Allie Ward

When it comes to having a barbecue, how do you not...

want to hold others accountable?

Or how do you have that conversation without it becoming so heated that it does become accusatory or it does invoke notions of evil on this side or that side?

How is that temperature taken down?

It feels like we have an obligation in situations of emotional proximity where it's not just about strangers fighting strangers with hackles up and fight or flight responses, but

you know, how are those situations approached without it being so personal?

Is your partner still Pentecostal or just raised in it?

So back to evil.

Who defines it and what it means and where the notion of it came from?

This is so interesting historically and culturally.

So a few years back, I got a chance to interview Dr. Lydia Jennings for an indigenous pedology episode all about soil science and the intersections with tribal lands.

And I asked her if she could help me with some definitions.

Here's an excerpt from that interview.

And what is the difference between soil and dirt?

Oh, that's such a good answer.

I wasn't sure if it was like, it's got to have a certain percentage of rock or a certain percentage of dust, but it's really more philosophical.

I never thought that talking about evil, which is a concept so staggering that a scholar can write a whole book talking about talking about talking about it, and it would all come down to dirt.

And how often in your classes do people ask you questions like, is this political party evil?

Was Hitler evil?

Who's evil that requires, from a moral standpoint, some sort of group smothering?