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The First Wednesday in November
The opposite of loving America is not criticizing it. The opposite of loving America is needing America to be innocent. Matt Moberg Two years ago, in the lead-up to the last presidential election, my church’s senior minister, the Reverend Dr. Oscar Sinclair, spoke these words. I know the sermon I’m preaching next Sunday if Kamala… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: I Don’t Know What Else To Do
Note. The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/11/02/i-dont-know-what-else-to-do/ Pip: Dreams are famously slippery — you wake up certain you’ve solved something, and by breakfast all you’ve got is a desert island and a vague sense of urgency. Mara: That desert island belongs to Andrew Prokop, whose recent writing on Can You Hear Me Now… Continue reading
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I Don’t Know What Else To Do
We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep. William Shakespeare I don’t often remember my dreams. Even when I wake up with a dream fresh on my mind, it nearly always slips away like a ship drifting into the fog. Last week, I had a… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: The Art (and Joy) of Being Adequate
Pip: There's a podcast called Can You Hear Me Now, and today it's making the case that "good enough" might actually be the whole point. Mara: Andrew Prokop's latest post asks what it means to live well without chasing greatness — adequacy as a genuine philosophy, not a consolation prize. Let's start with that argument.… Continue reading
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The Art (and Joy) of Being Adequate
It ain’t the heat. It’s the humility Yogi Berra I have been a fan of Dean Martin for as long as I can remember. I suspect it began with the films he did with Jerry Lewis. As a tween and young teenager, I couldn’t get enough of movies such as Scared Stiff and The Stooge.… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Chasing the Ghost of Andy Rooney
Note. The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/10/19/chasing-the-ghost-of-andy-rooney/ Pip: Can You Hear Me Now — a title that doubles as a question most of us ask at least once before noon. Mara: Today we’re sitting with one post from Andrew Prokop — a piece that uses Andy Rooney as a mirror, asking what separates… Continue reading
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Chasing the Ghost of Andy Rooney
I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain. Lily Tomlin If you are as old as I am, you probably remember Andy Rooney. For those of you who do not, Andy was a commentator best known for his appearances on the CBS news program, Sixty Minutes. His segment, “A Few… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Home
Note. The underlying article can be found here: https://ajprokop.com/2026/10/12/home/ Pip: What does it mean to feel at home somewhere? Not the address — the feeling. That’s the question Can You Hear Me Now keeps circling back to this week. Mara: Andrew Prokop takes that question seriously, and this episode follows him through it — from… Continue reading
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Home
The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned. Maya Angelou Each month, my Unitarian church chooses a theme that influences everything from the Sunday readings to ministers’ sermons. The goal is to push us deeper into our own spiritual practices… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Too Much of a Thing
Note. The underlying article can be found here: https://ajprokop.com/2026/10/05/too-much-of-a-thing/ Pip: There is a certain irony in a technology podcast that keeps asking whether we have too much technology — but here we are, and Andrew Prokop keeps finding new angles on that question. Mara: This week on Can You Hear Me Now, we’re looking at… Continue reading
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Too Much of a Thing
Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? T. S. Eliot Despite more than four decades working in technology, I am not an up-to-date gadgets guy. I tend to hold on to devices long after most… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Hong Kong Travelogue
Note. The underlying article can be found here: https://ajprokop.com/2026/09/28/hong-kong-travelogue/ Pip: Some journals survive the years by accident — a drawer never cleared, a box never tossed — and occasionally that’s a genuine gift. Mara: Andrew Prokop has been publishing exactly that kind of gift on Can You Hear Me Now. Today we’re spending the whole… Continue reading
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Hong Kong Travelogue
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. Marcel Proust On March 28, 1998, I flew from Minneapolis to Hong Kong. As with my recently published trip to Ireland, I kept a travel journal that somehow survived the years. As with Ireland, I was there to teach… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Traducation
Note. The underlying article can be found here: https://ajprokop.com/2026/09/21/traducation/ Pip: Can You Hear Me Now — where the memes are plentiful, the nuance is scarce, and somebody finally gave the tradwife movement and the trade school movement a shared name. Mara: Andrew Prokop is doing the naming this week, and the territory he covers runs… Continue reading
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Traducation
The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn. Alvin Toffler Bear with me while I set the scene for this week’s blog topic. Linda and I are both graduates of Arizona State University — she in education and… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Irish Travelogue
Note. The underlying article can be found here: https://ajprokop.com/2026/09/14/irish-travelogue/ Pip: There is exactly one post on the docket today, and it is a time capsule — a travel journal from 1997 that survived several computer deaths and one very determined blogger. Mara: Andrew Prokop found a long-lost journal from a work trip to Galway, Ireland,… Continue reading
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Irish Travelogue
Geographically, Ireland is a medium-sized rural island that is slowly but steadily being consumed by sheep. Dave Barry I did a lot of business travel over my long career. Looking back, I realize that it was too much. Both my family and I struggled with the long absences. I didn’t see it at the time,… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: The Things We Keep, The Stories They Tell
Note. The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/09/07/the-things-we-keep-the-stories-they-tell/ Pip: A coffee mug, a space-race tin, and a plastic cup from a baseball game that happened before some of our listeners were born — welcome to Can You Hear Me Now, where the objects on your desk apparently have opinions. Mara: Andrew Prokop’s recent writing… Continue reading
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The Things We Keep, The Stories They Tell
Humans think in stories, and we try to make sense of the world by telling stories. Yuval Noah Harari Frequent readers of my blog know that nostalgia plays a significant role in my writing. In fact, just last week in Lost in the In-Between I wrote, “I catch nostalgia like a cold.” While I don’t… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Lost in the In-Between
Note. The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/08/31/lost-in-the-in-between/ Pip: There is a particular kind of melancholy that arrives in early September, right on schedule, whether you asked for it or not. Mara: Andrew Prokop is sitting with exactly that feeling in this episode — the uneasy space between what was and what’s coming, from… Continue reading
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