The Book Club Returns!

In this episode, we sit down with Theresa Breslin, a repeat guest on the podcast, to talk about the latest series from J.K. Rowling, who is writing the Cormoran Strike under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith. We talk about Rowling's masterful character development, the arc of the eventual 9 books in the series (only four have been published so far), the romantic tensions between the central characters, and more! But don't worry--if you haven't read the books yet, we fastidiously avoid spoilers.

If you're interested, book links are below:
Cuckoo's Calling The Silkworm Career of Evil Lethal White

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Outro music: Heroine Queen by Hallows

Flannery's Short Stories w/Elena Forsythe

We start today's podcast as a quarterly read/watch/listen pod, but we quickly dive down the rabbit hole that is Flannery O'Connor's spectacular literature. As a result, we have a spirited 40-minute discussion about Temple of the Holy Ghost, Parker's Back, The Lame Shall Enter First, and more, leaving no room for our read/watch/listen list!

We'll be back in two weeks with our read/watch/listen recommendations!

We'd love to hear what you think of this episode!

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The Philosophy of NBC's "The Good Place" w/Alexi Sargeant

In this episode previous Vernacular guest Alexi Sargeant (freelance writer and Managing Director of the Aquinas Institute at Princeton University) joins us to talk about NBC's "The Good Place" and what it tells us about our final destination, ethical quandaries, and the art of being human. For more info on Alexi's work, follow him on Twitter. You can also read his article about "The Good Place" here.

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In this episode, Haley Stewart joins us to talk about her latest book, The Grace of Enough: Pursuing Less and Living More in a Throwaway Culture. We talk about what a throwaway culture is and how it poses problems to our humanness, Haley's time living with her family on a community farm without running toilets, and practical tips for you (and your family!) to practice living more fully in spite of the materialism around us. You can find more of Haley's work on her website.

If you're interested in the new show Zac mentions in the intro, check out Breaking Pod on Apple Podcasts and Google Play.

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Outro music: Heroine Queen by Hallows

Making Room for Christ(mas)

In today's episode of Vernacular, we talk about some ways that you can "make room" for Christmas despite all of the distracting noise of the season. We talk about hospitality, generosity, sharing of your things, hosting guests, maintaining family rhythms, avoiding Black Friday, penitence, the 12 days of Christmas, caroling after Christmas (gasp!), and devotional practices.

We'd love to hear what you think of this episode!

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Winter Read/Watch/Listen Recommendations!

It's that time of the season again when we give you some of our top recommendations for what to read, watch, and listen to! In this episode we'll talk about The Crown (good), The Two Popes (bad), Colleen Carroll Campbell, North Korea, a new serial podcast on an oil boom in Texas, and bad plumbing.

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Episode Notes

In this episode, Sally sits down with fellow moms Maureen Goldman (of The Popped Cast) and Caitlin Brian to talk about their current joys and challenges as moms. Tune in to hear about picky eating, discipline, and raising rambunctious youngsters.

Maureen mentioned her latest project, Working Mom Savvy!

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Outro music: Heroine Queen by Hallows

Resisting Throwaway Culture w/ Dr. Charlie Camosy

In today's episode of Vernacular, we sit down for a conversation with Dr. Charlie Camosy about his recent book, Resisting Throwaway Culture: How a Consistent Life Ethic Can Unite a Fractured People (New City Press, May 2019). We discuss how the Consistent Life Ethic (CLE) can challenge people of all political stripes to reevaluate their long-held beliefs on some of our most polarizing topics--including abortion, immigration, reproductive technology, prison reform, and even animal rights. It's a great conversation and an even better book.

Buy Dr. Camosy's book

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Outro music: Heroine Queen by Hallows

Love in the Time of Corona

In today's episode we broadcast from our home studio, where we're in social distancing mode. We talk about how we're handling the relatively minor inconveniences so far and how others are dealing with far worse, the good that can come out of a pandemic (yes, really!), and the need to prudentially balance competing public health and economic considerations in a crisis.

And here is the article by Nathan Schlueter that we mentioned: https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/03/61513/

In this difficult time, send prayer requests to zacandsally@vernacularpodcast.com!

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Food News (October) w/ Elena

We take advantage of Elena's visit to record an episode about the Food News you never knew you needed for the month of October. Liquor-filled tide pods? Check. Dave Chang's take on international food aisles as bastions of racism? Check. Cat Advent calendars? Check. We also have our first-ever on-air taste test, trying out Clif Bar's new Spiced Pumpkin Pie flavor.

We'd love to hear what you think of this episode!

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Spring Read/Watch/Listen Recommendations w/Elena Forsythe

We're back with another read/watch/listen recommendation episode! We're sorry for the delay this week...Zac made a catastrophic editing error last week. [insert embarrassed emoji]

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Fighting Cancer, "Improved" Gene Editing, and More Bioethics News

In this episode we review some bioethics news (links below) and talk about a new book about fighting cancer (and when enough is enough) and advancements in gene editing that some are talking about as "a significant step towards [being] able to make just about any kind of DNA change that anyone wants at just about any site in the human genome."

Prime Editing (NPR) Article on Dr. Rebrikov's efforts at altering "deaf" gene (Nature) First Cell Review (NYT)

(If you're interest in reading Dr. Raza's book, we encourage you to check it out at your library. Or you can buy it from Amazon here.

We'd love to hear what you think of this episode!

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Reviewing Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker w/Chandler Ryd

[SPOILERS ABOUND]

In this episode Chandler joins the show to talk about the ninth serial installment in the Star Wars saga, "Rise of Skywalker." We talk about Zac's theory of the five levels of Star Wars fandom, J.J. Abrams as a franchise director, "The Last Jedi" vs "Rise of Skywalker," Disney's effect on the franchise, the "Guardianization" of Star Wars, and discontinuity in the Star Wars canon.
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Dad Pod: Talking Fatherhood w/Nate Seibt

In this episode of Vernacular (Zac is thrilled about the title), Nate Seibt returns to the podcast to talk about the joys and failures of fatherhood. Zac and Nate swap stories of bedtime struggles, obedience trials, transitioning from the workplace to the home on the end of day commute, and what they would tell their pre-dad selves about what fatherhood is all about.

We'd love to hear what you think of this episode!

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Holiday Food news w/Margaret Perry

Today is our last release before Christmas Day, and Margaret Perry joins us on the show to talk about Holiday Food News! On the conversation list: mashed potato recipes, peppermint bark, and taco-scented wrapping paper (among other things), and we close out the episode with a Trader Joe's true fan litmus test, which we all fail miserably.

We'll be back during the 12 days of Christmas with more content--in the meantime, have a very Merry Christmas!

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Fall Read/Watch/Listen Recommendations!

The September Equinox happened this week, which mean's it's time for October baseball, stiff breezes, early sunsets, and honeycrisp apples! In this episode we share some of the things that we've been reading, watching, and listening to (or plan to) as the leaves start to turn crimson--we have some ideas for media to accompany your pumpkin spice lattes and Oktoberfest ales this season.

We'd love to hear what you think of this episode!

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Heavy Lies the Crown (The Crown, Season 3) w/Jordan and Catherine Short

In this episode we sit down with Jordan and Catherine to talk about Season 3 of Netflix's docudrama The Crown. We talk acting performances, best episodes, best moments, episode MVPs, and whether or not this season exceeds the high standards of the previous seasons.

We'd love to hear what you think of this episode!

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Episode Notes

In today's episode we're talking about abortion--more specifically, how we're moving away from the language of "safe, legal, and rare" to an ideation of abortion as an unqualified good. This is a short conversation, but you may be interested in our longer discussion of this topic that we recorded originally in 2016. See our episode from January 22 of last year (2019) called From the Archives: 46 Years After Roe: https://pod.link/990809952/ep/1000428214082

Links:
Alexandra DeSanctis in The Washington Post: How Democrats Purged 'Safe, Legal, and Rare' from the Party
Caitlin Flanagan in The Atlantic: Losing the Rare in ‘Safe, Legal, and Rare’
Ross Douthat in The New York Times: The 'Safe, Legal, Rare' Illusion
Maggie Astor in The New York Times: On Abortion Rights, 2020 Democrats Move Past ‘Safe, Legal and Rare’

We'd love to hear what you think of this episode!

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How We Learned to Distrust Social Media

Social media is everywhere. If you're reading this, chances are that you have at least one account on a major social site. We do! But in this episode we scratch the surface a little bit on the ideas driving social media, and the results aren't that encouraging. Listen along to hear about perverse incentive structures and the problems with advertising. We're not Luddites though, so we close with three ideas to help you better use social media.

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Outro music: Heroine Queen by Hallows

Today we have a special bonus episode of Zac's new theology podcast, Creedal Catholic! See below for show notes, and if you like what you hear, go ahead and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

We'd love to hear what you think of this episode!

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Preaching, Bishops, and Staying Catholic w/Meg Hunter-Kilmer

Meg Hunter-Kilmer, the "Hobo for Christ" (piercedhands.com), joins Zac to talk about how Catholics can encourage their priests to be better at preaching, the importance of storytelling in the Gospels, scandal in the Church, the failures of bishops, why she's still so excited to be Catholic, six books every Catholic should read, and the incredible story of Blessed Peter Kibe.

The books Meg mentions:
1. The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ by St. Alphonsus Liguori
2. On Being Catholic by Thomas Howard
3. To Know Christ Jesus by Frank Sheed
4. Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Brant Pitre
5. Modern Saints, Vol. 1 by Ann Ball
6. Modern Saints, Vol. 2 by Ann Ball

You can follow Meg on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!

Please consider supporting Creedal Catholic and the rest of the Vernacular Podcast Network on Patreon!

Copyright 2019 by Vernacular Podcast Network

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