Self Discovery and Podcasts
Over the past year or so I've gotten really into podcasts.
I like to listen to people speaking, I find it the exact right amount of auditory stimulation, as well as being something I enjoy more than music (most of the time.)
I used to have audible and would get a new audiobook every month but it costs too much, and I'm barely just getting back on my feet financially since 2016. A strong wind would still knock me down. So little expenses like that had to go.
Podcasts are free, and my former roommate introduced me to them by forcing me to sit and listen to some with them. It started with Lore, a creepy story telling show about the real life lore much of modern horror is based on. It's interesting and Aaron Mahnke (host, creator, producer) is such a joy to listen to.
I tried a few things out that were either recommended to me or I thought I'd try and nothing caught on for a while. Then two things happened: I ran into an old friend (and ex, sorta?) and we were so tickled to see each other we met up at a brewery to catch up and chat. She told me about Harry Potter and The Sacred Text, a podcast in which Vanessa Voltan and Casper ter Kuile, two graduates of Harvard Divinity school, treat the Harry Potter texts as sacred. Each episode covers one chapter, read through the lense of a chosen theme. They then break the chapter down and discuss where they found each them, unpacking difficult moral and ethical topics and asking a lot of questions.
I was immediately taken with the show. It has allowed me to reconnect with spirituality in a way I never would have imagined.
Then I stumbled upon a podcast recommendation from an old high school friend on facebook which said, "If you are white or white adjacent, you need to listen to this podcast." Or something like that.
It's called Scene on Radio, but specifically the Seeing White series. It is produced out of Duke's Center for Documentary Studies. In it John Biewen explores race as understood in America from the lense of whiteness, bringing in Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika to help him unpack it from a poc's perspective.
It is historical, heartwrenching, entertaining, and powerful. It changed how I understand and interact with racism on a daily basis. It educated me, and then I listend to the rest of Scene on Radio and enjoyed it very much. It has a lot of student pieces exploring race and culture, power and prejudice.
Harry Potter and the Sacred Text regularly has special guests. From that I learned about Nancy, a queer podcast, and Good Christian Fun (GCF), which takes a goofy, yet critical look at Christian pop culture.
The common thing among most of these podcasts is that I have found inspiration, spirutual growth, and self reflection within these things. I feel connected to my heart and sould more than I have in a long time, and the only things that made it blossom were Christian podcasts. Not preachy Christian podcasts, almost blasphemous ones. But it reminded me of how I felt so at home in the Church as a young person, and how there has never been community that felt like that since then. It. . . It's strange, but it feels like coming home.
GCF really pulls at me. It rips me open, in a good way. They have guests on every episode who give "Guestimonies" of their relationship with God and the the Church. It's refreshing and I can relate to so many of them. They range from Athiest to full on Christian. They have yet to have someone on the show who has zero relationship to Christianity, but that makes sense since so much of the show is just nostalgia for the terrible music we all listened to because we were afraid of secular media. Anyway, it's nice to hear stories of people leaving the Church and feeling spiritually homeless and then finding a spiritual home again. Or not. Whatever the case, I am finding myself able to accept and love pieces of my past better for shedding the weird guilt of not being a practicing Christian/Catholic.
Shit.
I have to go to work.
I've decided I'm going to stop wasting down time starting at facebook. I'm gonna use it to write more.
I like to listen to people speaking, I find it the exact right amount of auditory stimulation, as well as being something I enjoy more than music (most of the time.)
I used to have audible and would get a new audiobook every month but it costs too much, and I'm barely just getting back on my feet financially since 2016. A strong wind would still knock me down. So little expenses like that had to go.
Podcasts are free, and my former roommate introduced me to them by forcing me to sit and listen to some with them. It started with Lore, a creepy story telling show about the real life lore much of modern horror is based on. It's interesting and Aaron Mahnke (host, creator, producer) is such a joy to listen to.
I tried a few things out that were either recommended to me or I thought I'd try and nothing caught on for a while. Then two things happened: I ran into an old friend (and ex, sorta?) and we were so tickled to see each other we met up at a brewery to catch up and chat. She told me about Harry Potter and The Sacred Text, a podcast in which Vanessa Voltan and Casper ter Kuile, two graduates of Harvard Divinity school, treat the Harry Potter texts as sacred. Each episode covers one chapter, read through the lense of a chosen theme. They then break the chapter down and discuss where they found each them, unpacking difficult moral and ethical topics and asking a lot of questions.
I was immediately taken with the show. It has allowed me to reconnect with spirituality in a way I never would have imagined.
Then I stumbled upon a podcast recommendation from an old high school friend on facebook which said, "If you are white or white adjacent, you need to listen to this podcast." Or something like that.
It's called Scene on Radio, but specifically the Seeing White series. It is produced out of Duke's Center for Documentary Studies. In it John Biewen explores race as understood in America from the lense of whiteness, bringing in Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika to help him unpack it from a poc's perspective.
It is historical, heartwrenching, entertaining, and powerful. It changed how I understand and interact with racism on a daily basis. It educated me, and then I listend to the rest of Scene on Radio and enjoyed it very much. It has a lot of student pieces exploring race and culture, power and prejudice.
Harry Potter and the Sacred Text regularly has special guests. From that I learned about Nancy, a queer podcast, and Good Christian Fun (GCF), which takes a goofy, yet critical look at Christian pop culture.
The common thing among most of these podcasts is that I have found inspiration, spirutual growth, and self reflection within these things. I feel connected to my heart and sould more than I have in a long time, and the only things that made it blossom were Christian podcasts. Not preachy Christian podcasts, almost blasphemous ones. But it reminded me of how I felt so at home in the Church as a young person, and how there has never been community that felt like that since then. It. . . It's strange, but it feels like coming home.
GCF really pulls at me. It rips me open, in a good way. They have guests on every episode who give "Guestimonies" of their relationship with God and the the Church. It's refreshing and I can relate to so many of them. They range from Athiest to full on Christian. They have yet to have someone on the show who has zero relationship to Christianity, but that makes sense since so much of the show is just nostalgia for the terrible music we all listened to because we were afraid of secular media. Anyway, it's nice to hear stories of people leaving the Church and feeling spiritually homeless and then finding a spiritual home again. Or not. Whatever the case, I am finding myself able to accept and love pieces of my past better for shedding the weird guilt of not being a practicing Christian/Catholic.
Shit.
I have to go to work.
I've decided I'm going to stop wasting down time starting at facebook. I'm gonna use it to write more.