Podcast: Talking Camino, Community, and Cultural Breakdown with Dan Clinkman

That title is a bit tongue in cheek, but only just…

Yes, it’s been a long, long, looooong time since I last posted an episode of the podcast, so it seemed like it was about damn time. Of course, I wouldn’t record anything unless I thought I had something worth saying, and in this case, a lot I wanted to talk about with someone. Dan and I walked the Camino de Santiago this past summer, which I’ve written about before, but I want to dig into some more about the Camino here, especially since I wasn’t blogging around the time of the trip and I haven’t posted a ton about it yet. It was a huge part of my mental health treatment, developing my meditation practice, and it even kickstarted my current gym-rat phase.

Dan and I spoke for nearly two hours, and to save you all from having to try and follow that whole conversation in one go I split the episode into two parts (below). The first part covers the Camino trip, what it means to the pilgrims who make the journey, what it meant to each of us, and the kinds of community that develop along the way. In part two we dig a little deeper into issues like the culture of me-me-me, our device driven lives, news-feed addicted polity, etc. We touch on a few current issues, including the #MeToo movement, Donald Trump, the Benedict Option debate, and more. If there’s a thread to the two parts it’s community, and I think you’ll appreciate Part 2 a lot more if you listen to Part 1 first.

Anyway, thanks for listening, and please feel free to weigh in with an email to paul@paulsletters.com or in the comments. Who knows- maybe I’ll ask you to be the next podcast guest!

Episode 6, Part 1

Episode 6, Part 2

Find the podcast on iTunes here.