Note: My usual Friday weekend update got delayed today due to technical issues. Those got resolved, but the recording wasn’t done until after 5:00 ET so you will see that on the front page, or in your inbox (depending on your preference settings) tomorrow, Saturday 9/16/23. We’ve got some slight editing to do, as always, then a bevy of uploading and QC to run through.
Back on our program with us today is the incredible, thoughtful, deep and always provocative Stephen Jenkinson.
To be honest, I get nervous before interviewing Stephen because if you ask a boneheaded question, he always calls that out and asks if you’ve got a better one, or he reframes it himself. Either way, I always run through my questions beforehand but even then, the conversation always heads off in a somewhat different direction than I planned so it means I have to stay in a highly focused interview state. Which I absolutely love.
The truth is he went easy on me because my daughter Erica has hosted him four times over the years as he’s brought his amazing Nights of Grief & Mystery tour to the area. Cashing in the old family chips, as it were.
In this conversation, we explore the perilous state of the world and come to ponder the most vexing question of them all; “What kind of a culture eats its own children (and how do we begin to account for that)?”
Not literally, but metaphorically where adults of late have upended the idea that adults should sacrifice for their children and not the other way around – a deal that goes back to the beginning of time.