Next spring I’ll be teaching History and Politics of Sports for the second time. It’s hard to know how much change to make, given that the inaugural class was forced online halfway through semester by a global pandemic. But one difference is already evident: I’ll be leading the course by myself, since my friend and … More Thursday’s Podcast: The Politics of the Olympics
This week I wrote about a doomed Arctic explorer and celebrated the launch of a new initiative from John Fea. Elsewhere: • In the week of Yom HaShoah, there was a lot to find fascinating in historian James Loeffler’s article on the little-known poetry of Raphael Lemkin, the Jewish lawyer who gave us the word … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I shared video of my first Lindbergh book talk and considered whether we’re seeing a realignment of American Christianity along lines other than the mainline-evangelical divide. Elsewhere: • If you liked my post last weekend on the history of religious colleges in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, you’ll want to read pieces by Benjamin … More That Was The Week That Was
It’s been a few months since the last time we shared an episode of our sports podcast, The 252. So I was glad when Chris Moore stuck his head in my office earlier this week and asked if we could record a “micropod” about the latest iterations in the debate over sports, protest, and the … More Wednesday’s Podcast: The National Anthem
I was busy this week organizing a kind of sequel to our Faith and History devotional (look for an announcement on that front in a few days), but I did have time to look into the history of the expression “Jesus is not a Republican or a Democrat.” Elsewhere: • The investigation of Ravi Zacharias International … More That Was The Week That Was
Even as he grieves over the loss of Ohio State football for the fall, Chris Moore joined Sam Mulberry and me for a new episode of The 252, “sports talk radio as done by academics.” While Chris and I won’t be teaching our History and Politics of Sports class again until 2022, we mean to continue producing occasional … More Saturday’s Podcast: Checking In on Sports under COVID
This week I considered the importance of Christian friendships between women and men and shared a bit more about the origins of our Faith and History devotional. (Click that link to learn how to pre-order with a publisher’s discount.) Elsewhere: • We’re now less than a month away from starting face-to-face classes at Bethel… I hope someone’s … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I started turning my attention to a fall semester unlike any other, researching reopening plans for schools like Bethel and thinking through how I’ll teach two of my courses in a “modified face-to-face” format. Then over at The Anxious Bench, the story of Bethel’s first student of color provided bookends for a review … More That Was The Week That Was
On the 2019-20 season finale of The 252, Chris Moore and I reflected on what we learned from our first time teaching History and Politics of Sports at Bethel. Then Sam Mulberry joined us to talk about how different professional and college sports are planning to resume play — or already have done so. We talked about everything … More Thursday’s Podcast: The Return of Sports (?)
This week I wrote a commencement address for the Class of 2020 and recorded the final episode of our Pandemics and the Liberal Arts podcast. Elsewhere: • There’s been a lot of attention paid to the success Asian countries like Taiwan and South Korea have had in responding to COVID-19. But what about two African countries … More That Was The Week That Was
