Well, hello everybody and welcome to the Speed Life podcast. It's good to have you back with us. My name is Paul Feasy, and as always, I'm joined by Thomas Tharrogood. Hello. Hello. How are you this week, Thomas? I'm well, thank you. How are you? I'm well also. Have you uh been uh out to any parties or possibly work events in the last week or so?
SPEAKER_01Well, um I'm gonna say no until you find some photos.
SPEAKER_00Until we find any evidence that you may have been up to no good and out at these things. That's yeah, that's what we're talking about today on our uh on the podcasts. I mean we couldn't not talk about it really. Not really, it's big news, isn't it? Uh yes. I mean it Boris has denied that he well, he's he's not denied that he was there. Yeah. Although initially I think he did, but now uh he he didn't know it was a party though.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. You know, I get that. I go to parties sometimes and I'm like it it hits me sort of halfway through the evening. Oh wait, this is a party. We've all been in that situation, haven't we? Where that's occurred, I think. You see people having drinks and dancing and stuff. Oh, this is a meeting.
SPEAKER_00A normal work day. Uh so we talk about that today on the podcast. Uh Glenn, Nate, and I. Glenn eventually joins us. There was a bit of a miscommunication, and Glenn didn't arrive until halfway through the podcast, or the speakeasy. Uh, but he does join us eventually. So we talk about that and we we talk a little bit about the film The Road to Pedition.
SPEAKER_01Which was your choice this week, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, I mean it's quite a tricky task actually, because we've got this new segment where we look at a film, but you can only pick a film that was related to last week's film, like an actor that's in it. So not only do you have a limited field, do you then have to find a film that you think you could actually say something about? Right. Um, and so uh Tom Hanks, we had last week in uh The Green Mile, and he's in Road to Pedition, so uh that's the one I went for this week. I had to re-watch it.
SPEAKER_01But I think it was a good choice, I think, as you'll hear in the conversation, it it led to some some fruit fruitful, fruitful theological discussion, that film. I think it did. Um well, enjoy the show.
SPEAKER_05What has gone on? Well, it's quite a difficult thing to sum up, isn't it? There was a global pandemic. I don't know if you heard about it, that it uh sort of really kicked off in March 2020. And ever since then, um oh we're just gonna switch a little microphone. Ever since uh that time, uh there've been rules, haven't there, Paul? There have been rules about what you can and cannot do, with how many people you can do those things, and how far away from them, and how much of your face needs to be covered, and how many injections you need to have. So it's they've been changing lots of different rules at different times. And uh the person in charge of setting the rules, the rule maker, has been Boris Johnson. The rule breaker, our prime minister, chief servant, and uh yeah, and bizarrely, over the last week, I mean it was print slightly more than a week, I th well maybe maybe a month or so that there have been some really intentional sort of exposes of particular events that were happening in Downing Street itself. And those have been released uh with increasing frequency over the past week, um, and I think culminating in the news that Downing Street was having a fairly raucous um unsocially distanced party the night before uh the funeral of Prince Philip, and so the the major optical kind of uh representation is that you have the image of Her Majesty the Queen sitting alone in the chapel in Windsor, and she's not allowed to sit next to her family as she grieves the death of her husband, and yet the night before the very people who were insisting that those rules should keep her socially distanced from her own family, um that those people were living outrageously in breaking those rules. And Boris obviously is someone well he's he's the the figurehead, he's the prime minister, and and as you yourself have said, I believe, he must go. This is too much. I think he should, and I think that he's he's a guy whose whose lack of integrity is there to display in in his own home life, the fact that it it is unclear how many children Boris Johnson has outrageous. Now, as as as a culture, we don't have much of an issue with that these days, certainly. Have you has your microphone been off again for the entire time?
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, I rely on the tech team to do this for me.
SPEAKER_05It's a good job we've got them. We're very grateful for them. Um but yeah, Boris Johnson has been um has cheated uh multiple times and lied, you know, you uh in his home life. And that uh lack of integrity in that sphere seems to be now blatantly obvious to see in every other sphere.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But you're right, and that's the thing. I think that's quite an interesting thing, anyway, isn't it? That we some people would say, well, what does it matter? What he gets up to in his private life. Yeah, like you might say about anyone in their work life, who cares what you do at the weekend, as long as you do your job.
SPEAKER_05In the privacy of their own home, 10 Downing Street, what's the problem?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But I think you know, for a fan of guy kick back, but maybe we as Christians would question that you know, yes as a general rule anyway. Yeah. That like you said, we know that he's got this kind of lack of integrity in his home life, so why, of course, would that not then seep into what he's like as a person um when he's doing his job. And I think for me as well, I mean, uh the thing to think about is so many people have been outraged by this. Yes. Um and it's kind of well, why is everybody outraged? Um and I think it is because so many people think, well we look at what we sacrifice. Yes. I mean, and like you said, the queen is that picture, isn't she, of a woman who had been married for uh heaven knows how many years, sixty odd years, you know, and she can't even sit with her family at the funeral. And you know, I read comments there was a there was a um a thread on Twitter of people kind of coming forward. Uh it was initially started by uh I think it was a doctor.
SPEAKER_05Yes, was this the one where people were basically confessing how they'd broken the rules? What the so, in a sense, what is it that is significant enough that you would break the COVID rules to go and do?
SPEAKER_00That kind of then started a whole thread of people saying, Well, actually, yeah, we broke the rules. Yeah, but it was the large majority were people saying dad was dying and I held my mum, yeah, you know, and things like that. Yeah. And and it was in stark contrast to we fancied having a bit of a knees up. Yeah. You know. And when you read about briefcases, not uh suitcases full of wine.
SPEAKER_05Suitcases full of wine from the local and buying a new fridge, a fresh fridge to keep it chilled, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so you can you can see why people are angry about this.
SPEAKER_05Um and I think and that is exactly the point, is when you're going to break a rule, you I think we understand the difference of breaking a rule sort of almost reluctantly and in order for humanity to prevail, right? So for so for this this kind of rule to um to be broken, you need a good enough reason. And yes, working in number ten Downing Street must be a very stressful job at the be uh at the best of times, and working at Downing Street when you're in the middle of a pandemic and you are constantly having to prepare for new regulations and you're working late into the night, and I'm sure again that's a very, very stressful time. Yeah, but to be sort of relaxing and letting yourselves, you know, just have works do well, that's the thing, a workdo, you know? Work night out in because you're not allowed to leave. Yeah, yeah. There's a difference between a a workout and a work night out, very different things, aren't they? Um, or a night out. But the the issue is that those people are working incredibly hard in incredibly stressful environments, and they are having to make all these sorts of decisions, and it is understandable that given the intensity of their experience of doing that, they might think, oh, and now we should we we could do with a a break, we could have a drink. The challenge is that that's not quite the same as saying like this doctor is saying, I was prepared to break COVID regulations in order to embrace a widow who has not been embraced since her husband died because of the regulations. That feels like a much more appropriate time to do it.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. I think as well that you know that I again we are confused as to exactly what the rules were at different points. But there were points where you could have six people and whatnot. So conceivably you could have six people in the garden having a drink.
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_00Uh there was a point in the lockdown when that was two meters apart.
SPEAKER_05All those kind of things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05With a pork pie or a scotch egg. And a hat. And one foot on the floor.
SPEAKER_00But like that is di you know, there you i if if there was a group of people who are working together and and you know they were observing the regulations and they had a drink, I don't think even I would have been that fussed by that. It's the fact that you send an email out to like a hundred people. Well, yeah, that's where it just can't. That's where it starts to break down a bit. Yeah. And I think as well, people feel that, you know, well, there's there there is been this apology, but um it feels like there's an apology because there was some it was found out.
SPEAKER_05But but also in a in a very strange sense, uh clearly lots and lots of people knew these sorts of events were going on. And I'm sure lots and lots of people will know that they were themselves you know not paying attention to the particulars of a COVID regulation at any particular time. Right. So so I think it's sort of silly to suggest that absolutely everyone was right there precisely following the regulations. I'm sure some people absolutely were. Oh, yeah. But I think there's a strange situation where there is there has clearly been a an intentional release of these pieces of information in order to cause the maximum damage uh to the Prime Minister and you know the government of this time. And you know, we'd probably don't have to look very far to see who it was. Mr. Cummings, maybe, maybe part of this who himself had to go through, you know, the you know um that chastening time of sitting in the garden of number ten and confessing to driving to what was it, Barnard Castle. Literally the only reason anyone outside of the North East knows where that is is because that's where you go to get your eyes tested.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So so you know, and and and Matt Hancock, right, who again broke, you know, the the legislation had been on um had been on the news uh uh uh condemning in the strongest terms the fact that Neil Ferguson, who was Imperial College, was he the statistician or the epidemiologist or something for that, who himself had broken the regulation. So you just sort of think there's a very sort of strange like just who's next, like who is the next person?
SPEAKER_00Is there a sense there that people don't feel they're gonna get caught? You know, so so like because because I think if I were let let's use that um example of Matt Hancock.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I think if I was standing up as Matt M as Matt Matt Hancock and saying this is what is going on, you condemn this, yeah, then in the back of my mind I'd be going, I can't stand up and condemn this because I know I'm gonna get caught. I'll get found out. But is there just this sense that they just don't think they can just get away with anything that you're saying?
SPEAKER_05So part of the thing is I think that people who are sort of full-time politicians who are spending repeated time in front of the news, in front of the media, being interviewed by people, they're very conscious of having this cameras on, lights are on, and we go, and you've got 30 seconds to tell us you know what the news is, and you've got to get your soundbite in, and then we break and we go off. So I think they become so practiced at the performance of a life, the mask wearing, I am now you know, Matt Hancock, Boris Johnson, politician doing the thing, and they know that that's the thing that goes out, and most of what they normally do, the stuff they get on to, well, you know, up to when the camera's not on, they they see a really strong distinction. Yeah, sure. Um, yeah, it's seven o'clock.
SPEAKER_00I I think the thing that I find interesting about all this is obviously, and myself included here, I look at these people and you look at Boris, and I th and I'm of course very quick to condemn. Yeah. Um and and and right to condemn that kind of behaviour. Um, particularly because there doesn't seem to be a genuine repentance, yeah. You know, it's not a kind of heartfelt thing, it feels like a PR exercise. Um, you know, I always have to remember, of course, we all wear these masks the whole time. You know, we are all, of course, just to clarify, which masks are you talking about? Yeah, the wearing of the not the cloth masks. Not talking about the masks. The front we put on for all people. The pretense, right? We are wearing it. We all wear the barically speaking. It's all a big but um so I think you know we need to be aware that we ourselves can become we can point the finger when really we're pointing back at ourselves as well. We should be aware of that. But equally, I do think it is valid to to say, look, these people are supposed to be leaders, they're supposed to be servants, they should be held to a higher standard, and they should lead by example as well.
SPEAKER_05Um and this actually brings us to the the article that you wrote for Premier Christianity on the outrage, because there is such a strong feeling of outrage and the hypocrisy. Part of that is clearly because people's experiences of the lockdown rules being heavy on them and the suffering they went to because they were abiding by the rules. Yes. Um, but also the expectation is that if you make the rules, you keep the rules. Right.
SPEAKER_04But that's not a classical understanding of rule, right? If I rule and I make the rules, I don't I don't have to abide by them. Yeah, you know, like like ask ask any character from Persia or Greece or Rome or you know, uh obviously it that's what it means to rule. It means that other people abide by totally different standards to you.
SPEAKER_00And you know, that's what Christoph Keating has jumped in. He said, we said they make the rules, they don't follow them. And he said that Ferguson even said, I didn't think the rules applied to me.
SPEAKER_04He actually said that out loud. Did he? I mean we all said the rules out loud.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Well, none of us thought that lockdown rules applied to us, did they? For those people. Yeah, for the other people. But it was interesting, just the uh title of my post, which was something about, you know, what's the big what's the big deal with hypocrisy, right? What's the big deal? Yeah. Um and actually it's it's Christian intuitions and assumptions that have taught us that actually rule is meant to serve. And the reason why we have a prime minister is that actually the ruler of our land is the chief servant. Supposed to be. That's the mask he's supposed to wear. He's supposed to be the chief servant. You know, in class in the classical world, the the rulers were gods, and now we call them servants. And we think that actually rulers should abide by a rule that is above them, and that they don't make might does not make rights, and that there are rights that actually exist naturally or by God that that rulers simply recognize they don't create and things like that. And all of that is like in an entirely Christian assumption. Yeah. And and so the outrage that we feel at hypocrisy is is a very distinctively Christian outrage, whether you've stepped foot inside a church or not.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But having having written that and they they did the title, there were a few people who are like massive lockdown skeptics who didn't even read the article, but they were just like, no, no, it's it's it just it shows, it goes to show, doesn't it, that Boris didn't believe in the laws that he was laying down. And you know, the laws have always been foolish and that kind of thing. And and like my message to those guys as well is well, okay, take that, yeah, and he's still being totally hypocritical. Um, because okay, if he doesn't believe in lockdown actually, then what is why enforce it on the whole population? It's the two-facedness, it's the double standard, you know, and if we didn't have double standards, we wouldn't have any standards at all. Well uh you got it, making up for lost time. We got it.
SPEAKER_05Well, keep your thoughts coming in. We haven't just got standards. We've got double the standards.
SPEAKER_00Uh well, keep your thoughts coming in about Boris and Party Gate. Let us know in the comments what you think, and we'll come back to that in a second. We'll come and look at some of those comments in a moment. Um, before we do that, we're going to take a look at a short video which uh is advertising the foundry. Um, and that's our intern programme which runs throughout the year. And hopefully, this video will give you a bit of kind of an insight into what it is and what it involves. Hi.
SPEAKER_01Welcome to Speak Life. Speak Life exists. To use creativity to share the Christian message. Wanna look inside? Hi, it's Thomas. Sorry, I forgot my key. This is the cutting edge of Speak Life. The foundry. Do you know what a foundry is? I didn't either. It's where metal is melted. Because that's kind of what goes on here in a metaphorical sense. You will learn all the key elements of video production, including shooting, lighting, editing, sound. Well, what else is there? The second key aspect of the foundry is theological. When you join us here, you will partake in the Foundry Unlocked sessions, which happen on Fridays, and also four intensive weeks throughout the year. These will give you a theology of life admission and a theology of creativity. What's your favourite food?
SPEAKER_02My favourite food?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um if you come here, you will get to work with the wonderful Mathir. During your time here, we will support you as you develop your own creative portfolio of projects. You will have access to the senior and technical members of the Speak Life team, and your training will be supervised by Nate Morgan Locke, who is the Speak Life Development Director. You'll even have the opportunity to go on missions around the country, maybe even around the world, with Glenn Scriffner or Nate Morgan Locke. Where are we doing, Nate? Um anyway. See you. Thank you. Well, we love to welcome you here at Speed Light on the South Coast, the Sunshine Coast. So cool because it gets more sunshine than any other Britain, I think.
SPEAKER_00There we go. That was the foundry video. Uh amusing little video there. Um you you might be still completely perplexed by what goes on in the foundry, so Nate.
SPEAKER_05I think I think Foundry alumnus Thomas Thorogood did an excellent job of giving you the information in his own um inimitable style. And uh yeah, so basically, we are launching the applications for the Foundry 2022 intake right now. Wow. Lines are running. Open people. Join us as soon as you can. And um, yes, so so international uh applications. So we've had been blessed to have a lot of international uh interns over the last three years, and those applications need to be in by the 18th of February, which is gives you one month. And that's not because we're being mean to them, it's just that we've obviously got to sort out visas and getting people here, and it's a bit more complex. And then UK applicants, they have until I think Maundy Thursday, which I believe is like the 14th of April or something. Um, but yes, apply now. It's a an opportunity to come down and study with us and to train with us, and we'll train you in um in theological training, theology of creativity and mission. Uh, we'll also do lots of training with things like this that we don't actually know how to turn on and off ourselves. So we're not going to train you in the practical things. We have people. We have people who know these things.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. There's people for that. And how do people apply?
SPEAKER_05So they can go to uh www.speaklifefoundry.com.com. Yeah. It's a big strong website. It is a strong one.com. Yeah. You feel safe with a dot com. Absolutely. Not that.org.uk is not also as strong. Fine. It's hard to find speak lines that are not taken up already. The speak lifes. But yes, applications are open now. You can download the information and you can uh yeah, send us um or if not you, think who could who do you think this would be good for? Absolutely. Who do you think it'd be good for, Glenn?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I think it's good for anyone who is in between maybe study and work or between jobs. They have ten months to to give to us. They have a passion for Jesus, they have a passion for making him known. And your gifts could be um speaking gifts, but your gifts gifts could be filmmaking gifts, could be uh with online persuasion and entering into the digital space. The digital space. Yeah so exciting opportunity.
SPEAKER_00And so get uh signing up, and if you know people that you think might be good for it, tell them about it, point them in our direction. Um, some people on uh the comments enjoying the video. Uh the Samsung Experiment says absolutely superb. Great job, Thomas and the team. So there you go. Oh round of applause over there. Was that your mum, Thomas?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, no, Tom, I think Tom did an excellent job. Which is kind of funny because you two haven't quite had the chance to watch this yet. I've just arrived. You've just arrived.
SPEAKER_00But there we go. So we're gonna kind of dive into the mailbag a bit now. Um we thought first of all, we'd just look back on some of the comments we've had over the week. So last week we were talking about Novak Djokovic and vaccines in Australia, and that's still kind of running on, isn't it? Bits and bobs in the news. Um so it'd be interesting to see what some people think about that. Um so we had uh here we go. So Matthew John Crittenden, he said, POM in Her Majesty's Prison, Queensland, checking in. My take on the whole Lurgy thing is the mortality rate has been massively overblown from the start, and the experts have gone so far down the cult of vaccines they can't admit this. That's without bringing the whole big pharma thing into the rat's nest, unjabbed here, and will remain so until I hear anything credible to refute the above. Live not by lies. Yeah. So uh is uh this what's his name again?
SPEAKER_05Crittenden.
SPEAKER_04Matthew John Crittenden. Yeah, he's a fan of the show.
SPEAKER_05Is he a good tennis player? Because uh there might be a spot open. So you yeah, I'm maybe it's been used up today.
SPEAKER_04I'm not sure. I'm not sure Melbourne in particular wants to uh let maybe not the unvaxxed in.
SPEAKER_05But if you're already in the country, right?
SPEAKER_04Oh there's no across state state boundaries is a nightmare. Yeah, oh yeah. It's it's it's it's been this week. It's been quite heavy. It's not a federal matter, it's a state matter. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um some more comments coming in. So we had Erin Snave. She said, I've never been a fan of Novak, but I am now. Yeah. Hope he wins the Oz Open. To me, he's not gonna Or the next one, or the next one. He's banned for three years, isn't it? To me. Him and his children and his children for three months. To me. She says to me he's more like Christ because he doesn't give in to the mob. And that's interesting, isn't it? Because we've I think what we saw in some of the comments, um, not just on Facebook, uh not just on YouTube in different places. Some people looked at Djokovic and said, Oh, isn't he like Jesus standing up you know for his principles, standing up against the mob? And other people said he's not being like Jesus because he's not sacrificing himself, laying down his print you know his own rights for other people. So maybe he's just a tennis player.
SPEAKER_04Maybe so.
SPEAKER_05You know, maybe he's just a victim of the Nadal Cabal. We've had I have I've seen a lot of support for that over the last week. Uh huge numbers have been in your dreams, yeah. When will justice be done? That's my question.
SPEAKER_04I I don't know. Like Novak, I like I I think there is a a very principled position of I don't think vaccines should be compelled, and I'm not taking one. I think you can you can take a very principled position. I'm not sure Novak has been the most principled in all that he's done. Um I I think I think even if you take that position, there's been some him as my hero.
SPEAKER_05If you're not filling in the form properly and then it gets denied, yeah. Might be the form.
SPEAKER_04It might not actually be the vaccine station. Yeah, and I think I think whatever kind of resistance you want to give to the system, it it should be a case of I'm up front and I tell the truth about things, and then I take on myself whatever you know censure is coming my way. Um and that, you know, I don't think that's happened in this in this case. But I don't think so.
SPEAKER_05But I do wish that tennis is a bit more like you know, professional wrestling. And so, like, you know, in the final, like Nadal will be there and he's on like you know, match point or something like that. And then and then, oh my gosh, what's coming down? And then just jump jumping with a chair, like hitting him, and then he hit plays tennis with a chair and stuff like that. He's got the steel chair, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's what I want. Well, it's good, it certainly generated some conversation online that uh that discussion, didn't it? So um which is good to know. Um going back to coming back to Party Gate and Boris, uh, Christoph Keating said uh yet another example of how the queen represents the British people better than elected officials. Ryan's glorious, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Big, big, big fan of the city. Well, democracy democracy is not Christian, is it? You know, a constitutional monarchy is far closer to what the scriptures talk.
SPEAKER_05But also, wasn't it interesting? Once you once it's like the Queen is the Trump card, right? Okay, you play that card, and suddenly it wasn't like, oh, look at these people they're just having a party, and you didn't get to do what you needed to do or wanted to do during COVID. Yeah. It's here's Her Majesty the Queen. Yes. And everyone's like, oh my, like that suddenly stepped it up again.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. But for every royalist, you better hope that when the Queen moves on that there is not a bus crash such that Prince Andrew then becomes the monarchy, you know? Like, pick your royal. That's a discussion for another week. As I'm sure we'll get we have that one. Everyone's a royalist until they go down the list. Yes. You know, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Connor Borthwick said, Evening, folks, I'm so grateful for this show. I don't have many thoughts on the parties during lockdown, to be honest. I'm so exhausted with the pantomime as a whole. Um, and he said, I'll be very grateful the day it's out of the news. He said, I'll be very grateful the day it's out of the news, although I fear the thing they'll replace it with. Good luck with the foundry. Um I don't I think we all understand that feeling, don't we, of just being a bit fed up with these things coming around. But then I also wonder whether that's slightly what the the Tories would hope is gonna happen. What will be fed up, you know, Liz Truss said, didn't she? Do we just need to move on now? Right, you know, get Brexit done and then get your outrage done.
SPEAKER_04Let's move on and keep on with the Boris show. Yeah. That's what they're hoping, isn't it? But whoever's leaking, have you talked about whoever's leaking this stuff? Because it's like initials DC. But it's it's it's just brilliant.
SPEAKER_05Every three days, it's like, how many other bullets in the chamber? He's like a sniper up in the watchtower, isn't he? Sort of and just take them out at will. There's nothing like that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so here we are, we're about halfway through through the uh the speakeasy through today's podcast. Thanks for staying with us, by the way. Bless you. So we've just had a little look at the mailbag there. Um, and we're gonna think a bit about uh the mailbag here, because I think we told you last week we said we'd love to hear your comments, and you can contact us uh via email. Uh if you contact us via the email info at speaklife.org.uk, we'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the podcast and uh future podcasts and the the shape it takes. And we uh we put that out there last week. And uh we've been checking the emails daily to see what's coming in. Yes. Um and we've managed just about managed to keep on top of the the sheer influx of messages we've had. And then you've got one, I think, Thomas, from uh someone who's written in to us, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so um Zoe Evans has said we just wanted to let you know that we're going to start sending you your Club Card statements by email rather than post to help save paper. And uh goes on from there. So thank you so much, Zoe, for getting in touch. If you did have feedback more specifically pertaining to the podcast, we'd we'd love to hear that. But thank you anyway. Any any comment is is welcome, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00And we're glad to make savings where we can with our club card points. So that's that's really good for us. So yeah, thank you, Zoe. Big shout out to you and all the uh Tesco family. Thank you for the work that you do. Yeah, uh it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh do we have time for any more?
SPEAKER_00Uh have we got any more?
SPEAKER_01Um but if you'd like to to join Zoe in uh writing in, the thinking behind having this second mail bag within the podcast was that we're conscious that some of you will only listen to these conversations via the podcast because you like to be able to do other things while you're while you're listening, like driving or mowing the lawn, feeding your animal um dog, walking the dog, cat, um gerbil. Um so so we thought it would be nice to be able to engage with podcast listeners specifically. So if you are a podcast listener, and we know that we've we've got faithful podcast listeners all over the world, um by the way. Faithful ones as well, I'm sure. But we're very grateful for you uh choosing to listen to this podcast out of the vast multitude of podcasts out there. Um so do feel free to send in anything, even if it's just uh something funny you've got anything or a prayer request.
SPEAKER_00Don't be rude. There's no need to be a known to say horrible things.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes. I mean, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Maybe we I mean I feel like maybe maybe we need to incentivize people. What could we let us know what could we incentivize you with? That like the best email receives this. Yeah. You know?
SPEAKER_01That up to the value of 50p. Well, we will we will promise that that any any good emails that that uh uh can be read out on air, i.e. nothing too explicitly. Keep it clean, uh we will read them out.
SPEAKER_00So uh And if you don't send things in, we'll just have to make it up.
SPEAKER_01Oh, we just got one in actually, Jenny from Hertfordshire. Is there anything else we need to say in this middle section?
SPEAKER_00Um we well, giving. We should probably mention giving because of course the podcast can't happen without funding. To be honest, if I was listening at the moment and I heard someone say this podcast won't continue without your funding, I probably think I'm gonna stop sending money because please make this stop. But if you're not feeling like that, uh you can head over to speaklife.org.uk forward slash give. And there are a number of ways to give there, and we are incredibly grateful for all your uh support, both in prayer and uh financially. And there are the perks, of course, of giving that you can join us on the Discord server, um, which uh we do talk about each week, and that's still kind of growing, more conversations kicking off on there uh day by day. So uh we'd love to have you on board for that um if you uh fancy joining us. Absolutely. Well, should we get back to the final part of the show? Let's get back to it. Last week we started a new segment of the show, which we still don't have a real name for. Uh it's where we look at a movie Not movie tag? Well, movie tag was kind of thrown in there. Um Pete Thorne said, if your film tag section wanted an epiphany themed title, then follow the star seems appropriate. Because part of the way we're doing this is you've got to you've got to have the next film has to have someone in it. Yeah, a link in some way. Um and so last week we had a bit on the Green Mile from Nate, and actually some it's Michael Aiken, that's his name on YouTube. Okay. Said, I just watched the Green Mile this evening and I love the analysis on it. I'd never even considered the justice that John enacted, but you're right that it came as a kind of package deal. Surprised me when it happened, but as up until that moment, John seems so harmless and innocent. I guess that is much like the difficulty many have reconciling God's love and justice. Absolutely fantastic movie. So, yeah, lots of good stuff. And it makes you cheer on God's justice as well as his mercy, which is yeah, amazing. You want to see the justice, don't you come as well? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so we're we're on to the second week now. So I was tasked then with choosing the film. So the film, we've already said it, haven't we? We already said what the film is. Oh, have we in the beginning, pretty sure we did, yeah. It's probably in the title. It's just in the description of the video. Oh, that's lame. We had a Tom Hanks film last week, and so I went for an obvious link, Tom Hanks again. So I went for the road to perdition.
SPEAKER_05Or just road to perdition, I think. There's no, not even the definitive version.
SPEAKER_00There may be other versions available. Um so uh 2002, Sam Menders films got Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Daniel Craig, and Stanley Toochie. Is that how we're saying it? How are we saying this? Is it like Gucci? Like Gucci, yeah, like that. So uh Road Spedition, uh, 2002. Um brief synopsis. So Mike Sullivan, Tom Hanks' character, is an enforcer for a powerful depression era Midwestern mobster, John Rooney, played by Paul Newman. Rooney's son, Connor, played by Daniel Craig, is jealous of the close bond they share. And when Mike's eldest son, Michael, witnesses a hit, Connor uses the incident as an excuse to murder Sullivan's wife and youngest son. Force to flee, Sullivan and Michael set out on a journey of revenge and self-discovery. So we've all watched this film though, haven't we? We've all We have. I had to go, I saw it, I saw it not long after it came out. I remember I got it on uh a rented VHS from the cost cutter at the end of the road.
SPEAKER_04This is still like 2002 it came out, right? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So this would have been like when I was in school, so 2003, 2004, probably. Yeah. Yeah, and so I remember watching it then, but I had to go and rewatch it. It is on Disney. Um I had to look up what perd actually means. Uh apparently it's a state of eternal punishment and damnation into which a sinful and unrepentant person passes after death. Um and yeah, it's a really good film. I watched it again on Friday, and I know you guys have watched it um this week as well. Um and yeah, it throws up lots of kind of interesting things. Tom Hanks's character, um, you see that his relationship to the kind of mob boss uh played by Paul Newman, um he's kind of like an adopted son to him. Um Newman is kind of his uh his father figure, really. Um and so he's been raised into this world of kind of crime and this this hit-man role. But you see that as a character, he's not someone who revels in it, he doesn't really he's not something he enjoys doing. Um and you know, he lives in a nice house, he's got a family, but there's a sense in which everything he's got has come from this man, you know, that he's beholden to this guy. Um and uh but you there is a sense that despite the fact he does this quite terrible job, um you sense that he is kind of a good he could have been a good guy if he hadn't been raised in this environment with this guy. Um and you see all through the film, you know, he there's not just him, but lots of characters, there's a lot of religious stuff, religious imagery, attending church, there's prayer, and he very much doesn't want his son to end up like him, and that's kind of the big thing, really. Um and then you've kind of got um Paul Newman's character who is the mob boss, uh John Rooney, and one of the characters says of him at the beginning, um, you rule this town like God rules the earth, you give and you take away.
SPEAKER_05Um and then he gets taken away. He does get taken away.
SPEAKER_00But you see, I mean but he you see that actually as a as this kind of mob boss that he is, he's not this kind of um caricatured monster. Because actually, even as that guy's taken away, he says just talk to him. Yes. Um and so um he's not just this kind of hardened person, he has he has got this more human side to him. Um and yeah, he has ha Hanks you know Tom Hanks' character is like this adopted uh son to him. Um and very much so you see that when Tom Hanks' son witnesses this hit um the the the the mob boss uh Paul Newman's character is happy for them just to keep quiet about it. You know, he's there's not this kind of sense of where we just gotta silence them. That comes in with his other his actual son, played by Daniel Craig, Connor, who's kind of heir to the Empire, and you can see actually he does love the he revels in the killing. It's all the Englishmen, isn't it?
SPEAKER_04In the whole film. There's Jude Law and there's Daniel Craig. And without the Englishman, there'd be zero body counts.
SPEAKER_05Fine. It'd be fine. I think I I think Tom Hanks takes out a couple.
SPEAKER_00He does take out a couple, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Only because Daniel Craig starts it, you know, it's the English.
SPEAKER_00That's true. So yeah, so Connor Connor Rooney, the son of the the mob boss, I mean they've got a fractured, very fractured relationship. Um, and you and he uh he ends up killing Tom Hanks' wife and his son. He it's the wrong son. He thinks he's gonna kill the son who witnessed the events, but he actually kills the other son and then ends up um kind of being put in into hiding to hide from Tom Hanks' character, who kind of goes on this revenge kind of thing. But I think you know, to describe it as a revenge uh film I think is a bit overly.
SPEAKER_05Well, it it's a gangster film, and gangster films are usually about justice. That's the main justice and loyalty as these two kind of primary sort of things that are going on. And gangster films when they think about justice, the good guy, as in the good mob and the good mafioso, is is an eye for an eye guy. Yeah, so and that's what makes Paul Newman's character when he says, you know, just talk to him, he's saying, What is the proportional response, proportionate response that is needed of this situation, and we don't go beyond that, yeah. And in that way, he's quite similar to Don Colleone in The Godfather, because you know, when think of his opening scene, Stoke and the Cat, and it's you come to me, you say you want justice, this is not justice, your daughter is still alive, and so there's a very a very clear sense of an eye for an eye, but then clearly, once you have a central character, we care very much what happens to those who are connected to them, and so the fact that Michael uh uh Sullivan's wife and son are killed, that's now changed things. Yeah, because for us as the audience, those two characters, their lives are way more valuable than any of the other people who got killed, you know, any of the henchmen, like you know what kind of that was like an Austin Powers thing, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_04No one cares about those guys.
SPEAKER_05No one ever thinks about the henchmen, they would get or stormtrooping, yeah, yeah. Just telephone from not every so in a storytelling sense, not every death is is has got the same value in that sense. But yeah, it's it's both it's justice and loyalty, but also I think this film, and I was kind of struck by it because it I don't know quite that it pulls it off towards the end with the was it self-discovery or whatever they put into the film. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a father-son film, sure, and father-son films tend to involve usually the father has this learning moment where he he moves towards his son in kindness which has not been seen before, and the son usually learns to grow into the role of the father and hopefully be better than his father was, and that and that is a key theme in the film.
SPEAKER_04But I think what it speaks to is a kind of a father-son, father-son, father-son cycle of violence and deadbeat dads. Yeah and it's it's just got to be down to Michael Jr. It's like you you can't wait for Tom Hanks to to come good. And in you know, in the final in the final scene, do do we give spoilers or not? What's the what's the what's the rule?
SPEAKER_05It's been out since Coscutta was given away VHS. But so if you don't want to know, stop it now and then come back and listen to it another time. How about that? Maybe.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. Go watch it and then watch the rest of them speak easy another time. Yeah, well, it starts out that well, it it becomes revealed that Tom Hanks did not quite love his elder boy as much as the younger boy because he reminded him of himself. And so the the arc is to begin with, Michael Jr. is perhaps on on a on route to become Michael Senior. Um and yet at the end he can't pull the trigger and his father does it for him and he says, you know, I couldn't do it. And Tom Hanks is like, I know, with pride. And then he says that's the last time ever Michael Jr. says that's the last time I ever heard a gun, you know. And then he gets adopted by the lovely couple who you know couldn't have kids.
SPEAKER_05But yeah, I mean from a from a filmmaking point of view, that's the bit I thought was rushed.
SPEAKER_00Like you said I said earlier that I it was really nice to watch a film that was sub two hours, but for once I sat there and thought that could have done with another half an hour to really develop some of those ideas a bit more.
SPEAKER_05It's gorgeous, right? It's San Mendez, it's the guy who who films it, Conrad L. Hall, I think was his name, and he got the best cinematography Oscar for that film. So it's really good, but you do think from a storytelling point of view, when they have that conversation when he says, So, did you love me any differently than you love my brother, or whatever the words he uses? And I thought, huh? Are we doing we're doing this now? Like, yeah, yeah. This needed to be earlier on. I needed to see more of this.
SPEAKER_04And then Michael Jr. kind of fills you in with a voiceover when he says, and that was the last time I ever heard a gunshot.
SPEAKER_00And you know, they so well, you know, as I watched it, so I very much thought, you know, it is a father-son film, and there is this sense of it is our children destined to just repeat, like you said, this cycle, you know, is how do you break this cycle of sin? And so for me, it felt very sort of original sin, kind of Adam-like, you know, they're they're kind of born into this life. Um so how but how can they escape it? Um, and that's what I mean. One of the big kind of bits, you know, when when finally uh Newman's character and Hank's character come back together when they have the discussion in the church, um, you know, he sa Newman's character says, This is the life we chose, and there's only one guarantee, none of us will see heaven. And then Tom Hanks replies, Michael could, and so Rooney says, Do everything in your power to see that he does. So there it the whole, you know, I think the whole thing is rolling around this question of how do you get this out of this cycle? And for me, I'm not so ha the the answer for Hanks seems to be well, I would just wipe out everything to do with this. So his thing is to kill everybody, basically. Um kill them all. So I I I came away feeling that I wasn't hugely satisfied with I mean, so the sun is like, yeah, I never held a gun again. Yeah. But it to me it just feels like it could easily have gone the other way. That like he'd seen all this and he could have become exactly what his father was. So I just felt it never quite got to why that breaks the cycle. Yeah. Um it so I I wasn't quite satisfied with how it did it. But I felt like it's it was asking big questions about redemption, you know, how can this child be redeemed from this life? And can Tom Hanks' character be redeemed at all through what he's doing?
SPEAKER_05And and in some ways, when you watch a you know gangster film, usually I mean sometimes the police might be in as like an alternative gang, you know, the state police gang, yeah, and then there's all these other mob mobs that have to be kind of dealt with. But as a general rule, the these are intensely patriarchal films, and so they remind you so much of Genesis because you're reading about these, you know, parent, father, son, and father-son and father son, and the there is no nation state that's sort of governing these things, you know. There is no Boris Johnson to set some rules to break the rules, right? It's just it's a kind of Wild West thing, and these um these godfathers, these mob bosses, they rule. And I I think with these, there's particularly because they often have a very strong religious, usually Catholic kind of element to them, that characters like we talked about the Green Male last week, um you will enact the death penalty at the exact moment that you say, May God have mercy on your soul. So there's a sense of earthly justice that must be done, and then a divine justice into which the person who's being killed is being sort of offered. And and I think that's a very, very interesting concept to think about you can have a poetic justice, you can have uh Michael Sullivan, you know, bringing vengeance and you know uh bringing the criminals who killed his wife and children to to justice, actually all set within a world which is very clear on there is God's justice, and and the strange thing about the father-son, father-son, and will will there be one born who could be pure and different and separate and set apart. Well, that's gonna be Michael Jr. And certainly there's the sense of a promised one, like there must be someone who could be pristine off the back of this because most of us were all compromised, we're all locked into this cycle of sin.
SPEAKER_04And so you've got Paul Newman, you know, Tom Hanks is adopted into one family, and it has its results, and at the end you have the seed of Tom Hanks adopted into a different family, and embracing sort of embracing the way of non-violence, not answering tit for tat, um, turning the other cheek if you like. It wasn't really, but but if anything is going to arrest the cycle of violence, somebody has to not pull the trigger when w when it is called for. And so Michael Jr. i is that kind of Christ figure in terms of you know the the the promised son in the old family, part of the new family, the non-violence thing. And and the tit for tat thing is interesting too, in terms of turn the other cheek. Um I was really struck um end of last year looking looking through Matthew 5 and Jesus saying, you know, you've heard that it was said, eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. And you've heard that it was said, love your enemies and love your neigh love your neighbour and hate your enemies. And it was just fascinating that you know Jesus just commenting on the religious culture of his day, and they'd kind of they picked up the eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. And they picked up love your neighbour, and they had kind of intuited and and and developed things into hate your enemy. Um and I just think that these kinds of films, these gangster films, show you where turn show you where um what am I thinking of show you where um uh eye for an eye gets you. Yes. And it is not justice. Like when it when it when it when it interacts with human flesh, uh it becomes vengeance. And almost almost inevitably becomes vengeance. Yeah. And what what would it take to undo the circle the circle of violence? It would take someone who actually took the hit and didn't repay. You know, and and and so you know, you get a kind of a photo negative really of what it is that would take. What what what would it take to undo the cycle of violence? It would take something like a Michael Jr.
SPEAKER_05Um and that's why you sort of wanted to see an extra half an hour, 20 minutes in that homestead where the couple, you know, the guy's doing a bit of gardening or something, and Michael Jr. sitting on the veranda drinking the coffee and making comments and things, and you thought that being fleshed out a bit might have given us more satisfaction that oh, when these terrible things have have come to pass, this is why Michael Jr. has the opportunity to really break the cycle. Um but a brilliant film, a gorgeous film. One thing for that I I always am fascinated by is whenever you find a film where a family sits at a table and says Grace before a meal, there's always a subtext of absolute violence. There's like all the time. And it's weird and trained and the only you you get anytime an American suburban family Amer a white American suburban family is shown sitting at the table saying Grace, there is always this pro it's almost like it's like a a proper uh cliche for oh look how tense everyone is around this table except for. Don't look up.
SPEAKER_04Have you seen Don't Look Up? I have not seen it on Netflix, yeah, at the end. It finishes with people at a table and someone saying, I don't know what to do, shall I say Grace? And someone someone says a prayer. It's interesting.
SPEAKER_05You get it what's the So my thinking is once you have usually like a South American family or an African family, you s tend to see the table, the family table is this great place of welcome. And maybe it's because often these domestic uh dining room scenes are usually a very closed nuclear family that it doesn't have that sense of outward grace. Whereas my guess is that that is not a nuclear family that's sitting down at a table. So and that's one of those interesting film kind of um tropes. Yeah, tropes will do. Jinx.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, there's a lot, I'm sure we can say loads more. Um if you've not seen it, do go and have a watch of it. It's I mean, even if you just want to have a enjoy a nice film, it's a great film. But there's lots to think about in it. Um and uh we'll obviously have another one next week, and Glenn, I think you have to choose next week. We did come up with a rule earlier, yeah. A new rule that said you can't do the same link twice.
SPEAKER_04So you can't choose T Hanks for watching. Yeah. Okay, shall I say now, because then people can do their homework. Well, I've got a point. You already think we know what you're gonna put in the book.
SPEAKER_05We think we're gonna do it. Okay, after three. One, two, three. Tarte Mr. Ripley. Tarte Mr. Ripley because the Lincolns. Jude Law. Jude Law. Isn't that interesting? Who was Tom Hanks pursued by? The law. It's coming after him. The law.
SPEAKER_00Yes. I'm not sure. Challenge Mr. Ripley. That's one for us to try and watch before next week. Yeah. Um I'm just thinking maybe for some people it might be helpful for us, maybe as we do this, to kind of throw out some ways, you know, what are the tools we're using to actually analyze these films.
SPEAKER_05If we knew that, we'd have been doing this way better than we're okay.
SPEAKER_00So that's what we're going to do next week. So okay, we've kind of run out of time. Um we hope you've enjoyed uh the conversation. Um, I'm sure you'll be letting us know down in the comments what what you think about Boris um or Road Spedition um or even the Tante Mr. Ripley uh coming up. Um, but today is Blue Monday, isn't it?
SPEAKER_05We're not actually allowed to play the song.
SPEAKER_00That's a YouTube copyright strike right there. Okay. Um yeah, supposedly today is the most depressing day of the year, isn't it? Like all the bills come in and you know, the weather's terrible and it's the dark, you know, it's all dark and stuff. It's beautiful. Gorgeous.
SPEAKER_04So we've pink moon this morning.
SPEAKER_00Actually, I went for a stroll earlier and it was beautiful, yeah. So but actually we thought just to cheer you up uh on the way out, we would leave you with this little number from Mr. Nick Harvey on Twitter uh doing his own rendition of Blue Monday with his dog Ember. We've reached the end of this week's Speak Easy. We hope you've enjoyed it. We still need uh we still need uh a title for that uh film section. Follow the Star, I think, is quite a good one. But it at least gets us in the idea that we're we're we're having to choose a film based on the star in it. But it doesn't have to be the star though, it could be the director or third grip.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm I'm told that the third grip is is generally the star of the movie. Um so yeah, and and again, you're welcome to email in any suggestions for that title. Um Paul, you gave a bit of an update in your in your family life last week.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, I mean we we did get told the other day, because we're still waiting for Libby to have one of her um her lines out, her Hickman line, which is a kind of intravenous line. Libby's your youngest sister. She's the youngest of us. Um people who are new to the podcast. Uh yeah, and for people who are with us longer term, she's still my younger daughter, so um yeah. Um she's waiting to have a Hickman line move. We did get told yesterday that she could have it out next week, but it meant isolating all weekend, and unfortunately it's my oldest daughter's tenth birthday, and we'd kind of felt that and she's got parties and bits sorted. Um and we didn't feel that we could just cancel all of that given the year they've all had. Um so we're gonna have to wait a bit longer for Libby to have this line out. Um, you know, she's none the wiser, but obviously it's a bit longer for us, and she can't have a bath and all things like that, so um she's uh yeah, so we're hoping that'll come around quick. So please pray that they get another date, and hopefully it'll be one that's uh not bang smack in the middle of some other kind of family occasion. Sure. To complicate things. Well, I hope that party goes well. Is Boris invited? Yeah, he came, but he he only came because he thought it was a workdo.
SPEAKER_01Nice. Yeah. Well, thanks, Paul. Yeah, and uh thank you to all of you for for your prayers for the the Fezy family and and uh all the other goings on at Speak Life as well. It's been an exciting year for us, lots of new things going on. Uh the Fat Foundry kind of taking a new form as as we've mentioned during this show, and all the extra training bits we've got going on. You can hear about those by going to speaklifefoundry.com. And it'd be great to meet some of you in person. Put some faces to listeners.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, maybe Zoe, if you're Zoe Evans. Yeah. If you sent your email in, you know, we'd appreciate your club card points, but we'd also appreciate seeing you face-to-face at some point. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Don't be a stranger, Zoe. Absolutely. We're so grateful, Zoe, for everything you've done that we'd love to be able to give give back in any way that we can. And we feel that the training that we're offering in the Foundry in terms of creative evangelism um could could could be something for you. So do get in touch.
SPEAKER_00Yep, I feel it would really help Jenny and her role as UK customer service agent, as it said at the bottom of the email. Is that what I said? You said Jeff Jenny.
SPEAKER_01Well, God bless you guys. Thanks, Paul, and uh we'll all be together again next week. Take care. Bye bye.