (p. 268)
that is a mighty dart to the young but shot from an old man's quiver.
In this cast, let me read you what Mr. Bradshaw has to say,
then you tell me whether it answers the practical question.
22 min
October 01, 2011 Episode 65 - One Message or Two?
Does life-wisdom offer the same message to the non-disillusioned, who are often on the younger side, as it does to the disillusioned, who are often over-50?
It's a live issue for me, since a gospel of hope to the shattered can sound depressing to people who are working on wresting something like success from life.
Interestingly, many religious pioneers, from Pachomius to Zwingli, from Clare to the "Little Flower", were young when they received a message of negation, but also a new and different theme of affirmation.
Is there a philosophical link between "Build Me Up, Buttercup" (The Foundations) and "The Levee's Gonna Break" (Dylan)?
That's the subject of this podcast.
35 min
September 27, 2011 Episode 64 - My New Law Firm
My new law firm is called "Scrambling, Rattled, and Bracing, P.A.".
It is a firm devoted to the project of complete control.
It helps me "scramble" to contain unexpected problems;
prevents me from getting "rattled" by unexpected threats;
and gets me "braced" in anticipation of feared outcomes.
In other words -- you guessed it -- my new law firm helps me get control
of my life. I pay it to get me ready for every eventuality.
Oddly, though, it hasn't worked as well as I had hoped.
I'm still scrambling, I still get rattled, and I spend every weekend bracing
for Monday.
But hey ! : I've got hopes. If I can just get a little control ...
33 min
September 18, 2011 Episode 63 - One Step Beyond
This ancient show, much of which is now richly available on YouTube, let alone DVD, understood something important. It understood about the "collective unconscious" and the nature of the Love that exists underneath human loves. The several great episodes in this terse ancient treasure, from 1959 to 1961, depict reality so unflinchingly that you can barely look — and, the underlying reality of God. I actually think "One Step Beyond" is a profounder prototype for "Touched by an Angel". Plus, the music! - especially Harry Lubin's theme entitled "Weird". Not his "Fear", which you've heard a hundred times; but his "Weird".
And here's the 'Dean's Question' for this podcast: How did William James decide to define God?
37 min
September 10, 2011 Episode 62 - What part of you isn't angry?
Anger -- it's everywhere.
The question is,
at whom or at what are you NOT angry?
Well, you can't be angry at anyone or anything you love.
Or rather, you can't be angry at that part of anyone or anything that you love.
This podcast is about seismic anger -- into which the internet is just
a current window. Every age has its window.
This podcast hunts for an answer.
33 min
August 14, 2011 Episode 58 - The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
This gorgeous 1964 film is everything people say it is, and makes you wonder sometimes whether its director and writer, Jacques Demy, was too good for this world.
Let's also hear it for Michel Legrand, who wrote the score.
What I wish to eyeball, and what this podcast is about, is its vision of romance,
for "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" is about
first love, lost love, best love, et enfin, true love.
The hero's "Je crois que tu peux partir" ("It's time for you to go.") is so wonderfully masculine, and faithful, and cognizant but 'he's not buying',
that I truly wish every woman in the world who has lost faith in men
could see this movie.
My podcast is about True Love.
It is dedicated to Nick Greenwood.
46 min

About PZ's Podcast

From the publisher's feed

From "Telstar" to "Vault of Horror," from Rattigan to Kerouac, from the Village of Bray to the Village of Midwich, help PZ link old ancient news and pop culture. I think I can see him, "Crawling from…