My friend Phyllis told me recently about the “Robcast,” a podcast by Rob Bell. TJ and I have enjoyed Rob Bell’s books in years past and saw him on tour twice, but without meaning to, we lost track of what he was doing after he moved to CA. I am so thankful to be looped back in now.
I have fallen behind on my usual #1 podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, because I can’t stop listening to the Robcast. Phyllis recommended two series in particular, so I started with those. I have listened to Parts 1-7 of “Jesus H. Christ” so far. I have also listened to Parts 1 and 2 of “A Brief Guide to the Undernet,” with one more part to go.
I am being wowed big-time by the content of these podcasts. The Undernet series is Rob’s way of talking about the “underbelly of the internet.” He presents a list of truths to reveal what’s gone wrong in our world of social media and our heightened dependence on technology to tell us who we are. It’s a warning, a reminder, a call to wake up, and it is so, so good.
Just to give you a taste, Truth #1 on the first episode of the Undernet series is this:
Some of my favorite lines from that episode are these:
Maybe what you do inherently asks for way more commitment of people. You think about, like, a clip where - oh my word, that clip has 27 million views. Yeah, yeah yeah - it’s 17 seconds long. What you do in the world may require of people risk, cost, sacrifice, discipline, postponed gratification, intention…What you do might not reduce well to the limits and parameters of a cell phone screen.
My heart swells at this stripping away of the lies we’ve been told about what equals success. It’s like these things that we always knew to be true are being, finally, lifted up as truth.
My favorite line from the Undernet, Part 2, is this:
Rob goes on to talk about how our souls aren’t made to take in both a headline on the crisis in Yemen and a headline on the Kardashians with equal weight, even if CNN.com makes the headlines the same font size. How do we say NO?
You might consider starting by saying Yes to the Robcast, or at least to these few episodes.