The Substance

This week on The Substance, we are welcoming back a returning guest and talking about a book that has the best cover we've seen in quite some time! Courtney Ellis returns to the show and this time we are talking about her new book from InterVarsity Press, Looking Up: A Birder's Guide To Hope Through Grief. It's a beautiful book that is part memoir, part counseling session, and part sales pitch for the hobby of birding (Spoiler Alert: we have already downloaded the Merlin Bird ID app since our conversation with Courtney).

We also talk coffee vs. tea, how birding has positively impacted her life (including relationships that span ideological boundaries), natural theology and why we don't need to be afraid of it, the role of her grandparents in her formation, and much more! Courtney is also the first guest we have had who has nerded out with my son about their mutual affinity for the Wild Kratts (stay tuned to the end).

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Nate is a creator whose work I've followed for almost 15 years and it was an absolute pleasure to sit down and talk with him about his work and the substance behind it. I first encountered his work in Jeff Lemire's acclaimed Vertigo Comics series Sweet Tooth (still need to check out the Netflix adaptation). His style really spoke to me so I went back and read his debut graphic novel, Swallow Me Whole, which won the Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Novel, and I was in for pretty much everything he made after that.

Most folks know of Nate because of the March trilogy that he did with civil rights advocate and United States Congressman John Lewis and Andrew Aydin. The three graphic novels were massively successful in both critically and commercially but they also have been influential in communicating an important national story and inspiring folks to join the cause and work for a better future. The March books won multiple Eisners (the comic industry equivalent of The Oscars), The Coretta Scott King Award, and made Nate Powell the first cartoonist to win a National Book Award.

We talk about the impact of these books on his life and career as well as the themes of militarism and how war and violence can become culturally pervasive (he shares a great story of getting a positive review from G.I. Joe creator Larry Hama on one of his books dealing with this), how we need to take care to always be pursuing justice and sticking up for folks who can't do it for themselves, as well as being intentional in teaching these values to the next generations.

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