It’s the “season of love and giving”…but this year, doesn’t it seem more like a “season of fear and taking”? Like many of you, I’ve been saddened by the human impact of draconian government budget cuts and how angry many housed Americans are at unhoused Americans. 🧵 1 of 9

It's Jeff Tweedy Day on @soundopinions.bsky.social! We have a whole episode dedicated to Twilight Override talk!

I’m excited to share my interview with @themountaingoats.bsky.social for @soundopinions.bsky.social “This Year” is a really special treat for fans of great writing. pod.link/94793843/epi...

@drleahpayne.bsky.social @andrewgill.biz you can always tell when someone actually grew up listening to Christian music:

This really hasn’t gotten enough attention this week. @wired.com #ICE www.wired.com/story/fbi-wa...

I'm so grateful to @andrewgill.biz & @drleahpayne.bsky.social for having me on their show I can hardly stand it. We talk Amy Grant & Switchfoot & Michael W. Smith & Brian Eno & Nashville. Also apocalypse. Also the Prayer Trade. Listen here. www.iheart.com/podcast/310-...

Chicago all day every day now. I'm not even sure the rest of the country realizes what it's like here now.

After 13 years, Mississippi Democrats have broken the Republican Party’s supermajority in the Mississippi Senate. Democrats flipped two GOP-held Senate seats and one House seat in the special elections. buff.ly/nTvLlFI

New awareness campaign

New podcast out from @bradleyonishi.bsky.social Axis Mundi- American Unexceptionalism by @matthewdtaylor.bsky.social and @sohayward.bsky.social - the whole Axis Mundi back catalogue is worth your time- VERY excited about this! First episode podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/0...

A new podcast I worked on is out in the world trying to help people figure out what to do now. @matthewdtaylor.bsky.social and Susie Hayward are surveying religious nationalism around the world and asking, "how do we stop it?" podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

Chicago-area companies raked in millions from the feds as Operation Midway Blitz intensified. The Watch investigative team reports: blockclubchi.co/3Wk8c0Q

Last week on Range and Basin and I shared my liners for @aquariumdrunkard.com and @orgmusic.bsky.social's Jesus People Vol. 1. This week, the liner notes for Vol. 2: The Reckoning, a lean, mean 8-song comp that I think hits even harder than the first.

“In many roles at Loyola over the course of more than 60 years, Sister Jean was an invaluable source of wisdom and grace for generations of students, faculty, and staff,” said Mark C. Reed, Loyola president, in a statement late Thursday. trib.al/gfWMXKB

CHICAGO — Outside an elementary school during dismissal… horrifying. What have we become?

How was this not rolled out via an interview on How Long Gone?

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

ICE just blatantly violated the law and arrested sitting Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes while seeking to illegally arrest a patient in a hospital. Fuck these fascists.

We need a bigger national spotlight on this building raid, fam. Agents dropped from helicopters onto the roof. Citizens and non-citizens alike were dragged from their homes in the night. People who weren't kidnapped during the raid had their belongings seized after the fact. This is madness.

Lastly, I went on the podcast Rock That Doesn't Roll: The Story of Christian Music with @drleahpayne.bsky.social and @andrewgill.biz to talk about SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS, Pitchfork's grip on 2000s indie rock, and a childhood spent listening to Carman and Stavesacre pod.link/1703257857/e...

Side note, among the things covered in here: There's a lot of "eww evangelicals" talk about the Rapture stuff today, but did you know the concept's origin is even more concerning? That's right. It was invented by an English man

this exists it is called thinking

HARDEST PHOTO OF 2025 JUST DROPPED

This is such a good analysis of what happened to America. @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social gets it. www.garbageday.email/p/petty-powe...

Johnny Carson in the early 1970s: "Did you know Richard Nixon is the only president whose formal portrait was painted by a police sketch artist?"

Data www.youtube.com/watch?v=crOZ...

I’m recovering from a recent case myself.

I've admired @drleahpayne.bsky.social & @andrewgill.biz's Rock That Doesn't Roll (@prx.org) podcast since it started, so it was a special pleasure to appear on it this week & argue my case that Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne invented Christian metal. Tune in: pod.link/1703257857/e...

I listened to this interview a few weeks ago, but was shocked to pull up the YouTube version and find it has only 1k views. This should be in the hundreds of thousands y'all! www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQt2...

Glad to have @nikostratis.com on @soundopinions.bsky.social this week! pod.link/94793843/epi...

Somebody tell @themountaingoats.bsky.social that @gregorythornbury.bsky.social brought up Wolf In White Van in our interview about Larry Norman. please. pod.link/1703257857/e...

knocked the wind out of me: "Watching the reactions to Dobson’s passing by others who grew up in this world, I keep thinking this: He devoted his life to trying to break us, but he created an 'us.'" - @jasonkirk.fyi

Two days into the school year and I already saw a high school dude wearing an MJ Lenderman shirt.

The Chicago Public Library has started to calculate the value of the books you check out and I kind of love it.

I got the chance to give Ozzy some of the credit for creating Christian metal in this tribute from @soundopinions.bsky.social art19.com/shows/sound-...

Stoked to have @masonmennenga.bsky.social join @drleahpayne.bsky.social and I on Rock That Doesn't Roll. He is such a specific guy! pod.link/1703257857/e...

@bookshop.bsky.social so many people sent me your piece on Christian music on the charts because of my podcast, Rock That Doesn't Roll. I think you might like it if you haven't heard it already: pod.link/1703257857

An Oklahoma City TV station says it's weather radar was damaged by an individual and that an anti-government militia took responsibility, claiming that radar is used to control the weather. (via @kosuradio.bsky.social)

Also a factor- no local journalism jobs.

My periodic reminder that the documentary "Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music" (which is referenced in this week's Rock That Doesn't Roll) is available to watch for free on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yHS...

AI slop now making up saccharine Bible verses that do not exist

People lost their minds when @npr.org posted this a few weeks ago. We spoke with the article's author on Rock That Doesn't Roll. Spoiler alert: none of us lost our minds in this episode. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r...

I put together a crash-course in Steve Taylor and Russ Taff hits from their solo careers in the Rock That Doesn't Roll Substack substack.com/home/post/p-...

Good morning Lord. Thank You for bringing me safely through the night I wish I got more sleep but that's on me. Please help me to post only bangers that do not attract too much norm energy. Some norm energy is OK Lord I am not trying to be a hater. Please help us all to post better k thx amen.

A 1965 advert for David Noebel's anti-Beatles tract. "A web of communism and hypnotism is being spun around the youth of our nation...through the use of music designed to brainwash our leaders of the future!..jungle-type rock 'n roll music is destroying the love of tradition and culture..."

This is what I’m talking about! Stuff like this from folks like @jackjenkins.me needs to be so much more widely read and engaged with by non-religion reporters: religionnews.com/2025/06/23/r...

Defenders of billionaire tax avoiders say, "You can't tax unrealized investments!" But banks don't have a problem putting a value on those same investments when lending cash to billionaires at interest rates far lower than they'd pay in income tax. It's a strategy dubbed "Buy, Borrow, Die":