Faith in Focus

Our Annual Academy Awards Episode (2024)

Tracy and Jason sit down to discuss this year's Oscars, and preview our upcoming (13th!) season. You don't want to miss it.

Listener's Choice // Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (via Tricia Radosevic)

Our twelfth season is all y'all! We're taking your suggestions for what we should watch and discuss.  Our final episode this season is brought to us by Tracy's sister-in-law Tricia Radosevic, who suggested Steven Spielberg's iconic Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). It's a great one to end our season on! Thank you to all who contributed this season.

Listener's Choice // Sorry to Bother You (feat. Tuhina Rasche)

Our twelfth season is all y'all! We're taking your choices for what we should watch and discuss. You bring your own beverage, we cook the meal. This time, we welcome writer, pastor, and all-around fantastic human Tuhina Verma Rasche and her brilliant pick, 2018's Sorry to Bother You. This film requires multiple viewings! 

Listener's Choice // Flamin' Hot (via David Lascu)

Our twelfth season is all y'all! We're taking your suggestions for what we should watch and discuss. You bring the portobello mushrooms, we throw them on the grill.  This episode is brought to us by the Slate Project's own David Lascu, who suggested Flamin' Hot (2023), Eva Longoria's directorial debut. 

Listener's Choice // True Lies, Pulp Fiction (via Bryan Rust)

Our twelfth season is all y'all! We're taking your choices for what we should watch and discuss. It's been fun.  This episode is brought to us by the talented and tender Bryan Rust, who recommended two blockbusters from the year 1994: True Lies and Pulp Fiction. 

Listener's Choice // Fallen (via Matt Gorkos)

Our twelfth season is all y'all! We're taking your choices for what we should watch and discuss. You bring the meats, we grill them up.  This episode is brought to us by Pastor Matt Gorkos, who offered up a gem of a movie: Fallen (1998), starring the legend himself, Denzel Washington. 

Listener's Choice // Imitation of Life (feat. Rozella Haydée White)

Our twelfth season is all y'all! We're taking your choices for what we should watch and discuss. You bring your own beverage, we cook the meal. This time, author, entrepreneur, and the Love Big coach Rozella Haydée White joins us to talk about her pick: the fascinating, of-its-time, yet in other ways ahead of its time, 1959 remake: Imitation of Life. 

Listener's Choice // The Goonies; Short Circuit (via Jenn DiFrancesco)

Our twelfth season is all y'all! We're taking your choices for what we should watch and discuss. You bring the food, we cook the meal. You lease the space, we put on a spectacle. This time we're going all the way back to the 1980s with suggestions from the incomparable Rev. Jenn DiFrancesco: The Goonies (1985) and Short Circuit (1986). Also it's not too late to give us a suggestion! This is a rolling admissions sort of thing!

Listener's Choice // The Goonies, Short Circuit (via Jenn DiFrancesco)

Our twelfth season is all y'all! We're taking your choices for what we should watch and discuss. You bring the food, we cook the meal. You lease the space, we put on a spectacle. This time we're going all the way back to the 1980s with suggestions from the incomparable Rev. Jenn DiFrancesco: The Goonies (1985) and Short Circuit (1986). Also it's not too late to give us a suggestion! This is a rolling admissions sort of thing!

Listener's Choice // Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul (feat. Derrick Weston)

Our twelfth season is all y'all! We're taking your choices for what we should watch and discuss. You bring your own beverage, we cook the entree. You set the course, we pilot the (safety-tested) submersible. This time, author, podcaster, and fellow cinephile Derrick Weston joins us to talk about his choice: Adamma Ebo's withering Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul (2022). There's food for thought, but, really, it's a full-on banquet. Also it's not too late to give us a suggestion! This is a r...

Listener's Choice // Hogfather (via Maria Hearing)

Our twelfth season is all y'all! We're taking your choices for what we should watch and discuss. You provide the ingredients, we cook the meal. You set the course, we steer the underwater canoe. This time we follow the lead of scholar and fellow movie-lover Maria Hearing, and thus enter into the mind of the brilliant, late Terry Pratchett, with the mini-series Hogfather (2006).  Also it's not too late to give us a suggestion! This is a rolling admissions sort of thing!

Listener's Choice // Bad Lieutenant, Smoke (via Eric Radosevic)

Our twelfth season is all y'all! We're taking your choices for what we should watch and talk about. You provide the ingredients, we cook the meal. You set the course, we pilot the jet ski.  This time, Tracy's own brother, Eric Radosevic, is our guide! And so, then, is Harvey Keitel, in two starkly different roles, snapshots of time from the late twentieth century: Bad Lieutenant (1992) and Smoke (1995).  Also it's not too late to give us a suggestion! This is a rolling admissions sort of t...

Listener's Choice // The Menu (feat. Danette Rosenberg)

Our twelfth season is all y'all! We're taking your choices for what Tracy and Jason should watch and talk about. First up, we're inviting one of our most devoted listeners back to the pod! We talk to Danette Rosenberg about the Oscars, Elvis, and, of course, the rollercoaster ride that is The Menu (2022). Also it's not too late to give us a suggestion! 

History Rhymes / Spain, 1930s-1970s

Our last exploration in our History Rhymes series, The Silence of Others looks to 20th-century Spain, whose anti-democracy echoes reverberate loudly in our world today. Also, this is it! Next season, our twelfth, will start next month with a special guest, and this year, we're at your whim, you dedicated few. Give us a movie recommendation!

History Rhymes / the Middle East, 2010s

In the footsteps of Mark Twain, we're on the lookout for historical rhymes in today's world. Gianfranco Rossi's "Notturno" - a documentary like you've never seen - is next up on our disquieting journey. Also, our twelfth season is coming up, and we want YOUR input!  

History Rhymes // the Middle East, 2010s

In the footsteps of Mark Twain, we're on the lookout for historical rhymes in today's world. Gianfranco Rossi's "Notturno" - a documentary like you've never seen - is next up on our disquieting journey. Also, our twelfth season is coming up, and we want YOUR input!  

History Rhymes / Germany, 1930s

In the footsteps of Mark Twain, we're on the lookout for historical rhymes in today's world. We go to what might be the nearest narrative to our own - Germany in the 1930s - with 2021's "Munich: Edge of War." Our twelfth season is just around the corner, and we want your input!  

History Rhymes / Congo, 1860s-1990s

In the footsteps of Mark Twain, we're on the lookout for historical rhymes in today's precarious world. This episode, we discuss 2006's "King Leopold's Ghost." Watch the documentary (with breaks!) here.

History Rhymes / Hong Kong, 2010s

We're on the lookout for historical rhymes, echoes to what is currently going on in these unprecedented times. This episode, we're headed to Hong Kong with 2017's "Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower." 

History Rhymes / U.S., present-day

We're on the lookout for historical rhymes, echoes for our present-day. Episode four looks at what's happening right here, right now, in these so-called "United States," through the lens of 1984's, appropriately, Nineteen Eighty-Four. 

History Rhymes / Guatemala, 1990s

History doesn't repeat. It rhymes. We're hearing a lot of rhyming as fascism spreads across the world (both now and its lessons from the past), and we'll look at it the way we always do: through the lens of faith and film. Episode three shifts focus south of our border in 2020's  "The Art of Political Murder." 

History Rhymes / Ukraine, present-day

Faith in Focus is in its eleventh season, and Tracy & Jason wanted to consider the precarious times we're in. We're hearing a lot of rhyming as fascism spreads across the world (both now and its lessons from the past), and we'll look at it the way we always do: through the lens of faith and film. Episode two looks to Ukraine in 2015's  "Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom."

History Rhymes (Season Eleven Pilot)

Faith in Focus is beginning its 11th season, and we wanted to recognize the precarious times we're in. Mark Twain is said to have remarked, "History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes." We're hearing a lot of rhyming as fascism spreads across the world, and we'll look at it the way we always do: through the lens of faith and film. Our pilot episode this season is in the capable yet unsettling hands of "The Meaning of Hitler" (2020). 

A Decade of Podcasts, A Century of Movies • 2010s

We've made it to the 2010s, and with that, to the end of our Decade season! (We're already jazzed for season eleven, so get ready for some teasers.) Our season finale looks to the heavens with two films centered on space travel.  Interstellar (2014) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

A Decade of Podcasts, A Century of Movies • 2000s

Tracy and Jason are now in the 2000s with their penultimate episode of this season: focused on immigration. In America (2002) La jaula de oro [The Golden Dream] (2013)

A Decade of Podcasts, A Century of Movies • 1990s

The twentieth century comes to a close as a familiar guest, friend of the pod, and all-around lovely human being Derrick Weston joins us. The theme: Things Aren't Always As They Seem. Taking as inspiration the powerful work of August Wilson (rest in peace), co-hosts Tracy and Jason will be talking two movies each month that look at an entire decade – one made in the decade, and one made later on that looks back on it.  Fight Club (1999) LA92 (2017)

A Decade of Podcasts, A Century of Movies • 1980s

Taking as inspiration the powerful work of August Wilson (rest in peace), co-hosts Tracy and Jason will be talking two movies each month that look at an entire decade – one made in the decade, and one made later on that looks back on it.  We're now in the 1980s, and we're going from political corruption to corporate. Buckle up! Silkwood (1983) In Debt We Trust (2006)

A Decade of Podcasts, A Century of Movies • 1970s

Taking as inspiration the powerful work of August Wilson (rest in peace, sir), co-hosts Tracy and Jason will be talking two movies each month that look at an entire decade – one made in the decade, and one made later on that looks back on it.  We're now in the 1970s, looking at political corruption. All the President's Men (1976) Munich (2005)

A Decade of Podcasts, A Century of Movies • 1960s

Tracy and Jason welcome a guest who has on-the-ground experience of being a social worker in NYC in the 1960s: Danette Rosenberg. Lovely to have this wonderful friend of the pod back in the (digital) studio.  Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967) Malcolm X (1992)

A Century of Movies • 1950s

Taking as inspiration the powerful work of August Wilson (rest in peace, sir), co-hosts Tracy and Jason will be talking two movies each month that look at an entire decade – one made in the decade, one made after. We've made it to the halfway mark of the twentieth century, where we look at films in the backdrop of the newly forming Cold War. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Good Night and Good Luck (2005)

A Decade of Podcasts, A Century of Movies • 1950s

Taking as inspiration the powerful work of August Wilson (rest in peace, sir), co-hosts Tracy and Jason will be talking two movies each month that look at an entire decade – one made in the decade, one made after. We've made it to the halfway mark of the twentieth century, where we look at films in the backdrop of the newly forming Cold War. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Good Night and Good Luck (2005)

A Century of Movies • 1940s

Taking as inspiration the powerful work of August Wilson (rest in peace, sir), co-hosts Tracy and Jason will be talking two movies each month that look at an entire decade – one made in the decade, one made after. We continue into the 1940s, with our focus on the Second World War and its aftermath. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Mudbound (2017)

A Decade of Podcasts, A Century of Movies • 1940s

Taking as inspiration the powerful work of August Wilson (rest in peace, sir), co-hosts Tracy and Jason will be talking two movies each month that look at an entire decade – one made in the decade, one made after. We continue into the 1940s, with our focus on the Second World War and its aftermath. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Mudbound (2017)

A Century of Movies • 1930s

The 1930s bring with it a decade of depression, and our month's movies do not disappoint (lolsob). The Grapes of Wrath (1940)* They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) *TGOW was shot in the 1930s and was released just a few months after the decade "ended."

A Decade of Podcasts, A Century of Movies • 1930s

The 1930s bring with it a decade of depression, and our month's movies do not disappoint (lolsob). The Grapes of Wrath (1940)* They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) *TGOW was shot in the 1930s and was released just a few months after the decade "ended."

A Century of Movies • 1920s

It's a new season! A tenth season! Taking as inspiration the powerful work of August Wilson (rest in peace, sir), co-hosts Tracy and Jason will be talking two movies each month that look at an entire decade – one made in the decade, one made after. We start at the very beginning of what we now know as motion pictures: the 1920s. Miss Lulu Bett (1921) Chicago (2002)

A Decade of Podcasts, A Century of Movies • 1920s

It's a new season! A tenth season! Taking as inspiration the powerful work of August Wilson (rest in peace, sir), co-hosts Tracy and Jason will be talking two movies each month that look at an entire decade – one made in the decade, one made after. We start at the very beginning of what we now know as motion pictures: the 1920s. Miss Lulu Bett (1921) Chicago (2002)

Remakes and Reboots // The Shop Around the Corner (1940) / You've Got Mail (1998)

From the vaults (it's only been sitting for a few months), Tracy and Jason discuss 1940's "The Shop Around the Corner" and its late-century techno remake, "You've Got Mail" (1998).  We're also saying goodbye to a loooooong ninth season, and will be back after 2021's postponed Academy Awards to start Season number Ten. 👀

Remakes and Reboots // Groundhog Day (1993) / Palm Springs (2020)

Tracy and Jason look at an oldie but a goodie – Groundhog Day - and then its innovative and clever remake, Palm Springs.

Remakes and Reboots // Seven Samurai (1954) / The Magnificent Seven (1960, 2016)

Who takes on a remake of a remake? Tracy and Jason do, duh.

Remakes and Reboots // The Count of Monte Cristo (1844 / 1975 / 2002)

Tracy and Jason close out 2020 with a nineteenth-century tale. 

Remakes and Reboots // What Women Want (2000) / What Men Want (2019)

Tracy and Jason decide that if Christians remade the original Mel Gibson flick, we'd begin with a simple "what people want" premise – and both films try their hand at conveying empathy. No small task. 

#UnmuteYourself ∞ Day 16

This Advent, we're joining the #UnmuteYourself digital devotional – including hosting the Rev. Katy Stenta and her wonderful riff on our updated verse from I Kings 18:17: "When [Ahab] saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you doomscroller of Israel?”

Remakes and Reboots // Robin Hood (1938 / 1973 / 1991 / 2010)

Jason and Tracy are back to talk about a 700-year-old story – and how it still connects to our world today.

Remakes and Reboots // Romeo & Juliet (1968 / 1996) / West Side Story (1961)

Jason and Tracy are back to talk about a 16th-century story remade in several ways and in several names. 

Remakes and Reboots // Mad Max (1979) / Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Tracy and Jason disagree on the overall 'madness' of Max. Check it. 

Remakes and Reboots // The Wizard of Oz (1939) / The Wiz (1978)

Remakes and Reboots // Planet of the Apes (1968 / 2001 / 2011)

Dystopian films about the fall of humanity seem apropos in 2020. Jason & Tracy are back to talk about a cult classic, its crappy remake, and its brilliant re-remake. :)

Remakes and Reboots // A Star Is Born (1937 / 1954 / 1976 / 2018)

Four remakes this time??!!? Tracy and Jason watched them all, so you don't have to (although, check out the 2018 version, obviously). 

Remakes and Reboots // True Grit (1969 / 2010)

Jason and Tracy are back, with two streamable films!  You're welcome.