The Pocket Contemplative

Back when Dave and Tom grew up, when you needed to buy something, you went to a store and bought it. When you wanted to see a movie, you read a review or two or heard a recommendation from a friend and then you went. But now Yelp and Rotten Tomatoes and Amazon and many other sites offer us unprecedented information before we make any choice. Trudy Choi (a lawyer and creator of a Hot List newsletter for millennials) joins the gang to discuss how to navigate this reality--and maybe find joy and God along the way.

Jesus claims to powerfully guide his followers like a good shepherd guides sheep. Gus Hardy recently wrote an article for America, the national Jesuit magazine, about how Jesuit spirituality empowered him as an autistic man to connect with others, which empowered him to launch into surprising adventures. Chris Connor talks about how learning to hear God helped him find his way into relationships and a responsible job and marriage and fatherhood. 

Ginny Prince was on staff with a national Christian organization when her very young child, born a girl, started persistently and resolutely to identify as male. She describes her family's process of figuring out what that meant even as it cost them relationships among some of their Christian friends. Dave is off this week but, in the conversation with Ginny, Tom is joined by Katie Imborek, director of the University of Iowa's LGBTQ clinic, and by his wife Adey Wassink, lead pastor of their Blue Ocean Church.

Evangelicals have run into consequential ditches by melding enlightenment ideas about truth with their Bible reading. Can we prove that Noah saved the world with his ark? Can we find where the Garden of Eden was? Does science threaten our experience of God? On the other hand, Tom, Dave and guest hosts Ali Borger Germann and Charles Park have found the Bible to be rich and amazing. So how might Christians think about the Bible these days?

A recent NY Times article details how Trump gets more media coverage than the next 1,000 celebrities combined and how the effect of social media is to make what he does the only story in the national conversation. Dave, Tom and guest host Kacey Gauch talk about how to find personal joy, social responsibility and a vibrant connection to God in the midst of this overwhelming new reality.

Yes, it's tempting to think this would be about you-know-who. But the Oscar nominated documentary 13th vividly describes the devastation of how we lock people up, how America has 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prisoners, and how the consequences for African Americans drive a lot of things, including our political races. John Pfaff (published on the subject in the NY Times and The New Yorker and The Economist and the author of a definitive new book) and Theo Hunt (an African American manager at a Fortune 500 company who conducted a recent study of police traffic stops) join Tom and Dave for a vibrant conversation.

Dave had a fascinating conversation with friends about what their mission in life might be, and most of them--Dave included--perhaps sheepishly said it probably was about being the best them they could be, about fulfilling their potential. Val and Tom take that on. Does that ever actually happen for anyone? Would it make us happy if it did? What about doing our duty? Does fulfilling our potential most make sense in the first half of life? And maybe, whatever we say, at core we all just want that. Join the fun!

"Make America great again" and the new Gilmore Girls remind us of an idealized past. Tom, Dave and guest-host Kacey Gauch talk about nostalgia, mindfulness and what it looks like to embrace the now while being hopeful for the future.

The Syria crisis is so overwhelming that even the press has largely quit covering it. But it's the world's most-destabilizing force and one that has driven several political campaigns. Dr. Toni Biskup walks Tom, Dave and guest-host Kacey Gauch into the scene on the ground at a camp in Greece. 

Martin Scorsese's "Silence" has already bombed, so you'll likely be seeing it at home. But the L.A. Times just called it "the finest movie of 2016, and one that will be recognized belatedly as one of Scorsese's greatest achievements." Dave and Tom, along with guests Hiromu Boschee Nagahara (professor of Japanese history at MIT) and Grace Schmelzer walk you into the powerful experience of a faith-based movie like no other.