We didn't plan to have back to back episodes on West Virginia but here we are. Substantive Cinema is back and this may be our most obscure film pick yet, but it's a great one! Matewan (1987 Dir. John Sayles) is a historical drama about the labor strikes in a WV coal mining town that lead to a bloody shootout in the streets. Not only is it an excellent film (with an Oscar nomination for Haskell Wexler's cinematography), but it's also a good history lesson for those of us who didn't grow up in Wes...
Jan 15, 2023•1 hr 8 min
Happy New Year, everyone! We hope you all had a nice holiday season and that you had, or are planning to make, some time set aside for reflecting on what you went through in 2022 and to plan for what you would like to focus on in 2023. It's been a while since we have had back to back episodes in the same format (if you're new to The Substance, we're a variety show with 4 formats that we try to have a decently even mix of), but the Substantive Cinema episode that we'll be dropping on the 15th, wh...
Jan 01, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Season 2Ep. 117
Happy Holidays, Substance fam! We hope you are all enjoying the holiday season and carving out time for joy and contemplation along with all the festivities that go along with it. For our last show of 2022 we wanted to take an episode and devote it to the Advent & Christmas season and to do so, we invited a guest! Bette Dickinson is an artist and author from Traverse City, Michigan and she just released a beautiful new Advent devotional from InterVarsity Press, "Making Room in Advent: 25 Dev...
Dec 18, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Season 2Ep. 116
Since our first episode, we've been focusing on being faithful in the political sphere without becoming partisan or falling into political idolatry. It's something we have come back to many times and it's where we find ourselves again at #115. Recently, National Conservatism had one of their national conferences in Miami and more than a few aspects of it were troublesome and alarming. From pastors sharing the stage with brazenly dishonest and power hungry politicians, to folks in high standing a...
Dec 04, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 2Ep. 115
Happy Noirvember, Substance fam! We've got a special bonus Substantive Cinema episode for you all here and it's another classic (that happens to also be in the Criterion Collection). Double Indemnity is widely considered the first "real" noir film made in the studio system. It's also a stark cinematic portrayal of the principle in Proverbs 1:10-18. Double Indemnity tells the story of an insurance salesman who is lured into a "perfect murder" by the wife of one of his wealthy policy holders. It's...
Nov 27, 2022•1 hr 18 min
Vincent was off on a tropical vacation when we recorded this, so it's The Substance 1.0 team on this Topic Toss Up! This time around we're considering "family worship" and taking a listener question about Fundamentalism. All of our lives are worship and much of family life is discipleship but is there something more specific and structured that we should all be striving for? Fundamentalism has a lot of connotations so how do the social, moral, and theological strains relate to one another? Join ...
Nov 20, 2022•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 114
It won't take you long listening to this one to realize that something's a little different. All three hosts have been busy recently and Trevor & Vincent were unable to make this recording so Philip is hosting solo here. Thankfully we have a wonderful guest so he won't be monologuing. Philip is joined here by Myles Werntz (Peacemonger). Myles is Associate Professor of Theology and Director of Baptist Studies at Abilene Christian University, Grad School of Theology. He also is an author of mu...
Nov 06, 2022•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 113
It's October 2022 and Spooky Season is upon us once again! Horror films consistently deal with substantive themes but it can be easy to overlook them if it's not a genre one naturally gravitates to. This year we are excited to visit a classic film that is responsible for the modern conception of the zombie, George Romero's The Night of the Living Dead (1968). We are also happy to be joined by author and Filmspotting & Think Christian podcast host, Josh Larsen. Josh is a longtime horror lover...
Oct 23, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 112
There's a lot we want to avoid as we wade into the topic of sexual ethics but we figured that it was probably time to start. It's an important and inescapable part of living in society, especially if we are seeking to live in a manner that pleases God and honors our fellow man. Bear with us but please feel free to reach out with any suggestions or feedback after you've listened! Shoutouts: Philip: The Patient (TV Show) Vince: Gwen Bunn "Waste Time" Trevor: After School Radio- Death Cab For Cutie...
Oct 09, 2022•1 hr 4 min
We're back tossing it up with some new topics! This episode we talk about Matt Chandler's announcement about stepping back from ministry because of a (allegedly non-sexual, non-romantic) relationship with a woman and what that says about the state of many modern American churches. We also look toward the future and how augmented reality may affect how we relate with one another and even how we do spiritual formation. Finally, we look at how churches do and should function in regards to their aff...
Sep 25, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 110
Homelessness is a serious and complex problem around the world and at home. It's also a problem that we have some powerful solutions available to us. This week we reflect on the topic with seminary graduate, homelessness advocate, and recently published author Kevin M. Nye. His new book Grace Can Lead Us Home: A Christian Call To End Homelessness is now available to buy and read and the final sentence in it's Amazon description is: "This thorough and intimate book shows us that from the margins,...
Sep 11, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 109
We've covered a lot of great movies on the podcast before (see list below), but we may have never been more on the same page as this one. Everything Everywhere All at Once is a funny, action-packed, mind-bending film that deals with multiverse theory and features several alternate universe versions of its protagonists, but at its heart it's ultimately a story about a multigenerational family learning to live with and love each other. Joining us to discuss this film is returning guest and SOLA Ne...
Aug 28, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Season 2Ep. 108
Yes, it's been since early April since we've put out a TTU episode, but we've got a great one for you here! Topics covered on this episode include: the importance of thankfulness in the Christian life, the recent development in some church circles to proudly embrace the label "Christian Nationalist" along with its tenets, and how Proverbs 26:4-5 (4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him. 5 Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his...
Aug 14, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 107
Overturning the United States Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade has been something that anti-abortion folks have had their sights set on for years and recently, they seem to have got their way. On a previous Reflects show on abortion, we discussed aspects of why this was a goal and some potential issues with it but now it's a reality and the conversation is a lot more sobering. We know that this issue is complex and none of us are legal experts (or women) but we hope that we're able to start t...
Jul 31, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 106
We realize it's been since April that we did our last Substantive Cinema (a great show with Tyler Huckabee that you should all listen to and share with others if you haven't yet!), the perils of pivoting release schedules but we're back on track with an excellent one! Jordan Peele's 2017 directorial debut Get Out was a smash commercial and critical success (and we had Eugene Park on to discuss that back on Ep #62, link is below). Anticipation and expectations were high for his follow up two year...
Jul 17, 2022•1 hr 3 min
We've been talking about doing this for a while now and a number of listeners have suggested it previously so we are very excited to bring you the first Substance Wives Takeover show! Sadly, we only have two thirds of our wives on this one but we think you're going to enjoy it! This week Anna Marinello & Christina Akin are joined by their friend and local Kansas City artist Crissi Curly to talk about her art and how she's chosen to use her platform to spotlight and promote joy and flourishin...
Jul 03, 2022•50 min•Season 2Ep. 104
We're back with the core Substance Team doing a Reflects episode but sadly we are back talking about abuse and how it is mishandled in the Church. Some have already moved on as the Guidepost Solutions Report was released a whole month ago but we wanted to take some time to read it (though not in its 288 page entirety), digest it, and see what others were saying instead of just adding to the pile of hot takes that are out there. The grievous actions (and inactions) described in the report are gre...
Jun 19, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Season 2Ep. 103
We are excited to welcome back Kyle Strobel to The Substance! Kyle is a preacher, the Associate Professor of Spiritual Theology and Formation at Biola's Talbot School of Theology, and the author (and co-author) of several excellent books. You may remember Kyle from when we had him on back on Episode 66 ( Listen here! ) and talked about our relationships with power. We highly recommend checking that out if you haven't yet! This time Kyle joins us to talk about something we'd all like to have a be...
Jun 05, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 102
Hey everyone! It's a little different this week. Last week we announced that, for now, The Substance will be transitioning to a biweekly release schedule. We love doing the podcast and putting it out for free but we all have a lot more responsibilities than we did when we relaunched and in order to continue to put out biblical, thoughtful, human, and substantive content on a regular basis we needed to make this change. Episode 102 will come out next week and we will be on an every other week rel...
May 29, 2022•10 min
It's been a while since we've covered a classic book on the show and we are excited to shine the spotlight on one that was a first time read for all 3 of us! G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy is a classic of Christian apologetics and has been in print ever since it was originally published. Joining us this week is Trevin Wax. Trevin is the VP of Research & Resource Development at the North American Mission Board, visiting professor at Wheaton College, regular columnist at The Gospel Coalition, an...
May 23, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 101
Happy 100th episode of The Substance! Whether you've been with us since we started (or more likely, relaunched on Episode 13) or you're relatively new, we are grateful you're here with us as we celebrate 100 episodes of the podcast! On this show we'll be looking back on favorite episodes and moments from #1-99, things we've learned over the years, goals for the future, and we'll also be hearing some words of encouragement from a handful of our past guests. Thanks again for rolling with us, and h...
May 15, 2022•1 hr 21 min•Season 2Ep. 100
Welcome back to another episode! We were super excited and blessed by our guest's this week John Onwuchekua (John O for short) and Keith Pinkney from the AMAZING podcast Windows & Mirrors where they say, "The Bible is more like a window than it is a mirror. We come to it to look through it and see God. We don't come to it primarily to look at it and see ourselves." We had great conversation learning about John and Keith's history, the vision and impact of the podcast, and so much more!! You ...
May 08, 2022•1 hr 20 min•Season 2Ep. 99
Let the record show that Trevor is out this week because he was attending a John Mayer show (featuring previous Substance Shoutout recipient Yebba) and not all the bad guesses that Philip & Vincent came up with. We thought that we'd maybe do a Topic Toss Up show when we started recording but it quickly became apparent that we'd be spending the whole episode on the most recent Julie Roys article about the abuse and cover ups at John MacArthur's church, Grace Community Church. To be clear, whi...
May 01, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 98
We hope you all had a wonderful Easter and are excited to be back in your ears! On this episode we are joined by Hannah Chao of SOLA Network. SOLA Network is a Christian platform designed to influence the next generation of Christians (and current & older ones as well) specifically with a focus on Asian Americans, both creating content directly relevant to their experiences as well as being a platform to highlight and publish writers within that community to the larger American Church. We co...
Apr 24, 2022•1 hr 3 min
We love sharing great movies with you all and it's especially enjoyable to highlight a film that is generally overlooked or that a majority of people may not be familiar with. This week we are looking at David Lynch's 1999 film The Straight Story. The movie is best experienced without knowing much about it (so if you haven't seen it before, stop reading and watch it now!) but it's a beautifully human, true story about a 73 year old man and the lengths he went to to try to reconcile with his olde...
Apr 10, 2022•1 hr 34 min
Website We're closing in on our 100th episode and today we've got our 20th Topic Toss Up! First up, we've got the first voicemail of the year (2022 is, in fact, The Year Of The Voicemail. Give us a call!). It follows up on our discussion with Propaganda about cursing, along with tying into a very early episode of The Substance. Then, a semi-recent episode of Brett Goldstein's podcast, Films To Be Buried With, brings up an interesting discussion about the line between social commentary and exploi...
Apr 03, 2022•1 hr 11 min
Happy April Fools' Day! This is a silly idea we had way back in 2019 before we took our unplanned year and a half hiatus (see "Special Annoucement" between episodes 12 & 13) but we're happy to finally share this very bad movie with you all! Manos (Spanish for "hands"): The Hands of Fate is a famously bad movie resurrected by the Mystery Science Theater 3000 team in 1993. It was made by a fertilizer salesman on a bet and it really shows. But even though every aspect of it is a train wreck, th...
Apr 01, 2022•1 hr 30 min
This week we dive more into a topic that affects us all to varying degrees and that can be difficult to talk about, doubt. Austin is a pastor at Vista Community Church in Texas and identifies as Young, Restless, and No Longer Reformed. He is also the author of the challenging and enjoyable book Faith in the Shadows: Finding Christ in the Midst of Doubt at IVP. We talk about a number of ways that doubt can manifest and how we respond, and while we may not agree on everything, our conversation was...
Mar 27, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 94
Website It's been a minute since we've dropped a Reflects (shoutout to all our excellent guests lately!) but we're back this week talking about a common pitfall (and accusation) related to Bible study and public theological discourse, prooftexting. It can be easy to read one passage, or even a portion of a passage, by itself and come away from it with an interpretation that is unsupported by the context. And "prooftexting" can also be an simple accusation to lob at someone in a public debate in ...
Mar 20, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 2Ep. 93
This week we are excited to share a wonderful conversation we recently had with Tim Whitaker, Founder of The New Evangelicals, an online community for folks who are deconstructing their faith and finding themselves without an immediate spiritual community. We talk about a wide variety of subjects including Tim's story (which is eerily similar to several aspects of our's), how the Bible is used, the importance of honesty & humility, the danger of partisan politics, maintaining healthy relatio...
Mar 13, 2022•1 hr 27 min•Season 2Ep. 92
