May 2008
16 posts
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What's the Ojibwe Word for Beep?
“An Ojibwe Language Society Calendar” (photo: Hanson Dates/flickr) Rob McGinley Myers, Associate Producer Working on an upcoming SOF show about endangered languages, I called a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University to get recordings of Ojibwe speakers for the radio program and website. His answering machine message was delivered first in Ojibwe and then in English. Then...
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"Why Religion Matters" →
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor I use Google alerts for myriad ideas and people I want to track for the program. Surprisingly, “krista tippett” has become one of the most useful phrases. She sits ten feet away, but it’s one of the best ways of keeping up with our host’s activities. Although we’re a relatively small staff, she’s a whirlwind of energy that’s...
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Biblical Stories Are So Catchy
Alda Balthrop-Lewis, Production Intern What is it about Bible stories? For me they can be like catchy music; I’ll get one stuck in my head and then, while I wait for the bus or cut up vegetables or fold laundry, the story will run on repeat, offering its melodies, harmonies, dissonances. These ancient stories — so full of existential drama — can become obsessions. I’ve been thinking...
Smart Design for People Who Need It →
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer Courtesy our friends down the hall at Minnesota Public Radio comes this feature on a design exhibit at Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center, and how design can tackle, head on, problems related to sustainability. “In Western culture design is usually about styling, the appearance of things,” said [Walker curator Andrew] Blauvelt. “Most objects,...
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Technical Problems on Commenting Engine
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor We use a third-party service, Disqus, for our commenting engine on our blog. Due to some changes from our blog service (Tumblr), older comments submitted before today are not showing up on our site. We haven’t lost them though; they just aren’t reconciling with the permalink for each blog post. So please keep the comments coming — and your suggestions...
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“The starting point for European expansion had nothing to do with the rise of any...”
– —Henry Hobhouse, quoted in Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination Trent Gilliss, Online Editor After listening to Lynne’s segment with Charles Perry on the golden age of Islamic food and conquest, I’d asked The Splendid Table folks about the book they discussed (Now I know...
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The Weird Glory and Terrible Power of Nature
Rob McGinley Myers, Associate Producer It’s hard not to see life as utterly random and meaningless in the face of disasters like the recent cyclone in Myanmar or the earthquake in China. And this is an issue that comes up again and again in theological circles, referred to as as the theodicy question: How could a just god let innocent people suffer and die? On our show A History of Doubt,...
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Killing Your Darlings Shiraz Janjua, Associate...
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WatchArmstrong Continues to Build on Her Ideas about Religion Colleen Scheck, Producer
We interviewed Karen Armstrong in 2004 and were gripped by her intellectual, passionate, and singular insight into religion in our world. This week we are repeating that program. It is among the many engaging shows from our archives worth hearing again.
In preparing for this rebroadcast, I listened to...
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One Interpretation of the Crucifix Rob McGinley...
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Rounding Out a Fine Month of Poetry
Alda Balthrop-Lewis, Production Intern
Kate posted a poem a while back that, she said, bonked her on the head. Robinson Jeffers, nature poet of the Central Coast in California, wrote this one that never fails to make me gasp. As the snows linger on in Minnesota, it also makes me a little homesick for the grandeur of the Pacific.
Editorial Note June 12, 2008: “The Great Explosion” is...
April 2008
18 posts
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Jason Shinder →
Kate Moos, Managing Producer The poet Jason Shinder died last week. I studied with him at Bennington in the late 90’s. This recent poem in The New Yorker about his mother’s illness has the authority of someone who knows first hand the ravages of sickness. He was also a really good dancer, and I was once informed by someone watching him do amazing things on the dance floor that he was...
Candidates for London Mayor Get Religion →
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer For anyone who thinks European society is utterly secularized, it’s interesting to read this article in The Guardian that, in the London mayoral race, religion is actually a prominent issue. Perhaps not in the way that we experience it in the US, but nevertheless. Hmm, I wonder if anyone reading in London might have some firsthand knowledge of this?
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The Language of Money
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor
toddler: (holding up a penny) Uh-dakah!
father: (leaning in) Dollar?
toddler: (thrusting penny in the air) Uh-dakah!
father: No. That's a penny.
toddler: Uh-dakah.
father: That's money. Can you say mun-eeeee?
toddler: Money! Dakah.
father: You buy things with it.
father: (looking quizzically at mother): What's he keep saying? I can't understand him.
mother: I don't know. (turning to toddler) Penny.
toddler: Dakah.
mother: (to father) Maybe it's the Hebrew -- from school.
father: I don't know the Hebrew word for money. Do you?
mother: No.
father: Google it.
mother: (searching)
father: I learned about this on the show. Isn't it zakat or something? No, wait. That applies to Muslims. Maybe zedekah... or something similar.
mother: Here it is. Tzedakah. Charity.
father: Hm.
mother: Here he sees a penny and thinks of giving it away. And we see it and instantly thinking of buying things.
father: I guess we just learned something from a two year old about money.
mother: I think so.
father: Man. We better sign up for some Hebrew lessons...
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