The Christian Humanist Podcast

Michial Farmer chats with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about William Blake's poetic collection "Songs of Innocence and Experience." The trio takes on the standard anthology pieces like "Little Lamb," "The Tyger," and "London," and they also discuss some of the back-catalog poems in the collection and venture on occasion into "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" and the prophetic poems. Among the poems and other realities discussed are "America: A Prophecy," "The Clod and the Pebble," Romanticism, Milton's Satan, and print-making.

David Grubbs hosts a conversation with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about Cain, the first man born of a woman in Genesis. A figure of subhuman, superhuman, and otherwise inhuman terror through much of literature, Cain contains multitudes, sometimes existing as the figure of urban corruption and other times as the swamp-dweller who shuns cities. Among the texts and other realities discussed are Genesis, City of God, East of Eden, Hebrews, 1 John, and Bruce Springsteen.

Nathan Gilmour hosts a conversation with Michial Farmer, David Grubbs, and Book of Nature host Charles Hackney about psychology. After the quartet looks at the history of the discipline, Hackney introduces the listeners to the field of Positive Psychology, and there's a side trip into Tolkien along the way. Among the theories, theorists, and other realities engaged are Aristotle's De Anima, Patristic psychological theology, Positive Psychology, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and why Psychology is really science.

Michial Farmer hosts a conversation with David Grubbs, Nathan Gilmour, and Book of Nature host Todd Pedlar about physics. From Aristotle to Einstein and beyond, human beings have proposed mathematical and metaphorical models for how the universe works, and physicists take as their work to refine and to teach those models. Among the theories, theorists, and other realities engaged are Aristotle's Physics, Edgar Allen Poe, relativity, radioactivity, quantum mechanics, and bad reasons to be a relativist.

David Grubbs hosts a conversation with Michial Farmer, Nathan Gilmour, and Book of Nature host Dan Dawson about meteorology. Starting from the contrast between weather-mythologies and explanations from states of matter, the quartet spend much of the time examining why storms in particular inspires such respect and awe among human beings. Among the writers, ideas, and other phenomena discussed are Aristotle, Job, the water cycle, the synoptic gospels, forecasting, Polar Vortex, and Snowmageddon.

Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer hold forth about Neil Postman's 1985 book "Amusing Ourselves to Death." Postman's most widely read book explores the philosophical and psychological implications of the historical shift from a print culture to a televised culture and examines what happens to institutions like political debate and public education when such shifts happen. Among the ideas and other realities engaged are media ecology, cable television news, MTV, Sesame Street, the genre-distinctives of television programming, and Ben Affleck.

Michial Farmer holds a conversation with Nathan Gilmour and David Grubbs about C.S. Lewis. In a survey-style conversation, the trio digs into his children's novels, his forays into science fiction, his popular apologetics, and especially his influence among 21st-century Evangelicals. Among the books and other realities engaged are The Chronicles of Narnia, the Space Trilogy, the Abolition of Man, Surprised by Joy, and The Great Divorce.

Nathan Gilmour hosts a conversation with Danny Anderson, Michial Farmer, and David Grubbs about the 1984 movie "Ghostbusters." Digging into its treatment of the supernatural and its ties to emerging political phenomena, the quartet both appreciates its staying power and wonders at the strange ideas that lie just beyond the screen. Among the religious movements and other realities engaged are Spiritualism, Cold War nuclear weapons anxieities, the Tea Party, the Comedy of Humors, and Bill Murray.

Michial Farmer hosts a conversation with Danny Anderson and Nathan Gilmour about Willa Cather's short story "Neighbour Rosicky." The crew explores the story's complex treatment of city and country and the American work ethic before settling in on a conversation of the ethics of love that moves the story's plot and defines the title character.

Danny Anderson talks with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about the career and films of Alfred Hitchcock. Beginning with their personal histories with Hitchcock's films and Hitchcock's own central role in the rise of film studies as an academic discipline, the Humanists dig into the psychological and literary character of some of his works. Among the movies and other realities discussed are Psycho, Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, The Birds, Notorious, North by Northwest, Vertigo, Spellbound, and Rear Window.

Nathan Gilmour talks with Michial Farmer and Danny Anderson about postmodernism. Exploring in brief the Derridean, Foucaultian, and Gadamerian streams of thish twentieth-century cultural phenomenon, the trio likewise examines some Christian responses to the postmodern. Among the writers, concepts, and other realities tackled are differance, genealogy, progressivism, metanarrative, and relativism.

Michial Farmer moderates a conversation with Danny Anderson and Nathan Gilmour about the American folk music scene in the twentieth century. Focusing on three giants of the genre and the political questions that they raise, the Humanists dig into the grand myth of populist music, the strange mix of radicalism and conservatism that follows folk music, and the recent death of Pete Seeger. Among the singers and other realities discussed are Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, folk-rock, Joseph Stalin, and the Clearwater movement.

Danny Anderson hosts a conversation with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about the concept and examples of the Great American Novel. Starting with a World War and quickly diving into culture wars, the search involves the particularly American genre, the novel, and an ongoing dispute about the character of literary education. Among the novels, novelists, and other realities discussed are Moby-Dick, The Grapes of Wrath, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Philip Roth, Toni Morrison, the New Critics, and differences between market-funded and patronage-funded arts.

Nathan Gilmour talks with Michial Farmer and Danny Anderson about the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction. One of the most recognizable instances of postmodern cinema, Pulp Fiction brings the conversation into matters of cinema violence, nonlinear plots, dramas of interpretation, and the wall-to-wall ego that is Quentin Tarentino.

Michial Farmer interviews Danny Anderson about Danny's recent trip to the Modern Language Association national conference in Chicago.

Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer take some time to read and respond to listener emails and Facebook messages.

The Humanists take on John Milton's early poem "Nativity Ode" for this year's Christmas episode. Milton's poem is a theologically and literarily rich take on the birth of Christ differs significantly from post-Puritan versions of Christmas, and its strange blend of idol-smashing and cosmic vision make for a fun Christmas read. Among the ideas, poetic devices, and other realities engaged are the sympathetic fallacy (or pathetic fallacy), mythology theory, Trinitarian theology, and actus dei.

Danny Anderson moderates a conversation with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour on the essay "Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell. A freshman-composition workhorse, "Politics" makes composition a matter of ethical deliberation and insists on truthful language. Among the questions, concepts, and other realities pondered are prescriptive and descriptive grammar; pretentious language; meaningless words; and Orwell's intellectual relationships to the New York intellectuals and to Richard Weaver.

Nathan Gilmour chats with Michial Farmer and Danny Anderson about about the bizarre sentence "God is dead," first written in Nietzsche's The Gay Science, later adapted by Christian theologians, and eventually becoming an evangelical bogeyman. At the core of the conversation is the seeming chasm between philosophical discourse and Christian pop culture. Among the texts, thinkers, and other realities discussed are Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Altizer, Steve Taylor, The Newsboys, and "God's Not Dead."

Danny Anderson hosts a a conversation with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about monster movies, focusing on the evolution of the genre from the early Dracula and Frankenstein movies to the self-referential remakes of the twenty-first century. At every turn the trio explores the philosophical implications of the monstrous and the place of such narrative in Christian worlds of thought. Among the movies, ideas, and other realities explored are slasher films, Frankenstein, zombies, Scream, and why low-budget scary movies work better than big-budget blockbusters.

Michial Farmer hosts a a conversation with Danny Anderson and Nathan Gilmour about metamodernism, a philosophical movement described recently in an article by Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker. Metamodernism claims to move beyodn postmodernism by giving up the latter's pervasive cynicism, preferring instead to oscillate between naivete and cynicism. A fight over the relative worth or worthlessness of the movement ensues.

Nathan Gilmour hosts a a conversation with Michial Farmer and Danny Anderson on "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi." Taking a close-reading, mythological approach to the final Star Wars episode, the trio dig into images of descending into the underworld, gathering the heroes, watching power lose its grip on order, and other such things. Among the characters, mythological constructs, and other realities engaged are the Orpheus myth, Mon Mothma, redemption of betrayers, the self-destructiveness of evil, and post-colonialism on Endor.

Danny Anderson hosts a a conversation with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour on "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back." Conversation focuses on the changing role and character of the Force, its increasing prominence with the introduction of Yoda, and the ways in which the episodes of Star Wars fit together as parts of a trilogy. Among the characters, plot turns, and other matters discussed are the "I am your father" reveal, the Dagobah cave, the religious character of Yoda, and what giant asteroid monsters eat.

Michial Farmer hosts a a conversation with Danny Anderson and Nathan Gilmour on "Star Wars: A New Hope." Focusing on the movie's place in film history and more specifically in the career of George Lucas, the trio talks about its status as one of the first summer blockbusters; the influence of Joseph Campbell's mythological criticism on the film; and what, despite the film's shortcomings, makes it the sort of movie that shapes a whole generation's sense of the universe. Among the people, scenes, and other realities discussed are John Williams, monomyth, and Harrison Ford.

Nathan Gilmour talks with Danny Anderson and Michial Farmer about Plato's dialogue "Meno." The dialogue's central question is whether arete, a word meaning excellence or virtue, can be taught or whether it's naturally part of some people's character but not others'. Among the questions, concepts, and other realities discussed are the pre-existence of the soul, the nature of "Socratic" pedagogy, relationships between dialectic and rhetoric in education, and whether there is any such thing as "the" Platonic position on anything.

Michial Farmer talks with Danny Anderson and Nathan Gilmour about tradition. Starting with its roots in Roman law and its mixed reputation in the New Testament, the crew digs into the strange designator "traditional music," the relationships between Scripture and tradition, a few hard-hitting books on tradition, and some ways to imagine Christian existence as traditional without being static. Among the texts, traditions, and other realities engaged are Alasdair MacIntyre, Matthew Arnold, Hans-Georg Gadamer, conservatism, globalism, and church organs.

Nathan Gilmour talks with Michial Farmer and Danny Anderson about authenticity. A term with etymological roots in reflexive pronouns and historical roots in art criticism, authenticity has taken on philosophical, cultural-critical and pop-cultural meanings that deserve some exploration. Among the texts, trends, and other realities explored are Heidegger's Being and Time, Lionel Trilling's Sincerity and Authenticity, youth ministry, Emerging Church, and faculty workshop speakers.

Michial Farmer talks with Nathan Gilmour and Danny Anderson about Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." A classic piece of American written rhetoric, beloved by Christians and unbelievers alike, King's letter invokes a rich array of philosophical, Biblical, and other intellectual traditions to make the case for immediate, direct, nonviolent resistance to unjust governments. Among the ideas and other realities discussed in the episode are divine law, gradualism, civil disobedience, civil rights, and nonviolent resistance.

Nathan Gilmour talks with Michial Farmer and Danny Anderson about Jewish-American novels. Drawing from the experiences of immigrants and of internationally persecuted minorities, these writers offer readers a side of the human experience that other writers can't see and offer a look at the particularities of being Jewish in a changing america. Among the novelists and other realities discussed are Saul Bellow, Michael Chabon, Philip Roth, E.L. Doctorow, and Woody Allen.

Michial Farmer moderates a conversation with Danny Anderson and Nathan Gilmour on the roots, the heart, and the history of country music. Along the way familiar figures like the Carter family, Waylon Jennings, and even Taylor Swift show up, and the question of genre in popular music is never far away. Among the singers and other realities discussed are the early mixtures of country with blues and folk music; the rise of outlaw country and the question fo what "real" county music might be; George Jones, Garth Brooks, Tammy Wynette, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and a good sampling of other country artists.

Nathan Gilmour moderates a conversation with Michial Farmer and Danny Anderson on the hot topic of socilogical "generations" and specifically the character of Generation Y or the Millennials. Discussing technological changes that drive such "generation gap" moments as the present one, the trio takes on Rachel Held Evans's recent column about Millennials leaving the church by doing what Christian Humanists do so well, situating it in a larger historical frame. Among the texts, generations, and other realities discussed are J.D. Salinger, Saul Bellow, Alice Walker, Generation X, Generation Y, the generation gap, and Russell Moore.

Michial Farmer moderates a conversation with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour on the middle ages, those thousand years in western Europe that gave us scholastic theology, nominalist philosophy, and so many bad stereotypes that they're not worth listing here. Focusing on the historian's task of saying something about the period without saying too much, the trio bring forth some of the great intellectual, poetic, and cultural developments that arise in the shadow of the Roman Empire. Among the texts and other realities discussed are Confessio Amantis, Canterbury Tales, Song of Roland, Islam, homo viator, and the concept of an intellectual system.

David Grubbs conducts a conversation with Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer regarding witches, from the ancient Near East all the way up to Broadway musicals. As figures of darkness and danger, witches occupy particular places in the worlds of Egyptian, Roman, medieval Christian, and modern mythologies, and their recent appropriation as figures of heroic resistance makes them even mroe fascinating. Among the texts, witches, and other realities discussed are Medea, Apuleius, the necromancer at Endor, Macbeth, Goethe's Faust, The Crucible, Disney's Cinderella, and the Wizard of Oz.

Nathan Gilmour, Michial Farmer, and David Grubbs chat a spell about "On the Freedom of a Christian," one of Martin Luther's famous 1520 theological treatises. Addressing the central questions of faith and works, the trio digs into the visions of anthropology, interpretations of Scripture, and the ethical innovations that make the text so interesting. Among the other realities discussed in this episode are faith, ritual, rhetoric, Pope Leo, Dante, and the nature of goodness.

Michial Farmer holds forth with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour on the subject of intellectuals. Starting with some historical and lexical discussions of waht an intellectual means as opposed to a philosopher, an academic, a scholar, or a scientist, the trio focuses in on the public intellectual and specifically the Christian public intellectual as a particular character in the story of the life of the mind. Among the texts, intellectuals, and other realities on the table are Augustine, Byron, "The Twilight of the Intellectuals," N.T. Wright, Garry Wills, George Will, David Brooks, and Cornelius van Til.

David Grubbs moderates a conversation with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about Edgar Allen Poe. Exploring popular questions of authors' biography and literary/entertainment celebrity culture, the trio appreciates some of the genuine craft in his short stories, clucks our tongues at his genuinely insufferable verse, and otherwise takes on one of the strange characters of American literature. Among the texts and other realities discussed are "The Raven," "Cask of Amontillado," the Dupin stories, "The Bells," and the 19th-century magazine scene.

Nathan Gilmour moderates a conversation with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs about Elijah, the Biblical prophet whose main narratives happen in 1 Kings. Touching on some of the best-known episodes and exploring the literary character of those episodes (and why they're better stories than the children's Sunday school versions would let on), the trio wraps up with a discussion of modern uses of the adjective "prophetic." Among the stories and other realities engaged are the etymology of "Elijah," the Mount Carmel episode, the Still Small Voice, John the Baptist, and the Transfiguration.

Michial Farmer talks with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about Modernism, the moment in 20th-century art, music, philosophy, and literature that is at once a call to "make it new" and a return to some of the forms that the Romantics abandoned. Among the artists, artifacts, and other realities discussed are Futurism, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Picasso, Dali, and Le Corbusier.

David Grubbs talks with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about doxology as a musical and literary genre as well as doxology as a philosophical and theological move. As a nod to "The Old Hundredth," the tune of a common doxology hymn, the trio find something to say about each line as praise relates to the enterprise of doing the Christian Humanist Podcast. Among the questions and other realities addressed are the history and etymology of doxology, relationships between 21st-century Christian intellectuals and those who have gone before, what it means to praise Father and Son and Holy Ghost, and what's best in the podcasting life. (Conan?)

Nathan Gilmour talks with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs on the topic of online education and its worth (or worthlessness) for liberal arts education. Starting with its roots in correspondence courses, the trio takes on the classroom experiences that the online course tries to emulate and transcend, some of the limitations inherent to online education and some arising out of current practice, and the recent craze over MOOCs. Among the ohter realities we take on are the status differences among college degrees, the potential for abuse in all sorts of college settings, and the demographics of college.

Michial Farmer converses with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about John Keats's poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn." After some conversation about the formal innovations of this and other Keats odes, the crew digs into the strong Platonic strains of the poem, its place in the larger phenomenon called "Romanticism," and the poem's particular ideology of art and life. Among the ohter realities we take on are elegiac poetry, ekphrasis, whether the urn ever existed, and the ashtray outside of the University of Georgia English department.

David Grubbs holds forth with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge's particular philosophy of poetry comes across strongly in this conversation, as does the history of the poem and especially its larger-than-verse backstory. Among other things we take on the connections between drug abuse, madness, and art; the category "Romantic Poetry;" the ideology of the prophet-poet; and Orientalism as it manifests in "Kubla Khan."

Nathan Gilmour talks with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs about William Wordsworth's poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality." From its place in the Romantic era to its influence on Latter-Day-Saints theology, our conversation takes on the poem's ideology of childhood and its accompanying passages about the pre-existence of the soul. Among other things we discuss are possible Platonic and Buddhist influences, how Romantic poetry departs from its predecessors and how it doesn't, and the end of childhood.

Michial Farmer moderates a conversation with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about Plato's writings on poetry, painting, music, and other kinds of art. Stepping beyond the standard "Plato hates poets" treatment, the trio starts with a conversation about the state of literary, visual, and musical arts in Athens, then enters into a handful of dialogues in which Socrates and his interlocutors make a complex array of assertions about the places of music and poetry and such in the good life. Among the dialogues and other realities discussed are tragedy, comedy, Republic, Phaedrus, Charmides, Symposium, and allegory.

David Grubbs moderates a conversation with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about the literature, theology, and other fascinating facets of forests. At the heart of the conversation is the shifting conceptions of the woods, from a place of dread to a place of wonder to a vulnerable place that needs human protection. Among the texts, writers, and other realities discussed are Gilgamesh, 2 Samuel, Dryads, Sir Orfeo, The Faerie Queene, Inferno, Macbeth, Henry David Thoreau, environmentalism, and (of course--Grubbs is back!) Tolkien.

Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour converse about musicals on the stage and screen. From European roots to the essentially American stage musical and beyond into Disney movie musicals, the conversation explores the philosophies that inform musicals and the places that musical theater has gone with a catchy tune and a quick rhyme. Among the musicals and other realities discussed are Wagner, Gilbert and Sullivan, South Pacific, Oklahoma!, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Evita!, Rent, The Jungle Book, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.

Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour converse about Pragmatism, a distinctly American philosophical tradition, and its roots in logic, capitalism, and pluralism. Along the way we discuss the three famous figures of early-twentieth-century pragmatism, the postmodern turn that neo-pragmatism takes in the late twentieth century, and the ways in which pragmatism and Christianity exist uneasily but undeniably together in American thought. Among the philosophers and other realities discussed are C.S. Peirce, William James, John Dewey, Richard Rorty, Stanley Fish, and David Bentley Hart.

Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour respond to some listener feedback from the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013.

Michial Farmer moderates a conversation with David Grubbs, Nathan Gilmour, and special guest hosts Stephen Sandridge and Tim Rhodes (from the Night Cheese podcast) about the television Christmas special. Starting with adaptations of A Christmas Carol and moving through the weirdness of Rankin-Bass, the crossover crew digs into the ways that sentimentality gives way to irony in the course of television's brief Christmas history but never quite overcomes Charlie Brown. Among the television shows and other realities discussed are Mr. Magoo's Christmas, Rudoloph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Alf's Christmas special, and A Claymation Christmas.

Nathan Gilmour moderates a discussion with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs about the much-maligned Christian book industry. After a discussion of the Christian bookstore's place in the history of the novel, the trio goes on to take on the apocalyptic thriller and the Christian romance novel, two very popular subsets in the industry, and finishes with some utopian suggestions for the Christian fiction world. Among the books, ideas, and other realities discussed are Janette Oke, Frank Peretti, Tim LaHaye, English department bias, and differences between popular and literary fiction.