Table of (Mal)Contents Aaron Armstrong, Dave Schroeder, Scarlet Hiltibidal and friends

We're about to enter into that special time of year that is full of holiday cheer, and so we are going to try to celebrate it well here on the podcast. But in order to really kick it off well, we felt the best way to do it was to ask the man who loves Christmas more than anyone else to join us for the conversation. This week, Ronnie Martin, pastor at Substance Church, author and co-author of several books, and the co-host of The Happy Rant Podcast and The Art of Pastoring, joins us to talk all things merry and bright. Listen in as we discuss:

The question Aaron's been saving for Ronnie for more than a year

When is the appropriate time to start celebrating Christmas (and for how long)

How to pronounce "accreditation"

The best Christmas books and authors

Ronnie's favorite type of Christmas persecution

Defining what makes a Christmas movie (and why they only make superhero movies)

The start of a grassroots campaign to get Ronnie's future festive book, The Christmas Tree Farm, published

The godfather of Christmas stories


A few of the books mentioned on the show


The Best Gift Ever Given by Ronnie Martin


The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk MD


Every Moment Holy by McKelvey Davis


No One Asked For This by Cazzie David


A Promised Land by Barack Obama


Batman: The Three Jokers by Geoff Johns & Jason Fabok


A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens


The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien


A Wild Winter Swan by Gregory Maguire


Spirit of Steamboat by Craig Johnson


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Okay, I'll admit: when I see the words "Christian" and "fiction" together, I generally assume the book with that label will be terrible. But that is also totally unfair of me, because while there is a lot of bad fiction written by and for Christian audiences, there are are also really good books that can fall under this label. And our friend Jared Wilson, author of many, many books, has written one of them that's out now called Echo Island. Jared joined Dave and me (while Scarlet was reading the book on a plane) to talk about storytelling, Vermont, and the good news that this is not a Rapture book.


Listen in as we discuss:


Why Jared wanted to write this story
Why we can't actually talk about the book too much without giving away pretty much the whole plot
The honesty of New Englanders about their faith (or lack thereof)
Why calling Echo Island a good book isn't a throwaway compliment
How fiction help your imagination as a writer and as a reader
The relationship between storytelling and close-up magic
Why people who are jaded or cynical toward Christian fiction (or fiction by Christians) should give this book a shot



Echo Island is available now through your favorite bookseller. Get a copy for yourself



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Leave a five-star rating and review of the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to the show.
Give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram at @MalContentsPod
Be sure to use the Amazon affiliate links above to help us pay for the costs of producing and hosting the show.

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Sometimes a conversation is full of… how can I say this? Tenuous connections. Abrupt changes of topic, subject matter, and tone is often the way a real-life conversation goes. And this week, Dave and I are joined by our friends Nick Rynerson and Richard Clark to talk about, well, pretty much everything—including their new podcast network, Area Code. Listen in as we discuss:


Conspiracy theories and the power of the word "Consider" to make anything sound sinister
Finding the Dark Web
What is the Area Code Network and why are we talking about it on our show?
Why Nick needs to read our meeting requests
How good a job I'm doing at being my own executive assistant


A few of the books we mentioned on this episode


Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann

Weather by Jenny Offill

Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Sell Montana by Steve Gilreath

Lipstick Traces by Greil Marcus

The Varieties of Religious Experiences by William James

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer

Privilege the Text by Abraham Kuruvilla



Sharing and supporting the show

Leave a five-star rating and review of the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to the show.
Give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram at @MalContentsPod
Be sure to use the Amazon affiliate links above to help us pay for the costs of producing and hosting the show.

Interested in sponsoring Table of (mal)Contents? Let's talk via email or DM us on Twitter or Instagram.

We're two days past Halloween, which means two things: higher blood sugar for all, and stores have become winter wonderlands overnight. But we don't want to be grumpy about it—instead, we're reclaiming the season, standing in the gap as it were, and choosing to be thankful. About what? Well, a few things as you'll hear in this episode. Listen in as we discuss:


Who we're thankful for that helped us to develop a love of reading
Aerosmith and the possibility of an asteroid hitting Earth on Wednesday
Some friends who are going to be joining us on the show in the next few weeks
Scarlet caring for a doglet


All that and a few other teases in a whopping 28 minute show!


A few of the books we mentioned on this episode


Wild and Crazy Guys by Nick de Semlyn

Echo Island by Jared Wilson

Questioning Evangelism by Randy Newman

North! Or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson



Sharing and supporting the show

Leave a five-star rating and review of the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to the show.
Give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram at @MalContentsPod
Be sure to use the Amazon affiliate links above to help us pay for the costs of producing and hosting the show.

Interested in sponsoring Table of (mal)Contents? Let's talk via email or DM us on Twitter or Instagram.

It's almost Halloween, and we're talking… well, we're talking Christmas, apparently. But not intentionally. Dave wanted to talk about Halloween and spooky books, but we don't really read those all that often. We don't even watch those movies. So, instead we have some fun talking through some listener questions! Listen in as we discuss:


What happened when Mormons came to the door while we were recording
If Scarlet and her girls have read Bunnicula

What books we read around Christmas times
Unexpected Christmas books from unlikely authors
How we feel about book clubs (a longer discussion can and should be listened to here)
The Christmas songs that annoy me (Aaron) the most


All this and a whole bunch of apologies from… well, you'll see.


A few of the books we mentioned on this episode


Bunnicula by James Howe

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

The 19th Christmas by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

The Christmas Train by David Baldacci

The Expected One by Scott James

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Wild and Crazy Guys by Nick de Semlyn

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

Wait for Signs by Craig Johnson

Echo Island by Jared Wilson



Sharing and supporting the show

Leave a five-star rating and review of the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to the show.
Give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram at @MalContentsPod
Be sure to use the Amazon affiliate links above to help us pay for the costs of producing and hosting the show.

Interested in sponsoring Table of (mal)Contents? Let's talk via email or DM us on Twitter or Instagram.

There are two topics you traditionally don't bring up at family dinners over the holidays: religion and politics. (Scarlet, meanwhile, is glad she missed out on this one.)


The spectrum of types of political books and the weirdness of that part of the publishing industry
John Quincy Adams being a terrible president and a great congressman
What conservatism means
Why the Great American Reads booklist is problematic
If changing your Good Reads Reading Challenge is cheating (it's not and Dave is wrong)
A Lonesome Dove update


All this and a whole bunch of apologies from… well, you'll see.


A few of the books we mentioned on this episode


The Lions of Lucerne by Brad Thor

John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger

Decision Points by George W. Bush

The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris

The Politics of Prudence by Russell Kirk

A Grief Observed, The Great Divorce, and Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier



Sharing and supporting the show

Leave a five-star rating and review of the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to the show.
Give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram at @MalContentsPod
Be sure to use the Amazon affiliate links above to help us pay for the costs of producing and hosting the show.

Interested in sponsoring Table of (mal)Contents? Let's talk via email or DM us on Twitter or Instagram.