PODCAST · society
The Values Sort
by A series of indeterminate length exploring the core things that drive us.
Growing up, the path was clear: "Where you go, I'll go. Where you stay, I'll stay." But what happens when the path you were given becomes a betrayal of your very self?Hosted by Nick Walton—husband, dad, and coffee roaster—The Values Sort explores what happens when you have to rebuild your life’s foundation from scratch. After leaving the structure of his childhood church and feeling "lost," Nick found a simple tool: a deck of cards, each printed with a single human value like "Helpfulness" or "Honesty." By sorting them down to five core essentials, he found a new way to navigate the world.In this series, Nick explores the cards that changed his way of thinking, sharing the essays and stories that define them. Whether you are 10 years old or 80, this is an invitation to figure out who you are, five cards at a time. nickfromoregon.substack.com
Episodes
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Vulnerability
I have tried to be vulnerable. I have tried to cultivate a willingness to show my soft underbelly and not worry that the world will eviscerate me like one of those Jurassic Park velociraptors. Spilling my entrails upon the ground. I wonder how that will go for me? Because as I’m writing this…
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Witness
I want to talk about witness. Can I get a witness? It’s churchy, right? It kind of reminds me of old time religion. Call and repeat. Can I get a witness? I also think of a court. Witnesses being called to account for what they saw. Who did what, when, where, why? When I was growing up in church…
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Heritage
Let’s talk about my heritage. Let’s talk about booze. For thirteen weird years alcohol was prohibited in these United States. It was a master class in the foolishness of attempting to legislate morality. You might be shocked to learn how much alcohol was still produced, transported and consumed...
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Kindness
I’ve been stalling on this one for the whole series. It may be my most dearly held value. It’s not in the cards, but it is in the fruits. It’s kindness. I’m stalling because I don’t know where to start. I have established that I’m not necessarily kind naturally. I am also not always kind today,...
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Repair
Let’s talk awhile about Repair. I am at work. I am looking around at the things I have repaired over the years, just here, in this room, and it’s a pretty long list. I broke a stainless bolt off the foot of my effluent scrubber. I was so frustrated. It happened while I was uncrating it. It was...
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Craftsmanship
My grandfather was a craftsman. He was an accomplished woodworker. The president of our state woodworking guild, he had multiple lathes in his shop, and numerous heavy tools that he built himself, sturdy, out of wood. His bandsaw, wood. His router table, wood. Drum and spindle sanders, wood. He…
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#57 Sense of belonging
Another central theme. Of this project. Of my life. A sense of belonging can encompass so many of the ideas we’ve talked about. Or at least it weaves, mycorrhizae-like throughout. What are we without a sense of belonging? Family security, humility, social recognition. They all intertwine with a...
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#56 Health
Another one that’s hard to pin down. ”Clean living.” That’s what my dad says. The old man who smokes all the days of his life and dies peacefully in his sleep at 93? “Clean living,” my dad might say with an eye roll. Health is an honest value to choose. Health for me and for you. Healthy…
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#55 Reciprocation of favors
This is another weird one. People don’t tend to choose it, and they often need help understanding it. Here’s how I explain it, imperfectly, when I’m sitting with someone doing the sort: Imagine I bring you a cup of your favorite beverage. Out of nowhere. What do you feel? Do you feel loved and...
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#54 Family Security
We choose our families. I believe that more deeply than ever. My wife and I have chosen one another time, and time and time again. Through thick and through thin, up times and down times. It’s been conscientious and it has not been either easy or automatic. My kids and I, also. We didn’t choose…
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#53 Social Order
Stability of society this card says at the bottom. Man, I feel like no matter where you land politically there is a tremendous instability in our society. On the heels of national security, the inclination is to see this as a very broad, national conversation. Maybe a global conversation about...
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#52 National security
I grew up American. All the way American. I know all of the songs. I know the old ones, like our National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom...
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#51 Cleanliness
What the heck with this deck. I just finished the last essay… ummm.. The way I finished it. And now it’s cleanliness. Neat and tidy. The deck wills it, let’s do this. Cleanliness is another card that doesn’t make it to people’s top five often. I think it’s because in a deck with Mature Love, and...
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#49 Self-discpline
In some ways this entire project has been about my own self discipline. It has come up time and time again–it’s at least a central focus of the project. I have had to exercise tremendous self discipline in my life. Ever since I was young. Don’t get me wrong–I often fail in my disciplines!…
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#48 Respect for parents & elders
Another tricky one for me. Let me say at the outset that I love my parents and elders. I crave their approval. Less so now, in my forties, but the craving is still fresh in my memory. Let’s start with another heavily paraphrased bible story! Near the beginning of time there came a great flood…
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#47 Politeness
The next four cards all fall under the heading of “Conformity”. Here we go. Let’s get this deed done. You will not be shocked to learn that I can be quite an impolite person. I have that capacity. But in truth, as I sit and reflect on what on Earth to write about this idea, I do think I am quite…
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#46 Respect for Tradition
I placed the photo upside-down on purpose. Just to be difficult. I thought it would be funny to start by disrespecting the 45-essay-long tradition of putting a normal photo atop each post by making you crane your neck around. I really ain’t got much. I do not actively respect very many…
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#45 Moderation
We’ve left my five chosen values behind and these are getting trickier to write. I feel like we’re back at the beginning again writing about “Wealth” or “Social Recognition”. I feel awkward and ham-fisted. Because indeed I am, and anyway, we are very near the beginning again because as I’ve said...
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#44 Humility
I needed to look up the word effacing. I could use context clues—I got what it meant the first thousand times I thumbed through the deck. It means what I imagined it would: To erase. To make oneself smaller or less conspicuous. I am not humble. I am loud and somewhat boorish, and I can be rude…
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#43 Acceptance of my portion in life
I visited with a college professor yesterday. He taught that biology class series that changed my life. Yesterday I had the opportunity to tell him so. The class was environmental science, and it was a required class for my course of study, (forestry). I have already told you that I did not…
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#42 Devoutness
You may recall that I grew up in church. Perhaps you did, too. This card is funny because people have one of three responses, and maybe it’s actually this way for all fifty-seven cards. But I’m reflecting on the triad of choices now. It’s either a shoe-in, no contest, a definite value, OR it’s an...
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#41 Meaning in life
I am in a time of flux. I am in a time of transition. I am in a time of metamorphosis. When we were all younger my wife and I started a coffee shop called Chrysalis Coffeehouse. Do you know what a chrysalis is? Maybe you do, but if not you should because it’s beautiful. Before about 2012, if you...
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#40 Mature Love
In my last essay, A spiritual life, I identified that many times people struggle with a binary choice. Is it this one or is it more that one? Is it capability that’s driving my choices, driving my thoughts and behaviors, or is it ambition? So this one goes for me. I sat and looked at mature love...
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#39 A spiritual life
**Fair warning, this one gets a little churchy. Buckle up, but keep reading.** I’ll tell you an interesting thing to observe about this values exercise I do with people. People often find themselves struggling with a binary. A duo of cards that, for them, represent something so similar so as to…
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#38 True Friendship
In 1998 a movie came out that I love. It was called Waking Ned Devine. Maybe you’ve seen it, too? It’s a beautiful film, literally and substantively. It follows the inhabitants of Tulaigh Mhór, (Tullymore), a small Irish village. I won’t give everything away. The community, small and tightly…
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#37 Responsibility
Ahh, responsibility. That’s in the eye of the beholder I suppose. I think people think I’m quite responsible. I could be wrong. You know those graphs, negative correlations? I bet the longer people have known me, the less they think I’m a super responsible guy. That sounds defeatist. Negative…
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#36 Loyalty
Loyalty is important, right? The card says faithful to my friends, group. I am deeply faithful to my friends. Particularly in recent years, as mortality has become so very real to us, a lot of priorities and things I thought were important have fallen away. But not so with friendships. The...
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#35 Forgiveness
I value forgiveness. I need forgiveness. I feel a weight in my chest when I do not forgive. I feel a weight now. I have wrongs to forgive. I know I do. Recently I started dreaming again after a long time of not. One of the first dreams I had, I think, was ultimately about forgiveness. I’ll skip...
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#34 Honesty
Honesty. It’s such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue. So says Billy Joel. So say I. Do you suppose that’s right? Everyone is so untrue? I have been untrue. I have betrayed those I love the most. I have told small fibs and I have told damned dirty lies. Most of all I have massaged the truth for...
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#33 Helpfulness
When I was young there was this book that came out, The Five Love Languages. It was a decidedly Christian book, but the concept made its way into broader culture. Perhaps you’ve heard of the book or the idea. It doesn’t matter. The five love languages concept was introduced to me early, and it’s...
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#32 Inner harmony
When I was a child I was diagnosed with ADHD. That will come as a great shock to anyone who’s met me. (I kid.) Chaos has been inside my brain for as long as I can remember. The stiller I try to be the more I notice the cacophony. I don’t know what it’s like to be inside anyone else’s brain and I...
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#31 A World at peace
File Settings Done Title Description Thumbnail Will be cropped to a 3:2 aspect ratio Upload Scheduled for Mar 5 at 2:16 pm Send email to everyone ∙ Edit It’s difficult for me to talk about a world at peace. Partly, maybe, because I don’t know if it’s a real thing to be valued. Can it even be a...
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#30 Equality
Equal opportunity for all. How about that? Women? Transfolks? Racial minorities? God, I don’t even know what to write about equality. My mind only goes to my sweet partner, my dear wife. Yesterday we were cleaning the house, the whole family, and we came across our wedding video. We were married…
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#29 Wisdom
There’s a whole book of wisdom in the Bible. It’s called the book of Proverbs. There are, conveniently, 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs, reading one chapter a day makes for a tidy month of wisdom. And that’s what I did, a lot of times. Solomon, son of King David, was approached by God in a...
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#28 Social Justice
Folks I feel strongly about this one. I’m about to come on strong. You ready for some strong? I’m feeling strongly. I do this values sort exercise with everyone I can. All the time. Ask anyone who hangs around me and they’ll tell you, I’m basically a one-trick-pony at this point in my life. I…
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#25 A world of beauty
Now look at those peaches, won’t you? There’s a farm near my home where you can still U-pick. Blueberries, cherries, raspberries apples and yes, peaches. We go there several times each season. This used to be a part of people’s lives—picking and choosing their own fruit. Flowing with the seasons....
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#24 Protection of the Environment
I don’t know if I’ve made the mechanics of this exercise clear. Probably many of the folks reading this have done the exercise with me and do not need this primer. But for the rest of you, here is how it works. There are 57 total cards in the deck. We are discussing them one by one here, in this...
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#23 Privacy
This is the last card in the section labeled “Self-Direction.” And honestly? I have big feelings about it. None of my five chosen values were found in this “Self-Direction” section. And having taken some time to reflect on them, I think that fact checks out. I am not a very private person. I am...
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#22 Independence
Do I have a value for independence? Look, I hate to make this a trilogy, but I gotta build on the last two: Freedom and Choice of Own Goals. We have established that I value Freedom (the environment) and Agency (the action). But when I pull this card—Independence—I find myself pausing. I guess my...
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#21 Choice of own goals
This one is vulnerable for me to write. I thought “Freedom” was the zinger, but this one hits closer to the bone for me on some levels. I did not choose some key parts of the life I have. I have made choices along the way, certainly. And it’s not as though I live in a swirling eddy of regret. I...
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#20 Freedom
Freedom looms large in my life. Let’s get into it. When I was a child, we sang songs about freedom. I grew up in the land of the free and the home of the brave! Let freedom ring, baby! When I was growing up in church, we sang songs about the things we were free from, and freed into. We talked…
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#19 Curiosity
Curiosity is easier the older I get. I think that’s because when we are young, we are terrified of looking stupid. I was. I still am, sometimes. But less so with every passing day. We pretend to know things when we’re kids. When we get older, we realize nobody knows anything, and it becomes a lot...
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#18 Creativity
This card covers a lot for me. When you do the exercise, you have to sort concepts down from 57, all the way down to five. And as I’ve alluded here before, it’s not about finding THE FIVE, the ones that define you and box you in. It’s about identifying some of the things that have affected, are...
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#17 An exciting life
We are moving from a Varied Life to an Exciting Life. They sound similar, but I think there is a crucial difference. If a Varied Life is external (the things that happen to us, often without our consent), an Exciting Life happens within. For me, excitement is fuel. It’s a rocket booster. I crave...
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#16 A varied life
I have lived what I consider to be an extraordinarily varied life. I think we all probably have. Which I suppose would make it an ordinarily varied life. Who among us knew the trajectory of their lives at five years old? At ten? At twenty? Heck, even at thirty? I am now in my “sporty-forties.”…
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#15 Daring
I am a middle-aged dad. That is how I imagine I’ll always think of myself. “Father” has become my calling card. It’s the lens through which I see myself primarily. Husband to my wife, father to my kids. One day, God willing and the creek don’t rise, I will add “Grandfather” to that esteemed list…
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#14 Self indulgence
Okay, this is the third and final card in the “Yellow” category. The Hedonism Trilogy. We had Pleasure (The sensation). We had Enjoyment of Life (The attitude). And now, the big one: Self-Indulgence. If the other two made me uncomfortable, this one makes me want to run for the hills....
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#13 Enjoyment of life
Okay, I’ll be honest. I looked at this card and thought, “Didn’t we just do this?” Card #12 was Pleasure. Card #13 is Enjoyment of Life. They sit right next to each other under the banner of Hedonism. Full disclosure, the next card in the deck is “Self Indulgence” And frankly, I want to skip…
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#12 Pleasure
Let’s talk about pleasure. And let’s talk about the Values Categories listed on the top of each card. This is the first one that is listed under “Hedonism”, a word which many might be unfamiliar with. You may have noticed that each of the cards we’re talking about have a value “category” on top…
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#11 Self Respect
Yeesh. This one is a hot topic. I just watched a video recently and this person was basically saying that we don’t know what anyone’s thinking at any time. What they’re thinking about us. So when we think we know what someone’s thinking about us, we’re really ideating what WE might be thinking...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Growing up, the path was clear: "Where you go, I'll go. Where you stay, I'll stay." But what happens when the path you were given becomes a betrayal of your very self?Hosted by Nick Walton—husband, dad, and coffee roaster—The Values Sort explores what happens when you have to rebuild your life’s foundation from scratch. After leaving the structure of his childhood church and feeling "lost," Nick found a simple tool: a deck of cards, each printed with a single human value like "Helpfulness" or "Honesty." By sorting them down to five core essentials, he found a new way to navigate the world.In this series, Nick explores the cards that changed his way of thinking, sharing the essays and stories that define them. Whether you are 10 years old or 80, this is an invitation to figure out who you are, five cards at a time.
nickfromoregon.substack.com
HOSTED BY
A series of indeterminate length exploring the core things that drive us.
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The Values Sort currently has 64 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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Growing up, the path was clear: "Where you go, I'll go. Where you stay, I'll stay." But what happens when the path you were given becomes a betrayal of your very self?Hosted by Nick Walton—husband, dad, and coffee roaster—The Values Sort explores what happens when you have to rebuild your life’s...
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The Values Sort has 64 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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The Values Sort is created and hosted by A series of indeterminate length exploring the core things that drive us..
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