The Mind Renewed with Julian Charles: Recent Episodes
Fringe Radio Network
The Mind Renewed : Thinking Christianly in a New World Order is a Podcast and Website dedicated to understanding the world in which we live from a Christian worldview perspective.
We are acutely conscious of propaganda in the mainstream media, and of the bewildering mass of information in the alternative media - some of it reliable, much of it not. We therefore seek to address matters of concern to people (whether they be 'people of faith' or none) in an unsensational and informed fashion, in the hope that truth will be uncovered and that bridges will be built between people through greater understanding.
Therefore, whether it be the Surveillance State, the threat of Global Government, False-Flag Terrorism, the danger of New Religious Movements (NRMs), or any other issue too often ignored by the institutional church, The Mind Renewed analyses, interprets and critiques from a Christian worldview perspective.
And in all that we do, we call upon our listeners to lay aside preconceptions, and embrace an openness of mind that seeks to follow the truth wherever it may lead. In the words of Paul from the New Testament:
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds..." (Romans 12:2, New Revised Standard Version)
"I'd like to report a truck driver that's been endangering my life."—David Mann (Dennis Weaver) in Duel. For the 20th TMR Movie Roundtable we are joined once again by our good friends Frank Johnson, Antony Rotunno, Mark Campbell and Oscar Campbell for a five-way discussion on the nerve-rattling 1971 thriller Duel, directed by the young Steven Spielberg and starring Dennis Weaver as Everyman pushed to the edge by a relentless, anonymous foe. David Mann (Dennis Weaver) is just an ordinary chap minding his own business and driving his beloved red Plymouth Valiant through the California desert, when a predatory monster of a smoke-spewing lorry (sorry, truck) inexplicably picks him as its unsuspecting prey. What starts as a routine car journey swiftly spirals into a heart-pounding game of cat-and-mouse with no rules and no escape. What's fuelling the truck's murderous pursuit? How does Spielberg turn a regular highway into a battlefield of primal fear? And what might this filmic clash of Man versus Machine have to say to us today? Join us as we examine the tension, explore the film's minimalist brilliance, and ask what "takeaways" might be gleaned from Spielberg's early TV/cinematic masterpiece. [Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). In accordance with the conditions of that licence TMR wishes to state that the fact that this music appears in TMR podcasts should in no way be understood as implying that its creator endorses anything produced by TMR.] [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"It's time to stand up, with eyes open, ears down to the ground. A change is long overdue. So, wake up. Question everything. Are you awake?"—One by One (2014) For the 19th TMR Movie Roundtable we welcome back our good friends Frank Johnson and Antony Rotunno for a three-way discussion on the cult British "truth movement" film One by One (2014), starring the well-loved (and much-missed) comedian and actor Rik Mayall, written and directed by Diane Jessie Miller. A young woman, Dion, is befriended by an unconventional group of people while she's working in a UK town cafe. Although her policeman boyfriend is not happy about this, because he thinks she should aspire to greater things than waitressing and considers her new pals too idealistic and eccentric, Dion sticks with her friends because they bring a fresh sense of joy and peace into her life. But when tragedy strikes, Dion's life is turned upsidedown; and thus begins her journey "down the rabbit hole" as the group reveals to her the unsettling truths that they have come to understand. Incredulous at first, Dion eventually comes to the same realisation, and the film closes with (what seems to be) the initial stages of the anticipated calamity. Join us as we discuss the production, consider it in relation to the so-called "truth movement", and ask what the filmmakers might have meant by admonishing audiences to "Wake up, now!" [Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). In accordance with the conditions of that licence TMR wishes to state that the fact that this music appears in TMR podcasts should in no way be understood as implying that its creator endorses anything produced by TMR.] [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"The absolute key thing which God needs from the Church is a commitment to the Word of God."—Rev Phill Sacre We are joined once again by Rev Phill Sacre—an ordained minister (Church of England), housechurch leader, and blogger on Substack—for a conversation on "Plausibility Structures and the Church." Our conversation grows out of a podcast series that Phill produced late last year called "How the church was sabotaged", in which he reflected upon a 1980s book by the famous Christian thinker and writer Os Guinness. Though published over 40 years ago, Guinness's "The Gravedigger File: Papers on the Subversion of the Modern Church" caught Phill's attention because of its apparent prescience on a number of important cultural issues facing the church today. So, please join us as I "get in on the conversation", and we discuss what's happened to so many modern churches, and think about ways in which we might "push back" in the culture to reveal the Gospel's "plausibility structure" to church and world alike. (Phill is a Christian minister. Ordained in the Church of England, he formerly served in a parish on the Essex coast, but now leads an independent housechurch. He also runs the online ministries "Understand the Bible" and "Sacred Musings : Thinking Christianly about the World" on Substack.) [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
When will Sir Keir get his sausages back? Is it safe for an asparamancer to eat a 74-year-old omelette? Does Tom Hanks have eight legs or six? And will Frank Johnson raise enough cash through this evening's kickstarter to fund his research project to obtain superpowers by microwaving spiders from around the world? These (and other vitally important questions) are answered as we kick off 2025 here at TMR with our annual New Year's Eve show—a crazy roundtable chat with high-ranking members of The Fireside Nephilim Chaps secret society. Join us—Jenifer Thyssen (classical singer), Frank Johnson (microwave spider skientist), Crusy (Like Flint Radio), Jeff Bankens (Strongman for Christ), The Right Honourable Sir Keir Rodney Starmer, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, MP (the UK's selected "Prime Minister") and Yours Truly—as we put aside the cares of this world for just over an hour and discuss everything under the sun in aid of Frank's latest arachnophilic skientific research. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"Our lives are woven together in a fabric, but the connections that make society strong also make it vulnerable."—Threads (1984) For the 18th TMR Movie Roundtable we welcome back our good friends Antony Rotunno, Frank Johnson and Mark Campbell for another of our four-way discussions, this time on the disturbing (because uncomfortably realistic) nuclear-apocalyptic BBC/Nine Network (Australia) film Threads from 1984. Written by Barry Hines ("A Kestral for a Knave", 1968 / "Kes", 1969) and directed by Mick Jackson ("The Bodyguard", 1992), Threads is a merciless exploration—supported by considerable scientific and government policy research—of the devastating physical, psychological and societal effects of thermonuclear war. Set in the UK city of Sheffield during a period of spiralling tensions between the United States of America and the former Soviet Union, Threads takes the viewer on a uniquely challenging journey: from kitchen sink drama to pseudo-documentary, as we witness the lives of everyday people (just like ourselves) being destroyed, or changed forever, by the blast, heat and radiation of a thermonuclear event. (Please be warned: Threads is a disturbing film—it's supposed to be—but it's also a very important film, which I think as many people (adults) as possible should see. But, again, please do be prepared to watch something that might affect you deeply.) Join us as we discuss the production and consider its message during this period of rising international tensions in the world today. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
At long last, here is Part Two of our latest conversation with UK evangelist Vince McCann—host of the Chenzo1969 YouTube channel—on his long-time ministry of speaking with Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons (and others) on the streets of UK towns and cities in the prayerful hope of reaching people for Christ. Drawing upon his extensive experience of such street ministry, Vince shares with us some practical advice that might help us in our own conversations with people caught up in New Religious Movements that claim the Bible as a foundational text. (I decided, for reasons explained in Part One, to publish this interview in two parts.) [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
It is with great pleasure that we welcome back to the programme the UK evangelist Vince McCann—host of the Chenzo1969 YouTube channel—for Part One of a relaxed and unstructured conversation on his long-time ministry speaking to Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons (and others) on the streets of UK towns and cities in the prayerful hope of reaching people for Christ. Drawing upon his extensive experience of such street ministry, Vince shares with us some practical advice that might help us in our own conversations with people caught up in New Religious Movements that claim the Bible as a foundational text. (Vince joined us back in 2014 to talk about the dangers of the Ouija Board.) (I have decided, for reasons explained in the podcast, to publish this interview in two parts. Please check back in a couple of weeks or so for part two.) [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"...we wouldn't want to put somebody up on a sloped roof."—Kimberly Cheatle Once again out of the blue—or out of the red, white and blue (sorry, I couldn't resist)—I'm putting out another short podcast, this time in response to the events of last Saturday in Pennsylvania, in which Donald Trump, as we all know, was very nearly assassinated by an allegedly "lone gunman" in front of the watching world. It's amazing how the "news cycle" speeds along though, isn't it? Already it's getting harder to find mention of it in "mainstream" news outlets. But this was a momentous event—and one that, as nearly everyone is saying, may well propel Trump into the White House for a second term (assuming another assassination attempt isn't successful). Anyway, essentially what I'm doing here is to "riff" in audio form on some notes that I've been making at TMR over the last several days. It's not a deep analysis; I'm not claiming that I've got everything right, and I'm certainly open to changing my mind on any of it as I'm exposed to new information. So, please take it for what it is: thoughts, musings, trying to make sense of what happened... and basically being someone, who, like you, has the audacity (nay, effrontery) to think about matters that one is told one should leave entirely to unimpeachable organs of the state (like the FBI). [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
For the 17th TMR Movie Roundtable we welcome back our good friends Frank Johnson, Antony Rotunno and Mark Campbell for another four-way discussion, this time on the cult British supernatural horror film The Appoinrment (1981/2) starring Edward Woodward and directed by Lindsey C Vickers. "An evil and enigmatic entity throws a family into turmoil in Lindsey C. Vickers' much sought-after cult horror. Unable to attend his daughter’s violin recital, suburban father Ian—played by Edward Woodward (The Wicker Man)—is haunted by a series of prophetic nightmares that seem to foresee a looming tragedy. Are dark forces gathering to be unleashed upon him?"—BFI.org.uk After initial screenings at film festivals in the early 1980s, The Appointment wasn't released in cinemas or on television (for various unfathomable reasons) but only on home media, although it did eventually get broadcast on UK regional television in the 1990s—a showing that, ironically enough, its director missed!. Ever since, many have searched for the film—religiously scanning TV schedules and hunting in second-hand shops in the hope tracking down one of those old VHS or Betamax video tapes—but it was not until 2022 that the film became widely available once again thanks to the British Film Institute and the film's director Lindsey Vickers (who was extensively involved in the project). The Appointment is now available on Blu-ray Disc as part of the BFI Flipside series (see show notes). Join us as we discuss the production and reflect theologically/philosophically on the themes and meanings of this almost-lost cult British movie. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"I think, as we are forced from the centre—but, even better, as we relinquish the centre, and let go of power among ourselves and in culture, and become more dependent on God—that our spiritual power will, in a sense, return."—Dr Mark Glanville We welcome to the programme Dr Mark Glanville, Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Regent College, Vancouver, for a conversation—in words and music—on his recently published book, Improvising Church : Scripture as the Source of Harmony, Rhythm, and Soul (InterVarsity Press, Academic, 2024). "The post-Christian cultural turn is creating the conditions for a crisis of confidence in the church and in pastoral ministry. While such changes can be disruptive and disconcerting, our new cultural reality makes the present moment a uniquely exciting time to reimagine churches that bear witness to Christ. How do we move beyond cookie-cutter approaches (which may have worked in the past) to building the creative, compassionate, and incarnational churches we long for? Biblical scholar and accomplished jazz pianist Mark Glanville plays with a metaphor of improvisation to chart twelve themes as the key "notes" on which Christian communities play as they bear witness to God in the world today. Building on these two dynamic traditions—jazz music and Christian community—Improvising Church unfolds a biblical, practical, and inventive vision for churches seeking to receive and extend the healing of Christ."—(IVPress.com) [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
Another short podcast just to explain what's been going on with TMR over the last several weeks. As some of you may know (if you've been to the Schedule Page recently), the TMR website was suspended near the beginning of April for technical reasons—although initially I thought it might be for political reasons, but thankfully it wasn't. To remedy the situation, I had to delete all the audio files from the server within seven days—(or else the suspension would be repeated)—which, of course, left the website as a kind of empty shell of podcast descriptions with no audio content. Then I was left with the question: What now? Was there a practical alternative for hosting TMR's content? Or was it all over? Please join me on my short walk in the depths—well, not quite "the depths"—of the Lancashire countryside as I explain a little more about what's been preoccupying me for the last several weeks. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"We are being furtively nudged, on an unprecedented scale, to obey the doctrines of the world's elite."—Dr Gary Sidley We welcome to the programme Dr Gary Sidley—a former NHS Consultant Clinical Psychologist—for an interview on the UK government's morally questionable use of "nudge" techniques during the Covid Event, the extent to which Nudge Theory is being employed more generally by government, and the serious ethical questions entailed. (Dr Sidley is a freelance writer, trainer, and blogger, who in 2013 retired as a Professional Lead/Consultant Clinical Psychologist after 33 continuous years in the NHS working in psychiatric nursing and clinical psychology. In early 2020 he became extremely concerned about the government’s response to the ‘coronavirus crisis’, and began writing on the subject at his well-known Coronababble blog. Gary is a member of the Health Advisory & Recovery Team (HART) and the Smile Free campaign to lift all mask mandates. He is currently leading on a research project into the UK’s deployment of behavioural science strategies during the Covid Event, and the ethical implications of the state using these methods on its own people.) [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
For the 16th Movie Roundtable—or rather Dialogue this time—we are joined once again by our good friend Antony Rotunno, for a discussion on Stanley Kubrick's classic movie Dr Strangelove (1964), starring Peter Sellers, George C Scott and Sterling Hayden (among others). Imagining the USA to be inflitrated by Soviet polluters of the domestic water supply, the deranged General Jack D Ripper, commander of Burpelson Air Force Base, initiates "Wing Attack Plan R"... and you probably know the rest! This one has been near the top of my "roundtable" list for some time, but it took Antony's particular fondness for it to nudge it into first place. And I'm very glad of that; it's a truly great film, and my enthusiasm for it has only continued to grow as I've rewatched, read and thought about it again over the last few weeks. Some say Dr Strangelove is the darkest of all comedies. And maybe that's so. Could there be anything darker than a nuclear end to the world brought about by human madness, ignorance, stupidity and hubris? Or a "Mutually Assured Destruction" revealing itself to be exactly that—M.A.D.? And yet, somehow, Kubrick and his brilliant team manage to make us laugh. Almost in spite of ourselves. After all, no matter how "over the top" it all might seem, there's always been something very real about Dr Strangelove. And I think we know it. Join us as we discuss the production, consider its themes, and reflect on (just some of) what the film might have to say to us today. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
For the 16th Movie Roundtable—or rather Dialogue this time—we are joined once again by our good friend Antony Rotunno, for a discussion on Stanley Kubrick's classic movie Dr Strangelove (1964), starring Peter Sellers, George C Scott and Sterling Hayden (among others). Imagining the USA to be inflitrated by Soviet polluters of the domestic water supply, the deranged General Jack D Ripper, commander of Burpelson Air Force Base, initiates "Wing Attack Plan R"... and you probably know the rest! This one has been near the top of my "roundtable" list for some time, but it took Antony's particular fondness for it to nudge it into first place. And I'm very glad of that; it's a truly great film, and my enthusiasm for it has only continued to grow as I've rewatched, read and thought about it again over the last few weeks. Some say Dr Strangelove is the darkest of all comedies. And maybe that's so. Could there be anything darker than a nuclear end to the world brought about by human madness, ignorance, stupidity and hubris? Or a "Mutually Assured Destruction" revealing itself to be exactly that—M.A.D.? And yet, somehow, Kubrick and his brilliant team manage to make us laugh. Almost in spite of ourselves. After all, no matter how "over the top" it all might seem, there's always been something very real about Dr Strangelove. And I think we know it. Join us as we discuss the production, consider its themes, and reflect on (just some of) what the film might have to say to us today. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"Just as jellyfish, and woodpeckers, and ostriches have no rights, Homo sapiens have no rights also."—Yuval Noah Harari (2014) Once again, out of the blue, I'm putting out a short podcast. (This time it really is quite short.) It has to do with a TEDx talk by a certain Dr Yuval Noah Harari—a well-known professor of history and "public intellectual" (who is mates with Star Fleet Commander Klaus Schwab, I believe)—which he gave almost ten years ago, but which has recently "gone viral" and drawn comment from everyone and their cat (and their dog and their rabbit). Quite understandably though, because in that talk Dr Harari said some rather controversial things—things like: "Just as jellyfish, and woodpeckers, and ostriches have no rights, Homo sapiens have no rights also." Which—again, understandably—has niggled people somewhat. So, given that I was also niggled somewhat, I thought I'd niggle back. Somewhat. And share my nigglings. Anyway, that's what it's about. A niggle. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"Just as jellyfish, and woodpeckers, and ostriches have no rights, Homo sapiens have no rights also."—Yuval Noah Harari (2014) Once again, out of the blue, I'm putting out a short podcast. (This time it really is quite short.) It has to do with a TEDx talk by a certain Dr Yuval Noah Harari—a well-known professor of history and "public intellectual" (who is mates with Star Fleet Commander Klaus Schwab, I believe)—which he gave almost ten years ago, but which has recently "gone viral" and drawn comment from everyone and their cat (and their dog and their rabbit). Quite understandably though, because in that talk Dr Harari said some rather controversial things—things like: "Just as jellyfish, and woodpeckers, and ostriches have no rights, Homo sapiens have no rights also." Which—again, understandably—has niggled people somewhat. So, given that I was also niggled somewhat, I thought I'd niggle back. Somewhat. And share my nigglings. Anyway, that's what it's about. A niggle. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"People went a little crazy, a little fascist, during the so-called Covid pandemic. And now, here we are. There are two roads ahead. We have to choose ... you, me, all of us."—CJ Hopkins Out of the blue, I'm putting out a short podcast—short by my standards, that is; it's still almost half an hour—in which I simply talk about three recent (related) events that I think are important to note. And I'm calling it "Three Crumbings" because each item, in its own way, symbolises the ongoing crumbling of the old covid narrative as it tries to slope off into the distance in the hope of being forgotten. I won't reveal what items one and two are here—you'll probably know them anyway—but item three (which maybe fewer of you know about, and which is the main reason for doing this) concerns the extraordinary case of CJ Hopkins, the American playwright, author and political satirist living in Berlin whose court case has just ended with his being found not guilty of something that it was patently obvious he wasn't guilty of in the first place! "Kafkaesque" he calls it, and rightly so. Anyway, that's what it's about. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"People went a little crazy, a little fascist, during the so-called Covid pandemic. And now, here we are. There are two roads ahead. We have to choose ... you, me, all of us."—CJ Hopkins Out of the blue, I'm putting out a short podcast—short by my standards, that is; it's still almost half an hour—in which I simply talk about three recent (related) events that I think are important to note. And I'm calling it "Three Crumbings" because each item, in its own way, symbolises the ongoing crumbling of the old covid narrative as it tries to slope off into the distance in the hope of being forgotten. I won't reveal what items one and two are here—you'll probably know them anyway—but item three (which maybe fewer of you know about, and which is the main reason for doing this) concerns the extraordinary case of CJ Hopkins, the American playwright, author and political satirist living in Berlin whose court case has just ended with his being found not guilty of something that it was patently obvious he wasn't guilty of in the first place! "Kafkaesque" he calls it, and rightly so. Anyway, that's what it's about. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
If a $6,000,000 golden toilet fell on a spider would it look like an accident? Why are Vegemite sandwiches outlawed in Van Diemen's Land under the Treason Felony Act of 1848? How many giant mammoth meatballs does US President O'Biden keep under his chin? And will Frank Johnson raise enough cash through this evening's kickstarter to fund his ological research into the question: "Was Jesus born in Somerset?" These (and other important questions) are answered as we kick off 2024 here at TMR with our annual New Year's Eve show, a zany roundtable chat with high-ranking members of The Fireside Nephilim Chaps secret society. Join us—Jenifer Thyssen (classical singer), GK (Like Flint Radio), Frank Johnson (toaster strudel), Jeff Bankens (Strongman for Christ), Charles Philip Arthur George Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (affectionately known as His Majesty King Charles III, King of the United Kingdon and Other Commonwealth Realms), and Yours Truly—as we put aside the cares of this world for about an hour and discuss everything under the sun in aid of Frank's latest skientific research. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
If a $6,000,000 golden toilet fell on a spider would it look like an accident? Why are Vegemite sandwiches outlawed in Van Diemen's Land under the Treason Felony Act of 1848? How many giant mammoth meatballs does US President O'Biden keep under his chin? And will Frank Johnson raise enough cash through this evening's kickstarter to fund his ological research into the question: "Was Jesus born in Somerset?" These (and other important questions) are answered as we kick off 2024 here at TMR with our annual New Year's Eve show, a zany roundtable chat with high-ranking members of The Fireside Nephilim Chaps secret society. Join us—Jenifer Thyssen (classical singer), GK (Like Flint Radio), Frank Johnson (toaster strudel), Jeff Bankens (Strongman for Christ), Charles Philip Arthur George Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (affectionately known as His Majesty King Charles III, King of the United Kingdon and Other Commonwealth Realms), and Yours Truly—as we put aside the cares of this world for about an hour and discuss everything under the sun in aid of Frank's latest skientific research. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
“It is a personal film, and no reviewer, or critic, or viewer has ever given an interpretation that is my interpretation.”—David Lynch For the 15th Movie Roundtable here at TMR we welcome back our good friends Frank Johnson, Antony Rotunno and Mark Campbell for another four-way discussion, this time on David Lynch's cult surrealist "horror" film Eraserhead from 1977. Or is that perhaps not quite right? Each of us in the discussion loves the film Eraserhead (for various reasons), but I don't think any of us finds it exactly horrifying. Certainly, my reaction is more one of bemusement plus amusement, and the feeling that I'm a fly on the wall inside someone else's nightmare. So perhaps it would be better (for me) to call Eraserhead a "cult surrealist dark comedy nightmare film"? Or maybe that's not quite right either. Perhaps: a "cult surrealist nightmare-that-is-somehow-also-dark-comedy-without-ceasing-to-be-a-nightmare film"? That works for me, but I'd be just as happy to say that this film—which seems as strange today as when it first came out back in 1977—simply defies description. Join us as we discuss the film's production, ponder its meaning(s)—or lack thereof (?)—and consider what this "dream of dark and troubling things” might have to "say" to us today. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
“It is a personal film, and no reviewer, or critic, or viewer has ever given an interpretation that is my interpretation.”—David Lynch For the 15th Movie Roundtable here at TMR we welcome back our good friends Frank Johnson, Antony Rotunno and Mark Campbell for another four-way discussion, this time on David Lynch's cult surrealist "horror" film Eraserhead from 1977. Or is that perhaps not quite right? Each of us in the discussion loves the film Eraserhead (for various reasons), but I don't think any of us finds it exactly horrifying. Certainly, my reaction is more one of bemusement plus amusement, and the feeling that I'm a fly on the wall inside someone else's nightmare. So perhaps it would be better (for me) to call Eraserhead a "cult surrealist dark comedy nightmare film"? Or maybe that's not quite right either. Perhaps: a "cult surrealist nightmare-that-is-somehow-also-dark-comedy-without-ceasing-to-be-a-nightmare film"? That works for me, but I'd be just as happy to say that this film—which seems as strange today as when it first came out back in 1977—simply defies description. Join us as we discuss the film's production, ponder its meaning(s)—or lack thereof (?)—and consider what this "dream of dark and troubling things” might have to "say" to us today. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"There is no innocent explanation for a fraudulent autopsy."—Jacob Hornberger For the 60th anniversary of the tragic assassination of US President John F Kennedy on the 22nd of November 1963, we welcome back to the programme Jacob Hornberger, founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation in the US. Drawing upon his book The Kennedy Autopsy, and Douglas Horne's five-volume Inside the Assassination Records Review Board, Jacob Hornberger introduces us to many of the key controversies surrounding JFK's autopsy and explains why he believes there is no longer room for reasonable doubt that significant fraud was committed. Noting that "there is no innocent explanation for a fraudulent autopsy" and that it was carried out under military supervision, Jacob further argues that we are left with no option but to conclude that what took place was part of a regime-change operation by the US national security establishment. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"There is no innocent explanation for a fraudulent autopsy."—Jacob Hornberger For the 60th anniversary of the tragic assassination of US President John F Kennedy on the 22nd of November 1963, we welcome back to the programme Jacob Hornberger, founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation in the US. Drawing upon his book The Kennedy Autopsy, and Douglas Horne's five-volume Inside the Assassination Records Review Board, Jacob Hornberger introduces us to many of the key controversies surrounding JFK's autopsy and explains why he believes there is no longer room for reasonable doubt that significant fraud was committed. Noting that "there is no innocent explanation for a fraudulent autopsy" and that it was carried out under military supervision, Jacob further argues that we are left with no option but to conclude that what took place was part of a regime-change operation by the US national security establishment. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"These tumour cells don't know what hit them; they're struggling for their own existence."—Thomas N Seyfried We are joined by Professor Thomas N Seyfried, PhD—Professor of Biology at Boston College, Massachusetts, US—for an extended interview on his groundbreaking work into Cancer as a Metabolic Disease. In Professor Seyfried's view, cancer is best understood as a metabolic disease centred in mitochondrial dysfunction rather than primarily as a genetic disease (although, of course, genetic predispositon plays its part). This unconventional, but well-evidenced, concept promises to open the door to non-toxic cancer therapies using repurposed drugs in targeted ways (either instead of, or in addition to, chemotherapy and radiotherapy) in conjunction with ketogenic dietary strategies. (Professor Seyfried, who in 2012 published the groundbreaking work entitled Cancer as a Metabolic Disease : On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer, (Wiley : 2012), holds a PhD from the University of Illinois (1976), has a long and distinguished research record in areas such as Gene-Environmental Interactions, Lipid Biochemistry, Neurodegeneration, Ganglioside Storage Diseases, Epilepsy, Cancer, Metabolism, Brain Tumours, Autism, Ketogenic Diets, Dietary Energy Restriction, and currently serves as Professor of Biology at Boston College. In addition to having received numerous lifetime achievement awards for his work, he is also on the boards of several journals in the areas of his expertise.) Please note: Nothing in this conversation should be understood as personal medical advice. It is all for information purposes only. Please consult your doctor before making any changes to your diet, lifestyle, or medications. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"These tumour cells don't know what hit them; they're struggling for their own existence."—Thomas N Seyfried We are joined by Professor Thomas N Seyfried, PhD—Professor of Biology at Boston College, Massachusetts, US—for an extended interview on his groundbreaking work into Cancer as a Metabolic Disease. In Professor Seyfried's view, cancer is best understood as a metabolic disease centred in mitochondrial dysfunction rather than primarily as a genetic disease (although, of course, genetic predispositon plays its part). This unconventional, but well-evidenced, concept promises to open the door to non-toxic cancer therapies using repurposed drugs in targeted ways (either instead of, or in addition to, chemotherapy and radiotherapy) in conjunction with ketogenic dietary strategies. (Professor Seyfried, who in 2012 published the groundbreaking work entitled Cancer as a Metabolic Disease : On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer, (Wiley : 2012), holds a PhD from the University of Illinois (1976), has a long and distinguished research record in areas such as Gene-Environmental Interactions, Lipid Biochemistry, Neurodegeneration, Ganglioside Storage Diseases, Epilepsy, Cancer, Metabolism, Brain Tumours, Autism, Ketogenic Diets, Dietary Energy Restriction, and currently serves as Professor of Biology at Boston College. In addition to having received numerous lifetime achievement awards for his work, he is also on the boards of several journals in the areas of his expertise.) Please note: Nothing in this conversation should be understood as personal medical advice. It is all for information purposes only. Please consult your doctor before making any changes to your diet, lifestyle, or medications. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"The World Health Organization is attempting a global power grab."—James Roguski We are joined once again by the researcher, author and activist James Roguski for an update on the World Health Organisation's opaque and deeply concerning negotations to amend the International Health Regulations. As James explains: "The World Health Organization is attempting a GLOBAL POWER GRAB by seeking to have the 194 member nations of the World Health Assembly sign up to a completely new international agreement commonly referred to as the proposed “Pandemic Treaty”, in addition to seeking to adopt proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations. The proposed “Pandemic Treaty” would give the WHO control over “pathogens with pandemic potential” as well as control over the means of production within the Pharmaceutical, Hospital, Emergency Industrial Complex. It is an absolute abomination that must be stopped. The proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations would make the WHO’s proclamations legally binding rather than just advisory recommendations. The proposed amendments seek to institute global digital health certificates, dramatically increase the billions of dollars available to the WHO and enable nations to implement the regulations WITHOUT respect for the dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of people."—James Roguski [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"The World Health Organization is attempting a global power grab."—James Roguski We are joined once again by the researcher, author and activist James Roguski for an update on the World Health Organisation's opaque and deeply concerning negotations to amend the International Health Regulations. As James explains: "The World Health Organization is attempting a GLOBAL POWER GRAB by seeking to have the 194 member nations of the World Health Assembly sign up to a completely new international agreement commonly referred to as the proposed “Pandemic Treaty”, in addition to seeking to adopt proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations. The proposed “Pandemic Treaty” would give the WHO control over “pathogens with pandemic potential” as well as control over the means of production within the Pharmaceutical, Hospital, Emergency Industrial Complex. It is an absolute abomination that must be stopped. The proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations would make the WHO’s proclamations legally binding rather than just advisory recommendations. The proposed amendments seek to institute global digital health certificates, dramatically increase the billions of dollars available to the WHO and enable nations to implement the regulations WITHOUT respect for the dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of people."—James Roguski [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
For episode 300 of TMR—the 14th of our Movie Roundtables—we welcome back our good friends Mark Campbell, Frank Johnson and Antony Rotunno for a four-way discussion on the historical political thriller Thirteen Days (2000), starring Bruce Greenwood, Stephen Culp, Dylan Baker and Kevin Costner, directed by Roger Donaldson. Based upon the book The Kennedy Tapes : Inside the Cuban Missile Crisis by Ernest R May and Philip D Zelikow—(a massive work of over 700 pages containing transcripts of John F Kennedy's secret recordings of White House meetings during the Cuban Missile Crisis)—Thirteen Days retells and dramatises (with a mix of historical accuracy and artistic licence) the world-shaking events of 16th - 28th October 1962). Faced with photographic evidence of Russian nuclear missiles on Cuban soil during the height of the Cold War, Jack and Bobby Kennedy (along with various advisors) struggle to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Crisis in the midst of fear, uncertainty and opposition from their military chiefs. Join us as we discuss the film's production, ponder its historicity, and ask if there is anything to be learnt from it for the present time. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
For episode 300 of TMR—the 14th of our Movie Roundtables—we welcome back our good friends Mark Campbell, Frank Johnson and Antony Rotunno for a four-way discussion on the historical political thriller Thirteen Days (2000), starring Bruce Greenwood, Stephen Culp, Dylan Baker and Kevin Costner, directed by Roger Donaldson. Based upon the book The Kennedy Tapes : Inside the Cuban Missile Crisis by Ernest R May and Philip D Zelikow—(a massive work of over 700 pages containing transcripts of John F Kennedy's secret recordings of White House meetings during the Cuban Missile Crisis)—Thirteen Days retells and dramatises (with a mix of historical accuracy and artistic licence) the world-shaking events of 16th - 28th October 1962). Faced with photographic evidence of Russian nuclear missiles on Cuban soil during the height of the Cold War, Jack and Bobby Kennedy (along with various advisors) struggle to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Crisis in the midst of fear, uncertainty and opposition from their military chiefs. Join us as we discuss the film's production, ponder its historicity, and ask if there is anything to be learnt from it for the present time. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
We are joined once again by Rev Phill Sacre—an ordained minister (Church of England) and host of the YouTube channel "Sacred Musings"—for another thought-provoking and wide-ranging "post-covid" conversation in the series: "Following Christ in the New Old Normal". Strange as it might seem—given that Phill's ordained, and I'm a Methodist lay preacher—this time we centre our conversation in the character of "Satan", or "The Satan" (to be more precise). Reflecting upon the clear manifestation of Evil in the world (particularly over the last three years)—and trying to make sense of the strange, seemingly ubiquitous eruption of (what one might call) "woke" sensibilities in recent times—we discuss questions such as: Who, or what, is "The Satan"? What does "he" do? What sort of influence does "he" have in the world? Where did "he" come from? Has "he" always been this way? What is that "serpent" in the Garden of Eden narrative anyway? Just a snake? Or have we been missing something deeper—that perhaps the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah hint at—that might tell us something about "his" origins? (Phill is a Christian minister. Ordained in the Church of England, he formerly served in a parish on the Essex coast, but now leads an independent housechurch. He also runs the online ministries, "Understand the Bible" and "Sacred Musings : Building on Christian Foundations" (on YouTube).) [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
We welcome to the programme Jacob Hornberger, founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation in the US, for an interview on the historical and political circumstances leading up to the assassination of John F Kennedy on the 22nd of November 1963. Centering in the thesis that Kennedy's assassination is best understood as an instance of the US national security state's exercise of its illegitimate power of assassination, we discuss subjects such as: The Bay of Pigs, The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Berlin Crisis of 1961, Laos, Vietnam, and the CIA's alleged involvement in various regime-change operations around the world. (It is hoped that this will be the first of a number of TMR podcasts during 2023 relating to JFK's assassination.) (Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation [FFF], a non-profit educational foundation in the United States whose mission is to present the principled case for the libertarian philosophy. He received his B.A. in economics from The Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. After serving as a trial attorney for 12 years, he left the practice of law to enter the educational-foundation world. Jacob has written and spoken extensively on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and his assassination-related books include: An Encounter with Evil : The Abraham Zapruder Story; The Kennedy Autopsy; The Kennedy Autopsy 2; and Regime Change : The JFK Assassination. FFF has also published JFK’s War with the National-Security Establishment by Douglas Horne (who served on the staff of the Assassination Records Review Board), and CIA & JFK : The Secret Assassination Files by Jefferson Morley (a former investigative reporter for the Washington Post). FFF has also held two conferences relating to JFK, which featured presentations by Oliver Stone, Jeffrey Sachs, Stephen Kinzer, Michael J. Glennon, Ron Paul, Douglas Horne, Jefferson Morley, and others. Videos of the presentations at those conferences can be found in the Multimedia section of FFF’s website: fff.org.”)—FFF.org [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
We welcome again Paul Marik, M.D., a former tenured Professor of Medicine and former Chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) in Norfolk, Virginia, US, and now Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC). Dr Marik—who joined us back in 2020 to talk about the Alliance's famous "MATH+" protocol for treating covid-19—this time introduces us to the FLCCC's "EAT WELL" guide to fasting and healthy eating. We also hear from Dr Marik how, through following principles such as these, he has been able to make significant improvements in his own metabolic health. Prior to co-founding the FLCCC, Dr Marik was best known for his revolutionary work in developing a life-saving protocol for sepsis, a condition that causes more than 250,000 deaths yearly in the U.S. alone. Dr Marik is an accomplished physician with special knowledge in a diverse set of medical fields, with specific training in Internal Medicine, Critical Care, Neurocritical Care, Pharmacology, Anesthesia, Nutrition, and Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He is a former tenured Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) in Norfolk, Virginia. As part of his commitment to research and education, Dr Marik has written over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles, 80 book chapters and authored four critical care books. His efforts have provided him the distinction of the second most published critical care physician in the world. He has been cited over 43,000 times in peer-reviewed publications and has an H-index of 77. He has delivered over 350 lectures at international conferences and visiting professorships. As a result of his contributions, he has been the recipient of numerous teaching awards, including the National Teacher of the Year award by the American College of Physicians in 2017. In January 2022 Dr Marik retired from EVMS to focus on continuing his leadership of the FLCCC and has already co-authored over 10 papers on therapeutic aspects of treating COVID-19. In March 2022 Dr Marik received a commendation by unanimous vote by the Virginia House of Delegates for “his courageous treatment of critically ill COVID-19 patients and his philanthropic efforts to share his effective treatment protocols with physicians around the world.”—FLCCC Alliance NB: Nothing said in this podcast is personal medical advice. It is for information purposes only. Please consult your doctor before making any changes to your diet or taking any food supplements or medications. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
We are joined again by Dr Joshua Rasmussen (PhD, Notre Dame), associate professor of philosophy at Azusa Pacific University, for an in-depth—and, at times, somewhat mind-bending—conversation on his latest book, Who Are You, Really? : A Philosopher's Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Persons. In the book, published by InterVarsity Press (2023), Dr Rasmussen takes a deep—though very approachable—dive into the almost unfathomable waters of philosophy of mind and fundamental ontology, and invites the reader (as he does here the listener) to embark upon a journey of discovery towards possible understandings of Who We Really Are. "What does it mean to be human? Philosopher Joshua Rasmussen offers a step-by-step examination into the fundamental nature and origin of persons. Using accessible language and clear logic, he argues that understanding what it means to be a person sheds light not only on our own nature but also on the existence of the One who gave us life."—(IVPress.com) Joshua Rasmussen, who joined us in 2019 to talk about his book How Reason Can Lead to God, is also author of Defending the Correspondence Theory of Truth and The Bridge of Reason, coauthor of Necessary Existence and Is God the Best Explanation of Things?, and coeditor of A New Theist Response to the New Atheists. He lives in Azusa, California, with his wife Rachel and their five children. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
For the 13th TMR Movie Roundtable we welcome back our good friends Frank Johnson, Antony Rotunno and Mark Campbell for a discussion on the superb 2004 German-language war drama, Downfall ("Der Untergang") starring Bruno Ganz and directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. Based in part upon the memoirs of Hitler's last personal secretary, Gertraud "Traudl" Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara), Downfall tells the story of the final ten days of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime. As the Red Army closes in on Berlin in late April 1945, Hitler (Bruno Ganz) and those closest to him retreat to the Führerbunker, an elaborate air raid shelter next to the Reich Chancellery. Sitting in his Map Room, Hitler fantasises about a Third Reich victory and continues to make futile plans for his depleted forces. He berates his generals for cowardice and betrayal and ignores all advice that he should leave Berlin, preferring instead to die if the war is lost. As the realisation dawns that defeat is imminent, Hitler—still refusing to see fault in himself, but ony in those around him—swiftly marries his long-term partner Eva Braun (Juliane Köhler), and the two prepare a suicide pact. After the deadly deed is done (or is it?*), Joseph Goebbels (Ulrich Matthes) assumes the role of leader for one brief day, as he and his wife Magda (Corinna Harfouch) extend the insane ideology so far as to take the lives of their own six children in order to "save" them from a life without Hitler and the Third Reich, after which they too commit suicide. Swiftly thereafter comes unconditional surrender, as Traudl and others disappear into the Soviet lines and escape into the countryside. Join us as we disuss the production, consider if there are any lessons to learn for today, * and talk briefly (without reaching any firm conclusions) about the possibility that Hitler and Eva escaped from the Bunker and fled to Argentina. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"I think Jesus wants us to have a paradigm where we notice His truth and His beauty everywhere."—Andy Jennings We welcome back to the programme Andy Jennings—the brilliant singer-songwriter of the Christian indie band Dissident Prophet—for a wide-ranging conversation as part of the ongoing series here at TMR called: "Following Christ in the New Old Normal." In the first conversation, with Rev Phill Sacre, we discussed "awakeness" in the church and beyond. In the second, Pastor Stephen Buckley shared his perspective on the covid era, interpreting the response of so many churches in terms of God's constructive judgement upon the churches themselves. In the third, Jeremiah Allen explained his conviction that only with the Fruit of the Spirit will Christians successfully navigate the troubled waters of the days ahead. And in this fourth, wide-ranging conversation, Andy Jennings shares with us how a change of theological focus, plus a brush with death, helped prepare him for specific challenges during the covid era, and how choosing to see God in all things can transform our lives and position us positively in Christ to face the days to come. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"The World Health Organization is attempting a global power grab."—James Roguski We are joined by the researcher, author and activist James Roguski for an interview on the World Health Organisation's proposed "Pandemic Treaty" and on its ongoing negotations to amend the International Health Regulations. As James explains: "The World Health Organization is attempting a GLOBAL POWER GRAB by seeking to have the 194 member nations of the World Health Assembly sign up to a completely new international agreement commonly referred to as the proposed “Pandemic Treaty”, in addition to seeking to adopt proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations. The proposed “Pandemic Treaty” would give the WHO control over “pathogens with pandemic potential” as well as control over the means of production within the Pharmaceutical, Hospital, Emergency Industrial Complex. It is an absolute abomination that must be stopped. The proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations would make the WHO’s proclamations legally binding rather than just advisory recommendations. The proposed amendments seek to institute global digital health certificates, dramatically increase the billions of dollars available to the WHO and enable nations to implement the regulations WITHOUT respect for the dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of people."—James Roguski [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
This is a shorter-than-usual podcast in which I ask listeners a few important questions about the future "direction" of TMR. After that—as an excuse for a bit of fun, really—I take the opportunity to share one of my fake phone-ins. (Yes, you read that right!) Each week, at the invitation of Mark Campbell who hosts a hospital radio show here in the UK, I phone in as a fictitious person called John Ashe ("with an E") from Basingstoke, who chats with Mark and shares his "message of the week" for about ten minutes. (It's basically a very gentle comedy improvisation—on the edge of believability, although I don't think anyone actually believes it—and we simply see where the conversation leads as we try not to crack up on-air. So far we've kept a straight face (if you can say that about radio). In this recent episode, John talks about his dentist, Laura, who has a fascination with UFOs. "John Ashe ("spelt with an E") is either 60 or 62 years old and lives in Basingstoke, UK. In the 1970s he had two girlfriends (at different times), one called Maud, the other Molly. His hobbies include riding a pogo stick and walking with stilts (neither of which, contrary to the ignorant opinion of his newly trained GP, has any connection to his persistent back problems). Though not short of money, as a fairly successful, now-retired, quantity surveyor, John occasionally endeavours to supplement his pensions by buying and selling Cornish pasties and transporting them up and down the M6 to outlets from which he can gain the greatest profit before they go bad. He once (famously in Baskingtoke circles) won a second-hand lawnmower in a postal competition." [Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.] [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
Is a bee that identifies as a bee no longer a fish? How many covid boosters do you need to avoid a traffic accident? What's the difference between a lettuce and a UK Prime Minister? And will Frank Bot raise enough cash through this evening's kickstarter to fund their/prosecute/Fauci engineering research project to equip size-Z prosthetic breasts with helium-filled parachutes in the interests of air safety? These (and other vitally important questions) are answered as we kick off 2023 here at TMR with our annual New Year's Eve show—a crazy roundtable chat with high-ranking members of The Fireside Nephilim Chaps secret society.ViroDonate Join us—Jenifer Thyssen (classical singer), Crusy (Like Flint Radio), Frank Johnson (prosthetic parachute engineer), Frank Bot (A.I. prosthetic parachute engineer ), Mark Campbell (snowman spy), Oscar (the eighteen-year-old three-year-old), The Right Honourable Rishi Sunak, MP (the UK's selected "Prime Minister") and Yours Truly—as we put aside the cares of this world for just over an hour and debate every issue imaginable to the human mind in aid of Frank's latest skientific research. Be there, or be square. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
For this special TMR Movie Roundtable, we welcome back the veteran British journalist John Booth—who joins Mark Campbell, Antony Rotunno and Yours Truly—for an extended four-way conversation on the highly perceptive and well-made British TV series from 1988 entitled A Very British Coup.
Based upon the 1982 novel of the same name by journalist and Labour politician Chris Mullen, A Very British Coup follows the career-in-office of fictional UK Labour Prime Minister Harry Perkins (brilliantly played by Ray McAnally) whose radical policies ruffle the feathers of the Establishment. Opposed from its inception by deep-state actors in the media, intelligence services and civil service—and indeed by political and corporate interests on the other side of the Pond—Perkins' democratically elected left-wing government and Perkins himself quickly become the targets of smear campaigns and "dirty tricks" aimed at undermining him and reshaping his government along establishment lines. But Perkins is no fool; this working-class "man of the people" is also a shrewd observer of elite power, and the forces that oppose him find themselves locked in a contest for dominance that will not easily be won.
Join us as we discuss the series and consider similarities to, and differences from, the real-life Labour leaders Jeremy Corbyn (who referenced Harry Perkins in a recent interview) and Harold Wilson (against whom the "secret state" plotted in the 1970s).
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"Party politics is broken. It's time for independents."—Paul Greenall
We welcome to the programme the psychologist Dr Paul Greenall for an interview on his campaign to stand as an independent candidate for Member of Parliament here in the UK, and on the role of the so-called "pandemic" in shaping his current view of politics at Westminster.
Earlier this year, Paul, who works in the UK National Health Service, was facing the very distinct possibility of job loss—even career termination—because of the UK government's insane threat to make covid-19 injections mandatory for health workers. Thankfully, along with so many tens of thousands of his colleagues, Paul stood his ground and refused to give in to the pressure, a collective resistance which ultimately led to the government backing down on the idea, and an important signal to the vaccinators not to extend their mandates to further sectors of society. As a consequence— his life having been significantly impacted, and his trust in business-as-usual, party politics having evaporated—Paul is now preparing to stand as a truly independent candidate for MP in the local by-election here in West Lancashire, UK.
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"History began when humans invented gods, and will end when humans become gods."—Yuval Noah Harari
We welcome back to the programme Jeremiah Allen, a Christian entrepreneur now living in Belize, for a wide-ranging interview as part of the ongoing conversation here at TMR called: "Following Christ in the New Old Normal."
In the first conversation, with Rev Phill Sacre, we discussed "awakeness" in the church and beyond in the post-covid era. In the second conversation Pastor Stephen Buckley shared his perspective on the covid era, interpreting the response of so many churches in terms of God's constructive judgement upon the churches themselves. In this third conversation, Jeremiah Allen shares with us his conviction that only with the Fruit of the Spirit, developing in our lives through closeness to God, will the Christian successfully navigate the troubled waters of the days ahead.
Jeremiah joined us last year to discuss "Disruptions and Preparations", which in some ways could be seen as an introduction to the present series of conversations
"Jeremiah is a 42-year-old former US Army soldier and Iraq War veteran ('04-'05). After leaving military service, he worked as a Computer Network Security Expert for the US Missile Defense Agency. In 2013, he left his lucrative career and relocated his wife & two children to pursue ministry in Belize as an entrepreneur. Jeremiah is passionate about Jesus and sharing the Good News with others by living out the Great Commission in everyday life."
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
For the 11th of our TMR Movie Roundtables we welcome back our good friends Mark Campbell, Frank Johnson and Antony Rotunno for a four-way discussion on the 1973 eco-dystopian thriller movie Soylent Green, starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young and Edward G Robinson, directed by Richard Fleischer.
By 2022, the processes of industrialisation and consumerism have depleted the world's natural respources and led to extreme global warming, overpopulation and severe food shortages. To meet demand, the Soylent Corporation—a massive, government-connected enterprise supplying countless millions—has developed subsistence foodstuffs in the form of highly processed wafers known as Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow. But now, the inhabitants of New York City (numbering around 40,000,000) can look forward to a new product: Soylent Green, a highly nutritious wafer ostensibly made from plankton. But not all is as it seems, as detective Richard Thorn (Charlton Heston) and his researcher Sol Roth (Edward G Robinson) discover as they investigate the assassination of an influential board member of the Corporation. Soylent Green, it turns out, isn't quite as advertised. "Soylent Green is **!" (Just in case you haven't seen it yet).
Joins us as we discuss the film's production and storyline and consider some of its messages in relation to the real world of 2022.
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"They are not really in control. We have an illusion of democracy in this country. If you think Boris is the one making the decisions, if you think that Liz Truss is going to be the one making the decisions for this country, then I'm afraid you're completely out of touch with reality."—Matt Le Tissier
We welcome to the programme the football legend Matt Le Tissier, who joins us to talk about his experience of speaking out against aspects of the UK government's response to the so-called "pandemic" during the last two and a half years, and to share with us about his ongoing efforts to persuade footballing authorities to investigate the cause(s) of—what he believes to be—the worrying rise in cardiac-related events among fellow footballers. We also chat about his remarkabale career, the reasons why he has earned the affectionate nickname "Le God", and I get schooled in some of the basics about The Beautiful Game.
Throughout his professional club career Matt Le Tissier played for Southampton Football Club. Affectionately dubbed "Le God" and a footballing "geniius" by adoring Southampton fans for his creative and techincal brilliance as an attacking midfielder, Le Tissier became the first footballer to score one hundred goals in the Premier League, won eight "caps" for England, and is listed by UEFA as one of the top penalty scorers of all time. After retiring from the game, Le Tissier turned to broadcasting, and for fifteen years he regularly appeared on the Sky Sports programme "Soccer Saturday" until August 2020.
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
We welcome back our good friend Antony Rotunno—host of Life and Life Only podcast— for a conversation on the BBC's recent self-styled "documentary" entitled "Unvaccinated".
The programme was billed as an "eye-opening investigation" hosted by mathematician and British TV personality Professor Hannah Fry, the aim of which (according to the BBC) was to understand why a significant proportion of the UK population has decided to remain "unvaccinated against covid-19".
"To fully explore" (sic) the "complex and deeply divisive debate" (again, according to the BBC), Hannah Fry (or the BBC) invited seven covid-19-injection-free participants to share a house with her for several days (or part days?) in order to "unpack long-held opinions, beliefs and fears", "meet leading experts", "confront the latest science and statistics" and "dissect how misinformation spreads on social media"—all in anticipation of a final question: Would they change their minds and "take up the vaccine"?
Instead we were treated to a tendentious and patronising piece of establishment propaganda that -- while it could have been a lot worse, and was admittedly entertaining and engaging -- was essentially aimed at reinforcing the collapsing covid narrative.
Join us as we discuss the "documentary" and dissect its subtle—though, more often, not so subtle—use of propaganda techniques.
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"He closed your church, and you've fallen asleep the moment you've returned."—Steve Buckley
We welcome to the programme Pastor Stephen Buckley, leader of My King Church in Greater Manchester UK, for an interview as part of the ongoing conversation here at TMR called: "Following Christ in the New Old Normal."
In the first conversation, with Rev Phill Sacre, we discussed the importance of "awakeness" rather than "sleep" in the church and beyond in the post-covid era. In this second conversation (an interview), Pastor Stephen Buckley shares with us his perspective on the last two and a half years, interpreting the response of so many churches in terms of God's constructive judgement upon the churches themselves. As Pastor Buckley explains, this biblical-theological perspective—which sees God as ultimately sovereign over all events—allows us to ask tough questions of ourselves that we might otherwise never ask: What was God saying to us? Where have we gone wrong? And how should we move forward in Christ in the days ahead?
Born on the mission field in Asia, Stephen grew up in a family of teachers and preachers. He has previously been part of church-planting leadership and is presently pastor of My King Church in Greater Manchester where he resides with his wife and three children. Learn more at MyKing.com.
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"The stakes could not be higher, and it has never been more essential to seriously engage with uncomfortable possibilities – even if that means interrogating explanations that move beyond reducing what we are all experiencing to blunder and incompetence."—Dr Piers Robinson
We welcome to the programme Dr Piers Robinson—co-director of the Organisation for Propaganda Studies—for an in-depth interview on his recent article: "Cock-up or Conspiracy? Understanding COVID-19 as a ‘Structural Deep Event’ ".
As debate over "The Science" has intensified, increasing numbers of people are coming to question the Covid-19 Event. What best explains the often bizarre, and sometimes frightening, responses by authorities over the last two and a half years? Irrational panic by well-intentioned but incompetent politicians and health experts? Profiteering and power seeking by corporate and political vested interests? Or might we be looking at something more—a "structural deep event"—in which globally powerful actors might have harnessed (or even instigated) the Covid-19 Event in order to drive deep structural changes in society? Arguing that all possible explanations need to remain firmly on the table, Dr Robinson appeals to all thinking people to ask such difficult and uncomfortable questions, because to understand the past and the present is to guard the future and "the stakes could not be higher".
Dr Piers Robinson is a co-director of the Organisation for Propaganda Studies and was Chair/Professor in Politics, Society and Political Journalism, University of Sheffield, 2016-2019, Senior Lecturer in International Politics (University of Manchester 2010-2016) and Lecturer in Political Communication (University of Liverpool, 1999-2005). He researches and writes on propaganda, media, international politics and conflict.
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
We are joined once again by Rev Phill Sacre—an ordained minister in the Church of England and host of the YouTube channel "Sacred Musings"—for an unstructured and thought-provoking conversation on the subject: "Following Christ in the New Old Normal".
Many are saying "it's all over." We can "just move on." Put it all behind us and get back to the "Old Normal." But is any of that wise, or true? Can we really be confident—after two years of mass manipulation, grotesque profiteering and technocractic power grab—that the darkness we witnessed, just months ago, is really "all over"? And would it be right simply to "move on" and forget the lessons of the Covid Era? Indeed, why would we want to relive the exact Old Normal anyway?
Join us as we discuss what it might mean to follow Christ in the "New Old Normal" and how we might live out and encourage "awakeness" rather than "sleep" in the church and beyond.
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
For the second interview in our short series on the Ukraine Crisis—the first of which was with Dr Paul Craig Roberts—we are once again joined by the lawyer, writer and university lecturer Adeyinka Makinde, who has appeared on the programme several times in the past to speak on geopolitcal matters.
In this in-depth interview, recorded on 8 April 2022, Adeyinka Makinde draws upon his considerable knowledge and understanding of military history and international relations to share with us his perspective on the historical, political and geographical conditions that he argues have led to the current Crisis.
Adeyinka Makinde trained for the law as a barrister. He lectures in criminal law and public law at a university in London, and has an academic research interest in intelligence & security matters. He is a contributor to a number of websites for which he has written essays and commentaries on international relations, politics and military history. He has served as a programme consultant and provided expert commentary for BBC World Service Radio, China Radio International and the Voice of Russia.
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"Lies are being turned into truth, and fiction is being turned into fact."—PCR
We are joined once again by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former US Assistant Secretary to the Treasury for Economic Policy, for an in-depth interview on the current Ukraine Crisis.
In this conversation, recorded on 22 March 2022, Dr Roberts shares with us his perspective on the ongoing Crisis, setting the tragic events in their historical, geographical and political contexts.
"In addition to having held numerous senior academic positions in universities, Dr. Roberts was an associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and was appointed by US President Reagan as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during Reagan's first term in office, following which he served as a consultant to both the US Department of Defense and the US Department of Commerce. Dr. Roberts is now the Chairman of the The Institute for Political Economy."
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"What we have is a series of images of a pseudo-world, which combine in the mind of the individual to create a worldview detached from actuality."—Colin Alexander
We are joined by Dr Colin Alexander, Senior Lecturer in Political Communications at Nottingham Trent University, for a detailed conversation on the UK government's use of British wartime-style propaganda during (particularly the early days of) the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March 2020, Dr Alexander published a short video entitled "Coronavirus and the British Wartime Propaganda Playbook"—as part of a series of pieces on propaganda during the pandemic—and it is that presentation which serves as the springboard for our conversation today.
"Dr Colin Alexander is Senior Lecturer in Political Communications within the School of Arts and Humanities. He works in Communication and Society subject team and contributes teaching to the BA Joint Honours Humanities, BA Media Communication and Culture and the MA Media and Globalisation degree programmes."
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"We cannot trust the system, we cannot trust them with our children, we cannot trust them with our money..."—Henry Hildebrandt
We welcome to the programme the inspirational Pastor Henry Hildebrandt of The Church of God, Ontario, who joins us to discuss the recent Canadian Truckers' Protest and to share with us his extraordinary experience of having been intimately involved with the convoy in Ottawa for three weeks, pastoring, preaching and praying for protesters and police alike.
After explaining what triggered the protest, Pastor Hildebrandt draws upon his "boots-on-the-ground" experience to describe what happened both before and after Justin Trudeau inappropriately invoked the Canadian Emergencies Act. He also shares with us the amazing ways in which God was at work during those few weeks to bring people together in a spirit of fellowship and close co-operation, and spells out the crucial lessons that we all must learn from what he describes as God's victory in that situation.
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"We swim in a sea of assumptions we are largely unaware of."—David Charalambous
Do you find that some people are no longer paying attention to facts? Or not listening to reason? Are conversations just getting "shut down" almost before they start?
We are joined by David Charalambous, founder of The Reaching People Project, for a conversation on the aims and objectives of this important new project, and to gain some insights into the ways in which this project might help us all to communicate with people in these increasingly polarised times.
David Charalambous is the founder of Reaching People. He has a background of 25 years consulting to multinational clients, from regular mums and dads, through athletes, to business leaders. His skills, which include NLP, EFT, General Semantics, System Theory, Process Mapping, Dynamics and Communication, have enabled him to build models of communication with which he has had much success in helping people over the years.—(Adapted from Reaching People Project)
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
"I think society is pretty lost right now. And maybe, just maybe, my story can set one or two of us on a better path."—Cory Zue
We are joined by the software developer and entrepreneur Cory Zue for a conversation on his now well-known essay, "Coming Clean : My experience of the pandemic in South Africa and the case for a more inclusive conversation about Covid and vaccines".
The essay, which—if you will excuse the pun—quickly "went viral" after it was published on his blog on 4th January 2022, struck a chord with people—not least because it seemed to connect (in broad terms) with the experience of so many, but also because of its balance, its openness and its well-researched nature.
So, join us as we explore Cory's reasoning and personal experience as documented in the essay.
"Hi, I'm Cory. I'm a software developer and entrepreneur. I also write occasionally. These days I mostly work on SaaS Pegasus: the Django SaaS boilerplate. I also made Place Card Me—what I hope is the best way to make printable place cards on the internet. My website originated during a six-month sabbatical I took from my day job where I tried to launch a profitable product. I also write occasionally about building software. Oh, and I'm a one-man open startup. From 2007-2017 I served as CTO of Dimagi and led the team that builds its flagship product: CommCare. I'm now an advisor to the organization."—Cory Zue
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
Would you be professionally offended by a fake arm? How many nuts, bolts and screws can you swallow after a gin and tonic? Might parachutes and armrests save the world from climate change? And will Frank Johnson raise enough cash through this evening's kickstarter to fund his skientific research project to discover the SARS-CoV-2 Omega Variant so as to end the "pandemic"?
These (and other vitally important questions) are answered as we kick off 2022 here at TMR with our annual New Year's Eve show—a crazy roundtable chat with high-ranking members of The Fireside Nephilim Chaps, the secret society affiliated to The Mind Renewed, Like Flint Radio and The Iron Show.
Join us—GK and Crusy (Like Flint Radio), Johnny Iron (The Iron Show), Jenifer Thyssen (classical singer), Frank Johnson (Omega Variant skientist), Jeff Bankens (short-wave strongman), The Right Honourable Boris Johnson, MP (the UK's so-called "Prime Minister") and Yours Truly—as we put aside the cares of this world for a little under an hour and chat our socks off in aid of Frank's latest skientific research.
Be there, or be square. (And don't forget: "There was no party.")
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
“I’m drawing a line in the sand and showing my face for what I believe is right. I’m Standing with the intention to show enough is enough.”—Brady Gunn, Founder of ASITP
As many of you know, each Sunday morning I take part in "A Stand in the Park" in a nearby town here in Lancashire. Over the months I have been attending, I have found the experience very encouraging, not least because it has been great to talk to people who have similar (not identical) concerns about the way the world seems to be going, particularly since the so-called "pandemic".
So, I thought it would be good to share something of that experience with TMR listeners—in the form of an "audio diary" (which I've done before)—just to give a sense of the atmosphere of the Stands and to give an idea of the kinds of conversation that can take place.
So, please do join me—and my gracious friends at the Stand, who kindly agreed to speak for this recording—and consider it an encouragement to check out your local Stand (if there is one) and perhaps make it part of your own Sunday routine.
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
“We do not talk to say something, but to obtain a certain effect.”—Joseph Goebbels
We are joined by our doubleplusgood friend Antony Rotunno for a relaxed, unstructured--and fullwise informative--conversation on "Propaganda in the COVID Era". Rabbit. Custard.
Over the last two years (almost), we have been intimidated, cajoled, guilt-tripped and "nudged" (oh, what a cute word!) by the social engineers of Ingsoc. Where's your mother? Goodthinking behavioural psychologists, bellyfeeling mathematical epidemiologists, newspeaking media propagandists (and many other duckspeaking "ists" besides) have conspired to prod us out of our doubleplusungood ownlives into accepting so-called "non-pharmaceutical interventions" and "safe and effective" novel gene therapies in an ostensible "war" against a non-existentially threatening respiratory virus of dubious origin. Rudolph, can't see you now? Biscuits! Marigold? Fuzz, fuzz, fuzz.
So join us as we attempt to dissect—with some oldthinking help from Jacques Ellul—aspects of the "invisible government" of "experts", "nudgers", "partnerships", "initiatives" and other plusgood organs of Ingsoc's "inverted totalitarian" underbelly.
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
For the 10th of our TMR Movie Roundtables we welcome back our good friends Mark Campbell, Frank Johnson and Antony Rotunno for a four-way discussion on the 1978 conspiracy thriller, Capricorn One, starring Elliott Gould, James Brolin, Branda Vaccaro and Hal Holbrook, written and directed by Peter Hyams.
About to embark upon the first crewed mission to Mars, three NASA astronauts (played by James Brolin, Sam Waterston and OJ Simpson) find themselves suddenly removed from their command module, minutes before lift-off, and flown to a secret desert base. There they learn of an outrageous plan, hatched by establishment conspirators, to fake the Mars landing using a TV studio, props and themselves as actors—a deception in which they are forced to be complicit. Picking up on the trail of the conspiracy is news reporter Robert Caulfield (Elliott Gould), who goes further and further down the proverbial Rabbit Hole as tries to make sense of the increasing anomalies. But not all goes well—(or, perhaps, not all seems to go well)—with the plan. Upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, the astronauts' (crewless) module breaks up. Now, they are officially dead—their existence a threat to the lying narrative. Their only hope is to escape and reveal the plot to an incredulous world.
Join us as we discuss the film's production, ponder its the "conspiracy" themes, and ask the question: Did "we" really go to the Moon?
[Podcast theme music: "Crabs Up North" by KODOMASAN from the album "Capricorn One"; used with kind permission]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
"No one has been given or will be required to have a vaccine passport"—Nadhim Zahawi
We are joined once again by Rev Phill Sacre—an ordained minister in the Church of England and host of the YouTube channel "Sacred Musings : Making Sense of the World from a Christian Perspective"—for a second conversation on the theme of "COVID and the Churches".
In the previous conversation—TMR 267 (Part One)—we discussed the relationship between the UK churches (by and large) and the state during the so-called "pandemic", and asked to what extent the churches have been willing to critique (with reference to Scripture) the seemingly endless stream of diktats issuing from government. In this second conversation we venture into more controversial territory and discuss issues relating to the churches and Vaccine Passports, COVID-19 vaccination policy, and the perennial question: Is this the End?
[Please note that nothing said in this interview should be understood as medical advice in any way.]
"Phill is a Christian minister. He is ordained in the Church of England and serves on a part-time basis in a parish on the Essex coast. The remainder of his time he devotes to his online ministries: Understand the Bible and Sacred Musings : Making Sense of the World from a Christian Perspective (on YouTube)."
[Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
“Let one version come out, then another, then another. Let the public pick and choose. Nothing stinks more... than the classic seamless narrative.”—A Legacy of Chains
We welcome back the author Philip Kraske—who joined us in 2019 to discuss his novel, 11/9 and the Terrorist Who Loved Bonsai Trees—for a discussion about his latest book, A Legacy of Chains and Other Stories, a novella plus six shorter stories that "range from the personal to the political, from the comic to the dramatic".
In the novella, A Legacy of Chains, Kraske engages imaginatively with the issue of American POWs allegedly left behind in Vietnam after the Vietnam War, and crafts a vivid tale of nine American servicemen—now in their sixties and seventies—who turn up on the south coast of Spain having escaped from Vietnam after decades in captivity. By way of contrast in the short stories—"The Rainmaker", "Pioneer Woman", "Shoccer", "Alan the Newsboy", "Pirates" and "Exposures"—Kraske explores subjects as diverse as soccer, blackmail, poinsettia theft, and the imagined back-room planning for the "Raid" on Osama bin Laden's "compound" in Pakistan.
Join us as we discuss a few of the more "conspiratorial" aspects of the stories and consider some of the historical claims that underpin the fiction.
[Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
We are joined by the author Diny Fielder-van Kleeff, co-founder of the Vaccine Control Group—or, more fully, the SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Control Group—for an in-depth interview on the aims and objectives of this intriguiging and potentially highly significant "community cooperative" study.
"The Vaccine Control Group is a worldwide independent long-term study that is seeking to provide a baseline of data from unvaccinated individuals for comparative analysis with the vaccinated population, to evaluate the success of the Covid-19 mass vaccination programme and assist future research projects. This study is not, and will never be, associated with any pharmaceutical enterprise as its impartiality is of paramount importance. The VaxControlGroup is a community cooperative, for the people. All monies raised will be re-invested into the project and its community."—VaxControlGroup
"Diny previously worked as a corporate IT trainer and web designer before leaving to have children. She is currently a home-educating mum to two of her three daughters and a creative writing teacher, author and poet, although most of her writing work has been put on hold due to the commitments of the Control Group."—Diny
[Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
“I’m drawing a line in the sand and showing my face for what I believe is right. I’m Standing with the intention to show enough is enough.”—Brady Gunn, Founder
We are joined by Sophia Rose ("FiFi"), the founder of A Stand In The Park (UK), for a conversation on the history and aims of this difficult-to-define, but hugely important, global movement of concerned citizens.
"A Stand in the Park unites people in parks all over the world every Sunday morning, 10 - 11 am local time. We Stand in the Park to celebrate freedom, diversity and fairness for all.
Brady Gunn started A Stand in the Park in Hyde Park, Sydney, Australia. Brady made a Stand, alone at first, for his personal truth. In Brady’s early Facebook videos he talked about making a Stand for freedom—for our elderly, our children, our jobs and small businesses—against lockdowns, harmful new laws, the ‘pandemic’ and the people behind ‘The Great Reset’. Brady invited others to join him and Stand in THEIR personal truth. It took almost three months, but eventually they came.
At the beginning of 2021 he reconnected with his UK-based friend FiFi Rose, and she was profoundly inspired by the message. FiFi worked tirelessly to spread the Stands to every corner of the British Isles. Since then, the concept has well and truly caught fire, and there are now about 1000 parks participating every Sunday morning across Australia, New Zealand, England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, Denmark, Hungary, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Malta, Germany, France, Mexico, Canada and the USA."
[Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
"And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends... the Word did everything."—Martin Luther
We welcome to the programme Rev Phill Sacre—an ordained minister in the Church of England and host of the YouTube channel "Phill Sacre : Making Sense of the World from a Christian Perspective"—for a conversation on "COVID and the Churches".
How have most of the UK churches responded to the seemingly endless stream of diktats issuing from government? Have such "rules" been submitted to adequate rational and theological questioning? Or have the churches too often been content simply to toe the line because that has seemed like "the right thing to do"? But has that always been "the right thing to do?"
(Part Two will be recorded in a few weeks from now.)
"Phill is a Christian minister. He is ordained in the Church of England and serves on a part-time basis in a parish on the Essex coast. The remainder of his time he devotes to his online ministries: Understand the Bible and Phill Sacre : Making Sense of the World from a Christian Perspective (on YouTube)."
[Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
For the 9th of our TMR Movie Roundtables we welcome back our good friends Mark Campbell and Frank Johnson for a three-way discussion on Steven Spielberg's 1977 sci-fi classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Inspired by the unlikely combination of "When you wish upon a star" from Disney's Pinocchio and the Watergate Scandal, Spielberg's masterpiece tells a double-threaded story of "close encounters" with alien phenomena—in fly-on-the-wall style—that culminates in one of the most amazing cinematic experiences of all time.
In one thread, intergovernmental researchers find decades-old aircraft (still new) and a ship in the middle of a desert, and discover that people around the globe are hearing the same five-note melody from the sky. In the other thread, electrical linesman Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss)—among other "chosen" individuals—witnesses strange lights overhead and becomes obsessed with the shape of a particular geological formation. Eventually the two threads combine in a "close encounter of the third kind" in which human contact with extraterrestrial beings is established.
Join us as we reminisce about our experiences with the film, discuss the production and reflect theologically upon its themes.
[Podcast theme music: Moment of Green by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
With the kind permission of investigative author John Leake—who recently joined us on the programme—TMR presents his important interview with the brilliant and courageous Dr Peter A McCullough. In the words of John Leake:
"Dr. Peter McCullough has been the world's most prominent and vocal advocate for early outpatient treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection in order to prevent hospitalization and death. On May 19, 2021, I interviewed him about his efforts as a treating physician and researcher. From his unique vantage point, he has observed and documented a profoundly disturbing policy response to the pandemic—a policy response that may prove to be the greatest malpractice and malfeasance in the history of medicine and public health."
"Dr McCullough is an internist, cardiologist, epidemiologist, and Professor of Medicine at Texas A & M College of Medicine, Dallas, TX USA. Since the outset of the pandemic, Dr McCullough has been a leader in the medical response to the COVID-19 disaster and has published “Pathophysiological Basis and Rationale for Early Outpatient Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Infection” the first synthesis of sequenced multidrug treatment of ambulatory patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the American Journal of Medicine and subsequently updated in Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine. He has 40 peer-reviewed publications on the infection and has commented extensively on the medical response to the COVID-19 crisis in TheHill and on FOX NEWS Channel. On November 19, 2020, Dr McCullough testified in the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and throughout 2021 in the Texas Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, Colorado General Assembly, and New Hampshire Senate concerning many aspects of the pandemic response."
[The audio included in this podcast is Copyright © 2021 John Leake, all rights reserved, and used here with express permission.]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
We are joined by the award-winning author John Leake for a conversation about the astonishing interview he conducted in May 2021 with the eminent US physician and academic Dr Peter McCullough.
In that interview, which quickly went viral—and which features in the next podcast (TMR 265)—Dr McCullough tells his own story of pursuing early COVID-19 treatment for the sake of patients, describes the resistance by powerful institutions, and shares his deep concerns about COVID-19 vaccine safety in the context of continuing moves to push mandatory (or de facto mandatory) COVID-19 vaccination.
In this conversation, John Leake explains why he conducted the interview, and shares with us his views as to how Dr McCullough's powerful words fit into the story of COVID-19 which John has been researching since March 2020 in his capacity as an investigative author.
"Born in Dallas, Texas, John Leake studied history and philosophy with Sir Roger Scruton at Boston University. After moving to Austria on a graduate scholarship, he remained in Vienna for over a decade working as a freelance writer and translator. His first book, Entering Hades: The Double Life of a Serial Killer, was a New York Times Sunday Book Review "Editors' Choice," a Men's Vogue "Best Book of 2007," and the inspiration for The Infernal Comedy, starring John Malkovich. His second book, Cold a Long Time: An Alpine Mystery, won the 2012 Independent Publisher Award, and the German translation, Eiskalter Tod, received extensive media coverage in Austria and became a bestseller. His investigative work for the Jack Unterweger, Duncan MacPherson, and Angelika Foeger stories has been the subject of numerous television documentaries produced by A&E Biography, Discovery, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's "Fifth Estate," and the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation's "Am Schauplatz Gericht."
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
What might it mean to "prep" and "fast" in a world of disruptions?
Over the last year and a half, so many lives have been disrupted, damaged or even ended by the SARS-CoV-2 "pandemic"—indeed, each of us has been affected to some to degree or other—and many vested interests seem intent on ensuring that the disruptions will continue into the forseeable future. So, how might the believer in God—and specifically the Christian—best react to this situation?
We are joined by Jeremiah Allen, a Christian entrepreneur now living in Belize, who testifies to the ways in which God has used disruptions in his life—military deployment in Iraq, the 2011 Japanese earthquake, and going down the proverbial "rabbit hole" in response to media lies—to bring him closer to Christ and develop within him a desire for Christian ministry. Drawing upon these experiences, Jeremiah encourages us to "live a life of fasting" (which might, or might not, involve fasting!) and "prep" in anticipation of life's disruptions—spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically—while always "leaning on" the One who made us.
"Jeremiah is a 41-year-old former US Army soldier and Iraqi war veteran ('04-'05). After leaving military service, he worked as a Computer Network Security Expert for the US Missile Defense Agency. In 2013, he left his lucrative career and relocated his wife & two children to pursue ministry in Belize as an entrepreneur. Jeremiah is passionate about Jesus and sharing the Good News with others by living out the Great Commission in everyday life."
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
"Look at where the money's coming from. Now the money has strings attached. People give the WHO money, but they say: 'We want you to do this, or study that, and we want you to use our consultants and our experts and our scientists.' Many of them come from Pharma. Pharma has pretty much completely infiltrated this organisation."—Dr Pierre Kory
With the kind permission of the FLCCC Alliance, TMR presents an important and impassioned lecture by Pierre Kory, MD, MPA, who heads up the FLCCC Alliance.
Complementing our December interview with Professor Paul Marik, which explored the role of the effective, well-tolerated and inexpensive drug ivermectin in the fight against COVID-19, in this lecture Dr Kory goes further to deliver a broader message: a message about the ways in which the medical-industrial complex—involving entities such as the so-called World Health Organisation, BigPharma, and national health agencies, medical journals and mainstream media (particularly in the West)—seem to be acting systematically to suppress ivermectin as a treatment for, or prophylaxis against, COVID-19, because it threatens to stand in the way of massive corporate profits.
[The audio included in this podcast is Copyright © 2021 FLCCC Alliance, all rights reserved, and used here with express permission.]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
“Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories.”—US President George W. Bush (first national address following 9/11)
We are joined by Dr M R. X. Dentith—Associate Professor in the International Center for Philosophy at Beijing Normal University—for the second instalment of a two-part interview on the subject of Conspiracy Theory Theory.
In this second part we continue to focus upon the important 2018 book edited by Dr Dentith—"Taking Conspiracy Theories Seriously"—and move on to discuss the second section of the volume entitled "Diagnosing Conspiracy Theory Theorists", in which Dr Dentith and their colleagues take on arguments by fellow academics who seek to "pathologise" conspiracy theorists.
M R. X. Dentith, PhD (Auckland), is the author of The Philosophy of Conspiracy Theories (Palgrave, 2014), the first single-author book-length treatment of the philosophical issues surrounding conspiracy theory, and editor of Taking Conspiracy Theories Seriously (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018), an edited collection of the most recent work on conspiracy theory theory. They have been a Fellow in the Institute for Research in the Humanities (ICUB) at the University of Bucharest and the New Europe College in Bucharest, and they are currently Associate Professor in the International Center for Philosophy at Beijing Normal University. Their current research project focuses on conspiracy theory, conspiracy theory theory, and secrecy.
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
Many people say it's irrational to believe in conspiracy theories. But is that really true?
We are joined by Dr M R. X. Dentith—Associate Professor in the International Center for Philosophy at Beijing Normal University—for the first instalment of a two-part interview on the subject of Conspiracy Theory Theory. Focusing upon the essential (and approachable) book edited by Dr Dentith entitled "Taking Conspiracy Theories Seriously" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018), in this first instalment we lay the groundwork for the conversation and then go on to discuss the first section of the volume entitled, "The Particularist Turn in the Philosophy of Conspiracy Theories".
M R. X. Dentith, PhD (Auckland), is the author of The Philosophy of Conspiracy Theories (Palgrave, 2014), the first single-author book-length treatment of the philosophical issues surrounding conspiracy theory, and editor of Taking Conspiracy Theories Seriously (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018), an edited collection of the most recent work on conspiracy theory theory. They have been a Fellow in the Institute for Research in the Humanities (ICUB) at the University of Bucharest and the New Europe College in Bucharest, and they are currently Associate Professor in the International Center for Philosophy at Beijing Normal University. Their current research project focuses on conspiracy theory, conspiracy theory theory, and secrecy.
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
For this exclusive interview with TMR, we are joined by Dr Malcam B Splead—Head of Snow Studies in the University of Devizes, UK, for an in-depth conversation on the intriguing subject of The Snowosphere, a hitherto much neglected topic in the field of Snow Studies, but one that is quietly gaining attention in the halls of scientific academia.
Under the right conditions, snow simply "falls" to the ground. Or does it? But what if this so-called "falling" should turn out to be merely a feature of human perception? What if, contrary to all expectations, this oh-so-familiar phenomenon should best be explained by counterintuitive interactions between the Earth itself and this strange, neglected entity - The Snowosphere?
As Dr Iain Livermore explains:
"Should a scientific consensus on the matter be finally reached, Snowosphere Theory not only promises to revolutionise the discipline of snowology, it may even come to challenge our ideas about gravity, mass and the role of mathematics in the description of empirical observations." (Iain Livermore, ed., "An Introduction to Snow Studies", OUP (2009))
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
In this special "swapcast" between TMR and Film Gold we are joined by our good friends Antony Rotunno (host of the new Film Gold podcast) and Jenifer Thyssen (classical singer) for the 8th in our Movie Roundtable series. This time our subject is the wonderful 1993 "fantasy romcom" (or is it "fantasy comrom"?) Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, directed by Harold Ramis.
While on location filming the annual celebration of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, cynical and jaded TV weather presenter Phil Connors (Bill Murray) finds himself inexplicably caught up in a mysterious time loop that forces him to re-live the same day—Grounhog Day (which he loaths)—over and over again for a seeming eternity. The inexorable repetition (which he alone experiences) thrusts him into a succession of psychological states—confusion, denial, nihilistic anger, extreme selfishishness, and finally acceptance—as he is forced to interact with the events and people of that seemingly endless February 2nd. Yet only at the point when he himself has changed inside, such that he gains the true affection of TV producer Rita Hanson (Andie MacDowell), does the time loop cease and his life begin again in a new way.
Join us as we discuss the production, and reflect theologically/psychologically on the film's messages and implications.
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
We welcome back to the programme Dr. Mobeen Syed, MD, MS—(and his famous cat, Loofy!)—for an interview on "Ivermectin Mechanisms of Action with Respect to COVID-19". More widely known as "Dr Been", Dr. Syed is CEO and founder of Drbeen : Personalized Medical Education and host of the excellent Drbeen Medical Lectures YouTube channel.
Back in December, we were joined by Professor Paul Marik, M.D., who introduced us to the "I-MASK+ Protocol" for COVID-19, central to which is the cheap, plentiful and well-tolerated drug ivermectin—a substance which, in Dr. Marik's opinion, has the potential (when correctly administered by medical doctors) to save countless lives.
But how, in this context, is ivermectin understood to work?
Drawing upon his knowledge and skill as a practising doctor and teacher of medical concepts, Dr. Syed gently leads us through the complex biochemistry—with helpful illustrations—and provides us some insights into the ways by which ivermectin might work in the fight against COVID-19.
(NB: Nothing said in this podcast should be understood as medical advice. Please consult your doctor before taking any medications or making any changes to your diet by way of food supplements.)
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
For the 7th of our TMR Movie Roundtable podcasts we welcome back our good friends Frank Johnson (Ancient Aliens Debunked blog) and Mark Campbell (Bowler or Fez Film Reviews) for a three-way discussion on the 1978 "horror film" (or is it?) The Shout, starring Alan Bates, Susannah York and John Hurt.
Based upon a short story of the same name by the Twentieth-Century British poet and novelist Robert Graves, the The Shout tells an intriguing and many-layered tale about a strange and sinister traveller, Charles Crossley (Alan Bates), who claims to have used his magical powers to invade the lives of a married couple, Anthony and Rachel Fielding (John Hurt and Susannah York), in their isolated house in the Devon countryside. Elaborating on his story, Crossley describes how he seduced Rachel using sympathetic magic and almost killed Anthony by exposing him to The Shout, a terrifying skill that Crossley claims to have mastered while living with Aboriginal Australian shamans for eighteen years.
Listening patiently to Crossley's extravagant story is Robert Graves himself (played by Tim Curry), who wonders at this strange man's tale. Could it possibly be true? Or is it more likely just the fanciful product of an—admittedly intelligent and educated, but—unbalanced creative imagination? How is he to decide?
And how, asks the film, are we?
Join us as we consider the film's production, discuss its storyline, and reflect theologically upon the possible meanings of this most unusual film.
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
Whats' the connection between Bees, those Weird Monoliths that keep cropping up around the globe, and Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Klaus Schwab's Great Reset? Could Charles Darwin be wrong, and Darwin Charles be right that all life evolved from a single Primordial Bee? Has the US government signed a contract with extraterrestrial life forms to work together on a secret base on Mars? And will Dr. Frank Johnson raise enough through this evening's kickstarter to fund his field trip to look for fossilised bees?
These (and other important questions) shall be answered as we kick off 2021 here at TMR with our annual New Year's Eve show—a crazy roundtable chat with high-ranking members of The Fireside Nephilim Persons secret society.BeeDonate
Join us—Prof. GK (of Like Flint Radio), Dame Jenifer Thyssen (classical singer), Dr. Frank Johnson (Bee Evolution expert), Sir Mark Campbell (TMR's head escapologist), Lord Jeff Bankens (strongman extraordinaire) and SARS-CoV-2 (a rather nasty piece of work of distinctly dubious origin) —as we put aside the cares of this world for an hour or so and chat our socks off in aid of Dr. Johnson's research.
Be there, or be square!
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
We are joined by Professor Paul Marik, M.D., Endowed Professor of Medicine and Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine in the Eastern Virginia Medical School, for an interview on the work of his alliance—Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC)—and its ground-breaking treatment protocols for COVID-19.
Best known for its "MATH+" protocol which included an option to use the well-known drug ivermectin, the Alliance has now developed a new protocol, "I-MASK+", that places ivermectin centre stage—a cheap, ubiquitous and well-tolerated drug which, in combination with other treatments and properly administered by medical doctors, has the potential to save countless thousands of lives.
Dr. Marik also shares with us about some of the struggles he and his colleagues have experienced in trying to alert the world to these developments, and laments the ongoing "crimes against humanity" as life-saving treatments are widely ignored due to financial and politicial pressures.
Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
We are joined once again by James Corbett of The Corbett Report for an interview on the so-called "Great Reset", the global technocratic "initiative" that is being openly pushed by the World Economic Forum and its outspoken founder and chairman Klaus Schwab.
WEF: "COVID-19 lockdowns may be gradually easing, but anxiety about the world’s social and economic prospects is only intensifying. There is good reason to worry: a sharp economic downturn has already begun, and we could be facing the worst depression since the 1930s. But, while this outcome is likely, it is not unavoidable.
To achieve a better outcome, the world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions. Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a “Great Reset” of capitalism."
Quotation form the WEF Great Reset website (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
For the 6th of our Movie Review podcasts here at TMR we welcome back our good friends Antony Rotunno (Freethinker75 blog), Frank Johnson (Ancient Aliens Debunked blog) and Mark Campbell (Bowler or Fez Film Reviews) for a roundtable discussion on the 1999 based-on-truth thriller The Insider directed by Michael Mann and starring Russell Crowe, Al Pacino and Christopher Plummer.
Unceremoniously ejected from the third largest tobacco company in the US, research scientist and high-up executive Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe) has a story to tell that 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) s desperate to get his hands on. But personal threats against Wigand and his family, and legal threats against CBS if they venture to air Wigand's story, almost succeed in silencing the whistleblower. In the end his words do become public, and his testimony has huge implications for the tobacco industry, but in the process we witness the wheels of power attempting to crush the Lone Voice and a media landscape compromised by the pressures of legal and financial challenges.
Join us as we discuss the film's production and consider some of the messages implied by the movie's storyline.
[Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
For Part Two of this special two-part interview we are joined by ex-Mormon apologist Michael Flournoy for a detailed and highly-personal conversation on his new autobiographical book, Falling into Grace : How a Mormon Apologist Stumbled into Christianity, published in August 2020.
Brought up in the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", Michael Flournoy spent three decades as an ardent follower of the LDS religion. After serving as an LDS missionary in Anaheim California, where he gained experience in publicly debating Evangelical Christians, Michael went on to publish a book entitled, "A Biblical Defense of Mormonism", and continued to debate Christians online and in public. In 2015 he decided to devote himself to studying the subject of "grace" in the Bible in order to become a more effective advocate for Mormon beliefs, only to find his world turned upside-down by the very God of Grace he sought to understand.
TMR is very pleased to welcome Michael back to the show, who joined us back in 2015 for an online debate in his then role as a Mormon apologist.
[Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
For this special two-part interview we are joined by ex-Mormon apologist Michael Flournoy for a detailed and highly-personal conversation on his new autobiographical book, Falling into Grace : How a Mormon Apologist Stumbled into Christianity, published in August 2020.
Brought up in the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", Michael Flournoy spent three decades as an ardent follower of the LDS religion. After serving as an LDS missionary in Anaheim California, where he gained experience in publicly debating Evangelical Christians, Michael went on to publish a book entitled, "A Biblical Defense of Mormonism", and continued to debate Christians online and in public. In 2015 he decided to devote himself to studying the subject of "grace" in the Bible in order to become a more effective advocate for Mormon beliefs, only to find his world turned upside-down by the very God of Grace he sought to understand.
TMR is very pleased to welcome Michael back to the show, who joined us back in 2015 for an online debate in his then role as a Mormon apologist.
[Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
For the 5th of our Movie Review podcasts here at TMR we welcome back our good friends Frank Johnson (of the Ancient Aliens Debunked blog) and Mark Campbell (of Bowler or Fez Film Reviews) for a roundtable discussion on the 1972 classic sci-fi movie Silent Running, starring Bruce Dern and directed by Douglas Trumbull.
Having been tasked for years with preserving Earth's last remaining forests—now housed in large geodesic domes on the spaceship Valley Forge orbiting Saturn—botanist Freeman Lowell (played by Bruce Dern) at length receives orders to abandon the project, destroy the forests and return the spaceship to commercial service. Horrified by the callousness and insanity of the orders, Freeman takes matters into his own hands, kills his insouciant work colleagues and hijacks the Valley Forge in an attempt to rescue Earth's last ecological treasures. But from that moment on he has only the forests and the robots—"Huey", "Dewey" and "Louie"—for company in the lonely silence of space.
Join us as we discuss many aspects of the film's production and ponder some of the ethical and worldview questions thrown up by its storyline.
[Podcast theme music: Moment of Green by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
We are joined once again by J. Michael Bennett, PhD—a.k.a. "Dr Future" of the classic Future Quake radio show (2005-2012)—for Part Two of a conversation on his challenging book, "Two Masters and Two Gospels, Volume 1 : The Teaching of Jesus Vs. the “Leaven of the Pharisees” in Talk Radio and Cable News".
In the first conversation we talked about the spiritual and political aspects of his book. In this second conversation Dr. Bennett shares with us some of the historical data supporting the arguments in his book, some of which are quite eye-opening.
J. Michael Bennett holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, and worked as a US Defense Department scientist, successful high-tech inventor and entrepreneur. For several years he produced the influential Future Quake show for local radio and the Internet, and his work has been profiled on PBS, CNN and Scientific American. He also served as an invited speaker on religion for a United Nations NGO. He and his wife reside in Nashville, and his books are featured at MikeBennettBooks.com.
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”—LK 16:13 (NIV)
We are joined by J. Michael Bennett, PhD—a.k.a. "Dr Future" of the classic Future Quake radio show (2005-2012)—for part one of a conversation on his challenging, controversial, yet timely and necessary book, "Two Masters and Two Gospels, Volume 1 : The Teaching of Jesus Vs. the “Leaven of the Pharisees” in Talk Radio and Cable News", published by Akribos Press. In this first chat, we also take the opportunity to discuss the excellent documentary that Dr. Bennett co-produced, which—in the manner of a gripping whodunnit—sleuths out and answers key mysteries surrounding the enigmatic Georgia Guidestones, sometimes referred to as an "American Stonehenge".
J. Michael Bennett holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, and worked as a US Defense Department scientist, successful high-tech inventor and entrepreneur. For several years he produced the influential Future Quake show for local radio and the Internet, and his work has been profiled on PBS, CNN and Scientific American. He also served as an invited speaker on religion for a United Nations NGO. He and his wife reside in Nashville, and his books are featured at MikeBennettBooks.com.
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
"What are the odds that the #1, #2, and #3 medical journals in the world independently, but virtually simultaneously, published flawed studies that happened to dovetail with a specific media narrative?"—Simone Gold, MD
We welcome to the programme Dr. Simone Gold, MD, JD—an emergency physician and lawyer based in Los Angeles—for an in-depth conversation on the subject of the politicisation of the hydroxychloroquine. Dr. Gold's blog—The Gold Opinion : Facts Lead, Opinions Follow - Five Minutes with a Doctor-Lawyer - Conventional Wisdom Debunked—can be found at https://thegoldopinion.com/
"Simone Gold, MD, JD, FABEM, is a board certified emergency physician. She graduated from Chicago Medical School before attending Stanford University Law School to earn her Juris Doctorate degree. She completed her residency in Emergency Medicine at Stony Brook University Hospital in New York. Dr. Gold worked in Washington D.C. for the Surgeon General, as well as for the Chairman of the Labor & Human Resources Committee. She works as an emergency physician on the frontlines whether or not there is a pandemic. Her clinical work serves all Americans: from urban-inner city, to suburban, to the IHS. Her legal work has focused on conflicts between hospitals and insurers. She writes on a number of policy issues relating to law and medicine. She always leads with the facts."
(NB: Nothing said in this podcast should be understood as medical advice. Please consult your doctor before taking any medications.)
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
We welcome to the programme Dr. Mobeen Syed, MD, MS—CEO and founder of Drbeen : Personalized Medical Education, and host of the excellent Drbeen Medical Lectures YouTube channel—for an interview on dietary supplements that he believes may prove helpful in the body's resistance to, and/or fight against, COVID-19.
We discuss: Vitamin C, Vitamin D3, Zinc, Quercetin, and N-acetylcisteine (NAC).
Dr. Mobeen also shares with us his experience of prescribing hydroxychloroquine (in conjunction with other substances) for COVID-19, and gives his reaction to "Lancetgate" (the events surrounding the recent deeply-flawed HCQ/CQ study published by The Lancet).
(NB: Nothing said in this podcast should be understood as medical advice. Please consult your doctor before making any changes to your diet by way of food supplements.)
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
"In 1996 a deranged veterinarian sent a nest of mice into orbit. Only one of them survived."—Dean Jordan
On Saturday 30th May 2020, the world looked on as SpaceX and NASA celebrated their successful mission to send two astronauts to the International Space Station, but only the most eagle-eyed noticed the fleeting appearance on the live camera feed of Space Mouse, a tiny rodent-like thing that dashed to and fro around the rim of the craft's Merlin Vacuum engine.
But was Space Mouse really a mouse? Have NASA and SpaceX given the game away—or let the cat out of the bag—by inadvertently revealing their mouse-infested film studios? Or was Space Mouse an unfortunate verminous passenger that just happened to survive long enough in such maximally-hostile conditions to make its brief debut on camera? Or was it perhaps one of Elon Musk's robot spacecraft maintenance mice?
Join us—Johnny Iron, Mark Campbell, Jenifer Thyssen and Yours Truly—as we painstakingly analyse the footage, "join the dots" and reveal the truth that "they" don't want us to know.
[Podcast music Copyright © 2020 Dean Jordan of DEANOMINATOR TouTube channel, all rights reserved, used with kind permission.]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
"Each person who tries to see beyond his own time must face questions to which there cannot yet be proven answers."—from The Illustrated Man
For the fourth of our Movie Review podcasts here at TMR we welcome back our good friends Frank Johnson (of the Ancient Aliens Debunked blog) and Mark Campbell (of Bowler or Fez Film Reviews) for a roundtable discussion on the 1969 classic movie The Illustrated Man, starring Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom, based on Ray Bradbury's sci-fi short story collection of the same name.
Taking just three of Bradbury's stories—"The Veldt", "The Long Rain" and "The Last Night of the World"—the film ties them together, as does the book, with the framing device of "The Illustrated Man", a vagrant ex-circus-freak-show-performer with a heavily tattooed body, whose "body illustrations"—created by an allegedly time-travelling woman—seem to possess a supernatural power to transfix anyone who stares at the images and transport them into "the future".
But is this really about "the future", or is it something more like "possible worlds"? Are we looking at science fiction here, or is it closer to fanstasy? Indeed, does the film even know what it's doing?
Join us as we ponder these questions and more, and compare the film with the original short stories—thanks to our resident Ray Bradbury enthusiast, Mark Campbell—in an entertaining and thought-provoking three-way discussion.
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
We are joined once again by Patrick M. Wood, Editor-in-Chief of the influential website Technocracy News & Trends (https://www.technocracy.news/), for a conversation on the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and on his contention that the outbreak has been hijacked—in what he terms a "coup d'etat"—by Technocratic elites for the purpose of significantly furthering their long-sought-after "New Economic World Order".
Patrick M. Wood is an author and lecturer who has studied elite globalisation policies since the late 1970s when he partnered with the late Antony C. Sutton to co-author Trilaterals Over Washington, Volumes I and II. An economist by education, a financial analyst and writer by profession, and an American Constitutionalist by choice, Wood maintains a biblical worldview and has deep historical insights into modern attacks on sovereignty, property rights and personal freedom. A frequent speaker on radio shows around the U.S., Wood's current work centres in Technocracy, Transhumanism and Scientism, and how these are transforming global economics, politics and religion. As he says, the endgame is scientific dictatorship; we ignore it our peril.
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
"5 billion people will die from a deadly virus in 1997... the survivors will abandon the surface of the planet... once again the animals will rule the world..."—12 Monkeys
For the third of our Movie Review podcasts here at TMR we welcome back GK (of Like Flint Radio) and Frank Johnson (of the Ancient Aliens Debunked blog) for a roundtable discussion on Terry Gilliam's 1995 film Twelve Monkeys starring Bruce Willis and Madeleine Stowe.
In addition to commenting on the film itself, we use the movie as a springboard to discuss the current coronavirus pandemic, and note some of the trends we see developing as various vested interests jump on the fear bandwagon to try to reshape the world according to their various technocractic agendas.
[The music for this podcast—"Ken Copeland's Wind of God REMIX"—is Copyright © 2020 WTFBrahh, all rights reserved, and used here with kind permission.]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
On this Easter Sunday (and owing to the ongoing busyness here in the "depths of the Lancashire countryside") I've decided to reshare one of my favourite interviews from the TMR archive—a conversation with Dr. Gary Habermas on Jesus' Resurrection, recorded way back in 2014. As I wrote at the time...
"We are joined by one of the world's leading experts in Resurrection Studies, Dr. Gary Habermas, Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Theology at Liberty University, for an in-depth discussion on the historical case for the Resurrection of Jesus from the Dead.
How might we persuade people of the truth of Jesus' Resurrection? Must we appeal only to the divine authority of Scripture and hope that people will agree? Not according to Dr. Habermas, who explains how his "minimal facts approach" (which relies only on historical data agreed by the vast majority of professional scholars in the field) bypasses such appeals to authority, and has the power to persuade - through logic and historical reasoning alone - that Jesus did in fact rise from the Dead."
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
"The horse-shoe is the mystic symbol of the Wizard's Foot..."—Hargrave Jennings (1870)
As a welcome distraction from the media's wall-to-wall coverage of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we present the second of TMR's new Movie Roundtable podcasts, in which we welcome back Frank Johnson and Mark Campbell for a lively, entertaining and revelatory discussion on the classic 1966 film Batman, starring Adam West and Burt Ward.
Well-known and well-loved, Batman : The Movie (as it's also known), continues to delight audiences around the world as, arguably, one of the finest comic movies of the 1960s. But what if—unknown to the vast majority of people—it turns out that this familiar movie also contains profound hermetic messages, buried deep within the thinly-veiled symbolism of its colourful screen play? The least likely candidate for such hidden doctrines, one might suppose; and yet maybe therein lies the secret of its power: to telegraph to The Powers That Should Not Be a Grand Plan—a blueprint for world domination ("Today Gotham City, Tomorrow The World" [?])—while the watching masses look on in ignorant bliss.
Applying some of the very principles of deduction depicted in the movie itself, and with careful reference to works by arch theosopher H. P. Blavatski, Rosicrucianism scholar Hargrave Jennings and classic anthropologist Sir James Frazer, we pick through the scenes of the movie and reveal much that has remained hidden (to the uninitiated) since its release in 1966.
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
For the first of a short series of slightly "different" podcasts—caused by the curse of general busyness—we take the opportunity to share four important blog posts by former UK ambassador Craig Murray on the first few days of the Julian Assange extradition hearing at Belmarsh Magistrate's Court in London. Expecting that the mainstream media would fail to report fairly on the hearing, Craig Murray travelled to London to witness the beginning of the process for himself, and reported on the general atmosphere and legal detail of each day.
All the reports in this podcast are by Craig Murray. They are spoken by Julian Charles, who does not gaurantee that his performance is error free! Please check the original blogs if anything is unclear.
TMR would like to thank Craig Murray for his tireless activism in the pursuit of truth and freedom and for making these blog posts freely available for reposting.
TMR would also like to thank SomersetBean.com for making the images used for this podcast freely available.
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
For TMR's very first Movie Roundtable I am joined by Mark Campbell (of Bowler or Fez Film Reviews) and Frank Johnson (researcher for Chris White's Ancient Aliens Debuked) for a lively and entertaining conversation on the compelling 1970 made-for-TV movie The Brotherhood of the Bell, starring Glenn Ford and Rosemary Forsyth.
The Brotherhood of the Bell tells the story of college professor Dr. Andrew Patterson (Glenn Ford), who as a young student became involved with a mysterious secret society at college called “Beta, Epsilon, Lambda” (acronym “Bel”). Although this turned out well for him for years—his career benefited from his being a member in all kinds of ways, even beyond his knowledge—reality dawns when 22 years later he is called upon to initiate a new member into the Brotherhood and to receive an assignment that he must carry out as an act of loyalty to the Society. Patterson must try to persuade an academic colleague to turn down an important job offer—because the Brotherhood wants someone else in that position—and, in case that colleague should refuse, Patterson is provided with a dossier of information to blackmail that colleague into submission. Reluctantly Patterson carries out the assignment, but the colleague freaks out and commits suicide. Thus, filled with remorse, Patterson decides to break the story to world about the wickedness of the Society and its assignments, but the influence of the Society is much bigger than he realises. Every technique is used against him to undermine his credibility: he loses his job, his wife, his standing in society. Vainly he hopes that the media will help him to blow the whistle, yet the media ends up being manipulated against him. Eventually his boss believes his story, and there's a chink of light at the end of the film as they hit on the idea of persuading other members of the Society to come forward. But does it succeed?
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
What kind of narrative is Noah's Flood? Is it history or myth? Or are we, by even asking such a question, imposing our modern concepts on ancient Scripture?
We welcome once again Dr. John H. Walton—Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate School, Illinois—for a conversation on the fascinating book he co-authored with Dr. Tremper Longman III—Distinguished Scholar at Westmont College—entitled The Lost World of the Flood : Mythology, Theology and the Deluge Debate.
Prior to his current position as Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate School, Dr. Walton was Professor of Old Testament at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for twenty years. Among his many publications (some co-authored with colleagues) is the "Lost World" series, which includes: The Lost World of Scripture, The Lost World of Genesis One, The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest, The Lost World of Adam and Eve (which he joined us back in 2016 to discuss), and The Lost World of the Torah.
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
Would many of today's churches be recognisable to the earliest Christians? Did Jesus envisage cathedrals with mitre-adorned bishops or megachurches with suit-wearing pastors? Or has something important been lost—or, at least, obscured from full vision—over the centuries?
We are joined by Keith Giles—author of the well-known "Jesus Un..." series—for a bracing conversation on his challenging 2019 book, Jesus Unveiled : Forsaking Church as We Know It for Ekklesia as God Intended. Keith, "who abandoned the pulpit to follow Jesus", shares with us from his experience how it's possible to recapture "being church" through taking Jesus at His word and together encountering Him directly.
"Keith Giles is a former pastor who abandoned the pulpit to follow Jesus and ended up founding a church where 100% of the offering is given away to help the poor in the community. He is the author of several best-selling books including Jesus Untangled, Jesus Unbound, and Jesus Unveiled. He lives with his wife, Wendy, in El Paso, Texas."
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
Would you sip a drink made with elephant dung? Are you brave enough to perform DIY cat surgery? Will Yuri Geller stop Brexit by the power of his mind? And will Frank Johnson raise enough cash through this evening's kickstarter to fund his expedition to the centre of the Doughnut Earth to look for jam?
These (and other important questions) are answered as we kick off 2020 here at TMR with our annual New Year's Eve show—a crazy roundtable chat with high-ranking members of The Fireside Nephilim Persons, the secret society affiliated to The Mind Renewed, Like Flint Radio and The Iron Show.
Join us—GK and Crusy (of Like Flint Radio), Johnny Iron (of the Iron Show), Jenifer Thyssen (classical singer), Frank Johnson (Doughnut Earth researcher), Mark Campbell (TMR's roving reporter), Jeff Bankens (strongman), Bob Purse (singer-songwriter), Mrs Trellis (from North Wales), Donald Trump (President of the USA), Chook (a chook from Down Under), Jeff Goldblum's Laugh and Yours Truly—as we put aside the cares of this world for two short hours and chat our socks off in aid of Frank's research.
Be there, or be square!
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
Is Christmas a pagan festival? Must Christians keep the Law of Moses?
We are joined by R. L. Solberg—author of the excellent new book TORAHISM : Are Christians Required to Keep the Law of Moses?—for a conversation on his book-length critique of the so-called Hebrew Roots Movement and the ways in which he seeks to engage, rather than to alienate, those affected by its teachings.
"R. L. Solberg (www.RLSolberg.com) is an author, speaker, teacher and theologian based in Nashville, Tennessee where he lives with his wife of 27 years, Debra, and a big German Shepherd named Thor. They are stakeholders at the Church of the City, Spring Hill and have two spectacular daughters who are out making their mark on the world. Solberg has been pursuing theology, apologetics and philosophy, formally and informally, for more than two decades. He studied at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Theological Studies at Williamson College in Nashville, TN. He strives to communicate on complex topics with clarity and grace, bringing a creative perspective to the conversation."
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
"If you don’t usually vote, then vote unusually. Vote for me!"
For TMR's General Election Special—in anticipation of the UK General (S)election on 12th December—we welcome to the programme once again Alan "Howling Laud" Hope, leader of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party.
Back in 2017, "Howling Laud" joined us to discuss the history, aims and achievements of the UK's most well-known unconventional political party. This time we scrutinse the party's recently-published Election Manifesto and ask why it makes sense to "vote for insanity"—whichever party that happens to be.
In 1999, following the death of the party's founder Screaming Lord Sutch—who had led the party through its previous incarnations, such as "National Teenage Party" and "Go To Blazes Party"—OMRLP members voted for their new leader, choosing jointly a cat called Cat-Mandu and his owner Alan "Howling Laud" Hope. Although Cat-Mandu died in 2002 and now serves as one of the party's "spiritual leaders", "Howling Laud" proudly continues as the UK's longest-serving party leader.
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
"When did Wild Bill Hickok die? What was Liberace's favourite pie?" — "What's this grey stuff in the sink? When will clams become extinct?"
If these are things you need to know—and, believe me, they are—then do take a while to listen to TMR's latest chat with the talented singer-songwriter Bob Purse, composer of many collections of brilliant comic songs and musical-recording collector extraordinaire.
Join us for just over 70 minutes of entertaining conversation—punctuated by many a musical track—as we explore a life of fascination with old and rare recordings and dip into the surreal world of musically comedic mind.
(Bob's latest song collections (albums) "A Few More Plans" and "The Many Moods of Bob" can be found online at Bandcamp.com and Archive.org.)
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
"Can a scientist believe in miracles?"
We welcome Prof. Ian Hutchinson, Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT, for a conversation on his highly-informative and provocatively-entitled book, Can a Scientist Believe in Miracles? : An MIT Professor Answers Questions on God and Science, InterVarsity Press (2018).
"Ian Hutchinson is a plasma physicist and professor of nuclear science and engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was born in England, educated at Cambridge University, and received his doctorate from Australian National University. His research group explores the confinement of plasmas hotter than the sun's centre, aimed at producing practical energy from nuclear fusion reactions, the energy source of the stars.
A frequent Veritas Forum presenter, Ian has written and spoken widely on the relationship between science and Christianity. He is the author of over two hundred research articles, and his books include Principles of Plasma Diagnostics and Monopolizing Knowledge."—IVP
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
We welcome Dr. Joshua Rasmussen (PhD, Notre Dame), associate professor of philosophy at Azusa Pacific University, for an interview on his fascinating new book, How Reason Can Lead to God : A Philosopher's Bridge to Faith, published by InterVarsity Press (2019).
"Do you value reason, science, and independent thinking? Are you skeptical of beliefs that people maintain merely "on faith", yet you remain interested in the big questions of life? Do you hope there could be a greater purpose to the universe, if only that were realistic?
If so, then philosopher Joshua Rasmussen can encourage you in your journey. Beginning with his own story of losing faith and the belief in any ultimate purpose in life, he then builds a bridge to a series of universal truths about ultimate reality. Using only the instruments of reason and common experience, Rasmussen constructs a pathway—step by step, brick by brick—that he argues can lead to meaning and, ultimately, a vision of God."—(from the back cover)
Joshua Rasmussen is the author of Defending the Correspondence Theory of Truth and Necessary Existence. He lives in Azusa, California, with his wife, Rachel, and their four children.
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
We are joined by Gerry, David and "Hitstirrer", members of the informal engineering research group "The 9/11 Accountability Team"—with links to Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth—for a (rather unconventional) roundtable discussion on their ongoing research.
Back in 2018, as many listeners will recall, we decided to shelve a conversation with Gerry, because the group feared that the interview might have compromised chances of receiving from NIST—US National Institute of Standards and Technology—key structural drawing books on the Twin Towers via FOIA request. Now, the bulk of data having been received, they join us to share some of their concerns about NIST's version of events.
Later in the conversation we are joined once again by Richard Gage, founder of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, for an update on their work and discussion on the important scientific study by Dr. J. LeRoy Hulsey and his team at the University of Alaska Fairbanks on the collapse of Building 7.
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
We welcome once again the teacher, musician and blogger Antony Rotunno, for the second half of a two-part interview on his music albums Through Life (2019) and Adventures In Retrospect (2017). Whereas in the first programme we discussed his most recent album, in this second half we look back at the 2017 album, and informally chat about various subjects as we play some of the songs.
Through Life (2019) and Adventures In Retrospect (2017)—both of which are recommended by TMR—can be heard and purchased via Bandcamp.
Antony has joined us several times throughout the life of TMR for conversations on a variety of subjects.
[All the songs in this podcast are Copyright © 2019 Antony Rotunno, all rights reserved, and used by TMR with kind permission.]
For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com
In the run-up to the eighteenth anniversary of 9/11, we welcome the author Philip Kraske for a conversation on his exciting new novel, 11/9 and the Terrorist Who Loved Bonsai Trees, a thriller that—though it is a work of fiction designed to intrigue and entertain—also imaginatively explores possibilities that might cast light on events such as 9/11. In the words of key 9/11 researcher, Dr. David Ray Griffin:
"Most of us who continue to do research on 9/11 focus primarily on the question of what really happened that day. There will eventually be a definitive answer to that question that can be summarized in a few pages. But what is the meaning of 9/11, what are its implications? Philip Kraske's superb thriller, 11/9 and the Terrorist Who Loved Bonsai Trees, as the title implies, holds up a mirror to 9/11, providing a way of understanding this horrendous event. The hilarious book-ending riff of Trudy's comedian boyfriend sums up both the stupidity and the irony of it all."—David Ray Griffin
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
We are joined by the behavioural psychologist and Christian thinker Joel Furches for a conversation on his ongoing research into the contemporary phenomenon of deconversion from Christianity to Atheism.
Drawing upon his background in psychology, sociology and education, Joel shares with us patterns he is finding in case-study data that may help to explain why some people abandon Christianity and turn to Atheism. Observing various commonalities in such people's backgrounds—such as "wooden" notions of biblical inerrancy, legalism and isolationism—Joel argues that cultural factors like these may well play significant parts in fuelling "deconstruction" of belief and leading to equally dogmatic unbelief.
We also talk about Christian apologetics more generally, including the term itself, and consider which approaches—evidentialist or presuppositionalist—best suit different situations.
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
We welcome once again our good friend, the teacher, musician and blogger Antony Rotunno, for the first half of a two-part interview on his latest album Through Life (2019). In this first programme, quite personal at times, we chat about issues related to the music—love and war, inspiration and influence—and play several of the songs.
Through Life (2019) and Adventures In Retrospect (2017)—both of which are recommended by TMR—can be heard and purchased via Bandcamp.
Antony has joined us several times throughout the life of TMR for conversations on a variety of subjects.
[All the songs in this podcast are Copyright © 2019 Antony Rotunno, all rights reserved, and used by TMR with kind permission.]
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
The Big Bang theory is well-established, but how complete is it? Does it describe the absolute beginning of physical reality, or is there perhaps more to be discovered that might place it in a broader cosmic context?
We welcome the award-winning British science writer Brian Clegg, author of dozens of popular science books in print, for an engaging and thought-provoking conversation on his book Before the Big Bang—an interview conducted, specially for The Mind Renewed, by TMR's "roving reporter" Mark Campbell.
Born in Lancashire, UK, Brian attended the Manchester Grammar School, then read Natural Sciences (specialising in experimental physics) at Cambridge University. After graduating, he spent a year at Lancaster University where he gained a second MA in Operational Research, a discipline developed during WWII to apply mathematics and probability to warfare, and since widely applied to business problem solving. From Lancaster, he joined British Airways, where he formed a new department tasked with developing hi-tech solutions for the airline. His emphasis on innovation led to working with creativity guru Dr. Edward de Bono, and in 1994 he left BA to set up his own creativity consultancy, running courses on the development of ideas and the solution of business problems. His clients include the BBC, the Met Office, Sony, GlaxoSmithKline, the Treasury, Royal Bank of Scotland and many others.
Brian now concentrates on writing popular science books, with topics ranging from infinity to 'how to build a time machine.' He has also written regularly for numerous magazines and newspapers, including Nature, BBC Focus, BBC History, Good Housekeeping, The Times, The Observer, Playboy, The Wall Street Journal and Physics World. His books have been translated into many languages, including German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, and Indonesian. Brian has given sell-out lectures at the Royal Institution in London, and has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science. He has also contributed to radio and TV programmes, and is a popular speaker at schools. Most recently he appeared with the BBC's business editor, Robert Peston, teaching him quantum theory, took part in a feature on time travel to accompany the movie Looper and took part in the University Challenge Christmas Special. Brian is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Member of the Institute of Physics, was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Bristol University and is also editor of the successful popularscience.co.uk book review site.
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
We welcome Michael Basham—Master Jedi Time Lord of Space City New Jerusalem (and host of the Spirit Wars podcast)—for an entertaining, unpredictable and at-times-poignant conversation on the subjects of Christian podcasting and his own experience of having once been involved in The Family International, a New Religious Movement previously known as The Children of God.
"Michael Basham has spent the last 20 years exploring the frontiers of all things spiritually and physically fringe. From grappling with the ancient forces of Japan, China and Nepal, to delving into the modern Info-War and Mystic Christian movement, Michael has more recently begun to use the Internet as a mission field to help equip the next generation of spiritual warriors to face the epic prophetic challenges ahead. Having clocked thousands of hours sharing his journey and fellowshipping with many circles, he is now engaged with a number of other broadcasters on Fringe Radio Network. On his show SpiritWars he is undertaking a bridging of multiple dimensions, seeing God touch lives and help to mold jedi-esque, Doctor Strange-like undercover Time Lords of Space City New Jerusalem in order to accomplish a great deal of missions which Holy Spirit Personally engineers."—M. Basham
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
"Such a Jesus would threaten no one, just as the university professors who create him threaten no one.”—John P. Meier
Back in 2011, my wife and I had the opportunity to go with Reasonable Faith (the organisation headed up by Dr. Craig) on a guided tour of Israel. On many of the evenings back at the hotel Dr. Craig would give a talk, sharing his reflections upon the historical sites we had visited, and commenting from his knowledge of biblical and non-biblical ancient writings. In this, the third and final presentation from that tour, Dr. Craig speaks about the week of events leading up to Jesus' crucifixion, burial and resurrection, and critiques the imaginative—yet, in his view, historically false—reconstructions of revisionist scholars.
[The recording included in this podcast is Copyright © 2011 Reasonable Faith, all rights reserved, and used by TMR with kind permission. That Dr. Craig features in this podcast should in no way be understood as implying that he endorses anything else mentioned in this podcast, nor indeed anything else published at TMR.]
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
We are joined once again by Patrick M. Wood, Editor-in-Chief of Technocracy News and Trends, who returns to the programme to discuss his latest book—Technocracy: The Hard Road to World Order.
In Technocracy: The Hard Road to World Order, Patrick Wood traces the development of the United Nations' doctrine of Sustainable Development out of the ideology of Technocracy from the 1930s, and argues that UN programmes such as 2030 Agenda, New Urban Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement are best understood as attempts to displace the current structures of free enterprise and national sovereignty in favour of a so-called "New Economic World Order"—a concept long championed by the globalist Trilateral Commission.
Examining such seemingly-unrelated factors as collaborative governance, public-private partnerships, data collection and crypto-currencies, Wood "connects the dots" in futurist style, and poses the question: Is this the kind of world we want to build—a world in which the dream of Utopia might turn into the nightmare of control?
Patrick M. Wood is an author and lecturer who has studied elite globalisation policies since the late 1970s when he partnered with the late Antony C. Sutton to co-author Trilaterals Over Washington, Volumes I and II. An economist by education, a financial analyst and writer by profession, and an American Constitutionalist by choice, Wood maintains a biblical worldview and has deep historical insights into modern attacks on sovereignty, property rights and personal freedom. A frequent speaker on radio shows around the U.S., Wood's current work centres in Technocracy, Transhumanism and Scientism, and how these are transforming global economics, politics and religion. As he says, the endgame is scientific dictatorship; we ignore it our peril.
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
"Things go missing. Things get moved from room to room. And things happen in the gardens. It's strange. One day there's a beautiful crop of something; the next morning 'tis all gone, or 'tis all rotten on the trees. How do you explain that?"—Madam Bell Caps
We are joined by our roving reporter Mark Campbell, who shares and discuss with us a fascinating interview he had recently with the 107-year-old Madam Bell Caps (a.k.a. Isabella Caps), one of the few surviving keepers of the Ooser tradition, whose grandparents—she insists—were witnesses to the Dorset Ooser itself.
Is the Ooser just a mask, traditionally used in "skimmity riding"? Or is there something more sinister behind that peculiar face—perhaps a spine-chilling reality that few are prepared to mention? Join us as we listen to Bell's captivating words and discuss in studio this rare—indeed exclusive—conversation.
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
On the B* Day that never was (and which, I promise, shall not be mentioned in this short podcast), and in anticipation of a "proper" programme this coming Monday, I take the opportunity to say a few words about TMR's recent upgrade—sorry, I've done it again,"migration"—from one version of Joomla! to another.
Although it might seem un-newsworthy to those of you (most, I'm sure) who are happily unfamiliar with the idiosyncracies of Joomla!—the content management system upon which TMR has been running since its inception in 2012—it's certainly good news to me! Every attempt I have made over the years to bring this website up-to-date has failed spectacularly, and I can only heave a great sigh of relief that the deed is finally done—not by me, but by those with a genuine aptitude for such marvels.
Join me, as I reveal all in this gem of Interweb mundanity.
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
We are joined once again by F. Remy Diederich, lead pastor of Cedarbrook Church in Menomonie, Wisconsin, for a very practical yet thought-provoking conversation on the subject of self-control in the Christian life.
Reflecting on the work of Dr. Kelly McGonigal, in her popular book The Willpower Instinct, and drawing upon his own experience in pastoral ministry, Remy shares with us reasons why so many of us experience difficulty in the areas of self-control and temptation, and offers us very practical advice on how to improve step by step with the Holy Spirit.
"Remy Diederich is the author of six books related to helping people overcome their setbacks with God's help. He is the founding and teaching pastor of Cedarbrook Church in Wisconsin, USA, and he is also the spirituality advisor for Arbor Place Treatment Center. He blogs at readingremy.com."
(Please note that none of the opinions expressed in this interview should be taken as advice in any particular case.)
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
A short, off-the-cuff podcast in which I explain just a little of what's been going on recently in the depths of the Lancashire countryside here in the UK, and why I'm currently finding it difficult to keep TMR refreshed with new podcasts on a regular basis.
In short, my father is passing away, and time for creativity is in very short supply. But I'm determined: I shall do all I can to "keep the show on the road". So, do hang in there; TMR is here to stay!
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
We welcome once again the author K. Gordon Neufeld, one-time member of the so-called Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon, who joined us in 2014 to speak about the history, beliefs and practices of the Moonies, and to share with us from his experiences of joining, serving and eventually leaving that organisation.
This time he joins us to speak about his new book, Prophet and Loss : Stories of Extreme Beliefs, a collection of short fiction that effectively illustrates the painful dilemmas and heart-rending sacrifices of people who adopt extreme beliefs, and of those who know and love them.
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
Would you eat a "maggot bag" with a Nazi spoon? Is my antique chandelier secretly in love with Blum Jeffgold? Will Frank Johnson kickstart enough cash to research dinosaurs inside the doughnut Earth? And is it safe to fly a Rhodes-scholar-designed-wheelless-African-fixed-up-Russian helicopter with automagic pilot?
These, and other important questions, are answered as we kick off 2019 here at TMR in a friendly, entertaining (and sometimes borderline crazy) roundtable chat with high-ranking members of The Fireside Nephilim Boys, a secret society affiliated to The Mind Renewed, Like Flint Radio and The Iron Show, which this year celebrates its very first female initiate.
Join us—Garth Kennedy, Andie Tyd and Crusy (all of Like Flint Radio), Mark Campbell (a.k.a. Campbell Adams and Ed Balsam-Clamp), Frank Johnson (of Spiderman hoodie fame), Jeff Bankens (strongman), the irrepressible Johnny Iron (of the Iron Show), Jeff Goldblum's Laugh and Yours Truly—as we put aside the cares of this world for two short hours and share items from the news in 2018 that tickled our chuckle organs.
Be there, or be square!
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
By popular demand, we welcome back Dr. Tim Ball—a "retired" lecturer in geography and historical climatology at the University of Winnipeg, and now perhaps the most entertaining and informative after-dinner speaker on the planet—for a second conversation on his "new adages for the technocratic era".
During the last conversation, Dr. Ball said that maybe we would need a second programme to cover his adages adequately. Many listeners picked up on that, and asked me to invite him back for a second chat. So I did, and here it is—another fun, wide-ranging and provocative conversation.
"Adages are proverbs, or short memorable statements, expressing a general truth, usually based on experience. Many have no relevance to the modern world, such as "Don’t look a Gift Horse in the mouth", but many are still useful: “Where there is smoke there is fire.” What we need are new adages for the modern technocratic age."--Tim Ball, "New Adages for the Technocratic Era".
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
We welcome to the programme the writer and lecturer Edward Curtin, who teaches sociology at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, for a conversation on his research into the subject of September 11, 2001, and in particular his analysis of the language used of that event in terms of a hypothesised deep-state policy of linguistic mind control.911UnmaskedCover sm
We also discuss the very important book 9/11 Unmasked by David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth, recently published by Olive Branch Press, which Edward Curtin particularly recommends for its scholarly approach.
"9/11 Unmasked is the result of a six-year investigation by an international review panel, which has provided 51 points illustrating the problematic status of all the major claims in the official account of the 9/11 attacks, some of which are obviously false. Most dramatically, the official account of the destruction of the Twin Towers and World Trade Center 7 could not possibly be true, unless the laws of physics were suspended that day. But other claims made by the official account—including the claims that the 9/11 planes were taken over by al-Qaeda hijackers, that one of those hijackers flew his plane into the Pentagon, and that passengers on the planes telephoned people on the ground—are also demonstrably false. The book reports only points about which the panel reached consensus by using the “best-evidence” consensus model employed in medical research. The panel is composed of experts about 9/11 from many disciplines, including physics, chemistry, structural engineering, aeronautical engineering, and jurisprudence."—Interlink Books
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
This week TMR presents an engaging and entertaining audio travelogue by Mark Campbell (a.k.a Campbell Adams and Ed Balsam-Clamp) documenting his very recent journey to Oaxaca in Mexico to experience the Día de Muertos ("Day of the Dead") festival at Halloween.
Mark, a long-time friend of the show—and indeed long-time friend since our school days—makes the long journey from the UK to Mexico, alone and with little planned in advance, to witness the intriguing festivities of an unfamiliar culture.
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
Antony Rotunno joins us again for the second part of our wide-ranging conversation on the 2016 BBC documentary HyperNormalisation by Adam Curtis.
Borrowing the word "hypernormalisation" from a book by ex-Soviet citizen Alexei Yurchak, in whose writing it described an officially-encouraged delusional state of mind in the gradually-collapsing Soviet Union, Adam Curtis creatively applies the term to the West since the last quarter of the 20th Century; a time in which, he argues, both politicians and citizens have "retreated" from hard problems in favour of "fake" versions of reality, while the banking and technological elites have continued to fill the vacuum with their technocratic systems of "stability" and "control".
While we remain unpersuaded by elements of Curtis's overall narrative and gently critical of his somewhat pretentious style, we nevertheless find the documentary rich with fascinating subjects, and share our own perspectives in a relaxed and fairly unstructured way.
Note: If you haven't listened to part one of this conversation, please do so first, otherwise you may find it difficult to follow.
Music courtesy of Dissident Prophet (https://dissidentprophet.bandcamp.com/)
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
We welcome back long-time friend of the show Antony Rotunno for a wide-ranging conversation on the 2016 BBC documentary HyperNormalisation by Adam Curtis.
Borrowing the word "hypernormalisation" from a book by ex-Soviet citizen Alexei Yurchak, in whose writing it described an officially-encouraged delusional state of mind in the gradually-collapsing Soviet Union, Adam Curtis creatively applies the term to the West since the last quarter of the 20th Century; a time in which, he argues, both politicians and citizens have "retreated" from hard problems in favour of "fake" versions of reality, while the banking and technological elites have continued to fill the vacuum with their technocratic systems of "stability" and "control".
While we remain unpersuaded by elements of Curtis's overall narrative and gently critical of his somewhat pretentious style, we nevertheless find the documentary rich with fascinating subjects, and share our own perspectives in a relaxed and fairly unstructured way.
Warning: Listeners unfamiliar with HyperNormalisation may find parts of the conversation difficult to follow. This is a reflection of the documentary itself which is rather disjointed and too ambitious in scope. So it might be a good idea—though not necessary, because I do try to explain as much as possible—to watch the documetary first (if you have time, that is!).
Music courtesy of Dissident Prophet (https://dissidentprophet.bandcamp.com/)
Audio excerpt courtesy of Ben Woodhams (https://www.youtube.com/user/psychonomy)
For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com
This week we welcome back to the programme the inimitable Dr. Tim Ball—a "retired" lecturer in geography and historical climatology at the University of Winnipeg, and now perhaps the most entertaining and informative after-dinner speaker on the planet—for a fun, wide-ranging, thought-provoking (and, at times, provocative) conversation on his "new adages for the technocractic era".
"Adages are proverbs, or short memorable statements, expressing a general truth, usually based on experience. Many have no relevance to the modern world, such as "Don’t look a Gift Horse in the mouth", but many are still useful: “Where there is smoke there is fire.” What we need are new adages for the modern technocratic age."--Tim Ball, "New Adages for the Technocratic Era". (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We welcome back to the programme Prof. Edgar Andrews, Emeritus Professor of Materials Science in the University of London, to discuss his recently-published book, What Is Man? (2018).
In this fascinating follow-up to his earlier book, Who Made God?—which he came on TMR in 2013 to discuss—Professor Andrews turns his attention to the questions of Man's (humanity's) origins and significance in the cosmos. After exploring many of the competing answers offered by atheists and theists alike, Professor Andrews argues that only a biblical, Christian view of Man does justice to both the facts of science and human experience.
Professor Edgar H. Andrews (BSc, PhD, DSc, FInstP, FIMMM, CEng, CPhys.) is Emeritus Professor of Materials in the University of London and an international expert on the science of large molecules. In 1967 he set up the Department of Materials at Queen Mary College, University of London, and served both as its Head and later as Dean of Engineering. He has published well over 100 scientific research papers and books, together with two Bible commentaries and various works on science and religion and on theology. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
During the summer break, TMR shares another exclusive presentation by the highly-esteemed Christian philosopher Dr. William Lane Craig—this time a Q&A session on his work in Christian philosophy and apologetics. I take the opportunity to share a few items of interest and concern from the media.
Back in 2011, my wife and I had the opportunity to go with Reasonable Faith (the organisation headed up by Dr. Craig) on a guided tour of Israel. On many of the evenings back at the hotel Dr. Craig would give a talk, sometimes sharing his reflections upon the historical sites we had visited, but sometimes speaking on broader issues to do with Christian philosophy and apologetics. In this session, Dr. Craig invites questions from the floor regarding arguments he frequently defends in the public square.
[The recording included in this podcast is Copyright © 2011 Reasonable Faith, all rights reserved, and used by TMR with kind permission. That Dr. Craig features in this podcast should in no way be understood as implying that he endorses anything else mentioned in this podcast, nor indeed anything else published at TMR. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"I promise to tell you my story. The whole story."—Greg Coles
We are joined by Gregory Coles, author of the elegant, yet challenging and thought-provoking, book Single, Gay, Christian, published by InterVarsity Press. To give an idea of the book, and thus the conversation, I can do no better than quote DA Carson (one biblical scholarship heroes) who wrote this for the blurb:
"To say this book is important is a painful understatement. It is the candid, moving, intensely personal story of a gay young man who wants to live his life under the authority of King Jesus and who refuses to accept the comforting answers proffered by different parts of the culture. Superbly written, this book stands athwart the shibboleths of our day and reminds us what submission to King Jesus looks like, what it feels like. This book needs to be thoughtfully read by straight people and by gay people, by unbelievers and by Christians. It is not to be read with a condescending smirk, but with humility."—Don Carson
Gregory Coles is co-author of Jim Henson's "The Dark Crystal" Author Quest, a collection of short stories. He is a PhD student, part-time English instructor at Penn State University, and a worship leader in his church. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined by Peter Ford, former UK ambassador to Bahrain (1999-2003) and Syria (2003-2006), for a wide-ranging conversation on propaganda, the UK mainstream media, and Syria.
Speaking from the vantage point of a former ambassador to the country, Peter Ford gives us his general assessment of the conflict in Syria. He also discusses some of his experiences of being interviewed by mainstream news outlets such as the BBC and Sky, and shares with us some of the ways in which he has learned to counter the frequent hostility and fallacious reasoning of his interviewers. We also talk about the nature of propaganda, and explore the idea that religious symbolism remains a potent—although largely hidden—aspect of propaganda in the modern world. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"Christians and Atheists have more in common than you think."—Kandiah
We welcome once again the author, activist and theologian Dr. Krish Kandiah, former President of the London School of Theology and Founding Director of Home for Good, a "young charity seeking to make a real difference in the lives of vulnerable children".
Krish joins us to discuss his new book, FAITHEISM, published today by Hodder & Stoughton, which challenges many of the myths about Christianity and Atheism. Rather than being tempted into mutual antagonism or conspiracies of politically-correct silence, Krish suggests that Christians and Atheists alike should embrace a different conversation model—one of self-criticism and mutual understanding (without compromise on fundamental beliefs)—in the hope that meaningful dialogue, and co-operation on matters of shared concern, might characterise the future. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined by the independent journalist, photographer and peace activist Vanessa Beeley, for an in-depth interview on the war in Syria and the so-called "Syria Civil Defence" (a.k.a The White Helmets).
Vanessa, who has braved several fact-finding trips to Syria in the last few years, works to defend the sovereignty of nations against foreign intervention and interference, and promotes the self-determination of their peoples. She is frequently published at 21st Century Wire and Mint Press News and was a finalist for one of the most prestigious journalism awards – the 2017 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism – whose winners have included Robert Parry, Patrick Cockburn, Robert Fisk, Nick Davies and the Bureau for Investigative Journalism team. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
In place of our scheduled interview with Vanessa Beeley—which has had to be postponed until next week due to the dreaded summer lurgy—I use the opportunity to speak about upcoming shows and share an exclusive talk by Dr. William Lane Craig.
Back in 2011, my wife and I had the opportunity to go with Reasonable Faith (the organisation headed up by Dr. Craig) on a guided tour of Israel. On many of the evenings back at the hotel Dr. Craig would give a talk, sharing his reflections upon the historical sites we had visited, and commenting from his knowledge of biblical and non-biblical ancient writings. In this particular presentation, Dr. Craig reflects upon our visit to Caesarea Maritima.
All being well, the postponed interview with Vanessa Beeley should be posted next week.
[The recording included in this podcast is Copyright © 2011 Reasonable Faith, all rights reserved, and used by TMR with kind permission.] (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
For TMR 200 we welcome back Mike Hopkins, co-host of Fight the Lies Radio, for a thought-provoking conversation on the subject of conspiracy theories and the Christian believer.
Is it wrong, as some suggest, for Christians to believe in conspiracy theories? While this might seem like a strange question to ask on TMR, many today in the wider Christian community—including people in positions of leadership—strongly maintain that a Christian shouldn't entertain such thoughts.
But what does this actually mean? Indeed, what are "conspiracy theories"? Are they essentially different from other kinds of belief? And what would make them especially problematic? But are there real dangers lurking here? Might there be, in some cases, good pastoral reasons for giving such advice? And where do we draw our "crazy line"? How might critical worldview thinking help to guard us against the nonsense.
"Mike Hopkins was born and raised in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, USA. In 2005 he accepted Messiah Yeshua (Jesus). He has a thirst for truth and for conveying that truth to all who are willing to hear. He and his wife Kelli host their own podcasts at Fight The Lies Network. Mike currently works in the tech industry and lives in Virginia Beach with his wife and their Boston Terrier, Kayla." (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined by the inimitable Johnny Iron of the equally inimitable online shows IRON SHOW and IRON SHOW LIVE, for a live (almost), provocative, bizarre and sometimes-thought-provoking-but-always-entertaining conversation about podcasting, etiquette, faith, cream teas, cat surgery, conspiracies, Hell, posh accents, waffles, psychic geese, Aleister Crowley and Claude Debussy's La fille aux cheveux de lin (The girl with the flaxen hair). Enjoy!
"Johnny McMahon started podcasting under the name "Longshoreman Johnny", the official mascot of Futurequake. He then began the IRON SHOW with co-host Ric White in 2009, reaching out to the bad boys and girls. Johnny then branched out with other shows, such as ARMED WITH IRON, Third Watch, and finally IRON SHOW LIVE. Johnny is also the owner of Fringe Radio Network along with Rabbi Michael Bugg."—John McMahon (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined once again by the lawyer and university lecturer Adeyinka Makinde for an in-depth interview on the subject of his recent essay, "Britain and Russia: An Enduring But Fruitless Rivalry".
The crisis between Britain and Russia over the alleged poisoning of Sergei Skripal is the latest episode in what has been in recent years a de facto "Cold War" between Russia and the West. However, friction between Russia and Britain is longstanding; indeed it has spanned the centuries—a recurring clash of civilisations fuelled by cultural differences, imperial ambition and ideological antagonism—and manifest today in the West's attempts to maintain its global dominance in the face of a surgent Eurasia with Russia at its centre.
But with the ideological "Cold War" of the Soviet years a thing of the past, we must surely pause to ask: Why is Britain prolonging this fruitless "rivalry" with a distant Eurasian power? Whose interests does it serve? And is there, perhaps, a more constructive and, frankly, safer way forward?
Adeyinka Makinde trained for the law as a barrister. He lectures in criminal law and public law at a university in London, and has an academic research interest in intelligence & security matters. He is a contributor to a number of websites for which he has written essays and commentaries on international relations, politics and military history. He has served as a programme consultant and provided expert commentary for BBC World Service Radio, China Radio International and the Voice of Russia. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Strange though it may seem, there are people who claim to have had sexual experiences with "ghosts", "spirits" or "aliens". But what are we to make of such claims?
We welcome once again the spiritual counsellor and radio host Laura Maxwell, who joined us last year to share her testimony of coming to faith in Christ after having once been involved in Luciferian spiritualism. For this second conversation she joins us to discuss the disturbing phenomenon of spectrophilia and the popularisation of such unhealthy and potentially damaging ideas in both the mainstream media and online.
"As a spiritual counsellor, Laura is honoured that her work is shared worldwide via satellite TV, radio, books, magazines and online. She and her mother were taught that Lucifer is god when involved in New Age spiritualism. Now, a follower of Christ, she hosts a show on Eternal Radio interviewing ex-occultists about their Christian conversion stories and their outreach to those still involved in the New Age, cults and the Occult. She is the founder of the international ministry Our Spiritual Quest, based in Scotland."—Laura Maxwell (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"The American, British and French governments know they're lying through their teeth... and they're using these [orchestrated] events to take the world to war, the outcome of which could be annihilation."—PCR
We are joined once again by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former US Assistant Secretary to the Treasury for Economic Policy, for a discussion on the current international crisis focused on Syria.
As the war drums continue to beat in the West, Dr. Roberts presents various scenarios that he believes could play out in the coming days, expressing the hope that a catastrophic chain of events leading to WWIII could possibly be prevented by Russia acting swiftly and boldly to escort the USS Donald Cook out of range and marking a line in the waters. Dr. Roberts also gives his reaction to the alleged chemical attack in Douma, and considers the role of the Skripal Affair in the unfolding narrative of lies. (Interview conducted 12 April 2018) (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"No one has even been given a chance to comment on this momentous publication, and yet it threatens to change the English language forever. Not only is this an affront to linguistic evolution, it's a shameless attack on democracy itself."—Ed BC
We are joined by Ed Balsam-Clamp, former UK Member of Parliament and (until recently) senior etymological consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary working committee, for an exclusive interview on his tireless efforts to blow the whistle on the forthcoming Oxford Brexish Dictionary, due to be published in March 2019 as the UK finally exits the European Union. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
As many of you know, I have recently been heavily involved in my elderly parents' house move, so normal TMR programming is "on hold" for a while until they're settled into their new home. In the meantime, I'm using the opportunity to do a few unusual things. So here's one.
In "A House Move Diary" I invite listeners simply to listen in on a selection of captured moments from the move, some of them amusing, some of them reflective and some (hopefully) offering food for thought. But as you listen (if you do), please be sure to listen out for the bell wire and scissors, the mysterious loaf of bread and (perhaps most important) the large collection of trouser belts. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
In place of the scheduled programme—which has had to be cancelled at the last minute*—we take the opportunity to repost one of TMR's most highly-regarded interviews: a conversation with the Swiss historian Dr. Daniele Ganser on the subject of his seminal book NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe.
Shortly after WWII a Europe-wide network of secret armies was organised under the aegis of NATO, tasked with providing military and intelligence resistance in the event of a feared Soviet invasion. Modelled on the resistance movements of the war years, many of these "stay behind" units remained faithful to their original mandate. But by the early 1960s - under the pressures of anti-communist politicking and flirtations with the Far Right - some of these groups began to morph into something more sinister, linking up with extreme right-wingers who carried out acts of false-flag terrorism, harassment of left-wing parties and coups d'état.
But was this morphing simply an unforseen consequence of the unaccountability and instability of the network itself? Or was it, at least in part, engineered by the very Anglo-American establishment which gave birth to the project in the first place? And to what extent, therefore, can such acts of terror be seen as manifestations of 'the strategy of tension', carried out by the State against its own citizens for the purposes of control at home and geopolitical gain abroad?
[* This week's programme, which was almost ready to be published, has been cancelled at short notice. Our guest, a 9/11 researcher (who currently wishes to remain anonymous), has decided that the conversation—owing to developments in the two weeks since it was recorded—might inadvertently jeopardise efforts to obtain certain information under FOIA request. Not wishing to hinder such efforts, TMR has therefore agreed not to publish. We have been assured, however, that TMR will be among the first to share any significant new findings by way of interviews later in 2018.] (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"I said, "I'm done", and I turned around and ran head-first out of a closed window"—Rob Decker
We are joined by Rob Decker—husband, father, personal trainer and health coach—for a conversation centred in his remarkable testimony of coming to faith in God after a failed suicide attempt.
"My objective is to share the story of my failed suicide attempt that led to a relationship with God. I suffered many years of sadness, anger and confusion, and fed that with drugs, alcohol and bad relationships, but eventually God turned all that into a story of forgiveness, understanding and love. I desire to inspire, encourage and give hope to those who have had similar battles."—Rob Decker (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined by Dr. Andreas J. Köstenberger, Senior Research Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, for a detailed discussion on the important book he co-authored with Dr. Michael J. Kruger, The Heresy of Orthodoxy.
Subtitled "How contemporary culture's fascination with diversity has reshaped our understanding of early Christianity", The Heresy of Orthodoxy deconstructs the fashionable trend—both in academia and popular culture—to view early Christianity as essentially a diverse collection of irreconcilable theologies, and through historical reasoning cogently argues for the priority of normative Christianity. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined by Jeff "T-Rex" Bankens—a Christian minister and performing Strongman with several World Records to his name—for a conversation on his experience of coming to faith in Jesus Christ and his unique ministry of combining world-class feats of strength with preaching the Gospel.
"TRex—who lives in Westlake, Louisiana—performs strength demonstrations that evoke the olden-days Strongmen such as Dennis Rogers, The Mighty Atom, WA Pullum, Eugene Sandow and Louis Cyr. After growing up in a broken home and living a life of addiction and dissipation, T-Rex was converted to faith in Jesus Christ and now testifies to the life-changing power of Christ to audiences of all ages. He also uses his unique performance skills to encourage children to be the best persons and students they can be, and is planning to expand into prison ministry in 2018." (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Happy New Year from Niburu and the Mariana Trench!
In place of our traditional "Fireside" with "The Nephilim Boys" to see in the New Year, we are joined by a subset of that august secret society—Frank Johnson (of Ancient Aliens Debunked) and Crusy (from Like Flint Radio)—for a conversation on the weird and wonderful subject of "Our Wacky Solar System : Planet X and the Theories that Love Him".
Later in the evening, the party is gate-crashed by an underwater Mark Campbell—whose second cousin's daughter's former best friend's uncle, Campbell Adams, appeared on the show last year to speak about Yarndling—and we end 2017 with that no-expense-spared champagne toast to the New Year as the clock strikes twelve. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined by Jonathan McLatchie, the founder Apologetics Academy, for an interview on the status of Intelligent Design as a scientific project. We also discuss the importance of Christian apologetics in the current intellectual climate, and examine the trend among some atheists to engage in what they term "Street Epistemology".
Jonathan McLatchie is a Christian writer, speaker and debater with a BSc in forensic biology, Master's degree (M. Res) in evolutionary biology, and a second Master's in medical and molecular bioscience. He is currently a PhD candidate in cell biology. Jonathan is a contributor to various apologetics websites, including CrossExamined.org, ChristianApologeticsAlliance.com, and AnsweringMuslims.com. He is also a contributor at EvolutionNews.org (the official blog of the Discovery Institute). He is founder of Apologetics Academy, a ministry that aims through weekly online webinars to equip and train people to defend the Christian faith, as well as to assist Christians who are wrestling with doubts. He has been interviewed on many podcasts and radio shows including "Unbelievable?" on Premier Christian Radio, "Line of Fire" radio, "Apologetics315", and has taken part in umpteen moderated debates. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined by Joe Jordan, President and co-founder of CE4 Research Group (http://www.alienresistance.org/ce4.htm) for a discussion on his group's research into claims of Alien Abduction. Neither taking such claims of extraterrestrial activity at face value, nor dismissing them as delusional experiences, the CE4 Research Group has developed an understanding of this phenomenon based on years of collecting and assessing the testimonies of those affected.
"The mission of CE4 Research Group is to share with the world the most powerful evidence known that exposes the Alien entities for who they really are. That evidence is in the testimonies of those who have overcome the experience—the oppression, the bondage, the harassment, the control, the lies, the deception that these entities perpetrate—by calling out in the name and authority of Jesus Christ."—CE4RG (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"...we are in process of developing a whole series of techniques which will enable the controlling oligarchy, who have always existed and presumably will always exist, to get people to love their servitude."—Aldous Huxley
We are joined by the pastor and teacher David Greenockle for a discussion on the media-ecological effects of modern communication technology and what these trends might mean for the future of human experience as we are enticed yet further into the "brave new world" of a computer-enhanced vision of Utopia.
"David Greenockle Jr. is a pastor, teacher and lecturer whose desire is to see people become truly awakened to the world around them. He holds Master’s Degrees in Education (Gratz College, Philadelphia) and Comparative Religion and Hebrew (Hebrew University, Israel). His academic and professional experience enable him to cast new light upon social issues from a biblical perspective. He is passionate in using the humanities to better understand the human condition in modern times and to aid people in restoring their true humanity in a world of commerce and distraction. David lives in the North-East of the United States with his wife and two daughters." (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined by F. Remy Diederich, lead pastor of Cedarbrook Church in Menomonie, Wisconsin, for a discussion on his recently-published book, Broken Trust : A Practical Guide to Identify and Recover from Toxic Faith, Toxic Church, and Spiritual Abuse.
"Remy Diederich is the author of six books related to helping people overcome their setbacks with God's help. He is the founding and teaching pastor of Cedarbrook Church in Wisconsin, USA, and he is also the spirituality advisor for Arbor Place Treatment Center. He blogs at readingremy.com."
(Please note that none of the opinions expressed in this interview should be taken as advice in any particular case. Every situation is different, and it is entirely the responsibility of each and every individual to judge for themselves what they should do any particular circumstance.) (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"Hello everyone it's Uncle what are you been thinking some"—Uncle
For this fortnight's programme we are privileged to be joined by the co-hosts of Uncle (the podcast)—"the number one uncle-themed podcast online today"—namely, Uncle John and his nephew-in-law Aaron Franz.
Would it be accurate to call Uncle (the podcast) a comedy show? Close, but not quite right. Perhaps it's more a podcast "happening"? Possibly, but still not quite satisfactory. Or maybe all such attempts at categorisation are doomed to failure. Perhaps Uncle (the Podcast) is just one of those things that you have to experience.
"Uncle is the star of the show. Originally from New York City, he has lived many places throughout the years and now resides in Orange, CA. This podcast is a fun way for Uncle to cut loose and talk about anything and everything. In addition to presenting an infinite amount of topics this podcast also features audio clips taken from Uncle's daily life. Get to know Uncle by listening today." (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"Strange days—no dark, no light. Strange days—when 2+2=5"—Dissident Prophet
We welcome once again Andy and Mel Jennings of the first-rate Christian indie rock band Dissident Prophet from Birmingham, England. Andy and Mel join us to introduce the band's forthcoming album Strange Days, and for a relaxed and music-filled chat around some of the subjects that inspired the songwriting.
Included in the programme are several tracks from the new album: "Good Men Gone" (part); "Strange Days"; "Sgt. Pepper, Major Tom"; "Everybody Knows"; "Wait for the City": "Matador"; "Only One Name" and "Where are You Going?".
Dissident Prophet's albums: We're Not Grasshoppers (1996), 21st Century Spin (2002), Modern Man (2005), Weapons of Mass Deception (2012), Red Moon Rising (2015), Strange Days (soon to be released, 2017) (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"Vote for insanity! You know it makes sense."—OMRLP
We are joined by Alan "Howling Laud" Hope, the current leader of The Official Monster Raving Loony Party, for an entertaining—yet oddly illuminating—conversation on the history, aims and achievements of the UK's most well-known unconventional political party.
In 1999, following the death of the party's founder Screaming Lord Sutch—(who had led the party through its previous incarnations, such as "National Teenage Party" and "Go To Blazes Party")—OMRLP members voted for their new leader, choosing jointly a cat called Cat-Mandu and his owner Alan "Howling Laud" Hope. Although Cat-Mandu died in 2002 and now serves as one of the party's "spiritual leaders", "Howling Laud" proudly continues as the UK's longest-serving party leader. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined by the lawyer and university lecturer Adeyinka Makinde for the second instalment of a two-part interview centring in his recent article, "The Pan-Islamic Option : The West's Part in the Creation and Sustaining of Islamist Terror".
In this second part we discuss some of the historical background to the West's use and support of violent Islamist groups, looking at examples of German, British and US policy since the early days of the Twentieth Century.
Adeyinka Makinde trained for the law as a barrister. He lectures in criminal law and public law at a university in London, and has an academic research interest in intelligence & security matters. He is a contributor to a number of websites for which he has written essays and commentaries on international relations, politics and military history. He has served as a programme consultant and provided expert commentary for BBC World Service Radio, China Radio International and the Voice of Russia. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"I don't know if they turned a blind eye; I think it was a decision, a wilful decision."—Mike Flynn
We are joined once again by the lawyer and university lecturer Adeyinka Makinde for the first instalment of a two-part interview centring in his recent article, "The Pan-Islamic Option : The West's Part in the Creation and Sustaining of Islamist Terror".
In this first part we discuss indications in recent years of the West's use and support of violent Islamist groups for the purposes of advancing geopolitical goals, with reference to speeches, interviews and emails associated with people in high office, and position papers by influential think tanks.
Adeyinka Makinde trained for the law as a barrister. He lectures in criminal law and public law at a university in London, and has an academic research interest in intelligence & security matters. He is a contributor to a number of websites for which he has written essays and commentaries on international relations, politics and military history. He has served as a programme consultant and provided expert commentary for BBC World Service Radio, China Radio International and the Voice of Russia. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We welcome the spiritual counsellor and radio host Laura Maxwell, who joins us to share her dramatic testimony of coming to faith in Jesus Christ after having once been involved in Luciferian spiritualism.
"As a spiritual counsellor, Laura is honoured that her work is shared worldwide via satellite TV, radio, books, magazines and online. She and her mother were taught that Lucifer is god when involved in New Age spiritualism. She now exposes the Globalist Agenda—the elite NWO cabal—from her inside knowledge of Luciferianism and Theosophy. She hosts a show on Eternal Radio, interviewing ex-occultists about their Christian conversion stories and their outreach to those still involved in the New Age, cults and the Occult. She is the founder of the international ministry Our Spiritual Quest, based in Scotland."—Laura Maxwell (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"What, then, is the Singularity? It's a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed."—Ray Kurzweil
We are joined by Joshua Wisley of the excellent new Eschaton podcast for a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion on his work and on the subject of the Technological Singularity in relation to Biblical prophecy.
"Joshua Wisley is the host of Eschaton, a new podcast that explores ancient wisdom and spiritual mysteries through the lens of the modern world and attempts to offer fresh insight into age-old questions. The self-prescribed mission of the show is to turn conventional understanding and popular teachings on their head whenever it becomes necessary to do so. The show also provides its own unique spin on some of the other pressing issues of our time, such as geopolitics, supernatural encounters, and modern religious practices. Joshua holds degrees from Cairn University and Villanova University, where he studied comparative religion, philosophy, and business management (respectively). He lives in the northeastern region of the United States with his wife and two children."—J. Wisley (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
In place of our scheduled interview (which unfortunately had to be abandoned), we take the opportunity to present an exclusive interview with the broadcaster, science historian and futurist James Burke.
During the 1960s, '70s, '80s and '90s, James Burke was one of the most famous and most engaging presenters of science and technology programmes on British television. In 1969 he was one of the main presenters of the BBC's coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landings. A household name in the UK, but also well-known around the globe, James Burke became widely admired for his enthusiasm, humour and ability to explain scientific and technological advancements in their historical contexts.
In this engaging interview, conducted by Mark Campbell in 2014, James Burke talks about his life in television, his experience of creating the TV series Connections, and shares something of his personal vision as to how technology might impact human society in years to come.
[The Mind Renewed would like to thank both Mark Campbell and James Burke for kindly agreeing to their interview being included in this programme.] (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined by Dr. Kyle Greenwood, associate professor of Old Testament and Hebrew Language at Colorado Christian University, for a discussion on his thought-provoking yet controversial book Scripture and Cosmology : Reading the Bible Between the Ancient World and Modern Science.
Christians often claim to hold a biblical worldview, but what about a biblical cosmos view? In Genesis, argues Dr. Greenwood, we encounter a solid dome above the earth—a "firmament"—like the ceiling of a planetarium. The language of the Bible is also that of the ancient Near Eastern palace, temple and hearth; there was no other way of thinking about earth, sky, sun, moon and stars.
But Dr. Greenwood explains how faithful Christian thinkers down the ages have engaged with new cosmologies—from Aristotelian to Copernican and beyond—while continuing in the light of Scripture; a tradition of interpretation, he argues, that can illuminate our own endeavours to understand the relationship between Scripture and God's world. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined by the veteran author, lecturer and film-maker G. Edward Griffin, for a conversation on his forthcoming Red Pill Expo (to be held in Bozeman, Montana on the 23rd and 24th of June), and to discuss issues relating to the so-called "Truth Movement".
What is "The Truth Movement"? And what are its aims? Indeed, is it even meaningful to speak of "the" Truth Movement at all?
G. Edward Griffin is the Founder of Freedom Force International, and is listed in Who's Who in America. His research has led him into many areas over the years such as archaeology, ancient Earth history, the Federal Reserve System, international banking, the science and politics of cancer therapy, US foreign policy, and the United Nations. Perhaps his best-known book is The Creature from Jekyll Island. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Was God an astronaut? Is there evidence that ancient peoples were visited by technologically-advanced aliens? Or are such ideas the imaginings of "an over-caffeinated bumblebee"?
This week we are joined by our good friend Frank Johnson of the Ancient Aliens Debunked blog for a casual and light-hearted chat on the subject of the History Channel's Ancient Aliens series. Long-term listeners will recognise Frank from his photograph here, and will recall that he has joined us twice before as one of The Fireside Nephilim Boys for our TMR New Year celebrations of 2016 and 2017.
Frank Johnson has for several years researched and written for Chris White's Ancient Aliens Debunked blog, and was involved in researching for Chris's "debunkumentary" Ancient Aliens Debunked. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are frequently told that Neo-Darwinian theory is true, and that there are robust mathematical models that demonstrate that fact. But is that really so?
This week we are joined by Dr. Robert J. Marks II, Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Baylor University, for a discussion on his newly-published book, Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics, co-authored with the mathematician and philosopher Dr. William A. Dembski and the research scientist and software engineer Dr. Winston Ewert.
Drawing upon his and his colleagues' work on information theory, and their analyses of naturalistic evolutionary models, Dr. Marks argues that there are logical limits to what such evolutionary algorithms can accomplish and that none of the vaunted models lives up to the claims made about it. Rather, each exhibits some form of "active information" unwittingly contributed by the "domain expertise" of its designers, thus (somewhat ironically) serving to further the case for intelligent design in nature. Dr. Marks also addresses AI (artificial intelligence) and argues, contrary to many voices today, that computers will never rise to the heights of human consciousness and creativity.
Dr. Marks's eponymous honours include the Zhao-Atlas-Marks (ZAM) time-frequency distribution in the field of signal processing, the Cheung–Marks theorem in Shannon sampling theory and the Papoulis-Marks-Cheung (PMC) approach in multidimensional sampling. He was instrumental in defining the field of computational intelligence, and with his colleagues developed the temporal convolutional neural network, widely used in deep learning. In 2013 he was listed among "The 50 Most Influential Scientists in the World Today" by TheBestSchools.org. A Christian since 1970, Marks is married with three children, three grandchildren, two dogs and a "stupid horse".(For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we are joined by Graham of the excellent "FiveRedPears" YouTube channel, for a fascinating and entertaining discussion on contemporary Flat-Earth Theory.
We mostly discuss some of the more well-known flat-Earth proponets, such as Eric Dubay, Mark Sargent, jeranism and TheMorgile, and I ask Graham (a mathematics teacher by profession) to assess some of their key arguments, using the logic, observation and straightforward geometry so characteristic of his video presentations. Graham also explains why the standard, spherical Earth model is in every way to be preferred, and shares with us from his experience of interacting with people caught up in the flat-Earth scene. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"I think that the Trump presidency is already over. I'm not even sure he qualifies as a figurehead."—PCR We are joined once again by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former US Assistant Secretary to the Treasury for Economic Policy, for a discussion on the Trump presidency so far. Dr. Roberts assesses the performance of the new president and his administration with reference to pre-election promises; shares with us his view that the deep state has effectively neutralised Donald Trump as US president; gives his reaction to the so-called "Syrian gas attack" in Idlib, and the subsequent military action by the US against Syria; and considers the very real prospects for war as Washington steps up its warmongering around the globe. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"The best news is, that we have safely found Our king and company; the next, our ship—Which, but three glasses since, we gave out split—Is as tightly yarndled and bravely rigg'd as when We first put out to sea."—The Tempest, William Shakespeare
This week we welcome the writer, educator and expert yarndler Campbell Adams, who joins us for an in-depth conversation on the ancient art of yarndling. (We are also grateful to the historian Dr. Chris Taverstock of New College, Cambridge, for his invaluable contribution to this programme.)
Campbell Adams was for many years President of the Ancient Order of Yarndlers in Walberswick, Suffolk, where he lives with his common-law wife and their twelve hairless cats. His books include Looking Through Binoculars at Yarndling (1987), Yarndlers in High Places (1995) and the controversial I Was Forced to Yarndle (2005). He has lectured on yarndling in schools and colleges across the UK and is researching his latest book, entitled Never Too Old to Sing the Yarndling Blues, an overview of yarndling folksongs from mediaeval times until 1967. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."—Paul (Galatians 5:22f)
This week we welcome Rev. Dr. Christopher J. H. Wright for a conversation on his newly-published Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit : Growing in Christlikeness, a gem of a book exploring—in straightforward language, yet covering much theological ground—Paul's teaching on how the indwelling of God's Spirit in the believer can free us from both legalism and selfishness by helping us to grow more Christlike in character.
Christopher Wright is International Ministries Director of the Langham Partnership, providing literature, scholarships, and preaching training for pastors in Majority World churches and seminaries. He has written many books including works on mission, ethics and bible commentaries. He is an ordained priest in the Church of England, and for many years served as academic dean and then principal of All Nations Christian College. He has chaired the Lausanne Theology Working Group, and is the chief architect of The Cape Town Commitment from the Third Lausanne Congress, 2010. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we conclude our two-part interview with Dr. Tim Ball, "retired" lecturer in geography and historical climatology at the University of Winnipeg, Canada.
In this second part we move on to discuss the "hottest year on record" phenomenon, the question of data tampering in climate science, and the recent statement by Dr. John Bates that significant research challenging the (roughly) 20-year "pause" in global warming was (in his view) flawed.
[In part one we discussed issues surrounding the lawsuit brought against Dr. Ball by the climatologist Dr. Michael E. Mann; Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs); Dr. Ball's experience of having recently been invited to Washington in connection with Trump's transtion team on the Environmental Protection Agency; the EPA's future under Trump; and the political "hot potato" question of the relationship between Big Oil and Climate Scepticism.] (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we are once again joined by Dr. Tim Ball, "retired" lecturer in geography and climatology at the University of Winnipeg, for the first instalment of a two-part conversation on the ever-turbulent relationship between climate science and politics. We discuss issues surrounding the lawsuit brought against Dr. Ball by the climatologist Dr. Michael E. Mann; Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs); Dr. Ball's experience of having recently been invited to Washington in connection with Trump's transtion team on the Environmental Protection Agency; the EPA's future under Trump; and the political "hot potato" question of the relationship between Big Oil and Climate Scepticism. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"We will maintain a healthy skepticism towards all the big-name leaders in the church. We will check everything any pastor/teacher says against God's Word, and when it comes to the most powerful, multimillionaire "Super Pastors," we will assume the worst until convinced otherwise."—Steven Kozar
We are joined by the gifted professional artist Steven Kozar, writer of the Messed Up Church blog, for a conversation centred in his critique of "the Evangelical Industrial Complex" entitled "A Manifesto of Christian Discernment".
Steven Kozar has been a full-time professional artist since 1986, specialising in realistic watercolour technique, and his paintings have been sold in prestigious art galleries across the US and in the UK. In recent years he has been writing the Messed Up Church blog, and lately podcasting, with the aim of helping "hurting and/or frustrated people in the church... filter through all the shallow and confusing things" they've been told by the "Evangelical Industrial Complex" in the hope that they might "come to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a Christian." (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Popular in alt-media circles, though seldom explicitly stated as an argument, the False-Flag Exercise Hypothesis promotes the idea that the coincidence of official training exercises or drills with major terror attacks somehow proves—or at least heavily suggests—that these events are instances of state-sponsored false-flag terrorism. But exactly how is this argument supposed to go?
To discuss the question we welcome back Tom Secker of SpyCulture.com, writer, researcher, fim-maker and creator of the excellent podcast ClandesTime, who guides us through the idea's history in military deception techniques, considers its role as a popular—but, in his view, largely mistaken—conspiracy theory and assesses the extent to which it has been encouraged through state-sponsored mass entertainment.
Subjects include: The Bay of Pigs, Operation Northwoods, Operation Gladio, The Russian Apartment Bombings, 9/11, 7/7 and The Boston Bombings. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"American Civil Religion is the most effective rival religion to true Christianity in the US"—Martin Erdmann
This week we welcome back theologian and lecturer Dr. Martin Erdmann, Director of the Verax Institute in Greenville, South Carolina, for a challenging yet enlightening discussion on the important subject of American Civil Religion and its unhappy relationship to true Christianity.
As a fish is unaware of the water in which it swims, so the majority of Americans do not perceive that there exists in the US today a state religion, incompatible with true Christianity, yet not openly opposed to it. Feeding on the many symbols, events, ideals and heroes of America's history and public life, and borrowing from the language and metaphors of Christianity, this state religion vies for the allegiance of every citizen.
Arguing that every state cultivates its own particular brand of civil religion, Dr. Erdmann encourages us to stand firm when our allegiance to Christ is challenged by the state, and advises us to remain vigilant as we approach the days of a global civil religion. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
What if the moon is really a hologram? How many memes can dance on the head of a pin? Why hasn't Frank Johnson been abducted by the Nephilim Fairies? How many thylacines does it take to change a light bulb?
To kick off 2017 here at TMR we welcome back high-ranking members of The Fireside Nephilim Boys, a semi-secret society and multinational think-tank affiliated to Like Flint Radio, for another friendly and entertaining New Year roundtable chat. Joining together from diverse regions of the globe we look back over the last year and discuss pretty much anything that managed to get our collective goats during 2016.
Join us—Garth Kennedy (Australia), Frank Johnson (US), Cliff Garner (US), Jeff Goldblum's Laugh (US) and Yours Truly (UK)—as we discuss these and many other subjects and put the world to rights in just under ninety minutes. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Hasn't the Shroud of Turin been exposed once and for all as a Mediaeval forgery (albeit the work of an artistic genius) thanks to rigorous carbon-dating tests carried out in the 1980s? Or is there more to be said?
This week we are joined by attorney and author Mark Antonacci, founder and president of Test the Shroud Foundation, for a discussion on his fascinating book Test the Shroud : At the Atomic and Molecular Levels.
Arguing that new scientific tests might contest these findings and reveal the Shroud to be very probably the genuine burial cloth of Jesus Christ, Mark Antonacci proposes a scientifically-testable hypothesis that particle radiation emanating from the shroud-wrapped, crucified body may account for very many of the Shroud's features, such as full-length body images, still-red blood marks, erroneous carbon dating and more. He also describes scientific tests that could be applied to the burial cloth and its human bloodstains that could, he believes, demonstrate whether or not the Shroud was impacted by a miraculous event, when and where it happened, and even the identity of the victim.
Join us as we discuss the issues and debate whether or not his proposals might be fruitful in the ongoing quest to determine the truth about The Shroud of Turin. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"...it is sometimes necessary to do unpleasant things which lose a certain amount of allegiance for a moment in order to produce your overall results"—Frank Kitson
This week we conclude our two-part interview with lawyer and university lecturer Adeyinka Makinde on his forthcoming academic paper: "Intelligence Accountability - Can the British State Convict Itself?"
In the first part we discussed Tony Blair's decision to take Britain to war against Iraq in 2003, and considered the prospects for war-crime prosecution under international and domestic law.
In the second part we move on to discuss Britain's role in the US-led "extraordinary rendition" programme—asking to what extent former UK foreign secretary, Jack Straw, and former head of counter-intelligence at MI6, Mark Allen, were involved in that—and end by looking at Britain's counter-insurgency strategy in Northern Ireland, which was initiated in the early 1970s by then Brigadier Frank Kitson.
Adeyinka Makinde trained for the law as a barrister. He lectures in criminal law and public law at a university in London, and has an academic research interest in intelligence & security matters. He is a contributor to a number of websites for which he has written essays and commentaries on international relations, politics and military history. He has served as a programme consultant and provided expert commentary for BBC World Service Radio, China Radio International and the Voice of Russia. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy"—Downing Street Memo
This week we are joined by the lawyer and university lecturer Adeyinka Makinde for the first part of a fascinating two-part interview centring in his forthcoming academic paper: "Intelligence Accountability : Can the British State Convict Itself?" Focusing on the 2003 Iraq invasion, "extraordinary renditions" and the UK's counter-insurgency strategy in the early years of the Northern Ireland "Troubles", Makinde questions the relationship between morality and "national interest" goals, and probes international and domestic law to make a case for the criminal culpability of high-ranking officials of the British state.
In this first part, Adeyinka Makinde challenges the opinion held by some experts, such as Geoffrey Robertson, that Tony Blair is not eligible to be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court.
Adeyinka Makinde trained for the law as a barrister. He lectures in criminal law and public law at a university in London, and has an academic research interest in intelligence & security matters. He is a contributor to a number of websites for which he has written essays and commentaries on international relations, politics and military history. He has served as a programme consultant and provided expert commentary for BBC World Service Radio, China Radio International and the Voice of Russia. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
As a way of "checking in" with listeners before TMR "returns to the [digital] airwaves" properly next week—following my "paternity leave" away from the show—I take the opportunity to share a recent conversation I had with James Corbett. James kindly invited me onto The Corbett Report to discuss the great film Being There as part of his ongoing podcast series, Film, Literature and the New World Order.
"Julian Charles of TheMindRenewed.com joins us to discuss Being There, the 1979 film by director Hal Ashby that follows the story of Chance the Gardener, a simple man with no experience of the outside world who is suddenly thrust onto the national political stage. Despite his complete lack of knowledge and experience (or precisely because of it) the powers behind the scenes float him as a potential candidate for next president of the United States. So is this a reflection of political reality, or broad satire? What does the movie tell us about the way modern media shapes the political landscape? Find out in this edition of Film, Literature and the New World Order."—James Corbett (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"The manœuvre which brings an ally into the field is as serviceable as that which wins a great battle."—Churchill *
This week, as part of our false-flag series, we are joined by the author James Perloff for a discussion on the Lusitania, the famous British ocean liner that was sunk by a German submarine in 1915. Was the Lusitania—and the 1198 passengers and crew who perished with her—simply the victim of a German U-boat torpedo attack? Or did the British government deliberately place the Lusitania in jeopardy in order to attract a German attack in the hope of bringing America into WWI?
James Perloff is author of The Shadows of Power (an exposé of the Council on Foreign Relations that has sold over 100,000 copies), Tornado in a Junkyard and The Case Against Darwin (each challenging Darwinian evolution theory), and most recently Truth Is a Lonely Warrior (investigating the dark spiritual forces behind the drive for world government). For nearly three decades he wrote for The New American magazine. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"Who made God?"—"Are the Bible's miracles all made up?"—"Does God see us when we visit the bathroom?"
This week we welcome David Andrew Robertson, minister of St. Peter's Free Church, Dundee and Director of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity, who joins us for a thought-provoking and entertaining Q&A on Christianity, theism and the Bible. Without any prior warning as to what's coming up, David responds to questions—from the challenging to the just-plain-quirky—based on emails and comments that have come into TMR over the last couple of years.
"David is the minister of St Peter’s Free Church in Dundee, Scotland (a church that is best known for being the church of Robert Murray McCheyne). He is the author of Awakening (a contemporary account of McCheyne’s life), The Dawkins Letters, Magnificent Obsesssion and Engaging with Atheists. He writes regularly for The Scotsman and Christianity Today. David enjoys reading prolifically, playing chess and sampling fine whisky. David is married to Annabel and they have three children: Andrew, Becky and Emma Jane." (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"People say, 'Oh the Cold War's started again.' You hear this constantly from pundits. I wish the Cold War would come back, because the Cold War was very carefully managed; tensions were reduced. We've got the opposite of a Cold War; we've got tensions increased beyond any level they ever existed before."—PCR
We welcome once again Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former US Assistant Secretary to the Treasury for Economic Policy, who joins us to discuss the increasingly dangerous geopolitical tensions focused upon Syria. Dr. Roberts argues that unless the European peoples wake up and refuse to co-operate with Washington's insane neocon policy of "world hegemony"—a co-operation that helps facilitate Washington's illegal wars around the globe—the result will almost inevitably be a thermonuclear WWIII: a war that can have no winners. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"The 9/11 terrorists were not just lucky once; they were lucky over and over again."—Mindy Kleinberg (9/11 widow)
This week we are joined by the Yorkshire-born journalist, educator, photographer and political activist John Booth, whose career in journalism has included working for news organisations in Africa, the US and the UK.
John joins us to share something of his intellectual journey into questioning, and then investigating, the events of 9/11, and to discuss his excellent new article recently published by Lobster magazine, "Fifteen Years on from 9/11".
John Booth currently writes for Lobster — http://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk — and LAFZ, the magazine for Pakistani diaspora — http://www.lafzmagazine.com — and is a founder member of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"It is not new, it is not apostolic, and it is not a reformation"—John MacArthur *
This week we welcome Mike Hopkins of Fight The Lies Radio, who joins us to discuss the so-called "New Apostolic Reformation", a new religious movement within Christianity that combines (among other things) hyper-charismatic worship, ostensibly-authoritative "apostles" and "prophets", and dominionist teachings.
In the second half Mike shares with us his, and his wife Kelli's, experience of having once been heavily involved in a NAR congregation—an experience characterised by increasing discomfort, leading to their eventual decision to leave in search of a different, more biblically-faithful, church.
"Mike Hopkins was born and raised in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, in the USA. In 2005, he accepted Messiah Yeshua. He has a thirst for truth and for bringing that truth to all who are willing to hear. He and his wife Kelli have recently begun hosting their own podcasts. Mike currently works in the tech industry. He currently lives in Virginia Beach with his wife and Kayla, their Boston Terrier." (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"Christianity was never meant to be simple"—Kandiah
To begin this autumn's season of programmes here at TMR, we welcome the author, activist and theologian Dr. Krish Kandiah, former President of the London School of Theology and Founding Director of Home for Good, a "young charity seeking to make a real difference in the lives of vulnerable children".
Dr. Kandiah joins us to discuss his award-winning book, PARADOXOLOGY, which explores some of the difficult questions about the Christian faith and argues that it is often through wrestling with the paradoxes of faith that we learn about God.
Krish also introduces us to Books for Life, his inspiring new online media project aimed at encouraging people to engage with high-quality Christian literature through video interviews with well-known Christian leaders. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"Atheists talk a lot about the importance of scepticism, but the truth is they're not nearly sceptical enough."
So maintains our guest this week, Dr. Mitch Stokes, Senior Fellow of Philosophy at New St. Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho, and author of the new book How to Be an Atheist : Why Many Skeptics Aren't Skeptical Enough, published by Crossway (2016).
While atheists typically advocate a critical stance towards religion, few are willing to adopt a similar attitude towards their own beliefs. Such a double standard sometimes leads to over-confident claims about the certainty of the grounds for atheism—claims which are, at best, logically inconsistent, and, at worst, intellectually dishonest. Turning atheists' scepticism around on their own naturalistic worldview, Mitch Stokes examines two things that such sceptics hold dear—science and morality—and reveals deep inconsistencies among their most cherished beliefs. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Where are we heading? What does the future hold? And will our worldview be robust and coherent enough to carry us through the difficulties that lie ahead? We are joined once again, for the third and final of a short series of interviews, by the writer and researcher Thomas R. Goehle, author of America's Post-Christian Apocalypse: How Secular Modernism Marginalized Christianity and The Peril of Leaving God Behind at the End of the Age. Building upon the previous two interviews, in which we discussed truth, faith and reason, we conclude by considering ways in which End-Time biblical prophecy might relate to the much-discussed New World Order, and gently debate various eschatological themes such as the Antichrist, Great Tribulation and the Rapture. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week, film-maker and political activist John Massaria joins us to introduce his new and compelling film project, I Love My Country But Hate What They Are Doing. Featuring interviews and personal statements by well-known activists such as Dr. Daniele Ganser, Tommy Hansen, Gerald Celente, Anthony Freda, Ken O'Keefe, Gary Franchi, Ray McGovern and Joe Rogan, John Massaria's film crafts a challenging narrative of a country—the US, the country he loves—subservient to its military-industrial complex and addicted to war. Only by facing up this reality, and—(as Anthony Rotunno put it in a previous show)—"changing the discourse", will there by any chance of turning the tide and steering the world in the direction of peace and goodwill. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we are joined by the talented visual artist and political activist Anthony Freda for a discussion on his approach to political art.
Based in Long Island, Freda works as an editorial illustrator, visual political activist and as part of the adjunct faculty of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. In addition to many mainstream clients, such as Time, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and The New York Times, he has also earned a reputation as the go-to artist for many alternative news websites and publication, such as Code Pink, Activist Post, Washington’s Blog, Global Research, Cindy Sheehan’s The Soapbox and The Trends Journal. In 2006 Village Voice commissioned Freda to illustrate a story about people who challenge the official 9/11 narrative, which artwork has since become part of the permanent collection of the US National September 11th Museum in New York.
"Anthony Freda’s art is a flower in the barrel of a shotgun but a bullet in the mouth of politics. He is fearless and fierce and years from now, when we look back on this moment in history, his art will be an accurate snapshot.
A picture of what we should never forget lest history repeat itself. "—Ara Hawkins (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
What is this strange thing called the Bilderberg Group? Is it something that we should we be concerned about? Or is it, as many people say, essentially just a "talking shop" for rich people?
To put us in the picture, we welcome back to the programme Tony Gosling, investigative radio journalist and former BBC reporter. Tony, who came on TMR back in 2013 to discuss the "official" and "unofficial" histories of this infamous Group, now joins us to share his experience of covering the 64th Bilderberg Meeting, which was held recently in Dresden, Germany, between the 9th and 12th of June.
We also discuss the political climate here in the UK following the EU Referendum, and the anti-Corbyn coup by the parliamentary Labour Party. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Many might suppose that animistic belief is fundamentally incompatible with modern Western culture. "It's something of the past", it might be said, or "a feature of life in other less-'enlightened' places". And yet, argues our guest Rev. Dr. Robert H. Bennett, animism is on the rise even in the USA, and we shouldn't think that Christians always remain unaffected by its subtle, yet often harmful, influence.
Dr. Bennett, who is Executive Director of Luther Academy in Fort Wayne Indiana and a specialist in missions, joined us last year to discuss his field-research book I Am Not Afraid : Demon Possession and Spiritual Warfare : True Accounts from the Lutheran Church of Madagascar. He now returns to the show to introduce his new follow-up book Afraid: Demon Possession and Spiritual Warfare in America, and shares with us his biblical conviction that, in the face of all spiritual deception and oppression, there is only one answer: Jesus Christ. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"Remain" or "Leave"? What does the UK's EU Referendum—scheduled 23rd June—really amount to? Is it simply the opportunity for UK citizens to decide if Britain should stay in the European Union? Or is it something of greater significance, with broader and more serious implications? And just what is this thing called the EU anyway?
Joining us, once again, to discuss these questions is Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former US Assistant Secretary to the Treasury for Ecomonic Policy, who explains the EU's beginnings as a project of the CIA, and assesses its current role as as an anti-democratic tool of corporate control. Whether or not a majority "leave" vote will actually lead to Brexit, Dr. Roberts argues that a decisive rejection of EU membership by UK citizens could embolden other EU member states to follow suit, thus precipitating the break-up of NATO, and in turn, bringing an end to Washington's crazy designs for a New World Order. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"If the Bill becomes law, the police and the intelligence agencies—MI5, MI6 and GCHQ—will be legally allowed to hack a device, system or network to watch, change, destroy or obtain data in secret without the user knowing."—BigBrotherWatch
This week we welcome Daniel Nesbitt, Research Director of Big Brother Watch, the UK privacy and civil liberties campaign organisation, for a discussion on the UK government's proposals for its Investigatory Powers Bill. The government wants this Bill, popularly known as the "Snoopers' Charter", to be law by the end of 2016, but are there any reasons to be concerned about it? (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Did God really create the world in six days? Or is the Bible actually saying something subtly different? Did God make Eve from Adam's rib? Or is that a misreading of the text?
To discuss these and other absorbing questions arising from his fascinating-yet-controversial book, The Lost World of Adam and Eve, we are joined by Dr. John H. Walton, Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate School, Illinois. Analysing Genesis chapters 2 and 3 in the context of other Ancient Near East literature, Walton proposes literary and theological understandings of the "Adam and Eve" narrative that in some ways complement—yet in other ways challenge—traditional interpretations.
Prior to his current position as Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate School, Dr. Walton was Professor of Old Testament at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for twenty years. Some of his other books include: The Lost World of Scripture, The Lost World of Genesis One, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament and The Essential Bible Companion. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We welcome veteran Christian writer and speaker James W. Sire (PhD, University of Missouri), formerly a senior editor at InterVarsity Press. Author of many well-known books, such as Scripture Twisting and The Universe Next Door, James Sire joins us to discuss his mature approach to Christian apologetics as we explore his latest book Apologetics Beyond Reason : Why Seeing Really is Believing.
Drawing us in with an unusual, but intriguing, argument—"There is everything. Therefore there is a God. Either you see this or you don’t"—James Sire invites us to ask questions about reality and the way in which we read its "signals of transcendence".
"Christian apologetics lays before the watching world such a winsome embodiment of the Christian faith that for any and all who are willing to observe there will be an intellectually and emotionally credible witness to its fundamental truths."—Sire, A Little Primer on Humble Apologetics, p. 26 (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined by Rev. Israel Oluwole Olofinjana—an ordained Baptist minister and pastor of Woolwich Central Baptist Church, a multi-ethnic inner-city church in south-east London—for a discussion centred in his provocative 2015 book, Partnership in Mission : A Black Majority Church Perspective on Mission and Church Unity, published by Instant Apostle.
Israel Olofinjana comes from a Nigerian Pentecostal background and holds a MTh (Master of Theology) from Carolina University of Theology. He is many-times published academically and is a member of the editorial board of Missio Africanus, an online journal of African missiology in Britain. He has authored three books to date: Reverse in Ministry and Missions: Africans in the Dark Continent of Europe (2010), 20 Pentecostal Pioneers in Nigeria (2011) and Partnership in Mission (2015). Israel speaks and teaches in many venues across the UK on the subjects of Reverse Mission, African Christianity and Black Majority Churches. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"Pencil in the phoenix for around 2018, and welcome it when it comes"—The Economist 1988
This week we welcome David Haggith, economic commentator and writer of The Great Recession Blog, for a discussion on the international trend among central banks and governments towards a global cashless society.
Regarded by central banks as a "drag" on their ability to manipulate economies to their liking, cash is being increasingly attacked as an inefficient, costly and even dangerous relic of the past—after all, where would criminals be without it? But once cash is gone, and our ability to rescue our savings from the monolithic digital banking system has gone with it, who will truly have control over our money? (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
During TMR's Easter break, we take the opportunity to share a classic interview - "Who Rules America?" - with Dr. G. William Domhoff, Research Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Conducted as part of the Alternative Views TV series co-founded by Frank Morrow and Douglas Kellner, which addessed issues often ignored or misrepresented by the mainstream media, this impressive interview explores the structures of power in the US and analyses the dominant role of the Power Elite.
Although recorded back in 1986 and focused specifically on the US context, this important interview nevertheless contains many valuable insights into the dynamics of elitist power that can help to inform our understanding of the contemporary context as we unwillingly journey into a New World Order. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"We want no Gestapo or secret police. FBI is tending in that direction. They are dabbling in sex-life scandals and plain blackmail… [J.] Edgar Hoover would give his right eye to take over, and all congressmen and senators are afraid of him." (US President Harry S. Truman)
So begins a recent commentary by our guest for this Good Friday edition of TMR, the constitutional attorney and author John. W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Foundation, a nonprofit civil liberties and human rights organisation headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia. With his recent article—"America's Gestapo : The FBI's Reign of Terror"—as our focus, we discuss the significance of the FBI in the seemingly-inexorable transformation of the USA into a police state, and consider the example of Jesus as an activist in Roman-occupied Palestine. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence..." Or so said Richard Dawkins at the Edinburgh International Science Festival in 1992. But is that really true? Do faith and reason really not mix? And why do so many people seem to think this?
Joining us, for the second of a short series of interviews, is the writer and researcher Thomas R. Goehle, author of America's Post-Christian Apocalypse: How Secular Modernism Marginalized Christianity and The Peril of Leaving God Behind at the End of the Age. Adopting a very, very broad-brush-stroke approach, in order to trace some of the contours of Western philosopy and theology, we embark upon a whistle-stop tour—from Thomas Aquinas and the Mediaeval Synthesis, through the Enlightenment, and onward into (Post)Modernity—and explore some of the reasons for the unhappy divorce of faith and reason in contemporary Western culture.
Thomas Goehle earned a Master of Arts degree in Philosophy of Religion (honors) from Denver Seminary. He lives in Williamsville, New York where he is working on his next book tentatively entitled Transhumanism, AI, and the Apocalypse. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Atlas, the impressive brainchild of Boston Dynamics and icon of Industry 4.0, raises perhaps more concerns than it does hopes for the future. Will Atlas's cyber progeny and digital cousins bring to pass a brave new world of endless leisure for the masses, or will they usher in an age of mass unemployment, poverty, or worse?
We are joined once again by Patrick M. Wood, Editor-in-Chief of Technocracy News and Trends, who returns to the programme to discuss the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution—a highlight of this year's World Economic Forum in Davos—and to consider its role within the utopian vision of the neo-technocratic elites of today.
Patrick M. Wood is an author and lecturer who has studied elite globalisation policies since the late 1970s, when he partnered with the late Antony C. Sutton to co-author Trilaterals Over Washington, Volumes I and II. An economist by education, a financial analyst and writer by profession, and an American Constitutionalist by choice, Wood maintains a biblical worldview and has deep historical insights into modern attacks on sovereignty, property rights and personal freedom. A frequent speaker on radio shows around the U.S., Wood's current work centres in Technocracy, Transhumanism and Scientism, and how these are transforming global economics, politics and religion. As he says, the endgame is scientific dictatorship; we ignore it our peril. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Atlas, the impressive brainchild of Boston Dynamics and icon of Industry 4.0, raises perhaps more concerns than it does hopes for the future. Will Atlas's cyber progeny and digital cousins bring to pass a brave new world of endless leisure for the masses, or will they usher in an age of mass unemployment, poverty, or worse?
We are joined once again by Patrick M. Wood, Editor-in-Chief of Technocracy News and Trends, who returns to the programme to discuss the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution—a highlight of this year's World Economic Forum in Davos—and to consider its role within the utopian vision of the neo-technocratic elites of today.
Patrick M. Wood is an author and lecturer who has studied elite globalisation policies since the late 1970s, when he partnered with the late Antony C. Sutton to co-author Trilaterals Over Washington, Volumes I and II. An economist by education, a financial analyst and writer by profession, and an American Constitutionalist by choice, Wood maintains a biblical worldview and has deep historical insights into modern attacks on sovereignty, property rights and personal freedom. A frequent speaker on radio shows around the U.S., Wood's current work centres in Technocracy, Transhumanism and Scientism, and how these are transforming global economics, politics and religion. As he says, the endgame is scientific dictatorship; we ignore it our peril. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we are honoured to speak with Charles and Mary Ann Strange, whose son Michael—Cryptologic Technician and Petty Officer (Collection) First Class Michael Strange—was tragically killed in a suspicious helicopter shoot-down in Afghanistan.
Michael had served as a member of SEAL Team Six when it was reported to have assassinated Osama bin Laden at the beginning of May 2011. But on August 6, 2011 Michael was killed—along with fourteen other members of SEAL Team Six, two other Navy SEALs, thirteen US Army and US Navy support personnel, seven Afghan commandos, one Afgan interpreter and one US military working dog—when the CH-47D Chinook helicopter in which they were travelling was shot down by the Taliban.
But this was no ordinary tragedy in the horrific course of warfare; it was a deeply suspicious event. And many of the families who lost loved ones that day continue to press their catalogue of serious questions that the authorities seem unwilling to answer. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we are joined by Christian philosopher Dr. Glenn Peoples for an in-depth discussion on The Moral Argument for the Existence of God.
Each of us has a sense of what we ought—and ought not—to do in the many and varied circumstances of our lives, but what is the explanation for this ordinary, yet seemingly-unfathomable phenomenon? Does it stem from a God-given human faculty to perceive objective moral obligations? Or is it just an unintended product of our ostensible evolutionary history? Do objective moral obligations even exist? Or is all talk about them merely illusory, misleading or even meaningless?
Guiding us through the maze of opinions, Dr. Peoples persuasively argues that only within a theistic worldview of a personal God can objective moral obligations—which we each perceive—be adequately grounded in philosophical terms.
Dr. Glenn Andrew Peoples holds degrees in Music and Divinity, a Master's in Theology, and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Otago, New Zealand. He runs Right Reason, a website and blog on theology, philosophy and social issues, along with the podcast Say Hello to my Little Friend, while continuing to publish and speak in his areas of interest. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we are once again joined by Dr. Tim Ball, retired professor of Historical Climatology at the University of Winnipeg, for a characteristically fun and fascinating conversation on the subject of Educational Ergonomics.
What is education? What is it for? And−a question that increasing numbers of people are asking in these days of rising student debt and increasing unemployment−who is it for? Is it primarily for the student, whether in school or college, or has it become in large measure a socially-acceptable form of structural unemployment to help keep the wheels of the State turning? (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"What is truth?"—a rhetorical question famously snarled by Pontius Pilate during his interrogation of Jesus 2000 years ago. Yet the question is a real one, and the answer of monumental significance in every day and age. But especially in ours, an age in which the very concept of truth itself is under merciless attack.
Joining us, for the first of a short series of interviews, is the writer and researcher Thomas R. Goehle, author of the important new book America's Post-Christian Apocalypse: How Secular Modernism Marginalized Christianity and The Peril of Leaving God Behind at the End of the Age. Beginning with the thesis of his book—that "secular (post)modernism has increasingly replaced Christianity as the hegemonic authority in our society"—we discuss how some of the negative fruits of the Enlightenment led a spiritually-autonomous humanity into the absurdities of extreme relativism and political correctness, and ask if such a humanity could resist the tyranny of a nascent New World Order.
Thomas Goehle earned a Master of Arts degree in Philosophy of Religion (honors) from Denver Seminary. He lives in Williamsville, New York where he is working on his next book tentatively entitled Transhumanism, AI, and the Apocalypse. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
If you're wondering what's happening to The Mind Renewed, all is revealed in this thoroughly dehumidified episode, as we explore the effects of the Boxing Day Flood upon the state-of-the-art studios at TMR, and uncover the host's various attachments to David Bowie, Pierre Boulez and solid oak flooring.
Thereafter, in place of thwarted antediluvian good intentions, we take the opportunity to present a fascinating lecture by academic philosopher Dr. Del Ratzsch on the subject of Supernatural Design and the question of its place in Science.
Variety, they say, is the spice of life...
(The lecture by Dr. Del Ratzsch included in this episode is Copyright © MaclaurinCSF (http://maclaurincsf.org/), all rights reserved, and used here with kind permission.) (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
To kick off the New Year here at TMR we welcome The Fireside Nephilim Boys—a multinational think-tank affiliated to Like Flint Radio—who join us from diverse regions of the globe for a friendly, entertaining and sometimes controversial roundtable chat about... well, pretty much anything that managed to get under our collective skin during 2015.
Is NASA hiding the truth about all our washing machines? Do missing socks hold the key to Nephilim reproduction? Was Jade Helm secretly organised by Turkish President Erdoğan as a means of distracting the US people from the dangers of termite-generated global warming? Join us—Garth Kennedy (Australia), Frank Johnson (US), Crusy (South Africa), Cliff Garner (US) and Yours Truly (UK)—as we discuss these (well, perhaps not precisely these) and many other subjects and put the world to rights in just under two hours. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
For TMR's final programme of 2015 we are joined by Dr. Mike Spaulding, Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel, Lima and host of Soaring Eagle Radio, for a discussion on the subject of Biblical Hermeneutics.
Isn't it obvious how we should read the Bible? After all, if it says such-and-such, surely it means such-and-such, and that's the end of the matter? Or is it really always quite so straightforward? Drawing upon his many years of study, grounded in the context of pastoral ministry, Dr. Spaulding guides us through the maze of biblical hermeneutics - observation, interpretation and application - and shares with us some invaluable tools that can help us unlock the plain meaning of the Scriptures.
Mike Spaulding was ordained to the ministry in 1998, and hold a PhD in Apologetics from Trinity Theological Seminary. He is the author of innumerable articles appearing in various publications by LifeWay Publishers, Baker Publishing and several online apologetics ministries. He maintains two blogs – The Transforming Word and Dr. Mike Spaulding – and teaches on The Transforming Word radio show, heard on radio stations throughout the Midwest United States. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
British film-maker, 9/11 Truth activist, and fellow Christian, Tony Rooke returns to the progamme to introduce his new film INCONTROVERTIBLE, "the first and only feature-length documentary" to portray the "candid views of Police Officers, Firefighters and Soldiers... about the official explanation for the events of 9/11."
In 2013 Tony Rooke hit the headlines as he was summonsed to court for not paying his TV licence. In his defence he appealed to the UK Terrorism Act 2000, arguing that much of the BBC's coverage of 9/11 (and 7/7 - the London Bombings) had been so disingenuous as to serve as a cover-up for the real criminals in each case, and that to have paid his licence fee to the BBC would have been to have committed a much more serious offence under the Act. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined again by Dr. Duke Pesta, professor of English at The University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, and Academic Director of FreedomProject Education, for an update on Common Core, the US education system's so-called "Common Core State Standards Initiative".
Touted as "a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English... created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live"*, Common Core sounds almost too good to be true.
And so it is, according to Dr. Pesta, who explains that far from raising standards, Common Core actually lowers them, in the interests of engineering a compliant Global Citizenry for the nascent One-World Corporatist State. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Once again we welcome to the programme Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, who joins us to give his reaction to the Paris Attacks of 13th November, assessing them in relation to current and historical geopolitical realities. In the second half of the interview Dr. Roberts shares with us his analysis of the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership") and other so-called "trade deals" such as TTIP and TiSA, and raises the question as to whether we are seeing, in these developments, the dawn of the New World Order.
"There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always—do not forget this, Winston—always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever." (Orwell, 1984) (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Remember what the world used to be like - before 2013 - when all our electronic communications were being scooped up by intelligence agencies and stored in massive data silos? Well now, thanks to Edward Snowden.... well, what?
This week we welcome back to the programme writer, researcher and fim-maker Tom Secker of SpyCulture.com, InvestigatingTheTerror.com and the fascinating podcast ClandesTime, who joins us for an in-depth and entertaining discussion on his controversial, yet intriguing, take on the whole Edward Snowden phenomenon. Is Snowden everything he seems to be? Were his NSA "revelations" really as significant as has almost universally been claimed? Or are there reasons to suspect that this might have been all officially sanctioned: an elaborate limited hangout for the purposes of normalisation and control? (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we welcome to the programme Manoj Raithatha, head of the South Asian Forum of the UK Evangelical Alliance, who joins us to share his inspiring testimony and to discuss his approach to evangelism and Christian engagement with people from Asian backgrounds.
Manoj Raithatha, who is director of the course Discovering Jesus Through Asian Eyes, has been a teacher, a BAFTA award-winning TV writer and a highly-successful property entrepreneur. Though raised as a Hindu, in 2008 he became a Christian, partly due to the miraculous healing of his young son and the love shown to him and his family during their time of greatest need. Today, Manoj continues to run his property business, but with new God-centred priorities, and heads up Instant Apostle publishing house and the South Asian Forum, a grouping within the UK Evangelical Alliance set up to unite and connect the South Asian Christian community. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we welcome to the programme David Conn of TruthSleuth.net for an in-depth discussion on the so-called Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ and its manipulative founder Jim Jones, under whose "leadership" over nine hundred people were killed in a mass "suicide/murder" on the 18th of November 1978 in northwestern Guyana.
David Conn, who investigated Jones for eight years prior to the Jonestown Massacre, shares with us his own story of how he tried to expose and warn people about Jim Jones, and helps us to form some kind of understanding of the charismatic-yet-dangerous Jones and the psychological, spiritual and social factors that allowed such a man to rise to a position of power and influence.
David Conn is author of the book The Pleasure of Friends : An Orthodox Study of Evil and the Meaning in the Jonestown Cultic Horror (2013). (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
In place of the postponed interview with Tom Secker, I thought I would take the opportunity to share a few tips on how I go about producing podcasts and how I approach the whole business of conducting interviews (as requested by some TMR listeners). Highlights include: useful free software, how to avoid common errors, getting the most from a guest, big easy chairs, Japanese saucepans and phone calls about rabbits. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we welcome Dr. Peter Phillips, professor of Sociology at Sonoma University, who joins us to discuss the secretive and elitist Bohemian Club whose annual campground meeting at Bohemian Grove in California is attended by some of the richest and most influential men in the world. Dr. Phillips, whose PhD (1994, University of California, Davis) centres in this very subject, joins us to discuss the Club's history and to assess its significance in the contemporary world.
Many of Dr. Phillips' investigative research studies are available at Project Censored (of which he was Director, 1996 - 2000) including: Law-Enforcement-Related Deaths in the US; Financial Core of the Transnational Corporate Class; The Global Dominance Group: 9/11 Pre-Warnings & Election Irregularities in Context; A Study of Bias in the Associated Press; The Left Progressive Media: Inside the Propaganda Model; and many more. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
The end of poverty and hunger! Good education and jobs for all! Decent shelter and a healthy life for every citizen of the world! Who could disagree with aspirations as lofty as these? So read the Goals of the UN's 2030 Agenda, a document shortly to be signed up to by the world's leaders at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York (25 and 26 September).
But, asks our guest, Patrick M. Wood, are these goals for real? Or are they in reality part of a grand bait-and-switch scheme, first to entice us to embrace a utopian vision for the world, and then to lock us into an authoritarian system of Technocracy?
Patrick M. Wood is an author and lecturer who has studied elite globalisation policies since the late 1970s, when he partnered with the late Antony C. Sutton to co-author Trilaterals Over Washington, Volumes I and II, and he remains a leading expert on the elitist Trilateral Commission. An economist by education, a financial analyst and writer by profession, and an American Constitutionalist by choice, Wood maintains a biblical worldview and has deep historical insights into modern attacks on sovereignty, property rights and personal freedom. A frequent speaker on radio shows around the U.S., Wood's current work centres in Technocracy, Transhumanism and Scientism, and how these are transforming global economics, politics and religion. As he says, the endgame is scientific dictatorship; we ignore it our peril. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
For the fourteenth anniversary of 9/11 and to begin the Autumn season of programmes here at TMR, we welcome Richard Gage AIA, a San Francisco Bay Area architect for 28 years, a member of the American Institute of Architects, and the founder and CEO of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth.
Mr. Gage shares with us his journey towards questioning the official narrative about 9/11, explains the work of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth and describes the effect its activism is having in raising awareness of this important issue both in the US and across the globe. We also discuss elements of the case he makes against the official story of the destruction of the World Trade Center Twin Towers and Building 7, and take the opportunity for Mr. Gage to answer a few questions from TMR listeners.
During his architectural career, Richard Gage has worked on most types of building construction, including numerous fire-proofed, steel-framed buildings, and most recently worked on the construction documents for a $400M mixed-use urban project with 1.2 million square feet of retail, a parking structure, and 320,000 square feet of mid-rise office space. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
What is the so-called "Greek Debt Crisis"? Is it simply the result of economic mismanagement by the Greek people and their successive governments, or is there more to it than meets the eye?
Joining us to answer this question, we welcome once again Dr. Paul Craig Roberts (former US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy), who explains that the crisis is not fundamentally about debt at all, but rather the playing out of a strategy by the political and financial elites to establish two main principles: the looting of European countries by the "One Percent", and the systematic destruction of their national sovereignty.
We also discuss the Iran Nuclear Deal and the recent address by UK Prime Minister David Cameron on "extremism" (described by Glenn Greenwald as "one of the creepiest and most authoritarian speeches you'll ever hear.") (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country."
(Edward Bernays, Propaganda, 1928)
Entertaining, informative, irritating, embarrassing - you fill in the blanks - advertising certainly works on all of us; none of us is wholly immune. But surely it can never really control us (?)
Joining us again for one of our occasional, relaxed and informal conversations we welcome back Antony Rotunno, teacher, blogger and free thinker, and delve into the sometimes-funny-yet-sometimes-disturbing world - (our world) - of the corporate advertiser. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined once again by Dr. Graeme MacQueen, co-editor of The Journal of 9/11 Studies, for an in-depth discussion on his research into eyewitness evidence of explosions in the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.
"Many of us are convinced that the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were brought down on September 11, 2001 through controlled demolition. But the question at once arises: if this is what happened, would somebody not have noticed? The answer is that many people did notice. There is a good deal of eyewitness evidence for the demolition of buildings 1 and 2."
Dr. MacQueen is the author of the excellent book The 2001 Anthrax Deception : The Case for a Domestic Conspiracy (2014). (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week TMR is delighted to present an entertaining and very musical interview with all four members of Dissident Prophet, the fantastic Christian indie rock band from Birmingham, UK.
Hot on the heels of the recent release of their latest album, Red Moon Rising, Andy Jennings, Melanie J., Tom Livemore and Robbie Maxwell join Julian Charles to talk about faith, music and the ongoing mission of the band to draw people to Jesus through prophetic song.
Included in the programme are five tracks from the new album - "Dig", "Comfortable in Babylon", "Human 2.0", "Writing on the Wall" and "He Sat Down" - plus the earlier song "Man from the Sky". (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
The Mind Renewed returns from its "half-term" break for an interview with John J. Thompson, veteran of the music industry and author of the thoughtful and challenging book Jesus Bread and Chocolate : Crafting a Handmade Faith in a Mass-Market World.
Speaking from his passion for authentic spirituality, transformative community and artisanal living, John J. Thompson reflects upon the growing phenomenon of the handcrafted and small-batch culture, and asks whether this intensifying counterpoint to the one-size-fits-all world of corporate mass-production might have something important to say about Jesus and our relationship with Him.
"Is it possible that our culture's re-engagement with handcrafted local things and experiences might contain the echo of a 'still small voice' calling us home to our truer selves? What might a batch of artisanal chocolate, or a fresh-baked loaf of bread, or a cup of home-roasted carefully-brewed coffee, tell us about ourselves, our nature, or our faith?" (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we are once again joined by Dr. Tim Ball, retired professor of Climatology at the University of Winnipeg, for a wide-ranging conversation centred in the subject of... maps!
Ours is a multidimentional world, yet the ways in which we represent that reality to ourselves - and, perhaps more worryingly, find that reality represented to us by others - is very often "two-dimensional" (speaking both literally and figuratively). Join us as we think about Representation and Reality, and consider some of the problems that can arise when we mistakenly read the Map as if it's faithful to Reality itself.
(Please note: The Mind Renewed will now be taking a Half-Term break for two weeks.) (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
What are the New Testament Gospels? How should we read them in relation to each other? And are they really "full of contradictions", as some would say?
This week we welcome Dr. Mike Licona, associate professor of theology at Houston Baptist University, who joins us for an extended in-depth discussion on the New Testament Gospels and the differences between them. Drawing upon his many years of research into the subject, Dr. Licona leads us through the maze of questions often asked about the NT Gospels, and explains how familiarity with the literary conventions of Graeco-Roman biography and historiography can help to provide compelling answers. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined by UK Christian evangelist Bobby Gilpin and US Mormon apologist Michael Flournoy for a thoughtful and friendly transatlantic debate on the subject of Mormonism and the Gospel.
Does The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) preach the biblical Gospel? Or are many of its key teachings at variance with the Good News in Jesus Christ as contained in the Bible? Arguing in favour of the motion - "The Mormon Church teaches a different gospel to the Bible" - is Bobby Gilpin, who opens the debate ; arguing against the motion is Michael Flournoy, who speaks from his own conviction that the Bible is compatible with LDS teachings.
Bobby Gilpin is Mission Co-ordinator for UK Partnerships for Christ, a ministry aimed at equipping and motivating UK Christians to reach out to Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and others with the biblical Gospel. Michael Flournoy is author of the book A Biblical Defense of Mormonism, and a passionate advocate of Mormon/Evangelical dialogue. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
For our second interview this week we welcome Dr. Simon Pardoe, director of "Vote Or Vote NONE" (VoteNone.org.uk), who joins us to discuss the hopes, aims and merits of that campaign as we approach the UK General (S)election on the 7th of May 2015.
"Faced with the overwhelming public anger at UK politics, and determination not to vote, I found myself suggesting people Vote NONE as the only potential form of participation. Surprisingly, it shifted those conversations from anger about UK politicians to a shared concern about how to revitalise UK democracy and improve UK politics. I realised that whereas not voting can be an end to thinking and engagement, the option to Vote NONE can re-engage people in thinking about politics and democracy. Suddenly there’s no reason to be silent, and every reason to think about what to do." (Simon Pardoe) (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Our first guest this week is Simon Krimms, author of the new and remarkable children-cum-grown-ups' book Rollerdog, that touches on many of the issues examined here at TMR.
Simon Krimms is an English teacher and voluntaryist, born in the US and raised in Australia, who has lived and worked in Japan since 2004. He began writing books for children in 2006 after becoming aware of the questions surrounding the official account of 9/11. His first book Rollerdog (available at Krimms.com) is designed for "little people growing up in the brave new world (order) of the 21st Century. Rather than instilling fear in young minds, the storyline about Humphry the Rollerdog creates an image of hope, while the illustrations, which are crafted for deeper interpretation by adult readers, deliver a message of warning..." (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Our guest this week is once again Patrick M. Wood, editor of The August Forecast and The August Review, who joins us to discuss his important new book, Technocracy Rising : The Trojan Horse of Global Transformation, which impressively "joins the dots" of many a question about the nascent New World Order.
In some ways a follow-up from our previous conversation with him, which concentrated on the Trilateral Commission and its technocratic quest for a "New International Economic Order", this interview centres in Technocracy itself and explores some of the key ways in which its utopian goals are being pursued in the world today.
Patrick Wood is an author and lecturer who has studied elite globalisation policies since the late 1970s, when he partnered with the late Antony C. Sutton to co-author Trilaterals Over Washington, Volumes I and II, and he remains a leading expert on the elitist Trilateral Commission. An economist by education, a financial analyst and writer by profession, and an American Constitutionalist by choice, Wood maintains a biblical worldview and has deep historical insights into modern attacks on sovereignty, property rights and personal freedom. A frequent speaker on radio shows around the U.S., Wood's current work centres in Technocracy, Transhumanism and Scientism, and how these are transforming global economics, politics and religion. As he says, the endgame is scientific dictatorship; we ignore it our peril. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
To begin the summer season of programmes here at TMR, we welcome back Nick Peters of Deeper Waters Christian Ministries, who joins for an in-depth discussion on the subject of Mythicism, of Christ Myth Theory. Was Jesus of Nazareth a real person of history? Or was he, perhaps, originally a mythical character, whose story gradually came to be understood as historical through processes of allegorisation and misunderstanding? Alternatively, was he a Roman invention? With reference to some of the ideas of writers such as Earl Doherty, Richard Carrier, Robert M. Price and Joseph Atwill, we discuss the plausibility of mythicists' attempts to revise the history of Christian origins, and conclude that the hypothesis of Jesus' existence best fits the evidence. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This Easter Sunday, TMR once again returns from its Easter break to share words from The Gospel According to Luke. Told from Luke's perspective, Lk. 24:1-35 recounts the discovery of Jesus' empty tomb, his appearance to two followers on the road to Emmaus and the sharing of initial Resurection appearances among the disciples. (The Scriptures quoted in these recordings are from the NET Bible® (http://netbible.org) copyright ©1996-2006, and are used here with the kind permission of Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.)(For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This Good Friday, TMR briefly returns from its Easter break to share words from The Gospel According to Mark. Told from the perspective of the writer of Mark's Gospel (widely reckoned to be the first of the New Testament gospels to have been written) Mk. 14:12 - 15:47 succinctly recounts the events of Jesus' final meal with his followers, his arrest, trial, execution and burial. (The Scriptures quoted in these recordings are from the NET Bible® (http://netbible.org) copyright ©1996-2006, and are used here with the kind permission of Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.) (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts (former US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy) returns to the programme for an extended interview on the ongoing tensions between Washington and Moscow.
Drawing upon his extensive experience in government, academia and journalism, Dr. Roberts explains how Washington's current hostility towards Russia, with its demonisation of Vladimir Putin, is a bitter fruit of the neoconservative ideology of world hegemony that came to dominate US centres of power from the early 1990s onwards. Assessing the geopolitical landscape with an eye to historical, economic and political realities, Dr. Roberts judges there to be only two hopes for the world to avert nuclear Armageddon: a Europe decisively resistant to Washington diktat, or economic collapse of the US empire itself.
We also discuss the murder of Boris Nemtsov, prospects for Washington-agitated colour revolutions in Central Asia/Caucasus, MH17 and the growth of the police state in the US. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we welcome Dr. Katherine Albrecht, privacy researcher, consumer advocate and bestselling author, who joins us for a wide-ranging discussion centred in her fascinating and compelling hypothesis that "the mark of the Beast" in the Book of Revelation might one day see literal fulfilment in the form of electronic identification devices implanted into human beings.
"He also caused everyone (small and great, rich and poor, free and slave) to obtain a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. Thus no one was allowed to buy or sell things unless he bore the mark of the beast – that is, his name or his number." (Rev. 13:16f, NET Bible)
Mindful of recent news that managers at an office block in Stockholm are inviting workers to receive RFID implants in the hand for the sake of ease and efficiency, Dr. Albrecht decribes her successful battle against the dangerous use of RFID implant technology, and explains how an experience of God in 1999 set her on the path of warning the world about the growing infrastructure of surveillance and control.
Dr. Katherine Albrecht is senior executive with the private search engines StartPage and Ixquick, is on the team behind the new privacy-protecting email program StartMail, and holds a Doctorate in Human Development and Consumer Education from Harvard University. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Our guest this week is the one and only Natalina, host of Beyond Extraordinary Radio and blogger at ExtraordinaryIntelligence.com, who joins us to share her unique and moving testimony. Once an adherent of various New Age philosophies, Natalina began the Extraordinary Intelligence website as a place to chronicle her search after truth, which at the time she was pursuing through investigations into the New Age and the Occult. But, although her website gained considerable attention in alternative and paranormal circles, everything changed for her when she had a remarkable encounter with God, since when she has devoted her life to Jesus Christ, and her website changed to become a ministry devoted to exposing the New Age and helping people to understand the world from a Christian worldview perspective. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we welcome Rev. Dr. Robert H. Bennett, Executive Director of Luther Academy in Fort Wayne Indiana and specialist in missions, for a fascinating conversation on his research into demon possession and spiritual warfare in the context of Madagascar.
In 2007, while on a trip to Madagascar, Dr. Bennett experienced something that was to have a profound effect on his future research and ministry: in the midst of a Lutheran worship service, right at his feet, a woman began to convulse and receive calm and controlled exorcism ministry from members of the congregation.
Through the field research that followed, Dr. Bennett investigated the indigenous animism of the Malagasy people, and sought to understand the role of exorcism in the mission of the Lutheran Church of Madagascar.
Based on this research, in 2013 he published the book, I Am Not Afraid : Demon Possession and Spiritual Warfare : True Accounts from the Lutheran Church of Madagascar, a scholarly work that not only documents his findings and sets them in the context of biblical practice and church history, but issues a challenge to the too-often-spiritually-compromised church in the West: exorcism is, and always has been, part of the ministry of Christ through the Church, and we neglect it at our peril. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
In place of our scheduled interview with David Conn, who has unfortunately had to postpone due to illness, we take the opportunity to share a fascinating address by David Theroux, Founder and President of the C. S. Lewis Society of California, entitled: "C. S. Lewis on Mere Liberty and the Evils of Statism". Delivered as the keynote talk at the first annual conference of Christians for Liberty, at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas, on the 2nd of August 2014, this address explores the extent to which Lewis was critical of the modern State, with its tendency towards scientism and technocratic control, and identifies a nexus of beliefs and values - of which Lewis's Christian theism was the foundation - as the motivation for that critique. As David Theroux puts it: "Throughout his work, Lewis infused an interconnected worldview that championed objective truth, moral ethics, natural law, literary excellence, reason, science, individual liberty, personal responsibility and virtue, and Christian theism. In so doing, he critiqued naturalism, reductionism, nihilism, positivism, scientism, historicism, collectivism, atheism, statism, coercive egalitarianism, militarism, welfarism, and dehumanization and tyranny of all forms." In a world in which Christianity and the State are too often seen as natural allies, we offer this address as arguing that we might call libertarian values are fundamentally consistent with Christian thought. (The address by David Theroux included in this episode is Copyright © the C. S. Lewis Society of California, all rights reserved, and used here with kind permission.) (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
What is "Green Religion"? Is it having an impact on modern environmentalism? And what effect is it having on the way people think and behave? Joining us to discuss these issues is Dr. James Wanliss, Associate Professor of Physics at Presbyterian College, Clinton, South Carolina, and author of the book: "Resisting the Green Dragon; Dominion, Not Death". Dr. Wanliss holds degrees in Applied Mathematics and Physics (from the University of Cape Town), a Master's in Geophysics (from the University of Witwatersrand) and a PhD in Physics (from the University of Alberta, Canada). His scientific interests centre in plasma physics, nonlinear dynamics, and space weather; he has published over 60 peer-reviewed scientific articles, mainly in the Journal of Geophysical Research and Geophysical Research Letters; and he has also published in psychology and medical areas, and popular Christian journals. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we welcome Dr. Stephanie Seneff, a Senior Research Scientist at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, for an in-depth (and sometimes slightly technical) conversation on the subject of glyphosate, the world's most popular herbicide. Marketed as Roundup by Monsanto, and most famously used in combination with Roundup Ready® GMO crops, glyphosate is officially considered to be of minimal risk to human beings when used as directed. But is that really true? After several years of research - drawing upon studies into the effects of glyphosate on animals, and persuasive statistical correlations between the increase in glyphosate usage and the upsurge in various human illnesses, most notably autism - Dr. Seneff reaches a conclusion very different from the official line: Glyphosate, she believes, is a major risk to human health and needs to be removed from our environment as soon as possible. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Our guest this week is Swiss historian Dr. Daniele Ganser, author of the seminal book NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe, who joins us for a fascinating (though at times unsettling) conversation on the subject of Operation GLADIO. Shortly after WWII a Europe-wide network of secret armies was organised under the aegis of NATO, tasked with providing military and intelligence resistance in the event of a feared Soviet invasion. Modelled on the resistance movements of the war years, many of these "stay behind" units remained faithful to their original mandate. But by the early 1960s - under the pressures of anti-communist politicking and flirtations with the Far Right - some of these groups began to morph into something more sinister, linking up with extreme right-wingers who carried out acts of false-flag terrorism, harassment of left-wing parties and coups d'état. But was this morphing simply an unforseen consequence of the unaccountability and instability of the network itself? Or was it, at least in part, engineered by the very Anglo-American establishment which gave birth to the project in the first place? And to what extent, therefore, can such acts of terror be seen as manifestations of 'the strategy of tension', carried out by the State against its own citizens for the purposes of control at home and geopolitical gain abroad? (We also discuss: Operation Northwoods, the so-called War on Terror, 9/11 and the recent Charle Hebdo attacks.) (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined again by biblical scholar Robert M. Bowman Jnr., Executive Director of the Institute for Religious Research (IRR.org), for an in-depth and penetrating critique of Bart D. Ehrman's book, How Jesus Became God : The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee.
A respected New Testament textual scholar and a gifted writer, Bart Ehrman argues that neither Jesus nor his earliest disciples considered him divine in any sense during his earthly ministry; but that, following his Resurrection (or, at least, following his disciples' belief in his Resurrection), a process quickly began whereby Jesus became viewed as increasingly exalted, leading to his eventually being considered equal to God.
But how secure is Ehrman's thesis? Did Jesus really "become" Divine, in the eyes of his followers, after his death? Or did Jesus appear on the scene as God Incarnate: a reality experienced by his disciples and expressed in the pages of the New Testament? (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
To begin 2015 we welcome back Antony Rotunno for a relaxed and engaging discussion on the subject of "Truth Comedy". Why is comedy so powerful? Why is it able to open our minds to uncomfortable truths, both in the world around us and within our own minds? And what are its dangers? These and many other issues are explored as we discuss a wide variety of comedy and comedians, each aimed (in their various ways) at uncovering truth through the art of comedy. Our discussion includes: the BBC comedy series Yes Minister, the 1970s movie Being There, Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, Bill Hicks, George Carlin, Andy Kaufman, Spike Milligan, and much, much more... (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
In a change of programming (due to personal illness) we take the opportunity to share the second of two classic interviews which Dr. Stanley Monteith discussed in our final interview with him as having been particularly significant in helping to form his distinctive way of looking at the world. Complementing Dr. Stan's 1980 interview with Antony C. Sutton, we here present his conversation with Norman Dodd, Director of Research for the Reece Committee, which was tasked by the US Congress in the early 1950s with investigating the use of tax-exempt funds by organisations such as the Rockefeller, Carnegie and Ford Foundations. According to Norman Dodd, the essence of the Reece Committee's findings is encapsulated in an intriguing conversation Dodd himself had with H. Rowan Gaither, then president of the Ford Foundation, in which he remarkably declared: "we're using our grant-making power to so alter the life in the United States that one day we can be peacefully merged with the Soviet Union." (The interview with Norman Dodd included in this programme is Copyright © Radio Liberty (http://www.radioliberty.com/), all rights reserved, and used here with kind permission.) (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We welcome again Pete Griffiths of Ex-Scientologists Ireland who joins us for an informative, entertaining and surprisingly musical update on the current state of the so-called Church of Scientology. Covering everything from Lord Xenu and his frozen alcohol and glycol, through Arpen Polo's first song 3 million years ago, to an improbable music album featuring John Travolta and L. Ron Hubbard, Pete Griffiths guides us through the bewildering world of Scientology and its founder, and shares with us from his experience as an activist working to alert people to the dangers of this fast-declining organisation. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
For this important interview we welcome Tony Szamboti, mechanical engineer and 9/11 researcher, who joins us for a detailed discussion on crucial evidence that, in the words of his research group, "clearly demonstrate(s) that the reports produced by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on the destruction of the
World Trade Center (WTC) were unscientific and fraudulent."
With the group's recently-published white paper as our focus, "Areas of Specific Concern in the NIST WTC Reports" which lists 25 Points seriously challenging NIST's work in this area, we discuss striking new evidence demonstrating that NIST intentionally omitted significant structural components from its analysis of Building 7, and explore the almost inescapable conclusion that this was done in order to avoid the explanation of controlled demolition. We also discuss the potential these findings might have for legal action.
(Tony Szamboti is a U.S. Navy Veteran, he holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Villanova University, and has worked predominantly in the Aerospace industry for the last 28 years.) (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined by Christian apologist Nick Peters and atheist author Ken Humphreys for a lively, informative and very friendly debate on the historicity of Jesus. Whatever we may think about Jesus - whether we acknowledge Him as Lord and Saviour, or not - one thing we can surely all be agreed on is that he existed and walked in Palestine 2000 year ago. Not so, according to Ken Humpreys, director of the website JesusNeverExisted.com, who opens the debate defending the propostion that the New Testament Jesus is a fictional character. Arguing against this position is Nick Peters, founder of Deeper Waters Christian Ministries and host of the Deeper Waters Podcast, who maintains that the evidence we have clearly and persuasively indicates that this same Jesus was (and is) a real person of history. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Our guest this week is once again the author K. Gordon Neufeld, one-time member of the so-called Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon, who joined us earlier this year to speak about the history, beliefs and practices of the Moonies, and to share with us from his experiences of joining, serving and eventually leaving that organisation. This time he joins us for a frank and deeply personal discussion of the more psychological aspects of his experience, with reference to his creative writing over the years as contained in his new book, Cult Fiction : One Writer's Creative Journey Through an Extreme Religion. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"Just a bit fun!", as the phrase goes, what could possibly be harmful about playing with a painted board and a wooden "planchette"? Friends, spooky laughs, bottle of wine - a good time to be had by all!
In the run-up to Halloween we are joined once again by Vince McCann, Director of Spotlight Ministries here in the UK, for an intriguing, challenging and entertaining conversation on the subject of the Ouija Board. Speaking from his experience of having once been involved in the Occult, Vince explains why the Ouija Board is far from "just a bit of fun". Characterising it, rather, as "spiritual Russian roulette", Vince warns that its use has frequently been associated with mental illness and spiritual oppression.
We invite you also to listen to Vince's dramatic testimony. Once involved in the Occult and oppressed by evil spirits, God led him, through prayer and exorcism, into a new life of freedom and faith in Jesus Christ, and called him to a ministry reaching out to those caught in the darkness of spiritual oppression. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
James Corbett, investigative journalist and host of The Corbett Report, joins us once again, this time for a detailed interview on the subject of ISIS.
How are we to understand ISIS? (IS? ISIL? AQI? JTJ? ...?) Is it, as often presented, essentially a spontaneous grouping of violent jihadists with aspirations for a global caliphate? Or is it, in reality, a multi-faceted phenomenon, arising out of - and manipulated by - various religious, geopolitical and corporate interests, each with its own vested interests in promoting ongoing destabilisation of the Middle East?
Drawing upon his years of research into geopolitics, and sharing with us from an open-source investigation into ISIS at The Corbett Report, James analyses this bewildering corner of the Grand Chess Board and identifies likely Players to help us interpret the Moves as the deadly Game continues. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Do we have free will? Or is it just an illusion? Do we have souls? Or are we entirely material beings? And what does it matter anyway? To discuss these questions we are joined by Dr. Angus Menuge, Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Concordia University Wisconsin and current President of the Evangelical Philosophical Society.
Dr. Menuge studied at the University of Warwick (BA) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (MA, PhD), and joined Concordia University in 1991. His research interests include philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, Christian apologetics and the work of C. S. Lewis. His academic book Agents Under Fire: Materialism and the Rationality of Science (Rowman and Littlefield, 2004), which defends the concepts of agency and intentionality against naturalistic alternatives, was the first book-length study to relate Intelligent Design to contemporary issues in the philosophy of mind. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we are joined by Dr. Graeme MacQueen, co-editor of The Journal of 9/11 Studies, for an in-depth discussion on his important new book, The 2001 Anthrax Deception : The Case for a Domestic Conspiracy.
Shortly after 9/11, the US was once again gripped by fear as letters containing anthrax were sent through the post to news media offices and two US Senators, killing five and infecting perhaps dozens of others. Initially widely-blamed on Al Qaeda and Iraq, the attacks were used to jusify and accelerate the USA PATRIOT Act. But as evidence grew that the anthrax spores had originated in laboratories embedded in the US military-industrial complex, attention was diverted to looking for the "lone nut"; a quest that ended with a convenient suicide.
But what, asks Dr. MacQueen, should we conclude from all the "intelligence" that supposedly pointed towards Al Qaeda and Iraq in the first place? Was it all error? Or was it, as he persuasively argues, a nexus of "faulty" intelligence, "prescient" media reports, "tips", and astonishing "coincidences" that inescapably points towards a group of insiders within the US state appartus itself? And if so, argues Dr. MacQueen, the evidence heavily suggests that this group was also responsible for planning the 9/11 attacks. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Carl Teichrib, Chief Editor of Forcing Change, joins us for an in-depth discussion on the burgeoning phenomenon of Transformational Festivals.
Each year many hundreds of thousands of people travel from all over the world to participate in these mind-altering events, temporarily immersing themselves in hypnotic, alternative 'realities'. Stunning locations, dramatic staging, electronic dance music, flamboyant clothing (or none), surrealist art, reimagined pagan myths, co-created rituals, communal living, and much more besides, variously combine to create participatory spaces in which people aim to experience 'new realities', thereby hoping to bring about personal and, ultimately, global transformation.
But, as Carl Teichrib explains, at the core of these experiences lies the age-old deception of Oneness, that worldview in which all distinctions are subsumed, and all truth relativised, in the ineffable One; a collectivist and falsely 'tolerant' worldview in which the message of Jesus can never be tolerated.
Reminding Christians of the mistakes of the past (in which countercultural movements tended to be either ignored or assimilated), Carl urges us now to engage as salt and light, with love and truth, so that the Gospel of Christ can be heard, and the cultural drift towards a One-World System be exposed. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Following our recent interview with Dr. Stanley Monteith, we take a journey back to 1980 to listen to his classic interview with British-born economist and historian Dr. Antony C. Sutton, one-time lecturer at California State University. While a fellow at the Hoover Institution of Standford University from 1968 - 1973, Dr. Sutton researched into the role of certain Western corporations in helping to build the industrial and military capabilites of the Soviet Union, publishing a three-volume academic work entitled Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development. After much resistance from the establishment Dr. Sutton left academia, and followed up this work with a series of fascinating and controversial books; most famously, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution and Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler. Whatever one ultimately concludes from Dr. Sutton's work, his research certainly challenges some of the widely-held beliefs about the Twentieth Century, and invites us to reflect critically on the geopolitical narratives of our own day. (The interview with Antony Sutton included in this programme is Copyright © Radio Liberty (http://www.radioliberty.com/), all rights reserved, and used here with kind permission. For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
On the thirteenth anniversary of 9/11, we welcome (back) to the programme teacher, blogger and free thinker Antony Rotunno, who joins us for an informal, unstructured and fairly wide-ranging conversation on the subject of "Changing the Discourse". What is the so-called Truth Movement about? Is it mainly about practising and encouraging others to exercise "critical thinking"? Or is it essentially about removing psychological barriers to thought in certain areas? Is it about changing the way we and others see the world? If so... from what, to what? Many speak of wanting people to "wake up". But is "sleep" really the best metaphor to describe the problem? And is it helpful to speak of "a" Truth Movement anyway? These, and many more issues find their way into the conversation, as I misuse the word "anthropology" and win my very first bet on a podcast. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
As the NATO summit in Newport, Wales enters its second day, amidst relentless accusations in the mainstream media of "Russian aggression", we take a few moments to listen to the words of US Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Alarmed at the anti-Russian hysteria sweeping Washington, and the spectre of a new Cold War, U.S. intelligence veterans took the unusual step of sending a memorandum, dated August 30, to German Chancellor Angela Merkel challenging the reliability of claims in the Ukrainian and U.S. media of a Russian "invasion." (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
For the first of three summer vacation "extras" we take the opportunity to share a round-table discussion between Garth Kennedy and Andie Tyd of Like Flint Radio, and Julian Charles of The Mind Renewed.
"Julian Charles, host of the highly recommended podcast, The Mind Renewed, joins us for an informal discussion on the New World Order, Climate Change and Agenda 21. We also look at the man whose “big idea” ultimately led to the formation of a number of prominent secret societies and his Rhodes Scholarship, through which his ideals would continue to be realised." (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
For decades, he has been bringing us the "Story behind the Story, the News behind the News" and hoping to convince us that "reality is usually scoffed at and illusion is usually king." This week we once again welcome to the programme Dr. Stanley Monteith, retired orthopaedic surgeon, veteran Christian researcher and radio host, who joins us to share his life story and the way in which key events in his experience helped to shape his distinctive way of looking at the world. Born in 1929, gifted, and raised in a supportive family, the path of Dr. Stan's life seemed to stretch out before him: marriage, children and a satisfying career in orthopaedics. But then two things happened to change his view of the world forever: faith in Jesus Christ, and a casual glance at a TV broadcast in the early 1960s. And the rest, as they say, is history... (For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
In 2002, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) was tasked by the US Government with "determin[ing] why and how WTC 1 and WTC 2 collapsed following the initial impacts of the aircraft and why and how WTC 7 collapsed." After years of work, the final reports were released (in 2005 and 2008 respectively) with the conclusion that all three had collapsed primarily due to fire. But just how"meticulous, exhaustive, and very realistic" was this research? Had it really answered all the questions and provided a trustworthy explanation that supported the official narrative of 9/11?
This week we welcome to the programme once again Kevin Ryan, co-editor of the Journal of 9/11 Studies and author of the book Another Nineteen, who joins us to share with us his assessment of the NIST reports, and why he believes them to be "false and unscientific."(For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Was Hitler an atheist? Was he an occultist? Was he a Christian, as some allege today? Or was he, perhaps, something else altogether? Joining us this week is J. P. Holding, President of Tekton Apologetics Ministries and author of the book Hitler's Christianity, who maintains that Hitler was indeed something else altogether: an adherent of so-called "Positive Christianity." Rejecting large portions of the Bible as too Jewish, despising biblical teaching, and even claiming that Jesus was really a blue-eyed and blonde-haired Aryan, Postive Christianity was an influential New Religious Movement in Germany during the first half of the Twentieth Century that distorted Christianity by combining it with ideas of racial purity and Nazi ideology. It is here, argues J. P. Holding, that we get the closest glimpse of Hitler's religious views. (For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
TPP, TTIP, TAFTA, TISA, ISDS? What does all this acronym soup of so-called "international trade agreements" mean for you and me? Nothing less, maintains our guest David Malone, than the Death of Democracy. Warning us that these prosaically named and apparently benign "agreements" presage the effective takeover of nation states by global corporations, David Malone explains why he nevertheless believes there is still hope: if only we will leave behind the solutions of the past, and "fight the peace" together.
In a career spanning nearly twenty years, independent film-maker and author David Malone has produced and directed documentaries for both the BBC and Channel 4. His series Testing God was short-listed for the Royal Television Society best documentary series. In 2008, his production for the BBC, High Anxieties - The Mathematics of Chaos, was among the first documentaries to be made about the current financial crisis. He is is also author of the highly-regarded book The Debt Generation published in 2010, which critiqued the scandalous bailing out of the banks and the effete political system that allowed that to happen. (For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
If God knows the future, how can I be free? If there's human evil in the world, how can God be good? If people live beyond the reach of the Gospel, how can God be all-loving?
This week we are joined by the philosopher Max Andrews for a fascinating look at the mind-bending and strange (yet potentially illuminating) world of Molinism, a philosophical position on God's omniscience and providence that offers potential solutions to a whole host of theological conundrums.
Max Andrews is a Philosophy PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, whose research centres in the ontology of the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum physics and in the problems associated with cosmological fine-tuning. Already published in several journals, Max Andrews has presented at conferences of the Evangelical Philosophical Society and Tyndale House in Cambridge (UK), lectured at Liberty University (US) on a wide range of philosophical and analytical-theological subjects, and published two ebooks, The Problem of Existence: Existential Reflections on Pain and Suffering and An Introduction to Molinism: Scripture, Reason, and All that God has Ordered. (For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Everyone believes in "standards" don't they? So what could possibly be wrong with "Common Core" (the US education system's "Common Core State Standards Initiative")? After all, is it not "a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English... created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live"? Not according to Dr. Duke Pesta, professor of English at The University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, who joins us for an extended and detailed interview on the genesis, content and ideology of Common Core - a scheme, he argues, designed to inhibit critical thinking and produce a world of compliant drones for the corporate-fascist State. (For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Confused? Not sure what to believe about science, history, philosophy and everything else? Worry no more! Academia has a system called Peer Review in which experts check new research for "validity, significance and originality" before it appears in respectable journals, so you and I can rest assured that only the very best gets published. But is Peer Review really all it's cracked up to be?
Joining us once again is Dr. Tim Ball, retired climatologist from the University of Winnipeg, who explains the many reasons why he believes Peer Review has become at best a useless - and at worst a treacherous - system in which bias, error, dogmatism, cronyism, and even fraud frequently prevent the most important and challenging ideas from seeing the light of day. Whether one agrees, or disagrees, it's difficult not to sympathise with Dr. Ball's conclusion: Peer Review looks like something we could well do without. (For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week, our guest is Pastor Dean Good of Grace Church, North Olmsted, Ohio, who joins us to discuss the mission and spirituality of the Church, and the ways in which many in the churches (including evangelicals) are being subtly misled to embrace unbiblical forms of mission and spirituality.
To what is the Church called in this present Age? Is it primarily to labour for world peace and justice in the attempt to bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth? Is it primarily to experience God in quasi-mystical ways, unchecked by biblical teaching? Arguing that the Church's call is rather to focus on the preaching and teaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in order to "make disciples of all nations" (Mt. 28:19) and in order "that the body of Christ be built up" (Eph. 4:12), Pastor Good warns that failing to follow the biblical path will lead to disaster.
Reminding us that the so-called 'god of this world' (2 Cor. 4:4) also has plans for a "kingdom" on earth (Rev. 13), and observing how mysticism perfectly complements utopian visions of a One-World Order of "unity, peace and harmony", Pastor Good urges us all to conform our concepts of mission and spirituality to the Word of God, lest we unwittingly co-operate with the one who "poses as an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14). (For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Long-established film-maker Eric Stacey joins us to talk about his latest movie, Unthinkable : An Airline Captain's Story, and to discuss the tragic and controversial events that inspired its creation.
On February 2nd, 2013, retired airline captain and 9/11 researcher Philip Marshall, his two teenage children and their family dog were all found dead, each with a bullet wound to the head, in their home in Murphys California. Although the Calaveras County Sheriff concluded that Marshall had shot the children, the dog and finally himself in a tragic "murder-suicide", the reporter Wayne Madsen, who conducted a week-long investigation shortly after the event, found reason to doubt this conclusion, suspecting rather that they had been the victims of professional killers.
In the movie - a creative dramatisation based largely on Madsen's research - investigative journalist Madison Freeman explores and challenges the conclusion of local Sheriff Sgt. deWitt, suspecting that the real reason for the tragic deaths was the imminent publication of Marshall Philips' new book which was to contain damning evidence against the perpetrators of the 9/11 crime.
In the words of Eric Stacey: "We have done our best to remain faithful to what is known from both sides and have left the story open-ended in hopes that audiences will draw their own conclusions as to who pulled the trigger and what the Marshall 'murder-suicide' represents in our post-9/11 world."(For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Our guest this week is Patrick M. Wood, editor of The August Forecast and The August Review, who joins us to discuss the foundation, ideology and ongoing power and influence of the globalist organisation The Trilateral Commission.
Co-author, with professor Anthony Sutton, of the famous two-volume book "Trilaterals Over Washington", Patrick Wood explains how the Commission - an entirely private organisation founded by David Rockefeller and Zbigniew Brzezinski in 1973, and comprised of specially-invited elitist individuals - effectively hijacked the executive branch of the US government in order to steer US policy, and ultimately the world, towards a "New International Economic Order".
Borrowing heavily from the utopian Technocracy movement of the 1930s, that vision for World Order, he explains, is now being implemented at astonishing speed through the subversion of national sovereignty and the construction of a global infrastructure of control, seen most clearly in Agenda 21, the Smart Grid and the surveillance state.
Patrick Wood also shares with us how, through relating these distrubing developments to biblical prophecy, we can nevertheless live with hope and confidence in God, who is sovereign over all. (For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
"Christ waits for your acceptance of Him as YOURSELF, and His Wholeness as YOURS" (A.C.I.M.) This week our guest is Russ Wise, vice president of Christian Information Ministries and long-time researcher into New Religious Movements, who joins us to discuss the highly-influential "A Course in Miracles". Beginning (humanly-speaking) with Helen Schucman in the mid-1960s who claimed that the Course was dictated to her by the "voice" of Jesus, and popularised in more recent times by Oprah Winfrey and Marianne Williamson, the Course claims to offer the key to understanding reality that brings spiritual freedom and joy. But is it true? Measuring its claims against the most reliable source of information we have about Jesus (the New Testament), Russ Wise shows why A.C.I.M. cannot have originated with the real Jesus of Nazareth, and why it is both false and spiritually damaging. Russ also shares with us how best to engage with people who are persuaded by its teachings. (For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
What was it that blew a hole in the Pentagon on 9/11? Was it really American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757? Or was it a much smaller aircraft? A missile, perhaps? Or just pre-planted explosives? Joining us to discuss these questions is Dr. Frank Legge, PhD chemist and long-standing researcher into 9/11, who shares with us from his research the many reasons why he believes it is now established beyond reasonable doubt that AA Flight 77 did in fact hit the Pentagon that day. Insisting nevertheless that the overall evidence of 9/11 unambiguously speaks of an "inside job", Dr. Legge warns of the dangers of dogmatism within the 9/11 Truth Movement, and explains why he sees 9/11 as an transnational elitist crime aimed ultimately at authoritarian One-World Government. (For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
For the short Easter break, we again take the opportunity to share a Guest Episode - this time, an audio essay by a listener to The Mind Renewed, Antony Rotunno. In "Conspiracy Theory - A Powerful Phrase!" Antony Rotunno - a UK English teacher now living in Madrid - discusses the development, power and scope of the term "conspiracy theory" (in its pejorative sense). Maintaining that its weaponised function as a thought-stopper in the general population is regularly exploited by those in authority in order to discourage investigation of government wrongdoing, Antony Rotunno argues that the only way forward for us is to "change the discourse"; to think outside the Matrix, and work towards bringing others into the conversation, so that the structures that inhibit critical thinking might be laid bare. (For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
In an extended musical interview, Andy Jennings, lead singer and lyricist of the amazing indie rock band Dissident Prophet, joins us for an exploration of the band's music, lyrics and vision, and to share with us his how his search for truth led him to the greatest Truth of all - Jesus Christ. "Pay no attention to all the connections. Don't join all the dots... too many to mention. Don't follow the money. Eat what you're fed. Keep skipping along while you're singing the song, coz the wicked witch is dead. Don't look - don't look. Don't you know that it's rude to stare? Don't look - don't look. Keep your eyes glued over there now. Get into line and sing it. Get into line and sing along. Pay no attention to all the commotion. Don't look at the man messing with the buttons behind the curtain. Don't ask no questions if you value your soul. Keeping skipping along while you're holding hands on the yellow brick road. Join the revolution against the puppet regime. Join the mass delusion that you're fighting for freedom, when freedom ani't free. Imagine there's no heaven - it's easy if you try. Sing along with John - no hell below, and above us is only sky. Tick all the relevant boxes in all the relevant places. If you're gonna read the Bible, rip out the relevant pages. Don't pull back the curtain - won't like what you find - coz the truth is stranger than fiction. You're better off blind." (For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts (former US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy) returns to the programme for a detailed analysis of the crisis in Ukraine, and an assessment of the Western propaganda war being waged against Russia. Setting the discussion in the context of decades of US imperialism, and identifying the current crisis as largely agitated by Washington through its NGOs, Dr. Roberts reveals how Ukraine fits into the neocon game plan for world hegemony. But, as he explains, this insane goal for a nuclear "checkmate" by Washington against its geopolitical opponents on The Grand Chess Board is reckless in the extreme; for just like WWI, it could spiral out of control, but unlike WWI, it could lead to Armageddon. (For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
We are joined by one of the world's leading experts in Resurrection Studies, Dr. Gary Habermas, Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Theology at Liberty University, for an in-depth discussion on the historical case for the resurrection of Jesus from the Dead. How might we persuade people of the truth of Jesus' Resurrection? Must we appeal only to the divine authority of Scripture and hope that people will agree? Not according to Dr. Habermas, who explains how his "minimal facts approach" (which relies only on historical data agreed by the vast majority of professional scholars in the field) bypasses such appeals authority, and has the power to persuade - through logic and historical reasoning alone - that Jesus did in fact rise from the Dead. (For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
This week we welcome "education's whistle-blower" Beverly Eakman, veteran educator, International Human Rights award winner, and author of books such as Cloning the American Mind and Walking Targets, who joins us to discuss the ideological manipulation of the US education system by collectivists and globalists. After describing how students are regularly subject to profiling through "assessments" and coerced into changing their worldviews through subversive, dialectical classroom techniques based on peer pressure, Beverly Eakman shares with us how we can all PUSH BACK! through logic, awareness and strength of character to resist the seemingly-inexorable slide towards a New World Order. (For show notes, please visit http://themindrenewed.com)
Our guest this week is Dr. Paul Cullen, professor of medicine and head of Doctors for Life in Germany, who joins us to discuss the anti-human agenda in the corridors of power and the abuse of science for political and commercial reasons. Be it the elitist Council of Europe or the bureaucratic U.N., Dr. Cullen explains how undemocratic think-tanks cook up authoritarian and morally-dubious policies that silently slide towards implementation with virtually no attention from the mainstream media, and how the appropriation (and frequent distortion) of science by governments, corporations and political movements can sometimes lead to its misuse as a tool of manipulation. (For show notes, please visit http://TheMindRenewed.com)
"If you control oil, you control nations. If you control food, you control people." (Henry Kissinger) Author, professor and geopolitical analyst F. William Engdahl joins us to discuss his extremely important book Seeds of Destruction : The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation. Delving into the history of globalist agribusiness, with its astonishing connections to US imperialism and even eugenics, William Engdahl delivers an almost prophetic warning. Not only do we have grounds to fear that well-connected and powerful elites are manipulating GM science and industry in order to gain control over the world's food supply, it may well be that they are also motivated by a hidden ideology: human population reduction. (For show notes, please visit http://TheMindRenewed.com)
Who was responsible for the crimes of 9/11? Osama bin Laden and nineteen, young Islamic terrorists? Or is there evidence pointing towards other suspects who should be investigated? To discuss this question, we are joined by Kevin Ryan, author of the book Another Nineteen : Investigating Legitimate 9/11 Suspects, and co-editor of the Journal of 9/11 Studies.
Drawing upon a decade of investigation, Kevin Ryan traces an intricate web of interconnections between key individuals, institutions and businesses, and reveals an alternative set of 9/11 suspects, each with the "means, motive and opportunity" possibly to have played their part in the crimes of 9/11. (For show notes, please visit http://TheMindRenewed.com)
For a third time we're joined by Dr. Tim Ball, retired professor of Climatology at the University of Winnipeg. As public scepticism towards the theory of human-produced climate change continues to rise, the UN is gradually shifting its focus to a different target for global environmental alarmism: Peak Water. Inspired by Peak Oil theory, and heavily reliant on philosophical assumptions, is Peak Water set to become the new global eco-scare, designed in accordance with the aims of Agenda 21 to persuade the world to embrace a New World Order? (For show notes, please visit http://TheMindRenewed.com)
We are joined by Dr. Paul L. Maier, Russell H. Seibert Professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University, for a wide-ranging, informative and entertaining interview on the evidence for Jesus' existence outside the Bible, and on the historical reliability of the New Testament. In characteristically ebullient and academically-combative style, Dr. Maier dismisses popular claims that "Jesus never existed" and that "Jesus is a myth", and demonstrates that the New Testament evidence for Jesus is corroborated by secular writings from antiquity. Dr. Maier also addresses the so-called gnostic gospels, New Testament apocryphal writings, Joseph Atwill's hypothesis that Jesus was a Roman invention, Bart Ehrman's misrepresentation of textual criticism, the Birth Narratives, and answers questions commonly asked about the reliability of the New Testament. (We apologise for the sound quality of this recording, which, at times, was plagued by technical difficulties.) (For extensive show notes, please visit http://TheMindRenewed.com)
This week our guest is K. Gordon Neufeld, author of Heartbreak and Rage : Ten Years Under Sun Myung Moon, who joins us to discuss the so-called Unification Church.
Speaking from his ten-year involvement with Moonies, Gordon gives us a fascinating overview of that organisation's history, beliefs and founder Sun Myung Moon, and shares with us his own experiences of joining, serving and eventually leaving the Moonies. (For show notes, please visit http://TheMindRenewed.com)
Writer, researcher and film-maker Tom Secker joins us for a detailed interview on 7/7 (the July 7th 2005 London bombings). Drawing upon his several years of research, Tom shares with us many of the problems with the official story, delves into the backstories behind the alleged suicide bombers, and uncovers layer upon layer of suspicious information suggesting that 7/7 may well have been a false-flag terror event instigated by British Intelligence.
Tom also discusses how, in the run-up to the attacks, predictive programming in popular culture may have shaped public perception of 7/7, and how cognitive infiltration as a double bluff has negatively impacted the quest for 7/7 truth. (For show notes, please visit http://TheMindRenewed.com)
In place of our postponed interview with Tom Secker (reschuled for next week), we take the opportunity to share a classic lecture by Peter Schiff. In characteristically informative and entertaining style, Schiff explains how succeeding US governments set the stage for the 2008 Crash through years of economic mismanagement, and takes the listener on a fascinating journey through booms, busts and bailouts.
Whether or not you agree with all of his assessments, Peter Schiff's 2009 Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture at the Mises Institute in Alabama is a "must listen." (For show notes, please visit http://TheMindRenewed.com)
During the Christmas break, we take the opportunity to share a conversation between Yours Truly and Tim Kilkenny of Revelations Radio News. Tim asks about my journey towards starting The Mind Renewed, and how that relates to my faith in Christ. We also discuss truth, lies and tradition in relation to 'going down the rabbit hole', and how Jesus might interact with Truth Movement issues were He physically present in the contemporary situation; and thus, how Christians as members of the Body of Christ, should themselves engage. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Our guest this week is ex-professional astrologer Marcia Montenegro of Christian Answers for the New Age, who joins us to discuss the diverse teachings and practices of the New Age movement. Neither a religion nor a philosophy, but more precisely a worldview, the New Age offers a perceptive critique of many of the dehumanising features of modern life, but proposes a solution, which (though in many ways attractive) is nevertheless deceptive, harmful, and ultimately incapable of delivering its promises. Marcia also shares with us her spiritual journey: from her initial rejection of Christianity, through her increasing involvement in the New Age to the point of becoming a professional astrologer and one-time president of the Metropolitan Atlanta Astrological Society, to her eventual coming to faith in Jesus Christ and subsequent work as a missionary reaching out to those involved in the New Age. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Our guest this week is Dr. Frederick vom Saal, Curators' Professor in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia, who joins us to discuss the substance bisphenol A (or BPA), and to share with us his serious concerns about its impact upon human health.
A component of many of the plastics we use every day, and commonly to be found in products as diverse as computer casings, tooth sealants, canned food linings and even thermal paper till receipts, BPA is used in vast quantities across the globe, and widely considered to be safe by regulating authorities. But, as Dr. vom Saal explains, mounting research is increasingly implicating BPA as a likely significant contributor to a wide array of human health and fertility problems.
Dr. vom Saal also explains how the chemical industry continues to resist these findings by hiding behind outdated principles of toxicology, and shares with us how we can modify our lifestyles to begin reducing our levels of BPA. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
We continue our interview with Mike Kenner, open government campaigner and Cold War researcher. In Part Two of this detailed look at the highly-questionable activities of Porton Down (the UK Government's chemical and biological warfare research establishments in Wiltshire), we turn our attention to their use of chemical simulants in open-air field trials in, or near to, populated areas.
Between 1949 and 1976, military scientists from Porton Down conducted over 350 separate experiments ("field trials") in public areas of the UK, during which massive amounts of live bacteria and hazardous chemical compounds were sprayed over populated areas. Designed further to investigate the feasibility of Biological Warfare (BW), these field trials were conducted in utmost secrecy, and often involved the unwitting co-operation of local authorities, local police forces, and in some cases, local populations, who were always told that the trials were to investigate atmospheric pollution.
Until 1997, the UK public remained unaware of Porton Down's public area BW field trial programme. Since then, more and more field trials have been discovered. More disturbing, however, is the Ministry of Defence's refusal to rule out conducting similar, large-scale, public area BW field trials in the future, should they deem there to be a military need to do so. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
This week we welcome Mike Kenner, open government campaigner and Cold War researcher, who joins us for Part One of a detailed look at the highly-questionable activities of Porton Down, the UK Government's chemical and biological warfare research establishments in Wiltshire.
Between 1949 and 1976, military scientists from Porton Down conducted over 350 separate experiments ("field trials") in public areas of the UK, during which massive amounts of live bacteria and hazardous chemical compounds were sprayed over populated areas. Designed further to investigate the feasibility of Biological Warfare (BW), these field trials were conducted in utmost secrecy, and often involved the unwitting co-operation of local authorities, local police forces, and in some cases, local populations, who were always told that the trials were to investigate atmospheric pollution.
Until 1997, the UK public remained unaware of Porton Down's public area BW field trial programme. Since then, more and more field trials have been discovered. More disturbing, however, is the Ministry of Defence's refusal to rule out conducting similar, large-scale, public area BW field trials in the future, should they deem there to be a military need to do so. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
The veteran Canadian journalist, media critic and documentary film producer Barrie Zwicker joins us for an analysis of the term "conspiracy theory" or "conspiracy theorist." Weaponised by the CIA in the late 1960s as a device for its assets in the media to discourage criticism of the Warren Report, the term "conspiracy theorist" became a powerful thought-stopper and has functioned ever since as a tool of psychological control. Barrie Zwicker also shares with us aspects of his experience as a 9/11 Truther, offers advice on how to respond to accusations, and gives us his forecast on the mainstream media's coverage of the 50th anniversary of the "execution" of JFK.
(For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
This week, we are joined by Dr. Michael J. Behe, professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, for an in-depth (and sometimes slightly technical) interview on the theory of Intelligent Design (ID). Author of two iconic books on ID - Darwin's Black Box, and The Edge of Evolution - Dr. Behe explains how his research into the complexity of biological systems at the molecular level led him to question the adequacy of the Darwinian paradigm, and why he now believes that the data point towards Intelligent Design.
We also discuss empirical research indicating the limits of Darwinian processes, the logical status of ID theory, and Dr. Behe responds to objections to ID raised at the famous Kitzmiller vs. Dover court case of 2005. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts returns to the Podcast for a detailed analysis of the claimed "assassination" of Osama bin Laden by US Navy SEAL Team 6 in 2011, and to discuss the many disturbing questions surrounding the suspicious deaths of so many of that Team in the subsequent helicopter shoot-down in Afghanistan on August 6, 2011. Dr. Roberts also discusses false-flag operations, gives an update on Syria, comments upon the ongoing revelations about the NSA and gives his reaction to the 2013 US Government Shutdown. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
We are once again joined by Dr. Tim Ball, retired professor of Climatology at the University of Winnipeg, for a detailed interview on the ideology of human population reduction that has hijacked much of the environmental movement. Ignited by Thomas Malthus in the early 19th Century, and fanned into flame by the Neo-Malthusians of the 1960s and '70s, this anti-humanistic ideology became crystallised in the thinking of The Club of Rome; an elitist group, explains Dr. Ball, which pursued the goals of that ideology through the fabrication of a Big Lie - the theory of man-made global warming - and pressed it all to the service of World Government. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
We are joined this week by Alaskan-based author, researcher and blogger Niki Raapana, whose investigations into the mind-bending philosophy/religion of Communitarianism led her (with her daughter Nordica Friedrich) to pen The Anti-Communitarian Manifesto and 2020 : Our Common Destiny. Niki, who has adopted a traditional life-style in order to "live outside the dialectic", shares with us what triggered her investigations, and how Communitarianism - the favoured tool of globalists - is gradually effecting a dialectical reinterpretation of our world, and preparing us to accept a New World Order. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
This week our guest is once again Dr. Stanley Monteith, retired orthopaedic surgeon, veteran Christian researcher and radio host, who joins us to discuss the thesis of his controversial article, "The Population Control Agenda." Arguing that there exists a hidden agenda within elitist circles to reduce the world's human population by over 90%, Dr. Monteith indicates ways in which he believes this agenda is being implemented in the world today. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Could it be that "the highway to modern environmentalism passed through Nazi Germany"? We are joined by Pastor Mark Musser, author of the book Nazi Oaks : The Green Sacrifice of the Judeo-Christian Worldview in the Holocaust, who explains how the worldview of the Nazis, which led to the abominations of the Holocaust, was deeply-rooted in the ecological undercurrents of the anti-Semitism, anti-theism, and anti-humanism of the early German green movement. Gathering together the strands of a bewildering number of influences, from Romanticism to existentialism and Social Darwinism, this ecology served to rationalise (in their eyes) and invigorate their racist and eugenicist 'purification' of land and people. But lest we consider all this history, we should note some significant parallels to that ecology within modern-day extreme environmentalism, and remain vigilant. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
For the short summer break, we take the opportunity to present the astonishing testimony of Dr. Don Easterbrook to the Washington State Senate Energy, Environment and Telecommunications Committee on the 26th of March 2013. In no ordinary presentation, Dr. Easterbrook (Professor Emeritus of Geology at Western Washington University) bombards the committee with an overwhelming arsenal of data and observations contrary to the theory of anthropogenic global warming. As the Internet jargon goes, this is a "must listen." (Dr. Easterbrook's testimony is copyright © TVW.org, all rights reserved, and used here with kind permission. For further show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
"Humanity stands at a defining moment in history." So begins the UN's Agenda 21 document to which most of the world signed up following the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. That "defining moment" - as promulgated by the UN - was the need for a "global partnership for sustainable development" to address "disparities between and within nations... poverty, hunger, ill health... illiteracy" and "deterioration of the ecosystems on which we depend..." Well-intentioned, we might think. But joining us to warn of its dangers is Michael Shaw, President of Freedom Advocates, who identifies Agenda 21 as the globalist action plan aimed at removing our unalienable rights, reducing human population, subverting national sovereignty by dividing the world into a system of globally-administered city states, and ultimately building an authoritarian New World Order of oligarchical rule. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Earlier this year, film-maker and 9/11 Truth activist Tony Rooke was summonsed to court for not paying his TV licence. In his defence, he appealed to the Terrorism Act 2000, arguing that much of the BBC's coverage of 9/11 (and 7/7 - the London Bombings) had been so disingenuous as to serve as a cover-up for the real criminals in each case, and that to have paid his licence fee to the BBC would have been to have committed a much more serious offence under the Act. To discuss the court case, and to share with us the motivation behind his film-making, we are joined by Tony Rooke, who also explains how his Christian faith inspires and sustains his activism. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
This week we are joined by Robert M. Bowman Jnr., Director of Research at the Institute for Religious Research (IRR.org), for an in-depth interview on the history and teachings of the Word-Faith (or Word of Faith) Movement within Christianity. Born out of the "faith-cure" teachings of the late 19th & early 20th Centuries, and developed and popularised in recent decades by flamboyant evangelists and preachers like Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland, Word-Faith teaching now reaches the homes of millions through TV broadcasts around the globe. Promising health and wealth in the name of Christ, and assuring its followers that they have delegated spiritual power from God literally to speak miracles into their own lives, this unbiblical distortion of Christianity sets unrealistic expectations, and often leads to disappointment, and sometimes even to rejection of Christ. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
We are joined again by theologian Dr. Martin Erdmann, former Professor of Philosophy at North Greenville University and Director of the Verax Institute in Greer, South Carolina. In this second of two interviews on the subject of Technocracy and the Smart Grid, Dr. Erdmann introduces the Smart Grid, an energy distribution, allocation, monitoring and control infrastructure which is being quietly constructed across the globe, and which threatens to be the long-awaited tool of Technocracy in its utopian dream to forge a perfect world order. But the crucial step will be that we uncritically welcome the Smart Meter into our homes. Replete with enticements, and apparently benign, the WiFi-enabled Smart Meter will eventually communicate with every appliance in the home, always making the most rational and energy-efficient choices based on computer algorithms programmed according to political policies aimed at steadily reducing the power consumption of the monitored populations. But in so doing, it will usher in a world in which citizen privacy, consumer control, and ultimately freedom will be things of the past. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
For the first of two interviews on the subject of Technocracy and the Smart Grid, we are again joined by theologian Dr. Martin Erdmann, former Professor of Philosophy at North Greenville University and Director of the Verax Institute in Greer, South Carolina. In this interview, Dr. Erdmann introduces the technocratic movement of 1930s' America under Howard Scott and M. King Hubbert, and traces its intellectual roots to the positivistic, anti-supernaturalist and utopian ideas of the 18th/19th-Century French philosophers Henri Saint-Simon and Auguste Comte. But, explains, Dr. Erdmann, Technocracy is far from dead; bewitched by its ideals of a fair, efficient and ecological economy, and now emancipated by the wonders of smart technology, the utopian dreamers of our day are gradually resurrecting Technocracy, and quietly ushering in an Orwellian nightmare of global, totalitarian control. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
We are joined by Pete Griffiths of Ex-Scientologists UK for an in-depth interview on the history, beliefs and practices of the so-called Church of Scientology, and on its founder L. Ron Hubbard. Once an active staff member of the Church of Scientology, Pete shares with us the many reasons why he came to reject the organisation and why he now considers it both deceptive and dangerous. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
On Christmas Day 2009, Kurt Haskell and his wife Lori were on-board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam bound for Detroit, on which the so-called "Underwear Bomber", Farouk Abdulmutallab, attempted to set off an explosive or incendiary device. According to the official version of events, this was an Al-Qaeda attack against the United States of America. Joining us to dispute this narrative, is Kurt Haskell himself, who, as a witness to this event, explains why he believes he was in the presence of a staged, false-flag operation, organised by the U.S. itself. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts joins us to discuss his recent article "Washington Is Insane", in which he dismisses as pure propaganda the claim by the U.S. that Syria's President Assad ordered the use of chemical weapons, thus crossing the "red line" declared by Obama. Indeed the real 'villain of the piece' is Washington itself, or rather the "military-security complex" that controls it. (Subjects include: the NSA, false flag terror and the possibility of economic collapse.) (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
"When we allow science to become political then we are lost. We will enter the Internet version of the Dark Ages, an era of stifling fears and wild prejudices, transmitted to people who don’t know any better." (Michael Crichton)
So prefaced, is the website of Dr. Tim Ball, retired professor of Climatology at the University of Winnipeg, who joins us for an in-depth interview on the history of the politicisation of Climate Science. From the genius of Maurice Strong and the machinations of the IPCC, to the famous Hockey Stick Graph and Climategate, Dr. Ball explains with precision and ease. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
An important message from James Corbett of BoilingFrogsPost and TheCorbettReport.com. Yesterday, 11 June 2013, James posted a very important video, which he has asked people to share as widely as possible. Centred in the recent news that the National Security Agency of the US is involved in an unconstitutional and Orwellian mass-surveillance programme with the consent of the political establishment, this message seizes the moment of public awareness, in order to help people see the bigger problem that faces us all; and to indicate solutions. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
In the media, "celebrity becomes more important than Truth, and rhetoric is more important than Truth." (Ward) For the "half-term" break we take the opportunity to present a Guest Episode courtesy of the Centre for Public Christianity, based in Australia. In two separate, but related, interviews, the U.K. philosopher-turned-theologian Keith Ward (one-time Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University), and the U.S. theologically-motivated analytical philosopher Alvin Plantinga (currently John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana), give their reactions to the so-called "New Atheists", and ponder some of the deepest questions in life. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), Global Sea Level is rising at an alarming rate, threatening millions who live in coastal regions and islands around the world, thanks to the global-warming activities of human beings on planet Earth. To challenge these claims, we are joined by Dr. Nils-Axel Mörner, former Expert Reviewer for the IPCC, and erstwhile Head of Paleogeophysics & Geodynamics at the University of Stockholm in Sweden, whose research into sea levels around the globe paints a very different picture. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
My guest for this interview is Prof. Edgar Andrews, Emeritus Professor of Materials Science at the University of London. With his book "Who Made God?" as our focus, we explore the explanatory limits of the natural sciences and discuss how his concept of the God Hypothesis offers a coherent explanation of reality. Prof. Andrews also expresses his concern about the increase in atheistic propaganda in the mainstream media, and shares his experience of debating Richard Dawkins at the Oxford Union in 1986 on the motion: "That the doctrine of creation is more valid than the theory of evolution." (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
"Televangelists have called him a cultist, a fraud, and the Antichrist. He says he's just doing what Jesus would want." (The New Yorker) Ole Anthony, founder and president of the Trinity Foundation in Dallas Texas, joins us to discuss the work of his foundation investigating fraud and other abuses of the public trust within the religious broadcasting industry. After decades of research into televangelist 'household names', such as Robert Tilton and Benny Hinn, Ole Anthony shares with us what motivates him to pursue this difficult ministry. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Tony Gosling, investigative radio journalist and ex-BBC reporter, joins us for the fourth interview in the World Government series; this time on the Bilderberg Group. Drawing upon his years of research, Tony traces both the official and unofficial histories of this secretive globalist organisation, and assesses its influence in the modern world. (Tony also shares his views on the BBC and mainstream journalism today.) (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Marc Morano of ClimateDepot.com joins us to discuss his recent Climate Depot Round Up: "The great warmist retreat has officially begun. The mainstream media cannot maintain the official man-made global warming narrative any longer." In a characteristic tour de force of climate-realist commentary, Marc also addresses Climategate 3.0, how massive public funding has distorted science through incentivising pro-warmist research, and why Climate Science is the new astrology. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Julian Charles interviewed by Leon Pittard of Fairdinkum Radio on April 11, 2013. Leon asks about my journey to faith in Christ, what motivated me to start The Mind Renewed, and how I see current world events relating to biblical prophecy of the End Times. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
What is the true nature of the hypothesis of Anthropogenic Global Warming Climate Change Climate Disruption Global Weirding? Is it scientific? Or is it essentially political? Joining us to affirm the latter, and to express his concerns about current geo-engineering programmes, is Dr. Eric Karlstrom, Emeritus Professor of Geography at California State University, Stanislaus, and long-time researcher in Quaternary Paleoclimatology. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
...et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum (...and I await the resurrection of the dead). Are there any good reasons to believe that the Resurrection of Jesus was a real event in history? In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul claims there are, and draws our attention to an impressive list of early eye-witnesses who testified to seeing Christ Resurrected from the Dead. ...an outdated message? ...too familiar and conventional to take seriously in a world of skepticism? ...or a reality, when understood, to force the greatest paradigm shift of all? (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
For the third interview in the series: "Does Anybody Really Believe in World Government?", I am joined by theologian Dr. Martin Erdmann, Professor of Philosophy at North Greenville University and Director of the Verax Institute in Greer, South Carolina. With his meticulously-researched book, "Building the Kingdom of God on Earth", as our focus, we explore how elitist internationalists exploited the liberal Christian Ecumenical Movement in the early C20th in order to propagandise the American population with the message of a technocratic New World Order. We also discuss current manifestations of this strategy within modern evangelicalism. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
A post-interview discussion between John (JJ) Jones and Yours Truly on 'everything under the sun' : God, Music, Intuitionist Epistemology, Conspiracy Theories, Anarchism, Libertarianism, Ron Paul & the power of Fairy Tales. Alternately concurring and gently disagreeing, we put the world to rights in just about 40 minutes. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Pastor Tony Brown of Sunbridge Road Mission in Bradford (UK) and outreach advisor for UK Partnerships for Christ, joins me for the second interview on New Religious Movements; this time for a detailed look at the Jehovah's Witnesses. Speaking from his own experience of having once been involved with the Jehovah's Witnesses, Tony shares insights into their history and beliefs, and gives advice for Christians on how to engage in fruitful discussion. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
"How Should We Then Live?" in this increasingly mad world; a world in which a Dawkins can tell us we are "just bytes and bytes... of digital information," and an Ehrlich (and the Club of Rome) that we're a "cancer" requiring "radical surgery." From Psalm 62 and a letter of Paul, we locate our true human dignity in the Transcendent Ground of Being, and learn to resolve the paradox of being fully involved in life while "holding all things lightly." (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
For the "half-term" break we present a Guest Episode courtesy of No Lies Radio & Colorado 911 Visibility. The Gage Vs. Mohr 9/11 Debate, "Collapse by Fire? Or Explosive Controlled Demolition?" is perhaps the most gracious and mutually-respectful debate on 9/11, which took place in 2011 at the University of Colorado, Boulder, between Richard Gage A.I.A (founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth) and Chris Mohr (investigative journalist and non-denominational minister). (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
For this second interview in the series: "Does Anybody Really Believe in World Government?", I am joined by James Corbett, alternative media investigative journalist and creator of The Corbett Report. In this wide-ranging and in-depth interview, we discuss meanings of the term 'New World Order', and James offers an analysis of the structure, ideology and aims of well-known - and less well-known - semi-secret globalist organisations being steered towards the goal of oligarchical world government. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
For this first interview in the series entitled: "Does Anybody Really Believe in World Government?", I am joined by retired orthopaedic surgeon, veteran Christian researcher and radio host Dr. Stanley Monteith. Drawing upon Dr. Monteith's decades of research, we discuss the role of secret societies (the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg Group) in the push towards World Government by a ruling oligarchy. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
My guest for this interview is Cori Brackett, creator of the powerful and thought-provoking documentaries Sweet Misery and Sweet Remedy. Cori talks about her own experience of being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and describes how, through her research, she came to believe that the artificial sweetener aspartame played a significant role in her illness. (For show notes please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Christian evangelist and specialist in outreach to Mormons, Bobby Gilpin, joins me on The Mind Renewed for an in-depth interview on the history and beliefs of the Mormon religion (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Bobby also shares from his experience valuable insights on how best to engage in fruitful discussion with Mormon missionaries and regular LDS members. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Chris White, prolific producer of countless painstakingly-researched "debunkumentaries", joins me to discuss his work on 'Zeitgeist : The Movie', the teachings of David Icke, The History Channel's 'Ancient Aliens' series, and his documentary 'The New Age & Its Relationship to the Antichrist.' ...is Jesus a myth? ... are we all the products of extra-terrestrial genetic engineering? Chris White explains. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Dean Gotcher, founder of The Institution for Authority Research, joins me to discuss the impact of dialectical philosophy and practice ('diaprax') on the modern world. With Genesis 3 as our guide, we voyage from the Presocratic philosophers, through Hegel and Marx, to Bloom's Taxonomy, and arrive on the dark shores of a Truth-denying New World Order. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Dr. Niels Harrit, Associate Professor Emeritus in Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, joins me to discuss his scientific paper, "Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe", published in The Open Chemical Physics Journal in 2009. We also talk about musicianship, his B.B.C. interview with Michael Rudin and 9/11 as a 'coup du monde'. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Following the announcement in the New York Times that "A Faded Piece of Papyrus Refers to Jesus’ Wife", the media was buzzing with speculation as to whether or not Jesus was married: " 'Proof' Jesus was married found on ancient papyrus..." said the Mail Online! But just how much proof - or rather 'proof' - was there? And did it matter anyway? (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)
Some say it's rude not to introduce yourself. Others say introductions are awkward. So, if introductions are indeed your 'cup of tea', then sit back and listen to these few words about The Mind Renewed. (For show notes, please visit TheMindRenewed.com)