What In God's Name

How much fun to co-create! How much fun to collaborate in thoughtful conversation! Today’s show is a little shorter than our usual shows. It’s part two of a conversation that What In God’s Name facilitated on February 23rd, in Pembroke, New Hampshire. Our topic was one we have tackled before: toxic masculinity. It’s a topic that touches on many issues in our culture, and often in our news, today....

How much fun to co-create! How much fun to collaborate in thoughtful conversation! Today’s show is part one of a conversation that What In God’s Name facilitated on February 23rd, in Pembroke, New Hampshire. Our topic was one we have tackled before: toxic masculinity. It’s a topic that touches on many issues in our culture, and often in our news, today. If you like today’s show, leave a review for...

Be Curious. Go Deep. Shed Light. Today’s show: The college admissions bribery scheme provides an entry into an examination of the spiritual void, the spiritual hunger, at the heart of American culture. What does it mean to have integrity? If you like today’s show, leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify). Post our podcast on your Facebook page. Be in touch. Our email: what...

Be Curious. Go Deep. Shed Light. Today’s show: the counter-cultural practice of Lent (or, for non-Christians, the counter-cultural practices of intentionality, emptying out, and slowing down). Join the show today, and take a moment to reflect on the human need for reflection. If you like today’s show, leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify). Post our podcast on your Faceb...

Shayna returns for the second half of our conversation with Gordon Graham, most recently the Henry Luce Professor of Philosophy and the Arts at Princeton Theological Seminary. Show dog Arlo remains on vacation. We continue our conversation about the prospects for public theology in our culture. How do Christian advocacy and Christian witness differ? Finally, what is the real conflict between relig...

Chris flies solo as Shayna and show dog Arlo are off. Our guest this week is Dr. Gordon Graham, most recently the Henry Luce Professor of Philosophy and the Arts at Princeton Theological Seminary. What are the prospects for public theology in our culture? What are the ways of thinking and habits of mind that put philosophy and theology in coach class, and economics and political science in first c...

Masculinity is our topic; an “Answering Albert” segment is our method; the Gillette YouTube video about “toxic masculinity” and the #MeToo movement provides the material. “Answering Albert” is when Shayna and Chris respond to Albert Mohler’s highly-rated podcast “The Briefing,” both to agree with some observations made by the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and to demonstra...

Today is the Lightning Round. In 25 minutes, Chris and Shayna take a tour of Aristotle’s taxonomy of good and bad types of government (in honor of the recently ended government shutdown); touch on the chaotic developments in Venezuela; and reflect on the accusations against the giant Chinese telecommunications company Huawei. Finally, Chris shares a couple of Facebook posts from Uncle Mark in West...

Last Friday, Nick Sandmann and Nathan Phillips stood face to face for a few moments. You’ve probably seen the picture: Nick, a high school student on a school field trip, is wearing a red MAGA hat; Nathan, an older Native American, is beating his drum. In so many ways, what happened on the Lincoln Memorial steps last Friday, and how people reacted to what happened, is a rich window into our curren...

Welcome to What In God’s Name! Be curious. Go deep. Shed light. The core of today’s show is the second installment of Chris’s conversation with Courtney Banghart, head coach of the Princeton University women’s basketball team. Courtney is reflective about her work with young athletes, and about competition and competitiveness as facets of contemporary American culture. Of special interest in this...

Welcome to What In God’s Name! Be curious. Go deep. Shed light. The core of today’s show is the first installment of Chris’s conversation with Courtney Banghart, head coach of the Princeton University women’s basketball team. Courtney is reflective about her work with young athletes, and about competition and competitiveness as facets of contemporary American culture. If you like today’s show, lea...

Two parts to today’s show: the government shutdown prompts Chris to offer solution-based therapy for the US House of Representatives; and Shayna and Chris respond to Albert Mohler’s reflections on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the premier of WIGN’s first “Answering Albert” segment. Be curious. Go deep. Shed light. These are our core values. Join us in the conversation! We love to h...

What in God’s name is happening with Facebook? The Senate Intelligence Committee releases a report on the Russian government’s disinformation campaign, and its efforts to influence the 2016 election. We’ve got non-partisan reflections on Facebook, the internet, and the vulnerabilities of an open society. Be curious. Go deep. Shed light. These are our core values. Please invite your friends and fam...

Does a public Christianity that is hollowed out by consumerism help us see the need for a pluralistic, inclusive spiritual revival in our society? This question and more, in this second part of our show “Christmas is dying, and Christmas will never die.” Be curious. Go deep. Shed light. These are our core values. Please invite your friends and family to subscribe to “What In God’s Name” (go to htt...

Christmas is dying, and Christmas will never die: that is the thesis for this show. Shayna and Chris talk about the importance (or not?) of the story of Jesus' birth as a defining feature of Christmas. To form, Chris reveals his usual lean towards emphasizing the darker side of human nature, while Shayna argues for a more hopeful view of humanity. Consumer culture receives a predictable critique,...

Welcome to What In God's Name! Be curious. Go deep. Shed light. Our first show begins a conversation on climate change. It soon becomes apparent that a deeper consideration of this issue touches on other basic questions: What are the limits to human knowledge in predicting the future, and how do those limits affect our ability to act? Does a theological perspective that sees nature as God's creati...