The Phoenix Rises, But First The Phoenix Dissolves In Ash: Notre Dame, Opioids, and the Power of Narrative

Today’s show: the phoenix rises from her own ashes, after being consumed in fire. Using the phoenix as paradigmatic, we talk about Notre Dame, the opioid disaster, and the coming of spring to the Northern Hemisphere.

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Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:

01:22    “If all that changes slowly may be explained by life, all that changes quickly is explained by fire.” Is fire just life, speeded up?

02:47    Shayna explains how receiving the news of Notre Dame on fire felt like a punch in the gut. When life goes up in flames, what do we have?

04:04    Is anything permanent? What is the wisdom of embracing impermanence?

05:10    We pivot from the Notre Dame fire to consider the opioid disaster. Chris shares some startling statistics, and the conversation turns to trauma. With the rapid rate of change, are we a society that is in trauma? What can an individual’s recovery from trauma teach us about what will help our society regain health and vitality?

08:45    What In God’s Name is having a funding campaign: support the core values of curiosity, depth, and shining light into the public conversation by going to our website www.whatingods.com, and making a donation through Patreon, or through Filmmakers Collaborative.

11:42    What kind of moment is it, when the ways that we make sense of the world get blown apart? What does that feel like?

14:30    What is the role of having shared stories in a culture?

16:07    “You have to hit the breakdown sometimes, before you get the breakthrough.”

16:22    A consideration of some of the false gods of our current culture, a few of which have to do with hyper-individualism. A problem with an over-emphasis on the individual is an atomized culture of loneliness.

17:44    Chris and Shayna close with good words about new life.