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2 months ago | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Chris Thiessen |Peter Choi
Illustration by Claire Merchlinsky I recently rewatched one of my favorite old episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, the one where he goes to Koreatown in Los Angeles but doesn’t eat, as one might expect, braised short ribs at Sun Nong Dan or knife-cut noodles at Hangari. Instead, he goes to Sizzler for overdone steak and an “incongruous combination” of dubious items from the salad bar.
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2 months ago | 
christiancentury.org | Chris Thiessen |Mac Loftin |Brandon Ambrosino |Douglas Campbell
Welcome to Madang. Madang is the outdoor living room of the world. Here, we invite you to sit and tune into unreserved, remarkable conversations with renowned authors, leaders, public figures, and scholars on religion, culture, and everything in between. This is the 46th episode, featuring the Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac talking about his new book, Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza (Eerdmans, 2025).
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2 months ago | 
christiancentury.org | Chris Thiessen |Mac Loftin |Brandon Ambrosino |Amy Frykholm
History professor Shannen Dee Williams (AP Photo / Aaron Doster) Shannen Dee Williams is an associate professor of history at the University of Dayton who specializes in the African American experience and Black Catholicism. She is author of Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle. Hear the full version of this interview on the Century podcast In Search Of.Can we start with an introduction to some of the Black Catholic sisters in your book? Absolutely.
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2 months ago | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Brandon Ambrosino |Richard Lischer |Chris Thiessen
Let’s be honest: Super Bowl LIX was a snore. Thank God for Kendrick Lamar, whose halftime performance marked the first time a solo hip-hop artist headlined the Super Bowl. While most halftime shows serve merely as hit-filled career retrospectives, Lamar’s performance was a carefully crafted display of audiovisual storytelling designed precisely for this moment. Lamar is coming off one of the most triumphant years of his already illustrious career.
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Feb 23, 2024 | 
undertheradarmag.com | Chris Thiessen
Web Exclusive For a band who once confessed they were fated to pretend, MGMT sound pretty darn sincere on Loss of Life, their first album since 2018’s Little Dark Age.
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Oct 30, 2023 | 
rhythmofthesaints.substack.com | Chris Thiessen
"Everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!" - 2 Cor. 5:17b"Everybody here was someone else before…It's a new soundtrack, I can dance to this beat forevermore." - Taylor Swift, "Welcome to New York"Whenever we encounter newness in life (a marriage or a new job, for instance), there's always someone who warns us about that dreaded time when the "honeymoon phase" wears off.
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Oct 20, 2023 | 
rhythmofthesaints.substack.com | Chris Thiessen
Reach in the darknessA reach in the darkTo overcome an obstacle or an enemy—Paul Simon, “The Rhythm of the Saints”When God’s voice first reached into the darkness of the universe, the ears of creation listened. Indeed, from human perspective, listening is the beginning of everything we do. All of it. Our words are responses to the things we’ve heard before. Our actions are reactions to the things already set in motion. All that we give we have first received. We are at our core, then, listeners.
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Oct 19, 2023 | 
rhythmofthesaints.substack.com | Chris Thiessen
Discover more from Rhythm of the SaintsA place for spiritual engagement with popular music Going forward, I plan to make Freshly Minted a weekly-updated playlist of 50 recent releases I’m really digging. As I listen far across genre lines, not everything will be for everyone. But there should be something for everyone within! Every February, Gary Suarez hosts #MWE (Music Writer Exercise) on Twitter. The goal is to listen to an album you’ve never heard every day and write about it on Twitter.
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Oct 19, 2023 | 
rhythmofthesaints.substack.com | Chris Thiessen
Discover more from Rhythm of the SaintsA place for spiritual engagement with popular music It’s been an absolute joy discovering the music of my birth year over the last few months of Quarter Notes. So in celebration of 1995, here’s a 112 song survey playlist I’ve put together. I’ve tried to highlight a lot of new favorite discoveries while keeping a healthy dose of what defined 1995 in real time. I think it’s a blast.
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Oct 19, 2023 | 
rhythmofthesaints.substack.com | Chris Thiessen
New music weekly :)I’d love to hear from you all about the ways you listen to music and what you’re listening to! So beginning this month, I’m asking a monthly question for discussion! Comment your answers below or email me if you’d like. This month’s question:What is most important to you in music? The vibe? The lyrics? The virtuosity? The catchiness? Also, what is the FIRST thing you latch onto with music: lyrics or sound/texture/vibe?
