Radical Optimism

It just keeps coming back! We hear it anew every few years: Some form of fear about how Hollywood, the culture, the Super Bowl halftime show, and/or the political left is threatening the future of the American Christian. How might Christians interact with the culture and politics around the culture wars?

This week kicked off hearings for President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson. We talk about how the hearings went, Judge Jackson’s unique background and accomplishments, and how the court has become increasingly politicized. Finally, we end with how Christians might think about these nominations.

The world has watched in horror as Vladimir Putin’s Russian forces launched a much more aggressive attack on the sovereign nation of Ukraine than most expected. The result has been a terrible ongoing conflict, a humanitarian crisis, and a large refugee exodus to neighboring countries. Our guests, married couple Michael and Chelsea Sobolik, work in Washington, DC, on foreign policy and human rights issues. They share some insights into what is happening and how Christians can think, help, and pray about it.

Rachel and Taylor get personal and talk about having an interabled marriage. We’ve lived both and talk about what is the same and what has changed. How was it to be a spouse caregiver? How have our perceptions changed about wheelchairs? And what Christians can learn from suffering and unexpected disability in marriage?

January 6th is back in the news cycle. The Republican National Committee issued a statement that included calling January 6th participants speech “legitimate political discourse,” and then later walked that language back in a clarification. The same day, former Vice President Mike Pence gave a forceful speech saying the President Trump was wrong, it would have been unconstitutional to overturn the election results. Republicans are all over the map in their response and many just wish it would go away. Why is it important that Christians spend time pursuing the truth here?

President Biden has been in office for one year. Rachel and Taylor assess how he’s doing in both foreign and domestic policy— and give some historical context about how presidents typically do their first year.

Taylor and Rachel predict what 2022 holds politically and culturally. There are big elections at the state and national level, as well as some potential for significant cultural changes afoot. What can we expect to see?

Our inaugural year of podcasting is coming to a close. For our year-in-review, the Barkleys talk about what we learned, what happened in the news this year, and our favorite movies, TV shows, books, and other media. We also share our hot take on what 2021 meant for the world…

Taylor recently wrote a piece published by Human Progress about the role of culture in fostering innovation. How should we think about the impact new technologies have on us and society? What should our attitude be towards innovation? Rachel and Taylor discuss these ideas and what they've learned along the way.

We’ve all come in contact with more suffering in the past year, and “being thankful” may feel a little more loaded this Thanksgiving. We tackle the tension between feeling empathy for those in pain while also being thankful for our own blessings. And what should thankfulness lead us to?