PWJ: S3E5 – Bonus – “Happy New Year!”
In previous years, Matt and I have recorded a Christmas episode, but we thought that for this year we’d record a New Year Show. We chat about our families’ New Year traditions, as well as our hopes for 2020…
S2E5: “Happy New Year!” (Download)
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Timestamps
0:00:58 – Drink-of-the-week
0:03:25 – Quote-of-the-week
0:22:54 – Podcast Retrospective for 2019
0:29:36 – New Year Traditions
0:32:18 – New Year Resolutions
0:41:45 – Listener mail and interactions
1:00:14 – Last Call and closing remarks
YouTube Version
After Show Skype Session
This Season, after each episode, Matt and I will be recording a ten-minute Skype conversation:
Show Notes
• Today I was joined by Matt “The Man, The Myth” Bush.
• For the drink-of-the-week, Matt was drinking a Notre Dame Wine 2012 Sauvignon Blanc. I drank Black Velvet whisky. I was also drinking a “Mexican Coke” which had been given to me by the group which hosted me recently in Imperial Valley.
• I spoke about my Thor’s Hammer bottle opener:
• Matt was very indecisive this week and came up with three different entries for quote-of-the-week, each from Lewis’ Collected Letters:
“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”
C.S. Lewis, Collected Letters
“Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.”
“God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.”
I pointed out that the second quotation refers to death and Matt replied that even St. Paul spoke about longing for Heaven:
…Christ will be honoured in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
Philippians 1:20-23
• I explained that our audio engineer, Nick, was spending time with his family over Christmas, so Matt and I thought we’d just have a relaxed episode chatting about our hopes for 2020. You might have noticed a nod I give to Galaxy Quest…
• Matt talked about his Christmas shopping.
• Matt told us that his brother just got engaged. When speaking about his brother and his fiancée, he paraphrased Lewis in The Four Loves:
The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, “What? You too? I thought I was the only one.”
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
I then added some other comments from Lewis in the same book:
When the two people who thus discover that they are on the same secret road are of different sexes, the friendship which arises between them will very easily pass–may pass in the first half-hour–into erotic love. Indeed, unless they are physically repulsive to each other or unless one or both already loves elsewhere, it is almost certain to do so sooner or later.
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
When the family went out to celebrate afterwards, they went to a karaoke bar and Matt sang Maroon Five’s “Girls Like You”:
• Matt spoke about his trip to Chicago.
• I told about my adventures in leaving Pints With Jack coasters all around San Diego.
• I recently listened to a podcast episode from The Art of Manliness related to longing. The podcast episode was on St. Augustine and called “Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts”.
• I had thoroughly been enjoying a new production of Anne of Green Gables on audiobook, read by Rachel McAdams. I was struck by the number of themes in the book which dovetailed with what we had encountered in Lewis.
• I have started laying out the future seasons of Pints With Jack.
• I went to a friend’s party at her house and, while I was there I fixed the order of her Narnia books…
• We spoke about the most recent Star Wars movie, The Rise of Skywalker. The night before I gave a talk in Imperial Valley, I watched the movie. As I drove into Imperial Valley the following day, I was loudly humming the Imperial March. Matt really liked the movie. I described as being like Ungit’s sacrifice, in some ways the best and in many ways the worst. I’m sure I’ll rant about it at some point…
• Matt told us about his Christmas Eve plans to go “Santa Hunting”. I explained that I’ll be in Wisconsin for Christmas and New Year.
• We have just passed 100,000 downloads!
• For the next two weeks, if listeners leave a review for our podcast on iTunes, podbean etc. and send us a message about it on PintsWithJack.com, they’ll be entered into winning a set of branded pint glasses or whisky glasses.
Listeners have been tweeting pictures of glasses we’ve already sent out!
• We’ll be launching a Patreon account in January!
• We compared New Years family traditions. Matt doesn’t really have any. I used to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Yorkshire. I’d watch Top Gun on their surround-sound TV and drink my Aunt’s Coffee & Tia Maria. As I was the youngest and darkest in my family, I’d be the “first-footer” at midnight.
• We then compared New Year Resolutions. Matt doesn’t have any specifically for New Year, but spoke about how he’s trying to cut down on digital distractions. Mine included getting back in shape (I’ve signed up for a Spartan race in April) and reading the Bible-in-a-year. I’m also going to finish the book I was writing and build an event website.
• Pints With Jack t-shirts are now being sold:
Brian from Talking Beasts recently posted a picture of himself in one.
• We ended the episode by reading listener messages and interactions. We began with a tweet from Lina Maslo:
Matt said he also wasn’t initially a great fan of Till We Have Faces. I commented that my girlfriend, Marie, is hooked. After reading her a chapter at coffee after Mass on Thursday morning, fifteen minutes later I got this message:
• Darren put out a message inviting people to read Till We Have Faces with him.
• Aaron bought a copy of The Screwtape Letters after listening to my interview on The Catholic Man Show.
• We’ve had some great back-and-forth with Brian McGreevy who was also at the recent C.S. Lewis conference. I’d encourage listeners to check out his podcasts: C.S. Lewis & The Christian Life and C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters.
• I had a great exchange with Cody on the Pints With Jack Facebook page about King Trom’s snarky comment about the Greeks.
• Arist Nik Mimms produced a picture of “The Tousle-headed Poet” while listening to our episode about that character from The Great Divorce.
• My friend Doug sent me this:
• We also read messages from listeners Michelle, Lindsey, Tom, and Phil.
• Matt will be going to Oxford at the end of August this year.
• We ended the show by reading some iTunes reviews.
• Next Season we’ll be doing The Screwtape Letters.