PostConsumer Reports Podcast

Our fifteenth episode features Mike Foster who is known mostly for his knowledge of J.R.R. Tolkien and Middle Earth (because of a famed Illinois Central College literature class and numerous essays and interviews on the subject), but who has also been a hardworking writer and journalist for over 50 years. While the questions eventually always wind their way back to hobbits and strange elvish (or i...

Radiohead released their new album  A Moon Shaped Pool  this week. Pastor and author Ryan Hansen joins the podcast to discuss what exactly Radiohead fans expect from Thom Yorke and company every time the iconic and enigmatic band release a new set of songs. We talk about the self-seriousness of Radiohead fans (us included), as well as how their lyrics and music have changed over the years. Do they...

Episode 13 of the PostConsumer Reports Podcast features a conversation with Jessica Ball, Peoria area artist and owner of The Art Garage . Jessica shares her journey as an artist and through it I get to ask about her views on abstract art, the monetary value of works of art, and where the art community is headed in Peoria. Check below for examples of her work (which we also discuss in the intervie...

Every month (or so) I'll be putting up a new dialogue with my friend Brandon Lulay. Instead of an interview it's mutual conversation. Today we talk about my difficulties with the animated show Archer as well as our thoughts on the season 6 finale of The Walking Dead (yeah, THAT one).

Episode 11 of the PostConsumer Reports Podcast features Thom Blair, editor and translator of the Hebrew English Interlinear English Standard Version (ESV) of the Old Testament . Thom also works for Faithlife and Logos Bible Software . His Hebrew-English version of the ESV is quite frankly amazing. Essentially it features a line of the Hebrew text with another line of the exact English words direct...

Director/actor/writer David Leo Schultz is our first repeat guest on the PCR podcast. This time he is talking about his new film  Brennan , which is an intimate character study of the author and speaker Brennan Manning ( The Ragamuffin Gospel, Ruthless Trust ). We get into the frustrations of making films that are not 100% family friendly with American Christian culture, the difficulties of portra...

When author Caleb Kruse was in college, singer/songwriter Rich Mullins stayed in his house for 3 weeks. Mullins talked with him and his family, gave brief mini-concerts, and even put on a full concert with his touring band. The night that Mullins and fellow artist Mitch Mcvicker left their house, however, was the night he got in a car accident and was killed. Now, nearly twenty years later Kruse d...

Jeremiah Gibbs is the Chaplain/Director of the Lanz Center for Christian Vocation and Formation at the University of Indianapolis.  In Episode 08 we discuss his book Apologetics After Lindbeck  which asks what it means to defend and tell the story of the Christian faith in today's world. We talk about the current state of apologetics and what nebulous words like "post-liberal" and "post-conservati...

Pop Quiz: Someone walks into your church on a Sunday morning or even a week day, gives a story about the awful situation they are in, and asks for money to help get them by. What do you do? Pastor Luke Edwards has the right answer: DON'T GIVE THEM ANYTHING. Tell them God helps those who help themselves and send them on their way. Actually no. Luke wrote an article called "Churches Should Stop Givi...

Mike Condo is the general manager of Superfan Vinyl ( www.superfanvinyl.com ), an online record store and record label in the making. Along with DC Talk they have also released a number of Relient K albums on vinyl and have plans to do much more in the future. We talk about the 20th anniversary release of DC Talk's Jesus Freak and about the process of first acquiring the rights to an artist's musi...

The PostConsumer Reports Podcast is just getting started. There are many questions to be asked and we will listen to many answers. Artists, thinkers, pastors, interesting people of all sorts. They already exist. We just need to get them in front of a mike and ask them questions.