The Telephone of Life

Episode 284 · October 14th, 2025 · 1 hr 4 mins

About this Episode

In which RJ, Sarah, and Dave talk painless tattoos, workaholic scripts, sloppy social media, and Japanese lifesavers. Also, Sarah gets down with a theater full of fifth graders before singing with church full of Norwegians. Closing music courtesy of Voice of Joy.

  • Click here for more details about -- or to register for -- the Fall Mbird Conference in Charlottesville, VA (11/14&15).
  • Click here to read in the Atlantic about how "People Are Getting Tattoos Under Anesthesia."
  • Click here to watch the short film, Beneath the Ink.
  • Click here to read "If I Work Harder, Will You Love Me?" by Arthur Brooks in the Atlantic.
  • Click here to read "We Are the Slop" by Freya India in the After Babel newsletter.
  • Click here to read Dave's piece "Grace in a Time of Line-Drawing and Statement-Making" on Mbird.
  • Click here to read about "The Pastor Who Rescues People from Japan’s ‘Suicide Cliff’" by Kazusa Okaya in Christianity Today.
  • Click here to find out more about Voice of Joy, the Norwegian gospel choir Sarah mentions who also close the show.