The Caves of Cappadocia and Ancient Christianity

Today on In Good Faith, we're exploring–literally–ancient Christianity in Turkey. In fact, for this episode we scrunched down into tunnels in an underground city in the Kapadokya region and we toured churches in caves and contemplated mosaics that were almost two thousand years old. This ornamentation is done in the artistic style of Greek Orthodox churches that can later be seen throughout the East.

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How do you know if you’re a good parent?

How do you know that you're doing a good enough job as a parent? And on the other hand, how do you avoid beating yourself up when it feels like you're not doing well enough? Host Lisa Valentine Clark talks with the Council of Moms--this week consisting of Marilyn Valentine, Elizabeth Palmer, and Kimberly Simmons--about mom guilt, comparison, self-love, finding a support system, and other listener-submitted topics.

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Death-Defying Botanists Brave the Colorado

In 1938, the raging rapids of the Colorado were still untamed and undammed when a pair of botanists from the University of Michigan captured the country's imagination. They would become the first known women to run the river through the Grand Canyon. They did it in pursuit of plants and science, but their story is a little-known tale of resilience and beauty at the edge of the impossible.

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Everyone Has a Stake in the Caregiving Conversation

Nearly all of us will eventually become a caregiver or a recipient of care—so how can we prepare now? Lisa Valentine Clark kicks off this season by exploring the need for more conversation about caregiving. Dr. Lance Erickson explains how social expectations, age, and gender influence who ends up in caregiving roles. Dr. Natali Edmonds of Dementia Careblazers shares how talking about caregiving beforehand helped her prepare for her own caregiving experience, and Jeremy Jorgason discusses lesser known ways that caregiving can become more intense than anyone expects. Caregiving is overwhelming, wonderful, painful, beautiful, and poignant—and it’s better when we face it together.

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Owning a Home is the American Dream. At What Cost?

Owning a home is the American Dream. It's the ultimate symbol of a successful adulthood and the best way to build wealth in this country. Why should you pay rent to someone else when you can build equity for yourself, right? Not all countries prioritize buying a house, though; take Germany, where renting is much more common. How has the decision to prioritize homeownership in the US shaped our communities, for better or worse? And is that wealth-building mechanism really accessible to everyone who works hard and plays their cards right?

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Paul in Ephesus

Today we're talking about a place and a person, both of which were important in the first expansion of a world religion. This week we're visiting Ephesus to understand early Christian converts and the life of Paul, with special emphasis on his confrontation with the silversmiths guild, as discussed in Acts 19.

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Are All Medical Treatments Safe and Effective?

People often assume that medical treatments prescribed by doctors and covered by insurance are safe and effective. After all, there’s a whole government agency – the Food and Drug Administration – to ensure that very thing. But most medical drugs and devices available in the U.S. were approved by the FDA through an expedited pathway that sped up the review or required less clinical trial evidence. In this episode of the podcast, we speak with a former FDA attorney about the debate over whether the FDA should prioritize safety and effectiveness or swift access to medical innovation. We hear from a mother whose daughter urgently needed an individualized treatment only available in Italy, as well as the Right to Try advocate who assisted her. And an ER doctor explains why it’s a problem that many drugs commonly prescribed to women were only been tested on men before being approved.

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Jewish Communities in Turkey

In this episode of In Good Faith, we dive deeper into the history of Jewish life in Turkey, including an interview with Avram Sevinti, a leader of the Jewish Community Center in modern Izmir. We'll explore Sardes, the site of an ancient synagogue, and examine statues of the goddess Artemis outside of Ephesus, to better understand the larger society that existed around the Jews. Today we discuss Greek and Roman mythology and how that impacted the Jews living in the area.

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