I HAD a conversation recently with a radio producer and podcast creator. He mentioned that one of the differences that he found between the disciplines was the intimacy of podcasting as opposed to broadcasting.
Podcasts possess a unique power that should not be underestimated: they bypass many defences; they can feel personal. Scammerland is a multi-episode series on a topic that I knew nothing about. Episode one, “How a Fake Job Offer Landed Me in Slavery” had me hooked. Since listening to it, I have been rightly unsettled. The series addresses contemporary industrial-scale human trafficking.
A random text from a stranger attempting to trick us into sending them money is most probably sent by an enslaved person working under threat of torture from organised crime bosses (Comment, 30 June 2023). We follow the story of a rescued Ugandan man, a pastor’s son, who credits his faith with being the primary factor keeping his hope alive in dire conditions. In a later episode, the man speaks of being suspended above the ground as punishment for trying to find freedom. As it is Good Friday tomorrow, it is hard not to think of another victim.
Sticking with the Easter theme, I caught an old episode of Recovering God: The conversations. This thought-provoking faith-and-feminism podcast features an episode “Trauma and the Church with Sarah Pritchard”, which is excellent. There is a repeated mention of Holy Saturday as the moment that those caught in forms of trauma inhabit. They are both “beyond” the crisis of Good Friday but “before” the new genesis of Easter Day. I also found myself wanting to learn more about “constructive theology”: an interdisciplinary way of understanding God’s world which is more relational and dynamic than the often closed approach of systematic theology.
For something a little lighter, listen no further than Off Menu, episode 285. It offers a lovely format for an interview. Guests talk about a dream meal, which is the conduit through which we, the listeners, learn about them. In this episode, the actor, writer, and comedian Sally Phillips is the connoisseur. The menu for this conversation includes neurodiversity, the Greenbelt festival, growing up in church, worship bands, the part played by religion today, and free speech. It provides fascinating insight into the perception of the Church by people who are no longer actively connected to it. And it’s a genuinely fun listen, too.
Now, if we are thinking about Easter Day, please consider Everything Happens with Kate Bowler. Scroll down to Season 13, Episode 12, featuring the Revd Dr Sam Wells. Some may know him in various roles as an author, public theologian, and well-known vicar, but this episode contains something different. It is a tender exploration of memory and mortality. This is the most autobiographical that I have ever encountered Sam. He obviously trusts the interviewer, and is unguarded in his open-hearted exploration of his ancestry and his anecdotes about key moments in his ministry. It is full of Easter hope — a hope that still bears the scars.
