Major Milestone for "The Podcasting Priest"

We have mentioned Father Roderick from SQPN previously, regarding his YouTube videos that use LEGOs to present church teachings.

Father Roderick is  also a pioneer in the world of podcasting, and recently released the 1000th epiosde of The Break, his flagship show.

The show has gone through a few iterations over the nearly 10 years that it has been around. For a time, it was a daily show, but now comes out (mostly) weekly. The show includes reviews of geek-related movies and TV, along with discussions of current history and information about the Catholic Church.

Congratulations to Father Roderick on reaching this impressive podcasting milestone. Here is to another 1,000 more!

Happy St. Francis Day!

St. Francis lived from approximately 1181 to 1226. His legend was such that he was canonized just a few years after his death. In his 44 years of life, Francis accomplished quite a bit. He founded multiple religious orders that still go strong today. He was a skilled poet, and a great teacher about the value of God's creation. He witnessed to the world the value of poverty, and is credited with creating the first Nativity scene.

In addition to penning the famous Canticle featuring "Brother Sun" and "Sister Moon," he was known as a lover of animals. He once left a group of traveling companions, asking them to "wait for me while I preach to my sisters the birds."

Many Catholic churches recognize Francis' commitment to God's world by offering a "blessing of the animals" service. Mostly that's for dogs, but I've heard of more exotic animals coming being brought to these services, as well. My pets have always been cats, and I wonder how many well-meaning cat owners have been clawed and scratched attempting to have their felines blessed.

The current Pope took inspiration from this saint in selecting his name upon being raised to the Papacy. This is reflective of both men's commitment to the cause and care of the poor.

Podcast #008 - The Grab Bag

"A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That"

In this grab-bag of an episode, we explore the connections between the 4th century churchman Athanasius and new Broadway star Alexander Hamilton. And we ask the important question: whose severed limb was that anyway? We also point out a couple of Christian comedians who are actually funny. And we reply to the lovely things that our lovely listeners have said to us recently.


Click on the player below to listen to the episode:




You may also subscribe to the podcast through iTunes or the RSS Feed.

Link: The podcast "The Fear of God"
Link: Episode 351 of the podcast "Catholic Under the Hood"
Link: More Than One Lesson episode about "Christian Satire"
Link: The band Insomniac Folklore
Link: Comedian John Crist
Link: The Babylon Bee
Link: Anderson Cale's music 

We would love to hear from you about this issue, the podcast episode, or the podcast in general. Send e-mail feedback to dorknesstolight@gmail.com 

You can follow Alan on twitter @ProfessorAlan and the podcast @DorknessToLight

New Music From One Of Our Faves!

Cornerstone 2012 was festival of musical discovery. That sounds strange, because it was the last year for that festival. Yet we found a range of wonderful artists there, many of whom we have followed since. 

One of those was the Canadian singer Lauren Mann, who played at that festival with her band, The Fairly Odd Folk. We are big fans of her 2012 release "Over Land and Sea." Lauren has a new solo album, Dearestly. The new album is available in various forms, including a pay-what-you-want digital download.

For a preview of the new album, check out this music video from the first single, "Brave Face."

Podcast Recommendation

I wanted to give a "shout-out" to a new podcast that is taking a look at a genre that many Evangelical Christians are very wary of, to say the least.

A spin-off from More Than One Lesson, the podcast The Fear of God is a show that analyzes the horror genre from a Christian point of view. Hosts Reed Lackey and Nathan Rouse plan to look mostly at movies, but have mentioned that TV and comic books could eventually be discussed, as well. The first few episodes includes coverage of the movie Devil, and discussion of the Conjuring films is coming up soon.

I am not a fan of horror, but I am looking forward to listening to the discussions of horror that this show will bring. Check out their show for a weekly dose of the scary stuff.

Kickstarter: Insomniac Folklore

One of our favorite bands, Insomniac Folklore, has a Kickstarter campaign going! The link to the campaign is here. As of this post, they are 45% funded, with more than a week to go. They have a range of great premiums available, although the homemade cookies are all gone!

They are describing their new album as "apocalyptic," although I doubt the album will be all that dark. They are from Portland, for crying out loud. Their website described the band as: "lovable hooligans that would probably be considered offensive, if only they weren’t so darned cute." Did we mention that band includes Wallace the Musical Sheep?

We saw the band at Audiofeed this year, and chatted with them for a while after their show. They are some of the nicest people around.

Podcast #007 - Kingdom Come

"It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's A Podcast Crossover!"

In this episode, we continue a conversation that began on episode 243 of Michael Bailey's Views From the Longbox podcast. Over there, we covered the basic comic-book stuff in Alex Ross and Mark Waid's 1996 graphic novel "Kingdom Come."

In this episode, the three of us talk about the spiritual and religious aspects of the comics. We cover Reverend McKay's pastoral style, whether Superman should be presented as an analog of Jesus or of Moses, and whether an atomic bomb could really create a mushroom cloud in the shape of a cross.

Because we had a guest on this episode, we did not cover feedback from our terrific feedbackers. But please send in feedback on this episode, and we will cover it all on the next one!

Click on the player below to listen to the episode:





You may also subscribe to the podcast through iTunes or the RSS Feed.

Link: Michael Bailey's View from the Longbox
Link: Anderson Cale's music 


We would love to hear from you about this issue, the podcast episode, or the podcast in general. Send e-mail feedback to dorknesstolight@gmail.com 

You can follow Alan on twitter @ProfessorAlan or the podcast @DorknesstToLight