Season Five finally draws to a close! The co-hosts gather to offer some reflections on this past season, to read some messages, and to talk about their plans for Season Six!
S5E70: “Season Finale and Five-Year Anniversary!” (Download)
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For information about our schedule for Season 5, please see the our season roadmap, containing a list of all the episodes we plan to record together, as well as “After Hours” interviews with special guests.
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Show Notes
Introduction
Quote-of-the-week
“…for many of us, all experience merely defines, so to speak, the shape of that gap where our love of God ought to be. It is not enough. It is something. If we cannot “practise the presence of God,” it is something to practise the absence of God”
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
Chit-Chat
- On September 24th, 2017, Matt and I published the first episode of this podcast, back when we were calling it “The Eagle and Child”. That means that when this episode is published we will have officially been in existence for five years! How crazy is that?
Beverage and Toasts (Plural)
- David was drinking Lagavulin. Shout-out to Todd Frazier’s wife who recently bought him a Pints With Jack glass!
- Matt was drinking Macallan 18.
- Andrew was drinking Jura whisky.
- Each co-host offered a toast.
Discussion
1. “Season 6 start”
We will be beginning Season 6 at the start of Advent, December 1st.
2. “Episode density”
This next season will have fewer episodes. Back when COVID started, we increased our episode production, but I surveyed our Slack users and everyone said that it wasn’t a big deal to cut back a bit. So, Season 5 had seventy episodes, but Season 6 will have less than fifty. We’ll still have an episode every Tuesday, but fewer episodes on Thursdays…
3. “Out of the Silent Planet”
We’ll be discussing is Out of the Silent Planet.
While it is tempting to continue with the trilogy, we’re probably not going to read Perelandra and That Hideous Strength in subsequent seasons. Not only do we like to vary the literary genre from season to season, we have another reason for doing a different book in Season 7 – there’s an annotated version of Lewis’ spiritual autobiography, Surprised By Joy, coming out around the Season 7 will begin, so the current plan is to do that book.
4. “Themed Episodes”
As in previous seasons, after we finish our primary book for the season, we’ll have a number of themed episodes…
Naturally, we’ll have our usual Narnia Month. This time we’ll read The Magician’s Nephew, so expect plenty of rants about reading Narnia in Publication order!
This past season I interviewed Dr. Kristen Jeffey-Johnson about the man whom Lewis referred to as his “master”, George MacDonald. From the feedback after that episode, we therefore decided that in Season 6 we’ll have an entire month devoted to MacDonald, discussing his theology, imagination, and children’s literature.
Lastly, we’re going to have a series which I anticipate will recur every season going forward, “Jack’s Bookshelf”. The books which Lewis read were crucial to his formation so from now on, we’ll be spending a month each season looking at some of those authors, such as Shakespeare, Dante, Milton, and Jane Austen.
5. “After Hours”
We will, of course, also feature some great one-off guest episodes next season. Some great new books will be coming out, so expect to see appearances from folks like Dr. Harry Lee Poe.
Also, you might recall that during Poetry Month we spoke about Perelandra: The Opera. Well, I’ve tracked down a recording and will be chatting about it with John Marr, Patreon supporter and music professor!
6. “YouTube”
Something else which is going to be tweaked in Season 6 is our YouTube channel. We’ve just passed 2,000 subscribers, so thanks to all of you who have been subscribing!
This season I’ve been uploading our videos on to Rumble but it hasn’t got much traction and I don’t really like the platform, so I’ll probably stop doing that.
This season I’ve recorded more video interviews. These will continue, but I’m retiring the name “The Skype Sessions”. Guests would often get confused, thinking that they needed to have a Skype account. So, given that these interviews are typically under half an hour, they’ll now be called “Half pints”!
7. “Top Secret!”
One final little teaser… we’ve got some exciting announcements about a couple of top secret projects we’ve been working on… but you’ll have to come back in Season 6 to find out what they are!
8. “Reviews”
We read reviews from iTunes and other podcast providers.
9. “The Four Loves remembered…”
Final thoughts on The Four Loves.
The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts
C.S. Lewis, Abolition of Man
10. “Season 5 highlights”
Discussed highlights from the past season.
11. “Mailbag”
Read messages from users.
12. “Interim”
What will we be doing until Season Six?
13. “Final Thoughts”
Listening suggestions during the break:
- The Lamp Post Listener podcast
- Talking Beasts
- Lesser Known Lewis podcast which discusses Lewis’ essays. I’m sure we’ll have a crossover episode or “Half Pint” session soon…
So very excited for the next year! You are covering some of my favorite books! Looking forward!