Give And Take

My guest is James Chappel. He's a professor of History at Duke University. His first book is forthcoming in the Spring of 2018. It's called Catholic Modern: The Challenge of Totalitarianism and the Remaking of the Catholic Church. (https://www.amazon.com/Catholic-Modern-Challeng…) It examines the Catholic Church's changing relationship with modernity in the 20th century. Special Guest: James Chappel.

My guest is Claire Dederer. Claire is the author of two critically acclaimed memoirs: Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning (https://www.amazon.com/Love-Trouble-Reckoning-Claire-Dederer/dp/B01KE67DLI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516841630&sr=8-1&keywords=love+and+trouble+a+midlife+reckoning+by+claire+dederer) and Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses (https://www.amazon.com/Poser-Life-Twenty-three-Yoga-Poses/dp/B0044782C8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1516841630&sr=8-2&keywords=love+and+trouble+a+midlife+reckoning+by+claire+dederer), which was a New York Times bestseller. Poser has been translated into 11 languages, optioned for television by Warner Bros., and adapted for the stage. Dederer is a long-time contributor to The New York Times. Her essays, criticism, and reviews have also appeared in The Atlantic, Harper’s, The Nation, Vogue, Chicago Tribune, Real Simple, Entertainment Weekly, New York magazine, Yoga Journal, Newsday, Slate, Salon, and many other publications. Her essays have appeared in numerous antholog

My guest is Ryan Egli. Ryan Egli is the Director of Enrollment Management and Marketing at Biblical Theological Seminary. He planted a church two years ago that had to close its doors. On this episode he shares that story. Special Guest: Ryan Egli.

My guest is Chaim Saiman. He's a Professor of Law at Villanova University Law School, and is an expert in Law and Religion and Jewish Legal theory. He also wrote a fascinating piece in the Atlantic about the most recent Star Wars film. It's called "Why The Last Jedi Is More 'Spiritual' Than 'Religious'." You can find the Atlantic piece here: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/12/why-the-last-jedi-is-more-spiritual-than-religious/549146/. Special Guest: Chaim Saiman .

My guest is the Reverend Dr. Kenyatta R. Gilbert. Kenyatta is Associate Professor of Homiletics at the Howard University School of Divinity. He earned his B.A. in Political Science from Baylor University and both his M.Div. and Ph.D. in Practical Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. We talked about the legacy of Martin Luther King and what it means today. Dr. Gilbert specializes in the history, theory, and practice of African American preaching. His research focuses on the theology and rhetoric of prophetic preaching, African American religion, hermeneutical theory, and constructive practical theology. He is author of The Journey and Promise of African American Preaching (Fortress 2011); A Pursued Justice: Black Preaching from the Great Migration to Civil Rights (Baylor 2016); and, Exodus Preaching (Abingdon 2017). Special Guest: Kenyatta Gilbert.

Doug Pagitt is an Author, Speaker, Podcaster, Organizer, Pastor, Ultra-Marathoner, Goodness Conspirator & Possibility Evangelist. He recently did a limited run podcast with another Pastor who voted for Donald Trump and still remains a Trump supporter. The dialogue is honest, passionate and generally fascinating. You can find UnTrumped here: https://www.spreaker.com/show/un-trumped. It's also available in iTunes or wherever else you get your podcasts. Special Guest: Doug Pagitt.

My guest is Marci Shore. Marci teaches European cultural and intellectual history at Yale University. She's the author on numerous books, most recently The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution. (https://www.amazon.com/Ukrainian-Night-Intimate-History-Revolution/dp/0300218680) In this lyrical and intimate book, she evokes the human face of the Ukrainian Revolution. Grounded in the true stories of activists and soldiers, parents and children, Shore’s book blends a narrative of suspenseful choices with a historian’s reflections on what revolution is and what it means. She gently sets her portraits of individual revolutionaries against the past as they understand it—and the future as they hope to make it. In so doing, she provides a lesson about human solidarity in a world, our world, where the boundary between reality and fiction is ever more effaced. Special Guest: Marci Shore.

Glen Scrivener is an Anglican minister and director of the charity Speak Life. He’s the author of several books including “321 - The Story of God, the World, and You” and “Love Story: The Myth That Really Happened.” He wrote and produced the Christmas short films Meet the Nativity (https://meetthenativity.com). He also has a podcast called The Evangelist's Podcast (http://speaklife.org.uk/tep/). He lives in Eastbourne, UK, with his wife, Emma, and daughter, Ruby. Special Guest: Glen Scrivener.

My guest is Will Dowd. As unpredictable as its subject, Areas of Fog (https://www.amazon.com/Areas-Fog-Will-Dowd/dp/0997745533)combines wit and poetry with humor and erudition. A fun, breezy, and discursive read, it is an intellectual game that exposes the artificiality of genres. Will Dowd is a writer and artist based outside Boston. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University, as a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship; an MS from MIT, as a John Lyons Fellow; and a BA from Boston College, as a Presidential Scholar. Special Guest: Will Dowd.

My guest is Todd McGowan. He teaches courses in film theory, history, and genre at the University of Vermont. His areas of interest include Hegel, psychoanalysis, and existentialism, and the intersection of these lines of thought with the cinema. He's the author of numerous books, including most recently Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Comedy (https://www.amazon.com/Only-Joke-Can-Save-Diaeresis/dp/0810135817). Special Guest: Todd McGowan.

What country makes the best chocolate? Most people would answer "Switzerland," or, if they're discerning, "Belgium" or "France." But, how many cocoa trees grow in Zurich? Lyon? Antwerp? Shouldn't the country known for growing the best cocoa beans be the one that makes the best chocolate? So, captivated by theories of international trade but with precious little knowledge of cocoa or chocolate, Steven Wallace set out to build the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company in Ghana―a country renowned for its cocoa and where Wallace spent part of his youth―in a quest to produce the world's first export-ready, single-origin chocolate bar. What followed would be the true story of an obroni―white person―from Wisconsin taking on the ultimate entrepreneurial challenge. Written with sensitivity and devastating self-awareness, _Obroni and the Chocolate Factory _ (https://www.amazon.com/Obroni-Chocolate-Factory-Unlikely-Globalization/dp/151072365X)is Steven's chaotic, fascinating, and bemusing journey to create a successful internati

In the wake of so many sexual harassment and sexual misconduct allegations, we here concerns of "sex panic" and McCarthyism from some cultural critics. Many of them are actual on the cultural left. Jocelyn Olcott (https://history.duke.edu/people/jocelyn-olcott) and I talk about this and a host of related issues in this episode of Give and Take. Jocelyn Olcott is Associate Professor of History and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. Mexico. Her first book, Revolutionary Women in Postrevolutionary Mexico, explores questions of gender and citizenship in the 1930s. Her second book, International Women’s Year: The Greatest Consciousness-Raising Event in History considers the history and legacies of the United Nation’s first world conference on women in 1975 in Mexico City (Oxford University Press, forthcoming Spring 2017). Her current project, a biography of the activist and folksinger Concha Michel, a one-time Communist who became an icon of maternalist feminism and a vocal advocate for

My guest is Jennifer Briney. She's the creator and host of the wildly popular "Congressional Dish" podcast. It's like C-Span meets Comedy Central, resisting the corporate takeover of the world. We discuss the upcoming FCC decision concerning Net Neutrality and the impact it could have on consumers. Jennifer's podcast is The Congressional Dish (https://congressionaldish.com). It's fantastic. To find out more about this week's sponsor Effective Coffee you can head over to their website: https://www.effectivecoffee.com. Don't forget to use this coupon code: giveandtake. You'll get 10 percent off your subscription for life! Special Guest: Jennifer Briney.

My guest is David French. David is a senior writer for National Review, a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, an attorney (concentrating his practice in constitutional law and the law of armed conflict), and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. We discuss a recent piece he wrote entitled "The Enduring Appeal Of Creepy Christianity." (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/453729/roy-moore-christianity-built-on-fear) It deals with the recent Roy Moore senate controversy. David is the author or co-author of several books including, most recently, the No. 1 New York Times bestselling Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can’t Ignore. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the past president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and a former lecturer at Cornell Law School. He has served as a senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice and the Alliance Defending Freedom. David is a former major in the United States Army Reserve (IRR). In 2007, he deployed to Iraq, serving i

My guest is Johanna Hartelius. She is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on rhetorical theory and criticism with an emphasis on expertise, public memory, and digital rhetoric. She studies the cultural and political implications of experts’ and laypersons’ rhetorical constructions of knowledge and experience, particularly as these constitute points of entry into public discourse, traditional and virtual. She is currently developing a book on experts and the digital commons. Special Guest: Johanna Hartelius .

David Clary is a news editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune and the author of “Gangsters to Governors: The New Bosses of Gambling in America,” published by Rutgers University Press on Oct. 30, 2017. The book explores how and why states have encouraged and promoted the expansion of legalized gambling in America. It is his first book. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 2002, he worked in a variety of editing and design roles at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. Clary is a native of Central New York, and is a graduate of Syracuse University with degrees in newspaper journalism and political science. He lives in La Mesa, Calif., with his wife, Jackie, and their two children. Special Guest: David Clary.

Babette’s Feast tells the story of how a refugee transforms a closed religious community by sacrificing all she has to throw a lavish dinner party. Through her radical hospitality, this mysterious woman converts her guests’ deeply held notions of scarcity and judgment and opens them up to give and receive abundant grace. My guests, Julia Beardsley O'Brien and Abigail Kileen, have adapted the story for the stage. This adaptation re-imagines the story you thought you knew about Babette’s singular feast: deep, funny, dangerous, sensual, and beautiful. Special Guests: Abigail Kileen and Julia Beardsley O'brien.

My guest is Nathaniel Popkin. Why is Philadelphia the “Hidden City?” What makes it distinctive in the landscape of American cities? And why does it matter? These are the questions Hidden City Daily co-founders Peter Woodall and Nathaniel Popkin and Hidden City Festival photographer Joseph E.B. Elliott seek to answer in the new book, Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City (https://www.amazon.com/Philadelphia-Finding-Joseph-B-Elliott/dp/1439913005), just recently published by Temple University Press. As the authors examine the historic reasons Philadelphia is the Hidden City, their essay and Elliott’s 110 photographs draw the reader inside, to discover the complexities and contradictions of Philadelphia’s sometimes misunderstood nature. Elliott’s photographs reveal the essence of 33 places around the city, including some hidden in plain sight. Take a journey to the Hidden City! Special Guest: Nathaniel Popkin.

Tullian Tchividjian is the grandson of Billy Graham. He's written several award winning books. He's been a celebrated preacher and pastor. Then his life fell apart. He lost his marriage and his church and he wanted to end it all. Then he found hope. If hope is what you need, this is the conversation for you. You can connect with Tullian at https://www.tullian.net (https://www.tullian.net). Special Guest: Tullian Tchividjian.

My guest is Danielle Strickland. Her newest book, The Zombie Gospel (https://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Gospel-Walking-Means-Human/dp/0830843892), explores the spiritual and existential themes in the wildly popular television series The Walking Dead. Danielle J. Strickland serves the Salvation Army in Los Angeles as the western territorial social justice secretary. Her books include Just Imagine: the Social Justice Agenda, The Liberating Truth: How Jesus Empowers Women, Boundless: Living Life in Overflow, and A Beautiful Mess: How God Recreates Our Lives. Originally from Canada, Danielle has spent over twenty years serving the marginalized, bringing hope to those caught up in addictions and prostitution in back alleys, and exerting her influence in the halls of government to see laws changed and practices transformed so that people aren't trafficked and children aren't enslaved. She is also an ambassador for Stop the Traffik (a global anti-human trafficking campaign) and Compassion International. Danielle is passi