In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss a term that may be new to many of our listeners - “larping.” Larping has been adopted by Gen Z and redefined as a slang word that refers to people who are inauthentic or performative. And the use of this slang term speaks to how highly Gen Z values authenticity in others; that is, how much they long for people who are genuine.

There are two articles that were referenced in today's conversation. Here they are if you'd like to do some more reading on this topic:

Rachel Hale, “All of Gen Z is larping. It's not what you think it is,” USA Today.

Rachel Hale and Owen Carry, “'Polyester' is Gen Z's newest viral insult. Here's what it means.” USA Today.

Gen Z is big on assigning labels (like larping) to people, but, ironically, they often struggle with their own self-identity and seemingly want to reject labels that culture would put on them. This is part of what led to the trend discussed last week on the podcast. If you missed it, be sure to check out CCP209: On the Rise of Bisexual Men.

Finally, if you want to go to school on Gen Z, we'd encourage you to check out Dr. White's book called Meet Generation Z, which you can find on Amazon HERE.

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss the latest gender-related topic on the podcast - the rise of bisexual men. This is a somewhat new face of masculinity that is dominating Hollywood in particular, as evidenced by an article in The Wall Street Journal titled “Why the Bisexual Man Is Hollywood's Breakout Star.” So why is bisexuality becoming so dominant in today's culture and media? And why is it being specifically targeted at Generation Z?

As Alexis mentioned, this is not the first time that a conversation on or related to gender has been featured on this podcast. Here are some past episodes that we'd encourage you to go back and listen to :

CCP21: On Gender

CCP72: On Toxic Masculinity

CCP78: On Trad Wives

CCP156: On a Theology of Sexual Identity

CCP200: On Masculinism

In addition to the article from WSJ above, there was another article highlighting the latest shows that feature bisexual men: “The Bi Renaissance: 21 shows with amazing bi male representation.” And as noted above, Gen Z has become the cohort that Hollywood seems to want to influence the most, probably because one of the marks of Gen Z is their sexual fluidity. Dr. White explores this and other culturally relevant marks of this generation in his book Meet Generation Z, which you can find on Amazon HERE.

Finally, Dr. White mentioned some statistics about the rise of LGBTQ+ in the U.S. You can read the article titled “LGBTQ+ Identification in U.S. Now at 7.6%” from Gallup HERE.

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss one of the most dominant cultural medical news stories over the last several months - GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. In the U.S., 42% of adults and nearly 20% of children are clinically obese. And if you incorporate factors such as waist measurement and fat distribution, then the rates of obesity go up even higher. Being overweight is linked to more than 40 chronic conditions including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and various cancers. So how are we to consider the impact of these drugs from a Christian worldview?

As Dr. White mentioned, here are the links to a number of articles that are related to today's conversation that we suggest you take a moment to read:

Christopher Rowland, “Americans are taking GLP-1 drugs in record numbers,” The Washington Post.

Ariana Eunjung Cha and Aaron Steckelberg, “13 surprising ways GLP-1s may benefit the body, according to science,” The Washington Post.

Christopher Rowland, “3 ways GLP-1 drugs could be getting better,” The Washington Post.

Kelsey Kramer McGinnis, “Christians Debate Drugs vs. Discipline in the Age of Ozempic,” Christianity Today.

Shelby Grad, “Why we've become so suspicious of people who lose weight. John Goodman's trending moment,” Los Angeles Times.

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.