LOTR, Family Life, and Ring-Tailed Lemurs w/ Bill Donaghy

[@charlesmoen2433]

call me weird but this is right up there with my favorite interviews, they hit on every topic that i find interesting and i don’t even know who these guys are! if i was sitting in a pub and overheard them i would eavesdrop for hours to pick their brains!

[@BillDonaghy]

😂 I wish there was a pub big enough (and small enough) for us all to keep talking!

[@Di_bear]

Matt is amazing and has EXCELLENT interviews with some pretty fascinating people. Welcome!

[@TheGraciousGuest]

Hey Charles! I’ve actually been blessed to know Bill for a couple of years, and he’s come on my channel a few times as well. Here’s an episode we did that dug into Lewis’ emphasis on “The Last Things” if you’re interested: C.S. Lewis & The Last Things | feat. Bill Donaghy kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y4DFZ6F9ndGnhaM

[@jackhaefner9237]

@Charles, you took the words out of my mouth. Wish we had some links for all the recommendations, however. Oh well, just need to rewatch/listen.... Seriously, I've been looking hard at Han, Byung-Chul. Amazing perspective on our times. Will be re-listening with my wife on the long drive from NH back home to Virginia this weekend....

[@mimi_j]

@@BillDonaghy same! I’ve never been to a pub yet😭

[@zagrizena]

Lewis' Space triology is awesome! And what's more awesome is hearing someone else actually knows it. I read it for the first time a few years back when it wasn't translated into our language yet and I just wanted so bad to talk about it with someone I was tempted to force my husband to read it in English. It has been translated since but I'm still waiting for my husband to pick it up.

[@MiguelTheFirst133]

I am back. This is the video. Before this I started reading books that I heard are great; 1984, Brave New Word, Animal Farm. And yes they definitely were great, but hopeless. It was after watching this podcast I started reading Screwtapes Letters, The The Space Trilogy and finally I just finished minutes ago The Lord of the Ring Trilogy.. what deep and uplifting works that reminds me to look up to heaven and then back to my wife, children and home and be happy, and to love them, and to see the good that God has given me. So I am back here to rewatch the podcast that finally got me to read those great works and that introduced me to Pints with Aquinas.

[@volusian95]

I loved the bit about Tolkien's 'lingering' writing style as being medicinal for modern people. Ever since I got a smartphone, I can absolutely attest to basically developing late-onset ADHD. It's honestly unsettling to be aware that you don't feel the same appreciations for the little things (and big things), and feel generally restless. And I know I'm not alone. The growing industry of fidget toys for children should be a huge warning sign that maybe overstimulation is a problem.

[@BillDonaghy]

Amen!

[@BillDonaghy]

@YAJUN YUAN true. True.

[@sbrown8937]

Agreed not a good thing when we are trying to teach mindfulness.

[@michaeljefferies2444]

I remember reading the Abolition of Man (which is just the essay version of That Hideous Strength) when I was 18 (7 years ago) and I thought, “wow, thank God society didn’t head the direction he thought we were going”. But I woke up one day a few months ago, and it suddenly hit me that basically everything he warns about has come true and I hadn’t even realized it, kind of like a fish discovering he lived in water.

[@intotheriver9]

Relating social media vs. the real and present to busy Martha vs. Mary at the feet of the Lord... wow. Piercing insight. Only about halfway through this talk but I'm very grateful for it so far. Bless you all.

[@christelrascon6492]

This conversation .... :’) I never thought I’d hear again such things since mom passed away ~ she was my muse ~

[@angelamariariverosgomez7611]

I love all Matt´s interviews. I have found inspiring people that I´ve never imagined is in the same page as I am. Every single one is a tresure!

[@danbeats7663]

Nod to the Arcatheos shout out - this summer was my family's first encounter with this amazing camp. My 12 year old son finally got to taste a world that engaged him deeply and brought him to life... imagination, battles, men. This conversation as a whole was excellent. I will watch it again.

[@MartinaStC]

Brilliant interview, from the joy of reading to wonder interspelled with song & prose & thought! Excellent! Thanks be to God

[@dawsonmayes4898]

They’re talking about the ransom trilogy in the first 10 mins… this is going to be great

[@AP-sg2ut]

That Hideous Strength is the scariest book I’ve ever read.

[@michelemarkos2450]

I love to learn like this from you guys. I would have never heard of either of you without KZbin. I find out where Catholic speakers are going to be, what churches are offering. I listen to priests that are amazing and I have never heard of before. It has offered me so much for growth in my faith. But “I get it”. If I was to leave fb or IG I feel like I will miss so many Catholic contents. Crazy.

[@TakeTheHighground]

This is a beautiful conversation, I love the long form shows.

[@gc3563]

This was fantastic, thank you both!! 🙏🏻

[@Teamfra]

Love how you start with humbling this great man 🤣🤣 and love his confession of not reading “Brothers” …right there with you….So excited for this discussion…so inspired by BD

[@jveisrs]

This is honestly my favourite episode of ALL TIME!!😭😭🤩🤩

[@florencen4884]

Okay Bill, I am signing up for this TOB-Tolkien course! I remember in one of the TOB Q&As we were talking about a Tolkien course. So glad it will soon be a reality!

[@tylerhy1332]

2:02:05 this quote was breathtaking! My iPhone has replaced my rosary beads... Going to search for more content from this guy. Thanks for the introduction!

[@BillDonaghy]

“Being the cult objects of our digitally-driven lives, smartphones work “like a rosary and its beads,” our fingers relentlessly scrolling down or swiping right and left - a pattern “religiously” repeated, as if trading one habit for another, going from (inward) meditation to (outward) voyeurism. The main difference, Han claims, is we don’t use smartphones to ask for graces or forgiveness, but to call for attention instead. Whereas the Rosary is a contemplative, inward-oriented prayer, the kind of narcissistic exhibitionism/voyeurism that abounds on social media runs in an entirely opposite direction. This compulsive need to reach out does not necessarily translate, Han suggests, into a real relationship with others. It is, instead, the symptom of a collective depression.” “When we are depressed,” Han goes on, “we lose our relationship with the world, with the other. We sink into a scattered ego. I think digitalization, and the smartphone, make us depressed […] As a child, I remember holding my mother’s hand at the dentist’s office. Today the mother will not offer the child her hand, but a cellphone. Support does not come from others, but from oneself. That makes us sick. We have to recover the other person.” “We need information to be silenced. Otherwise, our brains will explode. Today we perceive the world through information. That’s how we lose the experience of being present. We are increasingly disconnected from the world. We are losing the world. The world is more than information, and the screen is a poor representation of the world. We revolve in a circle around ourselves. The smartphone contributes decisively to this poor perception of the world. A fundamental symptom of depression is the absence of the world.” - South Korean-born Swiss-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han

[@tylerhy1332]

@@BillDonaghy thank you!

[@michelehopkins7887]

Such a fun chat!! Thank so much!

[@huwfulcher]

The Ransom Trilogy is one of my favourites. I think the reason for its lack of popularity compared to the Narnia series is that it’s not as accessible intellectually. The Ransom Triology takes a good bit of thinking (something I’m not very good at). That’s not me saying people who choose the Narnia series are somehow less intellectual though, it just has a lower barrier to getting into the world and enjoying it.

[@lakesuperiorarmizare7787]

Love how the Australia is still upside down

[@mimi_j]

It sounds like it is raining outside and I love it💕💕

[@seanmckinney9310]

when Galadriel yelled “IT’S TOLKIEN TIME!” and Tolkien’d all over those Orcs. It was both stunning and brave.

[@SneakyEmu]

Lol that got me

[@davidrojas6457]

I honestly cannot escape this meme, well played.

[@substance-m7u-boredigger]

@@davidrojas6457 Yes it is following me too

[@williamallendc1971]

My favorite episode

[@LNSPath03]

Love LOTR 6th grade vacation with family in Florida! Within a week, I finished the entire trilogy & had a serious sunburn to show for my obsession!!

[@Rabbithole8]

Do not get sunburned! As a Bailey of sorts I feel especially compelled to urge you be safe under the sun.

[@VersoLaltoProductions]

This is one of the best interviews on PwA I think. Excellent!

[@angrypotato_fz]

22:10 Nerd of the Rings got a shout out, nice! I think this is a great channel about Tolkien's lore :)

[@RandomGuy1606]

Matt I wanted to say that while social media may have its price, as someone who has never been religious, been to church or read the bible, I discovered your channel (and am a regular viewer) after seeing you on an episode of The Babylon Bee. So in a sense the very tools that can cause harm can also be an avenue for good.

[@bobandkelly]

Space trilogy!!!!! Yeeeesssssa

[@AntOfEgypt]

@mattfradd & Neil, a thought I had around the 57:15 mark was the concept of sacrament, in order for a sacrament to take place there needs to be form, matter, and intent. With the metaverse we lack the matter, the form is augmented and the intent is often lacking. This perhaps would be the grossness you allude to, the perversion of reality. Just a thought 👍

[@mimi_j]

This convo is so amazing

[@TheGraciousGuest]

Wonderful conversation as usual, guys! Keep it up!

[@helenamaoz4814]

Ha, exact same reading list! I finally feel vindicated in my choice of reading matter :-D. And yes, I just keep cycling through the same ones too... That Hideous Strength is scarily prophetic/ relevant to the moment...

[@nitramartin]

I discovered LOTOR at 18. I didn't sleep for 3 days. I read the whole thing. It was the best story I have read, a notch below the Bible.

[@brianlester5945]

Re: the e-book vs streaming music discussion (~1:36:00) it seems to me once music is removed from live performance to a studio produced version the experience receiving is little different whether through a CD of streaming device, so it makes sense to widely adopt the more convenient format. With books, the reading experience is substantially different vs. paper and things that can only be done with hard copy, putting more of a brake on the tech adoption.

[@comodoclimbing]

Regarding Tom Bombadil; This is from the Song of Songs (2:8-2:10) : “The voice of my beloved, behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills. My beloved is like a roe, or a young hart. Behold he standeth behind our wall, looking through the windows, looking through the lattices. Behold my beloved speaketh to me: Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come.” Sounds familiar? (:

[@shlamallama6433]

No one should sleep on the Hobbit though. Also the Appendices are the coolest, I just finished my year long read through of the Hobbit + the Lord of the Rings with the appendices, and it was great!

[@volusian95]

For sure. I remember reading The Hobbit at 16, during a time when I was living with my grandma for a month, mostly just confined to a little bedroom, and sick on top of that. Super hot weather. But The Hobbit miraculously turned that into one of my favorite memories.

[@jeremydavie4484]

I just finished the Hobbit and about to read the LOTR. I have next week basically completely free, so I hope to finish the entire trilogy in a week. Wish me luck!

[@hogandonahue9598]

Hey Matt, it's definitely not as detailed or good as LotR but Warhammer 40k The Horus Heresy series is a wonderful journey. I love all of the catholic undertones and the overarching lesson the story contains that religion and the spiritual is inescapable. That God, good, and evil are always there no matter how much you ignore them. Good and evil will always find a way and wrestle with each other.

[@christelrascon6492]

There and back again.... sigh ~ been away from Oregon 11 years now ~ I dream of returning but it has been so badly desecrated ~ perhaps one day....

[@colbyallen5750]

Bill Donaghy is the man.

[@BillDonaghy]

Colby! My old friend! Check or money order for that charming affirmation? And YOU are the man. Come back up for my Tolkien and CS Lewis course next year at Black Rock!

[@BillDonaghy]

Hi Yajun. There’s a sadness when I consider the edge that Lewis stood on that overlooked Catholicism. He had no shortage of acquaintances and experts in his midst. His Belfast roots may have choked out that fresh open space in which one can see more clearly. The Catholic doctrine, I would say, is akin to the parable of the mustard seed growing into the largest of shrubs. It’s never an odd and incongruent alloy added on to revelation but an organic outgrowth always in sync with revelation and tradition.

[@Selahsmum]

Little tip- introduce the guests audibly at the beginning of th epodcst. Some of us have podcast services that don't show the full title and it helps when you push play to have some idea who you're listening to. :)

[@jacob5283]

Listening to the parts of this conversation made me realize you really need to interview Paul Kingsnorth. He's an ex-pagan, ex-environmental activist who recently converted to traditional Christianity and writes about the technological industrial machine that's enveloped the globe and how that's cut humans off from any sense of rootedness and community and has given rise to technocratic authoritarianism. He also currently lives in Ireland :)

[@paulwheeler3723]

I’m scotch Irish but half TexMex. I’d have to sing El Paso by Marty Robbins, which I’d argue would be the closest to a non Irish ballad. God bless Bill Donaghy and Matt Fradd

[@andypresby6537]

Matt, I'm an engineer and ... I hate to break it to you ... but the complex flow paths in the pipe you were describing are technology too...it's everywhere bro! Love that you're talking about the right way the faithful should handle it ... but I think a very prayerful and nuanced approach is actually needed. The phone cannot "act on you." What you can do is relinquish your ability to act due to the temptation the phone represents. I think we need to get away from language that assigns agency to things that have none. We've got it. Angels got it. God's got it. Phones don't. Also, for the record, I get on airplanes and open up the blinds when I have a window seat...

[@hogandonahue9598]

This was beautiful. Yo I REALLY hope we get that Korean guy on! Those quotes were incredibly based!

[@thossi09]

I was what, between 7 and 9 (-ish) when I first "met" Tolkien. The exact timeline is a little muddled, now - this is over thirty years ago. My grandfather on my father's side had a little summer cottage out where he grew up in the south of Iceland. Our family would often go there on the weekends, and along the way stop in the general store in the nearby village. It sold a bit of everything - groceries, tools, books, and music. Among the books there were comic book versions of Lord of the Rings, I think adapted from Bakshi's animated films (it only went up to Helm's Deep, anyway, and from what I remember, the general style was similar), and I'd read through those in the store while my parents (or grandparents, depending on who I was with) were doing the shopping. At around the same time, my father read The Hobbit for me and my sister. That version is still my preferred translation, even when some of the names were unnecessarily translated. (He also read for us the Narnia stories, or at least all that had been translated at the time, as well as some of the more fantasy-oriented stories by Astrid Lindgren, such as 'Ronia, the Robber's Daughter' and 'The Brothers Lionheart'). Then, when I was ten or eleven, my friend's mother (also my mother's friend) got a stipend to spend a couple of months in Finland, some sort of Nordic artist co-operation thing. We were on some island just outside Helsinki, an old fortress town, and while there, there was an outdoor theatre that put on the entirety of Lord of the Rings. In Finnish, obviously. That was a little bit surreal, mainly because none of us understood anything of it. I had a little background from those comics I had read - but mostly it was just weird (and a little scary at times - Finnish can sound pretty menacing when they want). The Hobbit I'd read a few times, of course - both when I wanted to (in English, too, when I was 11 or 12 - it may well be the first book of that length that I read in English, obviously made easier since I was so familiar with it) and also when the school required it (it is, or at least was, a pretty popular book to use in English classes - for what I hope are pretty obvious reasons), but Lord of the Rings I only read when they finally were translated and published, '93-'95. My father did have them in English, but it was a fairly cheap paperback version and the ink had sort of smudged, making it a little too much of a bother to read, some words were just illegible and I don't want to read and then have to start wondering what word that is supposed to be. Those translations I got as a Christmas present from my grandfather (he and the translator/publisher were cousins, shared the same grandfather) each year they were published, and then I just devoured them in the days between Christmas and New Year's Eves. In fact, I enjoy them so much that while I've re-read them a fair few times, I've yet to read the English version...

[@BillDonaghy]

Fascinating stuff! Tolkien loved those Nordic languages!

[@thossi09]

@@BillDonaghy He did! If I remember properly, a big inspiration for Quenya was from Finnish - very different from the other Nordic languages (from an entirely different language family, too).

[@angrypotato_fz]

2:29:20 Hey, regarding the pledge to renounce alcohol. In Poland, where we had (and probably still have) a huge problem with alcohol abuse, being a post-soviet country, there is a movement called Krucjata Wyzwolenia Człowieka (The Crusade for Human Liberation). It started in 1957 under different name and was initiated by fr. Franciszek Blachnicki. Its goal is to support addicted people, especially alcoholics, in fight against their addictions. Every member pledges to fully abstain from alcohol, also not to buy or offer any alcohol and to pray every day for addicted. Alcoholics testify that it's much easier for them not to drunk at parties and oppose the peer pressure when there is someone else present who doesn't drink alcohol. The Crusade is not only for alcohol - it states that real freedom means being free of any addictions, including tobacco or porn. However, alcohol isn't evil itself (contrary to porn), so this takes form of a visible, voluntary fasting. I think in general Franciszek Blachnicki's work is very worth studying, if you're interested in such movements against addictions!

[@alc6269]

1:59:20 I think he’s talking about The Transparency Society by Byung-Chul Han. worth checking out

[@OrthodoxBrethren3]

Derek Cummins interview & Bill Donaghy interview > every other episode

[@ladymacanrothaich]

1:17 ish Yes! Stout all the way, unless I can have a porter brew.

[@jacintavan1139]

Love so much about this but just feel that a few things need to be clarified: 1. Having an area of pub where women aren't allowed is *not* the way to restart the Inklings 2. I was about to stop watching Stranger Things 4 for the exact reasons mentioned here, but there's a scene at the end of Episode 4 that completely changes the perspective and (in my opinion) makes the whole season worth watching.

[@ignaciojose4461]

The problem with all the social media is that the content listed on the screen can be manipulated something that a book can't do and on that sense we are leaving in a matrix were some players are trying to do the right thing...

[@xXWarBeastXx18634]

I really wanna know if the coffee and pastry are from Leonardo’s Coffeehouse

[@022pink]

my favorite

[@joewoodard40]

The space trilogy is actually a novelization of his WW two BBC lecture The Abolition of Man

[@NuclearSlider]

Yes!!! The problem with saying there should not be Christians involved in a social medium is akin to saying that the people immersed in it are not worthy to be redeemed. What if that is the only way they could be reached? Just asking the question to provoke thought.

[@mimi_j]

Lmbooo his face when he said “go on” 😳😂😂😂

[@Rabbithole8]

Amazon's Rings of Power has nothing to do with Tolkien except that the showrummers can use some of the characters. They made up many characters as well as Inserting races that do not belong in his mythopoeic world. This is not being true to Tolkien. They justify doing this by stating that it must reflect the world we live in today. But of course this is not the world of Tolkien's legendarium. He created a mythopoeic world which blends Catholic themes and Norse mythology to create a myth of England. In other words, a myth that could have been the product of Christianized Medieval Northern Europe. All the mythopoeic conceptions such as elves and dwarves are of course reflections of the Norse and they would look like them. No one until five minutes ago would perceive of an elf in the context of Norse myth as being a person that looks like Idris Elba. In this Amazon show they have a POC playing a dwarf, Hobbits, and elves. The "queen" of Numenor Tar-Míriel is also a POC, which she was neither the ruling queen, her husband Ar-Pharazon who married her against her will was, nor a POC. Galadriel is made into a warrior which she never was because women have to all act like men in order to be considered strong. They desecrate femininity. They describe her as "full of piss and vinegar." On one of the promotional pictures she is man spreading while dangling a dagger between her legs. Many of the actors consider themselves activists and are clearly wokeists, as are the showrunnres. Tolkien would have despised all of this. If you respect Tolkien and his work, you would not support this abomination.

[@rumham8124]

True, based, and well said

[@John_thomas_kane]

I feel like this might be a serious question for KZbin comments, but why doesn't Matt ever introduce his guest? I usually don't know these thinkers and could really use a primer during the show, plus it would probably be nice for the guest! - signed, a loyal viewer.

[@notpants2810]

In his latest Trent Horn episode, he explains that he sees long podcast intros as long movie scrolling intros like in Star Wars, and so he doesn’t like them.

[@Di_bear]

Check the description below the video.

[@jamesmerone]

Matt, please get a CS Lewis and or a GK Chesterton expert on the show.

[@justicebjorke2790]

55:00 The doctrines of creation, incarnation, and resurrection call Christians to remain stubbornly embodied.

[@slapoont]

There is a message that says “No stream,” should probably look into it….

[@colleengomez746]

Does anyone know if the book by the Korean philosopher that Bill was quoting from? (Starting with the connection between smartphones and rosary beads)?

[@BillDonaghy]

Hello Colleen! It was actually from an interview. Here’s a larger context: “Being the cult objects of our digitally-driven lives, smartphones work “like a rosary and its beads,” our fingers relentlessly scrolling down or swiping right and left - a pattern “religiously” repeated, as if trading one habit for another, going from (inward) meditation to (outward) voyeurism. The main difference, Han claims, is we don’t use smartphones to ask for graces or forgiveness, but to call for attention instead. Whereas the Rosary is a contemplative, inward-oriented prayer, the kind of narcissistic exhibitionism/voyeurism that abounds on social media runs in an entirely opposite direction. This compulsive need to reach out does not necessarily translate, Han suggests, into a real relationship with others. It is, instead, the symptom of a collective depression.” “When we are depressed,” Han goes on, “we lose our relationship with the world, with the other. We sink into a scattered ego. I think digitalization, and the smartphone, make us depressed […] As a child, I remember holding my mother’s hand at the dentist’s office. Today the mother will not offer the child her hand, but a cellphone. Support does not come from others, but from oneself. That makes us sick. We have to recover the other person.” “We need information to be silenced. Otherwise, our brains will explode. Today we perceive the world through information. That’s how we lose the experience of being present. We are increasingly disconnected from the world. We are losing the world. The world is more than information, and the screen is a poor representation of the world. We revolve in a circle around ourselves. The smartphone contributes decisively to this poor perception of the world. A fundamental symptom of depression is the absence of the world.” - South Korean-born Swiss-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han

[@colleengomez746]

@@BillDonaghy Thanks so much!

[@CarlosRivera-lv3uc]

I used to carry and distribute water and small sealed snacks at traffic lights and what not here in blistering Orlando, but one day I got a guy who declined but he told me that many stopped not because they wanted money instead for their own means but because people were cruelly tainting things and many had been scared off of the generosity that authentic people may have wanted to give. I always struggled with giving the money but if I have a buck or two I give, I dont worry about what they may do, I try to believe it is noble their intention, and just do because the doing something is the important part. This is the 1st full interview on PWA that I have watched and next will be with the middle eastern gentleman, but it has been so elucidating that at times I feel great and times I feel like dirt, but I know that means complacency is being jabbed.

[@kyrarcroninger1127]

I really love that quote, "A life unlike your own can be your greatest teacher" but can't find the source for it! Does anyone know the source? I know he said "Saint Columban" but I haven't been able to trace it.

[@silentb4684]

Ebooks have not taken off like music etc because no one is reading. People get their info from social media and it takes hard work to read a book or anything for that matter.

[@erock5b]

I'm not sure if there is such a thing as "American culture" but there is certainly a thing as Appalachian culture, which has itself descended from Irish and Scottish traditions.

[@jacobrobinson5606]

The sleeping gets me every time

[@paulblum4369]

Cameron may also mean shrimp, or more of a relation to the sea.

[@tmm4446]

I’m getting a “No stream” message…

[@NuclearSlider]

C.S.Lewis space trilogy is by far my favorite set of books. Just barely above the Middle Earth Lore from J.R.R. Tolkien.

[@j2muw667]

Clothes... wardrobe remains the same when you find clothes that are comfortable and ‘you’ and you stop caring what social media and culture says is correct. Tolkien. I know I skipped paragraphs at a time when I got bored with over-descriptiveness... but need to re-read them.

[@TheMerryMuggle]

I’ve been thinking a lot about America and Culture. I have two thoughts 💭 1) the lack of a uniting culture is an unexpected outcome of the great American experiment. People uprooted themselves from the culture of their home lands and came to America, swapping their cultural grounding for a document, the constitution, and the rights enumerated therein. 2) Maybe a nation needs TIME to develop a truly meaningful culture and America’s cultural development was halted/supplanted by the smart phone/TV. Technology’s victory over culture.

[@BillDonaghy]

I like that Kevin. Halted and supplanted. Feels accurate.

[@erock5b]

Tom Bombadil is G. K. Chesterton. Yeah, you heard me right. Tolkien was influenced by Chesterton, and there are a few similarities between LOTR and Bombadil, and some things that Chesterton wrote. A few of those similarities are almost too similar to be coincidence.

[@BillDonaghy]

Mmmm. Interestin’!

[@BillDonaghy]

I love GKC!

[@erock5b]

@@BillDonaghy Apart from the joy I get out of imagining GKC leaping about bounding through the forest singing along his merry way in a Bombadilian manner, I think the most striking similarity first hit me when I was reading The Man Who Was Thursday, and Fellowship of the Ring at the same time. When Bombadil fights the barrow wight he sings, "None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the master: His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster." In The Man Who Was Thursday, the character Sunday is a sort of odd enigma in the story, not entirely unlike Tom, who says, "But I have never been caught yet, and the skies will fall in the time I turn to bay." And then he bounds away.

[@williammanhire4424]

What is the poem Matt reads about having nothing to do called?

[@dawsonmayes4898]

Books are also aesthetically pleasing

[@tzeentchvonsheo9868]

1:42:05 It's weird how you emphasize on capitalizing God, so it isn't grammar norm in english? It's not my first language so I'm unsure now

[@epalmeri6716]

This video has no sound? Other KZbin videos do as well as the ads so I don't think it's my device. Anyone else unable to hear it?

[@martinbarrett1402]

Having the same problem

[@NuclearSlider]

OHHHHHHH.... MY!!!! I never made the whole Mars and Venus connections in the first two books.

[@mariobaratti2985]

The korean philosopher name is Byung-chul Han

[@kelleenosberger305]

and I believe he his catholic

[@Madiwildhair]

What was the beer that he recommended? Anyone remember?

[@BillDonaghy]

Murphy’s Stout? Brewed in Cork

[@Madiwildhair]

@@BillDonaghy Going to try it with my dad! Thank you! Loved the entire episode. ♥️

[@Consume_Crash]

I wonder if Bill has read John Senior.

[@Tybourne1991]

Matt, we love you, and thank you for this channel. But you keep interrupting Bill. Keep in mind whose turn it is in the conversation.

[@isfet5149]

Why is Australia upsidedown?

[@viviennedunbar3374]

According to who?

[@wawrzys9824]

rings of power will have nothing to do with Tolkien but some of his names, its going to be a woke 'not good show', the show runners dont have respoect for Tolkien of his catholic believes and put their own in it. DONT WATCH IT

[@Rabbithole8]

Yes, do not watch it!

[@Myohomoto]

Everything is woke in the entertainment world today...it ruined Vikings for me as I'm a big history nerd! I wish they would stop making everything historically based even if some what fictionalized into the fantasy utopian rewrite. It has absolutely ruined the last 2 generations perception of history itself and the truth contained there in.

[@wawrzys9824]

@@Myohomoto like they are giving saint Joan of Arc in some play pronauns they them. They hate everything that is good and want to destroy it

[@silvermisst]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@magnum1165]

Great interview, keep trying to get Jordan Peterson, love to see him on here

[@lukercunningham]

I’m currently reading the Fellowship, but on a Kindle. After hearing of Tolkien’s extreme disapproval of electronics, I feel I am in a way disrespecting the story. This update brought to you on an iPhone.

[@BillDonaghy]

😂

[@michaelwilliams949]

I went into such a nerd mode when they started talking about Tolkien. My days. I've literally read the Silmarillion four times this year and I still can't get enough. Every time you read through it all there's a new leaf you notice, there's the song of a bird that you hear that you didn't before, you find new meaning in Elvish. I have to say as well, I'm freaking out about the Rings of Power, because it's gonna be the best! Say what you will but having listened and read from places that are trust worthy and are actually quoting the showrunners and everyone involved properly, you will find that they have poured over the books, the appendices, the letters and documents and everything that Tolkien wrote, the Tolkien Estate and Tolkien's own grandson have collaborated with them closely, so all of the lands, kingdoms, peoples, story lines, characters and all of the small details have received approval from the Estate. They've said clearly that they have all the creative freedom they like but they "cannot" move from the story line. Plus I've been praying the novena to Our Lady Untier of Knots for the whole project. You can say I can't do that and our Lady won't listen all you like, jeez you can pray I get struck by lightning, whatever it is praying for those people is doing far more than complaining. Tolkien is interceding for them and I'm doing the same. Beauty will save the world and the showrunners have said of this project clearly: "When you read Tolkien's books, you can tell how much he appreciates beauty, so the show is full of beauty." Our Lady, Queen of Peace, pray for us

[@chrisvandermerwe7111]

Sound check?

[@no_more_anymore]

No sound for me. I don't know why

[@echails7900]

Gandalf was taking them to the eagles. When he falls in Moria he says "Fly you fools!"

[@bobandkelly]

Tom Bombdil gives me shades of st Francis

[@intotheriver9]

Anyone else getting no audio?

[@intotheriver9]

@YAJUN YUAN Awesome, good looking out.

[@Selahsmum]

Matt, please stop questioning whether your youtube channel is a good thing. It is good to question our time spent on social media, and especially with media like twitter, tik tok, other short-form media, I get why people owuldwant to step away from that. But that does not mean that it is universally bad to be a part of it as a Christian, and that could extend even to the metaverse deal (which I agree is totally cringy and I want no part of it, but as Bill points out, that doesn't mean that someone else might not be called to serve Christ there). The thing it is important to remember is that yes- face to face, in real life, organic communities are ideal, and are where we are going to be fed and sustained for most of our lives. BUt it is also important to remember that not everyone on this globe has access to Christian community, let alone Catholic community, and the internet is literally the only place they can hear the gospel, be discipled, and have their head, heart and mind fed in the fullness of the faith. Some becuase they live in countries where the gospel is illegal, or otherwise supressed, some because they face extreme familial or other cultural barriers to going to church, and for some protestants who have no Catholic friends, family, etc, programs like yours may be the first and only place they have heard good arguments for the faith. Also, some people are in a care giving position in their lives, like mothers of small children, mothers of special needs kids, care givers for elderly folks, etc, and they have very little access to intillectually stimulating or soul-feeding discourse and doing something like listening to a podcast while the kids sleep or while they are in transit to taking a relative to the hosptial for chemo might be the only life-giving spiritual "fellowship" in their life, outside of their sundaymeeting (and not all churches are great at encouraging fellowship at Sunday mass/service, etc). So, my point is this. Your program is important. In my case, if it werent for programs like Catholic Answers (online), The Journey Home (online) and your program, I would never have known there was more to the Christian faith than the mostly anti-intillectual evanelicalism that I knew the first 20 years of being a believer. Many people come across apologetis for the existance of God, for hte gospel, for the fullness of the Catholic faith, online, and that is a good thing. Should those people be encouraged to find in person, face to face, organic community? Yes of course. but will God meet us where we are because He loves us and will track us down like the hound of heaven in order for us to spend eternity with Him? Yes. So, if the Lord ever called you to give up your podcast, I would accept that, but I certainly hope you don't ever do it out of the misguided Idea that all social media, or online expression, is wrong or bad. Sorry for the rant, but your program and a few others have meant a lot to me and in my particular situation, which is complicated, your program is the only Catholic "conversation" I really expereince right now, even if it is only vicarious, so please don't doubt the importance of your apostalate here, even if oyu make a living out of it as well (the Bible says thats OK, by the way- pay a worker hi wages, do not muzzle the ox, and even priests are paid a wage, friend). God bless and thank you for serving us with this podcast- dont throw the baby out with the bathwater, mate. ;)

[@Chazasaurus1704]

Cameron can also mean "crooked/winding river". I think your wife might like that definition better

[@danielgorrell4299]

Nerd of the Rings is a great channel! Also you're too kind to Amazon, Bill.

[@BillDonaghy]

😂 Hopeful I guess with Amazon but perhaps a fools hope!

[@dissident_media]

Bezos isn't a Tolkien fan. He just wanted his own game of thrones

[@veronica8061]

No sound

[@bobandkelly]

Reading on the Kindle starts to hurt the eyes