Breadbox Media

Episode 118 - Zach Candler, Space Travel, and the Exploration of Being

In this episode Andrew has a conversation with his good friend and Counter Position listener Zach Candler, a scientist working on the new Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (Orion MPCV) for NASA. They discuss why it’s worthwhile to go to Mars and explore space, the connection between exploration and man’s innate desire to know, the mixed motives of science in the modern world, and evolving relationship between man and nature.

Episode 117 - Jeff Cavins On How to Suffer Like a Pro

In this episode, after a hearty shout out to Denver and the Broncos for putting 1.2 million people in the streets for a parade and making it smooth, and a moment of negative amazement at a group of English ethicists who have decided infants are not persons, Andrew has a conversation with Jeff Cavins about his new book When You Suffer: Biblical Keys for Hope and Understanding. They cover the different types of suffering, how suffering can be redemptive, and tackle the hard questions through an examination of their own experience of suffering. (In short, Andrew’s a baby and bad at it.)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616368705?keywords=when%20you%20suffer&qid=1455143869&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Episode 116 - Be a Poser/The Shape of Forgiveness

In this episode Andrew, after again getting distracted on the wonder of a one-lunged pope leading us to “breathe with both lungs”, muses on the experience of Vespers from Forgiveness Sunday in Byzantine Catholic Church in which you ask for and receive forgiveness from everyone in the church in the context of an embrace, how that gave him insight into the theology of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, an idea for a mental exercise inspired by this when in line for confession, and a memory of how his old Protestant church got one thing right when they tried to reinvent the Eucharistic wheel. Then, he discusses a TED talk about body poses and hormonal changes, and ties it all together into our nature as body/soul composites and the ever repeated slogan that “matter matters”.

Episode 115 - Of Broncos and Lungs

In this episode Andrew gives his hearty congratulations to the Denver Broncos, explores his history as a football fan, and talks about what it’s like to be in a football city for the first time. Then, Andrew turns to the upcoming visit of Pope Francis to meet with Patriarch Kiril of the Russian Orthodox Church, explores some of the concerns making their way through the blogosphere, and holds up Pope Francis as a model of love seeking relationship. In the process, it occurs to Andrew that a pope with one lung is seeking to lead us to “breath with both lungs” in the words of JPII! Finally, Andrew attempt to talk about a beautiful experience at Divine Liturgy over the weekend that was to be the focus of the whole episode, but punts until next. So, typical or classic, depending your charity.

The Counter Position Episode 114- Paul McCusker & The Nature of Narrative

 In this episode Andrew has a conversation with Paul McCusker of Adventures in Odyssey fame about the nature of narrative, the life of a writer, the pressure within Evangelicalism to “close the sale”, and many interesting rabbit trails including the deaths of David Bowie and Kurt Cobain.

The Counter Position Episode 113- Snow Day Musings on Loneliness and Human Flourishing

In this episode Andrew explores the issue of loneliness through the lens of addiction, neurogenesis, and studies on genes and their influence on inflammation in the presence of loneliness. Then, he puts this in the context of the fact the human person is built for love, that is to love and to be loved, explores what loneliness is, what it is not, it’s relationship to solitude or being in a crowed, and finally muses a bit on his own experience of loneliness. Along the way, in true Counter Position fashion, you get asides on the relationship between snow days and natural law, a defense of saturated fat, and the problem of modern living arrangements for priests.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/loneliness-grows-from-individual-ache-to-public-health-hazard/2016/01/31/cf246c56-ba20-11e5-99f3-184bc379b12d_story.html?postshare=7831454374111698&tid=ss_fb-bottom

http://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong

http://www.ted.com/talks/sandrine_thuret_you_can_grow_new_brain_cells_here_s_how

Episode 112 - The Power of the Unseen, From Neuroscience to Demons to Planet 9

In this episode Andrew explores the nature of the demonic and our past as recorded in the structure of our gray matter as sources of feelings, thoughts, cravings, etc. that are not telling us who we truly are now and who we are becoming. In the process, he explores, the ladder of being, the source of evil as not our matter, St. Ignatius Loyola, the discernment of spirits, consolation and desolation, the structure of our synaptic connections, and Planet 9 being a great example of a hidden element of disorder in the system.

Episode 111- Playing Offense & Wonder As The Experience of The Contingent Nature of Our Being

In this episode, after basking in a bit of coffee geekery about his new Kalita Wave manual brewer, Andrew launches into a full blown pitch for his project Calix, ends up in a rant about how we have to “play offense” in the Church, and finally goes on an even more intense and more existential rant about wonder, awe, the contingent nature of our being, the givenness of reality, and the place of natural law in this context, all inspired by reading 3 or 4 pages of Giussani while in line for confession today. Some of this is seriously classic Counter Position ranty goodness.

Episode 110- Screens vs. Reality/ Analog Lent

In this episode, inspired by a full weekend of interacting with people with no cell phones at Wyoming Catholic College, Andrew explores the role screens, literal and metaphorical, play in our life, remembers what it was like before them, explores the difference between direct experience and captured experience, and finally muses on what an “Analog Lent” would look like in reality.

Episode 109- The Wyoming Odyssey & Musings on Pedagogy vs. Relationship in Hospitality

In this episode, after driving all the way back to Denver from Lander, WY in strong wind, blowing snow, and icy spots, Andrew realizes that his first attempt at a mobile recording of the Counter Position are completely unusable do to road noise. So, he records a whole new late night show to replace it. He recounts his blessed and joyful weekend at WCC working on Crux Coffeebar, does copious shout outs, sings the praises of the town of Lander, WY, and recounts his harrowing journey home, complete with technical disappointments. Then inspired by Jason Farrar saying that customer service/hospitality is “not about pedagogy, but about relationship.” Andrew spends the better part of two segments musing on this and trying to put his finger on what it means and why it rings as so important to him. He doesn’t quite. There is fun along the way, which would also be a good title for this episode, “Fun along the way.”

Episode 108 - Landersode Rerevisited/Student Wonder, London Atheists, and Hot Tub Hater Hippies

In this episode Andrew is once again in Lander, WY training and teaching the staff of Crux Coffeebar at Wyoming Catholic College. After having one of the best days of his life, which nearly cost him his voice, Andrew gets frustrated by an atheist on FB, is inspired by the intelligent wonder of the students, and gets assaulted by an old hippy chick in the hotel hot tub. From all this, Andrew figures out the proper way to engage reality, what that has to do with dialogue, and what both the position behind the counter and the Counter Position truly are.

Episode 107: Fairy Tales as Natural Law & Mother Theresa + Hillary Clinton = Love

In this episode Andrew explores new research affirming the ancient nature of Fairy tales and what that might mean about our default relationship with reality, then turns to a Sean Fitzpatrick article telling the story of an instructive encounter between Mother Theresa and Hillary Clinton.

Episode 106: A Weekend Witness, iTunes Finally, An Untimely Death, and Part 2 of Everett Fritz on Freedom

In this episode Andrew, after exploring the beauty of an encounter through a witness over the weekend, doing verbal cartwheels over the fact that the new iTunes feed is finally up, and asking for prayers for a friend who lost her husband, finishes his interview with Everett Fritz regarding freedom and recovery from the grip of sexually compulsive behavior.

Episode 105: Everett Fritz on Freedom from Sexual Addiction, Temptation, and Impurity w/ a Bonus Segment on Mercy and Pope Francis

In this episode Andrew, after sketching his first impressions of the Pope’s new book The Name of God is Mercy, dives into two days of interview with Everett Fritz about his new book Freedom: Battle Strategies for Conquering Temptation.

Episode 104: Mystery and Analogy- A Story of One Guy’s Pendulum Between Rationalism and Intellectual Cowardice

In this episode Andrew, in typical rambling story format, explores the nature of the relationship between the via negative and the via positiva, confidence in the analgia entis (the analogy of being) and the embracing of mystery, all by tracing out the phases in the narrative of his own struggle to find the balance of the intellectual and spiritual search.

Episode 103: Sushi Coma, Abortion Rhetoric as Religion, and the Lottery

In this episode Andrew, drinking caffeine to counteract his post sushi food coma, explores a few moments in the news and social media where people have inserted highly subjective and non-evidence-based assertions into lists of medical, scientific, or political facts, then turns to the magic of the lottery to help disclose who people are and what they consider important.

Episode 102: House Blessing, Time Travel, and Daniel Bagdazian

In this episode Andrew recounts Fr. Michael O’Loughlin blessing the house in with the Jordan Water from the Theophany Divine Liturgy, muses a little more on whether God can alter the past in response to prayer and whether we would know it, then chats with his visiting friend Daniel Bagdazian.

Episode 101: The Lord’s Baptism- The Trinity, Sonship, and the Open Mile

In this episode Andrew, after getting distracted by the number 101 and telling stories about his favorite spot in Ventura, explores the Baptism of Our Lord, musing on the revelation of the Trinity, the nature of Beloved Sonship, and the shadow of the cross in the scene. Somehow he manages to fit in griping about being made to run the Open Mile at track meets in high school as a pudgy shot putter.

Episode 100: Nature, Gender, and the Feminine Genius

Episode 100!- Andrew celebrates his 100 episode by interviewing his friend, The fabulous jet setting moral theologian about town Pia De Solleni. They talk about nature, gender, the feminine genius, and all kinds of other interesting things.

Episode 99: Mark Giszczack and More Old Testament Darkness + Fun Rabbit Trails

In this episode Andrew sits down once again with his podcast partner, author and professor Mark Giszczak to talk about his book Light on the Dark Passages of scripture. They cover justice vs. mercy, God as the author of life and sometimes the taker of life, and get lost on fun rabbit trails about purgatory, protestant vs. Catholic theology of salvation, and particularly mind bending little departure on praying for things in the past.