S2 Ep215: Driving A Ferrari On The Merritt Parkway Is Awesome (and Other Reflections on the Salutary Effects of Wonder and Awe)
Wonder and awe. It’s the season.   Today on the show we take an appreciative look at wonder: what does it look like, what does it feel like, and how does the psycho-spiritual stance or attitude of wonder help equip us to be better participants in social life?   What In God’s Name continues to celebrate being one year old! We give thanks to you, our loyal, thoughtful, caring, and supportive list...
24m Dec 12, 2019
24m
S2 Ep214: Is Donald Trump Evil?
Is Donald Trump evil? What In God’s Name has, to this point, steered clear of directly addressing questions that arise from the character and leadership of our president. Today, we bring the tools of moral theology, in order to enter into a deeper consideration of the meaning of this presidency. Shayna begins with a consideration of the creative power of words; we pivot to corrupt uses of words...
30m Dec 05, 2019
30m
S2 Ep213: How Thanksgiving Can Help Heal Us: George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation Today
Happy Thanksgiving! Today we consider what it means to give thanks, and the spiritual ramifications of a posture of gratitude. George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation also helps us see where we are, by being a landmark from where we’ve come. What In God’s Name celebrates being one year old today! We give thanks to you, our loyal, thoughtful, caring, and supportive listeners. Our fall...
21m Nov 28, 2019
21m
S2 Ep212: Everybody Needs An Immigrant As A Friend: Learn the Story and Your Life Will Be Changed
Part Two, today, of our conversation with Randy Mayer, who leads a humanitarian relief ministry to migrants coming across the border in the desert area of Arizona. His church is The Good Shepherd, UCC, in the Santa Cruz valley not far from Mexico. Listen to Part One of our conversation with Randy, on the show released last week on November 14, 2019. Our fall focus on increasing our listenership...
23m Nov 21, 2019
23m
S2 Ep211: People Are Dying In Your Neighborhood: What Do You Do? Randy Mayer and Humanitarian Aid in the Arizona Desert
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding DACA, the Obama-era policy that defers action on the deportation of young people who were brought to this country unlawfully as children. Keeping with this theme of border and immigration issues, today on What In God’s Name we talk to Randy Mayer, who leads a humanitarian relief ministry to migrants coming across the border in the d...
29m Nov 14, 2019
29m
S2 Ep210: Today's Takeaway: Narcissism Sucks! or Excessive Self-Love and American Culture
Today’s takeaway: Narcissism sucks! And other deep thoughts about excessive self-love in our culture today. Our fall focus on increasing our listenership was a success: thanks to you, our listenership is up 40% since last spring, and 60% from where we started in Season One. We are a small show, and we are growing. We believe we are offering something valuable to the public conversation, and our...
23m Nov 07, 2019
23m
S2 Ep209: Halloween: Consumeristic Numbness, or the Desire for Aliveness through Contact with Death?
What do our cultural practices around Halloween tell us about who we are? Is Halloween just another way for us to become numb, or do our Halloween practices contain kernels of unfulfilled desire for deeper living, and lives that matter? Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone yo...
24m Oct 31, 2019
24m
S2 Ep208: How Will American Democracy Survive? Walt Whitman and Bonds of Affection
Bonds of affection in American democracy: did Walt Whitman have insights into what will make American democracy work into the future, or is he hopelessly out of touch with the modern world? Shayna and Chris discuss Whitman’s theology, his vision of the human being, and his vision of human connectedness within the context of American self-governance. Our fall focus is increasing our listenership...
23m Oct 24, 2019
23m
S2 Ep207: The Forgiveness Dynamic: Brandt Jean, Amber Guyger, and Our Racist Inheritance
While this installment of What In God’s Name was recorded before Atatiana Jefferson was shot by a Fort Worth police officer in her home, Shayna and Chris are talking about systemic racism this week, as part of their reflections on the similar case of Botham Jean, and his murder at the hand of Amber Guyger. Brandt Jean (Botham’s brother) spoke words of forgiveness to Amber Guyger at her sentenci...
23m Oct 17, 2019
23m
S2 Ep206: What Is A Human Response To Mass Shooting Violence? How Does Responding In Community Give Us Power?
What In God’s Name has a conversation with Mark Koyama, Tina O’Neil, Sarah Ellis, and Mona Brooks of the United Church of Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Our conversation: their community’s religiously anchored response to the number of Americans killed by gun violence in 2019. In this second part of our conversation, visual artist Mona Brooks talks about the physical, tactile dimension of this project...
30m Oct 10, 2019
30m
S2 Ep205: Mass Shootings: The Sacredness of Each Life, and Confronting Fear
What In God’s Name has a conversation with Mark Koyama, Tina O’Neil, Sarah Ellis, and Mona Brooks of the United Church of Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Our conversation: their community’s religiously anchored response to the number of Americans killed by gun violence in 2019. Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your ...
24m Oct 03, 2019
24m
S2 Ep204: What Is The Human Place In Creation? Does Replacing Fossil Fuels With Renewables Solve The "Problem" of Humans?
Hurrah! Shayna is back, and gets to have a say about the recently enacted climate strike, while Chris asks questions about the place of human beings on the planet: where do we fit? Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you think is interested in a different way of understandin...
21m Sep 26, 2019
21m
S2 Ep203: Should Journalism Be About Truth? (And What Might That Mean?)
Shayna needs to miss a second show, but will be returning next week. Chris considers the practice of journalism in America today, in preparation for the What In God’s Name interview with Jeff MacDonald, coming up in October. Here at What In God’s Name we are realists about truth, not relativists: truth has an independent existence apart from any one individual’s perceptions (for example, people...
11m Sep 20, 2019
11m
S2 Ep202: If I Don't Think Climate Change Is An Emergency, Am I A Climate Denier?
Feeling the side effects of chemo-therapy, Shayna has to miss today’s show, so Chris flies solo in a show that asks the essential question: If you don’t think that climate change is an emergency, does that make you a climate denier?  Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you t...
12m Sep 12, 2019
12m
S2 Ep201: What's a Trump Rally Like? What In God's Name Talks to People In Line
To begin Season Two, Chris and Shayna go to a Trump rally to talk with people in line waiting to get in. Our questions: What makes America great? What attracts you to a Trump rally? Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you think is interested in a different way of understandi...
23m Sep 05, 2019
23m
S1 Ep27: Politics Is Downstream of Culture and Other Summer Tidbits
In this summer “in-between” seasons show, Chris invites Shayna into a deeper consideration of “culture,” and the observation attributed to Andrew Breitbart that “politics is downstream of culture.”  We also tease some upcoming fall shows: a collaboration with the Harvard Interfaith Forum, and an interview with journalist and minister Jeff MacDonald, who covered the Boston Marathon bomber trial ...
22m Aug 21, 2019
22m
S1 Ep26: Democratic Values and the Love of America
We recorded this show before the most recent mass shooting in El Paso. That murderous violence, part of a pattern of white nationalist violence in our recent (and not-so-recent) past, underscores the What In God’s Name conversation about What powers are currently at work in the American spirit? What values do we believe in? How can a sense of the Transcendent (in both non-religious and religiou...
18m Aug 07, 2019
18m
S1 Ep25: Thirteen Percent Of US Women Get Breast Cancer. Co-Host Shayna Is Now One Of Those Women. When Bad Things Happen, What Is God Doing?
When bad things happen, where is God? Is God dishing out punishment? These questions arise as Shayna shares her news that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer and will be undergoing treatment over the summer. How do we manage when life gets difficult? How well does our culture do, in times of difficulty? What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political...
24m May 30, 2019
24m
S1 Ep24: Can You Connect Today's Environmental Exploitation With A 15th-Century Roman Catholic Doctrine?
The Doctrine of Discovery (1493) was a papal bull authorizing Christian conquest of non-Christian lands. Could this 15th-century Roman Catholic document be influencing how we in the industrial and post-industrial West are treating the world and nature’s goods? A recent report from the United Nations working group IPBES on biodiversity is the occasion for these theological reflections. What In G...
22m May 23, 2019
22m
S1 Ep23: Absolute Disregard For Others: Plundered Wealth, Laundered Money, and the Possibility of Sin and Evil
Franklin Foer’s article in the March 2019 Atlantic Monthly “How Kleptocracy Came to America” provides the jumping off point for today’s show. You don’t need to read the article to understand today’s show, but if you’re curious, here is the link: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/how-kleptocracy-came-to-america/580471/ What elements of American culture over the last quarter ...
24m May 16, 2019
24m
S1 Ep22: Do Not Be Troubled, Do Not Be Afraid: A Culture of Fear Will Produce a Politics of Fear
Andrew Breitbart famously, and correctly, said that politics is downstream of culture. Today, Shayna and Chris evaluate fear’s role in our culture, and how a culture of fear produces a politics of fear. What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money/economics angle, not from a techno-scientific angle, but from a theological and ph...
22m May 09, 2019
22m
S1 Ep21: "Not My Circus, Not My Monkey." Responsibility, the Unmoored Self, and Robert Mueller's Report
Is it possible to reflect theologically on the Mueller report into Russian interference in the 2016 election? You be the judge. We start with the Mueller report, and then take an excursion to the meaning of moral decline and renewal in the current American context. Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com Our Instagram page, curated wit...
24m May 02, 2019
24m
S1 Ep20: The Phoenix Rises, But First The Phoenix Dissolves In Ash: Notre Dame, Opioids, and the Power of Narrative
Today’s show: the phoenix rises from her own ashes, after being consumed in fire. Using the phoenix as paradigmatic, we talk about Notre Dame, the opioid disaster, and the coming of spring to the Northern Hemisphere. For those of you who have taken time to write a review for What In God’s Name on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify), or also on Facebook: thanks so much. Your reviews help u...
21m Apr 18, 2019
21m
S1 Ep19: Christianity Will Take You Into the Heart of the World's Brokenness: Fire Chief Dan Andrus, Part Two
Our conversation with Dan Andrus, fire chief of Concord, the capital of New Hampshire, touches on PTSD in first responders, depression and suicide. Here is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ The Lifeline phone number is: 1-800-273-8255. Also, in part one of our conversation, Dan mentions 3 firefighters who have faced the life-draining forc...
24m Apr 11, 2019
24m
S1 Ep18: Concord Fire Chief Dan Andrus On Opioid Overdoses, and Other Reflections on Anxiety and Depression (part one)
Our conversation with Dan Andrus, fire chief of Concord, the capital of New Hampshire, touches on PTSD in first responders, depression and suicide. Here is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ The Lifeline phone number is: 1-800-273-8255. Also, in part one of our conversation, Dan mentions 3 firefighters who have faced the life-draining forc...
26m Apr 04, 2019
26m
S1 Ep17: How Do You Co-Create A Show? Like This. Part Two of Our Conversation on Toxic Masculinity with a Live Audience
How much fun to co-create! How much fun to collaborate in thoughtful conversation! Today’s show is a little shorter than our usual shows. It’s part two of a conversation that What In God’s Name facilitated on February 23rd, in Pembroke, New Hampshire. Our topic was one we have tackled before: toxic masculinity. It’s a topic that touches on many issues in our culture, and often in our news, tod...
17m Mar 28, 2019
17m
S1 Ep16: Live Audience Co-Creation (part one): Toxic Masculinity and How To Read The Bible Intelligently
How much fun to co-create! How much fun to collaborate in thoughtful conversation! Today’s show is part one of a conversation that What In God’s Name facilitated on February 23rd, in Pembroke, New Hampshire. Our topic was one we have tackled before: toxic masculinity. It’s a topic that touches on many issues in our culture, and often in our news, today. If you like today’s show, leave a review...
22m Mar 21, 2019
22m
S1 Ep15: What In God's Name Is Going On With College Admissions? Integrity and the Insatiable Spiritual Hunger for Salvation
Be Curious. Go Deep. Shed Light. Today’s show: The college admissions bribery scheme provides an entry into an examination of the spiritual void, the spiritual hunger, at the heart of American culture. What does it mean to have integrity? If you like today’s show, leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify). Post our podcast on your Facebook page. Be in touch. Our emai...
17m Mar 15, 2019
17m
S1 Ep14: How Much Healthier Would Our Culture Be, If We Could Help Each Other Be More Reflective? Lent and the Wider Culture
Be Curious. Go Deep. Shed Light. Today’s show: the counter-cultural practice of Lent (or, for non-Christians, the counter-cultural practices of intentionality, emptying out, and slowing down). Join the show today, and take a moment to reflect on the human need for reflection. If you like today’s show, leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify). Post our podcast on you...
18m Mar 07, 2019
18m
S1 Ep13: What Is The Real Conflict Between Politics and Religion?
Shayna returns for the second half of our conversation with Gordon Graham, most recently the Henry Luce Professor of Philosophy and the Arts at Princeton Theological Seminary. Show dog Arlo remains on vacation. We continue our conversation about the prospects for public theology in our culture. How do Christian advocacy and Christian witness differ? Finally, what is the real conflict between ...
27m Feb 21, 2019
27m
S1 Ep12: Can Human Beings Save Themselves? A Conversation with Gordon Graham
Chris flies solo as Shayna and show dog Arlo are off. Our guest this week is Dr. Gordon Graham, most recently the Henry Luce Professor of Philosophy and the Arts at Princeton Theological Seminary. What are the prospects for public theology in our culture? What are the ways of thinking and habits of mind that put philosophy and theology in coach class, and economics and political science in fi...
23m Feb 14, 2019
23m
S1 Ep11: What In God's Name Is a Man Today? Gillette's YouTube Video and Answering Albert
Masculinity is our topic; an “Answering Albert” segment is our method; the Gillette YouTube video about “toxic masculinity” and the #MeToo movement provides the material. “Answering Albert” is when Shayna and Chris respond to Albert Mohler’s highly-rated podcast “The Briefing,” both to agree with some observations made by the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and to demon...
23m Feb 07, 2019
23m
S1 Ep10: Tappy Got His Arm Stolen by Huawei, and Other Stories: From Aristotle to Venezuela to Colin Powell's Flat Tire
Today is the Lightning Round. In 25 minutes, Chris and Shayna take a tour of Aristotle’s taxonomy of good and bad types of government (in honor of the recently ended government shutdown); touch on the chaotic developments in Venezuela; and reflect on the accusations against the giant Chinese telecommunications company Huawei. Finally, Chris shares a couple of Facebook posts from Uncle Mark in ...
25m Jan 31, 2019
25m
S1 Ep9: What In God's Name Makes America Great? A Conversation About a Teenager, a MAGA Hat, and a Native American with a Drum
Last Friday, Nick Sandmann and Nathan Phillips stood face to face for a few moments. You’ve probably seen the picture: Nick, a high school student on a school field trip, is wearing a red MAGA hat; Nathan, an older Native American, is beating his drum. In so many ways, what happened on the Lincoln Memorial steps last Friday, and how people reacted to what happened, is a rich window into our cu...
26m Jan 24, 2019
26m
S1 Ep8: Part Two: Princeton Women's Basketball Coach Courtney Banghart Talks to What In God's Name about Competition, Courage, and Social Media
Welcome to What In God’s Name! Be curious. Go deep. Shed light. The core of today’s show is the second installment of Chris’s conversation with Courtney Banghart, head coach of the Princeton University women’s basketball team. Courtney is reflective about her work with young athletes, and about competition and competitiveness as facets of contemporary American culture. Of special interest in ...
27m Jan 17, 2019
27m
S1 Ep7: Princeton Women's Basketball Coach Courtney Banghart Talks to What In God's Name about Competition in American Culture
Welcome to What In God’s Name! Be curious. Go deep. Shed light. The core of today’s show is the first installment of Chris’s conversation with Courtney Banghart, head coach of the Princeton University women’s basketball team. Courtney is reflective about her work with young athletes, and about competition and competitiveness as facets of contemporary American culture. If you like today’s sho...
28m Jan 10, 2019
28m
S1 Ep6: Partisan Political Bickering Is Boring, but the Human Use and Misuse of Power Is Interesting. Today's Show: Therapy for Congress, and The Autonomy of Goodness
Two parts to today’s show: the government shutdown prompts Chris to offer solution-based therapy for the US House of Representatives; and Shayna and Chris respond to Albert Mohler’s reflections on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the premier of WIGN’s first “Answering Albert” segment. Be curious. Go deep. Shed light. These are our core values. Join us in the conversation! We love...
25m Jan 03, 2019
25m
S1 Ep5: What In God's Name Is Happening with Facebook? Russian Disinformation, the Internet, and Us
What in God’s name is happening with Facebook? The Senate Intelligence Committee releases a report on the Russian government’s disinformation campaign, and its efforts to influence the 2016 election. We’ve got non-partisan reflections on Facebook, the internet, and the vulnerabilities of an open society. Be curious. Go deep. Shed light. These are our core values. Please invite your friends a...
21m Dec 20, 2018
21m
S1 Ep4: Christmas Is Dying. Christmas Will Never Die (part two)
Does a public Christianity that is hollowed out by consumerism help us see the need for a pluralistic, inclusive spiritual revival in our society? This question and more, in this second part of our show “Christmas is dying, and Christmas will never die.” Be curious. Go deep. Shed light. These are our core values. Please invite your friends and family to subscribe to “What In God’s Name” (go t...
20m Dec 13, 2018
20m
S1 Ep3: Christmas Is Dying. Christmas Will Never Die (part one)
Christmas is dying, and Christmas will never die: that is the thesis for this show. Shayna and Chris talk about the importance (or not?) of the story of Jesus' birth as a defining feature of Christmas. To form, Chris reveals his usual lean towards emphasizing the darker side of human nature, while Shayna argues for a more hopeful view of humanity. Consumer culture receives a predictable critiqu...
22m Dec 06, 2018
22m
S1 Ep2: Does It Matter If Climate Science Is 100% Accurate?
Welcome to What In God's Name! Be curious. Go deep. Shed light. Our first show begins a conversation on climate change. It soon becomes apparent that a deeper consideration of this issue touches on other basic questions: What are the limits to human knowledge in predicting the future, and how do those limits affect our ability to act? Does a theological perspective that sees nature as God's ...
16m Nov 29, 2018
16m