Hope in Source

What does it mean to build an infrastructure for play? Brendan Schlagel and I trace a path around the lake in Prospect Park, chatting about generational mementos, tracing maps, a pattern language for games, riding ferries, physical constraints, and the idea of a depth jam (Recorded June 2025)

What makes something call out to us? Sonya and Henry explore how prayer transforms perception: ceaseless prayer, the felt body, sacred patterns, remembrance in communion, the invisible church spread through all time, and the holy mystery we're part of. (Recorded October 2020)Transcript at https://hopeinsource.com/salience0:00 Ceaseless Prayer2:37 Creation6:44 What Is Salience?10:35 The Ordinary as Extraordinary15:20 Patterns as Language19:34 The Felt Body27:19 Remembrance34:19 Embodiment37:44 Shape All the Way Down43:05 Beyond Our Concepts46:08 Eucatastrophe52:21 Praise and Prayer1:03:31 The Invisible Church1:11:55 Grace and the Fall1:17:05 No Ordinary People1:34:21 The Leap of Faith1:45:06 Holy Mystery

Can a conversation have a sense of place? Laurel and I take a stroll through Central park on Memorial day: chatting about the idea of a walking podcast, sauntering, voice notes, memory, the romance of distance, physicality, screenshots, printers, embodiment, energy, perception, ultralight, ordinary time. Something NEW to listen for: the birds, dogs, cars, shoe tying, and even a lady asking us to take a picture! I certainly felt both the messiness and the surprise of being outside! Please check out the site https://sauntercast.henryzoo.com to follow our walking path!- (00:00) The Birth of a Walking Podcast- (03:01) Exploring the Concept of Footnote- (06:09) The Role of Voice Notes and Memory- (08:54) Capturing Ambience and Context- (12:00) The Challenge of Finding Notes- (15:04) Romanticizing Distance and Connection- (17:48) Art, Memory, and Public Spaces- (21:00) Desire Paths and Unplanned Journeys- (23:58) Screenshots as Time Capsules- (29:52) Exploring the Energy of Language- (32:20) The Meaning Behind Screenshots- (34:04) The Art of Printing Memories- (36:52) The Journey of Receipt Printers- (39:00) Layering Meaning in Screenshots- (40:40) Walking the Internet, A New Perspective- (47:40) Infrastructure and Awareness- (51:01) The Energy of Open Source- (58:50) The Evolution of Podcasting and Seasons- (59:56) Understanding Open Source Philosophy- (01:03:00) The Concept of Lightness and Ultralight- (01:06:02) Art, Design, and Limitations- (01:08:56) Games as a Medium for Creativity- (01:12:03) The Importance of Rest and Time- (01:14:59) Exploring Ordinary Time in Life- (01:18:00) Creating Meaningful Spaces and Memories

What does it really mean to call yourself anything? Joseph Choi begins to explore his ongoing journey of faith deconstruction, reconstruction, and whatever it is now. But we end up through about the anxieties around labeling one's beliefs, between commitment and optionality, and abundance and scarcity mindsets.Transcript: ⁠https://hopeinsource.com/unpacking(01:04) Labels and Their Limits(04:21) The Trap of Infinite Options(07:06) Beyond Idols(09:42) Marriage as Compounding Interest(13:06) Reconciling Lenses on Truth(16:10) Abundance as a Heavenly Mindset(19:45) The Importance of Embodiment(23:07) Pharisees to Heretics(26:45) Parables, Miracles, and Game Theory(35:54) Organizational Structures

How does faith call us to both right action and right emotion? Sonya Mann joins me again to discuss the layered meanings of biblical parables. Some themes I liked: the paradoxical nature of faith, the generousity of God, the interplay bt obligation and grace, freedom within constraint, the parable of workers in the vineyard and talents, lay utilitarianism, the nature of praise, phenomenology in faith, the metaphor of weddings, viserality and the flesh, specificity, sacred modes, acceptable woo, cheap grace. (Recorded October 2020) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/feeling(00:00) - Right Feeling (Sonya Mann) (02:30) - Come to the table: God's generosity (05:21) - Orthopathos: a change of heart (08:53) - Freedom and Responsibility within the Body (12:42) - On obligation: asking something of you (15:41) - The freedom of the woodcarver (18:36) - formative moments of intimacy (22:37) - integrating with tradition, Christian art, Kanye (25:37) - Archaic on the outside, Alive inside (27:34) - Fruits: the form of faith (30:18) - Auras: acceptable woo and phenomelogy (33:25) - Sacredness as a mode of being (37:26) - Communities of praise (40:05) - One can't help but laugh (41:34) - cheap grace, coming prepared for the wedding (44:09) - A vibration throughout the whole stack ★ Support this podcast ★

How do we all act as protestants online? L.M. Sacasas joins Henry (4th time!?) to chat about material/digital culture, how we compensate for natural affordances in new digital interfaces, our inability to account for non-measurable losses, texture vs. frictionlessness, lofi, roguelikes, reality tv, ambient data capture, extracting our private life for gain, how digital space is more of a past rather a place. (Recorded August 2022) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/protestant[00:00] Introduction[04:15] The Everyday Texture of Material Culture[07:11] Translated Affordances of Digital Interfaces[09:11] The Burden of Note-Taking Systems[10:36] No Accounting for Loss[11:48] The Added Texture of Lofi[14:54] Anchors of the Material World[16:02] The Frictionless Life[18:03] The Internal Motivation of Roguelikes[19:42] The Language of Needs[21:52] Liturgies and Mediums[22:47] No Material Trace[24:41] Compensating for the Losses of the Digital[27:28] You can't capture me![29:11] Reality TV prepped us for the Very Online Life[31:23] Ambient Capture and Surveillance Culture[33:41] On the Terms of the Medium [35:41] Extraction of Private Life into Public Benefit[38:28] On Loneliness and Making a Living[41:45] Negotiating The Terms of Technology[43:45] The Gradience of Relationality in Sidewalk Life[45:12] Artificially Reconstituting Our Being in a Built Environment[48:07] A Gaze Turned Pastward

Can our digitally mediated environment be spiritual? Nick Ripatrazone takes us through the lens of the Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan, focusing on his not well-known Catholic faith. McLuhan himself describes his testimony into the Church as, "I came in on my knees. That is the only way in." We discuss the topics around inter-textuality, the complexity of life, on form/function within mediums like poetry, concept/percept, ambiguity and paradox, and McLuhan's famous phrase "the medium is the message". (Recorded April 2022) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/communion

What is the nature of reality? Esther Lightcap Meek speaks of reality as interpersonal, saying yes to life, everyday knowing. We discuss hope as a person-ed affair, how life is a sort of scrabbling together of clues, gift economies, covenant epistemology, on commitment, consent, belonging. (Recorded in November 2021) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/reality

How can we think about digital communication, let alone silence? Is it possible? L.M. Sacasas is back to chat about a few of his last newsletter posts: the nature of silence, attention not as a resource, on hope vs. expectations, the arms race of escalation, manufactured needs, askesis or discipline, the commons vs. the public, and trustlessness and codes of law. (Recorded in July 2021) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/silence.

How does the digital life shape our perceptions of ourselves? Maggie Appleton starts us off on a discussion of school in pandemic times which lead to a discussion of the disembodiment that technology can create, somehow bringing us further towards our thoughts on time and space? (Recorded in November 2020) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/disembodiment

What happens when we open up browser APIs like a filesystem? Omar Rizwan joins Henry to chat about his latest project, TabFS! We discuss possible extensions, tinkering with scripts vs being a whole "project", writing it yourself, few dependencies, determining your 1.0, literate documentation, and maintaining a newly popular open source project! (recorded in January) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/tabfs.

How does one come to faith, let alone come back to it? Sonya Mann graciously shares some raw thoughts on her re-conversion to Christianity. We cover a lot of ground, going through doubt and spiritual malaise, the phenomenology of faith, fractal reality, "happeningness". (Recorded in September) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/reconversion.