PCPH - Epic Tales and Hero Journeys

PCPH - Epic Tales and Hero Journeys

The only thing that would have made our conversation more epic was to have that guy with the deep movie trailer voice kicking us off... He’s a pastor who just finished up a funeral; she’s a pastor who led silly games for a group of kids all morning. Together they are: Pop Culture Pastors Hour. But seriously... Today we laid the groundwork for Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey, with discussion of what makes a story “epic,” Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey and critiques of that body of work, whether sweeping stories still matter in the TikTok age, where we see these ideas play out in our faith, and a few of our favorite epic tales. Join us on July 28 at 3 p.m. EDT [https://open.substack.com/live-stream/255535] as we discuss the film The Odyssey. Journey (epically) on! MaryAnn & Ed This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pcph.substack.com [https://pcph.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

PCPH - The America250 Draft with Marlon Weems

Our “America 250” draft was a blast! Thanks to Marlon Weems [https://thejourneyman.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips] for joining us for this exploration of the theme. Each of us built a “team” consisting of one movie, one TV show/episode, one book, one piece of music, and one wild card, designed to convey the breadth of what our country is about—the good, the bad and the aspirational. So how did we do? Below are our picks. Vote for your favorite lineup in the poll provided. Poll will stay open until July 4, and the winner will be honored with a small donation in their honor to the charity of their choice (Ed: Presbyterian Disaster Assistance [https://pcusa.org/donate/dr000148-disaster-relief-general-relief-pda-support], Marlon: Save the Children-Gaza [https://www.savethechildren.org/us/where-we-work/west-bank-gaza], MaryAnn: ProPublica [https://www.propublica.org/]) Ed’s Team: * Movie: Hidden Figures * TV: 30 Days (Morgan Spurlock) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437696/?ref_=fn_t_9] * Book: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown; Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer * Music: U2’s “American Soul” (with Kendrick Lamar) and “American Obituary” * Wild Card: Hamilton (Ed’s first-round pick) Marlon’s Team: * Movie: Sinners [https://pcph.substack.com/p/pcph-sinners?utm_source=publication-search] (Marlon’s first-round pick) * TV: Sugar * Book: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson (especially the audiobook) * Music: Steely Dan’s “Asia” * Wild Card: Godfather Parts 1 and 2 MaryAnn’s Team: * Movie: Apollo 13 (MaryAnn’s first-round pick) * TV: West Wing Thanksgiving Episodes, season 2 (Shibboleth) and season 3 (Indians in the Lobby) * Book: The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (consider reading Gatsby as a white-passing Black character [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/03/great-gatsby-book-fitzgerald-race-interpretation/672778/?gift=2OHtcdEzO6QLss1r3e3eLuCjVh5z9OF89rjSHMLaDTs&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share]) * Music: John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” * Wild Card: the speech from Independence Day [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6VI6RPxZfI], Bill Pullman A Few Honorable Mentions: * Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler * Eyes on the Prize (six-part documentary about the civil rights movement) * “This Land is Your Land,” Woody Guthrie * Do the Right Thing * The Wire * I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou * Damn, Kendrick Lamar * Dirty Mind, Prince * Founding Fathers - Noiser Podcast Network * Glory - Common and John Legend * The two Mr Rodgers films that came out - drama with Tom Hanks and the documenary about his life * In the Heights Coming up on Pop Culture Pastors Hour: we’re celebrating the release of Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey with an episode about Epic Tales and Origin Stories on July 15 at 1 p.m. [https://open.substack.com/live-stream/255532] and a discussion of the film on July 28 at 3 p.m. [https://open.substack.com/live-stream/255535] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pcph.substack.com [https://pcph.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

PCPH - Pride Month

Friends, we are right in the middle of Pride Month - a month to honor the LGBTQ community. There are Pride events taking place all over the world this month and PCPH wanted to join in on the celebration. This is not only a time to celebrate but also to learn - to hear the stories and experiences of those in this beautiful community of people. For our conversation, we were excited to welcome Dr Sebastian Barr [https://substack.com/profile/102965044-sebastian-barr] who writes here on Substack at Weathering the Storm [https://sebastianmbarr.substack.com]. Dr. Barr is a counselor and therapist with a focus upon the LGBTQIA+ community. For our conversation, we had a bunch of different categories that we set up for possible pop culture items and we think we came up with the biggest list yet! But before we get into the categories, Sebastian shared this quote from Drew Gregory about transgender representation that needs to be shared and truly heard. Like many, I learned about transness from film and television. Movies like Ace Ventura and The 40-Year-Old Virgin told me we should be mocked. Movies like Dressed to Kill and The Silence of the Lambs told me we should be feared. Movies like Dallas Buyers Club and The Danish Girl told me we should be pitied. And then, like lightning to the bolts on the side of my head, shows like Transparent and Sense8 told me we could be human.” – Drew Gregory So the heart of what we shared in our conversation was about that last part… the humanity of LGBTQ+ people.. Some of our categories were: * Start ‘Em Young - What was the first representation of an LGBTQ person in media you remember? (unfortunately most are rather problematic) * For the Joy of It - Just simply letting LGBTQ people live. Nothing special - just the ordinary people they are * God loves gays - where spirituality/faith and queer identity were woven together meaningfully * Worst LGBTQ tropes - what stereotypes or cliched representations simply need to never appear AGAIN? * Favorite representation - What is simply a really good reflection of LGBTQ people * Stories that pushed me - what stories challenged us to further open understandings? Many of the examples we shared were in multiple categories so here are a few of them that we particularly wanted to lift up: * I Saw the TV Glow [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15574270/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_I%20saw%20the%20]- Sebastian had an incredible summary of this powerful film trying to help people understand the experience of being transgender * Semler [https://www.semlermusic.com] - Christian LGBTQ musician that Sebastian shared about who will be added to our libraries for sure. (Also, Ed shared about The Many [https://www.themanyarehere.com] and MaryAnn shared about the song, Testify to Love [https://sojo.net/articles/interview/90s-christian-hit-song-now-blooming-queer-anthem]) * Casper [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112642/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_4_nm_4_in_0_q_casper] (1995) - Sebastian shared about this film and opened it up for us in a way we had never considered * And there’s SO much more - take a listen! Our next episode is on June 25 as we center on stories of America at 250 with Marlon Weems! Thanks for tuning in! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pcph.substack.com [https://pcph.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

PCPH - The Sheep Detectives

No pulling the wool over your eyes as we ask the important question… “Will it preach?” about the recent film, The Sheep Detectives. We shear-ly had some great conversation about this fun film and there were only a few baaaaa-d puns throughout the episode. We cover a lot of areas from the film but mostly we spend time with the flock. As always, you can find past episodes here on Substack or on Apple or Spotify. Conveniently, MaryAnn brought The Sheep Detectives into her sermon from June 7. You can listen to the message here: A behind-the-scenes video was mentioned in our conversation and you can check that out here: Our next scheduled episode is on Thursday, June 25 as we are joined once again by Marlon Weems as we talk America250 films. There may be one or two more that show up between now and then. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pcph.substack.com [https://pcph.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

PCPH - AI

Ok - full disclosure… the “movie” poster on the cover image for this episode was created by Anthropic’s Claude AI. I gave it a prompt describing the three of us and the name of the podcast and this is what it came up with. I have much that could be said but I am really not sure what’s happening with MaryAnn in this and how it seems to have tried to represent her hair. Phuc also commented on the “Electronic halo looking like a Bene Gesserit reverend mother” that MaryAnn is rocking. I also think the circles are supposed to be headphones? The full image is at the end for your mocking pleasure. Anyway, I think its a fitting example of some of what we discussed throughout this great conversation that might be part 1 of at least 2 episodes since we barely touched base on much pop-culture-wise. This is our second time (and definitely not the last) having Phuc join us in the conversation. You can find his work at Love and Other Substances [https://phucluuphd.substack.com] and also several books he’s written. We did reference several things in the episode: * The Presbyterian Church (USA) is discussing a response to AI at its national gathering (aka General Assembly) later this month. Here’s their proposal being discussed. The Algorithm and the Almighty: Navigating Artificial Intelligence Through a Reformed Lens [https://www.luminosityconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Corey-Schlosser-Hall-2026-GA-ACSWP-AI_AND_FAITH_POLICY_FINAL.pdf] * Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical that was released in recent weeks entitled Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence [https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html]. * Below is a great infographic created about it * And here’s an “interesting” commentary [https://open.substack.com/pub/linch/p/claude-author-of-the-humanitas?r=b8sra&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web] wondering how much of the encyclical was AI generated. * NY Times Podcast - Can AI Make People Feel Less Lonely? [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/28/podcasts/the-daily/ai-robot-elderly-loneliness.html] Our next episode will be Monday, June 8 at 1pm ET as we’ll be doing a “Will It Preach?” on the recent film, The Sheep Detectives. And we also have another episode scheduled with Marlon Weems at 2:30pm ET on movies connected with America250. More on that to come! Thanks for joining us! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pcph.substack.com [https://pcph.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]