Stories Are Soul Food

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Were you, like Nate and Brian, somewhat scarred by Watership Down -- and loved it because of that fact? Stories Are Soul Food welcomes on Joe Sutphin, the illustrator whose stellar pen & ink drawings you might recognize from Little Pilgrim's Progress, Word of Mouse, and the Wingfeather Saga. Joe's nev...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . The guys open this episode with a brutal question: how do you deal with a family member who claims they're trans? The discussion wends its way into how to love that family member, and how to protect your own family at the same time. And that doesn't involved being "nice" to sin. The bulk of the episode is...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . The nice part about living in Moscow, ID is that you get pickled in conflict, meaning you start to become immune to troubles that stress other people out. And it's key that you teach your kids to be comfortable being different -- and being seen as disagreeable. A great way to do that is through -- cue the...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Have you ever thought about how difficult it would be to make a movie about child trafficking that anybody would watch? Alejandro Monteverde, director of the hit indie film "Sound of Freedom," thought of little else for the past five years as he searched for the right partners. The SASF guys talk with Ale...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . A dozen years ago, Nate had lunch, in Jerusalem, with a Palestinian, an Arab, and an Israeli. The three locals all agreed that Israel wouldn't exist in ten years as a nation state -- and the Palestinian said it was because he wanted every f-ing Israeli to die. Tune in to hear the rest of the story as the...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . The weather is turning, you're too happy it's fall, you want to read about the world falling apart -- it's DYSTOPIA TIME! The guys counter the autumnal desire for falling leaves and scented candles with a discussion of the wintry novel "Forbidden Child," a brand-new adventure story by Gwen Newell. Gwen co...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Secular media is enthralled with exvangelicals... those former evangelicals who post some variation of "I've just been asking a lot of questions lately, and I've realized that organized religion doesn't have all the answers." Of course, turns out that "unanswered question" is usually the Problem of Evil.....

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Is it a bad thing to be a black sheep? The answer used to be yes (a horde of shrieking Disney movies to the contrary). But after the 2020 shutdowns, our world has gone mad, and the SASF guys think every kid needs to learn how to be a black sheep. What does that look like? Be a sheep who's out of step with...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . What happens when an audience doesn't "get it"? That's ultimately the director's fault. Nate argues there are two kinds of directors: the ones who care what the audience thinks, and the ones who put the art of a pedestal and don't. Spielberg's an example of the first, and Nolan's an example of the second....

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . The key moment from this podcast is when Brian investigates a short story idea of Nate's with a provocative title (Heather would prefer it not to be written). This is all in the context of discussing Flannery O'Connor's "dark grace." It turns out the guys have never discussed short stories, so prepare for...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Oliver Anthony's unexpectedly viral song "Rich Men North of Richmond" provides the fodder for this week's SASF as the guys discuss how rural Idahoans have more in common with the inhabitants of the inner city than they do with rich, white, Republican suburbs (or Washington, D.C.). The overnight success of...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . The guys jump from Percy Jackson into a discussion of child actors (it kinda makes sense, we promise). Then they really find their groove at Nate describes how he maxed his credit cards to make memories when it mattered, how he was approaching the possibility of dying during brain surgery, and how to make...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Are you uncomfortable with the stories of Esther and Tamar, two women of Scripture who manipulated powerful men's sexual desire as part of their strategies? Was that "wrong" of them to do? To get the answer to this question, we've got to look at the stories: How does God talk about these two ladies? Turns...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Some have accused Brian of being pretentious. More have accused Nate of pretension. But the most have accused SASF of being "pretentious" when they criticize Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. The guys set out to dispel the myth of pretension and to answer charges leveled against them fairly and honestly....

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . You must approach the crazy moment we're living in right now with courage, determination, and a breadth of skills. Unfortunately, many young people and adults around the country have chosen apathy instead. The SASF guys take on another studio audience of more than a hundred high schoolers visiting Moscow...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . New Saint Andrews College hosts the SASF podcast with a live studio audience of a hundred and fifty high schoolers visiting Moscow for NSA's Called Conference. The kids take full advantage of the opportunity, asking questions ranging from "what do I do if my friend has been working on a novel for eight ye...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Huge excitement for this episode as the guys have up-and-coming director Francis Annan on to discuss his movie "Escape from Pretoria" (which all must watch...really, do it!). Francis describes what it was like to get the film made, including challenges from local governments to talent and, ultimately, to...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . The guys discuss gangsters today, specifically the Godfather and why there's something compelling about the big happy Italian mob families portrayed -- at least until the murders start. But first: Nate's kids correct Brian's error that Jojo Rabbit won an Oscar. It was only nominated -- Parasite won in 201...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Why do you discipline your kids? What happens when your kids aren't characters you like? Ultimately it means YOU aren't being a good character. This SASF discussion ventures into the fraught world of parenting for a discussion of when kids are in control, when your home tiptoes so that one kid doesn't get...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . This episode begins with something you probably missed in Jojo Rabbit -- and it answers the question "what's up with Yorki?" Brian thinks he has figured it out: The answer is that Adolf isn't the only imaginary character in Jojo Rabbit -- Yorki is also only in Jojo's head. Listen to the arguments and see...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . The start of this episode, as the guys suggest improvements to Narnia, when you should be fine with a dad bod, and that time Nate almost died, is not to be missed. They also touch base on parenting submissive but fearless boys, when not working out is a good sacrifice (and when it's lazy), postmillenniali...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Brian argues that murder mysteries are the worst genre for doing what literature does best. Nate disagrees, and the guys launch a discussion of whodunnits (which are actually a favorite reading snack of both). You'll learn why Agatha Christie isn't re-readable, how Father Brown is like a fig newton at you...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . Do we win down here? And what does winning look like? We'll tell you what it doesn't mean: holding on to your own life, and your own happiness, until they're pried from your fingers. But is it accurate to say we "lose" here on earth -- but win ultimately in heaven? The guys use MacArthur bashing on postmi...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . PSA: The LAMPC discussion for Jesus Revolution got postponed a week (sorry, it's almost like Jon Erwin is busy or something). In the meantime.... Puke or pass out: Ah, the joys of spring sports! Nate coaches track, BK coaches little kid rugby, and life lessons abound. The takeaway is that both boys and gi...

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com . LAMP Club is postponed a week because John Erwin, director of "Jesus Revolution", is coming on the SASF pod  next week  to discuss the movie himself! So in the meantime: You might remember that Nate had thrown out some reckless bait about Breaking Bad. A few bold listeners pushed back: Surely Breaking Bad...