This. Was. So. Fun!

Three days and counting until we get to see Andy Weir’s charming, funny, optimistic, humanity-affirming book brought to life on the screen. In this conversation we recommend some space fiction and discuss our favorite Project Hail Mary themes, our hopes for the film adaptation, and more.

See you March 30 when we take up the movie version of Project Hail Mary. See you at 3 p.m. EDT via this link.

A sermon preached at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Herndon VA on March 8, 2026.

Text: Mark 6:32-44

Note for context: this reflection was a lead-in to the first of three all-church conversations we’re having as part of our pastoral transition process.

Thank you for listening!

What a joy to talk about Ryan Coogler’s masterpiece with Marlon Weems and Edward Goode! There’s so much we didn’t have time to cover, but I loved the conversation. Check out Marlon’s Substack; he’s working on an article about the film (we’ll update this post with the link when it comes out).

Coming up on PCPH! Mark your calendars for TWO Project Hail Mary conversations! We’ll take up Andy Weir’s wonderful book on Monday March 16 at 3 p.m. EDT (link to join), then the highly-anticipated film adaptation starring Ryan Gosling on Monday March 30 at 3 p.m. EDT (link to join).

A sermon on John 2:11, preached at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Herndon VA on Sunday, February 22. Water into wine!

Thanks for listening.

A sermon preached at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Herndon VA on Sunday, February 8. Here’s the scripture text.

AI, the Epstein files, and the Walk for Peace. A little of everything in this one. Thank you for listening.

Pluribus, Season One!

It’s the mark of a good show that we talked for almost an hour, going deep on a number of themes in the show, and somehow didn’t get to some major plot points, like how the Others get their sustenance. I’ll just leave it at that.

But we did talk about the show as commentary on AI, what makes a human a human, and the appeal of complex characters. Plus: how would we preach this show?

Here’s the podcast episode Ed referenced about the Darien Gap.

We have come to the end of our journey (for now) through Middle Earth! After our first week of “Will it Preach?” and our second week of the “BIG Themes of the Stories” we come to “Category Crowns” - discussing a bit more light-hearted topics like:

* Best/Worst change from books to movies

* Which “villain” do you like the most, and which “hero” annoys you?

* Best music cue

* What meal (or scene?) that we witness would you most want to be a part of?

* Best hair acting (This was put in specifically for MaryAnn to comment on Eowyn’s hair)

* No LOTR actors were nominated for Oscars. Who gets best and best supporting?

And some more fun ones too!

We will be leaving the realms of dwarves, elves, hobbits, humans, ents, and wizards and moving back to sci-fi (of a sort) with AppleTV’s series Pluribus. We’ll be talking on this on Monday, February 9 at 12pm ET. We’d love for you to join us live or you can follow here or via your favorite podcast app! Link to join.

Mae govannen!

Mae govannen, friends!

Haha so… MaryAnn could not see anyone logged in to this conversation due to some quirk of Substack, but they were there! We ran the themes of Lord of the Rings through Ed’s standard signoff on his posts: GPLHJ, or Grace Peace Love Hope Joy.

Book recommendation: Everything Is a Story by Kaitlin Curtice

And here’s the quote MaryAnn read from Return of the King:

But even as hope died in Sam, or seemed to die, it was turned to a new strength. Sam’s plain hobbit-face grew stern, almost grim, as the will hardened in him, and he felt through all his limbs a thrill, as if he was turning into some creature of stone and steel that neither despair nor weariness nor endless barren miles could subdue.

We’ve got one more LOTR episode next Tuesday, February 3 at 1:00 p.m.: Category Crowns! Favorite villain, most annoying hero, and lots more fun. Link to join.

Catch all replays of PCPH at our dedicated Substack page or your favorite podcast app.