Three Big Conversations:

1. The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld a Texas law requiring actual age verification for access to pornographic websites - 13:58
2. An animated film called “KPop Demon Hunters” released on Netflix, and it's been dominating both music and video streaming charts - 32:28
3. Communities in Texas are reeling from grief as the death toll from last weekend’s flash floods continues to climb. At least two dozen victims were children attending the Christian, all-girls camp known as Camp Mystic - 44:54

Resource of the Week - The Coversation Starter (Youtube) - 0:25

Elsewhere in culture: - 08:57

A new report claims that TikTok is building a U.S.-based app to launch in September, a 14-second video featuring Howie Mandel telling a 4-year-old that he is the “youngest person ever” was viewed and liked millions of times, podcaster Joe Rogan speculated that perhaps humans creating AI will be what “the second coming of Christ” was supposed to refer to, the English port of a “horseracing game” involving anime girls as horses started trending in the U.S., and Morning Consult reported that the youngest voting cohort (currently Gen Z) is 12% less likely to identify as liberal than the youngest cohort was in 2016.

For more Axis resources, go to axis.org.

An animated film called KPop Demon Hunters is dominating both music and video streaming charts, A new supreme court ruling could pave the way to federally mandated ID verification on all pornographic sites, and mourning the tragic losses in Texas’s Camp Mystic after their historic flash floods.

Resource of the Week - The Conversaton Starter (Youtube)

Elsewhere in culture:

A new report claims that TikTok is building a U.S.-based app to launch in September, a 14-second video featuring Howie Mandel telling a 4-year-old that he is the “youngest person ever” was viewed and liked millions of times, podcaster Joe Rogan speculated that perhaps humans creating AI will be what “the second coming of Christ” was supposed to refer to, the English port of a “horseracing game” involving anime girls as horses started trending in the U.S., and Morning Consult reported that the youngest voting cohort (currently Gen Z) is 12% less likely to identify as liberal than the youngest cohort was in 2016.

For more Axis resources, go to axis.org.

"How do you get your tween daighter to talk and share things about her day, her friends and school?" - Erin

This podcast is entirely Q&A based! Send in your questions to ask@axis.org.

And for more resources, go to axis.org.

Three Big Converserations:

1. A new cooperative game called Peak requires players to climb a mountain together - 10:00
2. the psychological thriller We Were Liars has teens weeping on TikTok - 22:14
3. posts about going #monkmode are romanticizing the minimalistic life of the monastery - 31:40

Resource of the Week - The Pour Over- 9:07

Elsewhere in culture:

A new TikTok trend involves saying the phrase “bacon avocado” as a prelude to your actual message, Jurassic Park: Rebirth debuts in theaters this week, the humanoid robot Neo is learning how to do laundry and walk up stairs, a Supreme Court ruling will allow parents to opt their elementary-aged kids out of LGBTQ+ instruction, and today marks the 249th 4th of July holiday in the United States!

For more Axis resources, go to axis.org.

A new cooperative game called Peak requires players to climb a mountain together, the psychological thriller We Were Liars has teens weeping on TikTok, and posts about going #monkmode are romanticizing the minimalistic life of the monastery.

Resource of the Week - The Pour Over

Elsewhere in culture:

A new TikTok trend involves saying the phrase “bacon avocado” as a prelude to your actual message, Jurassic Park: Rebirth debuts in theaters this week, the humanoid robot Neo is learning how to do laundry and walk up stairs, a Supreme Court ruling will allow parents to opt their elementary-aged kids out of LGBTQ+ instruction, and today marks the 249th 4th of July holiday in the United States!

For more Axis resources, go to axis.org.

Molly Worthen is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a freelance journalist. She teaches courses on North American religion and politics, global Christianity, and the history of ideas. She writes on these themes for The New York Times and has contributed to The New Yorker, Slate, The American Prospect, Foreign Policy, and other publications. She has also created video and audio courses on the history of Christianity and the history of charismatic leadership for the Great Courses and Audible. Her new book is called Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump.

Check out the book Spellbound.

For more Axis resources, go to axis.org.

Three Big Conversations:

1. AI-generated videos of people cutting and eating glass fruit are trending on social media - 18:55
2. the movie 28 Years Later makes the 28-numbered zombie saga worse - 30:10
3. TikTokers are reminiscing about 90s summer—whether or not they actually experienced it - 52:38

Song of the Week: “Manchild” - Sabrina Carpenter - 0:35

Click here for the lyrics.

Elsewhere in culture: - 12:38

AI-generated “Would You Rather?” videos involving fruit with special powers began trending on TikTok, the live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie continued to be a theatrical success, Netflix’s “Trainwreck” anthology landed documentaries about Astroworld and the so-called “Poop Cruise” in the top 10, people on #BookTok defended annotating books, and teens shared memes about World War 3.

For more Axis resources, go to axis.org.

AI-generated videos of people cutting and sometimes eating glass fruit are trending on social media, the movie 28 Years Later makes the 28-numbered zombie saga worse, and TikTokers are reminiscing about 90s summer—whether or not they actually experienced it.

Song of the Week: “Manchild” - Sabrina Carpenter

Click here for the lyrics.

Elsewhere in culture:

AI-generated “Would You Rather?” videos involving fruit with special powers began trending on TikTok, the live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie continued to be a theatrical success, Netflix’s “Trainwreck” anthology landed documentaries about Astroworld and the so-called “Poop Cruise” in the top 10, people on #BookTok defended annotating books, and teens shared memes about World War 3.

For more Axis resources, go to axis.org.