The Phil Vischer Podcast

The product placement bell gets a name on this week's Phil Vischer Podcast, and Phil, Skye and Christian explain how they all know each other. They discuss Atheist comic strips, and try to help Skye come up with a new name for his book. They discuss a new Christian "sexy" t-shirt company and, in general, Christian merchandise. Phil debuts a new segment called "Phil has a bone to pick!" and the first segment features Santa Claus and Mercedes-Benz, and our culture's tendency to glorify sin.

In a special episode, Phil discusses the events in Connecticut last week in the light of Christmas next week, and explains how the tragedy illuminates what even Christians have lost from the Christian narrative, and from Christmas itself.

**SPOILER: This podcast contains a discussion of Santa Claus, and therefore may not be appropriate for children.** This week's podcast opens up with a discussion of pink legos, and whether or not churches should encourage belief in Santa Claus. They talk about consumerism vs. consuming, and how many churches have a tendency to commodify the Gospel.

The podcast team discusses the latest from Pat Robertson, and the criticisms of his show from Two and a Half Men star Angus T. Jones who recently became a Seventh-Day Adventist. Phil reviews Rise of the Guardians and then they discuss some criticism of VeggieTales about how the videos teach morality more than Christianity.

Phil, Skye and Christian discuss the phenomenon of Black Friday, whether or not Thanksgiving has been "erased" by the modern media, and why Santa Claus has become the spokesman for Christmas rather than Jesus. Then they discuss a TED talk called "The Demise of Guys" about how media is affecting the development of men in our culture.

Phil, Skye and Christian discuss the 50th birthdays of James Bond and the Rolling Stones; and Phil shares that he is tired of movies. A conversation about whether or not they should address politics on the podcast turns into a thoughtful conversation about the relationship between Christians and democracy surrounding abortion and other issues. Then they talk about the increasing diversity in the US and how that affects our politics.

This week's podcast is a throwback - recorded over the summer with filmmaker Darren Wilson, founder of Wanderlust Productions. You'll hear about old news items, including an accident involving Lady Gaga and an interview Skye conducted with President Obama's spiritual advisor. They discuss the role of the church in the political debate about marriage. Then Phil and Skye have a discussion with Darren Wilson, who shares some of his supernatural experiences and his documentary film about the supernatural. Darren founded Wanderlust Productions in 2006 when he started stumbling through his first feature film, Finger of God. Later, he decided to surround himself with people who were more talented than him to help create his next features, Furious Love and Father of Lights. Darren taught for 10 years at Judson University before moving into production full time, and he is currently the Artist-in-Residence at Judson. He has a wonderful and long-suffering wife, Jenell, and three wonderful children, Serenity, Stryder, and River.

It's election day! But this podcast was recorded last week, so Phil and Skye discuss the perils of career sports, with Phil sharing his experiences as a teenage football player. They talk about the sale of Star Wars to Disney, and Phil reveals his choice to direct Star Wars 7. Then they have a conversation about Hurricane Sandy, and debunk the idea that natural disasters are God's punishment on mankind.  They finish the podcast with a discussion about Billy Graham removing Mormonism from his list of cults.

Phil and Skye start off this week's podcast with a discussion on dragons, and then commiserate about being busy and not having time to write. Then they talk about Halloween, and Skye explains how he and his family use Halloween as an opportunity to engage with their neighbors. Finally, they discuss an article that suggests that the future of the church will be more satellite-driven mega-churches than smaller, denominational churches.

Phil and Skye host this week's podcast! Skye just returned from the Global Church Forum, where US church leaders and global church leaders discussed how to create mutually beneficial partnerships. Then they answer some of the questions that have been submitted to the podcast over the last few weeks. They start with feedback about calling ourselves "Christians," how that term is used in the New Testament, and the distinctions between religion and relationship. Then they discuss some of the feedback from the science/creation podcast with John Walton. Finally they talk about the recent Pew study that said for the first time in history, America is less than 50% Protestant Christian.

Phil hosts the podcast by himself this week with special guest singer-songwriter Andrew Peterson. Phil asks Andrew about the path of his career, from a young artist on a label to an independent artist and then back to being on a label. His latest album, Light for the Lost Boy, was written in part as songs for his growing children. Andrew also talks about his novels, the Wingfeather Saga, and his online storytelling community The Rabbit Room. Phil just keynoted the Rabbit Room's annual conference, Hutchmoot. Andrew Peterson is a Nashville-based singer-songwriter. He has quietly carved out a niche for himself as one of the most thoughtful, poetic, and lyrical songwriters of his generation. More recently he’s established himself as the grassroots facilitator of an online literary and songwriting community, The Rabbit Room, and an emerging fantasy novelist as well (The Wingfeather Saga). His latest album is Light for the Lost Boy.

Plinky Pete takes the spotlight early in this week's podcast, with songs about many of Phil's family members. The crew discusses a BusinessWeek article about the 50 best cities in America, and how the number of bars (not churches) is an indicator of "best-ness," and then they talk about a controversial criticism of stay-at-home-dads. Christian shares how Skye's book With is impacting her. Phil interviews Todd Komarnicki about being a Christian in Hollywood. Todd Komarnicki is a prolific writer, producer and director of film and television as well as an acclaimed novelist. Todd was the director of the international production, RESISTANCE, starring Julia Ormond and Bill Paxton and his screenplays include "Perfect Stranger" starring Bruce Willis and Halle Berry. Komarnicki is the president & founder of the production/management company Guy Walks Into A Bar. Komarnicki and Guy Walks partner Jon Berg produced the Christmas blockbuster ELF starring Will Ferrell and directed by Jon Favreau. Todd lives in New York City with his wife, Jane, and their daughter, Remy.

This week's podcast starts off with Phil talking about visiting 2 conferences in the last week, Story and Hutchmoot. At Hutchmoot, Phil discovered a new favorite singer-songwriter, Andrew Osenga, who did a concert wearing a spacesuit. Phil shares the exciting news that What's in the Bible? was the number one bestselling children's DVD in Christian retail last week. The crew talks about the latest photos from the Hubble telescope, which leads to another discussion of faith and science and atheism. Skye shares about his experience at the Q Cities conference last week, where he spoke about gay rights and religious liberty.

This week's podcast starts off with Phil recapping his trip to a children's ministry conference, then Skye reviews an article in the Wall Street Journal about free speech and faith in regards to the inflammatory video about Mohammed that has incited riots in the Middle East. Phil brings up an article entitled "Will Science Eliminate God?," which leads to a discussion about Christianity, science, atheism, evolution and and what Skye calls "the need and desire for the transcendent." The podcast wraps up with a conversation about the portrayal of Christians in Hollywood and the history of Christian art.

This week's podcast features Dr. Amy Black, associate professor of political science at Wheaton College. Phil starts off the show by talking about the movie Paranorman and Skye discusses The Real Life of Timothy Green. They answer questions about the podcast on heaven two weeks ago and then talk about satire and Christianity. Dr. Amy Black discusses her book, Honoring God in Red or Blue about the history of Christianity and politics in the US and the necessity of political compromise. Dr. Amy Black has wide research and teaching interests in the fields of American Politics and Political Behavior. She has her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and currently serves as the political science department chair at Wheaton College. Her most recent book is Honoring God in Red or Blue: Approaching Politics with Humility, Grace, and Reason (Moody Publishers). At a time when public discourse is too often divisive, Dr. Black calls Christians to a more reasoned and humble approach to politics.