Way back in 2016 Elizabeth Oldfield made a conscious decision to fight back against the growing pervasiveness of extreme polarised viewpoints. Instead of setting up an adversarial situation, she decided to cultivate being openly curious in her investigative discussions with interviewees who were definitely not from her 'tribe'.
She chose instead to invite a increasingly wide range of people to enter into discussion with. People who came from entirely different disciplines and approaches to life. Over the years she's discovered how hard it can be on a personal level, to fight back from her own judgmental responses about social class and status. She's acquired skills in asking the right set of questions to open up an interview. In the process discovering whole aspects of a person that you might not see if you you just stuck with your prejudice.
As a consequence she's interviewed people from as diverse a cultural position as Nick Cave, Iain McGilchrist or Peter Hitchin. The latter was particularly prickly, as the old curmudgeon was on top form with his brash reactivity. But she got him to open up - to a degree.
Oldfield is a Christian, her interests, do however, spread wider than the limits of traditional Christian perspectives. In the most recent series the guests and subject matter reflect the chapters in her recently published book Fully Alive - Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times. It's Chapters are structured light heartedly around the seven deadly sins, and investigates how these are at play in our current social,political and cultural malaise. I look forward to seeing who the guest is and the subject matter for discussion every week. The Sacred is well worth putting time aside, irrespective of your faith.
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