The Disco Craze Started with a Lie and Ended with an Explosion

So now you had a nationwide craze over a genre of music that barely existed (having just broken off from Motown and R&B), based on a piece of long-form journalism that was entirely fictional and a movie made by people with no real connections to the original disco scene.

Persuasion 220 | Rebuilding Community, with Adam Gustine

Erin and Hannah invite Adam Gustine to help us learn how to show up in our communities in ways that expand the common good.

Loki Recap: The Walking Wounded (Episode 3)

At the very least, even if you learn that much of what you loved was an illusion or enchantment, your pain is the grief of something real.

Seeing and Believing 294 | Enrico Casarosa’s “Luca”

Wade and Kevin enter the sun-baked Mediterranean world of Pixar’s latest film in in their review of Enrico Casarosa’s “Luca.”

Looking for Mercy in Netflix’s Lucifer

As believers, while we acknowledge the reality and transcendence of divine law, we also recognize its shortcomings—it cannot make us righteous—and its supersession by mercy.

Persuasion 219 | Real Conversations, with Rebecca McLaughlin

Erin and Hannah invite Rebecca McLaughlin to help us learn how to show up in conversations despite our differences.

Loki Recap: Out of Time (Episode 2)

With the introduction of the Multiverse, this is the sort of plot device that will bring about resurrections and connect all sorts of stories that weren’t supposed to be connected.

Seeing and Believing 293 | Jon M. Chu’s In the Heights

Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu helms this film version of the Lin-Manuel Miranda Broadway hit about an NYC neighborhood.

Dementia and Redemptive Memory in The Father

The Father reminds us how important it is to make room for good remembering, even in the absence of a good memory.

“When Your Friends Are Your Family”: The One Where They Get Back Together

But the idea that people go through a stage of “friends as family” and then graduate into “real” family is one I find to be a less-good story.

Persuasion 218 | Real Relationships, with Rachel Pieh Jones

Erin and Hannah invite Rachel Pieh Jones to help us learn how to show up in real relationship despite our differences.

A Grief Obscured: Horror and Hope in A Dark Song

Writer-Director Liam Gavin’s A Dark Song (2016) promises its audience horror, delivers creeping unease, and ultimately yields itself up to awe—taking us on a journey from the depths of entropic despair to the heights of spiritual renewal.

Loki Recap: Glorious Purpose (Episode 1)

And while Loki can’t articulate why he wants to rule, he is certainly attracted to power.

The One That Taught Us What Adulting Was All About

Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Chandler, Joey, and Ross gave us something greater to aspire toward: togetherness. 

That Time That We All Decided to Feel Good about Ourselves, but Somehow It Didn’t End Poverty and Crime

While people sometimes make bad decisions because they feel bad about themselves, the truth is that people make bad decisions for all sorts of reasons, including because they feel excessively good about themselves.

Persuasion 217 | Showing Up Again

We’re heading back to the office, back to school, back to our faith communities. But after a year away, are we ready to show up?