The Trace

This week my guest is Matt Johnson.  He is a drummer who has been in bands like Roadside Monument, Blenderhead, 90 Pound Wuss, and many more.  We discuss underground punk rock music in Seattle in the 90's and how times have changed since then.  I am so proud to have him as a guest!

This is my first installment of an idea I have wanted to do for a while: a deconstruction of a famous Bible story.  In this case it's Psalm 23.  I go through the text looking at the original language and searching for other possible readings.  Keep an open mind as you listen!

Seattle artist SPECSWIZARD is my guest on this episode where we discuss the movies The Shining and An American Werewolf in London. From there we vamp into talks on religion, the nature of evil, judgment culture, and the importance of checking yourself.  Listen to his music at https://specswizard.bandcamp.com.

On this episode of The Trace we look at Richard Linklater's 1995 romantic drama "Before Sunrise".  This gives us a chance to talk about being seen, falling in love, commitment, and the nature of desire.  Plus we touch on Keith Green, Amy Grant, and The Joker at the end.

We discuss Hal Ashby's "Coming Home" along with current headlines like the new 1975 song "People", SNL, Taylor Swift, the VMA's, and Trump's desire to buy Greenland.

Brett Hamil is my guest this week.  He is a comedian and political voice in Seattle.  We talk about comedy, Seattle, politics, local news, and street papers like Real Change.  Wonderful conversation!

David Lynch explored the depths of mysterious beauty and ugliness in his 1986 film "Blue Velvet".  Hannah Haddix and Sam Sundquist are my guests as we discuss themes related to the movie like #MeToo, shadow work, meditation, 80's America, and violence in the movies.  Heavy stuff but necessary conversations.

This week Sam Sundquist and I used the 1990 bizzarro rom-com “Joe Versus the Volcano” to talk about some serious existential issues.  Themes covered are: What would you do if you found out you had 5 months to live?  When have you realized that there was more possible for you then you previously knew?  Are people generally “good” or “bad”?  We also admitted to some embarassing stuff from our youth.

This week Hannah Haddix, Sam Sundquist, and I discuss themes of despair, living in a world of injustice, and hope.  We use the movie "First Reformed" as a case study for the backdrop of these issues.  We get in some debates on how to react to climate change, our understandings of political responsibility, and even bring some references to "The Red Shoe Diaries" at the end!  

I discuss Ari Aster's "Midsommar" and despair.  In this sense it is, in a Hannah Arendt understanding, political despair.  That means that human beings do not have the ability to minimize suffering.  I rage against the idea that "life is suffering" and that human beings do not have the power to minimize suffering and bring about healing.  

My guest this week is the therapist, and dear friend of mine (!), Joshua Horvath.  He works with kids experiencing trauma.  Our talk centers around Paul Thomas Anderson's 2012 film "The Master" as a case study for trauma, violence, and recovery.

Today I talk with Sam Sundquist about Paul Thomas Anderson's now classic "Magnolia" from 1999.  We discuss inherited shame, incels, suffering, hope, love, and forgiveness.  The film does a wonderful job of showing human pain while retaining possibilities for positive transformation.  

My guest on this episode is musician, bar manager, and all around cool guy Ryan Lobe.  We discuss the transition from home schooling in the suburbs to bartending heavy metal shows.  

This is a look back on the movies, albums, political events, and personal readings that stuck out to me in 2018.  I remember movies like "First Reformed", "Roma", and "Mandy" plus albums by Janelle Monae, Lykke Li, and Earl Sweatshirt.   Later in the episode I focus on political events of the year plus some of the themes that have been important to me during the last 12 months.  At thetracepodcast.com I will have a full breakdown and links to all that has been discussed here.  Happy New Year my friends!

Mary Jo Hansen has run Casa Nana in Tepic, Mexico for 10 years now. Casa Nana is a foster/orphanage home for kids that have no where else to be.  It's a dynamic undertaking where kids get back to school, learn art, receive love, and get an opportunity for a new future. Mary Jo is from the Bay Area and we discuss how she went from a chaotic adolescence of her own to taking care of adolescents in Mexico years later.  Along the way we touch on political and religious topics, living in Mexico, and scary stories of "narco" violence in Tepic.   Check out heart4mexico.com to learn more about Casa Nana.

I am very proud to present this talk with Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers from Seattle Pacific University and The Northwest Institute on Intimacy.  Her book "Sex, God, and the Conservative Church" is an insightful look at how abstinence only education has caused deep levels of sexual shame in people as they grow up.   Dr. Sellers and I discuss the nature of religious and cultural sexual shame and then look into the movies to see where this manifests itself.  The whole talk was thrilling to be a part of and I am so happy to share it with you.

In this episode I explore cinema and religion with films like "First Reformed", "The Last Temptation of Christ", and the work of Todd Haynes and Gus Van Sant.  These movies speak to me in the religious sense where we ask ourselves questions about responsibility, empathy, love, and justice.   I must note that religion and spirituality, in my definition, also contains atheism, paganism, agnosticism, etc.  For me, religion and spirituality, have to do with the big existential questions and then asks who and what am I responsible to in this life?  The only way to truly avoid the human aspect of religion and spirituality is to be a pure conformist to your society where you don’t think for yourself in any way.  I already assume that anyone in that state of mind will have absolutely zero interest in this show!  

My guest this week is Greg Wright.  Greg is an artist of many talents and experiences.  He has done writing, acting, criticism, poetry, plus theater and film direction.  He is also a practicing Christian with strong thoughts and feelings on our current times.  Greg and I had never met but we got right into a very honest and direct discussion on movies, religion, politics, empathy, and why it is that we human beings are so naturally divisive.

It's October and Halloween is coming up.  I talk with author and editor Lucas Gonzalez about Horror in film.  This gets us into 80's horror films, Cronenberg, body horror, grief, and terror in literature.