A while back, I went to a fascinating talk on The Theatre – the original Elizabethan theatre where Shakespeare learned his trade when he first came to London. It was given by the author Daniel Swift, drawing on his book, The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare. Having just finished the book, what struck me was the idea of Shakespeare as an apprentice, as someone who learned his trade.
A brilliant, disturbing and important essay. “The real tragedy isn’t that students use ChatGPT to do their course work. It’s that universities are teaching everyone—students, faculty, administrators—to stop thinking.” https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-destroying-the-university-and-learning-itself
Every now and then I am reminded how wonderful the web can be. Amidst the constant enshittification, in the face of all the AI slop and the death by clickbait, you can still find gems like Jazz Collector. A terrific podcast from a community radio station. Great music, and a knowledgeable and passionate host. And a really good website.
HT to Kagi smallweb for the discovery.
Out now
Mid-faith Crisis 352: Repairing the world with Dave Tomlinson
We have an interview with Dave Tomlinson. Dave and Joe discuss some of the difficult questions people have about God and faith and talk about how we, as Christians, can be part of the repair of the world.
Out now
Mid-faith Crisis 351: Fact-checking Christmas
Jesus gives us a crucial challenge: ‘Who do you say that I am?’ We discuss our answers to that question. Meanwhile, Joe launches MFC verify to examine some claims about Christmas and Nick talks about Bible translation and why there are unicorns in the King James Version.
Fantastic news. Werewolf by Night is one of my favourite Marvel productions. It was something genuinely different: A beautifully crafted homage to the Universal horror films of the 1930s. Werewolf by Night Sequel Shows Marvel’s Commitment to Supernatural MCU
Out now
Mid-faith Crisis 350: Jesus has gone all yoke
This week, we spend a lot of time discussing the spiritual lessons to be learned from Traitors. Also, we talk about heavily paraphrased Bible verses and Joe has had a near-death experience in the toilet.
Out now
Mid-faith Crisis 349: One of our least worst episodes
Joe is not very well this week. So I posted something we recorded some years ago on my book The Badly Behaved Bible. We talk about the inspiration of scripture and how many of our problems with the Bible are not with the book itself, so much as the things people say about it.
Out now
Mid-faith Crisis 348: Boshing the Bible
This week we mainly talk about the Bible. We touch on how it was put together and we share with listeners the Bible verses and stories which mean the most to us. Along the way, Nick does a quick history lesson and Joe reckons that Jesus spoke like a market trader.
Out now
Mid-faith Crisis 347: Happy birthdays and hard questions
It’s our ninth anniversary! So, for a nice, relaxed, party-like topic we talk about Israel. Why is it that so many Christians support modern Israel so strongly? How can we respond when there is so much violence and hatred on all sides? Where is the Kingdom of God in all this? Also Nick has discovered some scriptural golf balls and Joe has been rewriting the Bible. Again.