Stories Are Soul Food

How much sorority-girl rock-opera glitter can one children's classic withstand? We're about to find out as we watch Greta Gerwig spend $230 million desecrating The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis. Brian goes through the five stages of grief for Narnia; Nate talks about how Greta is going to try and give us exactly what SHE likes. Brian says Meryl Streep's Translan has to fail. Nate says it's too big to bomb... but that Whoopie Goldberg would have been a MUCH more inclusive choice. Are conservatives overreacting? The guys give their thoughts on the production stills including chubby Eustace, black-washed Frank the Cabbie, mini-dress Jadis, fruity Uncle Andrew, and what to expect from Netflix's next big cash cow. This episode even takes a dark turn into the self-castrating feminist cults of the ancient world, and the counterbalance that conservative media has failed to offer to the mainstream.  IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.

On this episode of Stories Are Soul Food, Nate Wilson and Brian Kohl discuss how to write the darkest night of the soul. The moment when all hope seems to be lost, when there is no way out. How do characters like Samson and David to Faramir, Eustace, Elf, and Toby Maguire’s Spider-Man deal with this? What makes ordinary suffering and bad days different from the Darkest Night? What kind of redemption must come after? And how are we as Christians supposed to approach these moments in stories or our own lives in light of the resurrection of Christ? IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.

Do American Christians live in the Shire? The answer is a stout "no" according to Miles Smith IV, professor of history at Hillsdale. To think otherwise is to give in to the Shire-ization of conservatism. Nate agrees that Christian families need to stop thinking like hobbit gardeners. Kids are not tomato plants, they're arrows. Should we be seeking to wait out our continent's troubles in our cozy, Wendell-Berry-esque corner of the world? Or do we have some deeper connection to the powerful, technological, urban centers of our nation? Nate and Miles talk about the impetus that Christians have to over-apply hobbit ideology to our world, and how they should be learning from Aragorn, Gondor, and Numenor. Brian pushes back a little -- wasn't Numenor the place with human sacrifice and heaven-hatred? Nate and Miles roll on, undeterred. The episode concludes with a few book recommends for those who want to enjoy something alongside Tolkien. IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.

Lunches are packed, pencils are sharpened, your kids have unearthed their pants after a summer of shorts. How do you make sure your kids are set up to succeed at school? As always, apply the Stories Are Soul Food character rules: What would a good character do in grade school? How about high school? What kind of friend are you being? In this episode you'll find rules for tattling, rules for competing, and rules for what to do when you find out your Christian classmate is dating a Mormon girl. Also, you'll find out why "Be a Leader" is bad advice for your kid, and why you should try to get a group of annoying 5th graders to compete more, not less. This episode's Make Me Famous segment consists of the first well-constructed pitch in a while, followed by a pitch Nate won't even finish. IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.

On this episode of Stories Are Soul Food, join ND Wilson and Brian Kohl as they discuss the life of Jacob. Nate's done plenty of writing for Old Testament heroes such as King David, Samson, Moses, Abraham, and Noah. But one character he hasn't touched (yet?) is the patriarch Jacob. This episode investigates why evangelicals don't like the patriarch Jacob, and it isn't because he's a liar -- at least, the only time he ever deceives, he was 100% justified. But he was a terrible husband and father, and a bit of a shady negotiator. The point of Jacob's life, though, and the reason he is a saint, is that his life -- from his struggles in the womb with Esau to his death as a slave in Egypt -- points to the Messiah to come. Finally, Nate rates two more pitches on another edition of Make Me Famous. IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.