Persons of Interest

The long awaited Gaga podcast. Ben and Kendall respond to the somewhat predicable wave of criticism unleashed by conservative Christians upon Lady Gaga in response to her recent video "Judas".

Ben and Kendall mainly discuss hipsterdom, its style, substance, and criticisms. Who are the hipsters? Why do people pick on these skinny androgynous boys? Are they, in the words of Holden Caulfield, just a bunch of phonies? Ben and Kendall also talk about music, Twitter, and how quickly people abandon their civility when what they think can be said without attribution.

This bonus episode is composed of material edited out of "Facebook is So Over." Ben and Kendall offer some tips on being a good Facebooker.

Facebook's number of unique visitors per month appears to have leveled off. Several bloggers and tech pundits have already predicted the decline and demise of Facebook. Ben and Kendall sound off on these accusations of peaking and even "jumping the shark". Kendall further suggests that Facebook may be a risky investment as rumors of an IPO are brewing. The Facebook gravy train may be running out of gravy and Mark Zuckerberg and his pals may take the money and run.

Kendall and Ben discuss Easter traditions including the common tradition many Americans have of going to church, if only on Easter.  They segue into how odd Christians can be and how alien church services must appear to people outside the fold.  In 1 Peter 2:9, the King James version calls Christians a "peculiar people." Never mind that this is a poor translation, many Christians make a concerted effort to live up to this moniker.  

Facebook is not in the social network business--they are in the business of stealing other people's good ideas and then repackaging and marketing them as their own. But Facebook, Google, and many others are in a much more nefarious business. Ben and Kendall discuss this crazy world we live in where a few people get ungodly rich while so many others make little or nothing.

Kendall and Ben respond to a recent Christianity Today opinion article titled Not Many Should Presume to be Bloggers. The both presume to be bloggers and podcasters. Kendall rejects the professional-amatuer divide in the church. Ben also tempers his previous enthusiasm of the Partial Preterist eschatological view point.

Ben read a new book by Martin Trench and Harold Eberle, "Victorious Eschatology" and it gave him a lot of new ideas to consider when approaching a Biblical understanding of the end of the world. He and Kendall discuss an optimistic view of the end times and how that marries with other theologies they are considering.

Kendall recently watched the 1972 Academy Award winning documentary "Marjoe". The documentary raises issues that he and Ben had discussed in a recent podcast. They then discuss how little things have changed in the church in 40 years.

Like so many others Ben and Kendall decide to review Rob Bell's new book, Love Wins, before reading it. They discuss universalism, annihilationism, judgmentalism, and some other stuff like Tom Hanks films.

Ben and Kendall discuss friendship and how American culture conspires to retard or destroy it.

Ben, Kendall and guest, Eric Rahn discuss the populist movements breaking out across the Arab world and beyond with a particular interest in the meme in the media about whether the Arab world is "ready for democracy" or not.

Ben, Kendall and guest, Eric Rahn, discuss Mike Huckabee's plans for a Palestinian state, outside of Palestine.

Subtitle: What the !#@ is up with that? Kendall and Ben talk about "What's wrong with the church." They expound on the popular approach to ministry and community which values conformity over intimacy, authenticity, and reality. This episode includes bonus "cutting room floor" material after the outro. Correction: This episode was pre-empted by last week's "Lebanon Travelogue" so it is numbered episode 18 and not 17 as stated in the outro.

Ben and Kendall give the low down on their trip to Lebanon, highlights and recommendations. The Skype connection was pretty lousy so our apologies for the poor audio at times, but the content is still high quality.

Ben and Kendall deconstruct a prophetic message they received while in Beirut with personal takeaways and general lessons in what makes for good prophetic ministry.

Kendall and Ben dedicate this episode to bacon. And we urge scientists to make themselves useful and deliver healthy bacon now!

Kendall and Ben are going to be travelling for the next couple weeks, so the podcast will be a bit irregular until after the first of the year. Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year!

Ben and Kendall discuss Daniel Pink's new Manga book, "Johnny Bunko, The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need." With valuable bonus material.

Kendall likes to receive his social comentary from horror films.

Ben and Kendall discuss their preferred ways for their Fourth Amendment rights to be violated.

An essential primer on Pink Floyd; Roger Waters; and the album, film, and current concert tour: The Wall. Kendall takes Ben and our listeners on his personal musical odyssey which began for him in the early eighties and culminated in attending one show in the most spectacular concert tour in decades. Includes a review and critique of Roger Waters current production, the Wall Live!

Continuing the conversation about the Creativity World Forum, Kendall and Ben discuss innovation in the energy sector. Some innovation has the potential to helps us conserve energy and save individual consumers some money on their individual energy bills. Other innovations allow a few fat cat executives to make a quick buck while creating long term problems for our nation's water supply, screwing farmers and the rural poor, and potentially sending the rest of us to our doom aboard a floating chunk of magma on the sea of molten lava which is the earth's fiery core.

Kendall attended the Creativity World Forum and discusses with Ben some of his take aways related to innovation in education, commerce and the arts.

Ben discusses his recent personal interactions with two Tennessee MUFON investigators. He and Kendall then connect the UFO phenomenon to a surprisingly large number of other subjects.

Kendall and Ben return to the previous week's show about the modern so-called Apostolic movement--answering a listener's email and fair criticism that they were perhaps too easy on contemporary manifestations of Apostilic ministry and uses of the term Apostle.

Ben gets back from the Voice of the Apostles conference in Baltimore. He and Kendall discuss the modern Apostolic movement, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the mystical body of Christ.

Ben fills Kendall in on his recent trip to Alabama with a side trip into Appalachia with the deliberate purpose to hang out with old school Pentecostal snake handlers. They draw observations useful for the modern day spiritual thrill seeker intent on experiencing the supernatural.

Ben and Kendall try to tackle what is by many considered the most difficult theological issue facing Christians today. Will they escape being branded heretics? Unlikely.

Kendall drags Ben into his conspiracy theories about Christine O'Donnell's candidacy and wider plots involving the Democrats, the Tea Party, and Sarah Palin.

Kendall and Ben discuss some of Kendall's take aways from one of the general sessions at VMworld 2010 in San Francisco, CA.  And related topics. Show Notes: VMware VMworld 2010 Professor Michael Mesch AVision of Students Today Digital Enthnography Channel Mediated Cultures Pranav Mistry Sixth Sense @ TED MIT's Fluid Interfaces Group Google Instant StarWalk Opening Music: Pondlife Fiasco by Heifervescent ObamaIconMe My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-eb450ac96b5a4d3788b6201949c19ba2}

The inaugural episode of the Persons of Interest podcast. Kendall and Ben discuss why "Persons of Interest" and what it means to be postmodern. Intro Music: Neurons Fire at Will, from the album Neurons Fire at Will by Paniq