Vernacular
This show has been archived. To listen to its successor shows, head to creedalpodcast.com. Vernacular explores what it means to fully embrace our humanity. It's not a philosophy podcast. Nor is it simply a lifestyle podcast. It's a little bit of both, but not really either. It's music reviews and movie previews, sports forecasts and food recipes, philosophizing on the nature of knowledge and prognosticating on the future of science.
Episodes
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 ...
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" (alb...
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 cul...
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 safetyism rather than safety. Crawford thinks that safety isn't the highest good, which obviously raises the question: what is?
Crawford's Article: https://unherd.c...
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-lette...
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 t...
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-H...
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 friendshi...
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 singul...
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...
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!
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/w...
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 epi...
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.
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!
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!
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!
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 | Instagra...
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 R...
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 discontin...
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