Rebecca Baumgartner recently drew attention to the habit of many authors of popular nonfiction to write for an “audience of imagined idiots.” The folk wisdom these days is that regular folks just don’t like to think and that the only way to get them to do serious intellectual work is to lure them with charming anecdotes and digestible little nuggets. Think TED talks. Is this true? We’re not convinced. Tune in as we talk about the distinction between simplicity and oversimplification. 

In a superb video essay, Thomas Flight argues that today’s movies feel different because we’re venturing beyond postmodernism into what he terms “metamodernism”—a sensibility that’s every bit as ironic and self-aware as postmodernism, but that nevertheless takes on a more hopeful posture. Is this a profound new movement or breakthrough, or does the emperor have no clothes? Join us for a lively discussion.   

All 379 passengers aboard a Japan Airlines plane escaped with their lives after a collision with a Coast Guard plane on the runway. Sadly, 5 out of the 6 passengers on the smaller plane perished in the accident. Clearly the result of a serious logistical error, the successful deplaning of the commercial airliner has been singled out for praise. It’s also led people to ask whether something like this could have been pulled off in an American context. Join us as we reflect on this telling question. 

Ready or not, the new year is upon us. Queue the inevitable lists of resolutions, goals, and dreams. And yet we live in a cultural moment that resolutely refuses to define what makes a good human being. In this atmosphere, how do we honor Christ’s supreme command of loving God and neighbor above all else?

Cameron watched it. Nathan didn’t. Cameron sort of liked it. Nathan is intrigued. Join us as we close out 2023 by discussing its most popular movie.

With attention spans plummeting, some critics are arguing that watching a movie in one sitting is today’s equivalent of reading a book. Implicit in this argument is the notion that watching movies is inferior to reading books. But is that true? Nathan and Cameron have some differences here, but we’ll let you guess who stands where on the issue. Tune in to hear them hash it out.

Indisputably, one of the greatest Christmas films ever made, with a surprising existential gut-punch. In this episode, Nathan grills Cameron about the enduring greatness of Frank Capra’s classic.

From efforts to classify religious prohibitions as hate speech to pro-Palestine demonstrations on college campuses, the issue of free speech has taken on a new note of urgency in recent years. Add to this the power of the web to amplify these messages. As Christians, how do we conduct ourselves in such times? Join us as we kick the hornet’s nest on a fairly volatile topic. In the end, we hope to bring more light than heat. 

In a stellar essay for The New Atlantis, Garth Brown trains a critical lens on chicken consumption and explores our habit of prioritizing efficiency over all other considerations. Nathan also makes the bold claim that he knows more about chickens than Cameron knows about horror films. It’s true. Tune in to hear his excellent thoughts. 

One of the standard objections to Christianity is that God isn’t more obvious. Amazingly, we’ve never talked about it on TOL and we decided to fix that in this episode.