The PhxP Podcast Listener
This is a column I never thought I would write…because it’s about how I became a fan of NASCAR.
Trust me, there’s a bigger point…
For most of my life there is nothing I could have ever thought of that could possibly be less interesting than watching hillbillies executing left turns for three hours.
I was vaguely familiar with the big names and I might watch the very end of important races…but that was about it.
Then, (for some reason I don’t remember) I watched a Youtube clip of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast…about 15 minutes of NASCAR, which was my limit.
There was something so real and irenic about how Jr. interacted with his guests that I watched another clip, then another one, then started getting anxious waiting for new downloads.
The show was filled with stories of triumph and tragedy ,success and failure , heart and courage, and even confession and repentance.
All of this enveloped in a living history of Americana.
Jr. not only held my interest, he singlehandedly made me a fan…and a new student of the sport.
The question this raised in my mind though…where is the winsome, irenic public facing Christian leader who could do for the faith once delivered what Dale Jr. does for motorsports?
Where are the leaders who by charisma and obvious character could engage someone to an encounter with Jesus?
The only “Christian” podcasts I listen to are with Kate Bowler and the occasional N.T. Wright appearance somewhere.
As I’ve said before, my favorite podcast of all time is on 20th century country music…“Cocaine and Rhinestones”.
It’s not for the faint of heart.
Everything else I might listen to is relevant only to fans of the Minnesota Vikings…I’ll spare you.
What are you listening to?
Honestly — Bari Weiss
War on the Rocks — Ryan Evans
New Discourses — James Lindsay
The Briefing — Al Mohler
Real Dictators
The Jordan B Peterson Podcast
Advisory Opinions — French and Isgur
Uncommon Knowledge — Peter Robinson
The Darkhorse Podcast — Heying and Weinstein
The Glenn Show — Glenn Loury
Ask N T Wright Anything
Useful Idiots — Tabbibi and Halper
The Dershow — Dershowitz
The Commentary Magazine
The Megyn Kelly Show
The Ben Shapiro Show — just to yank chains
Yeah that’s a lot — don’t sleep much
You asked 🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️
I wouldn’t be able to sleep because some of those folks would give me nightmares…but I’ll bet a lot more folks like your playlist than mine…
The Holy Post, Phil Vischer and Skye Jethani
Theology in the Raw, Preston Sprinkle
Back porch Theology, Lisa Harper
Verity, Phylicia Masonheimer
Advisory Opinion, David French and Sarah Isgar
Church Politics, Justin Giboney
Ask NT Wright
Too many more to list but these are probably the most frequent ones.
I should try Preston Sprinkle…I like his books…
Renegades… Barak Obama and Bruce Springsteen
Preston Sprinkle’s podcast is excellent; he hosts a wide variety of guests from a variety of “spaces”in Christianity and the conversations are always gracious and thought provoking. Highly recommended.
True Tunes podcast with John J Thompson. Covering fringe Chrisitan artists.
Cigar Thoughts podcast (Seattle Seahawks)
The Voice of the Martyrs/VOM Radio gets my weekly listen. Inspiring missions stories which often include elements of persecution.
Occasionally World Magazine’s Podcast, which really has some quality. A less niche NPR with a fairly neutral POV
Any good science-related podcasts out there anyone can recommend? I only have one podcast I listen to regularly, and subscribe to two…both music-related.
Here’s a partial list from my podcast player, written not long after I’ve gotten out of bed:
The Adam and Dr. Drew Show/Ask Dr. Drew/Adam Carolla Show/Reasonable Doubt — I have come to respect Drew Pinsky’s expertise on so many things, medical-related and others. Carolla is a non-believer but he has a lot of common sense.
The Bible for Normal People — Pete Enns’ take on theology reasonates with me
Clark Howard Podcast — I would recommend him over Dave Ramsey any day of the week
Conversations with Coleman
Exvangelical — not conservative friendly, but helpful if you want to understand a significant portion of the movement made up of former evangelicals
The Glenn Show w/Glenn Loury
The Joe Rogan Experience — disregard all the C0v1D stuff, I listen because his conversations with people from all walks of life are long, but the time flies by because they’re almost always interesting and entertaining
The Jordan Harbinger Show — he’s another really interesting guy who talks to people from all types of backgrounds
Making Sense with Sam Harris — though he’s an atheist, he’s a good interviewer who talks to people from all walks of life and –though not as entertaining as Rogan — is very interesting and informative
Pastor with No Answers — Joey Svendsen (formerly of the Bad Christian podcast) is another Christian whose thoughts and opinions often resonate with me. He talks with people across the theological spectrum, in contrast to many Christian podcasters who stay in their respective theological lanes.
Real Time with Bill Maher — the audio from Maher’s Friday night HBO show.
Dan from Georgia — you may want to consider Inquiring Minds w/Indre Viskontas
I also want to give a shoutout to Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, a politics-based podcast with host from the progressive left and the conservative right, where the hosts get along and share a populist, anti-establishment view on the issues of the day. I didn’t list it as a podcast because I always watch it on YouTube.
Thanks for the recommendation BrianD.
Just remembered “Science Friday”…they do have a podcast. I used to listen to that show on radio (what the heck is that?) back in the late 1990s.
I concur with your recommendation about Clark Howard…very practical and down-to-earth.
On Being with Krista Tippett
And I listen mainly to public radio or local independent programming when I’m driving.
Occasionally listen to Renovare
I should have included…
Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond
I am THRILLED to learn that N. T. Wright has a podcast!!! The land of podcasts seems like an overwhelming jungle to me.
BrianD
I quite like Breaking Points. Listen near every day. Trying to sort out Krystal’s reasoning. Making some progress. Probably because of the collegial interaction.
This is probably another article someday…but I don’t watch or listen to any political news or programs at all.
I find different people with expertise in different fields on Twitter and follow them to understand what I need to.
My mental health is better for doing so.
I listen to a lot of Ancient Faith Radio podcasts. My favorites are:
Lord of Spirits, which has a cult following, I think I can say. On this show Father Andrew Stephen Damick and Father Stephen de Young discuss the weirder parts of the Old Testament and correlate them with things Jesus and St. Paul said and things you can find in the Liturgy but never noticed before. This podcast is part of several related shows that seek to “re-enchant” the world, attempting to reclaim the old Christian idea that the world is teeming with spirits, including angels, Saints, demons and of course, the Lord Himself and it’s not the flat materialistic world that many have come to content themselves with. Fr. Stephen appears to be a genius. He can read Hittite….
Amon Sul is Fr. Andrew’s other podcast which discusses the works of Tolkien from an Orthodox point of view.
The Symbolic World, by Jonathan Pageau, is not from AFR but is part of this whole re-enchantment concept some of us are so fond of with plenty of overlap as far as guests go. However, Mr. Pageau is a very lofty thinker and a bit over my head but his guests I can usually understand somewhat.
(By “re-enchantment” they are not talking about magic, etc., but the realization that we are surrounded by spirits both good and evil.)
The Orthodox Daily Scriptures is a daily (duh) podcast where Fr. Alexi Kouri reads the Bible to us. I listen every night. He’ll get through the whole Bible, including the Apocrypha, in a year. Highly recommended!
Not necessarily Christian podcasts:
The Prancing Pony Podcast, probably the best Tolkien podcast around. There is usually a lot of Germanic philology for those of us who like that sort of thing.
Exploring the Lord of the Rings, by “Tolkien Professor” Dr. Corey Olsen. He is doing a VERY slow crawl through the LotR. It’s a bit tedious at times but always inciteful.
Saga Thing features 2 university PhD’s who teach medieval lit. They are doing a deep dive into Old Norse lit.
I also listen to a lot of medieval lit/history shows and shows about gardening, chickens and herbs.
I am coming to think I inhabit a different world than most people….
Xenia,
I want to check out this Lord of the Spirits show…sounds like it’s right up my alley.
What our lists reveal is that we all live in our own worlds now…
I just listen to enough news each day to ascertain that an atom bomb hasn’t detonated somewhere. My world consists of our family, our parish, our neighborhood and our household (the garden and numerous critters). I spent a lot of time studying and reading the things I want to study and read. My husband and I are still recovering from the death of our daughter, and this is about all our frazzled nervous systems can tolerate right now.
Xenia, so sorry your daughter’s death is so hard to come to terms with….
I pray she knew her Redeemer and you will see her again
My children profess Faith, but I do worry (and pray) for some of my grand children…
God keep you and your husband, strengthen you and comfort you
P.S. Nuclear explosians? This is the time to worry about them! Pray! Pray! Pray!
Dread and Michael,
I listen to very few political podcasts or political channels on YouTube, and have given up taking the news seriously as an credible source of information. Every time I come across Tucker I think of the lawsuit where Fox and msnbc all but admitted he and Maddow were entertainment.
I wonder if this is what it is like to watch our own demise in real time without most of us being aware of it.
Thanks Em
I wish I was able to listen to more stuff. Most of what I watch or listen to is related to farming, orchards, permaculture, or selling on eBay. For the last one Daily Refinement’s podcast with Technsports is straight to the point.
I listen to NPR when driving mainly so I can at least be exposed to what those on the opposite spectrum of almost everything of me think. Sometimes I yell at the air and sometimes I ponder what is said and actually agree.
I sometimes listen to Jordan Peterson, Russell Brand, and Joe Rogan especially if I find a topic or a person being interviewed of personal interest.
I watch Rick Beato for the same reasons or because I want to learn something new on guitar. I also like the Produce Like a Pro with Warren Something. I like how he breaks down certain songs. I need to spend more time learning about recording, mixing, and mastering music. God has blessed me with hundreds of song ideas but I get discouraged after listening how good other people’s mixing and sound capturing abilities are. The plus side is that I have sharing various songs on a platform called BandLab. I cannot stress how big of a step that was for me to expose myself like that especially as I am overly self-concious of my vocal and guitar playing abilities. It has been an overall encouraging experience.
I see some suggestions here that I will have to check out. Especially regarding Theology and Tolkien. I also like Chesterton a lot. Librivox has some great readings of Chesterton’s meanderings. I need to revisit that.
I did listen to a wonderful and insightful podcast called Craft Lit for a while. It was through it that I was exposed to the Tale of Two Cities for the first time. The commentary was excellent. Interestingly It was not until about we were 3/4 the way through the book that I realized why it was called CraftLit (hint: what Madame Lafarge occupies herself with throughout the story).