In this episode we reflect on what the Easter story means for us this year. I’ve been particularly thinking about how the shape of the week – from triumph and joy, through perplexity and darkness, to new life and resurrection – is one of the basic human stories and also the shape of so many of our faith journeys. Listen and subscribe
You ask Amazon, "What's your cheapest batteries?" and it lies to you. If you click the first link in a search-results page, you'll pay 29% more than you would if you got the best product – a product that is, on average, 17 places down on the results page. Amazon makes $38b/year taking bribes to lie to you
Pluralistic: Meatspace twiddling (26 Mar 2024) Cory Doctorow
In our latest episode, Joe and I discuss the nature of praise. As the song goes, ‘Praise him on the trumpet, the psaltery and harp!’ But it never really explains why. Doesn’t the obligation to praise God make him seem, well, a bit needy? And what the heck is a psaltery anyway? We talk about praise as a response, as a practice of gratitude and appreciation, how it needs to be based on intellectual content, and why attempts to do mood-altering worship never really work.
The streets of St Ives
Beautifully written, revealing account of what it is to be a celebrity ghost writer. (Read to the end.) Personally I think all ghost writers should be credited somewhere in the book. And in any interviews that the celebrity does. Especially those where they claim to have ‘written a book’.
You never know what you’re going to get with our feedback! But one of the things I loved in this week’s episode was discovering that the green crockery so beloved of churches and church halls everywhere is called Beryl. It somehow fits. The rest of the feedback leads into discussions about whether our desire to achieve things is personality driven, and the proper role of regret in our lives. Although I think I will have more to say about that.
In this episode Joe talks to Jo about the menopause. And perimenopause. And post-menopause. What is it and why does it matter? And why don't we talk about it more? You will learn a lot. Jo is a very old friend of mine, who can be found at Courage Coaching. Listen and subscribe
In last week’s podcast we were talking about the necessity of becoming the person God created. During the show I was trying to remember this Hassidic tale. But then we moved on and I forgot to mention it. Anyway, it goes like this: Rabbi Zusya dies and goes to heaven. And he’s a bit anxious as to whether he has been holy enough. Was God going to be angry with him?
It all comes down a simple but very dangerous shift: the major websites of today’s web are not built for the visitor, but as means of using her. Our visitor has become a data point, a customer profile, a potential lead – a proverbial fly in the spider’s web. In the guise of user-centered design, we’re building an increasingly user-hostile web.
From Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web
Are you a user? Or are you being used? A piece written seven years ago, but more relevant than ever.
In Episode 273 we talked a bit about Lent. Lent has an interesting image these days. For most people who have any familiarity about it, I think it’s just ‘that period where you give something up.’ So you might cut out sugar. Or alcohol. It’s more diet than denial. But Lent is actually about a kind of reset, not a temporary diet. It begins, after all, with Ash Wednesday which, as Philip Pfatteicher writes, is focused on our fragile humanity.