Word and Journey

So is the new Wheel of Time show any good? Well, we’re about to find out. Welcome to the Two Rivers, and a world of Trollocks, Aes Sedai, and Dragons Reborn! Moses has only ever seen the show. Matt has seen the show and read all the books. Aaron has seen the show, read most of the books, and played the game! (By the way…there’s a Wheel of Time GAME!!) We discuss first impressions of the show, comp...

Trigger warning - this chapter is DEPRESSING!! But the giggles are also out in force. Moses, Jake, and Stephanie read the book within the book, the Book of the Brotherhood , which is the manifesto of the hoped for revolution! Turns out…it’s not really well written. Surprisingly, not surprisingly, war is fought for economic purposes…not actually ideology. We learn that when private life is eradicat...

More hook-ups, more musings, dreams of murdering mother over chocolate, and first contact with the rebellion! It’s everything you love from the dystopian classic 1984 and more! Our uncertain hero Winston is pursuing the revolution because he needs something to believe in. His younger partner and co-conspirator Julia seems to be in the revolution just for fun. His job is to erase the past. Her job...

“Dystopia is all about hook-ups.” …or is it? Here we compare and contrast a dystopian hook-up and a current day real life attempt at dating via online platforms. We get into Winston’s backstory, and deeper into the not-so-deep character of Julia. Our two protagonists present competing ideologies of escape and hedonism versus idealism, rebellion, and activism. Talking about hedonism, of course, mea...

Here, we finally get to hear what superpowers Jake, Steph, and Moses wish they had. Also, our protagonist Winston writes in his journal, meets a girl, and sneaks off into the woods with her. We get to talk through sex, gender, gender stereotypes in literature, and the impact of repressing sexuality. What happens when love becomes entirely sexual? Moses takes the time to talk about narrative burden...

“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” Does revolution make the world better? Is there a way to do hierarchy well, or is it always oppressive? Are we more enlightened than our ancestors? Moses, Steph, and Jake toss around ideas around how to share stories, why we need to write our stories down, and how relationships are...

After a brief interlude....we're back! Moses, Jake, and Steph return with another lively discussion about a dystopian classic. What happens when we lose precision of language, or language altogether? Do we really see the eventual collapse of society? We talk about about lack of language, lack of story, and lack of history leads to lack of purpose and interior vacuum, which leaves one vulnerable to...

It's another episode! Moses, Jake, and Steph are back to talk about heroism, censorship, and the dangers of isolation! Is Winston a hero? What makes a hero anyway? Here we discuss active versus passive protagonists and what kinds of character arcs they can have. Turns out that not all heroic feats require swords and guns. Some heroism happens with in the inner world of one's own mind. Here is also...

The clocks are striking thirteen, Big Brother is watching, and the gin is freely flowing! This can only mean that the Word and Journey podcast is back for another novel! Moses Bernabe and Jake Schwartz return and delighted to welcome editor and long time friend Stephanie Bennett to the show. With that, we plunge into what might have become one of the most oft referenced dystopian novels in our rec...

Moses teams up with long time friend Rousseaux Brasseur for a deep dive into one of the greatest classics in the Protestant tradition - The Pilgrim’s Progress . Written by 17th century preacher John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress is the allegorical tale of Christian and his journey from the City of Destruction, through many perils, temptations, adventures, and victories, on the way to the City of Zion...

Moses finally pitches his story! Details within. At the same time, Moses and Jake begin the conclusion of the Great Divorce! Our protagonist continues to journey with George MacDonald and learn all sorts of thing about spiritual fame, spiritual formation, and, in the eternal sense, who really are the Great Ones? We talk about relationships that are based holding tight to one’s rights, versus relat...

After a brief delay, we're back! Here we learn that Jake has a secret passion for Chinese cooking shows. Here we also meet more ghosts and hear more stories! We learn about the difference between parental love and controlling obsession. We also learn, "We can't approach God as a means to something else." Diving deeper, we wonder what it means for God to be a "God of Love" when the world is so full...

Here we are again, getting off the bus from hell. This is the chapter where we see a division among the characters and rising stakes! Why do some people stay in the bright place and some go back to Grey Town? Here we meet George MacDonald, and learn that heaven and hell are no mere states of mind, but an increasingly solid reality. If one reaches it, then everything will have been heaven leaving u...

Moses and Jake are back with more ghost stories! And Bright People stories. And metaphors and social commentary inspired by imagery provided by C.S. Lewis. Here we meet the Hard-Bitten Ghost. He is jaded, and somewhat resembles a conspiracy theorist, but with a strong materialist bent. He seems to reject the ideas that anything is sacred, or that anything can be progressive. Neither heaven nor hel...

Blessed Nativity! We are continuing our trek out of Grey Town into the land of the Bright Ones! Today we discuss our honest opinions! Did we really come by them honestly? What does that even mean? Can we be saved just by sincerely believing a thing? C.S. Lewis offers an intriguing dialogue between a Ghost and a Bright One and Moses Bernabe and Jake Schwartz take it upon themselves to interpret it...

We're back and on the road from hell to heaven! Just what is real here? Just what does it mean to be real? To be realer than real? Moses and Jake take a brief tour through personal stories, how we are shaped by our faiths and impacted by our work and just what we bring to the reading of a story. C.S. Lewis kicks off our metaphorical journey by introducing us to the contentious passenger manifest i...

It's our first episode ever! We are delving into C.S. Lewis's famous allegorical tale, The Great Divorce . Moses and Jake share their initial thoughts on tackling one of the most intelligent(and very British) writers of the last century. What's the story? So a man gets on a bus in Hell, better known here a Grey Town. Said bus embarks on a voyage toward Heaven. The bus makes a few stops along the w...

Hi! My name is Moses Bernabe, counselor and healer by day, writer by early morning light, lover of stories all the time. And this is the Word and Journey podcast! Word and Journey is a book club in podcast form. We're all about good stories about important ideas. Stories that shape us and make us think. Over time, we'll be reading books, both classics and cultural icons, and talking about what we...