How does rationality/ea and faith intersect? Austin Chen joins me to explore the overlaps between Catholic upbringing and EA principles. We discuss his car wash story, tithing/earning to give, the concept of utilons and fuzzies, creating secular liturgies like Taco Tuesday, the tension between being agentic and the savior complex, on rest and waiting, and seeing the uniqueness of each person amidst the systems we create. (Recorded May 2024) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/charity

• (00:00) - Jewish Culture and Rationalism
• (00:57) - Growing up Tithing
• (02:16) - Car washing for missions to earn to give
• (03:49) - Ebbs and Flows
• (05:32) - How far does a dolllar go
• (08:49) - Separate your utilons and fuzzies
• (09:55) - Assumptions in value
• (11:24) - EA as at it's best a meta-framework?
• (13:18) - Friends vs Movements
• (15:42) - Continual commitment
• (18:56) - Babel and Pentecost
• (20:16) - The Mystical Body and Taco Tuesdays
• (24:23) - Agentic or Salvific
• (26:08) - Humility of Sabbath
• (28:22) - Efficiency and Waiting
• (29:49) - Hope is trusting in people
• (32:06) - Knowledge Progression, Loose Structure

How does faith call us to both right action and right emotion? Sonya Mann joins me again to discuss the layered meanings of biblical parables. Some themes I liked: the paradoxical nature of faith, the generousity of God, the interplay bt obligation and grace, freedom within constraint, the parable of workers in the vineyard and talents, lay utilitarianism, the nature of praise, phenomenology in faith, the metaphor of weddings, viserality and the flesh, specificity, sacred modes, acceptable woo, cheap grace. (Recorded October 2020) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/feeling

• (00:00) - Right Feeling (Sonya Mann)
• (02:30) - Come to the table: God's generosity
• (05:21) - Orthopathos: a change of heart
• (08:53) - Freedom and Responsibility within the Body
• (12:42) - On obligation: asking something of you
• (15:41) - The freedom of the woodcarver
• (18:36) - formative moments of intimacy
• (22:37) - integrating with tradition, Christian art, Kanye
• (25:37) - Archaic on the outside, Alive inside
• (27:34) - Fruits: the form of faith
• (30:18) - Auras: acceptable woo and phenomelogy
• (33:25) - Sacredness as a mode of being
• (37:26) - Communities of praise
• (40:05) - One can't help but laugh
• (41:34) - cheap grace, coming prepared for the wedding
• (44:09) - A vibration throughout the whole stack

Why does everyone care about New York? Drew Austin explores the interplay bt digital/physical env and how tech values shape our lives. We discuss some of his past essays: fashion as public good, airport lounge-ification highlighting, and how digital paradigms reshape our physical spaces. Topics include: fake serendipity, lofi, gm, resilient systems, the commons as customs, postmodernist software, leaving a trace, Twitter as a waiting room. (Recorded October 2021) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/artificial

• (00:00) - Artificial Physicality (Drew Austin)
• (00:08) - So what's the weather in New York?
• (01:58) - Even a pandemic becomes about NYC
• (03:18) - We behave the same, online or in a city
• (04:39) - Technology, Memory, and Depersonalization
• (06:46) - Lofi, CDs, and Artifical Physicality
• (13:19) - From Sharing Silence to gm
• (15:58) - Worn Out: Fashion and Public Space
• (21:39) - Modernist architecture and postmodernist software
• (27:41) - Code isn't just code
• (29:25) - Infrastructure requires resilience
• (31:28) - The commons as customs
• (33:43) - Airport Lounge-ification of Cities
• (37:03) - McDonalds as the only third place
• (39:51) - Reverse engineering bodegas
• (41:31) - Fake serendipity vs the city
• (44:17) - Can digital environments enable serendipity?
• (47:12) - Leaving a trace, a legacy, provenance
• (48:17) - Twitter as a waiting room