December 2011
63 posts
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TV Monsters We Missed: "Dark Shadows"
by Nancy Rosenbaum, producer
We ended this week’s TV-themed show “Monsters We Love” with an invitation to tell us about the series we didn’t include in the production — shows that matter to you that are telling a bigger story about who we are, what we fear, and who we aspire to be. Some of you responded with surprising, off-the radar recommendations.
Take the gothic soap...
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Anonymous asked: My wife and I have been loyal listeners of your show for years. Even when we moved to Southampton, NY for 8 years, we were able to find a station and time to hear your very interesting guests, topics and insightful questions and we've progressed with you through the program's name and musical enhancement. But today's show, about TV Monster Shows, seemed to be more like a...
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Anonymous asked: what are on being showtimes on WGBH
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“Well, I think faith is just an interesting topic, and it’s something that I...”
– —Craig Finn, lead singer of The Hold Steady in an interview with Slate
For many of Finn’s fans, you’ll probably enjoy this interview, but the Friday Night Lights die-hards will like it even more. I just wish the interviewer would’ve probed a bit deeper on this religion question...
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“So, what does this story have to do with modern-day Iran and Iranians?...”
– —Melody Moezzi writes this smart, informative piece about the relevance of the one-thousand-year old story behind Ashura and modern-day politics in The Washington Post.
~Trent Gilliss, senior editor
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Is There an "All-American Muslim"?
by Marwa Helal, guest contributor
The Learning Channel (TLC) recently aired the new reality television program, All-American Muslim, amid a great deal of buzz both within and outside the Muslim American community. Set in Dearborn, Michigan, a city that is well-known for its large Muslim and Arab populations, the series focuses on American-born Muslims and aims to answer the question: “What is...
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Trying on a New Catholic Liturgy After 40 Years
by Susan Leem, associate producer
A parishioner’s view of a Catholic Mass from the rear pew. (photo: Catholic Church (England and Wales)/Flickr, cc by-nc-sa 2.0)
For many Roman Catholics, the liturgy of each Sunday’s Mass is immutable. Last week, on the first Sunday of Advent, that idea was put to the test when the highly scripted and well-memorized ritual underwent some significant...
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“That’s way too much earnestness for the ironic. It’s way too much idealism for...”
– —Daniel Foster ends with this provocative thought in the National Review Online regarding Tim Tebow’s response to Detroit Lions linebacker Stephen Tulloch mocking his style of prayer after sacking the Denver Broncos quarterback: “He was probably just having fun and was excited he made a good...
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Theodicy Defined: The Power of God and the Problem...
by Susan Leem, associate producer
Tethered between stone and sky. (photo: Enrico Marongiu/Flickr, cc by-nc-sa 2.0)
This week’s show has a theological term in its title that sounds obscure, even impenetrable: “Monsters We Love: TV’s Pop Culture Theodicy.” Depending on your view of an omnipotent God, it could be both. ”Theodicy” attempts to answer ancient questions...
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WatchCentenarian Woman Thanks God and Deputies Who Defied Court Order to Evict
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
“I knew that they know what they were doing. God don’t let them do wrong.” ~Vinia Hall
Here’s one of those feel-good stories that makes you smile for human decency and feel a little bit sad knowing that this act of kindness may be an exception. On Tuesday, WSB...
November 2011
59 posts
4 tags
“If it is art — if it is honest to God, card-carrying, well done,...”
– —Phyllis Tickle, from “A Return to Mystery: Religion, Fantasy, and Entertainment”
Looking back at this old transcript in anticipation of this week’s show, “Monsters We Love” with Diane Winston, I found these lovely lines worth pondering.
Photo by Wyoming...
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An Advent of Doubt and Struggle
by Debra Dean Murphy, special contributor
Advent is my kind of season.
No, not the pseudo-Advent of most Christian piety with liturgically-correct hymns and texts on the Sundays of the season and full-on Christmas hoopla all the other days, but this one: the ancient, autumnal interval of darkness and foreboding with its achy uncertainty blanketing landscapes both inner and outer. This Advent...
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“At lectures there are always some who raise their hands. But I think it’s...”
– Paul Davies, on sending people on a one-way trip to Mars in this month’s issue of Wired magazine ~Trent Gilliss, senior editor
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Into the Wilderness: Parenting a Terminally Ill...
by Emily Rapp, guest contributor
“You feel your obligation to a child when you have seen it and held it. Any human face is a claim on you, because you can’t help but understand the singularity of it, the courage and loneliness of it. But this is truest of the face of an infant. I consider that to be one kind of vision, as mystical as any.” ~from Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
I...
