Breadbox Media

Episode 158 - Back on the Cavewagon, Catholics Drinking Together, and the Icon of Fire

In this episode Andrew talks about going on the Autoimmune Paleo Reset, going to Theology on Tap, the breakfast and smoking habits of Fr. Michael O’Loughlin, as well as why he should rebrand his brilliant podcast, and finally explores an insight while sitting by a fire this weekend.

#TheCounterPosition Episode 157 - Candidate Found, The Difference of Our Evil, and the Need to Hear Wear You’re Strong

This episode is a classic example of Andrew trying to do the show in his notes, fighting an emerging narrative, then giving in and going on the ride. Reflections on seeing Jonathan Reyes over the weekend, Fr. Riley leaving, the Reyes graduation speech, and his experience of being affirmed, all lead Andrew to cover everything from building for the 2020 election cycle, an exploration of ancient Roman exposure of infants and the games vs. our modern sins, his time with the Amator institute, his experience in confession, to how he accidentally wrote book that needs finishing. This is the thoughtful high level ADD that makes the Counter Position what it is. 

Episode 156 - Still Political, Less Distraught

In this episode Andrew finds some political hope again, at least enough to find the energy to rant and plead, examine why our country was designed to be different than others, and looks to some positive trends in millennials to give us hope and point to Catholic Social Doctrine/Pope Francis as possible unifiers. Basically, less dark but more of the same. @CounterPosition #millennials #politics #PopeFrancis

Episode 155 - Too Distraught to Rant (Or Write Long Episode Titles)

A politically distraught and melancholic Andrew rambles in sub-rant fashion about the state of our political system. Along the way he actually defends HRC’s hot sauce carrying, admits he’d take Bill back, tries to figure out why the only people who seemingly understand our founding are awkward white guys from the political/lawyer class, designs his perfect candidate, and blames Fox News for the dumbing down of political discourse into shouting of bullet points and slogans. 

The @CounterPosition Episode 154 - Insights From the Other Side (of the counter), Nature’s Buffet, and Walk Toward the Light

In this episode Andrew muses on his experience of receiving several forms of hospitality over the weekend, a Wendell Berry story of a Kentucky road building, and explores The Force Awakens in light of Ratzinger. 

Episode 153 - Weekly Wrap Up & Idea Dump

In this episode Andrew ends the week with a good old fashioned Counter Position download of everything that had not been mentioned and that had been swimming around his head for the week, along with the obligatory semi-failed attempt to draw a line between them. Including…the weather in Denver, plumbing apocalypse update, Peter Zelasko, Roger Thompson, his movie Beyond Sight, and his book My Best Friend’s Funeral, Eugene Peterson, Bono, The Message, Running with Horses, Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace, farming as as cosmological activity, the spark at the moment fertilization, quantum entanglement, reality and mystery, turning dogs into cows, and Frank Sheed on the role of your head and reality in sanity, and much much more.

Episode 152 - Adam Beach: On Eating, Drinking, and Conversation, Late Babies, and Almost Getting Shot By Wendell Berry

In this episode Andrew has a great conversation with his friend, fellow eater, drinker, and interlocutor Adam Beach, as he awaits the birth of his third “over due” child, about the power of food and drink to embody conversation and relationship, an Agrarian cosmological vision of reality, and how Adam almost got himself shot for trespassing by noted writer Wendell Berry. Not to be missed. 

Episode 151 - Katie Hile of Totonga Bomoi: Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Friendship

In this episode Andrew sits down for a chat with his friend Katie Hile, founder of Totonga Bomoi, an innovative Congolese artisan cooperative. They cover how a native of Lincoln, NE ended up founding a project in the Congo, the gift of innovation, the ability of entrepreneurship to pull people out of poverty with dignity, and the role of true friendship in helping others.  

http://www.africanartisans.org/

https://startsomegood.com/totongabomoi

Episode 150 - State of the Position Address, The Death of Prince, & Pop Music as Biographical Soundtrack

In this episode Andrew takes the milestone of 150 episodes to muse on what this show has meant to him in the context of his life and history. Then, he turns to the death of #Prince at age 57, talks about Prince’s journey as a sort of Augustinian figure, the moment that Prince’s path coincided with his own, and explores the nature of #PopMusic and how it attaches to us in a deep way as the embedded soundtrack to moments in our life and development. 

Episode 149 - The Lion Hunt & Taking Off the Hand Break

In this episode Andrew makes a shocking confession, gripes and muses about the availability of online movies in digital format, and pays homage to the recently passed Fr. Raymond Gawronski, S.J. Then, he delves into a fascinating interview by Terry Gross of a John Elder Robison, author of the new book Switched On, about his experience of being autistic, having experimental Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, and the emergence of feeling, emotion, and empathy in his life. 

Episode 148 - The Sacramentality of Making

In this episode Andrew gets all fired up and musing over reading a blog at Sick Pilgrim about the sacramental nature of writing. He then goes on to talk about making as the struggle to express the inexpressible, his history with making and metaphor as a way of living, and the connection between making and the spiritual life.

Episode 147 - Taxes and Snowstorms and Brisket Oh My!!

In this episode Andrew talks about Denver’s weird snowstorms, rants about the complexity of doing your own business taxes, raves about finding proper TX style brisket at Roaming Buffalo BBQ in Denver, then explains why everyone is on their phone, why he hadn’t given Ted Cruz and real chance, and what those things have to do with each other.

Episode 146 - Friday Catch-All/Weekly Wrap Up

In this episode Andrew shuts down the week by clearing his head of everything he’s been thinking about and that has been going on. After rejoicing over finding his 1099 needle in his backlog haystack, he goes on a rabbit trail consisting of the big picture of the GTD system and publicly claims he is getting back on the GTD bandwagon. Then, after the weather report (go home Denver, you’re drunk), relaying hearing the most New Age conversation ever overheard, and doing a quick review of Vert Kitchen and Overt Coffee on South Pearl, he returns to proposing Catholic Social Doctrine as a place of dialogue where Left and Right could meet, via an article about the new Gilder book, the Bernie Sanders comments for a Vatican conference, and a revisit of the Authur Brooks TED talk. Finally, influenced by his GTD work and reading Body by Science, he riffs on the concept of minimum effective dose. (MED) This is a very Counter Position episode of the Counter Position. 

Episode 145 - Means vs. Ends in The Order of Mercy

In this episode an annoyed Andrew tries to move above the day he’s having and instead vents his frustration with the reception of and commentary on Amoris Laetitia. In response, he tries to lay out a big picture schema through which to view the Church, ministry, doctrine, discipline etc., in particular that it is all a means to the end of encounter and communion with the living God, now and in Heaven. In that context, he lays out an order for mercy to happen in which we embody the goodness and grace of God, that “goodness calls us to repentance”, then real mercy can respond to the penitent heart.

Episode 144 - The Sleepy Episode

In this episode an exhausted insomniac Andrew uses his sleep-deprived state of being as an excuse to do a show length rabbit trail on all his various interests regarding sleep, including biphasic sleep, sleep phases, sleep debt, sleep apnea, polyphasic sleep, the nature of dreams, and lucid dreaming. So, get your pillow and your headphones and snuggle up with a blanky and listen to the best show that ever made you yawn! 

Episode 143 - Brunch, Bone Marrow, and Big Ideals vs. Messy Reality

In this episode a heavily caffeinated Andrew, after an impromptu muse on the glory and nature of gloomy days, proceeds with the Monday tradition of a weekend recap involving his catering a lecture for 140, putting on a serious brunch feast, brainstorming a pilot for a new “TV” show, and going to Williams and Graham for crazy good cocktails and bone marrow. Then, he dives into the commentary around the new papal exhortation Amoris Laetitia, and tries to put his finger on the big picture of ideal theological reality vs. the messiness of real human family life, with the help of an article from Fr. Dwight Longnecker, his memory of an article he lost, and a very heart on sleeve exploration of what it would look like if his prayers were answered and his own father returned to the Church.

Episode 142 - The Story of St. Bob and St. You

In this episode Andrew, surprising himself, abandons his notes and goes on a show long rabbit trail about seeing other people and yourself as in an chapter earlier in the book that ends with how you became a saint. Along the way, he covers how we see other people, even bad ones, even Donald Trump and Hugh Hefner, how we can help anyone in the project of fulfilling their destiny of sainthood, and finally how we should see ourselves and get started on becoming the particular weird saint that God called you to be, that is to die functioning properly as designed.

Episode 141 - The Power and Difficulty of Living Your “Yes

In this episode Andrew talks about a rough day, then traces the source of the roughness to his reading of a twenty year old writing that embodied a real “yes” for him at the time and feeling the delta between that ideal and his current life. Then, he talks about the “Yes” of the Blessed Virgin Mary in The Annunciation, what that meant to her in relation to the Immaculate Conception, and how that moment led her to the cross with her son. Finally, he looks at how these moments of “yes” in our life have to be lived out in the moment as we work them out in the frustrating hard mundanity of daily life or the bitter sting of persecution and humiliation.

Episode 140 - Mercy, Unbelief, and Mental Illness

In this episode, Andrew… 

 + gives the 20,000 info on Divine Mercy.

 

+ explores the nature of being afraid, in a locked room, and have Christ invade your locked room. 

 + claims in this Sunday’s gospel we get to see the inner life of the Trinity with our eyes 

+ muses on the relationship between reality, sanity, and mental health and what belief, unbelief, and modern logic might have to do with that.

Episode 139 - The Golden Age of Skyjacking, A Miami Odyssey, and Musing on the Power of the Possible

In this episode:

• Andrew explores the shocking history of air travel, sky-jacking, and the rise of airline security from the new book The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking by Brendan I. Koerner; 
• Tells one of his epic stories about being hijacked by duty to help an old man get back to MO from Miami, FL; 
• Uses the news of a $15 minimum wage and the release of the Tesla 3, along with insights from a Navy Seal, to talk about the power of what’s possible; and 
• Finally, Andrew makes a shocking announcement regarding his career path and the future of the Counter Position.   Don't want to miss this!!!