Episode 14: Catching up on Ukraine

Wear is the Love, Episode #14

In this episode, we provide an update on Ukraine: what’s been happening these last few weeks, President Biden’s Europe visit, and what we’re looking at in the near future. After our recap, we discuss a fascinating 12-teen focus group the NYT conducted recently to understand how 16-17 year olds are seeing their world. If anything, the focus group and our conversation expands our thinking when it comes to this young age cohort and their experiences.

At the very end of the episode, peep one of our many, many recording bloopers. We might start sharing more.

Episode notes

BioLogos Faith & Science 2022 virtual pass

Renew America

Ambassador Dan Fried’s tweet on President’s Biden remark

President Biden’s press conference clarifying his “moral outrage” (CBS)

Anti-nuclear weapons and chemical weapons orgs: Global Zero, Ploughshares Fund, ICAN, OPCW

The Top 5 articles for your week:

1. “Stephen Colbert makes the case that faith matters a great deal” (Pundicity)

   Because “Colbert speaks about the connection among humor, sacrifice, and hope that are bound up in his faith. Kahn, a Yale University legal scholar, sees in his parents' lives a secular parable of a post-religious world in which forgiveness is impossible and hope in the face of death is no longer sustainable.

   In different ways, Kahn and Colbert make the case that faith matters a great deal. This is noteworthy at a time when Americans seem increasingly inclined to indifference toward religion and when churches seem largely incapable of communicating a core message that persuades ordinary Americans that religion provides something indispensable.”

2. “How Propaganda Became Entertaining” (The Atlantic)

   Because we’ve been chatting about the use of propaganda by the Ukrainian government on Wear is the Love, and this article traces the tactics used in WWII.

3. “20 days in Mariupol: The team that documented city’s agony” (AP)

   Because Mariupol has nearly fallen to Russian forces, and this is a heartbreaking photo essay.

4. “‘Don’t Leave the Space Open’ — How the West Can Defeat Putin in Cyberspace and Beyond’” (Politico Magazine)

   Because a foremost expert on cyber warfare, Molly McKew, thinks that the new cyber warfare tactics of the US and allies could lead to innovation in how these countries fight traditional war.

5. “The Harsh Realm of ‘Gentle Parenting’” (The New Yorker)

   Because what a fresh-breath of an article! “Still, across the parenting boards and the group texts, one can detect a certain restlessness. A fatigue is setting in: about the deference to a child’s every mood, the strict maintenance of emotional affect, the notion that trying to keep to a schedule could be “authoritarian.” Sometimes, the people are saying, a tantrum isn’t worthy of being placed upon a pedestal. Sometimes, they plead, their voices rising past a gentle threshold, you just need to put your freaking shoes on.”