the Wikkid podcast

Episode 49: Moonlight

December 21st, 2022  |  Season 4  |  1 hr 51 mins

bible, chastity, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, hookup culture, louise perry, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, purity culture, rapture, therapeutic

Warning: the following program contains frank discussion of people trying to find sexual gratification in both church and hookup culture, within, and outside, the bounds of wedlocks both holy and infernal. Viewers are advised to thank me later. Meghan talks about sexual chemistry, and whether hookup culture serves dudes better than dames. Evan gives an economist's perspective on investing in a future with a good woman vs. short overnight transactions/evening deposits. Anson talks with his son about the birds and bees. George beats the hell out of his drums for me, to great effect. Real men sing standing up. I re-envision a song I wrote in the 90s for a girl who didn't like me.

Episode 50: (What To Do) With An Angel

January 4th, 2023  |  Season 4  |  1 hr 38 mins

bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, neal brennan, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, susan isaacs, therapeutic

Kissing and telling. Michael Vedder and I discuss what it is to be a fundamentalist lad trying to navigate hookup culture without exactly hooking up. Wife application forms. Meghan tells us how things ended up with her Brethren paramour. Anson and I talk about being in the same room as people, but with your attention in cyberspace. Trucks get stuck in snowy laneways. It gets a little country in here.

Episode 51: Almost Never

January 18th, 2023  |  Season 4  |  1 hr 53 mins

bible, christianity, depression, domestic violence, fundamentalism, gilette, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, spousal abuse, susan isaacs, therapeutic

Santa brings Covid for Christmas. Drums recorded in absentia. Barns burn down. Friends in neglectful, controlling and abusive relationships. The possibility of helping these friends with being drawn in too much. Is partner abuse something only men do? Trying to play guitar like Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols.

Episode 52: Would That Make You Happy?

February 1st, 2023  |  Season 4  |  58 mins 58 secs

bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, neal brennan, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, susan isaacs, therapeutic

A short one. Silliness and sour grapes. "Treat 'em mean to keep 'em keen"? Clockwork lupines. Do people really want what they tell Cosmopolitan they want in a relationship? George adds a lot to this song. Basing expectations for men on 80s sit-com dads. Being good at stuff men around supposed to be good at. Do nice guys finish?

Episode 53: Sara Jay

February 15th, 2023  |  Season 4  |  1 hr 5 mins

bible, christianity, depression, dr. demento, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, louise perry, music, music production, neal brennan, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, susan isaacs, therapeutic

This Wikkid Wednesday, we take a serious look at humour. Teasing: key relationship tool or a terribly dangerous thing to play with? The therapeutic powers of The Doctor Demento Show. Humour as shot of whiskey. Food sensitivities and emotional sensitivities.

Episode 54: Everywhere I Go

March 1st, 2023  |  Season 4  |  1 hr 22 mins

bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, therapeutic

"I love you just the way you are. You're beautiful inside and out. Now... I was wondering if you'd mind changing a few things? I have a list." Dealbreakers vs. negotiables. More home drum recording. Church fashion doesn't fly in all venues. Looking for a fixer-upper?

Episode 55: What A Lovely Umbrella

March 15th, 2023  |  Season 4  |  52 mins 10 secs

bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, louise perry, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, susan isaacs, therapeutic

The Wikkid Podcast adds more cowbell and gets friendzoned this week. That is to say, it explores that experience of having grown very close with someone, a romantic relationship seeming to you to be starting out well, and suddenly being told you should be "just friends" instead. And then, instead of that meaning "sod off and leave me alone," it means you're around to provide the usual shoulder to cry on, the sounding board to sound on, and on and on. But you go along, right, because maybe she'll change her mind? Caryl says they never reverse this decision. Susan weighs in. Evan asks why, if men are famously bad at picking up on (female) hints, do women then communicate with men primarily in hints? Siri recommends against Emily blocking her ex who wants to be "just friends."

Episode 56: Had To Be This Way

March 29th, 2023  |  Season 4  |  1 hr 4 mins

angry conversations with god, bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, susan isaacs, therapeutic

Some stuff in your life really didn't work out. So you have to wonder: did it have to be this way? Did people and groups help make it that way? Why does God let crappy things happen to sad people? What does He have to say for Himself, if anything? Susan Isaacs tells her "Central Park" story from her book Angry Conversations With God. Michael talks about what happens when you try to date people the collective doesn't approve of.

Episode 57: Fine

April 12th, 2023  |  Season 4  |  1 hr 15 mins

angry conversations with god, bible, bruce lee, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, susan isaacs, therapeutic

Telling people at work you're fine when you're really not. Me and Bruce Lee. Cats might be love from God when your Kung Fu and your church upbringing aren't working out for you. How not to read the bible. A song with a whole bunch of eff words in the middle, but nary a corrupt communication in sight.

Episode 58: Irrelevant

April 26th, 2023  |  Season 4  |  48 mins 53 secs

angry conversations with god, bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, susan isaacs, therapeutic

Do our beliefs choose us, rather than the other way around? Doubt. People dumping you and getting right on with their lives like you never existed. Trying not to be superstitious as to one's belief in God. Car woes. From the darkness of future past: The return of Joel.

Episode 59: Three Chord Song

May 10th, 2023  |  Season 4  |  1 hr 10 mins

bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, susan isaacs, therapeutic

Mid-life crises. Car troubles. Painter's tape as a guitar-playing aid. I can't quit you: Relationships with people who aren't over their ex. Betweeness. What hath God promised? Gloomy, doomy piano chords.

Episode 60: Except When We Are

May 24th, 2023  |  Season 4  |  56 mins 2 secs

bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, therapeutic

In this penultimate episode of Season 4, we address the longing, but often the folly, of wanting to get back in touch with someone, a relationship with whom is demonstrably going nowhere fast. Going back for afters? Some folks are so determined to keep reaching back out, that restraining orders are required. Trying to leave a rough recording of an old song mostly the way it was to begin with, for once.

Episode 61: I Live Alone

June 7th, 2023  |  Season 4  |  1 hr 44 mins

bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, susan isaacs, therapeutic

In the last, partly ChatGPT-scripted episode of season 4 of The Wikkid Podcast, and perhaps the last episode of the pod: Can one be happy, even when living alone without a bunch of bratty kids asking for money? Hatewatching nerd properties. Cats and car woes. Doubt. Animals who may pee on your stuff. How weird can you get, living alone in the woods?

Thanks for listening!

Episode 62: Episode 0 : We're Back!

April 10th, 2024  |  Season 5  |  1 hr 5 mins

bible, christianity, depression, exclusive brethren, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, susan isaacs, therapeutic

The pre-episode for the upcoming Season 5, which will deal primarily with troubles connecting to church and worship services, and also with church splits/divisions. A bunch of backlogged thought and life updates.

Episode 63: Sunday's Coming

April 24th, 2024  |  Season 5  |  2 hrs 11 mins

bible, christianity, depression, exclusive brethren, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, susan isaacs, therapeutic

A song presenting the unpopular idea that perhaps, all too often, church attendance is more about making much of Christians rather than much of God. Working on mixing a drum kit without it blasting the whole mix full of low midrange mud. All the different musical approaches to a single religious song. Should the worship team try to outdo Lady Gaga? The vegan, bloodless sacrifice of Cain. The idea that there are basic moods trying to be achieved in modern evangelical churches: feelbad or feelgood services. Happy clappy, or smells 'n bells. That some services are about quiet, inner, meditative silence, and ones that are about jubilant, group exhuberation. And that people argue over how much their church services succeed or fail at helping them feel the way they want to be helped to feel.

Episode 64: No One's Right

May 8th, 2024  |  Season 5  |  1 hr 59 mins

bible, christianity, depression, exclusive brethren, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, susan isaacs, therapeutic

Why can't we just get along? Ecclesiastical war. Is all the dividedness actually worse than putting up with some guy you believe is wrong about something? Did the apostles foresee streets lined with unaffiliated churches that have little or nothing to do with one another?