If anyone could be accused of embodying the rebellious son struggling to become anything but his parents…it’s me.  Try as I might, though, one legacy my mother has passed on to me is the Saturday morning thirst for public radio.  Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, Car Talk, and This American Life characterized my childhood car rides, and I now find myself returning to them in my adult life (via the more generational-appropriate medium of the Podcast).  As the aforementioned maternal unit said upon learning that I now know who Carl Kasell is: “Thank goodness, I have succeeded as a parent!”

While running today, I exercised this new-found hobby and flipped the iPod to one of my favorite NPR shows, On Being.  The show aims to “explore meaning, faith, and ethics amidst the political, economic, cultural and technological shifts that define 21st century life.”  In other words, right up my alley. Continue reading →