Hope in Source

Hope in Source

What are the parallels between faith and open source software? Join Henry Zhu for an off-the-cuff conversation between friends. Check out hopeinsource.com and nadiaeghbal.com/public-faith for the backstory!

Episodes

June 13, 2025 100 mins

Something NEW to listen for: the birds, dogs, cars, shoe tying, and even a lady asking us to take a picture! Laurel and I take a stroll through Central park on Memorial day: chatting about the idea of a walking podcast, sauntering, voice notes, memory, the romance of distance, physicality, screenshots, printers, embodiment, energy, perception, ultralight, ordinary time. I certainly felt both the messiness and the surprise of being ...

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Does technology give us control or the illusion of it? We explore how societal expectations, the nature of work, and AI challenge what it means to be human, contrasting the allure of self-sufficiency with the call to vulnerability.


[05:18] Work Beyond the Title

[08:29] Unpredictability and Decision Frameworks

[11:02] Allure of Control

[13:35] Personhood

[16:18] Self-Control

[17:26] Self-Perception

[19:58] Technological Coping

[22:56] D...

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February 16, 2025 43 mins

What does it really mean to call yourself anything? Joseph Choi begins to explore his ongoing journey of faith deconstruction, reconstruction, and whatever it is now. But we end up through about the anxieties around labeling one's beliefs, between commitment and optionality, and abundance and scarcity mindsets.

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August 28, 2024 33 mins

How does rationality/ea and faith intersect? Austin Chen joins me to explore the overlaps between Catholic upbringing and EA principles. We discuss his car wash story, tithing/earning to give, the concept of utilons and fuzzies, creating secular liturgies like Taco Tuesday, the tension between being agentic and the savior complex, on rest and waiting, and seeing the uniqueness of each person amidst the systems we create. (Recorded ...

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August 9, 2024 47 mins

How does faith call us to both right action and right emotion? Sonya Mann joins me again to discuss the layered meanings of biblical parables. Some themes I liked: the paradoxical nature of faith, the generousity of God, the interplay bt obligation and grace, freedom within constraint, the parable of workers in the vineyard and talents, lay utilitarianism, the nature of praise, phenomenology in faith, the metaphor of weddings, vise...

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August 7, 2024 50 mins

Why does everyone care about New York? Drew Austin explores the interplay bt digital/physical env and how tech values shape our lives. We discuss some of his past essays: fashion as public good, airport lounge-ification highlighting, and how digital paradigms reshape our physical spaces. Topics include: fake serendipity, lofi, gm, resilient systems, the commons as customs, postmodernist software, leaving a trace, Twitter as a waiti...

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How do we all act as protestants online? L.M. Sacasas joins Henry (4th time!?) to chat about material/digital culture, how we compensate for natural affordances in new digital interfaces, our inability to account for non-measurable losses, texture vs. frictionlessness, lofi, roguelikes, reality tv, ambient data capture, extracting our private life for gain, how digital space is more of a past rather a place. (Recorded August 2022) ...

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September 27, 2022 43 mins
Where can hope be found? Alex Kim joins again to open up questions of responsibility, and our place in relation to times of weariness. He speaks out his experiences growing up and also shepherding a local church body as a youth pastor. We speak amidst the burnout on notions of time, the work of Charles Taylor through Andrew Root, work/play, and living out in hope. Maybe it's what this podcast is attempting to work towards! (Recorde...
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August 29, 2022 52 mins
Can our digitally mediated environment be spiritual? Nick Ripatrazone takes us through the lens of the Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan, focusing on his not well-known Catholic faith. McLuhan himself describes his testimony into the Church as, "I came in on my knees. That is the only way in." We discuss the topics around inter-textuality, the complexity of life, on form/function within mediums like poetry, concept/percept, amb...
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August 29, 2022 50 mins
What is the place of history in our society? Who was Ivan Illich and how might he be a helpful voice, even in his passing? David Cayley shares about his new book, "Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey". It's not really a biography, and as Illich himself would say, "you can't capture me!" We talk about open source, big tech, and enclosure, history which gives you roots, how tradition and change are intertwined, the many myths/idols ...
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August 24, 2022 43 mins
What is the nature of reality? Esther Lightcap Meek speaks of reality as interpersonal, saying yes to life, everyday knowing. We discuss hope as a person-ed affair, how life is a sort of scrabbling together of clues, gift economies, covenant epistemology, on commitment, consent, belonging. (Recorded in November 2021) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/reality
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August 24, 2022 29 mins
Why is Christianity so commercialized? Conley shares about The Dorean Principle, his new book which explains this biblical concept of the Gospel being "freely given". We talk about being a colaborer vs. a customer, reciprocity vs. gift, Bible translation, Christian music, copyright and creative commons, and how it all relates to an open source ethos. (Recorded in October 2021) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/dorean.
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September 1, 2021 58 mins
How can we think about digital communication, let alone silence? Is it possible? L.M. Sacasas is back to chat about a few of his last newsletter posts: the nature of silence, attention not as a resource, on hope vs. expectations, the arms race of escalation, manufactured needs, askesis or discipline, the commons vs. the public, and trustlessness and codes of law. (Recorded in July 2021) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/silence....
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June 18, 2021 50 mins
Why read Ivan Illich today? In this episode, Madhu Suri Prakash and Dana L. Stuchul of Penn State University (and Journal of Illich Studies) interview L.M. Sacasas on his work as being a sort of bridge or interlocutor of Illich's thoughts. They talk about schooling and inequality in COVID, ways of thinking about technology, a life of planning vs. gift, convivial tools, redemption of work, and more. (Recorded in December 2020) Trans...
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How does the digital life shape our perceptions of ourselves? Maggie Appleton starts us off on a discussion of school in pandemic times which lead to a discussion of the disembodiment that technology can create, somehow bringing us further towards our thoughts on time and space? (Recorded in November 2020) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/disembodiment
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March 9, 2021 42 mins
How is the state of modern software like losing at Tetris? Stephen Kell joins Henry to chat about Ivan Illich's thought (counter-productivity, radical monopoly, critique of institutions) applied to modern software culture! We talk about the software/hardware arms race, how our default is more is better, tech being all-consuming, the tyranny of updates. (recorded in Dec 2020) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/tetris
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February 19, 2021 27 mins
What happens when we open up browser APIs like a filesystem? Omar Rizwan joins Henry to chat about his latest project, TabFS! We discuss possible extensions, tinkering with scripts vs being a whole "project", writing it yourself, few dependencies, determining your 1.0, literate documentation, and maintaining a newly popular open source project! (recorded in January) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/tabfs.
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February 18, 2021 44 mins
How do we think about ourselves and the communities we move into? Sonya Mann and Henry continue a chat about the nature of conversion: about using jargon within a community, individuation, and transformation. Topics include the tools of a worldview, flavors of faith, the good of questions, essence and discovering yourself, hierarchies of reality, interwoven histories. (Recorded in September) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/ess...
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January 3, 2021 34 mins
How does one come to faith, let alone come back to it? Sonya Mann graciously shares some raw thoughts on her re-conversion to Christianity. We cover a lot of ground, going through doubt and spiritual malaise, the phenomenology of faith, fractal reality, "happeningness". (Recorded in September) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/reconversion.
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December 9, 2020 35 mins
What is Advent anyway? Alex Kim joins Henry to chat about the season of waiting, memory, our loss and discovery of tradition, teaching ritual as meaningful, a Christian conception of time, and opening ourselves up to hope. Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/advent
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