THE FINAL EPISODE + A Big Announcement and our Read/Watch/Listen! Thank you so much for listening to Vernacular for these past six (!) years! It's been a really fun ride and we've learned so much along the way. Our big news today is that we are drawing this podcast to a close, BUT we'll be doing future content over at Creedal: Theology & Culture . You can subscribe to Creedal on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts . Some of our recommendations: Little Women by Lousia...
Apr 13, 2021•Ep. 144
Fall Read/Watch/Listen Recommendations! Some of the recommendations we discuss in today's episode: The Mystery of the Immaculate Concussion by Julia Ioffe (GQ) The Heart of Perfection by Colleen Carol Campbell The Searcher by Tana French Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) A Subversive Gospel by Michael Mears Bruner American Kingpin by Nick Bilton Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer "Out of Body" (album by NEEDTOBREATHE) The Dispatch Podcast Didn't I Just Feed You Podcast Lo...
Nov 09, 2020•47 min•Ep. 143
The American Solidarity Party w/Amar Patel Today on the show I welcome fellow Catholic Amar Patel, who is running for Vice President of the United States on the American Solidarity Party ticket. Amar and I talk about the principles of solidarity, subsidiarity, personalism, and sphere sovereignty, why it's important to have third parties, what "success" looks like for his ticket, finding a way out of our toxic two-party culture, and a platform that upholds the dignity of every human life. For mor...
Oct 26, 2020•58 min•Ep. 142
The False Promise of Safetyism w/Maria Berggren Today on the show Sally's sister Maria joins us to talk us about a recent article (see below) from philosopher-mechanic Matthew Crawford that critiques the prevailing bureaucratic attitude towards COVID as one of safety ism rather than safety. Crawford thinks that safety isn't the highest good, which obviously raises the question: what is? Crawford's Article: https://unherd.com/2020/05/the-hypocrisy-of-safetyism/ We'd love to hear what you think of...
Oct 13, 2020•39 min•Ep. 141
The Meaning of Words w/Nick Clairmont Today on the podcast, Arc Digital's Nick Clairmont (@NickClairmont1) joined us to talk about the power of words, the changing meaning of words over time, the social construction of language (and what that does and doesn't mean), and more. It's a great conversation that's definitely worth your time! To read Nick's latest piece in Tablet Mag, head to www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/woke-language-privilege . To read more of Nick's work at Arc D...
Sep 29, 2020•41 min•Ep. 140
The Plight of the Uighurs In today's episode, we talk about the Uighurs in northwestern China, who face unprecedented state surveillance, restrictions on religious practice, state-sponsored spies in their houses, and in many cases (1-2 millon!) forced internment in "re-education" camps. If you're interested, check out Zac's new weekly newsletter, The Vernaculist ( vernaculist.substack.com ), in which he recently dove into this topic in detail. We'd love to hear what you think of this episode! Re...
Sep 14, 2020•37 min•Ep. 139
Race and Grace in Flannery O'Connor's Work w/Jessica Hooten Wilson Today on the podcast we sit down with Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson, Louise Cowan Scholar in Residence at the University of Dallas, to talk about charges of accusation levied against Flannery O'Connor, Flannery's cultural and literary milieu, costly grace, and more. Resources: Giving the Devil his Due by Jessica Hooten Wilson Flannery O'Connor the and Christ-Haunted South by Ralph Wood A Subversive Gospel by Michael Bruner Passing by...
Jul 20, 2020•38 min•Ep. 138
Race and Friendship w/Trey Lowman On today's episode of Vernacular, we talk to Zac's college friend and wedding groomsman, Trey Lowman, comes on the show to talk about his experience growing up as a Black man in a white community, what it's like to be the "token" Black friend in a group of white people, and living up to white friends' expectations about what a Black man should and shouldn't be. We also talk about friendship and how to navigate issues of race with charity, humility, and grace. Ar...
Jun 29, 2020•32 min•Ep. 137
Why Black Lives Matter w/Gloria Purvis Today on this Vernacular Podcast + Creedal Catholic crossover episode, Gloria Purvis joins us to talk about racial justice, George Floyd, systemic racism, and our national moment. It's a really good conversation, and Gloria has challenging words for the Church and for all Americans. NOTE: The title of this episode, "Why Black Lives Matter," expresses unqualified support for the singular idea that Black Lives do matter. It is not an endorsement of all of the...
Jun 15, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 136
Unpacking Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life" w/ the Ryds Recently we (Sally and Zac) watched Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life" for the first time. There's a lot going on in the film, so we called in a filmmaker and an aspiring film critic to help us unpack it all. Follow Chandler's work at chandlerryd.com Check out Lara's recent work at Bright Wall / Dark Room: "Please, Spare Me Your Secrets" We'd love to hear what you think of this episode! Reach out to us: Email | Instagram | Twitter | Patreon...
May 25, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 135
Spring Read/Watch/Listen Recommendations w/Elena Forsythe We're back with another read/watch/listen recommendation episode! We're sorry for the delay this week...Zac made a catastrophic editing error last week. [insert embarrassed emoji] We'd love to hear what you think of this episode! Reach out to us: Email | Instagram | Twitter | Patreon...
May 07, 2020•42 min•Ep. 134
Flannery's Short Stories w/Elena Forsythe We start today's podcast as a quarterly read/watch/listen pod, but we quickly dive down the rabbit hole that is Flannery O'Connor's spectacular literature. As a result, we have a spirited 40-minute discussion about Temple of the Holy Ghost , Parker's Back , The Lame Shall Enter First , and more, leaving no room for our read/watch/listen list! We'll be back in two weeks with our read/watch/listen recommendations! We'd love to hear what you think of this e...
Apr 20, 2020•39 min•Ep. 133
What Qualifies a Film as Art? w/Chandler Ryd Today on the podcast, filmmaker Chandler Ryd ( chandlerryd.com ) joins Zac to talk about the criteria for film as art. Starting off with Robert Frost's observation that "poetry is that which begins in delight and ends in wisdom," Chandler and Zac talk about how ways in which we can develop criteria for assessing the cinematic pursuits. We'd love to hear what you think of this episode! Reach out to us: Email | Instagram | Twitter | Patreon...
Apr 06, 2020•46 min•Ep. 132
Love in the Time of Corona In today's episode we broadcast from our home studio, where we're in social distancing mode. We talk about how we're handling the relatively minor inconveniences so far and how others are dealing with far worse, the good that can come out of a pandemic (yes, really!), and the need to prudentially balance competing public health and economic considerations in a crisis. And here is the article by Nathan Schlueter that we mentioned: https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020...
Mar 23, 2020•28 min•Ep. 131
What's Missing in Salman Rushdie's Arabian Nights In this episode we talk about Salman Rushdie's 2015 book, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights . We talk about Rushdie's false binary choice between heteronomy and autonomy and advance an alternative that he doesn't seem to have considered. We'd love to hear what you think of this episode! Reach out to us: Email | Instagram | Twitter | Patreon...
Mar 09, 2020•33 min•Ep. 130
Food News (February 2020) w/Elena Zac and Sally sit down with Elena to talk about replacing insect fact with butter, designing better tomatoes, eating fermented basking shark, an immersive Batman dining experience, the Impossible Whopper, and much more. We'd love to hear what you think of this episode! Reach out to us: Email | Instagram | Twitter | Patreon...
Feb 24, 2020•44 min•Ep. 129
Heavy Lies the Crown (The Crown, Season 3) w/Jordan and Catherine Short In this episode we sit down with Jordan and Catherine to talk about Season 3 of Netflix's docudrama The Crown . We talk acting performances, best episodes, best moments, episode MVPs, and whether or not this season exceeds the high standards of the previous seasons. We'd love to hear what you think of this episode! Reach out to us: Email | Instagram | Twitter | Patreon...
Feb 10, 2020•51 min•Ep. 128
Winter Read/Watch/Listen Recommendations! It's that time of the season again when we give you some of our top recommendations for what to read, watch, and listen to! In this episode we'll talk about The Crown (good), The Two Popes (bad), Colleen Carroll Campbell, North Korea, a new serial podcast on an oil boom in Texas, and bad plumbing. We'd love to hear what you think of this episode! Reach out to us: Email | Instagram | Twitter | Patreon...
Jan 27, 2020•35 min•Ep. 127
Episode Notes In today's episode we're talking about abortion--more specifically, how we're moving away from the language of "safe, legal, and rare" to an ideation of abortion as an unqualified good. This is a short conversation, but you may be interested in our longer discussion of this topic that we recorded originally in 2016. See our episode from January 22 of last year (2019) called From the Archives: 46 Years After Roe : https://pod.link/990809952/ep/1000428214082 Links: Alexandra DeSancti...
Jan 13, 2020•26 min•Ep. 126
Reviewing Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker w/Chandler Ryd [SPOILERS ABOUND] In this episode Chandler joins the show to talk about the ninth serial installment in the Star Wars saga, "Rise of Skywalker." We talk about Zac's theory of the five levels of Star Wars fandom, J.J. Abrams as a franchise director, "The Last Jedi" vs "Rise of Skywalker," Disney's effect on the franchise, the "Guardianization" of Star Wars, and discontinuity in the Star Wars canon. We'd love to hear what you think of this epis...
Dec 30, 2019•48 min•Ep. 125
Holiday Food news w/Margaret Perry Today is our last release before Christmas Day, and Margaret Perry joins us on the show to talk about Holiday Food News! On the conversation list: mashed potato recipes, peppermint bark, and taco-scented wrapping paper (among other things), and we close out the episode with a Trader Joe's true fan litmus test, which we all fail miserably. We'll be back during the 12 days of Christmas with more content--in the meantime, have a very Merry Christmas! We'd love to ...
Dec 21, 2019•47 min•Ep. 124
The Popped Cast: Merry Madness of Christmas Music! March has March Madness. December has Merry Madness! In this crossover edition, we hop onto The Popped Cast to talk with hosts Josh and Maureen Goldman about the best Christmas songs of all time. Sixteen candidates go head-to-head in a bracket tournament until we declare one the winner! If you like what you hear, check out The Popped Cast wherever you get your podcasts, or head to https://pod.link/1382870305 . We'd love to hear what you think of...
Dec 09, 2019•1 hr 6 min
Making Room for Christ(mas) In today's episode of Vernacular, we talk about some ways that you can "make room" for Christmas despite all of the distracting noise of the season. We talk about hospitality, generosity, sharing of your things, hosting guests, maintaining family rhythms, avoiding Black Friday, penitence, the 12 days of Christmas, caroling after Christmas (gasp!), and devotional practices. We'd love to hear what you think of this episode! Reach out to us: Email | Instagram | Twitter |...
Nov 25, 2019•23 min•Ep. 123
Fighting Cancer, "Improved" Gene Editing, and More Bioethics News In this episode we review some bioethics news (links below) and talk about a new book about fighting cancer (and when enough is enough) and advancements in gene editing that some are talking about as "a significant step towards [being] able to make just about any kind of DNA change that anyone wants at just about any site in the human genome." Prime Editing (NPR) Article on Dr. Rebrikov's efforts at altering "deaf" gene (Nature) F...
Nov 04, 2019•26 min•Ep. 122
Food News (October) w/ Elena We take advantage of Elena's visit to record an episode about the Food News you never knew you needed for the month of October. Liquor-filled tide pods? Check. Dave Chang's take on international food aisles as bastions of racism? Check. Cat Advent calendars? Check. We also have our first-ever on-air taste test, trying out Clif Bar's new Spiced Pumpkin Pie flavor. We'd love to hear what you think of this episode! Reach out to us: Email | Instagram | Twitter | Patreon...
Oct 21, 2019•41 min•Ep. 121
Does "Ad Astra" fulfill its ambitions? Lara & Chandler Ryd and Josh Goldman join Vernacular this week to talk about James Gray's Ad Astra , starring Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, and Liv Tyler (sort of). We share our observations and criticisms of the work, commiserate about the perils of voice-over, pick our favorite cinematography excerpts, and talk about space baboons. It's a fun conversation about a movie that doesn't quite cut it for most of us. We'd love to hear what you think of this ep...
Oct 07, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 120
Fall Read/Watch/Listen Recommendations! The September Equinox happened this week, which mean's it's time for October baseball, stiff breezes, early sunsets, and honeycrisp apples! In this episode we share some of the things that we've been reading, watching, and listening to (or plan to) as the leaves start to turn crimson--we have some ideas for media to accompany your pumpkin spice lattes and Oktoberfest ales this season. We'd love to hear what you think of this episode! Reach out to us: Email...
Sep 24, 2019•31 min•Ep. 119
Food News w/Zac and Sally In a departure from our regularly scheduled programming, we take a lighthearted look (inspired by the sadly defunct "Food News" from Grantland) at food news from around the country. Take a listen to hear about "Grocery Happy Hour" in Finland, the Popeyes Chicken Sandwhich craze (and why Zac used to think Popeyes was a Catholic establishment), Starbucks' newest idea, and the pumpkin lineup at our beloved Trader Joe's. Let us know if you like this episode--we had fun and ...
Sep 11, 2019•34 min•Ep. 118
The Philosophy of NBC's "The Good Place" w/Alexi Sargeant In this episode previous Vernacular guest Alexi Sargeant (freelance writer and Managing Director of the Aquinas Institute at Princeton University) joins us to talk about NBC's "The Good Place" and what it tells us about our final destination, ethical quandaries, and the art of being human. For more info on Alexi's work, follow him on Twitter . You can also read his article about "The Good Place" here . We'd love to hear what you think of ...
Aug 27, 2019•32 min•Ep. 117
Dad Pod: Talking Fatherhood w/Nate Seibt In this episode of Vernacular (Zac is thrilled about the title), Nate Seibt returns to the podcast to talk about the joys and failures of fatherhood. Zac and Nate swap stories of bedtime struggles, obedience trials, transitioning from the workplace to the home on the end of day commute, and what they would tell their pre-dad selves about what fatherhood is all about. We'd love to hear what you think of this episode! Reach out to us: Email | Instagram | Tw...
Aug 13, 2019•39 min•Ep. 116
