Hi folks! I found myself caught up in the 1,000th Post Party last week and haven’t been able to get back to the desk to give a post for this week. I didn’t even have time to do a Throwback Thursday post (though I have a great one coming)! I also have a couple of great posts coming in my Till We Have Faces series, as I continue to struggle with the material.

Instead, and connected with the series on Till We Have Faces and my preparations to teach The Great Divorce at the end of the month, I wanted to give just a quick shout out to the Pints with Jack podcast. Hosted by David Bates and Matt Bush, these guys are well into their third season, with another 8 or 9 seasons planned out. This podcast is pretty well done, with well-written summaries, well-prepared discussions, and a great combination of humour and critical thinking in the dialogue.

Most of all, the podcasts I have listened to are great examples of good close reading. In particular, in season two David and Matt spend a great deal of time with The Great Divorce–a book I’m trying to bring to the front of people’s minds. And this third season has largely been taken up by a careful chapter-by-chapter approach to Till We Have Faces. They note a blog post that I wrote about Queen Orual and her relationship to her father, but they are able to go much deeper in a careful, engaging conversation. It is well worth a listen and easy to follow on a half-dozen podcast hosts and youtube.