For the Life of the World / Yale Center for Faith & Culture

Alissa Wilkinson discusses her book exploring the lives of nine revolutionary women through the lens of food. Topics include friendship, love, evil, difference, and southern cuisine. They emphasize the importance of encounters and letter-writing in friendships, and delve into the historical roots of farm-to-table cooking. The podcast highlights the power of food, justice, and hope.

Show NotesInstructive irony: Evan’s disabling experience of setting up a microphone for a podcast interviewThree ways to think about disability: Minority Model (Impairment of Individuals), Social Model (Societal factors create impairment), and Political Model (emerges from collective action and identity; generated from Americans with Disabilities Act)Chronic pain, real sufferingAll three models are important“Look at the arrangement of society—the conditions of possibility that empower our lives or that create obstacles to our flourishing.”How to Speak About Disability 101Care, solidarity, advocacy, and inclusionUnderstanding the ethics of disability through stories: narratives of the body, biblical narratives of healing, and theological storiesAugustine’s City of God and moral impurity and the wounds of martyrs as glorified and amplified in resurrected bodiesThe hurt of “fixing” those with disabilitiesDoubting Thomas and exploring the resurrection wounds of ChristStory: Physical disability and amputation“It always starts with thinking about the loss”Hope and possibility through the lossReligion and spirituality as a tool to both help and also a self-critique of the “wholeness” or “normal” narrative.Critiquing the brokenness-wholeness narrative of disability“Drawing attention to the site of divine activity.”Is disability connected to sin?John 9:1-41: Jesus Heals the Man Born BlindSlowness, constancy, unwavering faithStory: Intellectual disability and autismOxana’s CymbalsternCymbalstern (or Zimbelstern) is a star-shaped organ stop that makes a clanging, ringing sound during organ playing.Xenophobia, fear of difference, and stigmaCalli reacts to the truism: “There are only two kinds of people: those who are disabled and those who will be disabled.”Visible and invisible disabilities: depression, anxiety, and mental healthAre disabled lives worth living?Story: A surgeon develops multiple sclerosisRadical dependence on othersPower, agency, and interdependency on othersStart with the bare conditions of possibility, and then how those conditions of possibility change when disability emerges?AboutCalli Micale is Director of the MDiv Program; Assistant Professor of Theology and Ethics at Palmer Theological Seminary. She is a theologian with a particular interest in the ethical implications of theological talk for the whole of human life. Her research brings together the history of Christian thought with sustained attention to rhetoric as it grounds perceptions of the body and health in Western societies. She joined the Palmer Theological Seminary faculty in 2023 after earning a PhD from Yale University.Writing and teaching correspond in Dr. Micale’s work to form students as faith leaders oriented towards gender, disability, and racial justice. She has published articles with the Journal of Disability and Religion and the Disability Studies Quarterly (forthcoming). Micale is currently working on a book manuscript, tentatively titled Crip Conversion: Narratives of Disability and Grace. The book analyzes the stories theologians tell about intellectual disability and argues that deploying intellectual disability as narrative metaphor allows one to come at the Protestant tradition from a helpful vantage point—such that the significance of sensation for the reception of grace comes to the fore.As a candidate for ordination in the ELCA with 10+ years of preaching experience, Dr. Micale delights in the variety of ways her students take up theological resources for ministry and social justice action. In each course, she aims to take students beyond learning concepts by letting divergent beliefs shape and change their perspective on what really matters—their own intellectual and spiritual lives called to make a difference in the world.Production NotesThis podcast featured Calli MicaleEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Logan Ledman, Macie Bridge, and Kaylen YunA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/giveThis episode was made possible in part by the generous support of the Tyndale House Foundation. For more information, visit tyndale.foundation.

Where does boredom come from? Have humans always experienced boredom, or has it only come on in the entertainment age, having more time than we know what to do with? Kevin Gary (Valparaiso University) is author of Why Boredom Matters: Education, Leisure, and the Quest for a Meaningful Life. He joins Drew Collins & Evan Rosa to reflect on the discontent and disconnection that boredom constantly threatens. They discuss the phenomena of boredom, the childhood experience of it, whether its good or bad, the definition of boredom, its connection to entertainment and education, and finally the role of attention and leisure in cultivating a healthy understanding and response to being totally bored out of our minds.This episode was made possible in part by the generous support of the Tyndale House Foundation. For more information, visit tyndale.foundation.About Kevin GaryKevin Gary is a Professor of Education at Valparaiso University. He has a Ph.D. in cultural and educational policy studies from Loyola University Chicago with a focus in the philosophy of education and an M.A. in systematic theology from the University of Notre Dame. His teaching experience includes 10 years of teaching theology at Loyola Academy High School in Wilmette, Illinois.; seven years as a professor of education and philosophy at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana; 8 years as a professor of education at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana; and one year as faculty director of Goshen College’s international studies program in Lima, Perú.Dr. Gary’s research is primarily in philosophy of education. He recently published, Why Boredom Matters: Education and the Quest for a Meaningful Life with Cambridge University Press in 2022. K-12 educators (and parents) face bored students every day. Drawing on multiple disciplines Dr. Gary makes a case for teachers guiding students to engage with boredom constructively, steering clear of restless boredom avoidance on the one hand, or passive submission to boredom on the other.Dr. Gary has published in multiple journals, including Educational Theory, the Journal of Philosophy of Education, and Studies in Philosophy and Education.Dr. Gary is one of the founding executives of the North American Association for Philosophy and Education (NAAPE), launched in 2018. NAAPE provides an international forum for scholars working at the intersection of philosophy and educational thought, where disciplines such as ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, philosophical anthropology, history, and others meet the practical challenges of teaching and learning.Dr. Gary is passionate about liberal education, especially within the context of a Christian liberal arts university, which aims to cultivate practical wisdom, compassion, and a Renaissance spirit.Show NotesKevin Gary’s Why Boredom Matters: Education and the Quest for a Meaningful LifeA quick and incomplete history of boredomThe Preacher of Ecclesiastes laments over human toil, “everything is vanity and chasing after wind” around 250 BC. “The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing.”Stoic Roman philosopher Seneca noticed a nauseating tedium in his famous letter “On Tranquility,” describing a familiar quote “vacillation of a mind that nowhere finds rest, and the sad and languid endurance of one’s leisure. Thence comes mourning and melancholy and the thousand waverings of an unsettled mind, which its aspirations hold in suspense, and then disappointment renders melancholy. Thence comes that feeling which makes men loathe their own leisure and complain that they themselves have nothing to be busy with.”The ancient Christian monks of the desert struggled with the noonday demon of acedia, a spiritual boredom with their vocation of prayer and faithfulness.Aquinas and other scholastics disciplined the “roving mind.”Variants of the English “boredom”—including being bored to death!—show up in Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, and Herman Melville in the mid 19th century.Kierkegaard calls it the root of all evil.Heidegger sees it in a positive light, saying that philosophy begins in the nothingness of boredom.C.S. Lewis’s Uncle Screwtape advises that “anything or nothing is sufficient to attract the wandering attention” of Jr. Demon Wormwood’s human patient.The French bourgeoisie nailed it with ennui that many a suburban latchkey kid can relate to.In the King-Kubrick masterpiece, The Shining, boredom goes very dark when “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”Boredom for children: How to respond to the boredom children feelIs boredom bad or good?What’s the definition of boredom?Tolstoy on boredomKierkegaard on living life to avoid boredomKierkegaard as a form of existential despair; boredom as an indicator that we’re not comfortable with ourselves.Chasing novelty, looking for the new; or giving up and resigning our agencyHeidegger was influenced by Kierkegaard; and thought you must push through it to find your true, authentic self.Kierkegaard’s view of the “authentic self” is the self resting in God.“Schola” (Latin): attentively receptive.Simone Weil on tedium, boredom, and attentionLiving in an “attention economy” and controlling or stewarding others’ attentionAttention as an antidote to boredomSimone Weil’s experience working in a car factory and losing her sense of agency and selfPhilosopher Albert Borgmann on “focal practices” and guardrails.Go chop wood for an hour, and simply do it.Go for a walk for an hour without your smartphone.Boredom and entertainment in a perverse binary orbitSimone Weil “Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God” in Waiting for God (link to PDF)Entertainment is, therefore, not the problem.“The entertainment-boredom cycle just becomes more boring.”Leisure as antidote to boredomSabbath as oasis from work filling up our lives.Thomas Aquinas’s “roving mind”Let’s go birding!Liturgy as the guardrails of attentionBe an apprentice and learn to experience and perceive in a new way.Mindful in the mundaneGordon Wood’s History of the American Revolution: politicians as “disinterested men of leisure”Fighting against instrumentalization.Intrinsic goods of doing the dishes.“The bored mind is missing an opportunity for leisure.”“I like to fish… and any fishing guide will tell you they call it fishing, not catching, for a reason.”“Having resources does not guarantee the experience of leisure.”Josef Pieper and Abraham Heschel and the tradition of Intellectus and WonderHow leisure as both active and contemplative, and its role in a flourishing lifeProduction NotesThis podcast featured Kevin Gary and Drew CollinsEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Macie Bridge and Logan LedmanA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/giveSpecial thanks to the Tyndale House Foundation. For more information, visit tyndale.foundation.

The final installment of our 5-part book club series on Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most, produced and hosted by Kelly Corrigan, and featuring Claire Danes & Kate Bowler. Special thanks to the Warren Smoot Carter III and Meagan Carter Charitable Fund for making this series possible.Show Noteshttps://katebowler.com/about/https://divinity.duke.edu/faculty/kate-bowlerhttps://www.kellycorrigan.com/podcastAbout Kelly CorriganKelly Corrigan has written four New York Times bestselling memoirs in the last decade, earning her the title of “The Poet Laureate of the ordinary” from the Huffington Post and the “voice of a generation” from O Magazine.  She is curious and funny and eager to go well past the superficial in every conversation.  More on KellyCorrigan.com.Show NotesThis episode featured Kelly Corrigan, Kate Bowler, and Claire DanesEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Macie Bridge, Kaylen Yun, and Logan LedmanSpecial thanks to Tammy Stedman, Kelly Corrigan, and the Warren Smoot Carter III and Meagan Carter Charitable FundA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

Show Noteshttps://katebowler.com/about/https://divinity.duke.edu/faculty/kate-bowlerhttps://www.kellycorrigan.com/podcastAbout Kelly CorriganKelly Corrigan has written four New York Times bestselling memoirs in the last decade, earning her the title of “The Poet Laureate of the ordinary” from the Huffington Post and the “voice of a generation” from O Magazine.  She is curious and funny and eager to go well past the superficial in every conversation.  More on KellyCorrigan.com.Production NotesThis episode featured Kelly Corrigan, Kate Bowler, and Claire DanesEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Macie Bridge, Kaylen Yun, and Logan LedmanSpecial thanks to Tammy Stedman, Kelly Corrigan, and the Warren Smoot Carter III and Meagan Carter Charitable FundA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

Today’s episode is part 3 of a 5-part book club series produced and hosted by Kelly Corrigan. The PBS host and author of four New York Times bestselling memoirs is taking a deep dive into the latest book from the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. Written by Miroslav Volf, Matt Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most, the book is based on a Yale College course that takes up some of the most pressing questions of life, but doesn’t keep the implications, challenges, confusion, and demands of those questions at arms length. Both the course and the book invite life-long learners to ask, “For any idea, if that idea were true, how would your life have to change?”In this episode, Kelly convenes a podcast book-club with two really cool friends: Kate Bowler—host of the Everything Happens podcast and Associate Professor of American Religious History at Duke Divinity School—and celebrated actress Claire Danes, who starred in the Showtime series Homeland and the 90s MTV hit series My So-Called Life.If you’re interested in reading along with Kelly, Kate, and Claire, please visit lifeworthlivingbook.com—that’s where you can find links to buy the book and a free discussion guide when you sign up for the Life Worth Living email list.About Kelly CorriganKelly Corrigan has written four New York Times bestselling memoirs in the last decade, earning her the title of “The Poet Laureate of the ordinary” from the Huffington Post and the “voice of a generation” from O Magazine.  She is curious and funny and eager to go well past the superficial in every conversation.  More on KellyCorrigan.com.Production NotesThis episode featured Kelly Corrigan, Kate Bowler, and Claire DanesEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Macie Bridge, Kaylen Yun, and Logan LedmanSpecial thanks to Tammy Stedman, Kelly Corrigan, and the Warren Smoot Carter III and Meagan Carter Charitable FundA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

Today’s episode is part 2 of a 5-part book club series produced and hosted by Kelly Corrigan. The PBS host and author of four New York Times bestselling memoirs is taking a deep dive into the latest book from the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. Written by Miroslav Volf, Matt Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most, the book is based on a Yale College course that takes up some of the most pressing questions of life, but doesn’t keep the implications, challenges, confusion, and demands of those questions at arms length. Both the course and the book invite life-long learners to ask, “For any idea, if that idea were true, how would your life have to change?”In this episode, Kelly convenes a podcast book-club with two really cool friends: Kate Bowler—host of the Everything Happens podcast and Associate Professor of American Religious History at Duke Divinity School—and celebrated actress Claire Danes, who starred in the Showtime series Homeland and the 90s MTV hit series My So-Called Life.If you’re interested in reading along with Kelly, Kate, and Claire, please visit lifeworthlivingbook.com—that’s where you can find links to buy the book and a free discussion guide when you sign up for the Life Worth Living email list.About Kelly CorriganKelly Corrigan has written four New York Times bestselling memoirs in the last decade, earning her the title of “The Poet Laureate of the ordinary” from the Huffington Post and the “voice of a generation” from O Magazine.  She is curious and funny and eager to go well past the superficial in every conversation.  More on KellyCorrigan.com.Production NotesThis episode featured Kelly Corrigan, Kate Bowler, and Claire DanesEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Macie Bridge, Kaylen Yun, and Logan LedmanSpecial thanks to Tammy Stedman, Kelly Corrigan, and the Warren Smoot Carter III and Meagan Carter Charitable FundA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

"Your life is too important to be guided by anything less than what matters most."Part 1 of a 5-part book club series on Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most. Written by Miroslav Volf, Matt Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, the book is based on a Yale College course that takes up some of the most pressing questions of life, but doesn’t keep the implications, challenges, confusion, perplexity, and demands of those questions at arms length. Both the course and the book invite life-long learners to ask, “For any idea, if that idea were true, how would your life have to change?”Later in the series, Kelly is joined by Kate Bowler—host of the Everything Happens podcast and Associate Professor of American Religious History at Duke Divinity School—and actress Claire Danes of the Showtime series Homeland and the '90s MTV series My So-Called Life.This series is produced and hosted by Kelly Corrigan and was originally featured on the Kelly Corrigan Wonders podcast and Kate Bowler's Everything Happens podcast.If you’re interested in reading along with Kelly, Kate, and Claire, please visit lifeworthlivingbook.com—that’s where you can find links to buy the book and a free discussion guide when you sign up for the Life Worth Living email list.About Kelly CorriganKelly Corrigan has written four New York Times bestselling memoirs in the last decade, earning her the title of “The Poet Laureate of the ordinary” from the Huffington Post and the “voice of a generation” from O Magazine.  She is curious and funny and eager to go well past the superficial in every conversation.  More on KellyCorrigan.com.Show NotesFor more information about Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most, visit lifeworthlivingbook.com.Production NotesThis podcast featured Kelly Corrigan, Miroslav Volf, Matt Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-LinzSpecial thanks to Tammy Stedman, Kelly Corrigan, and the Warren Smoot Carter III and Meagan Carter Charitable FundA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

Experimental psychologist and cognitive scientist Justin Barrett joins Evan Rosa to discuss the unique qualities of being human, including executive function, hypersociality, and specialized knowledge acquisition. They explore the concept of the Imago Dei as a blueprint for individuality and discuss the psychological and biological underpinnings of human culture and the impact of technology on our biological niche.

We tend to take these claims for granted: “Human beings are essentially relational.” “No man is an island.” “We’re created for connection.” “We’re made for relationships.” And testing the limits of this can be pretty much diabolical. Evan Rosa traces two stories of parental deprivation: Harry Harlow's "Monkey Love Experiments" and the horror of 1990's discovery of Romanian asylums for orphans, documented in the 1990 report "The Shame of a Nation,” on 20/20.Then psychologist Mari Clements (Glenville State College, formerly Fuller School of Psychology) discusses the importance of healthy marriage dynamics for young children’s development and how it provides a secure emotional base; the relational imago Dei; the close emotional bonds that must take place early in life in order to provide the relational stability relational creatures need; we talk about important phases of human development, into adulthood; and the theological backdrop to these questions of the human drive and need for emotional connection.This episode was made possible in part by the generous support of Blueprint 1543. For more information, visit Blueprint1543.org.About Mari ClementsMari Clements is Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Psychology at Glenville State College. Prior to this, she taught at Fuller School of Psychology and Penn State University.Show NotesWe tend to take these claims for granted: “Human beings are essentially relational.” “No man is an island.” “We’re created for connection.” “We’re made for relationships.” And testing the limits of this can be pretty much diabolical.Harry Harlow’s Monkey Love Experiments—Rhesus Monkeys (Video)“The Shame of a Nation,” 20/20 (1990) (Video)How family dynamics and marital conflict impacts children“If you stay in your marriage for the sake of the children, then you deserve, and your child deserves, for you to work on your marriage for the sake of the children. Just being together is actually not better for kids. The kids who look really bad are the kids whose parents are engaged in repetitive and nasty and awful conflict. And they're not getting good models for how to solve problems in their own relationships. They're not getting good models for what to expect from marriage. They're not getting good models for what that marriage relationship is supposed to be.”Even four-year-olds notice when parents are in conflict.Marriage as a secure emotional base for children.Parenting together as stewardship and sacred responsibility“In your relationship, you should glorify God better together than you would separately.”“There's a very important connection between how it is that children see their parents and how it is they typically see God.”Conditional love can produce an earning mindset in a child, not just with respect to the parent, but to God.Don’t be a Karen-parent who thinks their child can do no wrong.“That's the interesting thing about people, even when they're doing terrible things, they often are doing them for good reasons, right? In therapy you can hear couples say incredibly hurtful and awful things to each other.”The relational image of GodStudy of Infants in Orphanages during World War I and World War II: Infants with physical needs taken care of still wasted away and even died without human contact.God as Trinity, Jesus as IncarnationalRelating rightly to our neighborsImpact of spousal treatment on how children treat parents and others.Wire Monkey vs Soft and Cuddly MonkeyA close emotional bond must take place early in life in order to provide the relational stability relational creatures need.Definition of adulthoodBabies can do amazing things.Still Face ExperimentIntellectual vs Relational definitions of the Imago DeiIntellectual disabilityBringing psychology into the service of theologyProduction NotesThis podcast featured Mari ClementsEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Macie Bridge and Kaylen YunA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/giveThis episode was made possible in part by the generous support of Blueprint 1543. For more information, visit Blueprint1543.org.