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Reformed Brotherhood | Sound Doctrine, Systematic Theology, and Brotherly Love
In this theologically rich episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Jesse and Tony delve into the Parable of the Lost Coin from Luke 15:8-10. They explore how this parable reveals God's passionate pursuit of His elect and the divine joy that erupts when they are found. Building on their previous discussion of the Lost Sheep, the brothers examine how Jesus uses this second parable to further emphasize God's sovereign grace in salvation. The conversation highlights the theological implications of God's ownership of His people even before their redemption, the diligent efforts He undertakes to find them, and the heavenly celebration that follows. This episode offers profound insights into God's relentless love and the true nature of divine joy in redemption. Key Takeaways The Parable of the Lost Coin emphasizes that God actively and diligently searches for those who belong to Him, sparing no effort to recover what is rightfully His. Jesus uses three sequential parables in Luke 15 to progressively reveal different aspects of God's heart toward sinners, with escalating emphasis on divine joy. The coin represents something of significant value that already belonged to the woman, illustrating that God's elect belong to Him even before their redemption. Unlike finding something new, the joy depicted is specifically about recovering something that was already yours but had been lost, highlighting God's eternal claim on His people. The spiritual inability of the sinner is represented by the coin's passivity - it cannot find its own way back and must be sought out by its owner. Angels rejoice over salvation not independently but because they share in God's delight at the effectiveness of His saving power. The parable challenges believers to recover their joy in salvation and to share it with others, much like the woman who called her neighbors to celebrate with her. Expanded Insights God's Determined Pursuit of What Already Belongs to Him The Parable of the Lost Coin reveals a profound theological truth about God's relationship to His elect. As Tony and Jesse discuss, this isn't a story about finding something new, but recovering something that already belongs to the owner. The woman in the parable doesn't rejoice because she discovered unexpected treasure; she rejoices because she recovered what was already hers. This illustrates the Reformed understanding that God's people have eternally belonged to Him. While justification occurs in time, there's a real sense in which God has been considering us as His people in eternity past. The parable therefore supports the doctrines of election and particular redemption - God is not creating conditions people can move into or out of, but is zealously reclaiming a specific people who are already His in His eternal decree. The searching, sweeping, and diligent pursuit represent not a general call, but an effectual calling that accomplishes its purpose. The Divine Joy in Recovering Sinners One of the most striking aspects of this parable is the overwhelming joy that accompanies finding the lost coin. The brothers highlight that this joy isn't reluctant or begrudging, but enthusiastic and overflowing. The woman calls her friends and neighbors to celebrate with her - a seemingly excessive response to finding a coin, unless we understand the theological significance. This reveals that God takes genuine delight in the redemption of sinners, to the extent that Jesus describes it as causing joy "in the presence of the angels of God." As Jesse and Tony note, this challenges our perception that God might save us begrudgingly. Instead, the parable teaches us that God's "alien work" is wrath, while His delight is in mercy. This should profoundly impact how believers view their own salvation and should inspire a contagious joy that spreads to others - a joy that many Christians, by Tony's own admission, need to recover in their daily walk. Memorable Quotes "Christ love is an act of love and it's always being acted upon the sinner, the one who has to be redeemed, his child whom he goes after. So in the same way, we have Christ showing the self-denying love." - Jesse Schwamb "The coin doesn't seek the woman. The woman seeks the coin. And in this way, I think we see God's act of searching grace... The reason why I think it leads to joy, why God is so pleased, is because God has this real pleasure to pluck sinners as brands from the burning fire." - Jesse Schwamb "These parables are calling us to rejoice, right? Christ is using these parables to shame the Pharisees and the scribes who refuse to rejoice over the salvation of sinners. How often do we not rejoice over our own salvation sufficiently?" - Tony Arsenal Full Transcript [00:00:08] Jesse Schwamb: There still is like the sovereign grace of God who's initiating the salvation and there is a kind of effect of calling that God doesn't merely invite, he finds, he goes after he affects the very thing. Yeah, and I think we're seeing that here. The sinner, spiritual inability. There's an utter passivity until found. The coin doesn't seek the woman. The woman seeks the coin. And in this way, I think we see God's act of searching grace. It's all there for us. And the reason why I think it leads to joy, why God is so pleased is because God has this real pleasure. To pluck sinners as brands from the burning fire. Welcome to episode 472 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse. [00:00:57] Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey brother. [00:01:01] Jesse Schwamb: Hey brother. [00:01:02] Jesus and the Parable of the Lost Coin [00:01:02] Jesse Schwamb: So there was this time, maybe actually more than one time, but at least this one time that we've been looking at where Jesus is hanging out and the religious incumbents, the Pharisees, they come to him and they say, you are a friend of sinners, and. Instead of taking offense to this, Jesus turns this all around. Uses this as a label, appropriates it for himself and his glorious character. And we know this because he gives us this thrice repeated sense of what it means to see his heart, his volition, his passion, his love, his going after his people, and he does it. Three little parables and we looked at one last time and we're coming up to round two of the same and similar, but also different and interesting. And so today we're looking at the parable of the lost coin or the Lost dma, or I suppose, whatever kind of currency you wanna insert in there. But once again, something's lost and we're gonna see how our savior comes to find it by way of explaining it. In metaphor. So there's more things that are lost and more things to be found on this episode. That's how we do it. It's true. It's true. So that's how Jesus does it. So [00:02:12] Tony Arsenal: yeah. So it should be how we do it. [00:02:14] Jesse Schwamb: Yes. Yeah, exactly. I cut to like Montel Jordan now is the only thing going through my head. Tell Jordan. Yeah. Isn't he the one that's like, this is how we do it, that song, this is [00:02:28] Tony Arsenal: how we do it. I, I don't know who sings it. Apparently it's me right now. That was actually really good. That was fantastic. [00:02:36] Jesse Schwamb: Hopefully never auto tuned. Not even once. I'm sure that'll make an appearance now and the rest, somebody [00:02:42] Tony Arsenal: should take that and auto tune it for me. [00:02:44] Jesse Schwamb: That would be fantastic. Listen, it doesn't need it. That was perfect. That was right off the cuff, right off the top. It was beautiful. It was ous. [00:02:50] Tony Arsenal: Yes. Yes. [00:02:51] Affirmations and Denials [00:02:51] Jesse Schwamb: I'm hoping that appearance, [00:02:53] Tony Arsenal: before we jump into our, our favorite segment here in affirmations of Denials, I just wanted to take a second to, uh, thank all of our listeners. Uh, we have the best listeners in the world. That's true, and we've also got a really great place to get together and chat about things. That's also true. Uh, we have a little telegram chat, which is just a little chat, um, program that run on your phone or in a browser. Really any device you have, you can go to t Me slash Reform Brotherhood and join that, uh, little chat group. And there's lots of stuff going on there. We don't need to get into all the details, but it's a friendly little place. Lots of good people, lots of good conversation. And just lots of good digital fellowship, if that's even a thing. I think it is. So please do join us there. It's a great place to discuss, uh, the episodes or what you're learning or what you'd like to learn. There's all sorts of, uh, little nooks and crannies and things to do in there. [00:03:43] Jesse Schwamb: So if you're looking for a little df and you know that you are coming out, we won't get into details, but you definitely should. Take Tony's advice, please. You, you will not be disappointed. It, it's a fun, fun time together. True. Just like you're about to have with us chatting it up and going through a little affirmations and denials. So, as usual, Tony, what are you, are you affirming with something or are you denying again, something? I'm, I'm on the edge of my seat. I'm ready. [00:04:06] Tony Arsenal: Okay. Uh, it is, I thought that was going somewhere else. Uh, I'm, I'm affirming something. [00:04:13] AI and Problem Solving [00:04:13] Tony Arsenal: People are gonna get so sick of me doing like AI affirmations, but I, it's like I learned a new thing to do with AI every couple of weeks. I ran across an article the other day, uh, that I don't remember where the article was. I didn't save it, but I did read it. And one of the things that pointed out is that a lot of times you're not getting the most out of AI because you don't really know how to ask the questions. True. One of the things it was was getting through is a lot of people will ask, they'll have a problem that they're encountering and they'll just ask AI like, how do I fix this problem? And a lot of times what that yields is like very superficial, basic, uh, generic advice or generic kind of, uh, directions for resolving a problem. And the, I don't remember the exact phrasing, 'cause it was a little while ago since I read it, but it basically said something like, I'm encountering X problem. And despite all efforts to the contrary, I have not been able to resolve it. And by using sort of these extra phrases. What it does is it sort of like pushes the AI to ask you questions about what you've already tried to do, and so it's gonna tailor its advice or its directions to your specific situation a little bit more. So, for example, I was doing this today. We, um, we just had the time change, right? Stupidest thing in the world doesn't make any sense and my kids don't understand that the time has changed and we're now like three or four weeks past the, the time change and their, their schedule still have not adjusted. So my son Augie, who is uh, like three and three quarters, uh, I don't know how many months it is. When do you stop? I don't even know. When you stop counting in months. He's three and a quarter, three quarters. And he will regularly wake up between four 30 and five 30. And when we really, what we really want is for him to be sleeping, uh, from uh, until like six or six 30 at the latest. So he's like a full hour, sometimes two hours ahead of time, which then he wakes up, it's a small house. He's noisy 'cause he's a three and a half year old. So he wakes up the baby. The baby wakes up. My wife, and then we're all awake and then we're cranky and it's miserable. So I, I put that little prompt into, um, into Google Gemini, which is right now is my, um, AI of choice, but works very similar. If you use something like chat, GPT or CLO or whatever, you know, grok, whatever AI tool you have access to, put that little prompt in. You know, something like since the time change, my son has been waking up at four 30 in the morning, despite all efforts to the contrary, I have not been able to, uh, adjust his schedule. And so it started asking me questions like, how much light is in the room? What time does he go to bed? How much does he nap? And it, so it's, it's pulling from the internet. This is why I like Google Geminis. It's actually pulling from the internet to identify like common, common. Related issues. And so it starts to probe and ask questions. And by the time it was done, what it came out with was like a step-by-step two week plan. Basically like, do this tonight, do this tomorrow morning. Um, and it was able to identify what it believes is the problem. We'll see if it actually is, but the beauty now is now that I've got a plan that I've got in this ai, I can start, you know, tomorrow morning I'm gonna try to do what it said and I can tell. The ai, how things went, and it can now adjust the plan based on whether or not, you know, this worked or didn't work. So it's a good way to sort of, um, push an ai, uh, chat bot to probe your situation a little bit more. So you could do this really for anything, right. You could do something like I'm having, I'm having trouble losing weight despite all efforts to the contrary. Um, can you help me identify what the, you know, root problem is? So think about different ways that you can use this. It's a pretty cool way to sort of like, push the, the AI to get a little deeper into the specifics without like a lot of extra heavy lifting. I'm sure there's probably other ways you could drive it to do this, but this was just one clever way that I, that this article pointed out to accomplish this. [00:08:07] Jesse Schwamb: It's a great exercise to have AI optimize itself. Yeah. By you turning your prompts around and asking it to ask you a number of questions, sufficient number, until it can provide an optimize answer for you. So lots, almost every bot has some kind of, you can have it analyze your prompts essentially, but some like copilot actually have a prompt agent, which will help you construct the prompt in an optimal way. Yeah, and that again, is kind of question and answer. So I'm with you. I will often turn it around and say. Here's my goal. Ask me sufficient number of questions so that you can provide the right insight to accomplish said goal. Or like you're saying, if you can create this like, massive conversation that keeps all this history. So I, I've heard of people using this for their exercise or running plans. Famously, somebody a, a, um, journalist, the Wall Street Journal, use it, train for a marathon. You can almost have it do anything for you. Of course, you want to test all of that and interact with it reasonably and ably, right? At the same time, what it does best is respond to like natural language interaction. And so by turning it around and basically saying, help me help you do the best job possible, providing the information, it's like the weirdest way of querying stuff because we're so used to providing explicit direction ourselves, right? So to turn it around, it's kind of a new experience, but it's super fun, really interesting, really effective. [00:09:22] Tony Arsenal: And it because you are allowing, in a certain sense, you're sort of asking the AI to drive the conversation. This, this particular prompt, I know the article I read went into details about why this prompt is powerful and the reason this prompt is powerful is not because of anything the AI's doing necessarily, right. It's because you're basically telling the AI. To find what you've missed. And so it's asking you questions. Like if I was to sit down and go like, all right, what are all the things that's wrong, that's causing my son to be awake? Like obviously I didn't figure it out on my own, so it's asking me what I've already tried and what it found out. And then of course when it tells me what it is, it's like the most obvious thing when it figures out what it is. It's identifying something that I already haven't identified because I've told it. I've already tried everything I can think of, and so it's prompting me to try to figure out what it is that I haven't thought of. So those are, like I said, there's lots of ways to sort of get the ais to do that exercise. Um, it's not, it's not just about prompt engineering, although that there's a lot of science now and a lot of like. Specifics on how you do prompt engineering, um, you know, like building a persona for the ai. Like there's all sorts of things you can do and you can add that, like, I could have said something like, um. Uh, you are a pediatric sleep expert, right? And when you tell it that what it's gonna do is it's gonna start to use more technical language, it's gonna, it's gonna speak to you back as though it's a, and this, this is where AI can get a little bit dangerous and really downright scary in some instances. But with that particular prompt, it's gonna start to speak back to you as though it was a clinician of some sort, diagnosing a medical situation, which again. That is definitely not something I would ever endorse. Like, don't let an AI be your doctor. That's just not, like WebMD was already scary enough when you were just telling you what your symptoms were and it was just cross checking it. Um, but you could do something like, and I use these kinds of prompts for our show notes where I'm like, you're an expert at SEO, like at um, podcast show notes. Utilizing SEO search terms, like that's part of the prompt that I use when I use, um, in, in this case, I use notion to generate most of our show notes. Um, it, it starts to change the way that it looks at things and the way that it, I, it responds to you based on different prompts. So I think it, it's a little bit scary, uh, AI. Can be a strange, strange place. And there's some, they're doing some research that is a little bit frightening. They did a study and actually, like, they, they basically like unlocked an AI and gave it access to a pretend company with emails and stuff and said that a particular employee was gonna shut out, was gonna delete the ai. And the first thing it did was try to like blackmail the employee with like a risk, like a scandalous email. It had. Then after that they, they engineered a scenario where the AI actually had the ability to kill the employee. And despite like explicit instructions not to do anything illegal, it still tried to kill the employee. So there's some scary things that are coming up if we're not, you know, if, if the science is not able to get that under control. But right now it's just a lot of fun. Like it's, we're, we're probably not at the point where it's dangerous yet and hopefully. Hopefully it won't get to that point, but we'll see. We'll see. That got dark real fast, fast, fast. Jesse, you gotta get this. And that was an affirmation. I guess I'm affirming killer murder ais that are gonna kill us all, but uh, we're gonna have fun with it until they do at least. [00:12:52] Jesse Schwamb: Thanks for not making that deny against. 'cause I can only imagine the direction that one to taken. [00:12:57] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. At least when the AI hears this, it's gonna know that I'm on its side, so, oh, for sure. I, for one, welcome our new AI overlords. So as do Iye. [00:13:05] Christmas Hymns and Music Recommendations [00:13:05] Tony Arsenal: But Jesse, what are you affirming or denying today to get me out of this pit here? [00:13:09] Jesse Schwamb: So, lemme start with a question. Do you have a favorite Christmas hymn? And if so, what is it? [00:13:16] Tony Arsenal: Ooh, that's a tough one. Um, I think I've always been really partial to Oh, holy Night. But, uh, there's, there's not anything that really jumps to mind my, as I've become older and crankier and more Scottish in spirit, I just, Christmas hymns just aren't as. If they're not as prominent in my mind, but oh, holy night or come coming, Emanuel is probably a really good one too. [00:13:38] Jesse Schwamb: Wow. Those are the, those are like the top in the top three for me. Yeah. So I think [00:13:42] Tony Arsenal: I know where you're going based on the question. [00:13:44] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, we're very much the same. So, well maybe, so I am affirming with, but it's that time of year and people you, you know and love and maybe yourself, you're gonna listen to Christian music and. That's okay. I put no shade on that, especially because we're talking about the incarnation, celebrate the incarnation. But of course, I think the best version of that is some of these really lovely hymns because they could be sung and worshiped through all year round. We just choose them because they fit in with the calendar particularly well here, and sometimes they're included, their lyrics included in Hallmark cards and, and your local. Cool. Coles. So while that's happening, why not embrace it? But here's my information is why not go with some different versions. I love the hymn as you just said. Oh, come will come Emmanuel. And so I'm gonna give people three versions of it to listen to Now to make my list of this kind of repertoire. The song's gotta maintain that traditional melody. I think to a strong degree, it's gotta be rich and deep and dark, especially Ko Emmanuel. But it's gotta have something in it that's a little bit nuanced. Different creative arrangements, musicality. So let me give two brand new ones that you may not have heard versions and one old one. So the old one is by, these are all Ko Emanuel. So if at some point during this you're like, what song is he talking about? It's Ko. Emmanuel. It's just three times. Th we're keeping it th Rice tonight. So the first is by band called for today. That's gonna be a, a little bit harder if you want something that, uh, gets you kind of pumped up in the midst of this redemption. That's gonna be the version. And then there are two brand new ones. One is by skillet, which is just been making music forever, but the piano melody they bring into this and they do a little something nuanced with the chorus that doesn't pull away too much. From the original, but just gives it a little extra like Tastiness. Yeah. Skill. Great version. And then another one that just came out yesterday. My yesterday, not your yesterday. So actually it doesn't even matter at this point. It's already out is by descriptor. And this would be like the most chill version that is a hardcore band by, I would say tradition, but in this case, their version is very chill. All of them I find are just deeply worshipful. Yeah. And these, the music is very full of impact, but of course the lyrics are glorious. I really love this, this crying out to God for the Savior. This. You know, just, it's really the, the plea that we should have now, which is, you know, maranatha like Lord Jesus, come. And so in some ways we're, we're celebrating that initial plea and cry for redemption as it has been applied onto us by the Holy Spirit. And we're also saying, you know, come and fulfill your kingdom, Lord, come and bring the full promise, which is here, but not yet. So I like all three of these. So for today. Skillet descriptor, which sounds like we're playing like a weird word game when you put those all together. It does, but they're all great bands and their versions I think are, are worthy. So the larger affirmation, I suppose, is like, go out this season and find different versions, like mix it up a little bit. Because it's good to hear this music somewhat afresh, and so I think by coming to it with different versions of it, you'll get a little bit of that sense. It'll make maybe what is, maybe if it's felt rote or mundane or just trivial, like you're saying, kind of revive some of these pieces in our hearts so we can, we, we can really worship through them. We're redeeming them even as they're meant to be expressions of the ultimate redemption. [00:16:55] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, I, um, I heard the skillet version and, uh, you know, you know me like I'm not a huge fan of harder music. Yeah. But that, that song Slaps man, it's, yes, [00:17:07] Jesse Schwamb: it does. It's [00:17:07] Tony Arsenal: good. And Al I mean, it, it also ignited this weird firestorm of craziness online. I don't know if you heard anything about this, but Yes, it was, it was, there was like the people who absolutely love it and will. Fight you if you don't. Yes. And then there was like the people who think it's straight from the devil because of somehow demonic rhythms, whatever that means. Um, but yeah, I mean, I'm not a big fan of the heavier music, but there is something about that sort of, uh. I don't know. Is skill, would that be considered like metal at all? [00:17:38] Jesse Schwamb: Oh, that's a loaded question. Probably. [00:17:39] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. So like I found, uh, this is, we're gonna go down to Rabbit Trail here. Let's do it. Here we go. I found a version of Africa by Toto that was labeled as metal on YouTube. So I don't know whether it actually is, and this, this version of skill, it strikes me as very similar, where it's, ah, uh, it, it's like, um. The harmonies are slightly different in terms of like how they resonate than Okay. Other harmonies. Like I get [00:18:05] Jesse Schwamb: that [00:18:06] Tony Arsenal: there's a certain, you know, like when you think about like Western music, there's certain right, there's certain harmonies when, you know, think about like piano chords are framed and my understanding at least this could be way off, and I'm sure you're gonna correct me if I'm wrong, is that um, metal music, heavy metal music uses slightly different. Chord formations that it almost leaves you feeling a little unresolved. Yes, but not quite unresolved. Like it's just, it's, it's more the harmonics are different, so that's fair. Skillet. This skillet song is so good, and I think you're right. It, it retains the sort of like. The same basic melody, the same, the same basic harmonies, actually. Right. And it's, it's almost like the harmonies are just close enough to being put into a different key with the harmonies. Yes, [00:18:52] Jesse Schwamb: that's true [00:18:53] Tony Arsenal: than then. Uh, but not quite actually going into another key. So like, sometimes you'll see online, you'll find YouTube videos where they play like pop songs, but they've changed the, the. Chords a little bit. So now it's in a minor key. It's almost like it's there. It's like one more little note shift and it would be there. Um, and then there's some interesting, uh, like repetition and almost some like anal singing going on, that it's very good. Even if you don't like heavier music. Like, like I don't, um, go listen to it and I think you'll find yourself like hitting repeat a couple times. It was very, very good. [00:19:25] Jesse Schwamb: That's a good way of saying it. A lot of times that style is a little bit dissonant, if that's what you mean in the court. Yeah. Formation. So it gives you this unsettledness, this almost unresolvedness, and that's in there. Yeah. And just so everybody knows, actually, if you listen to that version from Skillet, you'll probably listen to most of it. You'll get about two thirds of the way through it and probably be saying, what are those guys talking about? It's the breakdown. Where it amps up. But before that, I think anybody could listen to it and just enjoy it. It's a really beautiful, almost haunting piano melody. They bring into the intro in that, in the interlude. It's very lovely. So it gives you that sense. Again, I love this kind of music because there's almost something, there is something in this song that's longing for something that is wanting and yet left, unresolved and unfulfilled until the savior comes. There's almost a lament in it, so to speak, especially with like the way it's orchestrated. So I love that this hymn is like deep and rich in that way. It's, that's fine. Like if you want to sing deck the Holes, that's totally fine. This is just, I think, better and rich and deeper and more interesting because it does speak to this life of looking for and waiting for anticipating the advent of the savior. So to get me get put back in that place by music, I think is like a net gain this time of year. It's good to have that perspective. I'm, I'm glad you've heard it. We should just open that debate up whether or not we come hang out in the telegram chat. We'll put it in that debate. Is skillet hardcore or metal? We'll just leave it there 'cause I have my opinions, but I'm, well, I'm sure everybody else does. [00:20:48] Tony Arsenal: I don't even know what those words mean, Jesse. Everything is hardcore in metal compared to what I normally listen to. I don't even listen to music anymore usually, so I, I mean, I'm like mostly all podcasts all the time. Anytime I have time, I don't have a ton of time to listen to. Um, audio stuff, but [00:21:06] Jesse Schwamb: that's totally fair. Well now everybody now join us though. [00:21:08] Tony Arsenal: Educate me [00:21:09] Jesse Schwamb: now. Everybody can properly use, IM prompt whatever AI of their choice, and they can listen to at least three different versions of al comical manual. And then they can tell us which one do you like the best? Or maybe you have your own version. That's what she was saying. What's your favorite Christmas in? [00:21:23] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. And [00:21:24] Jesse Schwamb: what version of it do you like? I mean, it'll be like. [00:21:28] Tony Arsenal: It'll be like, despite my best efforts, I've been un unable to understand what hardcore and medical is. Please help me understand. [00:21:37] Jesse Schwamb: Oh, we're gonna have some, some fun with this at some point. We'll have to get into the whole debate, though. I know you and I have talked about it before. We'll put it before the brothers and sisters about a Christmas Carol and what version everybody else likes. That's also seems like, aside from the, the whole eternal debate, which I'm not sure is really serious about whether or not diehard is a Christmas movie, this idea of like, which version of the Christmas Carol do you subscribe to? Yeah. Which one would you watch if you can only watch one? Which one will you watch? That's, we'll have to save that for another time. [00:22:06] Tony Arsenal: We'll save it for another time. And we get a little closer to midwinter. No reason we just can't [00:22:10] Jesse Schwamb: do it right now because we gotta get to Luke 15. [00:22:12] Discussion on the Parable of the Lost Coin [00:22:12] Tony Arsenal: We do. [00:22:13] Jesse Schwamb: We, we've already been in this place of looking at Jesus' response to the Pharisees when they say to him, listen, this man receives sinners and eats with them. And Jesus is basically like, yeah, that's right. And let me tell you three times what the heart of God is like and what my mission in serving him is like, and what I desire to come to do for my children. And so we spoke in the last conversation about the parable lost sheep. Go check that out. Some are saying, I mean, I'm not saying this, but some are saying in the internet, it's the definitive. Congratulation of that parable. I'm, I'm happy to take that if that's true. Um, but we wanna go on to this parable of the lost coin. So let me read, it's just a couple of verses and you're gonna hear in the text that you're going to understand right away. This is being linked because it starts with or, so this is Jesus speaking and this is Luke 15, chapter 15, starting in verse eight. Jesus says, or a what woman? She has 10 D drachmas and loses. One drachma does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it. And when she has found it, she calls together her friend and her neighbors saying, rejoice with me for I found the D Drachma, which I lost in the same way I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. [00:23:27] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. On one level, this is, uh, again, it's not all that complicated of a scenario, right? And we have to kind of go back and relo through some of the stuff we talked about last week because this is a continuation of, you know, when we first talked about the Matthew 13 parables, we commented on like. Christ was coming back to the same themes, right? And in some ways, repeating the parable. This is even stronger than that. It's not just that Christ is teaching the same thing across multiple parables. The sense here, at least the sense I get when I read this parable, the lost sheep, and then the prodigal, um, sun parable or, or the next parable here, um, is actually that Christ is just sort of like hammering home the one point he's making to the tax collectors and or to the tax collectors or to the scribes who are complaining about the fact that Christ was eating with sinners. He's just hammering this point home, right? So it's not, it's not to try to add. A lot of nuance to the point. It's not to try to add a, a shade of meaning. Um. You know, we talked a lot about how parables, um, Christ tells parables in part to condemn the listeners who will not receive him, right? That's right. This is one of those situations where it's not, it's not hiding the meaning of the parable from them. The meaning is so obvious that you couldn't miss it, and he, he appeals, we talked about in the first, in the first part of this, he actually appeals to like what the ordinary response would be. Right? What man of you having a hundred sheep if he loses one, does not. Go and leave the 99. Like it's a scenario that anyone who goes, well, like, I wouldn't do that is, looks like an idiot. Like, that's, that's the point of the why. He phrases it. And so then you're right when he, when he begins with this, he says, or what woman having 10 silver coins if she loses one, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until he, till she finds it. And of course, the, the, the emphasis again is like no one in their right mind would not do this. And I think like we think about a coin and like that's the smallest denomination of money that we have. Like, I wouldn't, like if I lost a, if I had 10 silver coin, 10 coins and I lost one of them, the most that that could be is what? 50 cents? Like the, like if I had a 50 cent piece or a silver dollar, I guess, like I could lose a dollar. We're not really talking about coins the way we think of coins, right? We're talking about, um. Um, you know, like denominations of money that are substantial in that timeframe. Like it, there was, there were small coins, but a silver coin would be a substantial amount of money to lose. So we are not talking about a situation where this is, uh, a trivial kind of thing. She's not looking for, you know, I've, I've heard this parable sort of like unpacked where like, it's almost like a miserly seeking for like this lost coin. Interesting. It's not about, it's not about like. Penny pinching here, right? She's not trying to find a tiny penny that isn't worth anything that's built into the parable, right? It's a silver coin. It's not just any coin. It's a silver coin. So she's, she's looking for this coin, um, because it is a significant amount of money and because she's lost it, she's lost something of her, of her overall wealth. Like there's a real loss. Two, this that needs to be felt before he can really move on with the parable. It's not just like some small piece of property, like there's a [00:26:57] Jesse Schwamb: right. I [00:26:57] Tony Arsenal: don't know if you've ever lost a large amount of money, but I remember one time I was in, um, a. I was like, almost outta high school, and I had taken some money out of, um, out of the bank, some cash to make a purchase. I think I was purchasing a laptop and I don't know why I, I don't, maybe I didn't have a credit card or I didn't have a debit card, but I was purchasing a laptop with cash. Right. And back then, like laptops, like this was not a super expensive laptop, but. It was a substantial amount of cash and I misplaced it and it was like, oh no, like, where is it? And like, I went crazy trying to find it. This is the situation. She's lost a substantial amount of money. Um, this parable, unlike the last one, doesn't give you a relative amount of how many she has. Otherwise. She's just lost a significant amount of money. So she takes all these different steps to try to find it. [00:27:44] Understanding the Parable's Context [00:27:44] Tony Arsenal: We have to feel that loss before we really can grasp what the parable is trying to teach us. [00:27:49] Jesse Schwamb: I like that, so I'm glad you brought that up because I ended up going down a rabbit hole with this whole coined situation. [00:27:56] Tony Arsenal: Well, we're about to, Matt Whitman some of this, aren't we? [00:27:58] Jesse Schwamb: Yes, I think so. But mainly because, and this is not really my own ideas here, there's, there's a lot I was able to kind of just read and kind. Throw, throw something around this because I think you're absolutely right that Jesus is bringing an ES escalation here and it's almost like a little bit easier for us to understand the whole sheep thing. I think the context of the lost coin, like you're already saying, is a little bit less familiar to us, and so I got into this. Rabbit hole over the question, why would this woman have 10 silver coins? I really got stuck on like, so why does she have these? And Jesus specific about that he's giving a particular context. Presumably those within his hearing in earshot understood this context far better than I did. So what I was surprised to see is that a lot of commentators you probably run into this, have stated or I guess promulgated this idea that the woman is young and unmarried and the 10 silver coins could. Could represent a dowry. So in some way here too, like it's not just a lot of money, it's possible that this was her saving up and it was a witness to her availability for marriage. [00:28:57] The Significance of the Lost Coin [00:28:57] Jesse Schwamb: So e either way, if that's true or not, Jesus is really emphasizing to us there's significant and severe loss here. And so just like you said, it would be a fool who would just like say, oh, well that's too bad. The coin is probably in here somewhere, but eh, I'm just gonna go about my normal business. Yeah. And forsake it. Like, let's, let's not worry about it. So. The emphasis then on this one is not so much like the leaving behind presumably can keep the remaining nine coins somewhere safe if you had them. But this effort and this diligence to, to go after and find this lost one. So again, we know it's all about finding what was lost, but this kind of momentum that Jesus is bringing to this, like the severity of this by saying there was this woman, and of course like here we find that part of this parable isn't just in the, the kingdom of God's like this, like we were talking about before. It's more than that because there's this expression of, again, the situation combined with these active verbs. I think we talked about last time that Christ love is an act of love and it's always being acted upon the sinner, the one who has to be redeemed, his child whom he goes after. So in the same way, we have Christ showing the self-denying love. Like in the first case, the shepherd brought his sheep home on his shoulders rather than leave it in the wilderness. And then here. The woman does like everything. She lights the candle, she sweeps the house. She basically turns the thing, the place upside down, searching diligently and spared no pains with this until she found her lost money. And before we get into the whole rejoicing thing, it just strikes me that, you know, in the same way, I think what we have here is Christ affirming that he didn't spare himself. He's not gonna spare himself. When he undertakes to save sinners, he does all the things. He endures the cross scor in shame. He lays down his life for his friends. There's no greater love than that. It cannot be shown, and so Christ's love is deep and mighty. It's like this woman doing all the things, tearing the place apart to ensure that that which she knew she had misplaced comes back to her. That the full value of everything that she knows is hers. Is safe and secure in her possession and so does the Lord Jesus rejoice the safe sinners in the same way. And that's where this is incredibly powerful. It's not just, Hey, let me just say it to you one more time. There is a reemphasis here, but I like where you're going, this re-escalation. I think the first question is, why do the woman have this money? What purpose is it serving? And I think if we can at least try to appreciate some of that, then we see again how Jesus is going after that, which is that he, he wants to save the sinner. He wants to save the soul. And all of the pleasure, then all of the rejoicing comes because, and, and as a result of that context. [00:31:22] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. [00:31:23] Theological Implications of God's People [00:31:23] Tony Arsenal: The other thing, um, maybe, and, and I hope I'm not overreading again, we've, we've talked about the dangers of overreading, the parables, but I think there's a, and we'll, we'll come to this too when we get into the, um, prodigal son. Um, there is this sense, I think in some theological traditions that. God is sort of like claiming a people who were not his own. Right. And one of the things that I love about the reform tradition, and, and I love it because this is the picture the Bible teaches, is the emphasis on the fact that God's people have been God's people. As long as God has been pondering and con like contemplating them. So like we deny eternal justification, right? Justification happens in time and there's a real change in our status, in in time when, when the spirit applies, the benefits that Christ has purchased for us in redemption, right? But there's also a very real sense that God has been looking and considering us as his people in eternity past. Like that's always. That's the nature of the Pactum salutes, the, you know, covenant of redemption election. The idea that like God is not saving a nameless, faceless people. He's not creating conditions that people can either move themselves into or take themselves out of. He has a concrete people. Who he is saving, who he has chosen. He, he, you know, prior to our birth, he will redeem us. He now, he has redeemed us and he will preserve us in all of these parables, whether it's the sheep, the coin, or as we'll get to the prodigal sun next week or, or whenever. Um. It's not that God is discovering something new that he didn't have, or it's not that the woman is discovering a coin, right? There's nothing more, uh, I think nothing more like sort of, uh, spontaneously delightful than like when you like buy a, like a jacket at the thrift store. Like you go to Salvation Army and you buy a jacket, you get home, you reach in the pocket and there's like a $10 bill and you're like, oh man, that's so, so great. Or like, you find a, you find a. A $10 bill on the ground, or you find a quarter on the ground, right? Yeah. Or you find your own money. Well, and that that's, there's a different kind of joy, right? That's the point, is like, there's a delight that comes with finding something. And again, like we have to be careful about like, like not stealing, right? But there's a different kind of joy that comes with like finding something that was not yours that now becomes yours. We talked about that with parables a couple weeks ago, right? There's a guy who finds it, he's, he's searching for pearls. He finds a pearl, and so he goes after he sells everything he has and he claims that pearl, but that wasn't his before the delight was in sort of finding something new. These parables. The delight is in reclaiming and refining something that was yours that was once lost. Right? That's a different thing. And it paints a picture, a different picture of God than the other parables where, you know, the man kind of stumbles on treasure in a field or he finds a pearl that he was searching for, but it wasn't his pearl. This is different. This is teaching us that God is, is zealous and jealous to reclaim that which was his, which was lost. Yes. Right. So, you know, we can get, we can, maybe we will next week, maybe we will dig into like super laps area versus infra laps. AIRism probably not, I don't necessarily wanna have that conversation. But there is a reality in the Bible where God has a chosen people and they are his people, even before he redeems them. [00:34:52] Jesse Schwamb: Exactly. [00:34:53] God's Relentless Pursuit of Sinners [00:34:53] Tony Arsenal: These parables all emphasize that in a different way and part of what he's, part of what he's ribbing at with the Pharisees and the, and the scribes, and this is common across all of Christ's teaching in his interactions and we get into true Israel with, with Paul, I mean this is the consistent testimony of the New Testament, is that the people who thought they were God's people. The, the Jewish leaders, especially the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, the, the sort of elites of, uh, first century Jewish believers, they really were convinced that they were God's people. And those dirty gentiles out there, they, they're not, and even in certain sense, like even the Jewish people out in the country who don't even, you know, they don't know the scriptures that like, even those people were maybe barely God's people. Christ is coming in here and he is going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like you're asking me. You're surprised that I receive sinners and e with them. Well, I'm coming to claim that which is mine, which was lost, and the right response to that is not to turn your nose up at it. The right response is to rejoice with me that I have found my sheep that was lost, that I have reclaimed my coin that was lost. And as we'll see later on, like he really needles them at the end of the, the, uh, parable of the prodigal son. This is something I, I have to be like intentional in my own life because I think sometimes we hear conversion stories and we have this sort of, I, I guess like, we'll call it like the, the Jonah I heresy, I dunno, we won't call it heresy, but like the, the, the like Jonah impulse that we all have to be really thankful for God's mercy in our life. But sort of question whether God is. Merciful or even be a little bit upset when it seems that God is being merciful to those sinners over there. We have to really like, use these parables in our own lives to pound that out of our system because it's, it's ungodly and it's not what God is, is calling us. And these parables really speak against that [00:36:52] Jesse Schwamb: and all of us speak in. In that lost state, but that doesn't, I think like you're saying, mean that we are not God's already. That if he has established that from a trinity past, then we'd expect what others have said about God as the hound of heaven to be true. And that is he comes and he chases down his own. What's interesting to me is exactly what you've said. We often recognize when we do this in reverse and we look at the parable of the lost son, all of these elements, how the father comes after him, how there's a cha singer coming to himself. There's this grand act of repentance. I would argue all of that is in all of these parables. Not, not to a lesser extent, just to a different extent, but it's all there. So in terms of like couching this, and I think what we might use is like traditionally reformed language. And I, I don't want to say I'm overeating this, I hope I'm not at that same risk, but we see some of this like toll depravity and like the sinner is lost, unable to move forward, right? There still is like the sovereign grace of God who's initiating the salvation and there is a kind of effect of calling that God doesn't merely invite, he finds, he goes after he affects the very thing. Yeah, and I think we're seeing that here. There is. The sinner, spiritual inability. There's an utter passivity until found. The coin doesn't seek the woman. The woman seeks the coin. And in this way, I think we see God's act of searching grace. It's all there for us. Yeah, it's in a slightly different way, but I think that's what we're meant to like take away from this. We're meant to lean into that a bit. [00:38:12] Rejoicing in Salvation [00:38:12] Jesse Schwamb: And the reason why I think it leads to joy, why God is so pleased is because God has this real pleasure. Jesus has this real pleasure. The Holy Spirit has this real pleasure. To pluck sinners as brands from the burning fire. You know, it was Jesus, literally his food and drink like not to be too trite, but like his jam went upon the earth to finish the work, which he came to do. And there are many times when he says he ammi of being constrained in the spirit until this was accomplished. And it's still his delight to show mercy like you're saying He is. And even Jonah recognizes that, right. He said like, I knew you were going to be a merciful God. And so he's far more willing to save sinners than sinners are to be saved. But that is the gospel level voice, isn't it? Because we can come kicking and screaming, but in God's great mercy, not because of works and unrighteousness, but because of his great mercy, he comes and he tears everything apart to rescue and to save those whom he's called to himself. [00:39:06] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I love that old, um, Puritan phrase that wrath is God's alien work. And we, you know, like you gotta be careful when you start to talk that way. And the Puritans were definitely careful about everything. I mean, they were very specific when they spoke, but. When we talk about God's alien work and wrath being God's alien work, what we're saying is not, not that like somehow wrath is external to God. Like that's not what we're getting at of Right. But when you look at scripture and, and here's something that I think, um. I, I don't know how I wanna say this. Like, I think we read that the road is narrow and the the, um, you know, few are those who find it. I think we read that and we somehow think like, yeah, God, God, like, really loves that. Not a lot of people are saved. And I, I actually think that like, when we look at it, um, and, and again, like we have to be careful 'cause God, God. God decreed that which he is delighted by, and also that which glorifies him the most. Right? Right. But the picture that we get in scripture, and we have to take this seriously with all of the caveats that it's accommodated, it's anthropopathism that, you know, all of, all of the stuff we've talked about. We did a whole series on systematic theology. We did like six episodes on Divine Simplicity and immutability. Like we we're, we're right in line with the historic tradition on that. All of those caveats, uh, all of those caveats in place, the Bible pic paints a picture of God such that he grieves over. Those who are lost. Right? Right. He takes no delight in the death of the wicked. That's right. He, he, he seeks after the lost and he rejoices when he finds them. Right. He's, his, his Holy Spirit is grieved when we disobey him, his, his anger is kindled even towards his people in a paternal sense. Right. He disciplines us the way an angry father who loves us, would discipline us when we disobey him. That is a real, that's a real thing. What exactly that means, how we can apply that to God is a very complicated conversation. And maybe sometimes it's more complicated than we, like, we make it more complicated than it needs to be for sure. Um, we wanna be careful to preserve God's changeness, his immutability, his simplicity, all of those things. But at the end of the day, at. God grieves over lost sinners, and he rejoices when they come back. He rejoices when they return to him. Just as the shepherd who finds his lost sheep puts that sheep on his shoulders, right? That's not just because that's an easy way to carry a sheep, right? It's also like this picture of this loving. Intimate situation where God pulls us onto himself and he, he wraps literally like wraps us around himself. Like there are times when, um. You know, I have a toddler and there are times where I have to carry that toddler, and it's, it's a fight, right? And I don't really enjoy doing it. He's squirming, he's fighting. Then there are times where he needs me to hold him tight, and he, he snuggles in. When he falls down and hurts his leg, the first thing he does is he runs and he jumps on me, and he wants to be held tight, and there's a f there's a fatherly embrace there that not only brings comfort to my son. But it brings great joy to me to be able to comfort him that that dynamic in a, uh, a infinitely greater sense is at play here in the lost sheep. And then there's this rejoicing. It's not just rejoicing that God is rejoicing, it's the angels that are rejoicing. [00:42:43] The Joy of Redemption [00:42:43] Tony Arsenal: It's the, it's other Christians. It's the great cloud of witnesses that are rejoicing when Aah sinner is returned to God. All of God's kingdom and everything that that includes, all of that is involved in this rejoicing. That's why I think like in the first parable, in the parable of the lost sheep, it's joy in heaven. Right? It's sort of general joy in heaven. It's not specific. Then this one is even more specific. It's not just general joy in heaven. It's the angels of God. That's right. That are rejoicing. And then I think what we're gonna find, and we'll we'll tease this out when we get to the next par, well the figure in the prodigal son that is rejoicing. The one that is leading the rejoicing, the chief rejoice is the one who's the standin for God in that parable. [00:43:26] Jesse Schwamb: Right, exactly right. So, [00:43:27] Tony Arsenal: so we have to, we have to both recognize that there's a true grief. A true sorrow that is appropriate to speak of God, um, as having when a sinner is lost. And there's also an equally appropriate way to speak about God rejoicing and being pleased and delighted when a sinner returns to him. [00:43:53] Jesse Schwamb: That's the real payoff of this whole parable. I think, uh, maybe all three of them altogether, is that it is shocking how good the gospel is, which we're always saying, yeah, but I'm really always being moved, especially these last couple weeks with what Jesus is saying about how good, how truly unbelievable the gospel is. And again, it draws us to the. Old Testament scriptures when even the Israel saying, who is like this? Who is like our God? So what's remarkable about this is that there's an infinite willingness on God's part to receive sinners. [00:44:23] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. [00:44:23] Jesse Schwamb: And however wicked a man may have been, and the day that he really turns from his wickedness and comes to God by Christ, God is well pleased and all of heaven with him, and God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, like you said, but God has pleasure and true repentance. If all of that's true, then like day to day, here's what I, I think this means for us. [00:44:41] Applying the Parable to Our Lives [00:44:41] Jesse Schwamb: Is when we come to Christ for mercy and love and help and whatever anguish and perplexity and simpleness that we all have, and we all have it, we are going with the flow. If his own deepest wishes, we're not going against them. And so this means that God has for us when we partake in the toning work of Christ, coming to Christ for forgiveness, communing with him despite our sinfulness, that we are laying hold of Christ's own deepest longing and joy. [00:45:10] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. And [00:45:10] Jesse Schwamb: Jesus is comforted when we draw near the riches of his atoning work because as his body, even his own body in a way is being healed in this process. And so we, along with it, that I think is the payoff here. That's what's just so remarkable is that not only, like you're saying, is all heaven kind of paying attention to this. Like they're cognizant of it. It's something worthy of their attention and their energies and their rejoicing. But again, it's showing that God is doing all of this work and so he keeps calling us and calling us and calling us over and over again and just like you said, the elect sinner, those estr belongs to God and his eternal purpose. Even that by itself, we could just say full stop. Shut it down end the podcast. Yeah. That's just worthy to, to rejoice and, and ponder. But this is how strong I think we see like per election in particular, redemption in these passages. Christ died for his chief specifically crisis going after the lost coin, which already belongs to him. So like you were saying, Tony, when you know, or maybe you don't know, but you've misplaced some kind of money and you put your hand in that pocket of that winter coat for the first time that season and out comes the piece of paper, that's whatever, 20 or whatever, you rejoice in that, right. Right. It's like this was mine. I knew it was somewhere, it belonged to me, except that what's even better here is this woman tears her whole place apart to go after this one coin that she knows is hers and yet has been lost. I don't know what more it is to be said. I just cannot under emphasize. Or overemphasize how great God's love is in this like amazing condescension, so that when Jesus describes himself as being gentle and lowly or gentle and humble or gentle and humiliated, that I, I think as we understand the biblical text, it's not necessarily just that he's saying, well, I'm, I'm displaying. Meekness power under control. When he says he's humble, he means put in this incredibly lowly state. Yeah. That the rescue mission, like you're saying, involves not just like, Hey, she lemme call you back. Hey, come over here, says uh. He goes and he picks it up. It's the ultimate rescue, picks it up and takes it back by his own volition, sacrificing everything or to do that and so does this woman in this particular instance, and it should lead us. I think back to there's this virtuous cycle of seeing this, experiencing this. Being compelled by the law of Christ, as Paul says, by the power of the Holy Spirit and being regenerated and then worshiping, and then repenting, and then worshiping, and then repenting, and then worshiping. Because in the midst of that repentance and that beautifulness recognizing, as Isaiah says, all of these idols that we set up, that we run to, the one thing they cannot do for us is they cannot deal with sin. They cannot bring cleanliness and righteousness through confession of sin. They cannot do that. So Christ is saying, come to the one you who are needy, you who have no money. To use another metaphor in the Bible, come and buy. And in doing so, we're saying, Christ, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner. And when he says, come, come, I, I've, I have already run. After you come and be restored, come and be renewed. That which was lost my child. You have been found and I have rescued you. [00:48:04] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And these, these are so, um, these two parables are so. Comfortable. Like, right, like they are there, there are certain passages of scripture that you can just like put on like a big fuzzy warm bathrobe on like sn a cold morning, a snuggy. Yeah. I don't know if I want to go that far, but spirits are snuggy and, and these two are like that, right? Like, I know there are times where I feel like Christ redeemed me sort of begrudgingly, right? Mm-hmm. I think we have, we have this, um, concept in our mind of. Sort of the suffering servant, you know, like he's kind of like, ah, if I have to do it, I will. Right, right. And, and like, I think we, we would, if, if we were the ones who were, were being tasked to redeem something, we might do it. You know, we might do it and we. We might feel a certain sense of satisfaction about it, but I can tell you that if I had a hundred sheep and I had lost one, I would not lay it on my shoulder rejoicing. I would lay it on my shoulder. Frustrated and glad that I finally found it, but like. Right. Right. That's not what Christ did. That's right. Christ lays us on his shoulders rejoicing. Right. I know. Like when you lose something, it's frustrating and it's not just the loss of it that's frustrating. It's the time you have to take to find it. And sometimes like, yeah, you're happy that you found it, but you're like, man, it would've just been nice if I hadn't lost this in [00:49:36] Jesse Schwamb: the That's right. [00:49:37] Tony Arsenal: This woman, there's none of that. There's no, um, there's no regret. There's no. Uh, there's no begrudging this to it. There's nothing. It's just rejoicing. She's so happy. And it's funny, I can imagine, uh, maybe, maybe this is my own, uh, lack of sanctification here. I can imagine being that friend that's like, I gotta come over 'cause you found your coin, right? Like, I can be, I could imagine me that person, but Right. But honestly, like. This is a, this is a situation where she's so overcome with joy. She just has to tell people about it. Yeah. She has to share it with people. It, it reminds me, and I've seen this, I've seen this, um, connection made in the past certainly isn't new to me. I don't, I don't have any specific sorts to say, but like the woman at the well, right. She gets this amazing redemption. She gets this, this Messiah right in front of her. She leaves her buckets at the well, and she goes into a town of people who probably hate her, who think she's just the worst scum of society and she doesn't care. She goes into town to tell everybody about the fact that the Messiah has come, right? And they're so like stunned by the fact that she's doing it. Like they come to see what it is like that's what we need to be like. So there's. There's an element here of not only the rejoicing of God, and again, like, I guess I'm surprised because I've, I've, I've never sort of really read this. Part, I've never read this into it too much or I've never like really pulled this out, but it, now that I'm gonna say it, it just seems logical, like not only is God rejoicing in this, but again, it should be calling us to rejoice, right? Christ is. Christ is using these parables to shame the Pharisees and the scribes who refuse to rejoice over the salvation of sinners. How often do we not rejoice over our own salvation sufficiently? Like when's the last time? And I, I don't want to, this is, this can be a lot of loss. So again, like. God is not calling every single person to stand up on their lunch table at work, or, I don't know if God's calling anybody to stand up on the lunch table at work. Right. To like, like scream about how happy they are that they're sick, happy, happy. But like, when's the last time you were so overcome with joy that in the right opportunity, it just over, like it just overcame you and you had to share it. I don't rem. Putting myself bare here, like I don't remember the last time that happened. I share my faith with people, like my coworkers know that I'm a Christian and, um, my, they know that like, there are gonna be times where like I will bring biblical ethics and biblical concepts into my work. Like I regularly use bible examples to illustrate a principle I'm trying to teach my employees or, or I will regularly sort of. In a meeting where there's some question about what the right, not just like the correct thing to do, but the right thing to do. I will regularly bring biblical morality into those conversations. Nobody is surprised by that. Nobody's really offended by it. 'cause I just do it regularly. But I don't remember the last time where I was so overcome with joy because of my salvation that I just had to tell somebody. Right. And that's a, that's a, that's an indictment on me. That's not an indictment on God. That's not an indictment on anyone else. That's an indictment on me. This parable is calling me to be more joyful about. My salvation. [00:52:52] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. One of the, I think the best and easiest verses from Psalms to memorize is let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Yes. Like, say something, speak up. There's, there's a great truth in what you're saying. Of course. And I think we mentioned this last time. There's a communal delight of redemption. And here we see that played out maybe a little bit more explicitly because the text says that the joy is before the angels, meaning that still God is the source of the joy. In other words, the angels share in God's delight night, vice versa, and not even just in salvation itself, but the fact that God is delighted in this great salvation, that it shows the effectiveness of his saving power. All that he has designed will come to pass because he super intends his will over all things that all things, again are subservient to our salvation. And here, why would that not bring him great joy? Because that's exactly what he intends and is able to do. And the angels rejoice along with him because his glory is revealed in his mighty power. So I'm, I'm with you. I mean, this reminds me. Of what the author of Hebrew says. This is chapter 12, just the first couple of verses. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses in this communal kind of redemption of joy surrounding us. Laying aside every weight and the sin,
Tori sits down with friend DeAnna Pappas for a no-BS chat about divorce, healing, and jumping back into the dating world as a mom. The two get real about navigating heartbreak, the messy grief of rebuilding your life, and why 2026 is officially their year of peace. Plus, DeAnna spills on her new podcast Famously Available and the cringe-worthy on-air date that went well… until ** WAIT FOR IT!** They trade modern-dating horror stories, dish on co-parenting struggles, and share exactly what they want LOVE to look like next.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Tori sits down with friend DeAnna Pappas for a no-BS chat about divorce, healing, and jumping back into the dating world as a mom. The two get real about navigating heartbreak, the messy grief of rebuilding your life, and why 2026 is officially their year of peace. Plus, DeAnna spills on her new podcast Famously Available and the cringe-worthy on-air date that went well… until ** WAIT FOR IT!** They trade modern-dating horror stories, dish on co-parenting struggles, and share exactly what they want LOVE to look like next.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Tori sits down with friend DeAnna Pappas for a no-BS chat about divorce, healing, and jumping back into the dating world as a mom. The two get real about navigating heartbreak, the messy grief of rebuilding your life, and why 2026 is officially their year of peace. Plus, DeAnna spills on her new podcast Famously Available and the cringe-worthy on-air date that went well… until ** WAIT FOR IT!** They trade modern-dating horror stories, dish on co-parenting struggles, and share exactly what they want LOVE to look like next.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Tori sits down with friend DeAnna Pappas for a no-BS chat about divorce, healing, and jumping back into the dating world as a mom. The two get real about navigating heartbreak, the messy grief of rebuilding your life, and why 2026 is officially their year of peace. Plus, DeAnna spills on her new podcast Famously Available and the cringe-worthy on-air date that went well… until ** WAIT FOR IT!** They trade modern-dating horror stories, dish on co-parenting struggles, and share exactly what they want LOVE to look like next.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Tori sits down with friend DeAnna Pappas for a no-BS chat about divorce, healing, and jumping back into the dating world as a mom. The two get real about navigating heartbreak, the messy grief of rebuilding your life, and why 2026 is officially their year of peace. Plus, DeAnna spills on her new podcast Famously Available and the cringe-worthy on-air date that went well… until ** WAIT FOR IT!** They trade modern-dating horror stories, dish on co-parenting struggles, and share exactly what they want LOVE to look like next.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Famously known for his “peculiar” way of cooking, chemist and one of the co-founders of molecular gastronomy, Hervé This, joins us to give us a peek into this world and why he thinks this is the future of food. From gels and emulsions to using pure chemical compounds to make food, is this food for everyone? How has he - and can we all - reimagine food through chemistry?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Daily Quiz - Entertainment, Society and Culture Today's Questions: Question 1: Which philosopher famously said 'Liberty consists in doing what one desires'? Question 2: What 2009 film is based on Maurice Sendak's beloved children's classic? Question 3: Who plays the role of Star Lord in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Question 4: In Star Wars, what is the name of the Empire's planet-destroying superweapon? Question 5: Which DC Comics supervillain is a menace to Batman? Question 6: Which actor has starred in films including Gladiator and Man of Steel? Question 7: What is the plot of the movie The 400 Blows? Question 8: Which film contains the character 'John McClane'? Question 9: Name the movie that matches the following plot summary: 'In order to power the city, beasts have to scare children so that they scream.' This podcast is produced by Klassic Studios Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
My fellow pro-growth/progress/abundance Up Wingers in America and around the world:What really gets AI optimists excited isn't the prospect of automating customer service departments or human resources. Imagine, rather, what might happen to the pace of scientific progress if AI becomes a super research assistant. Tom Davidson's new paper, How Quick and Big Would a Software Intelligence Explosion Be?, explores that very scenario.Today on Faster, Please! — The Podcast, I talk with Davidson about what it would mean for automated AI researchers to rapidly improve their own algorithms, thus creating a self-reinforcing loop of innovation. We talk about the economic effects of self-improving AI research and how close we are to that reality.Davidson is a senior research fellow at Forethought, where he explores AI and explosive growth. He was previously a senior research fellow at Open Philanthropy and a research scientist at the UK government's AI Security Institute.In This Episode* Making human minds (1:43)* Theory to reality (6:45)* The world with automated research (10:59)* Considering constraints (16:30)* Worries and what-ifs (19:07)Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. Making human minds (1:43). . . you don't have to build any more computer chips, you don't have to build any more fabs . . . In fact, you don't have to do anything at all in the physical world.Pethokoukis: A few years ago, you wrote a paper called “Could Advanced AI Drive Explosive Economic Growth?,” which argued that growth could accelerate dramatically if AI would start generating ideas the way human researchers once did. In your view, population growth historically powered kind of an ideas feedback loop. More people meant more researchers meant more ideas, rising incomes, but that loop broke after the demographic transition in the late-19th century but you suggest that AI could restart it: more ideas, more output, more AI, more ideas. Does this new paper in a way build upon that paper? “How quick and big would a software intelligence explosion be?”The first paper you referred to is about the biggest-picture dynamic of economic growth. As you said, throughout the long run history, when we produced more food, the population increased. That additional output transferred itself into more people, more workers. These days that doesn't happen. When GDP goes up, that doesn't mean people have more kids. In fact, the demographic transition, the richer people get, the fewer kids they have. So now we've got more output, we're getting even fewer people as a result, so that's been blocked.This first paper is basically saying, look, if we can manufacture human minds or human-equivalent minds in any way, be it by building more computer chips, or making better computer chips, or any way at all, then that feedback loop gets going again. Because if we can manufacture more human minds, then we can spend output again to create more workers. That's the first paper.The second paper double clicks on one specific way that we can use output to create more human minds. It's actually, in a way, the scariest way because it's the way of creating human minds which can happen the quickest. So this is the way where you don't have to build any more computer chips, you don't have to build any more fabs, as they're called, these big factories that make computer chips. In fact, you don't have to do anything at all in the physical world.It seems like most of the conversation has been about how much investment is going to go into building how many new data centers, and that seems like that is almost the entire conversation, in a way, at the moment. But you're not looking at compute, you're looking at software.Exactly, software. So the idea is you don't have to build anything. You've already got loads of computer chips and you just make the algorithms that run the AIs on those computer chips more efficient. This is already happening, but it isn't yet a big deal because AI isn't that capable. But already, one year out, Epoch, this AI forecasting organization, estimates that just in one year, it becomes 10 times to 1000 times cheaper to run the same AI system. Just wait 12 months, and suddenly, for the same budget, you are able to run 10 times as many AI systems, or maybe even 1000 times as many for their most aggressive estimate. As I said, not a big deal today, but if we then develop an AI system which is better than any human at doing research, then now, in 10 months, you haven't built anything, but you've got 10 times as many researchers that you can set to work or even more than that. So then we get this feedback loop where you make some research progress, you improve your algorithms, now you've got loads more researchers, you set them all to work again, finding even more algorithmic improvements. So today we've got maybe a few hundred people that are advancing state-of-the-art AI algorithms.I think they're all getting paid a billion dollars a person, too.Exactly. But maybe we can 10x that initially by having them replaced by AI researchers that do the same thing. But then those AI researchers improve their own algorithms. Now you have 10x as many again, you have them building more computer chips, you're just running them more efficiently, and then the cycle continues. You're throwing more and more of these AI researchers at AI progress itself, and the algorithms are improving in what might be a very powerful feedback loop.In this case, it seems me that you're not necessarily talking about artificial general intelligence. This is certainly a powerful intelligence, but it's narrow. It doesn't have to do everything, it doesn't have to play chess, it just has to be able to do research.It's certainly not fully general. You don't need it to be able to control a robot body. You don't need it to be able to solve the Riemann hypothesis. You don't need it to be able to even be very persuasive or charismatic to a human. It's not narrow, I wouldn't say, it has to be able to do literally anything that AI researchers do, and that's a wide range of tasks: They're coding, they're communicating with each other, they're managing people, they are planning out what to work on, they are thinking about reviewing the literature. There's a fairly wide range of stuff. It's extremely challenging. It's some of the hardest work in the world to do, so I wouldn't say it's now, but it's not everything. It's some kind of intermediate level of generality in between a mere chess algorithm that just does chess and the kind of AGI that can literally do anything.Theory to reality (6:45)I think it's a much smaller gap for AI research than it is for many other parts of the economy.I think people who are cautiously optimistic about AI will say something like, “Yeah, I could see the kind of intelligence you're referring to coming about within a decade, but it's going to take a couple of big breakthroughs to get there.” Is that true, or are we actually getting pretty close?Famously, predicting the future of technology is very, very difficult. Just a few years before people invented the nuclear bomb, famous, very well-respected physicists were saying, “It's impossible, this will never happen.” So my best guess is that we do need a couple of fairly non-trivial breakthroughs. So we had the start of RL training a couple of years ago, became a big deal within the language model paradigm. I think we'll probably need another couple of breakthroughs of that kind of size.We're not talking a completely new approach, throw everything out, but we're talking like, okay, we need to extend the current approach in a meaningfully different way. It's going to take some inventiveness, it's going to take some creativity, we're going to have to try out a few things. I think, probably, we'll need that to get to the researcher that can fully automate OpenAI, is a nice way of putting it — OpenAI doesn't employ any humans anymore, they've just got AIs there.There's a difference between what a model can do on some benchmark versus becoming actually productive in the real world. That's why, while all the benchmark stuff is interesting, the thing I pay attention to is: How are businesses beginning to use this technology? Because that's the leap. What is that gap like, in your scenario, versus an AI model that can do a theoretical version of the lab to actually be incorporated in a real laboratory?It's definitely a gap. I think it's a pretty big gap. I think it's a much smaller gap for AI research than it is for many other parts of the economy. Let's say we are talking about car manufacturing and you're trying to get an AI to do everything that happens there. Man, it's such a messy process. There's a million different parts of the supply chain. There's all this tacit knowledge and all the human workers' minds. It's going to be really tough. There's going to be a very big gap going from those benchmarks to actually fully automating the supply chain for cars.For automating what OpenAI does, there's still a gap, but it's much smaller, because firstly, all of the work is virtual. Everyone at OpenAI could, in principle, work remotely. Their top research scientists, they're just on a computer all day. They're not picking up bricks and doing stuff like that. So also that already means it's a lot less messy. You get a lot less of that kind of messy world reality stuff slowing down adoption. And also, a lot of it is coding, and coding is almost uniquely clean in that, for many coding tasks, you can define clearly defined metrics for success, and so that makes AI much better. You can just have a go. Did AI succeed in the test? If not, try something else or do a gradient set update.That said, there's still a lot of messiness here, as any coder will know, when you're writing good code, it's not just about whether it does the function that you've asked it to do, it needs to be well-designed, it needs to be modular, it needs to be maintainable. These things are much harder to evaluate, and so AIs often pass our benchmarks because they can do the function that you asked it to do, the code runs, but they kind of write really spaghetti code — code that no one wants to look at, that no one can understand, and so no company would want to use that.So there's still going to be a pretty big benchmark-to-reality gap, even for OpenAI, and I think that's one of the big uncertainties in terms of, will this happen in three years versus will this happen in 10 years, or even 15 years?Since you brought up the timeline, what's your guess? I didn't know whether to open with that question or conclude with that question — we'll stick it right in the middle of our chat.Great. Honestly, my best guess about this does change more often than I would like it to, which I think tells us, look, there's still a state of flux. This is just really something that's very hard to know about. Predicting the future is hard. My current best guess is it's about even odds that we're able to fully automate OpenAI within the next 10 years. So maybe that's a 50-50.The world with AI research automation (10:59). . . I'm talking about 30 percent growth every year. I think it gets faster than that. If you want to know how fast it eventually gets, you can think about the question of how fast can a kind of self-replicating system double itself?So then what really would be the impact of that kind of AI research automation? How would you go about quantifying that kind of acceleration? What does the world look like?Yeah, so many possibilities, but I think what strikes me is that there is a plausible world where it is just way, way faster than almost everyone is expecting it to be. So that's the world where you fully automate OpenAI, and then we get that feedback loop that I was talking about earlier where AIs make their algorithms way more efficient, now you've got way more of them, then they make their algorithms way more efficient again, now they're way smarter. Now they're thinking a hundred times faster. The feedback loop continues and maybe within six months you now have a billion superintelligent AIs running on this OpenAI data center. The combined cognitive abilities of all these AIs outstrips the whole of the United States, outstrips anything we've seen from any kind of company or entity before, and they can all potentially be put towards any goal that OpenAI wants to. And then there's, of course, the risk that OpenAI's lost control of these systems, often discussed, in which case these systems could all be working together to pursue a particular goal. And so what we're talking about here is really a huge amount of power. It's a threat to national security for any government in which this happens, potentially. It is a threat to everyone if we lose control of these systems, or if the company that develops them uses them for some kind of malicious end. And, in terms of economic impacts, I personally think that that again could happen much more quickly than people think, and we can get into that.In the first paper we mentioned, it was kind of a thought experiment, but you were really talking about moving the decimal point in GDP growth, instead of talking about two and three percent, 20 and 30 percent. Is that the kind of world we're talking about?I speak to economists a lot, and —They hate those kinds of predictions, by the way.Obviously, they think I'm crazy. Not all of them. There are economists that take it very seriously. I think it's taken more seriously than everyone else realizes. It's like it's a bit embarrassing, at the moment, to admit that you take it seriously, but there are a few really senior economists who absolutely know their stuff. They're like, “Yep, this checks out. I think that's what's going to happen.” And I've had conversation with them where they're like, “Yeah, I think this is going to happen.” But the really loud, dominant view where I think people are a little bit scared to speak out against is they're like, “Obviously this is sci-fi.”One analogy I like to give to people who are very, very confident that this is all sci-fi and it's rubbish is to imagine that we were sitting there in the year 1400, imagine we had an economics professor who'd been studying the rate of economic growth, and they've been like, “Yeah, we've always had 0.1 percent growth every single year throughout history. We've never seen anything higher.” And then there was some kind of futurist economist rogue that said, “Actually, I think that if I extrapolate the curves in this way and we get this kind of technology, maybe we could have one percent growth.” And then all the other economists laugh at them, tell them they're insane – that's what happened. In 1400, we'd never had growth that was at all fast, and then a few hundred years later, we developed industrial technology, we started that feedback loop, we were investing more and more resources in scientific progress and in physical capital, and we did see much faster growth.So I think it can be useful to try and challenge economists and say, “Okay, I know it sounds crazy, but history was crazy. This crazy thing happened where growth just got way, way faster. No one would've predicted it. You would not have predicted it.” And I think being in that mindset can encourage people to be like, “Yeah, okay. You know what? Maybe if we do get AI that's really that powerful, it can really do everything, and maybe it is possible.”But to answer your question, yeah, I'm talking about 30 percent growth every year. I think it gets faster than that. If you want to know how fast it eventually gets, you can think about the question of how fast can a kind of self-replicating system double itself? So ultimately, what the economy is going to be like is it's going to have robots and factories that are able to fully create new versions of themselves. Everything you need: the roads, the electricity, the robots, the buildings, all of that will be replicated. And so you can look at actually biology and say, do we have any examples of systems which fully replicate themselves? How long does it take? And if you look at rats, for example, they're able to double the number of rats by grabbing resources from the environment, and giving birth, and whatnot. The doubling time is about six weeks for some types of rats. So that's an example of here's a physical system — ultimately, everything's made of physics — a physical system that has some intelligence that's able to go out into the world, gather resources, replicate itself. The doubling time is six weeks.Now, who knows how long it'll take us to get to AI that's that good? But when we do, you could see the whole physical economy, maybe a part that humans aren't involved with, a whole automated city without any humans just doubling itself every few weeks. If that happens, and the amount of stuff we're able to reduce as a civilization is doubling again on the order of weeks. And, in fact, there are some animals that double faster still, in days, but that's the kind of level of craziness. Now we're talking about 1000 percent growth, at that point. We don't know how crazy it could get, but I think we should take even the really crazy possibilities, we shouldn't fully rule them out.Considering constraints (16:30)I really hope people work less. If we get this good future, and the benefits are shared between all . . . no one should work. But that doesn't stop growth . . .There's this great AI forecast chart put out by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and I think its main forecast — the one most economists would probably agree with — has a line showing AI improving GDP by maybe two tenths of a percent. And then there are two other lines: one is more or less straight up, and the other one is straight down, because in the first, AI created a utopia, and in the second, AI gets out of control and starts killing us, and whatever. So those are your three possibilities.If we stick with the optimistic case for a moment, what constraints do you see as most plausible — reduced labor supply from rising incomes, social pushback against disruption, energy limits, or something else?Briefly, the ones you've mentioned, people not working, 100 percent. I really hope people work less. If we get this good future, and the benefits are shared between all — which isn't guaranteed — if we get that, then yeah, no one should work. But that doesn't stop growth, because when AI and robots can do everything that humans do, you don't need humans in the loop anymore. That whole thing is just going and kind of self-replicating itself and making as many goods as services as we want. Sure, if you want your clothes to be knitted by a human, you're in trouble, then your consumption is stuck. Bad luck. If you're happy to consume goods and services produced by AI systems or robots, fine if no one wants to work.Pushback: I think, for me, this is the biggest one. Obviously, the economy doubling every year is very scary as a thought. Tech progress will be going much faster. Imagine if you woke up and, over the course of the year, you go from not having any telephones at all in the world, to everyone's on their smartphones and social media and all the apps. That's a transition that took decades. If that happened in a year, that would be very disconcerting.Another example is the development of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons were developed over a number of years. If that happened in a month, or two months, that could be very dangerous. There'd be much less time for different countries, different actors to figure out how they're going to handle it. So I think pushback is the strongest one that we might as a society choose, “Actually, this is insane. We're going to go slower than we could.” That requires, potentially, coordination, but I think there would be broad support for some degree of coordination there.Worries and what-ifs (19:07)If suddenly no one has any jobs, what will we want to do with ourselves? That's a very, very consequential transition for the nature of human society.I imagine you certainly talk with people who are extremely gung-ho about this prospect. What is the common response you get from people who are less enthusiastic? Do they worry about a future with no jobs? Maybe they do worry about the existential kinds of issues. What's your response to those people? And how much do you worry about those things?I think there are loads of very worrying things that we're going to be facing. One class of pushback, which I think is very common, is worries about employment. It's a source of income for all of us, employment, but also, it's a source of pride, it's a source of meaning. If suddenly no one has any jobs, what will we want to do with ourselves? That's a very, very consequential transition for the nature of human society. I think people aren't just going to be down to just do it. I think people are scared about three AI companies literally now taking all the revenues that all of humanity used to be earning. It is naturally a very scary prospect. So that's one kind of pushback, and I'm sympathetic with it.I think that there are solutions, if we find a way to tax AI systems, which isn't necessarily easy, because it's very easy to move physical assets between countries. It's a lot easier to tax labor than capital already when rich people can move their assets around. We're going to have the same problem with AI, but if we can find a way to tax it, and we maintain a good democratic country, and we can just redistribute the wealth broadly, it can be solved. So I think it's a big problem, but it is doable.Then there's the problem of some people want to stop this now because they're worried about AI killing everyone. Their literally worry is that everyone will be dead because superintelligent AI will want that to happen. I think there's a real risk there. It's definitely above one percent, in my opinion. I wouldn't go above 10 percent, myself, but I think it's very scary, and that's a great reason to slow things down. I personally don't want to stop quite yet. I think you want to stop when the AI is a bit more powerful and a bit more useful than it is today so it can kind of help us figure out what to do about all of this crazy stuff that's coming.On what side of that line is AI as an AI researcher?That's a really great question. Should we stop? I think it's very hard to stop just after you've got the AI researcher AI, because that's when it's suddenly really easy to go very, very fast. So my out-of-the-box proposal here, which is probably very flawed, would be: When we're within a few spits distance — not spitting distance, but if you did that three times, and we can see we're almost at that AI automating OpenAI — then you pause, because you're not going to accidentally then go all the way. It is actually still a little bit a fair distance away, but it's actually still, at that point, probably a very powerful AI that can really help.Then you pause and do what?Great question. So then you pause, and you use your AI systems to help you firstly solve the problem of AI alignment, make extra, double sure that every time we increase the notch of AI capabilities, the AI is still loyal to humanity, not to its own kind of secret goals.Secondly, you solve the problem of, how are we going to make sure that no one person in government or no one CEO of an AI company ensures that this whole AI army is loyal to them, personally? How are we going to ensure that everyone, the whole world gets influenced over what this AI is ultimately programmed to do? That's the second problem.And then there's just a whole host of other things: unemployment that we've talked about, competition between different countries, US and China, there's a whole host of other things that I think you want to research on, figure out, get consensus on, and then slowly ratchet up the capabilities in what is now a very safe and controlled way.What else should we be working on? What are you working on next?One problem I'm excited about is people have historically worried about AI having its own goals. We need to make it loyal to humanity. But as we've got closer, it's become increasingly obvious, “loyalty to humanity” is very vague. What specifically do you want the AI to be programmed to do? I mean, it's not programmed, it's grown, but if it were programmed, if you're writing a rule book for AI, some organizations have employee handbooks: Here's the philosophy of the organization, here's how you should behave. Imagine you're doing that for the AI, but you're going super detailed, exactly how you want your AI assistant to behave in all kinds of situations. What should that be? Essentially, what should we align the AI to? Not any individual person, probably following the law, probably loads of other things. I think basically designing what is the character of this AI system is a really exciting question, and if we get that right, maybe the AI can then help us solve all these other problems.Maybe you have no interest in science fiction, but is there any film, TV, book that you think is useful for someone in your position to be aware of, or that you find useful in any way? Just wondering.I think there's this great post called “AI 2027,” which lays out a concrete scenario for how AI could go wrong or how maybe it could go right. I would recommend that. I think that's the only thing that's coming top of mind. I often read a lot of the stuff I read is I read a lot of LessWrong, to be honest. There's a lot of stuff from there that I don't love, but a lot of new ideas, interesting content there.Any fiction?I mean, I read fiction, but honestly, I don't really love the AI fiction that I've read because often it's quite unrealistic, and so I kind of get a bit overly nitpicky about it. But I mean, yeah, there's this book called Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, which I read maybe 10 years ago, which I thought was pretty fun.On sale everywhere The Conservative Futurist: How To Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised Faster, Please! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fasterplease.substack.com/subscribe
PREVIEW The conversation explores the surprising rise in accommodation between the Trump administration (Trump 2) and Pakistan, contrasting sharply with the previous term when Trump famously accused Pakistan of "lies and deceit." Pakistan's de facto ruler, General Asim Munir, has had two White House meetings, and Trump calls him his "favorite field marshal." Meanwhile, India, now hit with high tariffs (50%), has moved into the "back row," while Pakistan enjoys a low 19% tariff rate. Guest: Sadanand Dhume. 1914 KARACHI
The 2024 election closed the book on the old way of thinking about political geography. Famously blue areas moved right. So did famously red ones. We need a new strategy that works as well in supposedly safe states like New Jersey as it does in tossups like North Carolina and Wisconsin. Alyssa Mastromonaco hosts Rep. Sarah McBride (D–DE), Rep. Janelle Bynum (D–OR), Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, and Ben Wikler, former chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party to talk about how we can fight our way back to power everywhere on the map. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The "Genial and Aloof" Communicator: Reagan's Psychological Defense and Exquisite Political Timing. Max Boot discusses the late Reagan administration, his personality, and his legacy. Reagan was famously defined as "genial and aloof," and Boot argues that Reagan was "very hard to know," even by his wife Nancy and his closest aides, who felt part of him was "walled off." This aloofness originated in his childhood, where constant moving and hiding his father's alcoholism led him to erect a "mental wall." Reagan was comfortable with the title of "Great Communicator," recognizing the political power of his background by stating, "Some people say they can't understand how an actor can be president. I don't understand how anybody but an actor could be president." His most famous sayings include "Honey, I forgot to duck," "ash heap of history," and "There you go again." Regarding his legacy, Boot notes that the economic recovery was largely "salesmanship," with growth rates during the Reagan presidency similar to the Nixon administration, though Reagan's political timing was "exquisite." Boot credits Reagan as a "very lucky politician" who also "made his own luck," with much of the economic recovery due to Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. An anecdote illustrating Reagan's modesty notes that when he first sat behind the Resolute desk, he was too tall to fit his knees underneath but did not complain, reflecting his unassuming and undemanding nature.
"It's the only time Sellers had to duplicate himself, at least physically." - Roger Lewis on The Prisoner Of Zenda. This 1979 film is an adaptation of the classic Anthony Hope adventure yarn with a screenplay by Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais. Peter Sellers plays both Rudolf V, the bumbling King of Ruritania, and his English look-alike, Sydney Frewin, who must impersonate the monarch after Rudolf is kidnapped by his villainous half-brother, Duke Michael (Jeremy Kemp). As Frewin struggles with royal duties and falls for Princess Flavia (Lynne Frederick) the hunt is on for the imprisoned King, with his trusted subordinates General Sapt (Lionel Jeffries) and Fritz (Simon Williams) anxious to restore order to Ruritania. The film suffers from a rather lacklustre screenplay containing a paucity of jokes yet somehow Sellers manages to wring comedy out of the lumpen script, particularly with his characterisation of Frewin. Tensions were high on the set and Sellers' increasing manic behaviour and demands impacted not just Jeffries and Williams but the film's director Richard Quine. Famously they had to repaint an entire train to accommodate Sellers' bizarre superstitions!Joining Tyler to discuss the film is writer & performer John Hewer, who also has some exciting news for Spike Milligan fans!
2. From Raiders to Rulers: The Danelaw and the Eastern Expansion of the Norse Eleanor Barraclough Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age The discussion highlights the transformation of Vikings from raiders—who famously plundered Paris for 7,000 pounds of gold—to military conquerors. The Great Heathen Army arrived in England around 865, conquering East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia. The subsequent stalemate led to an agreement between King Alfred and the Norse leader Guthrum toward the end of the ninth century. This accord established the Danelaw, granting the Norse political and legal control over vast swathes of England, evidenced today by Old Norse influences in place names. The Norse cultural sphere was enormous, characterized by a diaspora that spread east and west. People from what is now Sweden moved down Eurasian waterways, becoming known as the Varangians, or Russ (rowers), and settled Novgorod in 862.
Three generations of women are now looking for love! Ben introduces our eligible single Golden woman who's ready to find love, again!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Three generations of women are now looking for love! Ben introduces our eligible single Golden woman who's ready to find love, again!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Three generations of women are now looking for love! Ben introduces our eligible single Golden woman who's ready to find love, again!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on the Toy Power Podcast; we are still sending 'Get Well' Cards to Trent, as he unfortunately misses this ep. But that won't slow us down; as Scot has a fantastic rundown on the Greatest Star Wars Movie - that never was! Yes - the infamous 'Shadows Of The Empire!' Famously worked into 'cannon' between the Original Films of: Empire Strikes Back & Return Of The Jedi. This wasn't just a Story or a Comicbook series - this was a Multimedia Project that also spanned into a Soundtrack, Video Games and of course a self-titled line of Toys! Was, or is this, the biggest Movie that never was?! Then keeping in the same similar theme of Movies; we transform into another round of The Team! With this round focusing on the Autobots that where released in 1986 (The Movie Year). This was a lot of fun! But we would love to hear some future ideas for The Team Comp - as we are starting to run out of ideas! Thanks, and as always - Enjoy!Support the show: http://patreon.com/toypowerpodcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on another encore episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to three prior guests of the podcast who are talking to us in the boldest experiment in Rarified Heir Podcast history! How so? We are talking to them all at once. Something we had never done before. But don't fret, Carnie Wilson, Jenny Brill and Shawn Kay have been friends for quite a long time and, in fact, they know each other and host Josh Mills from as far back as elementary school. There are laughs and some tears on this one. Since the time of this recording, sadly we have lost two of the celebrity parents of our guests, as both Mitzi McCall, mother of Jenny Brill and Brian Wilson, father of Carnie Wilson have both passed away as of this encore episode. While it puts things in perspective rather quickly, it also helps us to realize that the entire point of this podcast is to make sure that in this fast paced world, we don't forget the names and stories about some of the most beloved entertainers of the 20th century. And with that in mind, this episode is a rollicking one, a bit experimental as we said but also fast paced, filled with childhood memories and what it was like not only growing up the child of a celebrity but also with friends whose parents were also celebrities. We get into some ridiculous tales about the Oakwood school where they all met, insane stories about album jackets as modes of transportation and a nostalgic trip down a very 1970s memory lane. Which begs the question, just how did the children of Mitzi McCall, Charlie Brill, John Kay, Brian Wilson and Marilyn Wilson get along? In a word? Famously. Take a listen.
Mom Curious is a weekly podcast produced by Hoff Studios in New York City, hosted by storyteller, actress, and thought leader Daniella Rabbani. Each episode dives into candid conversations about motherhood, womanhood, and the messy, magical spaces in between. With humor, honesty, and (you guessed it!) curiosity, Daniella sits down with women of all stripes to talk about what it really means to raise children—and ourselves—in today's world.About the Host:Daniella Rabbani (@DaniellaRabbani on Instagram) is a Brooklyn-based storyteller. On screen, she's appeared in HBO's Scenes from a Marriage, Amazon's The Better Sister, FX's The Americans, and films like Ocean's 8. On stage, she's headlined concerts worldwide, from Jazz at Lincoln Center in NYC to the State Jewish Theaters of Warsaw, Poland and Bucharest, Romania. She is also the voice behind national campaigns for Colgate, Starbucks, and Noom among others. Her award winning film OMA, inspired by her Holocaust survivor grandmother, can be seen on Amazon Prime. Through her podcast Mom Curious, Daniella blends her creative spirit and lived experience as a mother of two to spark conversations that are raw, hilarious, and deeply relatable. Her mission: to create a community where mothers (and those curious about motherhood) feel seen, supported, and inspired. This Week's Guest! Whitney Uland is a filmmaker, actor, and the creator of How to Be Famous—dubbed “Hollywood's Next Power Player” by Paper Magazine. Her work has been featured at Cannes and in Vogue, and her viral programs The Self-Made Celebrity and The Celebrity Energy Circuit have helped thousands of creatives tap into their It Factor and become magnetic to fame, fans, and opportunity. Through her signature frameworks rooted in human psychology and Hollywood secrets, Whitney is on a mission to help good-hearted, wildly talented people stop playing small and finally take up space like the stars they are. For more information, find her on social media @whitneyuland or her podcast, How to Be Famous with Whitney Uland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The mathematical area of topology is all about figuring out what truly defines a shape. Famously, topologists consider a coffee cup to be the same as a doughnut because one can be turned into the other without cutting or gluing — what defines and relates these two shapes for a topologist is that they have a single hole. As you might imagine, if you have ever tried to drink coffee out of a doughnut, topology has traditionally been part of pure mathematics. Topological data analysis (TDA), however, opens up a world of applications by applying ideas from topology to vast data sets, helping us to understand their "shape" and draw out important features. In this episode of Maths on the Move we talk to algebraic topologist Michael Hill about some of the fascinating uses of topological data analysis — from understanding breast cancer to making sure that voting is fair. We talked to Michael after he gave a brilliant Rothschild lecture at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INI) in Cambridge. He was at the INI to attend the research programme Equivariant homotopy theory in context. To find out more about the topics mentioned in this podcast see: Maths in a minute: Topology — a quick introduction to topology. Understanding life with topology — a quick introduction to TDA and some of its uses. Euromaths: Heather Harrington — An episode of our Maths on the move podcast giving and introduction to topological data analysis. Watch Mike Hill's Rothschild lecture at the INI. Topology based data analysis identifies a subgroup of breast cancers with a unique mutational profile and excellent survival - The paper by Nicolau, Levine and Carlesson, mentioned by Michael in the podcast, which uses TDA to identify a novel type of breast cancer. The Data and Democracy Lab — mentioned by Mike in the podcast. Also, here is an image illustrating the intuition behind topological data analysis. As discs drawn around a bunch of points arranged in a circle increase in radius, they eventually overlap to form a ring, and later overlap to form a single blob. This podcast forms part of our collaboration with the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INI) – you can find all the content from the collaboration here. The INI is an international research centre and our neighbour here on the University of Cambridge's maths campus. It attracts leading mathematical scientists from all over the world, and is open to all. Visit www.newton.ac.uk to find out more.
Keep calm and enjoy Bad Bunny; Do ladies even like gentlemen - or do they want a bad boy? It's official, National Guard is coming to Louisiana cities - what now? Texas teacher feeds kitten to snake, punches her ticket to hell; Brandon Ingram shades New Orleans Pelicans fans - does he have a point?
Greg Jenner is joined in ancient North Africa by classicist Professor Josephine Quinn and comedian Darren Harriott to learn about Hannibal of Carthage and his war with Rome. Located in modern-day Tunisia, Carthage was once a Mediterranean superpower that rivalled Rome. In 218 BCE, the Second Punic War began between the two powers, with the Carthaginian army led by a man named Hannibal Barca. Famously, Hannibal took his forces – including a contingent of war elephants – over the Alps and into Italy, finally marching on Rome itself. But eventually the Carthaginians were beaten back, and Hannibal ended his days in exile. In this episode we explore his epic life, from his childhood in Spain, to his tactical brilliance as a general, to his post-war career as a reformist politician. If you're a fan of ancient Rome, genius generals and new developments in classical history, you'll love our episode on Hannibal of Carthage. If you want more from Darren Harriott, check out our episode on Victorian Bodybuilding. Or for more plucky generals, listen to our episodes on Joan of Arc, Julius Caesar or Robert Bruce. You're Dead To Me is the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Every episode, Greg Jenner brings together the best names in history and comedy to learn and laugh about the past. Hosted by: Greg Jenner Research by: Emma Bentley Written by: Emma Bentley, Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Audio Producer: Steve Hankey Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse Executive Editor: Philip Sellars
* * * Reminder: The first ever FOOD HISTORY FESTIVAL is happening on the 18th of October and it's all online! Get your tickets here:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/serve-it-forth-food-history-festival-2025-tickets-1490885802569?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdssIt's going to be a fantastic day with many excellent food historian guests, and of course my fellow Serve It Forth members, food historians, Dr Neil Buttery, Dr Alessandra Pino and Sam Bilton!Join us for a day of historical dishes, cocktails and recipes! * * * Famously, Diodorus Siculus the Greek geographer said for Britain:"It is the home of men who are complete savages and lead a miserable existence because of the cold; and therefore, in my opinion, the northern limit of our inhabited world is to be placed there"But nevertheless the Romans went and conquered it and made it part of the Roman Empire for nearly four hundred years.The stereotypes even then two thousand years abound:"Those near the coast in Kent may be more civilised, but in the interior they do not cultivate the land but share their wives with family members, live on milk and meat, and wear the skins of animals."Horace wrote.Diodorus continues: "The numerous population of natives, he says, live in thatched cottages, store their grain in subterranean caches and bake bread from it. They are "of simple manners" (ēthesin haplous) and are content with plain fare..."But beyond this, there was a thriving Celtic and British Roman culture that existed. The local foods and customs and rich pasture for animals helped the invading Romans create a rich culinary legacy, based on many imported foods from across the empire and introduced numerous plants and animals to Britain that since became native to the land, from humble leek to plums to rabbits and pheasants.So on this episode together with fellow chef and podcaster Lewis Bassett (The Full English) we sat down to chat and explore the legacy of Rome in the British Isles, through food, culinary pathways and how this intertwines with class and politics to our modern age!Join us and let's find out what did the Roman-British table and pantry had to offer!Music by Pavlos Kapralos.Enjoy!Love,The Delicious LegacySupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
When Ryn first met Katja, she was in the habit of inflating her age a bit. Why? Because as an herbalist – at that time – it was preferable to present as older, even as an ‘elder', if possible. Times have changed, and now “influencerbalists” dominate the social media world's public face, for herbalism as for so many things. Staying young forever looks almost plausible, when it's shown through short-form videos on a tiny screen…It's not, though. We'll all age, and that will mean some things don't work as well as they used to, don't feel as good as they used to, don't heal as fast as they used to. We'll get tired, our hair will thin, our faces will wrinkle. All the amazing new products and one-weird-tricks will not stop these things from happening.We don't need to stop them. They're part of life. In just the same way that yes, it's OK to be a plus-sized herbalist, it's OK to be an aging herbalist. Chasing immortality is a fool's errand, and it can distract both from more effective means of mitigating discomforts, and from the benefits this stage of life brings. (Yes, they exist: perspective, experience, even a peaceful detachment – these are the purview of the elder.) Aging is OK.We do have some herbs to recommend, though! In this episode we discuss…ginseng (Panax ginseng) – Famously an “herb for elders”, and indeed able to raise energy levels, enhance congnition, improve stress responses, and much more. Yet ginseng will be much, much more effective if its influences are supported by nourishing food and frequent low-level movement.solomon's seal (Polygonatum biflorum) – Our very favorite herb for restoring moisture, and thus flexibility, to the joints and connective tissues. You can purchase a solomon's seal salve from Healing Spirits, or find tinctures, salves, and other sol'seal remedies from Cortesia.nervines, e.g. blue vervain (Verbena hastata), hawthorn (Crataegus spp.), heather (Calluna vulgaris), linden (Tilia spp.) – Consider working with nervines both for day-to-day mental & emotional steadiness, but also as aids to intentional introspection. Walking or sitting while pondering your past and present, with the support of nervine herbs, is a practice that will help you process your experiences and understand your current stage of life more deeply.demulcents, e.g. linden, marshmallow (Althaea off.), sassafras (Sassafras albidum), elm (Ulmus spp.) – As we age, we tend to dry out! These herbs help us remain fluent and soft. For elders, it's often good to combine these with carminatives such as fennel, ginger, or cardamom.If you'd like to start taking care of your body for the long haul – no matter what age you are today – our Community Herbalist program will equip you to do so! This program prepares you to support your family & community with holistic herbal methods.Like all our offerings, this bundle of self-paced online video courses comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.Support the showYou can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Get to know Auburn Baseball Legend, Sonny Dichiara. Famously known as 'Sonny D'. Learn more about Sonny's full baseball career from Hoover HS, to Samford, to Auburn, to the Pros. Sonny has officially retired from Baseball, now attacking his next phase of life including being a husband, finishing school, coaching, and playing some golf.
Murph & Markus - hour 4: Reacting to John Lynch's comments, Jesse Sapolu joins the show, & WDYTLT: RIP Polly Holliday, the waitress who famously said, "Kiss my grits!" in AliceSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Murph & Markus - hour 4: Reacting to John Lynch's comments, Jesse Sapolu joins the show, & WDYTLT: RIP Polly Holliday, the waitress who famously said, "Kiss my grits!" in AliceSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
After being unlucky in love on both The Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise, Mercedes is ready to put her love life in Ben Higgins hands! From figuring out what she is looking for in a relationship to what her type is, Mercedes is ready to get to the heart of what she really wants outside of reality TV. Follow us on Instagram @FamouslyAvailableSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jackson read a book so now he has to explain it badly to all of us and the boys need to figure out how to murder this car asapLinks to everything at https://linktr.ee/plumbingthedeathstar including our terrible merch, social media garbage and where to become a subscriber to Bad Brain Boys+ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
After being unlucky in love on both The Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise, Mercedes is ready to put her love life in Ben Higgins hands! From figuring out what she is looking for in a relationship to what her type is, Mercedes is ready to get to the heart of what she really wants outside of reality TV. Follow us on Instagram @FamouslyAvailableSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Steph, John, Steve & Dave put down their phones for screen time with Ice Cube and his (fictional) family! The War of the Worlds has been adapted many times since its first publication in 1898, and each adaptation represented the era in which it was created -- Famously as a radio show in 1938 and the first movie in 1953 when there were national fears of military invasion … then as a Spielberg film in 2005 when there was a national fear of terrorist invasion… And now in 2025 when there's a national fear of invasion of Privacy! It's Amazon Prime's feature length commercial – War of the Worlds! Here's the rapid recap to catch you up! Ice Cube plays Will Radford, DHS Agent and creepster dad who should have been DOGE'd out of his job, because he spends his day stalking his two estranged children – his pregnant daughter, Faith and his intense Gen-Z-er son Dave. When mysterious meteors crash into the Earth, it's up to these three plus Faith's fiancé and Amazon delivery driver, Mark as well as Eva Longoria (whose character's name I don't know and I couldn't quickly see it on Wikipedia, so I'm giving her as much attention as Will gives her in the movie, which is to say close to none) … Anyway, when machines from Mars rise out of the meteor craters, our heroes realize that the aliens are here to chew bubblegum and steal our data…and they are all out of bubblegum. So, in a shameless plot swipe from a totally different alien invasion movie, they have to upload a virus to the alien machines to put an end to the WAR OF THE WORLDS!!!Follow us onTwitter @CraptaculusInstagram @cinemacraptaculusIntro Music: "The Builder" - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
After being unlucky in love on both The Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise, Mercedes is ready to put her love life in Ben Higgins hands! From figuring out what she is looking for in a relationship to what her type is, Mercedes is ready to get to the heart of what she really wants outside of reality TV. Follow us on Instagram @FamouslyAvailableSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
You remember DeAnna Pappas when she was on Brad Womack's season of "The Bachelor", and again when she starred as "The Bachelorette" - but sadly, DeAnna never managed to find love in Bachelor Nation.She got married and started a family, but unfortunately, every rose has its thorn, and the marriage ended in divorce. Now DeAnna is ready to get back out there and take control of her dating life post-divorce! With the help of Ben Higgins, we'll follow her on this journey to finding love...again! Follow us on Instagram @FamouslyAvailableSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ben and Ashley have something NEW you have to hear! Listen to “Famously Available” to follow some of your favorite Bachelor Nation alum on their next journey to finding love! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“Famously Available” explores love at every stage of life, with familiar faces from Bachelor Nation sharing their journeys, opening their hearts, and inviting listeners along as they step into a new era of romance. We’ll follow DeAnna Pappas, who Bachelor Nation will remember for her heartbreak from Brad Womack, and later, for her own turn as The Bachelorette in 2008, neither experience ending in lasting romance. She got married and started a family, but now divorced, DeAnna is ready to put herself back out into the dating scene! Fans will also hear from Mercedes Northup, remembered from Season 27 of The Bachelor and her unforgettable stint in “Paradise,” as she sets out to finally discover what her heart truly wants. …And stay tuned as things will get Golden. Three generations of women all on a quest for love!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
You remember DeAnna Pappas when she was on Brad Womack's season of "The Bachelor", and again when she starred as "The Bachelorette" - but sadly, DeAnna never managed to find love in Bachelor Nation.She got married and started a family, but unfortunately, every rose has its thorn, and the marriage ended in divorce. Now DeAnna is ready to get back out there and take control of her dating life post-divorce! With the help of Ben Higgins, we'll follow her on this journey to finding love...again! Follow us on Instagram @FamouslyAvailableSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“Famously Available” explores love at every stage of life, with familiar faces from Bachelor Nation sharing their journeys, opening their hearts, and inviting listeners along as they step into a new era of romance. We’ll follow DeAnna Pappas, who Bachelor Nation will remember for her heartbreak from Brad Womack, and later, for her own turn as The Bachelorette in 2008, neither experience ending in lasting romance. She got married and started a family, but now divorced, DeAnna is ready to put herself back out into the dating scene! Fans will also hear from Mercedes Northup, remembered from Season 27 of The Bachelor and her unforgettable stint in “Paradise,” as she sets out to finally discover what her heart truly wants. …And stay tuned as things will get Golden. Three generations of women all on a quest for love!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ben and Ashley have something NEW you have to hear! Listen to “Famously Available” to follow some of your favorite Bachelor Nation alum on their next journey to finding love! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
You remember DeAnna Pappas when she was on Brad Womack's season of "The Bachelor", and again when she starred as "The Bachelorette" - but sadly, DeAnna never managed to find love in Bachelor Nation.She got married and started a family, but unfortunately, every rose has its thorn, and the marriage ended in divorce. Now DeAnna is ready to get back out there and take control of her dating life post-divorce! With the help of Ben Higgins, we'll follow her on this journey to finding love...again! Follow us on Instagram @FamouslyAvailableSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ben and Ashley have something NEW you have to hear! Listen to “Famously Available” to follow some of your favorite Bachelor Nation alum on their next journey to finding love! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“Famously Available” explores love at every stage of life, with familiar faces from Bachelor Nation sharing their journeys, opening their hearts, and inviting listeners along as they step into a new era of romance. We’ll follow DeAnna Pappas, who Bachelor Nation will remember for her heartbreak from Brad Womack, and later, for her own turn as The Bachelorette in 2008, neither experience ending in lasting romance. She got married and started a family, but now divorced, DeAnna is ready to put herself back out into the dating scene! Fans will also hear from Mercedes Northup, remembered from Season 27 of The Bachelor and her unforgettable stint in “Paradise,” as she sets out to finally discover what her heart truly wants. …And stay tuned as things will get Golden. Three generations of women all on a quest for love!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is listening a hidden superpower we've overlooked? You've heard of Active Listening, but what is Radical Listening and why does it matter?Episode SummaryOn this episode, I'm joined by Professor Christian van Nieuwerburgh, an academic who also describes himself as 'Coach on a Motorcycle'. He's on the show to help me explore what he calls 'Radical Listening'.Christian is Professor of Coaching and Positive Psychology at the University of East London and the co-author, with Dr Robert Biswas-Diener, of 'Radical Listening: The Art of True Connection'.The book offers a research-backed but deeply human exploration of what it means to really hear someone — and how that act alone can change lives. In the book and in his work, Christian blends academic rigour with road-tested coaching insights, drawing from both the lecture hall and long rides through open landscapes. He invites us to look at listening not just as a skill, but as a way of being.With a background in positive psychology and a passion for connection, Christian brings a perspective that's as practical as it is profound. We talk about how listening — when done with presence and intention — becomes far more than a communication technique. It becomes a way of affirming identity, offering empathy, and shaping culture. Christian shares why well-meaning advice often misses the mark, the difference between social and cognitive listening, and what it takes to be with someone, rather than just hearing them.This isn't just for leaders or coaches; it's for anyone who wants to have better conversations, create stronger relationships, and be more human in how they engage with others. Listening, as we discuss, isn't neutral. It's powerful, personal, and radically transformative.Guest BiographyProfessor Christian van Nieuwerburgh is a globally recognised executive coach, academic, and author, holding the title of Professor of Coaching and Positive Psychology at the University of East London.As Managing Director of the International Centre for Coaching Psychology and Executive Director at Growth Coaching International, he bridges rigorous research with practice.He co-authored Radical Listening: The Art of True Connection (with Dr Robert Biswas‑Diener), which reorients listening from a background skill to a central act of human connection.Famously known as the “Coach on a Motorcycle,” Christian combines his love for the open road with his dedication to how we hear and are heard. Learn more at: LinksRadical Listening - https://www.bkconnection.com/books/title/Radical-ListeningRadical Listening Audiobook - https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Radical-Listening-Audiobook/B0F2B3TKXVChristian's faculty page at Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) - https://people.rcsi.com/chrisvnChristian's faculty page at Henley Business School - https://www.henley.ac.uk/people/christian-j-van-nieuwerburghCoach on a Motorcycle - coachonamotorcycle.comAI-Generated Timestamped Summary[00:01:45] — The roots of Radical Listening[00:06:30] — How coaching principles intersect with everyday conversations[00:11:55] — When advice becomes unhelpful[00:17:40] — Listening as identity-affirming behaviour[00:22:00] — When a good question stops you in your tracks[00:27:30] — Social vs cognitive listening[00:33:10] — Why you don't need to understand the topic to be a great listener[00:38:45] — The unspoken costs of poor listening in organisations[00:44:50] — How Radical Listening links to psychological safety[00:49:20] — Motorcycles, mindfulness, and being in flow[00:56:00] — The AI comparison: why listening is a human art[01:01:00] — Practical takeaways for everyday listeners
Send us a textWe're back with CHARISMATIC pro boxer Kalvin “Hot Sauce” Henderson (19‑2) – diving deeper than ever into his work ethic, diet, family life and his training camp before hitting the fight analysis HARD. Then he shares insider knowledge on boxing's biggest headlines: Manny Pacquiao, Usyk's All-Time Ranking as a Boxer, Jake Paul vs Anthony Joshua & MORE! In my opinion, Kalvin is one of the most interesting men in combat sports... HERE'S WHY:
Though we couldn't gather the entire podcast staff, Robbie and Art still managed to produce an episode that should strike a chord with music-loving listeners. Following Robbie's recent visit to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and the iconic FAME Recording Studios, the two Guys take note of the incredible amount of musical talent that has recorded there. Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Wilson Pickett, Paul Simon, and Etta James are just a few of the artists who have made their way to Alabama and worked with the late Rick Hall, backed by the legendary "Swampers" studio musicians. Geeks of the week include Robbie's look at a role-playing game inspired by Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon—no word on if there's a slo-mo option.
This week James and Chris discuss the giant, creepy serial killer Edmund Kemper. Famously portrayed in the show Mindhunter, Kemper (known as "the Co Ed Killer") killed numerous hitchhikers in the 1970s. Brought to you By: The Sonar Network https://thesonarnetwork.com/
EPISODE 325 - We start our season on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with an in-depth look at the original issue #1. Famously created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, this issue was meant as a one-shot story. Not quite a joke, but not quite serious either, the creators had no idea they were creating a media empire. The comic is good! We meet the turtles, Master Splinter and Shredder! How much did Will know about the turtles going in (not much). But how much did he like the comic? A lot! ------- Email us at screwitcomics@gmail.com Subscribe for monthly bonus episodes at screwitpodcasts.com Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/phXVFgB4ck
Heads up! This is the episode where we solve gender.Famously a "construct," it turns out Mx. Gender has been around for hundreds of thousands of years.This podcast is only 70 minutes long so we're sticking to the last 5,000... but still. Not bad.Join Bash and his honoured guests this week – Kit Heyam and Marty Davies – as they delve into the deep-cut history of gender, long before we had words like cis, trans, or nonbinary.Kit Heyam is the author and historian behind Before We Were Trans, our guiding text for this episode. And Marty Davies is the founder of Trans+ History Week, an award-winning initiative now in its third year in the UK.You might think – like Bash did for an embarrassingly long time – that gender and sex binaries have been the norm since the beginning of time. Everyone has "male" and "female" right? Husband and wife, penetrator and pregnancy-haver. And that's that.That's actually wrong. It's waaaay messier than that. As long as there have been humans, there has been what Kit Heyam calls "gender disruption."This essentially experimental and creative approach to gender is in fact the norm – the one thing we find in almost every civilisation.As if that weren't enough, here are some other essential things you'll learn about in this episode:Ancient Egypt's female pharaohs, who insisted on wearing their beards(Plus, why their high priests didn't like gender creativity – spoiler alert: it fucked with their revenues!)A 17th century stand up comic who once wore trousers in St. Paul's Cathedral (WITCH!!!!! KILL IT!!!!!)The elegant and silk-draped wakashu, who were a third-gender class of adolescent sex workers in early modern TokyoAnd the truth of why writing trans+ history is so fucking hard but so necessary.As always thanks for listening, and if you love what you hear, please leave us a FIVE STAR ONLY review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.You can follow Historical Homos on Instagram and TikTok, and you should sign up to our newsletter if you care about gay people at all.You can also listen to the QueerAF podcast on Apple, Spotify or your fave podcast app, including all the episodes that came out this season with Trans+ History Week. And subscribe to QueerAF's free newsletter to understand the LGBTQIA+ world every Saturday, or find them on Instagram and Bluesky.Episode Credits:Written, researched, and hosted by Bash. Special thanks to guests Kit Heyam and Marty Davies. Edited by Alex Toskas and Jamie Wareham.A QueerAF and Historical Homos Production.
You may be familiar with the name of Marco Polo – the 13th-century Venetian merchant who travelled along the Silk Road, journeyed through Asia and spent time at the court of Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. Famously, he documented his experiences in a detailed account that has inspired many travellers since. Emily Briffett and Sharon Kinoshita follow in Polo's footsteps, exploring the medieval world through his eyes. (Ad) Sharon Kinoshita is the author of Marco Polo and His World (Reaktion Books, 2024). Buy it now from Waterstones: https://go.skimresources.com?id=71026X1535947&xcust=historyextra-social-histboty&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waterstones.com%2Fbook%2Fmarco-polo-and-his-world%2Fsharon-kinoshita%2F%2F9781789149371. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Maps of New England during King Philip's War [Attention Boston-area listeners: We will do a meet-up on Wednesday, June 25, 2025 at 5:30 at Trillium - Fort Point, 50 Thomson Pl, Boston, MA 02210. Reservation under my name. I'll also post information in a blog post on the website for the podcast, and on X and Facebook, links below. Send me an email at thehistoryoftheamericans *at* gmail if you think you can make it.] After the Great Swamp Fight, Josiah Winslow turned away overtures from the Narragansetts for a ceasefire, incorrectly believing he had the upper hand. Instead, he pursued the Narrangansetts, stumbling into the "hungry march," in which Winslow and his starving militia were lured to the north by the Narragansetts, who were moving to join the Nipmucs and the Wampanoags in attacks on Massachusetts border towns. February and March would see a string of catastrophic losses, from the English point of view, and thrilling triumphs, from the Indian point of view. Famously, the destruction of Lancaster would result in the capture of Mary Rowlandson, who would go on to write an account of her captivity that would be New England's first bestseller. By the end of March, even Providence had burned, notwithstanding a last appeal from Roger Williams, his last meaningful appearance in history. The situation in New England was desperate. As often happens, however, for the English it was darkest just before the dawn. X/Twitter – @TheHistoryOfTh2 – https://x.com/TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheAmericans Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website) Matthew J. Tuininga, The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America's First People James D. Drake, King Philip's War: Civil War in New England, 1675-1676 George Ellis and John Morris, King Philip's War Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God
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