Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
with Dr. Rex M. Rogers

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 10 February 2022

This is the trailer for my new podcast, which will be officially launched later this month. This trailer is already available on Apple Podcast and several other podcast platforms.

*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 18 January 2022

Learning about podcasts is my latest thing. It’s been fun.

A podcast is simply a pre-recorded (mostly) audio or (some) video episode made available online. They can be streamed or downloaded, generally for free.

Last estimate, there are maybe 1 million, or still fewer, podcasts now being distributed. This sounds like a lot, and in one sense it is if you take into account podcasts didn’t exist until the early 2000s. They were popular for a time, dropped off for some reason, and more recently seem to be surging again.

But podcasts relative to other media distribution platforms are still a new thing. According to Buzzsprout.com, “There is a lot of unexplored space in the podcasting industry. There are at least 600 million blogs, 23 million YouTube channels, but only 800,000 podcasts in Apple Podcasts. That means for every podcast, there are 750 blogs and 29 YouTube channels.”

Some 67 million Americans listen to a podcast every month, and this number has grown 100% in past 4 years. So podcasting is a brave new world for communicating simply, personally, inexpensively, and without barriers online, making your voice and point of view, literally, accessible to the world.

The average podcast is 30 minutes, while the average listener hangs in for 22 minutes. Interestingly, the average American commute is 25 minutes. Podcasts range in duration from 4-5 minutes to 3-4 hours.

So it would seem that if you really want to get in, grab someone’s attention, and get out, something less than 22 minutes might be optimal, but it depends upon the topic and podcaster preference, not technological constraint and generally not cost.

In the early days podcasters had to work to get their podcast RSS feed onto a variety of distribution platforms. Now, with one-stop-shopping services like Buzzsprout, the service does the work of distribution once the podcaster signs on and uploads the latest episode.

Not counting the cost of a laptop, podcasters can get started with an outlay of less than $250 for a good microphone and associated equipment. Recording and editing software, a “DAW” or digital audio workstation, like GarageBand is available for free on Apple products.

Most podcasts feature interviews or conversations, while many churches and other similar organizations that regularly produce audio content simply use the podcast medium as another way to disseminate their content. A “true podcast,” one in which the podcaster is offering original content exclusively via the podcast medium are less common but are increasing in number.

I’m researching because I’m looking hard at launching my own podcast, in the midst now of learning and deciding whether to brand the podcast on my own or as an associated expression of the ministry with which I serve, SAT-7 USA.

Time will tell.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 18 January 2022

Learning about podcasts is my latest thing. It’s been fun.

A podcast is simply a pre-recorded (mostly) audio or (some) video episode made available online. They can be streamed or downloaded, generally for free.

The average podcast 30 minutes, while the average listener hangs in for 22 minutes. Interestingly, the average American commute is 25 minutes. Podcasts range in duration from 4-5 minutes to 3-4 hours.

So it would see that if you really want to get in, grad someone’s attention, and get out, something less than 22 minutes might be optimal, but it depends upon the topic and podcaster preference, not technological constraint and generally not cost.

Time will tell.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 10 November 2021

50 years ago today, Sarah Lee Stone, now known as Good Wife, and I had our first date at The Carpenters concert, University of Dayton Arena. Sarah wore pink, but I have no idea what Karen Carpenter wore.

We were 19-yr-old sophomores who’d met a year before at a huge bonfire by the lake during freshman orientation at Cedarville University. Though we dated others that year we began talking on the phone late at night soon after, sometimes for hours. So we had probably bonded without knowing it by the time we had that first date.

The girl I had dated a couple times opted out of the concert. Fantastic. I didn’t have money, athletic prowess, or high-rent looks, but hey, I had leverage, a car thanks to Dad and two tickets, so I gave it a shot, asking the girl-dating-someone-else who I wanted to ask in the first place. Hence Sarah's and my first date.

So, we met our freshman year, started dating our sophomore year, broke up our junior year, and got engaged our senior year, like a lot of others who arrived on campus as singles but by the time they left walked around two-by-two like Noah’s Ark. Summer before senior year I proposed while we stood barefoot in a creek rushing down the side of a mountain.

Since that night 50 years ago my life has been enriched in every way, thanks to the divine gift of a girl who grew up in WV, about 2.5 hours south of me in OH. God is good.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 28 October 2021

Our culture long since discarded the idea of objective truth, i.e., something is true or false no matter our feelings about it. I’ve understood this for a long time.

What did not occur to me until recently is that loss of truth brings with it loss of trust. If there is no knowable truth, just uncertainty, truth claims, lies and falsehoods, then what or who can you trust?

This introduces another level of dysfunction. You carry Who can I trust? into every interaction: Is this news fake, Is this business dishonest, Are these election results valid, Is this health info correct? Then we get litigiousness, lawlessness, even an inability to engage in bona fide relationships because, well, no one is trustworthy.

At best, we muddle through.

At worst, some fall into anxiety, disillusion, alienation, anomie, hopelessness. It’s why there’s so much talk today about mental health, even among gifted, wealthy young athletes, and especially among youth. Kids are committing suicide because their lives have lost meaning.

Truth and trust are not just philosopher topics. Their loss affects us every day.

But there is a remedy. Read your pennies: “In God We Trust.”

penny

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 20 October 2021

For a lot of kids like me in the 50s, Superman, on black and white TV, was a fav hero.

“Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!” He fought “a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way."

Now it appears Superman is becoming Superwoke. DC Comics announced Superman will henceforth be bisexual, and he’ll now fight for the decidedly bland “Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow.”

Aside from a serious discussion about what morality DC Comics is promoting, this is a bit like celebrities who have some talent but not a lot, so the only way they can make news is to declare some new sexual proclivity. Happens every week.

And rather than find new ways to improve upon the American way, to be PC relevant Superman must ignore nationality and patriotism.

Star Trek’s tweak, “To boldly go where no one (not “man”) has gone before” enriched the franchise.

This Superman nonsense fundamentally alters the character. And it sadly may happen, Get woke Go broke.

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