Risking Enchantment Rachel Sherlock

“I'm capable of a great jerk, an effort, and then a relaxation—but steady, every-day goodness is beyond me. I must be a moral kangaroo!”
-Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
 
In our final episode before the summer break, Phoebe and Rachel are joined by their good friend, and long-time Risking Enchantment listener, Jacob Moran, to discuss his favourite novel: Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. We discuss how Gaskell demonstrates the precariousness of the moral life, even or perhaps especially in middle class and comfortable lives. The novel highlights the need to cultivate every-day virtue and how easily we can stray from our principles. We explore these themes through the various contrasting characters, including Molly Gibson with her steadfast virtue in difficult circumstances, her step-mother Mrs Gibson with all her facade of care.
We hope you enjoy the summer and we look forward to returning with more Risking Enchantment episodes in September.
Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Phoebe Watson, Jacob Moran
Follow us on social media: Rachel: @seekingwatson Jacob: @piousmouse
Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast
Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com
Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast
 
Works Mentioned:
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Keeping Your Word: Unfashionable Virtues in North and South - Risking Enchantment
‘Advice’ by Robert Crawford
 
What We’re Enjoying at the Moment
Collective Recommendation: 
The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel - Jenny Nicholson
Phoebe:
Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot - performed by CityLit Theatre, Chicago
Rachel:
Wildcat (2023)
Jacob:
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

“Joyful singing and music is likewise a constant invitation to believers and to all people of good will to work hard to give humanity a future rich in hope.”
-Pope Benedict XVI
 
In this episode we are joined by Katie Marquette, host of the Born of Wonder podcast. We discuss our love of music, what can learn about the human desire to write new songs about our common experiences, and how participating in the creation of music unites us to the music imbued in God’s creation.

Music: Ashton Manor by Kevin MacLeod
 
Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Katie Marquette
 
Listen to Katie’s podcast: Born of Wonder
 
Follow Rachel on social media: @seekingwatson
 
Follow Katie on social media: @bornofwonder
 
Read Katie on Substack: https://bornofwonder.substack.com/
 
Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast
 
Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com
 
Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast
 
Join Katie Marquette on a pilgrimage to Ireland: https://www.bornofwonder.com/come-to-ireland-with-me
 
Rachel was also previously a guest on the Born of Wonder podcast. To listen to that episode, click here: S7:10 EP102: Taylor Swift and the Power of Collective Experience with Rachel Sherlock
 
Works Referenced:
Music is fundamentally joy, says this professor of music
What about Bad Music?
Pope Benedict XVI and The Power of Music
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons
 
What We’re Enjoying at the Moment
Katie: Les Misérables [Katie’s recent episode on this topic: S7:12 EP 104: The Economy of Love in Les Miserables with Maddie Dobrowski]
Rachel: Detectorists

"We are watchful for works written in a contemporary idiom that yet reach the roots of fundamental questions, that honor the almost three-thousand-year-long conversations committed to these questions, and that incite our hunger for the splendor of truth."
Masthead for Wiseblood Books
We are delighted to welcome to the podcast Mary Finnegan, deputy editor at Wiseblood Books, a small Catholic press which fosters works of fiction, poetry, and philosophy. In our episode today we discuss the process of publishing, how to strive for excellent in craft while encouraging new writers, and publishing as a vocation. We dive into Dana Gioia's essay "The Catholic Writer Today" and address the problems facing Catholic writing and publishing in our current times.
Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Mary Finnegan
Follow us on social media: @seekingwatson @maryraphaela
Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast
Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com
Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast
Music: Ashton Manor by Kevin MacLeod
 
Wiseblood Books: https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/
University of St Thomas: Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing
Dappled Things: https://www.dappledthings.org/
 
Works Mentioned
"The Catholic Writer Today" by Dana Gioia - Article in First Things
The Catholic Writer Today by Dana Gioia - Monograph by Wiseblood
Mystery and Manners by Flannery O'Connor
"Christianity and Poetry" by Dana Gioia - Article in First Things
Christianity and Poetry by Dana Gioia - Monograph by Wiseblood
Under Satan's Sun by Georges Bernanos
The Demons: A Double-Volume Novel by Heimito von Doderer
Seneca: The Madness of Hercules, Translated and Introduced by Dana Gioia 
Memory's Abacus: Poems by Anna Lewis
Painting Over the Growth Chart: Poems, by Dan Rattelle
Works of Mercy by Sally Thomas 
How to Think Like a Poet by Ryan Wilson
 
What We're Enjoying at the Moment
"A Theology of Fiction" by Cassandra Nelson
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
 

“What does the Lord want of me?  Of course, this is always a great adventure, but life can be successful only if we have the courage to be adventurous, trusting that the Lord will never leave me alone, that the Lord will go with me and help me.”
    – Pope Benedict XVI

For this episode of Risking Enchantment, Rachel and Phoebe discuss Arthur Ransome’s series of children’s books known as the Swallows and Amazons series. These books are full of wonder and imagination as well as practical detail, as they follow a group of children spending their holidays in the Lake District of northern England. The children sail, set up camp, climb mountains and have many delightful adventures. In our podcast discussion we explore the importance of this sense of adventure for both children and adults, and how this relates to our spiritual lives and how we embrace God’s plan for us. We discuss the balance of duty and responsibility with the sense of freedom that this kind of adventuring perspective brings, and we highlight the connection with Creation that can come from being out in nature.
 
Works mentioned in this episode
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome
Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Matilda by Roald Dahl
‘Swallows and Amazons for Ever!’ Slightly Foxed, by Jim Ring
Spe Salvi by Pope Benedict XVI
“Encounter of His Holiness Benedict XVI with the Youth, Saint Peter's Square, Thursday, 6 April 2006”
S2:9 EP18: Wonder in a Digital Age, Born of Wonder podcast
“Swallows, Amazons and Adventure, Part 1” by Jon Sparks
“Oxford Junior Dictionary’s replacement of ‘natural’ words with 21st-century terms sparks outcry”, The Guardian, Alison Flood
 
What We’re Enjoying at the Moment:
Phoebe: BBC’s Hildegard von Bingen - In Portrait (1994)
Rachel: Knitting

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”
 
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
 
We are joined for this episode of Risking Enchantment by Catholic author Eleanor Bourg Nicholson. Eleanor has previously published several Gothic novels including, A Bloody Habit (2018) and Brother Wolf (2021), with her latest novel Wake of Malice set to publish later this year.
 
In this episode we discuss our deep love of the novels of Charles Dickens. We explore three of his greatest works, David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby and Great Expectations, each of which follows a young male protagonist through the many adventures, triumphs and pitfalls of his life. In each case we look at the virtues and the failings of these heroes, the Romantic tropes that Dickens employs to characterize them, and the subversions of these that he uses, particularly in the case of Great Expectations.
 
Works Mentioned:
 
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
 
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
 
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
 
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
 
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
 
Dickens: A Critical Study by G.K. Chesterton
 
David Copperfield: Ignatius Critical Edition (coming soon) by Charles Dickens
 
“The Age of Cant” by Theodore Dalrymple
 
What We are Enjoying at the Moment
 
Eleanor: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
 
Rachel: Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

But if there’s nothing, if there’s nothingThen what’s that song that keeps hounding me?In the still dark of the morningJust one more cradle down the creekAu revoir my little memoriesThen tell me: this is not your loss, this is your offering
- Wake, 'Offerings'
In this episode we are joined again by Shane Jenkins to discuss the album Offerings by Typhoon. Led by singer-songwriter Kyle Morton, the album is a fascinating, at times difficult, but ultimately transfixing examination of the end of a life. It follows various characters through the experience of dementia, sickness and death, allowing the listener to enter into that space through its rich musicality and lyricism. In our episode we pull out some of the imagery of the album, it's literary and biblical references and allusions and address its powerful and important themes.
Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Shane Jenkins
Follow us on social media: @seekingwatson @shanekins
Shane's Website: https://sjenkin46.wixsite.com/ipofollies/about
Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast
Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com
Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast
Music: Ashton Manor by Kevin MacLeod
Works Mentioned
Offerings by Typhoon
Hunger and Thirst by Typhoon
White Lighter by Typhoon
"Kyle Morton & Typhoon: In Conversation with Great Minds" — The DePaul Humanities Center
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
'Little Gidding', The Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot
The Choruses from The Rock by T.S. Eliot
'The Hound of Heaven' by Francis Thompson
8 1/2, dir. Frederico Fellini
Lost in the Cosmos by Walker Percy
 
What We're Enjoying at the Moment
Shane:
Cargo by Pio Harnett
Rachel:
The Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith