Brad tells a story of an encounter with a French philosopher and . . . marshmallows. Then Dan and Brad discuss the DOJ decision to drop the case against Michael Flynn (4:00), William Barr's dominionist win-at-all-costs politics (12:40), the "Call me a grandma killer" tweet and what is says about the "culture of life" movement (20:00), Trump's unwillingness to wear a mask, and more.
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My name is Brad Onishi, Associate Professor, Religious Studies, Skidmore College, and I am here with my co-host today.
I'm Dan Miller, Associate Professor of Religion and Social Thought at Landmark College.
Good to see you, Dan.
We are living in two worlds.
I'm in California, where it is projected to be 92 degrees today, and you are in the Northeast, and the polar vortex is making its way through.
What's the temperature where you are this afternoon?
It's not that bad for us.
For us, it's like, it's supposed to be in mid-50s today, but mid-40s tomorrow.
Like, we're missing, but we may get some snow and rain tomorrow.
Like, further north, I get up into, like, Vermont, you're supposed to get, like, Actual snow or back where I did my grad work in Syracuse, New York.
I think they're looking at like multiple inches Yeah, but they'll shrug that off because it's Syracuse and like basically snows all year round That's that's a little bit of an exaggeration.
It doesn't snow in August but Yeah, so uh different different worlds in a lot of a lot of ways so I Well, I wanted to start with a story today, as has become our custom, so you'll appreciate this, Dan.
Folks, you probably don't realize this, but Dan and I really kind of came up in grad school as people doing what is called vaguely philosophy of religion, and both of us actually spent a lot of time in our lives, maybe, I'm not sure if Dan would agree with this, but too much time reading French and German philosophy and digging through very dense texts and in many ways like looking up to a generation of American scholars who had done a lot of work with French scholars.
Dan's PhD supervisor is very famous for this and so anyway I was in Santa Barbara Dan and there was a big conference where my supervisor had organized for Two or three of the most prominent French philosophers of religion to come over and give lectures and to talk and it was a big event.
And Dan, as you know, when you're a grad student, you're kind of in this in-between space.
You're You're old enough, you're probably in your late 20s, so you're old enough to kind of be in a place where you're an adult and you're kind of competent to be a professional, but no one treats you that way.
Everyone treats you like a kid.
And so me and other grad students had been recruited to like help prepare for this and it was a big honor because we were going to get to be in all these meetings and then all these dinners and stuff.
So you do all this grunt work, you set up the chairs, you make sure the food is right, you make sure everybody has water, you're essentially a kind of gopher.
But then the prize is you really get access to these famous scholars.
And so the last night there was this dinner and it was actually at someone's house and somebody, Santa Barbara Wine Country, somebody had obtained like a couple of bottles of really nice wine.
So I'm a grad student at this point, Dan, my bottles of wine Cost two dollars at Trader Joe's and if I'm splurging maybe six dollars So we're having this like wine tasting essentially and the one of the French philosophers is a wine expert and he's telling everybody how to taste The Merlot on their tongue and where to taste it and it's one of these moments.
I'm looking around like wow, you know my Family wouldn't have never expected that.
This would be my life someday sitting here with these French fancy folks and tasting wine that cost $200 a bottle or whatever Well, as these things go, Dan, you know, everyone eats dinner, and then there's more bottles, and all of a sudden everyone's tipsy, and sort of like, you know, it's one of these moments as a grad student where you don't expect to be, where you're with these people that you, like, idolize, and some of them have had way too much to drink, but most everybody's just in a kind of happy, tipsy mood.
Well, as the night wears on, I remember at one point wanting to go to the kitchen at this house to, like, see if there's any food left, because I was getting hungry.
And as I turn the corner into the kitchen I look up and one of the most famous philosophers in the world is standing there and alone in the kitchen and it's just just he and I and we make eye contact instantly where you know instantly like there's no getting out of this or walking away and he is holding a bag of mini marshmallows and just eating them right out of the bag, like hand over fist, okay?
And he knows he's been caught and that I've seen him and that he has to explain himself somehow.
And this is the person who was leading the wine tasting.
This is a very cultured sort of, you know, a high class individual.
And he just looks at me and says, in English with a French accent, he says, looking, you know, very sheepish, this is disgusting, right?
Looking at him eating the marshmallows hand over fist from the bag.
And I'm kind of like transfixed.
So he says, this is disgusting.
And then he says, but I love it.
And then just goes unapologetically on to continue eating as many marshmallows as he could.
I think there was even photos of him eating the marshmallows later, like everyone was making a big deal out of it.
But it's just one of those moments when you realize your idols are human.
Marshmallows on a Friday night are not a bad way to fill your stomach.
So there you go, Dan.
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