I go through phases of listening to podcasts and audiobooks, depending on what I’m doing. While I’m working on domestic tasks, sewing, walking or driving are the times that tend to work for me. At my monthly face to face book club, we were talking about busyness, the use of social media and the general sense of hurry that seems so ingrained into modern life and a friend mentioned that she was listening to some podcasts by John Mark Comer that focused on this. I’ve been reading ‘Seeking God: The Way of St. Benedict’ by Esther de Waal since the beginning of the year and as I listened to the ‘Practicing the Way’ podcasts, I discovered that Comer was enlarging on the ideas of St. Benedict presented in this book. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry and Developing a Rule of Life were two that I started with. I also enjoyed some of his others that had similar topics.

A podcast I found just recently was Truth Over Tribe:

In 2011 Japan sold more diapers (nappies in my part of the world) for adults than they did for children. In the last 50 years, the global fertility rate has been rapidly declining and this podcast looks at why is this happening and whether is it a big deal or not. The presenters examine the fertility decline in the U.S. and abroad and discuss the impacts of lower fertility on society. They look at what is causing this shift in thinking: Government? Finances? Climate change? Culture?

I’ve only listened to a few of their podcasts so far but I’ve enjoyed the variety of topics so far.

Enjoying Elizabeth Goudge is a podcast I found at Old Books With Grace. I can’t remember how I stumbled upon this one, but I recognised the guest’s name, Julie Witmer, as the lovely lady on Instagram who runs the Elizabeth Goudge Bookclub. If you like Elizabeth Goudge or would like to know more about her, this is worth a listen!

‘Have you heard of the midcentury fiction writer, Elizabeth Goudge, author of classics like The Little White Horse or The Scent of Water? Julie Witmer, founder of the Elizabeth Goudge Book Club, comes on Old Books with Grace to talk about Goudge’s life and writings, from her talent for writing children, to her love for her characters, to her mischaracterization as a romance writer!’

Simon Hill’s podcasts are indepth and he interviews a wide range of highly qualified researchers and practicing specialists. Some of his content is way too detailed for me but I especially like to check out his podcasts on cardiac health. One of these was his interview with Dr. Alo, a cardiologist and personal trainer. This doctor has heaps of YouTube videos. I don’t tend to like visual presentations but if you do you can find him here.

Audiobooks

Saving My Assassin by Virginia Prodan

As a young attorney under Nicolae Ceausescu’s brutal communist regime, Virginia had spent her entire life searching for the truth. When she finally found it in the pages of the most forbidden book in all of Romania, Virginia accepted the divine call to defend fellow followers of Christ against unjust persecution in an otherwise ungodly land.

There were quite a few gaps in this story, the main one being that Virginia doesn’t elaborate on her background, which I suppose is understandable. Growing up in Romania under the dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, children of those who had fallen foul of the government were often sent to orphanages and never saw their parents again. Virginia grew up knowing that she was different from her siblings and at one stage she meets a relative that could have been her mother, but the book leaves the mystery unsolved. It’s quite a story and although it was only thirty-four years ago that Ceaușescu was overthrown, many people today probably wouldn’t understand the terror that Eastern Europe endured during the Communist Era. If nothing else, this book is important in understanding how people are pressured into acquiescence and how a whole nation can be dominated by a fear of speaking out. It emphasises the importance of speaking truth, allowing free speech, and the belief that a person is innocent until proven guilty. This is an included freebie if you have an Audible account. The narrator is a bit wooden (my husband commented that she sounded like a robot) but I was able to ignore that because I was absorbed by the story.