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An Atheist’s Prayer – Episode 06

Posted by John on February 11th, 2008 at 11:56 pm · 6 Comments

An Atheist’s Prayer is back! I started this podcast with Jana’s help about a year and a half ago, and people had many kind things to say about it. When we stopped producing them, we would receive occasional queries about when the next one would come out.

I’ve made a couple of changes to the format. My goal is to alternate between the old format where Jana and I would share our experiences and thoughts on doubt, religion and spirituality and a new format which consists of a short monologue and a story I’ve written. I may also experiment with inviting guests on to the program. I’d like to produce an episode every week, but because podcasts require a lot of time to record and clean up, I may sacrifice the sound and content quality in favor of regular production.

Today’s episode contains a reading of my award winning story, “Stones at Jizo’s Feet.” (The award was a $100 gift certificate to the UCI bookstore.) It’s the story of an English teacher in Japan and her encounter with a couple of Mormon missionaries. I promise that the story contains steamy temptation, gut-wrenching doubt and a hint of magical realism.

I hope you all enjoy it–please let me know what you think of the podcast and the story!

[podcast]http://www.mindonfire.com/kiku/episode06.mp3[/podcast]

 

Tags: Fiction · Podcast

6 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Bored in Vernal // Feb 12, 2008 at 12:25 pm

    Very good–you are a masterful storyteller and you’ve kept me up way too late tonight! This story made me reflect on…many things having to do with the missionary experience. I shouldn’t say more, it’s too late and I’ll regret it in the morning. :)

    Glad to see these podcasts back.

  • 2 John // Feb 13, 2008 at 9:48 am

    Thanks, BiV. It’s good to hear this coming from you. I do hope that you (and others!) will share some feedback on this, especially since I’d like to revise it and submit it for publication.

  • 3 Elise // Feb 16, 2008 at 4:49 pm

    I really like the way it merges several religions/faith traditions, as well as doubt/skepticism, into on shared experience of human connection, desire for beauty and goodness, and need for intimacy. The realization of how incredibly young the elders are is striking. I think it is interesting that he was able to challenge his own need to conform to expectations when he was able to feel a real connection with someone, as opposed to a connection founded on doing the right thing or performing as expected.

    Your Texas accent was great, by the way.

  • 4 markii // Feb 17, 2008 at 8:10 pm

    great work on your story! i really enjoyed it. remember that time i met you at sunstone and had just barely finished listening to atheist’s prayer on the bus that morning?

    cool to have you back “on the air”

    peace.

  • 5 John // Feb 19, 2008 at 11:10 am

    Thanks, Elise and Mark! Mark, Jana and I totally remember you. I can’t tell you what an emotional boost you gave us–especially considering how vulnerable we felt doing it.

  • 6 List of Creative Projects Past and Future. | Mind on Fire // Oct 11, 2009 at 11:29 pm

    [...] 1. 2008.02: I podcasted a reading of my story, Stones at Jizo’s Feet. [...]

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