Stories Are Soul Food

Brian asks if it's important to read scary stories to your kids. Nate says yes, because being scared is unavoidable -- the only question is, are your kids going to be afraid of the truly terrifying things God commands them to be afraid of (Himself, Hell)? Or are they going to be scared of silly things (anxiety, death)? The way you do this is by reading them scary stories -- the kind that God tells throughout the Bible. Brian finds an Atlantic review of the Ashtown Burial series that compares Nate's work to R.L. Stein's Goosebumps series -- possessed garbage disposals mangling a kid's fingers, a needle in a tube of lipstick. Nate explains why our culture is titillated by horror in the wrong way -- but desperately needs to be afraid. That's why The Dragon's Tooth, The Drowned Vault, Empire of Bones, and The Silent Bells really are required reading. Make sure your kids see some blood on the pages so they know how face their own challenges. IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.

In this episode of Stories Are Soul Food, Nate and Brian talk about 3 hot topics in the culture of story today. First, amongst firings and massive unrest at Netflix, Greta Gerwig's Narnia trailer drops. The guys discuss whether this will be a success, a failure, or somewhere in between. Second, Brian's favorite animated director, Brad Bird, just released a trailer for "Ray Gunn" - a futuristic, detective noir murder mystery featuring aliens. Nate and Brian debate the relative merits of The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and The Iron Giant. Finally, Brian shows Nate an insane series doing Harry Potter numbers: Dungeon Crawler Carl. DCC is proof that men will, in fact, read books... if they're full of aliens, men in boxers, scandal, and death. Is the video game-ization of writing the new way to succeed, or is this a one-off win that is only partially good for getting guys to read? Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qMbE6x1dUM IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.

How much sorority-girl rock-opera glitter can one children's classic withstand? We're about to find out as we watch Greta Gerwig spend $230 million desecrating The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis. Brian goes through the five stages of grief for Narnia; Nate talks about how Greta is going to try and give us exactly what SHE likes. Brian says Meryl Streep's Translan has to fail. Nate says it's too big to bomb... but that Whoopie Goldberg would have been a MUCH more inclusive choice. Are conservatives overreacting? The guys give their thoughts on the production stills including chubby Eustace, black-washed Frank the Cabbie, mini-dress Jadis, fruity Uncle Andrew, and what to expect from Netflix's next big cash cow. This episode even takes a dark turn into the self-castrating feminist cults of the ancient world, and the counterbalance that conservative media has failed to offer to the mainstream.  Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYMq975HaTc IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.

On this episode of Stories Are Soul Food, Nate Wilson and Brian Kohl discuss how to write the darkest night of the soul. The moment when all hope seems to be lost, when there is no way out. How do characters like Samson and David to Faramir, Eustace, Elf, and Toby Maguire’s Spider-Man deal with this? What makes ordinary suffering and bad days different from the Darkest Night? What kind of redemption must come after? And how are we as Christians supposed to approach these moments in stories or our own lives in light of the resurrection of Christ? Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N8rjON4Ucw IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.

Do American Christians live in the Shire? The answer is a stout "no" according to Miles Smith IV, professor of history at Hillsdale. To think otherwise is to give in to the Shire-ization of conservatism. Nate agrees that Christian families need to stop thinking like hobbit gardeners. Kids are not tomato plants, they're arrows. Should we be seeking to wait out our continent's troubles in our cozy, Wendell-Berry-esque corner of the world? Or do we have some deeper connection to the powerful, technological, urban centers of our nation? Nate and Miles talk about the impetus that Christians have to over-apply hobbit ideology to our world, and how they should be learning from Aragorn, Gondor, and Numenor. Brian pushes back a little -- wasn't Numenor the place with human sacrifice and heaven-hatred? Nate and Miles roll on, undeterred. The episode concludes with a few book recommends for those who want to enjoy something alongside Tolkien. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23vPEc8bQmY IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.

Lunches are packed, pencils are sharpened, your kids have unearthed their pants after a summer of shorts. How do you make sure your kids are set up to succeed at school? As always, apply the Stories Are Soul Food character rules: What would a good character do in grade school? How about high school? What kind of friend are you being? In this episode you'll find rules for tattling, rules for competing, and rules for what to do when you find out your Christian classmate is dating a Mormon girl. Also, you'll find out why "Be a Leader" is bad advice for your kid, and why you should try to get a group of annoying 5th graders to compete more, not less. This episode's Make Me Famous segment consists of the first well-constructed pitch in a while, followed by a pitch Nate won't even finish. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhd53MI7CEs IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.

On this episode of Stories Are Soul Food, join ND Wilson and Brian Kohl as they discuss the life of Jacob. Nate's done plenty of writing for Old Testament heroes such as King David, Samson, Moses, Abraham, and Noah. But one character he hasn't touched (yet?) is the patriarch Jacob. This episode investigates why evangelicals don't like the patriarch Jacob, and it isn't because he's a liar -- at least, the only time he ever deceives, he was 100% justified. But he was a terrible husband and father, and a bit of a shady negotiator. The point of Jacob's life, though, and the reason he is a saint, is that his life -- from his struggles in the womb with Esau to his death as a slave in Egypt -- points to the Messiah to come. Finally, Nate rates two more pitches on another edition of Make Me Famous. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF4l7FR4BRY IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.

After Nate makes Nolan fanboys mad, the guys discuss all things Camelot, including key questions such as:why Camelot is basically the story of King David again,how cool Merlin is (whether baptized demon-spawn or not),how the French eventually ruined King Arthur,whether Galahad is the gayest of the Knights of the Round Table,why the courtly love ideal is Victorianized and effeminate,whether Malcolm Guite's new Arthurian Galahad epic is like eating 10 pounds of dark chocolate in one sitting,compare all of the above to Monty Python's Holy Grail and Disney's Sword in the Stone,why Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene is better than Malory's Morte d'Arthur, and more.Plus, SASF's "Make me famous" segment returns with three pitches Nate does not like. IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.

Join ND Wilson and Brian Kohl as they discuss Sam Neill’s work in Jurassic Park. How did a simple movie about dinosaurs become a multi-billion-dollar franchise? What does this movie say about man’s capabilities and limits? What is the difference between imitating and copying your inspirations? Tune in to find out. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=852hjeNxK3U IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.

On this episode of SASF, Forrest Dickison joins Brian and Nate to discuss his upcoming illustrated rendition of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. What makes this classic story so unique, and how did Forrest bring it to life through his illustrations?  Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE3IJ4tMzdA IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.