This week's podcast is about our new culture course which starts next week, Pandemical Mysticism: A theology of Life-An exploration of the ways in which our lockdown experiences mirror some of the mystical experiences of monks and hermits. We talk about why a broader understanding of the variety of experiences we go through can help us be more self-aware and have a different perspective on post-lockdown life.

handcogroup.com/pandemical-mysticism

Instagram: @h_andco_

This week's podcast is a first for us, we have a guest! James Prescott, host of Poema podcast, joins us for a discussion about lessons we might discover from grief and loss. What happens if we dig into grief rather than hope it goes away over time? An insightful and helpful conversation for times like these when we are all experiencing multitalented levels of loss and the grief that natural comes with it. 

www.handcogroup.com

Instagram: @h_andco_

Find James and his podcast at: @jamesprescott77

This week we are talking Christmas in a pandemic-Maria is wearing a Love Actually sweatshirt whilst bemoaning the role nostalgia plays in the holiday.  She also confessed to not being able to bake and tried to get me to sing Away in a Manger but apparently I got the melody wrong and messed that up.  So all of that plus our Christmas thoughts on a global pandemic-this one is unmissable!

www.handcogroup.com

Instagram: @h_andco_

Skulls. They are everywhere and this week we chat about what that might mean, why Barry likes them, their place in religious history, their bad rap in Christianity today and why what was once the symbol of pirates and bikers is undergoing yet another shift in our cultural perception-and, in case you hadn't noticed, we have a pink skull logo and we throw the reason for that into the mix, as well.

www.handcogroup.com

Instagram: @h_andco_

This week we are talking about our upcoming virtual seminar on Advent and deconstruction and Derrida's notion of the 'to come'-Avenir, L'avenir-the haunting figure of hope and expectation at the heart of his thinking and, to our minds, at the heart of Advent.  We are discussing Advent like you've (most likely) never discussed it before.  Merry Christmas. 

handcogroup.com/advent-of-the-impossible

Instagram: @h_andco_

This week we had a little brain thunderstorm and dropped the mic on our lived versus unlived lives, as it relates to God. Our conversation this week was prompted by the book Missing Out by Adam Phillips-a book about how we all have two lives, the one we are living and the fantasy life we carry inside. Does God have a fantasy life? And, if so, then we are certainly made in that image.

www.handcogroup.com

Instagram: @h_andco_

Be good. But why be good and what does it mean to be good? Who sets the standards and how do we know what goodness is? This is actually a conversation about being 'fruitfully and bravely bad,' why the 'Duty Trap' further complicates matters and some ideas on that apple eating situation in Genesis.

www.handcogroup.com

Instagram: h_andco_

This week we are talking about the newly re-published Playgirl magazine! Once the feminine response to Playboy but now a magazine devoted to moving beyond gender equality and conversations about sexuality and identity in the 21st century. We also talk about Pornotopia, Paul Preciado's challenging book about how the architecture of Playboy shaped sexual conversations in the second half of the 20th century and why those conversations are no longer helpful-kind of like a lot of religious conversations we've been party to!!    

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We meant to talk about the pandemic this week and our new forthcoming class, and we got there in the end, but we also veered off into a chat about lockdown cakes, and the various cakes that define British culture. It all connects if you listen all the way through and if you've never had a Tunnock's tea cake you might want to start scouring the Internet! :)

www.handcogroup.com/futureproof

Instagram: h_andco_

www.tunnock.co.uk/products/teacakes/

In case you hadn't noticed it's election time in America. This week's podcast is a chat about the anxieties everyone seems to be feeling, partisan politics, the glaring holes in our public conversations about politics and ideology and why it is that Kanye West's presidential run was doomed by his wife's Instagram post-All that and why democracy is still a gift and an idea yet to be realized.

www.handcogroup.com

Instagram: h_andco_