Stories Are Soul Food

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Brian says he showed "Batman Begins" to his kids and enjoyed it; Nate goes on a rampage. Nolan's Batman earnestness necessitated the Joker to give us all some relief. "Why so serious, Batman?" Nolan is a great artisan but a terrible philosopher. "I run because they need me to run." ... But it was all wort...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . When you've been hurt, what kind of character will you be? God gives you hardship as a Storyteller does: because readers love what happens when a character is down but finds a way to get back up; Remember that it's in the cellars of affliction that God makes his choicest wines (Rutherford); Be at once ten...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Time to talk about Christians in novels: + Secular novelists love to make their villains hypocritical Christians. + Christian novelists are very honest about their Christian characters' flaws as well. + So don't be offended when you bump into a fake Christian in a story. + Nate walks through the flaws of...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Brian asks Nate what tips he'd give a teenage SASFer who wants to become a movie director. And, perhaps surprisingly, Nate's advice has nothing to do with movies. Because if you want to direct feature films when you grow up, you're the kid saying "I am gonna be an NFL quarterback." That kind of career wis...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . You're used to saying "stories are soul food" -- this episode discusses why Nate thought kids in our time especially need to read stories about corrupt institutions failing them, and how to reconsecrate an institution in its own rubble. This takes courage, strength, and determination. It takes having stom...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Brian springs an awful Aslan casting surprise on Nate, and the results are delightful. The SASF discussion of Greta Gerwig's new Netflix Narnia series ranges far afield. Planet Narnia, which book of the series is Nate's favorite, Lewis's repeated character archetypes, adaptation of books to film... this o...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . It's old news that the boys aren't reading. The NY publishing industry was obsessed with the idea when they first took at look at Nate's work twenty years ago. This episode of SASF features the story of the (female) editor who wanted to reach boys with Nate's manuscript of Leepike Ridge by 1) taking out t...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . What should your decision process be when you are thinking about moving your family across the country to a new place? Well, the answer is rooted in story. Are you moving to a place where you can be a better character, where your kids can be more active, where your family can grow -- or are you relocating...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Many of us remember a time when Pixar reigned supreme over the many competing Animation Studios. But now, 15ish years later, that distinction has become blurry. Can we bet on any one Animation Studio for quality? Join Nate, Amira, and Lucia as they talk about childhood movie memories and the problem with...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . This week the guys discuss some frustrating creative decisions behind the new Season of Severance. #severance #benstiller #adamscott

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . A project Nate worked on is arriving this February: It's House of David, a serious retelling of the life of David. But Nate only worked on early drafts, and it's now a Prime Video project. The guys watch the preview; Brian criticizes vestiges of what feels like Rings of Power; Nate talks about the vision...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Yes, animals are real food -- but they're also soul food. You might think animal documentaries aren't that important, but imagine this: What if the only commentaries on the Bible were written by atheists? That's the modern-day situation we have with nature documentaries. Remember, God has revealed himself...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . As a conservative artist who's been working in the mainstream since 2007, Nate has an artistic opinion that's going to get conservative folks angry: Capitalism doesn't produce great art. Lest you join this commenter who said "this take is so dumb it got me to engage, brilliant", if you care about this top...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . This episode is a justification for the Stories Are Soul Food manifesto. First, Brian makes Nate react to the worst SASF episode from last year; then, Brian makes Nate react to the 2025 Golden Globes winners (The Brutalist, Emilia Perez, The Substance, Flow, etc.); and lastly Brian makes Nate justify the...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Longtime listeners will get that particular feeling in the pit of their stomach when they hear Nate start talking about life in a particularly bleak way -- you know, the "make that heartbeat count because we're all going to die" kind of way. Brian has named this manifestation of his podcast co-host "Black...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Nate and Brian discuss flattering your kids versus telling them the truth, what would happen if we stopped giving gifts on Christmas (it would be really really really horrible), and touch on some Christmas movie classics.

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Listeners of this podcast know that when Christmastime rolls around, the SASF podcast likes to focus on the less appreciated Bible stories that lead up to the birth of the Christ:. You may remember past Advent episodes on the Levite's concubine, Onan, and Tamar. This year, the guys discuss the place of th...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Under duress, Brian admits that Gladiator (the original) is still his favorite movie, having stayed atop the BK Movie podium since Brian was a teenager. Nate attacks Brian for his bashfulness at recommending what is, in fact, an all-time great movie, and the guys have a pleasant reminiscence of Russell Cr...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com .   Get The Things of Earth today: https://canonpress.com/products/the-things-of-earth-treasuring-god-by-enjoying-his-gifts-2nd-ed 

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . The guys make a oliphaunt-sized announcement -- the 1977 animated Hobbit is now streaming on Canon+ (along with the cartoon Return of the King!). Naturally, it's our next LAMPC pick (Look At Moving Pictures Club, for those of you who don't know). The discussion of the Rankin-Bass cartoon Hobbit leads to a...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Yes, these two topics are both related, but not in the way you're thinking. Brian asks Nate a vital parenting question for anyone with boys -- how do you deal with kids talking about gross things? Nate points out that it's God who made the world with poop, pee, and barf in it, but it's also God who forbid...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Around election time people get addicted to bad stories, downing them cocktail after cocktail. And that's because presidential elections, which are the beauty pageants of babylon, usually turn on this simple storytelling question: Who can tell the most compelling tale about their opponents? Harris-Walz is...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Public perception of Christianity has soured in the past decade -- and so has most of the famous "Christian" nonfiction -- titles such as The Shack, Love Wins, Blue Like Jazz, Love Does, Wild at Heart have aged like milk. In contrast, Brian asks Nate why his own nonfiction seems so well suited for the neg...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . See if you can guess this author who has sold over 200 million copies: His comic work consists of nonstop adventure featuring a boy-faced hero and his little white dog. Yes, this Stories Are Soul Food episode is about Herge, Tintin, and Snowy (or Milou, if you're Belgian, and want the dog to be named afte...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . The internet is still smoldering from the aftermath of a Tucker Carlson interview in which Darryl Cooper of the pop history podcast Martyr Made called Winston Churchill "a chief villain of World War 2." Brian asks Nate about historical heroes, the great wars, whether Winston Churchill is hero or villain,...