Nobody likes modern dating. But why is it so hard? Joseph Holmes and Nathan Clarkson discuss.

Pew research on modern dating: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/08/20/nearly-half-of-u-s-adults-say-dating-has-gotten-harder-for-most-people-in-the-last-10-years/

Why Does Modern Dating Suck? https://www.vice.com/en/article/why-dating-sucks-we-asked-experts/

Majority want to get married: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/02/15/among-young-adults-without-children-men-are-more-likely-than-women-to-say-they-want-to-be-parents-someday/#:~:text=Among%20adults%20ages%2018%20to,they%20want%20to%20get%20married.

Global marriage rates dropping/women’s higher standards and men’s dropping performance: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/02/america-marriage-decline/681518/

Lack of church attendance driving singleness: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/happiness-recession-causing-sex-depression/586405/

Consumer mentality driving bad dating: https://www.freyaindia.co.uk/p/why-is-modern-dating-so-difficult

Why it’s hard to build community today: https://anunexpectedjournal.com/the-real-reason-you-dont-have-friends-and-how-to-fix-it/

Lies Hollywood teaches us about relationships: https://religionunplugged.com/news/2023/11/5/how-the-sexual-revolution-killed-the-hollywood-rom-com

 Bless

500 Days of Summer

Curse

The Idea of You

Bless/Curse

How I Met Your Mother

Websites

The Overthinkers: theoverthinkersjournal.world

Nathan Clarkson: nathanclarkson.me

Joseph Holmes: josephholmesstudios.com

How does the experience of hardship in our past affect our ability to have healthy relationships now? Joseph Holmes and Nathan Clarkson discuss with author and licensed counselor Tabitha Panariso to discuss.

Definition of trauma: https://www.apa.org/topics/trauma#:~:text=Trauma%20is%20an%20emotional%20response,from%20Recovering%20emotionally%20from%20disaster

Millennials “reverse cognitive behavior therapy”: https://www.afterbabel.com/p/mental-health-liberal-girls

Gen Z’s “fear of taking part”: https://www.afterbabel.com/p/what-happened-to-fomo

Blesses

Scott Pilgrim vs the World (Movie)

The Fighter

Hollywood

Men and women have been involved in a "battle of the sexes" throughout history. What is the source of this conflict, and how do we solve it? We bring on cultural apologist Annie Crawford to discuss.

The romance genre may be the most popular genre in the world. But is it harmful for us? Does it create unrealistic and harmful expectations? Nathan Clarkson and Joseph Holmes bring on author, actress and podcast host Keelia Clarkson to get some answers.

Popularity of the romance genre: https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/liberal-arts/misconceptions-about-the-romance-genre

Popularity of Hallmark movies/problems with romance movies: https://olemiss.edu/news/2024/07/romantic-movies-perception/index.html

Popularity of Bridgerton: https://deadline.com/2024/07/bridgerton-season-3-netflix-most-popular-list-shonda-rhimes-1235999509/

People claim they don’t negatively compare their partners unlesss relationship “already rocky”: 

https://www.latimes.com/health/la-xpm-2011-jul-07-la-heb-romance-novels-women-health-20110707-story.html

https://www.npr.org/2011/07/07/137675779/romance-fiction-and-womens-health-a-dose-of-skepticism

People who watch romance movies report greater relationship satisfaction: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/nurturing-resilience/202302/does-watching-romantic-movies-help-your-love-life-flourish

Defending romance novels: https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/why-you-should-be-reading-romance-novels.html

Why people love romances: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/love-them-or-leave-them/202406/this-is-your-brain-on-bridgerton

How the sexual revolution killed the hollywood rom com/how sleeping around to find true love doesn’t work: https://religionunplugged.com/news/2023/11/5/how-the-sexual-revolution-killed-the-hollywood-rom-com

Blesses

The Vow

Five Feet Apart

Anyone But You

All Fours

An Affair to Remember

In honor of co-host Nathan Clarkson's new Western movie "Bright Sky", Nathan and Joseph discuss whether anyone is beyond redemption, and what that means.

Links to sources cited:

Summary of Thomas Aquinas’s Compilation of Answers to What is Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit (including St. Augustine): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf8pin8x71Y

Psychologists emphasize the capacity to grow and change: https://psychcentral.com/blog/can-people-really-change#can-you-change-habits

Views of personality and neuroplasticity: https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/behavior/can-people-change-or-do-they-just-lie/

The “Beyond Redemption” narrative trope: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeyondRedemption

The “Moral Event Horizon” which establishes a character as beyond moral redemption: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MoralEventHorizon

People who never change: https://medium.com/@justsomewriter/im-starting-to-truly-think-some-people-are-truly-beyond-saving-5379208baa06

US Office of Justice Programs - Some people are beyond modern science’s ability to rehabilitate: https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/can-everyone-be-rehabilitated#:~:text=There%20are%20persons%20beyond%20the,and%20deranged%20habits%20of%20gratification.

Criticism of abandoning rehabilitation efforts:  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3762476/#:~:text=However%2C%20to%20the%20shock%20of,why%20this%20shift%20took%20place. 

Blesses:

Red Dead Redemption 1 + 2 (Video Games)

Redeeming Love (Book)

Unforgiven (Movie)

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Movie)

How do we know our calling in life? Nathan Clarkson and Joseph Holmes talk to Biblical scholar Dr. William Klein on the history of the word "calling" and how we might be all--religious and non-religious alike--using the word wrong.

Calling Definition: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/calling

More definitions of “calling”: https://www.christianitytoday.com/partners/nav-press/what-is-calling/

Forbes 20 Ways to Find Your Calling: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessicahagy/2012/06/26/20-ways-to-find-your-calling/

Desire for calling: https://www.letu.edu/alumni/identify-your-calling.html

Oprah “Are You Listening to Your Life?”: https://www.oprah.com/omagazine/what-are-you-meant-to-be-doing-find-your-calling

“It’s Never Too Late to Find Your Calling”: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fulfillment-at-any-age/202401/its-never-too-late-to-find-your-calling

Desiring God - How to Discern God’s Call: https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/how-do-i-know-gods-calling-for-my-life

Academic perspectives on calling: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00187267221095759#bibr24-00187267221095759

Blesses

Hero of a Thousand Faces (Book)

Hero on a Mission (Book)

Sound of Hope (Movie)

Deadpool & Wolverine (Movie)

The Shock of Faith (Article)

Don’t Waste Your Life (Book)

The Hill (Movie)

Wish (Movie)

The Call (Book)

Many of us find it hard to read classic literature. But is there value in it worth pushing through anyway? Joseph Holmes and Nathan Clarkson welcome author and podcast host of "Storytime for Grownups" Faith Moore to discuss how she grew to love great old books.

Educators find decline in reading classic literature in 70s: https://www.nytimes.com/1977/05/29/archives/decline-in-reading-of-the-classics-in-public-schools-causes-concern.html

Decline in reading from 1982 to 2002: https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/RaRExec_0.pdf

Literature Humanities Professors find fewer read classics in 2020s: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/

Why teachers should assign more contemporary books: https://bookriot.com/assign-more-contemporary-books/

Why we focus too much on classics: https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/jul/13/stop-pushing-the-same-classic-books-on-children-and-trust-modern-writing

Blesses:

Penguin Classic 

Picture of Dorian Gr

Anxious People

Great Expectations

David Copperfield

Jane Eyre (2006 TV Miniseries)

Curses:

Wuthering Heights

We Have Always Lived in a Castle

The Divine Comedy

The Madwoman in the Attic

How do you raise children to value their uniqueness while also growing in maturity? Sally Clarkson returns to the show to discuss with Joseph Holmes and Nathan Clarkson the new book by Sally and Nathan: "Uniquely You"

Discrimination against left-handed people: https://www.press.jhu.edu/newsroom/stuttering-and-retraining-left-handed-children-mid-century-us#:~:text=By%20the%20second%20decade%20of%20the%20twentieth,retraining%20left%2Dhanders%20had%20negative%20consequences%2C%20especially%20stuttering.&text=Terman%20(1877%2D1956)%20concluded%20that%20a%20third%20to,attempts%20to%20transform%20left%2Dhanded%20children%20into%20right%2Dhanders.

Howard Gardener's Multiple Intelligences: https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guide/gardners-theory-of-multiple-intelligences.shtml

Mental illness vs neurodiversity debate: https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/mental-disorder-or-neurodiversity

Finding Forrester (Movie)

Anne of Green Gables (Book)

Curses:

A Wrinkle in Time (Movie)

Anti-Family Trends in Pixar Films (Movie)

Buy "Uniquely You" today: https://www.amazon.com/Uniquely-You-Exploring-Extraordinarily-Distinctive/dp/0802432786/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.FLcU4czIiBsDVW0-BpzfHq3dMhqKT9xdOS7adg1hFrVBwKbNFU303KovJtg_yaYhaHXp8OeXQ9FovH4JL_HdY8IkLJ5kIUGRiHccIXp0L3rMwN3ZroPoO7r0AhYIMfM2DsIz3LIU7UsJejV-zAC-nWCV4nSEE7tPq2oenPkJ9DWVwl6P364nvIjha3VvZCPK0oHEtGjRNtFQJh2Zi-KVcG_j2-xi2rLbGfYC-FDg_jU.Pi6PI6MI84yTG4gWtYRCTE_TobJhNqyCjBhcSXIE0Xs&dib_tag=se&keywords=uniquely+you&qid=1736131771&sr=8-1

In the first Overthinkers episode of the new season, Joseph Holmes and Nathan Clarkson discuss how to follow through on our goals. Studies show that most people who set goals in the new year don't follow through on them. How do you become the exception? Well, there's studies on that too! Joseph and Nathan go through some of the best strategies on the internet--and their own experience--to help set us all off on the right foot in the new year.

Only 8 percent of adults achieve their goals: https://summer.harvard.edu/blog/how-high-school-students-can-set-and-accomplish-their-goals/#:~:text=But%20a%20recent%20survey%20by,the%20best%20versions%20of%20ourselves.

Only 6.5 percent of adults were still trying for their goals after 6 months: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/new-study-shows-only-6-of-people-achieve-their-goals-and-reveals-their-secret-formula-1032687000

Less than half of Americans were very satisfied with their lives: https://www.newsweek.com/americans-are-less-satisfied-their-lives-1868560

Arthur Brooks on healthy vs unhealthy goal setting: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/03/how-follow-your-dreams-and-get-happier/618384/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGz3wBleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHdBtSJE1sCkpBIWT2jx47PxvsuteMDLMii2pVMQWWr1GLvABLiQ2q_y3uw_aem_BL6ZVahAoLk4Im8SvCoB1A

Rising rates of depression: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/our-changing-culture/201510/are-mental-health-issues-the-rise

Bless

Curse

The Law of Attraction - Book

Reagan - Movie

Websites:

Lots of people are stressed out by being with family for the holidays. Some are even planning not to spend holidays with their family. But is that a good idea? Nathan Clarkson and Joseph Holmes give their tips on having a positive trip home for the holidays.

15 million long-distance travelers oer Christmas in 2023: https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/millions-americans-expected-to-travel-christmas-new-years-day-aaa/

How to survive going home for the holidays: https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-to-survive-going-home-for-the-holidays/

https://medium.com/youalberta/how-to-survive-home-for-the-holidays-99daba2e6e9f

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/empowerment-solutions/202212/home-for-the-holidays-how-not-to-get-triggered 

Blesses: