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The Counter Position - Episode 79: Monastery Mode

In this episode Andrew comes to you from St. Andrew’s Abbey with some insights on what the life of a monastery can teach us, including slowing people down, but experiencing Christ in busy annoying people, how structure can be natural for individuals and community, and how to eat and drink in a way that has something akin to liturgy.

The Counter Position - Episode 78: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Coast

In this episode Andrew muses his way from Denver to a CA monastery, via Gallup, NM and Phoenix, AZ, while trying to get time to let go of him, learning how to not not buy jewelry from Indians in the right way, getting shocked by the beauty of the ‘long cut’, and fighting traffic and construction the way saints fought the devil. His journey ends with sickness blocking his plans and landing at St. Andrew’s Abbey in Valyermo, CA.

Episode 76: Hospitality and The Risk of Love

In this episode Andrew explores the question of whether we should admit Syrian refugees into the country, what could go wrong, what could go right, and what would love look like in this situation.

Episode 75: Scheduling Encounter/The Power of Expectation

In this episode, after praising bacon and making a plea for a Unabomber shack in the middle of nowhere to work on his book, Andrew settles into an extended stream of consciousness meditation on taking some time out with the expectation of Divine encounter, from a quick minute in the chapel as you walk by to driving across the desert and around CA for 10 days.

The Counter Position Episode 74: Snow Day Rant-isode

In this episode Andrew gets up super early to see if he can go to work in the midst of the first blizzard of the year, praises the calming effect of snow days, rants about people who can’t drive in the snow, and explores how sometimes nature forces us into a stance of humility regarding it. Then, he picks of the theme of defiance of nature with two stories about transgender “men” who are surprised and upset by their body defying their perception and acting like a woman’s. Finally, he explores what’s at stake in the Nietzschian “reality distortion field” that is the modern trans movement and compares it to small town judicial philosophy and the story behind weird laws. Snow makes Andrew ranty.

The Counter Position Episode 73: First Interview!! Mark Giszczak and Light on the Dark Passages of Scripture

In this episode, Andrew finally gets his tech ducks in a row and does an interview with his friend, interlocutor, and partner in crime on the Over the Counter Podcast, Mark Giszcczak about his new book Light in the Dark Passages of Scripture.

The Counter Position Episode 72: Ali Cavanaugh & The Centrality of the Person in Living both Faith & Art

In this episode episode Andrew uses the heart-achingly beautiful paintings of his old friend Ali Cavanaugh and the anthropological vision of the human person from Karol Wojtyla to muse the future of all Christian making, but especially doing visual art, film, music, and media as a Catholic. Ssssshhhh, don’t tell Ali, it’s a surprise.
http://www.alicavanaugh.com/

The Counter Position Episode 71: Red Cups vs. Advent, God is a Free Spirit, and the Escape from Self

In this episode Andrew weighs in on the non-controversy of Cupgate 2015, explores why Catholics are scared of the God moving outside the sacraments and the Church, and then muses on rock and roll, preaching, booze, drugs, and sex as attempts at and glimpses of the true escape from the self consciousness that is so endemic in our modern Western society.

Counter Position Episode 70: A Golden State of Surprise/Bacon Makes It All Better

In this episode Andrew relates his adventures in the Golden State over the weekend, beginning with travel Hell and karmic bacon making all things right, then bad traffic, good coffee, and surprising Hope and Justin Schneir at their CD release party.

The Counter Position Episode 69: Matter Matters

In a new very early morning episode Andrew explores why matter matters, why we are not Platonists or Manicheans, returns to his recent fascination with the angelic nature, muses on generation as imitation of the divine, and goes on a rant about a high school in IL.

The Counter Position Episode 68: A Truce Between Truth and Justice

In this experimental very early morning (instead of late night) episode Andrew reflects on some beautiful insights raised by Dr. Jonathan Reyes, Executive Director of the Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development for the USCCB in his lecture in Denver, CO on Absolute Truth and Beauty.

The Counter Position - Episode 67: So, What are You Worth?

In this episode, after shout outs to Andy Craig/Catholic World Issues, Fr. Cornelius Buckley on his 90th birthday, and those crazy sacerdotal kids over on the Catholic Stuff You Should Know Podcast,  Andrew reflects on the reality of guardian angels and what the nature of your guardian says about your worth and value. (Hint: You’re kind of a big deal.)

The Counter Position - Episode 66: Costumes and Souls and Saints Oh My

In this spooky episode Andrew reflects on Halloween weekend, admits to and makes excuses for his lame costumes, relays his interest in people’s attempts at naming his costume, delves into what Purgatory is all about and why we are all about the dead this time of year, explores what ghosts might be and what might motivate them, then finally explores sainthood as the normal end of human life by our design.

The Counter Position Episode 64: Rants, Breaks, Moods, and Musings

In this episode Andrew apologizes for a rerun, gets real about his first failure to do a show, rants hard about the new WHO study that claims processed and red meat cause cancer, takes a break to eat and watch Marvel Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D., almost falls asleep on the couch, yet soldiers on, suffers a dramatic mood shift, gets uber tired, muses about the nature of myth, fairy tales, and narrative, and comes back to call Belgium to task for the assisted suicide allowance of a 24 year old woman who wants to commit suicide though nothing else is wrong with her, all in the context of cooking, eating, and recovering from a delicious paleo frittata. This is one of those love it or be annoyed by it episodes of The Counter Position.

The Counter Position - Episode 63: An Update to an Encounter & Stories of St. John Paul the Great

In this episode Andrew, after relaying the story of a cool providential moment over the weekend, goes on to tell some stories about his hero St. John Paul the Great, including watching his election 1978 and a holy superstition/lie his uncle told him, playing the slave boy between George Weigel and Carl Bernstein (who Andrew accidentally cites as Woodward) at a conference and being saved by Helen Alvare, seeing Pope JPII in person in same place he had seen Loverboy and Run-DMC, reading Fides et Ratio on a very rough train in CA, the death of JPII just as he finished his thesis on him, and the time JPII and Mary bought him some suits and gave him a very Marian spirituality.

The Counter Position Episode 62: The Road Out and the Road In

In this episode Andrew returns to the intriguing witness to encounter in the Catholic Match profile he talked about yesterday and, in light of a new interview with Dave Bazan, explores the nature of finding and losing faith and tells the stories of his own losing and returning to faith.

The Counter Position - Episode 61: Time Travel, Hummus as a Tool for Unity, and a Witness to Encounter

In this episode Andrew travels through time to a less ironic moment via 80s rock music and too a good but ironic time via hiking boots, discusses a cafe using hummus to make peace through hospitality, finally remembers what designing a coffeehouse has to do with making care packages for the homeless, and talks about a startling witness on a Catholic Match profile.

The Counter Position Episode 60: No One Expects the Ideological Microbial Colonization!!!

In this episode Andrew talks about designing a coffeebar in Wyoming all weekend, a conversation with his friend about building care packages for the homeless, swears they have something in common, but never gets to the connection. (charmingly typical) Then, he sings the praises of his loved ones in Pittsburgh, introduces everyone to the continuing saga of Harvey the Energy Whale, muses long on the emerging concept of Ideological Colonization, and makes an appeal for an innovative new culinary homeless ministry.

The Counter Position Episode 59: So You’re Sayin’ There’s a Chance/ Dating, Daters, on a Date.

In this episode Andrew gets a new shot at going to the Holy Land, cooks a chicken in his spiffy new gas stove, and muses on the numbness of his heart in relation to tragic news, the nature of modern media, and how the reality of possible danger ignites empathy where it was not before. Then, he dives into dangerous territory and talks about dating as a modern single Catholic man, the frustration of his female friends, and some possible sources of the hesitancy of modern men to pursue women and settle down.

The Counter Position Episode 58: Bad News, Interesting Assets, and WW(Insert Your Founder Here)D

In this episode Andrew drops the bad news that he is not in fact going to the Holy Land, since the trip was sold out, muses on the possibilities of the Church owning a lot of cool old buildings, in cool neighborhoods, with grandfathered looser zoning and land use restrictions, with a corollary on the opportunities a parking lot offers, and finally explores the historical process that orders, apostolates, movements, etc go through with regard to their ends, their means, their founders’ visions, and the possibilities that arise when we ask afresh what the founder would do if they were alive and starting in our modern context.