The Pornography of Podcasting
Attractive but fake.
Promising but empty.
Exhilarating but draining.
These are the warnings of pornography for our souls. It deteriorates the image of God in one another and slowly destroys God’s image of how two people can share in beautiful intimacy with one another.
Today, I want to speak about a different, more subtle, practice that I think is doing the same thing to how we not only see each other but how we can beautifully become intimate with one another.
I call it, the pornography of podcasting.
After reintegrating into the world after stepping away for thirty days, I quickly noticed how often it showed up in conversations. Where I currently serve, the staff is now split right down the middle in those who are younger and those who, as someone once said, are close to having some snow on their roof. One of the things I’ve quickly learned with our younger staff members is how often they are disappointed in the potential and expectations they have of older generations and leaders.
After listening for a while, I’ve noticed one of the main sources for this is how much is stirred up through what they’ve been listening to from different podcasts. Best practices. New ideas. Different approaches. Creative structures. Attractive tools. Bottom line, I’ve noticed a greater disappointment in younger generations who are deeply engaged with what others are doing in different spaces and relationships.
Here is my hypothesis: Podcasts become toxic when we spend more time fantasizing about the ideal than working with what is real.
I’m beginning to believe Podcasts can easily become a form of pornography. It constantly gives images of what we think we want or what others claim is most satisfying, but it at the same time places a burden of expectations on those in our current community that they were never supposed to hold.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love placing my head in between two earbuds like any other millennial or Gen Z’er, but I’m noticing we’re trading relational perspiration for distant inspiration and information.
What makes sex beautiful, is the work it takes between two people to know each other, be in rhythm with each other, and the bravery to reveal yourself to one another.
Podcasts have the potential to steal the intimate, local, and hard relational work we have to do with one another. We fantasize about the ideal instead of doing the real work with one another. We haven’t poured blood, sweat, and tears into the people around us if we haven’t uttered the phrases…
“What I’m trying to say is…”
“What do you mean when you say…”
“Could we ever consider…”
The Problem of Presence
Hopefully you get my gist.
Now, I want to emphasize the medicine instead of just talking about the diagnosis.
Podcasts can be a way for us to try to play God. Ever since the beginning, humanity has always been tempted to try to be in two places at once. If we’re not mindful, we can ignore the DNA and context of our physical location because we are fixated on a digital location that doesn’t look anything like our current circumstance.
This boils down to the problem of presence.
It messes with our humanness. You were designed to experience one place at one time. You are not God. You can not truly be in multiple places at once (yes, I know Zoom and FT are things but I’m talking about something deeper than those mediums).
Until recently, people only troubled themselves with the most immediate circles of their lives. Most people spent time navigating family needs. If there was time, you would catch up on the latest news of the city or town. As society crawled closer and closer to the 2000’s people also became more aware of our nation and global matters. Now, people wake up and you are informed of what you missed on the other side of the globe while you were sleeping.
Is global awareness a bad thing?
Of course not.
The question though, is how much perceived control do we actually believe we have? In the words of Brett McCraken, oftentimes we “trade global awareness for local action.”1 This is what I want all of us who fill our ears with podcasts to keep on our dashboards or homescreens if you’re below thirty 🙂
If we’re struggling to find joy and meaningful relationships in our current zip code, something is wrong. We may be pressing play too many times to other people’s voices instead of spending time with the voices locally around us.
So here is what I want you to think about. I want you to check yourself and your podcast cue, and if you’re internal dialogue says any of the following phrases as you listen to an episode:
“We wouldn’t have problems like this if we would ____ like this group/organization.”
“We do nothing compared to ____.”
“I feel like I’m not going anywhere in my life after I hear about _____.”
“I’m completely alone when it comes to thinking ___.”
And finally, if you’re not regularly organically uttering the words, “we do a really great job at” or “I’m greatly thankful for ____ person in my life;” then in the words of Nick Jonas would day in his latest and greatest album, “Houston, I think we have some problems.” (I know, I know, Apollo 13 still gets all the credit for this quote)
The Presence of People
What do we do about this?
Well, this is where I would turn us to a letter in the Bible Christains call Romans. (I know, you didn’t see that coming…)
If the letter to the Romans was a podcast, the first 15 chapters would be the best stink’n podcast anyone’s ears had ever heard. Paul, the writer, unloads all of these grand ideas, statements, instructions, and catchy phrases about God. It’s the source where a lot of Christians find the cheesiest bumper stickers for a reason. It’s quotable, no doubt.
The last chapter of this letter though is where all of our hearts need to turn to diagnose our podcasting problems.
Paul’s outro isn’t a recap of the content. It’s a recollection of the relationships that have made this movement and his ministry possible. And let me tell you, it’s excessive. He goes on for twenty-seven verses naming and listing all of these people, which as you read it you’re thinking, “Who cares?”
And that’s exactly the point!
No one cares except Paul and the people who are reading this letter. Why? Because the heart of God’s movement is always local and relational.
Paul writes to his…
“Co-workers”
“To the people who helped him get on his feet.”
“To the town he will always love.”
“To the people who will always be his first.”
“To the people who were faithful in the bad times.”
“To those from his same upbring.”
“To those who were like a second mother to him.”
How do you cure yourself of the unreal podcast expectations launched into your soul? Rip one out of Paul’s playbook. Take time to ask yourself, “Have I learned how to be a better human from who I’m subscribed to or whose shoulders I’ve rubbed in my life.” Sure, you’ve learned from both, but I don’t want you to forget those who have made you and sculpted you by simply living life with you.
That’s something you can never speed up at 2X speed. It’s the daily pace and meaningful relational work of others that God truly brings life through you.
A great thinker once said, “The person who loves their dream of community will inevitably destroy the community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.”2
God didn’t send a podcast but a Person.
And that’s something worth listening to….
References
1Brett McCracken, The Wisdom Pyramid (Wheaton: Crossway, 2021), 96.
2This is from the legendary Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together.