Hosts: Jan, Rob, Dee, & Jim

2025: a rough start. Stoicism (Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus), and what we really can control. Post-election despondency. The New Orleans incident. Addiction to 24/7 news. Update on Pip. “Laundry Love.” Peter Singer’s moral imperative.

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For the New Year, the group shares a memory of Jimmy Carter, welcomes some classics into a new year of public domain status, mulls over New Year’s resolutions, and Rob remembers his Scrabble® matches with his mom, with a shout out to Nigel Richards (New Zealand).

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Jim raises the "secret about Santa" question; presents USPS Operation Santa; reads some actual letters to Santa, and one letter from Santa that Mark Twain wrote to his daughter Susie; and concludes with some thoughts from the famous "Yes, Virginia" editorial from 1897.

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Jim guides us on a quick tour of Matthew’s and Luke’s 2 birth narratives, shows how they differ, and provides a context in which we can receive both, even with their contradictions.

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Episode 39 - Carpe Diem

We look at Detroit's old Hudson’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the hazard of marching behind horses; the World Chess Championship between Ding Liren and Gukesh Dummaraju; and the passing of Tony Campolo.

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Episode 38 - Honor Flight

Official transcript: https://www.cheynemusic.com/transcripts

Continuing from Episode 37 - And They Were Heroes, we meet again Master Sergeant O’Neil Ducharme (Marines), veteran of WWII and the Battle of Okinawa, and Mark S. Welsh of the West Central Florida hub (chapter) of Honor Flight, an organization dedicated to providing veterans the experience of visiting Washington, D.C.

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In commemoration of Veteran's Day, we visit with 2 veterans of World War II. One is Frank Robb (Uncle Frank to Jan & me), who fought in the European theater in the Army. Frank is no longer with us, but Jan and Rob conducted an interview with him in 2010, portions of which we share here. The other is O'Neil Ducharme, U.S. Marine (retired), who fought the Battle of Okinawa. Neil is joined by Mark Welsh. Together, they work with Honor Flight, which provides flights to Washington, D.C., for veterans so they can visit the various monuments and memorials honoring their service.

In this Part I, Frank speaks of coming ashore at Omaha Beach on D Day plus four. Neil talks about his experiences on Okinawa's Sugar Loaf Hill as a stretcher bearer, and of his role in the post war occupation of Japan.

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Episode 36 - "...a republic, if you can keep it." (part 2)

With the election in a couple of days, we look back to a memorable campaign ad from 1964, and discuss where each of us fits on a the political spectrum, with an emphasis on progress by working from the center (à la Kennedy & Hatch). We fact-check a Facebook post, look at the Electoral College over the past 35 year, and yet explore reasons for feeling positive.

A poem from W.H. Auden concludes the episode.

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