One of my favorite podcasts is This American Life, a radio show with "a hard-to-describe sound". They to to sum it up this way on their web site: There's a theme to each episode, and a variety of stories on that theme. It's mostly true stories of everyday people, though not always. There's lots more to the show, but, like we said, it's sort of hard to describe.

The other week, in their episode Fear of Sleep, they featured Mike Birbiglia telling a story of a time he accidentally, nearly killed himself while he was sleeping. His segment was recorded live at The Moth.

The Moth is a club in New York City, where people tell stories, live, on stage, with no notes. He is what they say about themselves on their web site: Moth is dedicated to promoting the art of storytelling. We celebrate the ability of stories to honor the diversity and commonality of human experience, and to satisfy a vital human need for connection.

The Moth puts out a weekly podcast, which is the point of this post. After hearing Mike's story on This American Life, I went to check out the podcast for The Moth. It's great. I have loved listening to the stories people share. It's a small glimpse into their lives. They come across so authentic... so honest... so real.

Each podcast is around twenty minutes and the stories are great. So, if you are looking for something new to put on your iPod, this is it.

Check out The Moth.

Labels: community, entertainment, podcast, this american life

Recently, upon the urging of several friends, I started listening to This American Life. It is great, but it's kind of hard to explain why it's so great. They take ordinary topics and find a few stories that deal with that topic and present them over an hour.

If you've never listened to it, you should give it a try. You may love it. You may hate it. But, at least you will know what I am talking about when I reference it, which I am sure to do.

The show has a few quirky idiosyncrasies. I particularly enjoy one found in the credits. At the end of the show, Ira Glass, the host, rattles off some credits and usually a Saab plug. One of the credits is for their boss, Tony someone. Every week he, Ira, says something like, "This show was overseen by our boss, who describes his job this way..." and then they will play a clip from the show. It's usually something pretty humorous.

Today I started playing a game with myself. Each time I listen to the podcast, I'm going to try to guess which clip they will use in the credits. I didn't get it right on my first attempt, but I think I can do it.

Do you listen to This American Life?

Labels: entertainment, podcast

Jeff rocked it on Sunday. I liked the message he delivered then, and the more I hear it and think about it, the more I like it. I think it could change your life.

He's been working through a series on the Sermon on the Mount for a few months now. This past week he got to Matthew 7:1-5, which talks about judging. It's a well known passage, but he opened it up in a new way for me.1

There are so many things in there I thought were awesome that it's hard to put it all in here. The best thing would probably be for you to listen to it and then for us to go to lunch. That being said, I will try to give you some of the highlights.

Jesus says, "Do not judge". We (the church and those outside of the church) have some misconceptions about what this means, or how to handle it. Two of the big misconceptions are: 1) Those outside the church look at it and say, ‘Jesus didn’t judge the world, so obviously the world doesn’t need to be judged.’ In other words, ‘Leave me alone’ and 2) The church looks at it and says, ‘Jesus didn’t judge the world, so we better do it for Him, because this place is really screwed up.’ Jesus must’ve forgotten. He was a really busy guy.

Jeff breaks down those two misconceptions in some really good ways. That's the part that I think could change lives. I'd love for some of you to listen to it, for the first time, or again, and for us to talk about it.

1. back The funny thing is that I talked to Jeff about it and he says this is like the fourth time he has preached on that passage. I've been listening to him for at least four years now. So, there's a good chance I have heard one of those other ones, but for some reason this time it really hit me.

Labels: church, podcast

I subscribed to a new podcast last night. It's new to me, but the messages are about a year old.

I had read about Tony Campolo on Brad Wynne's blog and in The Irresistible Revolution, but I had never read anything by him or heard him speak.

I listened to a talk he did titled, "The Kingdom of God is a Party”. It was awesome. He is passionate, funny, and challenging. If you have never heard him speak, I encourage you to tune in.

Labels: church, podcast