Despite my education being in engineering, I have a deep love for the arts. In high school I got into any band that I could. In addition to that I was in theatre club and on the yearbook committee. Also, anyone who knows me will know that I have a deep appreciation for film and literature. In fact, I’ve dabbled in the idea of becoming a film critic for quite some time. Having my engineering background, math and science are my job but film and literature is my love. My favorite posts on this blog are actually book or film reviews which might be a shock to most of my readers.
The unfortunate fact of our age is that the arts community is made up of almost entirely anti-Christian leftists. It’s a shame because enjoying artistic endeavors in this age becomes quite difficult when it’s in an anti-Christian atmosphere.
In the last couple of months I’ve discovered a great Podcast called Pop Culture Coffee Hour. It is from ancientfaith.com which is an Eastern Orthodox website and can be found here:
http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/popculture
The show is hosted by four young adults: Steven Christoforou, Christian Gonzalez, Christina Andresen, and Emma Solak. Any combination of two of these four can be on at once. They all have great chemistry so it doesn’t really matter who is on.
Most of the show is reviewing contemporary film and television programs that form American pop culture. It comes at these films and television programs from a young adult but religious perspective. It’s refreshing to hear this since the secular West can be quite suffocating for a religious person.
In the past year they’ve reviewed movies like Silence, The Light Between Oceans, The Promise, Moana and many more. The shows are usually around an hour long and usually end with a Top 5 list. If I had to pick one or two episodes to take this Podcast for a test run I would recommend the episode dealing with Silence and the one about The Promise.
The new episodes usually come out on Wednesday and it’s only once a week so it’s not like you have to always be making room for an hour every evening like Andrew Klavan or Ben Shapiro. It’s easy not to get behind because of this as well.
From a Catholic perspective the show is quite sound. True, the hosts aren’t Catholic but I find their Eastern Orthodox worldview to be quite similar to Catholicism. Also, discussions regarding film and television aren’t likely to bring out issues like the use of unleavened bread during liturgy or other issues that we disagree on.
I fully recommend this podcast to all my Christian readers. Wednesday can seem like a hectic time. It’s the middle of the week and the weekend can’t arrive soon enough. Listen to this show and you’ll actually have a reason to look forward to Wednesday. Thank you Steven, Christian, Christina, and Emma!
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