Steve discusses mediocrity, the struggle with being ordinary, and the reality of what it means to be an "everyday saint."

the course of medication that cures Hepatitis C costs $84,000 at $1,000/pill, but can be produced for only $700 or $0.83/pill #

Fr. Lawrence suggests there are problems involved in declaring that only Orthodox may be commemorated if no further details are provided, for this sets up the liturgist to be a judge over the souls of men. But who then can be included?

Bobby interviews Fr. Vassilios Papavassiliou, the author of the new Conciliar Press book Meditations for Great Lent: Reflections on the Triodion.

Bobby interviews Fr. Vassilios Papavassiliou, author of the new AFP book Meditations for Advent: Preparing for Christ’s Birth.

Hippocratic pro-life medical professionals are increasingly being pressured to practice their science and art without regard to their personal faith or conscience beliefs.

If you think it is respectable to consider babies, whether born or unborn, to be an inferior stage of human life, you can easily come to think that they have few rights that fully developed persons are bound to respect.

Returning to the podcast after a personal break, Wesley ask, "Can doctors and other healthcare providers be forced to provide medical proceeds, like abortions, when it goes against their convictions?"

Should we be working to prevent all suicide, or should we support and encourage "some" suicides?

Dr. Albert Rossi discusses the importance of daily meditation.

Bobby Maddex interviews David and Mangala Frost of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (IOCS) about a new IOCS Orthodox evangelism tool called The Way, now available in the United States exclusively through Conciliar Press.

The death toll from Hurricane Helene has now reached 91 as Asheville, isolated by floods, struggles to get supplies airlifted to emergency workers. / Associated Press

Every time a climate disaster like Helene happens, insurance companies gouge customers, who complain to politicians, who claim climate disasters rarely happen. / How Things Work

Leonard Leo led the right-wing takeover of America's judiciary. Now one of his organizations is trying to block the efforts of a group that educates lawyers and judges about the climate crisis. / The Guardian

See also: Using an absurd legal basis, a Leo-funded think tank is suing the Consumer Product Safety Commission, arguing its structure is unconstitutional. / Rolling Stone

From inside Shein warehouses, gig workers—who don't have the same protections as full-time staff—are posting videos to expose grueling working conditions. / WIRED

"Perhaps this is appealing to you, but I find this revolting." The future of your Instagram and Facebook feeds is Meta's own AI-generated content. / Pixel Envy

Why AI is like the advent of the microwave oven: It's good at certain tasks and underwhelming at others—and just try to convince its advocates otherwise. / The Atlantic

Hardly a surprise, but according to a new FTC report, social media companies are gathering data far beyond users' expectations, sometimes with thousands of attributes per user. / EFF

See also: Ireland is fining Meta $101 million for "storing hundreds of millions of user passwords in plaintext and making them broadly available to company employees." / Ars Technica

According to a new study, "There will never be enough computing power to create AGI… because we'd run out of natural resources long before we'd even get close." / Radboud Universiteit

When AI scores higher on an IQ test than a third of people, have we "reached peak human?" That depends on whether "more" is necessarily "better." / VentureBeat

See also: The case for having lots of kids. / The New Yorker

Because of a legal dispute with a copyright group, a vast swath of popular music is currently blocked on YouTube. / Variety

Postcards were the memes of their day a century ago, replete with cats and everything. / BBC

How the 1937 hoax photo of a man holding a giant grasshopper—that later became a popular postcard—came to be. / Boing Boing

On Friday, the Chicago White Sox lost their 121st game of the season, the most for any Major League Baseball team in modern history. / ESPN

In a list of the world's 38 coolest neighborhoods, Marseille's Notre-Dame-du-Mont tops them all. / Time Out

Unrelated: A collaborative map for anyone interested in urban fruit harvesting. / Falling Fruit

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Fr. Pat examines Psalm 3, a prayer that should be recited anytime a believer feels desperate and inundated.

While imprisoned in Caesarea, St. Paul, influenced by the medical expertise of his companion Luke, contemplates the armor of the soldier guarding him.

Mark’s account of the Lord’s questions about baptism and the cup (Mark 10:32-45) are especially poignant for the Christians at Rome, who are thereby instructed about an important dimension of their own participation in the sacraments.

We all have schedules and agendas, and we’re mindful of our own and of those with whom we interact. Using stories from the Gospels and Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Fr. Pat considers with us God's schedules and hidden agenda.

A vesperal homily based upon Joshua 1:1-9

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2) Why do we fast from good things like tasty food? A the start of the Nativity Fast, we'll share three basic reasons why fasting helps transform our spiritual lives. But then we'll go a little deeper and explore why these same reasons suggest you should fast, not just from food, but from social media as well. As always, we've prepared a FREE downloadable workbook to help you act on what you'll learn: https://mailchi.mp/goarch/bethebee157

We welcome back Kevin Allen to AFR with his inaugural come back podcast which is part 1 of an interview with Fr. Josiah Trenham. They discuss his new book Rock and Sand - An Orthodox Appraisal of the Protestant Reformers and their Teaching, published by New Rome Press. This interview is also available in video format from Patristic Nectar Films.

In part 2 of his interview with Fr. Josiah Trenham, Kevin Allen gets specific on some of the modern day expressions of Reformed teaching and how it differs from the Orthodox Church. Fr. Josiah authored the book Rock and Sand: An Orthodox Appraisal of the Protestant Reformers and Their Theology. Click here to view the video version of this interview.

We are seeing eastern meditation and mind-body practices like hatha yoga, tai chi, qi gong; and mindfulness-based therapy gaining wide credibility and attracting more and more adherents. Whether we as Orthodox should adopt eastern spiritual mind-body practices is a matter of great debate in the Orthodox Church. In this edition of Ancient Faith Today, Kevin discusses with his guest Christopher Kies what “Mindfulness” meditation is in its secular and Buddhist spiritual contexts; the Orthodox Christian correlative approach of Nipsis or Watchfulness; how they differ in goals and approaches; and whether formal Mindfulness meditation practices are appropriate for Orthodox Christians.

World number one Jannik Sinner brushes past Alex de Minaur after Taylor Fritz defeats an irate Daniil Medvedev as the ATP Finals begin.

Shabnam Younus-Jewell chats to three of the World Snooker Tour's young hopefuls.

Shabnam Younus-Jewell chats to some of the legends who have won snooker's ultimate prize.

Head coach Warren Gatland says he is happy to field the pressure of questions on his future after guiding Wales to a 10th successive international defeat.

Wales wing Blair Murray says he could not have dreamed of scoring a try on debut against Fiji on Sunday.

Cliftonville striker Caitlin McGuinness is named October's player of the month by the Northern Ireland Football Writers' Association.

Bu farw chwaraewr rygbi o'r gogledd, Aaron Newman, wedi iddo ladd ei hun yn 20 oed y llynedd.

Alan Sutherland stood down last year after a report revealed lavish spending at the Water Industry Commission for Scotland.

The comic's hearse will travel through Edinburgh and on to Glasgow before her funeral on 30 November.

The event sees scores of bikers dressed as Santa raise money for the Manx children's Hospice.

An Aberdeen ambulance crew deals with several alcohol-related calls in one tough shift.

The wreck of HMS Hawke was discovered by a team of divers about 70 miles east of Fraserburgh earlier this year.

Police say three men were known to each other and had been to Aldi together before altercation.

Buckmore Park is proposing a centre with racing simulators, a restaurant and bar and roof terrace.

An inquest into patients linked to Ian Paterson is told the disgraced surgeon was seen as difficult.