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Find out how good you are at movies! We know you've all watched the Fabelmans (or you thought about watching it really hard). Some of you have sent in questions -- and one or two complaints. Now it's time to have the first inaugural Look at Moving Pictures Club with Brian and Nate. Questions about Spielberg's masterpiece will be answered such as: 1) Is this a masterpiece?; 2) Is Mitsi or Burt worse (depends); 3) Does this movie advise you to follow your heart? (Absolutely not); 4) why is the famous director John Ford in this movie?; and 5) Is Uncle Boris correct when he says "art will tear you apart"? (this is the million dollar question). #thefabelmans #SasfLamp #Sasf #Spielberg #JohnFord #dontfollowyourheart #storiesaresoulfood #ndwilson

This episode begins with an update on Gabe Rench and the City of Moscow getting swatted by a federal judge -- expensively. Not every victory comes quickly, and we can learn from this long, slow slog. The guys meander from this moment into an excellent discussion on training sons to be aggressive. This is done best through STORY. Nate and Brian mix sports stories into a discussion of how to train your sons to be aggressive in the right way: how to hit hard in a culture that hates hard-hitting men. Much food for parenting here. #parenting #aggression #boys #fatherhood #storiesaresoulfood #ndwilson #basketball #sasf #storiesaresoulfood

The guys discuss a typological observation which compared Noah to Christ -- and did so terribly. This leads into an interesting discussion of biblical types and anti-types -- and how to tell if such an observation is worth anything. Nate explains why we should be the flood, not the Ark: the Benedict Option misreads the Noah story. Then the guys move on to dangerous careers like bull-riding and mountain-climbing. Are dangerous professions acceptable for men? And how can a wife sabotage a man with a dangerous career? The answers depend on the story they’re in...

It's Severance SZN! Like many in the Canon office, Brian watched Ben Stiller's new show "Severance" and, amidst the story-grip that Severance caused, has many questions...mostly having to do with goats. Nate answers them emphatically as usual -- and this provides viewers with a nice lesson in thematic film-viewing. (Think of it as a sneak-peek at the SASF LAMP club viewing of "The Fabelmans" coming at the end of February...you can now subscribe the SASF newsletter to be notified.) There will be some SPOILERS in this episode, so be an adult about your spoiled expectations. "Severance" feels like a show that exists in the same universe as "That Hideous Strength" -- if it were written by Christians. But there's an argument to be made for it being an apostasy story. You will enjoy. #Severance #BenStiller #ThatHideousStrength #SASF #NDWilson

Brian bothers Nate with balloons for the big episode (and a big pod announcement). Happy ONE HUNDREDTH birthday to SASF! How does that math check out? Well, folks, listen to find out.... But before we get to the big announcement, the guys heard from enough of you regarding A.I. and ChatGPT that they spend awhile de-fanging your objections to last episode. Then -- you get to find out about the SASF LAMP. Want to know what that acronym means? Well, folks, listen to find out.... #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #ChatGPT #SASF #MovingPictureClub #LAMP #HappyBirthday

You may have seen the new robot making waves: ChatGPT is sort of a glorified search engine which (who??) can perform detailed reasoning and compose answers to complicated topics. For example, it can give researched, chapter-length answers to questions like "Explain quantum computing in simple terms" or "Explain why 'The End of the Affair' a classic -- and use scholarly sources." This raises many questions -- mostly about so-called "artificial intelligence" and creativity. To explore these, Brian tries to get the robot to write a never-before-seen N.D. Wilson novel, and the results are hilarious: prepare to be dazzled by "The Last Mortician." (Spoiler: Nate was not dazzled.) But the discussion wends its way to the real problem behind technology such as Tesla's self-driving cars and robot policedogs -- the idea that humans aren't involved from start to finish. There is no such thing as Artificial Intelligence -- we're puppeting ourselves at this point. At least there's no such thing, Nate argues, until the demons get into the system. #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #ChatGPT #Tesla #Puppets #Computers #creativity #technology

Merry Christmas! Nate tells Brian about a recent trip to Manhattan and the experience of watching Handel's Messiah at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Mecca for aspiring secular artists. The guys break down the universal, global appeal of the performance and what it means for Christian art. Contrary to some claims, what makes "Christian" art good or bad is not whether the Christian message is too overt. After all, Handel's Messiah is straight Scripture. It's whether that art -- overtly Christian or not -- sets a benchmark for excellence that even god-haters will recognize and applaud. Graham Greene and Flannery O'Connor provide more examples for this important discussion. #Christmas #MerryChristmas #Advent #TheMessiah #Handel #ChristianArt #GrahamGreene #FlanneryOConnor

Warming to a familiar SASF theme, the guys discuss why Die Hard is, indisputably, a Christmas movie. But first, they discuss the Grinch, and why we like him more than Cindy-Lou Hoo, and why Tiny Tim is  so very annoying, and many other Christmas movies (usually filtered to a greater or lesser degree). Christmas is ultimately the story of subversion -- not to be confused with perversion -- and understanding that is the true spirit of Christmas. #Christmas #MerryChristmas #Advent #ChristmasMovies #DieHard #Elf #Spirited #TheChristmasCarol #subversion

Nate wishes you Merry Christmas by means of a New Saint Andrews video he narrated, titled "Let Joy Erupt" (listen to it in this episode). After the rush of appearing in that video's B-roll with his family, Brian opens up about his sense of style being criticized as "hipster trad" by one of the video's critics. A discussion of what it's actually like to live in the Pacific Northwest ensues -- there are wolves and coyotes. This allows Brian to segue into a discussion of whether Noah and Jacob were "not really very good people," as per Twitter, and to talk with Nate about how best to tell the stories of the Patriarchs to your children when, for example, you celebrate Advent with a Jesse Tree. #Christmas #MerryChristmas #Advent #JesseTree #Noah #OldTestament #PrimevalSaints

Why hasn't there been a SASF episode for weeks? Because basketball coaching. But turns out sports is a fantastic metaphor for life -- if handled correctly. But if your kid isn't getting the point, better to have them play video games. In this context, Brian asks Nate about his 10 year goals. Nate waxes eloquent on setting ambitious goals -- but then counters himself with an argument that being able to recognize failure is perhaps more important. Not moving the goalposts, recognizing failure, and moving on after disaster are all key skills to develop for parents, employees, bosses, and pastors. #SASF #StoriesAreSoulFood #NDWilson #BrianKohl #Failure #FailForward #SetGoals #basketball #lifelessons

Say you met a highschool kid who was confused about the biblical view of gender: would you give them a book or a movie? The answer to this question is probably not what you expect, and it highlights the way that conservatives get the gender and sexuality conversation wrong. The guys begin this discussion with a related question: in a hot Thanksgiving dinner, is it the nutritional content that contains the value -- or is the goodness in something else? The discussion which follows discusses the relative merits of painting with a broad brush, and the (almost complete) worthlessness of an idea when it has been reduced to nutritional goo. Yes, they also talk a lot about Children of Men and Enemy of the State. #SASF #StoriesAreSoulFood #NDWilson #BrianKohl #ChildrenOfMen #EnemyOfTheState #NutritionalGoo

Parenting isn't easy, and Rachel Jankovic's "Sir Badalot and the Cranky Danky Dragon" gives parents the tools to talk with their fat-faced toddlers about emotional self-control. Most parents do that by resorting to the poor parenting tactics of 1) emotional distraction, and 2) emotional reaction. Turns out, your child's response to a "fussy dragon" should include actually pretending to kill it! But the self-control vitamins are not why Sir Badalot is a good book -- that's just an added benefit. The SASF guys host Rachel Jankovic to talk through this parenting advice and how her fun new book, illustrated by Hello Ninja's own Forrest Dickision, is really just a fresh chocolate cookie for a hungry child. (Oh, and you'll also get a nice long stretch of Nate's dark take on relying on real-life vs fictional friends.) #SirBadalot #CanonballBooks #SASF #StoriesAreSoulFood #RachelJankovic #ForrestDickision #HelloNinja #FussyDragon

This episode juxtaposes abortion and hospitality. We live in a post-Roe v. Wade world -- can we apply those lessons to storytelling now? How do evangelicals do with that cultural fight? Does fiction have a place in it? (Not the way you probably mean it.) The guys dig deeper into the themes of Episode 90, exploring the meaning of "proof" and poor ways of obligating belief. Familiar SASF themes emerge in this episode -- specifically, the importance of a good meal outweighing the value of "good" propaganda. Comparisons between October Baby and Juno are made. And you'll get to hear about grandmothers and the random acts of kindness that inspire the next generation more than all the political sloganeering in the world. #StoriesAreSoulFood #SASF #RoevWade #hospitality #Juno #OctoberBaby #Stories

A listener writes in to find out why, as a pastor's kid, Nate uses expletives like "hell" and "damn" in Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl. (Shh, don't mention that Nate has written worse.) This leads to a discussion of the sliding scale of bad words -- truth is, no word is bad intrinsically. Seriously: a word's badness or goodness is dependent on how it's used -- on its place in the STORY. (This is SASF, people, you should have seen that coming.) Or, if you prefer to look at it this way, EVERY word is bad -- if used in a way God wouldn't. This naturally leads into a discussion of the nature of evil. Brian tries to lump Nate in with Augustine. Nate resists: Evil is not black goo you can add to things! And so this episode goes. #StoriesAreSoulFood #SASF #BadWords #StrongLanguage #Augustine #Stories

Here's an interesting truth that Nate once tried out on his roommate: pure, syllogistic reasoning is not persuasive. In fact, unvarnished truth does not "prove" anything -- by that we mean that it does not obligate belief as well as, say, story might. And you'll notice that people seldom believe the things they do for logical reasons: they come to their beliefs by narrative paths, and construct the logic to defend as needed. So, what does it mean to "obligate belief"? When is truth not persuasive? Why are Christians the one who often need to hear this most? These and other rhetorical intricacies occupy this episode of SASF. #StoriesAreSoulFood #Rhetoric #EthosPathosLogos #Proof #Logic #character

Is a book with a good witch a bad book? The guys use the Wizard of Oz as a jumping off point for this lengthy discussion of magic, which listeners know is a favorite SASF hobbyhorse. Nate claims that moderns have lost an appreciation for the miraculous in an attempt to describe the natural. In reality, everything is magic. But Brian objects: if everything is magical, then nothing is. Nate responds with MOSES AND THE WIZARD DUEL. Of course Tolkien and Lewis -- and Gandalf and Jadis -- also feature in this discussion that will get you thinking about your favorite stories... and how our scientists have crossed the line into witchcraft long ago.#SASF #StoriesAreSoulFood #magic #science #Tolkien #CSLewis

Episode ocho-ocho is about narrative architecture, but that sounds boring so we made the headline more interesting, having been inspired by one of SASF's favorite novels, Evangellyfish. In point of fact, though, this week's episode is fantastic: The guys get into a discussion of favorite (living) novelists, with disagreements aplenty. If you've been looking for novel recommendations for adults, this is the episode for you. And when the guys move into film, and how to structure new stories based on old ones that work, you'll just have to listen to get Nate's take on Terrence Malik... Nipples on the Batsuit and jumping the shark are also discussed. Oh, and Nate loops back around to tie a bow on his disappointment with the end of Cobra Kai. #SASF #StoriesAreSoulFood #NDWilson #Evangellyfish #JessWalter #LeifEnger #TerrenceMalik #MarilynneRobinson

The guys discuss feedback from the Rings of Power sort-of-watchalong. Then, in a shocking turn of events, one of the guys is accused of being too critical of a film--and the critical one is Brian. Nate defends the honor of Top Gun 2, and even a bit of Cobra Kai (always with filters, people). They get into a discussion of character and when you can allow bad things to happen to main characters. They venture far afield in this SASF medley -- perhaps they were just relieved to not be watching Rings of Power. #SASF #NDWilson #StoriesAreSoulFood #TopGunMaverick #CobraKai

It's the moment you've all been waiting for: You get to listen as Brian surprises Nate with a laptop and The Rings of Power Episode 1: A Shadow of the Past. This is the first ever SASF Watch-Along, so you'll have to listen to see how far they got... Of course, this episode also includes a useful discussion on how the project could have suceeded, what its goals were, whether Nate was unfairly prejudiced, whether critics of the show are racists, and other such Stories Are Soul Food topics. Enjoy! And as always, you can watch the video of the SASF show at mycanonplus.com. #Tolkien #RingsOfPower #Galadriel #StoriesAreSoulFood #SASF #WatchAlong

In this episode, Nate explains why some Christian readers are the worst: they love to demand that he sell chicken sandwiches with a side of Gideon Bible in the french-fry box. But Nate's trying to sell the best chicken sandwich & fries he can... he gives away Bibles elsewhere, including in this podcast. This episode is about when / why you might choose to have your characters in fiction pray -- and when you might not. You'll also get some key insights into rhetoric: who are you, who are you writing for, and where do you want to get them. And also some really interesting thoughts comparing Nate's characters to those in the Christian movie "The War Room" (about prayer). #SASF #StoriesAreSoulFood #NDWilson #BrianKohl #AmWriting #ChristianFiction #WarRoom