Let’s just call this a podcast day — period.
This week’s “Crossroads” GetReligion podcast will be posted later, focusing on an often overlooked religion-related niche in American politics. Think “nones” and the 2020 White House race and related issues.
In the meantime, here are two rather strange — for GetReligion readers and listeners — Orthodox media podcasts that may still be of interest to some people, including religion-beat pros.
Both of these chats are directly related to newsy topics that come up here all the time. What makes them different is that the topics are framed in ways that appeal directly to an Eastern Orthodox Christian audience, as opposed to be handled straight on as topics linked to mainstream news coverage.
In the first, I was invited on the national Ancient Faith Today podcast hosted by Father Tom Soroka, who serves at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in McKees Rocks, Penn.
The topic for this hour-long show was “Media Bias,” with a focus on explaining to clergy and laypeople the complex nature of news in the age of the Internet. How did we end up with a blurred line between news and the op-ed pages? How can news consumers stay sane in an age when elite, high-quality newsrooms produce solid, old-school journalism on some topics and then, on the very next “page,” offer agitprop on other topics, especially those linked to religion and culture?
Click here to tune that in. At the heart of the discussion was the varying ways that professionals and laypeople struggle to define the term “fake news.” That will sound familiar to GetReligion readers (“Fake News? The Economist team doesn't know where Liberty University is located.”
This podcast is one of the flagship offerings of Ancient Faith Ministries, which started out long, long ago as a trailblazing online radio ministry — years before podcasts and other related podcasts were the norm. (Trivia: I donated an early slogan for this crew — “Ancient faith: All digital.”) Today it is part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.
Next up is a video-podcast from another educational ministry — the “Let’s Talk Live” program offered by the Orthodox Christian Network, based in Washington, D.C., and South Florida. The YouTube for this program is below and the direct link is right here.
The OCN is the official radio and podcasting service linked to the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America.
The host of the program is Father Christopher Metropulos, the executive director and founder of this organization. He knew him in the 1980s when he was the dean of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Denver and then our paths crossed again in 2001 when I joined the faculty of Palm Beach Atlantic University, while he was leading St. Demetrios Church in Ft Lauderdale, Fla. Father Chris is also the former president of Hellenic College Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.
This podcast — #triggerwarning — is very Orthodox and very religious, with lots of talk about theology and ministry. It even opens with a prayer.
But this conversation grew out of trends in the news, trends linked to my recent Universal syndicate column with this headline: “Faith after COVID-19: How many flocks will survive ‘worship shifting’ trends?”
So give it a listen. There’s lots of newsworthy ideas and hooks in there.
I know that podcasts are not for everyone. But both of these shows have their own unique audiences around the world. A few of those faces even show up in the Zoom images.