April gathering available and "SP talks zero-sum thinking" this Thursday, May 8, 7pm
The podcast of the April gathering is ready! Chris De Blaay and I used some great resources for this conversation on how to face a tyrannical government, and the supporters of a tyrannical government. This is well worth your time.
My apologies for the delay in release. I referenced Nicoly’s (my wife) upcoming citizenship naturalization appointment in the gathering. She is currently a green card holder. I had always intended to wait to release this episode until after the appointment, just to be extra cautious. We now live in a country with a tyrannical government, especially in its treatment of immigrants, such that anyone who speaks out publicly against this government (and also advocates for the human rights of Palestinians) feels vulnerable. Nicoly feels very vulnerable. I feel her vulnerability, and a sense of responsibility to keep her safe. It’s strange to fear one’s government. Even if some would tell us that we are being dramatic (and surely some would), it has been stressful.
Her interview went well. She was conditionally approved, and her file will now undergo a “quality review” before she can be scheduled to take the citizenship oath. We didn’t know about the possibility of a “quality review.” Initially, it scared me. But I did some research, and talked to a few other immigrants, and this “quality review” is pretty common now. This review could take up to two months. So we wait.
Zoom Discussion Session on Thursday, May 8, 7pm
Topic: SP talks race, religion, and zero-sum thinking
Time: May 8, 2025 07:00 PM America/Detroit
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87662489312
I’ll be using one podcast/video conversation for our discussion. I’ll suggest more conversations for those with more time. I’ll try to send out some clips for those with even less time. Also, you can come and listen (and even comment!) without having done the “homework.”
The main conversation features Heather McGee and Jon Stewart, which you can find below. McGee is the author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. I first encountered McGee and her work through Ezra Klein. While I was in Florida in early April, the current madness of our politics made me think of McGee’s work. I listened again to her conversation with Klein from February of 2021, which you can find here. It’s such a relevant and illuminating conversation. McGee’s emphasis on the problem of zero-sum thinking or a zero-sum mindset was what my mind was searching for. I screen-recorded these two snippets (and a few others) on April 11, during my re-listen to McGee’s conversation with Klein.
Then I happened upon her much more recent interview with Jon Stewart, in which she explicitly makes some of the connections that my brain had been grasping for! This conversation dropped on April 17! It’s such a gift when just the right person gets a public platform at just the right time. So you can watch or just listen to her interview with Stewart for Thursday’s discussion (if you have time).
I want to point you to two other conversations. And maybe these two conversations deserve their own discussion. Let’s see what you guys think.
Ross Douthat and Ezra Klein of the New York Times had a wide ranging conversation on politics, religion, and culture.
Douthat is a conservative Christian. He is sympathetic to the MAGA movement, though critical of some things. They have some frank, sometimes heated, exchanges on religion and morality. The exchanges were somewhat revelatory for me. Here is one such exchange. The whole conversation is worth listening to.
I’ve been laying off the Christian stuff for a while now, but I wanted to hear some discussion of Rohr’s new book, The Tears of Things. I was scrolling through The Bible for Normal People podcast feed and I saw Rohr’s name. I started listening to the Bible for Normal People when it first began in 2017. I hadn’t listened to one of their episodes in probably two years. But I gave this one a try, and it was helpful. If you just can’t deal with Christian stuff right now, then this is not for you. If you can, you might like it.