Virtue in the Wasteland Podcast

I am exhausted, emotionally and otherwise... hey all, Dan here... just posted this last episode with calls from listeners, and a song at the end with a story that wraps into ViW... So, this is it.  Thank you all.  Check out virtueinthewasteland.com for where you can find us, now that the curtain has descended on this episode of our life.  Make sure you check out Arnold Mitchem's "Drive" the song "Grace" is featured in this episode.  Jeff will live on at @Taosurfers and its internet cognates. You can find me at 1517, my name dot com, doing the Soul of Christianity podcast... it's the future... you know how to find things on the internet... EGBOK

So, if the title of the show doesn't give it away.... surprise! After 300+ weeks, 3 continents, dozens of states and hours of conversation, we are hanging up the microphones and turning the lights out on the ViW project.  But, not without a bang. This is the second to last- we ask that you call the hotline at 844-393-0012 and leave a 60-second message as to what you learned while listening to the show. On this show we discuss the way forward, future plans and the big take away lessons for both of us, from thousands of hours of podcasting together.  Listen up, give us a call (or leave a message on FB or Twitter) and THIS Thursday, Feb 14th we will drop our final show with your calls and questions.

Giving shows their titles is a funny thing. I’ve probably done 250 or so of them, and I rarely think much about it. Also, when I myself look for podcasts, all I care about is the title of the episode. The very thing I wasn’t paying attention to! Preposition! To which, I had not paid my attention. My attention bill was late…. you get it. So this title is descriptive, very descriptive. The kids might even call it descriptive AF, which I will pretend to know nothing about if asked. So you are going to hear us talking very specifically in this show about this one thing that might not sound that exciting: an imperial peace treaty. Well, it was called the “interim” so it didn’t expect to hang around much longer. It was also pegged with the location of Augsburg, the free imperial city that Charles V (Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, King of Spain and the Netherlands, and Austria. He was also kind of inbred, so that makes all of his stories a little weirder. Get this: his mom’s name was Juanita The Mad. Bad omen, homie. Nonetheless, Martin Luther had just died and Charles, Chucky 5, decided to put the hurt on the reeling Protestants and impose his will. And his will wasn’t that bad! He wanted to end the religious wears and call the Reformation over. A tie. We’ve got a grand idea to mix Catholics and Lutherans in a way that is sure to disappoint everyone! Today’s show is about that story, that peace treaty and goal for religious peace, and some observations on what we might have learned from this monumental historical event. Are their links? Nah, but you can always go to or or or Also, last week I wrote something at 1517 with you ViWers in mind- check it:

I used to think it was really cool when people broke the 4th wall.  You know, like, in Fight Club or the original Pink Panther when something happened to remind you that you were indeed watching a film reel. There is nothing as clever here, but a little twist which might make you take notice.  Usually we banter for a few minutes, talk around the subject, and then dig in.  Well, it seems to be only once every twenty years the Rams make the Super Bowl, so we spent some time talking about them, the game and a myriad of other things.    But to get to those hot takes, you need to wade through the actual subject matter. I've moved that 30 minute conversation to the back of our first conversation about dutch radicals, the reformation and the enlightenment.    And it is probably more interesting than you first think.  We talk a lot about the Reformation and how it has shaped the modern world, but often we miss out on one really important link, the connection between the radical reformation, skepticism, and the modern age. We talk about the nature of radicalism, and why we all kind of gravitate towards it (and what it might teach us).  Jeff talks about the Trinity.  Dan throws out a few ideas which might lead to further questions.  That's the whole point.  Have those conversations with your friends and co-workers and family and church group.  The point isn't that we come to something like a silly podcast with two professors for all our answers, or to confirm that they have the answers in the back ofd the book too, rather, it's that we start conversations and learn to talk about weighty things that matter with a bit of grace, a sense of humor, and the reminder that everything is going to be ok.   P.s. Because of the way this show was edited, it can be the answer to a trivia question sometime in the future.  The question is: is there a time, after ep 101, that the show didn't end with someone saying EGBOK? Yes, this one.  Because I edited it,

Sometimes our shows start with really simple ideas.  For instance, one of us might think of something that would be relevant to the podcast and send the article, idea, etc… via text.  We do a little reading, figure out what the “bigger story” at play is, and… voila.  An hour and a half later, plus editing time (we sometimes do that!) and we’ve got another show.   Ok, now you know how the generic sausage is made.  This show, this sausage (?!) is al about the States of the Union.  Having just completed a road trip, Dan being in the middle of his own personal California Renaissance, and Jeff having wandered the earth much of his life, the guys reflect on the nature of these United States with regards to state rankings, biases, federalism, and all of this with two dogs running around the studio.   As we tell you in the beginning, this is a standard “let’s think through this together” show that involves postulating theses, changing them, rethinking them, and then coming together at the end of the show to discuss what we learned from the conversation.  We go on a few tangents, edited a few, but this is a kind of “at home with Jeff and Dan” type show where they talk about their lives, their dogs, the really big questions, and perhaps a Super Bowl prediction or two…

Time to clear out the old phone machine and respond to some of the more common, or curious questions we received.   The first half hour of the show has us talking about 2019, Dan's favorite movies of the year, and reading a very revealing and honest email. the next hour is all your calls- a few notes: Dan says "American" when talking about a piece of music.... he misspoke, please replace that in your brain with "New World" Jeff would like you to see Dan says, "Look at " As always, this is a conversation that might resemble a late night conversation you had in college or might have with friends in a safe and welcoming environment.  Everything is penultimate, God's not angry, and everything is going to be ok. Thank you for calling, or emailing, if we haven't responded to you, it is all Dan's fault.  Some calls we edited for sound quality, or we combined two or three similar calls with one answer. We do not talk about the following, in any meaningful way: California Renaissance Mobbing A young man saying no thanks to a certain label The weird book of the Acts of the Apostles But we promise to, soon.

Happy New Year! On today’s show we talk about the biggest and best of 2018 and what we might look forward to in 2019.  It’s an episode with the two guys doing what they love most, chatting with each other about challenges in culture and the church.  We decided to look at the “biggest” and “best” stories of 2018, with Jeff taking the “biggest” stories and Dan covering a few of the “best”.    Thanks for your support in 2018, in our 5th year we continue to grow in listenership and opportunities to expand.  Thank you also to those who have invited us out (together or individually) to give talks, spend time talking about important things, etc… check out the webpage, or the webpages of each of the guys (their names and a .com) to have them come out to you!   Here’s just a few things we discuss on today’s show:     The Monks of New Skete Kanye West Bad priests Bad elected officials The ozone Layer Net Neutrality Why we can’t seem to get along and argue so much Prohibition and Cannabis “Making a Murderer” and “The Innocent Man” Molech, and more….

Little known fact: the original name of Virtue in the Wasteland was “Jeff and Dan’s Vanity Project to Explore Their Hobbies” but we decided to go a little more broad and talk about society and religion and stuff… Maybe that’s not exactly how it played out, but there is a funny bit of guilt we feel whenever we dive head first into a topic that is seemingly just tickling our fancy as mass entertainment and thus unworthy of critical reflection. But on this show we will argue that R.E.M. is not just one of our favorite bands, but the most important American band of all time. Sound hyperbolic? Check out the show and see if we can pull off the argument and join in on virtueinthewasteland.com We recorded this show from the RV somewhere between Athens, GA and Charlottesville, VA after our pilgrimage to the mecca of R.E.M. fan sites. We got to discussing the band, its evolution and role in 80’s and 90’s pop culture. On this show, which was recorded moths ago and feared lost until only a few days ago, we make the audacious argument that R.E.M. is the most significant rock band in U.S. history.   3 caveats: this is not “the best R.E.M. songs” podcast. In fact, if it was, it would suffer from being terribly mundane and uninventive as a “best of”. Doing that, using commercial success and air play to judge significance, would make this super lame and obvious. So the tracks we pick are the hits, but the ones that are indicative of the band, and tell us something about them and the society they reflected. Caveat # 2: There is a lot of music on this episode! About a minute or so of each song we talk about. Using all the actual music is allowed under the Fair Use Act, as we are playing it to comment on, and use for teaching purposes. In case you were concerned. Caveat #3 We do not discuss R.E.M. post New Adventures in Hi-Fi. This is not because we dislike later R.E.M. (listen to our show with Dave Zahl, he convinced us to give late R.E.M. more attention in our own lives. We could argue that R.E.M after New Adventures is a different band, as Bill Berry suffered an aneurysm on tour and retired, giving way to a rotating list of drummers and (unfortunately, in this case) drum machines. I have recently picked up an article I’ve been working on ,which ranks every R.E.M. song. Late R.E.M is well represented. On the Spotify list below, you can see some of our picks for post Hi-Fi R.E.M. songs.

Andrew Syed (formerly Andrew Paquin) visited Jeff recently, during which time Dan was in Dallas related to the new 1517 Academy (check it out). Andrew was Jeff's colleague at a previous institution, until politics and conceptions of Christian political beliefs resulted in a controversy. Andrew and Jeff explore this backstory, which several news outlets picked up a decade ago. Andrew discusses the negative effects the events and how he sought healing through recognition of the long term effects of trauma.

Christmas movies and carols and traditions and….. we could go on and on. And in fact, we have gone “on and on” for over 5 years now doing a special Christmas show.  On today’s show the guys are back together again in the comfy confines of the ViW Irvine studios and it felt like old times. The thesis of today’s show is that the strange “thrill of hope” we all experience this time of year is no coincidence.  In fact, we are not thoroughly entangled in any other holiday like we are Christmas. And while we might bemoan the commercialism, or creeping secularism (still not sure what that is, though) or stress, we might also recognize that our grocery store aisles are filled with the music proclaiming good news. While the general tenor of the yer can be rough and go-it-alone, this is the time of year when we soften, the time we become like a child again in the very season God deigned to do the same thing.