Stories Are Soul Food

Did you know that N.D. Wilson found a method that would have allowed a medieval to fake the Shroud using glass and paint, including photo negativity and all? This Stories Are Soul Food episode has the entire scoop -- including: Nate's impetus for the whole experiment (a professor discarded the Bible because the Shroud was "proof of the resurrection"); how the inspiration came to him (through a monstrous collection of G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories); and how his theory continues to be ignored by contemporary Roman Catholics (although the medieval Roman Catholics declared that the Shroud of...

After a quick discussion of Brian's decision to shout more at Nate to please a few vocal liseners, the SASF guys discuss what it takes to sell more than 8 million copies of your books. Turns out, if you published in the 2010s, putting "Girl" in the title pretty much did it. If you follow publishing, you should be able to guess the books that sold the most copies in the 2010s: EL James's 50 Shades series (the trilogy sold 35 million copies). Nate and Brian discuss the crisis that publishing such successful smut caused Random House -- and how RH made...

Will we tell stories in heaven? Nate says the answer is so obvious it's a dumb question. Brian tries to make him answer anyway. Instead, Nate talks about a sci-fi story he is working on in which nobody lives past age 18. Turns out storytelling is fundamental to humanity, and we should be living like it now. Then Brian brings up a related listener question about how to choose what you're doing with your life now: What happens if you're working a blue collar job but you want to go to seminary and you also want to write? Prepare for...

Prepare for a very convicting episode of Stories Are Soul Food. Jesus warns of one kind of seed that springs up fast but quickly withers away. It's this kind of character the SASF guys discuss today, with Brian asking questions about Saul and Judas. Nate identifies one fundamental error such characters always make: They mistake their place in the story, making themselves the main character. Saul thinks the kingdom of Israel is about him. Judas thinks he can make the Messiah drive out the Romans. But the most common place Nate has seen this error? Parents. Moms who can't...

Nate and Brian invite Forrest Dickison on to make sure he takes first place as SASF'S Most Invited Guest. But really they want to discuss Forrest's debut picture book, Crispin's Rainy Day, a story about a boy who wants to join a crew of pirate frogs -- but only if he can escape from his little sister first. The book is a perfect chocolate chip story with stunning illustrations -- meant to be enjoyed as a family -- but it has a contentious depiction of gender roles reflected in the relationship between Crispin and his sister Rose. "Contentious" means "...

How do we, the members of a rotting democracy, read the story of the botched assassination of President Trump? God put a few more minutes back on the clock when DT turned his head to look at that immigration chart. Not only did we get a key character moment from Trump -- courage after being shot cannot be faked -- but we also got even bigger helpings of legacy news spin cycles flailing and bureaucratic incompetence. There have been at least three other assassination attempts in a millennial's lifetime (Reagan, Bush grenade, Clinton Cessna), but this is the first...

This week Brian has abandoned Nate to attend the birth of his daughter, so Nate strikes back by having two of his own daughters on the pod instead. The discussion begins with what books the girls, Lucy and Ameera, are reading, and why Lucy hates detective novels and green food.  Lucy is moved to love, though, when the trope of "unsung heroes" is introduced.  Nate pursues this line, getting his daughters to articulate exactly why praise-less sacrifice is such a stirring concept.  Frodo finally gets the love that he has been missing both from the hobbits of the shire and the...

Today's Stories Are Soul Food episode covers two new dystopian tales, a book and a show. The book is Leif Enger's "I Cheerfully Refuse", which Brian cheerfully despised for Leif's overly luminous characters and bass-playing giant protagonist. The show is Amazon Prime's "Fallout," which Nate skipped his way through, watching the innocence of the virginal protagonist be stripped from her episode by episode through violence, immorality, and (apparently) cannibalism. Nate talks about how the show's potential was ruined because the director, Jonathan Nolan, had only one trick: take innocence and corrupt it. Beyond that, the show never gets beyond...

If you're a crippled Eskimo girl, would the best story you could ever read have a crippled Eskimo girl as the hero? Many book publishers and movie studios today would say YES. (The part they don't say is that the only reason they don't make more movies about Eskimos on crutches is because that demographic doesn't sell enough tickets.) Another way to ask this question: Do stories appeal because the main character represents you? Or do they appeal because you connect with the main character? Here's the takeaway: Representation is pointless; connection is the holy grail of storytelling. And...

Nate talks about his ability to sense changes in the weather, and proceeds to roast Brian for his opinions on prologues. But that's not the occasion for this wandering episode: If you're a regular SASF listener, you'll know that the guys are big proponents of filtering films for family movie night (they recommend ClearPlay and VidAngel both). But what about books? When do books cross the line, and what should you do about it? Brian and Nate discuss this question. They kick things off, though, with a discussion on prologues -- turns out Brian hates them and Nate has...