The Plugged In Show

Jonathan Potts: Hello to everyone at the Plugged In show, my name is Jonathan Potts, and I just wanted to say it's been an absolute pleasure listening to you guys for the past few years. I was sorry to hear that you guys are closing up shop, but it's been a great run, so I just wanted to congratulate you all. I love movies, and I've loved hearing you guys talk about films from a Christian perspective. Next time I'm in Colorado Springs, I might just have to stop by and say hi. Best wishes to you all. See you later.

Paul Asay: Hi there, and welcome to the Plugged In show. I'm Paul Asay, and thank you for joining us for this very special episode, which feels like a boss episode, really. You know, like a Star Wars special. But this is the final episode of this iteration of the Plugged In show, and I have to say, it's been a great six years, and I'm feeling kind of nostalgic.

You might not know this, but this is not the very first Plugged In show there has ever been. We were doing one of these podcasts when the whole podcast thing was pretty new and we were about 15 years younger. None other than Bob Smithhauser, who is joining us today, hosted it for its entire run. Four years, 220 episodes.

Bob Smithhauser: Yes, we did it weekly.

Paul Asay: Wow, so all told, we're talking about 520 episodes. Not bad work. And of course we have Adam Holz, who was this podcast's first host. We'll talk about some old times, of course, but we'll also talk a little bit about just Plugged In and what we're here for and about the world of podcasting itself and why it's been such a huge force within the entertainment world. Then after that, we'll sit down with members of the rest of our staff, and we'll talk about old times.

Adam Holz: It sounds like a wake. Is there cake? How about mixed nuts?

Paul Asay: We'll give some good information, too, because not everybody is here just to wave goodbye. They actually want to get some information from us, too. But I do want to just take a little bit of time to wax nostalgic because 300 episodes is nothing to shake a stick at. With that in mind, we're going to launch into this icebreaker by asking you a very pertinent question that only three people in the entire world can answer: what was it like hosting your very first Plugged In podcast as a full-time host?

Bob Smithhauser: It's funny. I went back and I listened to the first podcast because I have them all. I still have all the files. I listened to it and then I dropped a needle on one a lot deeper into the 220.

Paul Asay: That's a record player reference.

Bob Smithhauser: The funny thing was how similar they were to each other, which meant one of two things: either we really hit the ground running from the very beginning, or we just didn't grow a bit. I'd like to think it was the former.

I do remember when we sat down, it was a great opportunity for us to be very personal with our audience because to that point, Plugged In was all a matter of bylines on reviews. That was pretty much it. You wrote to the grid. They didn't really know who we were as people, as dads. It was an opportunity to really let them know how much we enjoyed entertainment that was done right and how much it disappointed us when there would be a movie that we wanted to like and we'd hate what the director or the writers did that took it out of the realm of acceptability for families. We could share that with emotion, and that was one of the beautiful things about podcasting that we just weren't able to do in the years prior.

Paul Asay: Do you remember who was on that first show since you just listened to it?

Bob Smithhauser: I didn't just listen to it. I don't remember. You probably were on it.

Paul Asay: Joining us in the studio are Plugged In associate editors Paul Asay and Bob Hoose. Hey there, guys. I remember being on a lot. It was always just a lot of fun, and that was sort of the joy of it, bringing our personality to the forefront. I really did enjoy that. Adam, what about you?

Adam Holz: I remember the first 30 shows. It was a while of just—there was a nervousness. It was high energy but not in a helpful way because I think we were learning how to do something new. When you really want to get something right, you can be this combination of enthusiastic but clenched. I think I was trying really hard. It took actually quite a while to just relax into an appropriate blend of scripted and unscripted, having direction but letting things wander off the path every now and then.

Strangely enough, hosting a podcast is a little bit like being a small group leader. You want to—and you have a lot of experience doing that. Even so, it was different. There's something about sitting in front of or behind or in proximity to a microphone that it makes you self-conscious. I think it took a while to get over that self-consciousness.

Paul Asay: For me, I think that my first experience in the host chair was actually when you got sick one time and I needed to step in for you.

Adam Holz: I was sick for about six months into it. I got COVID and I was sick for about six months.

Paul Asay: For all those who are listening, I am a very strong introvert. Talking does not come comfortably to me. When you talk about that feeling of insecurity, that tenseness, I really felt that. To be honest with you, I probably still feel that to this day. If we were able to do this for another six years, maybe I would have some sort of a comfort where I would say, "You know what? I'm able to do this pretty well." But that first episode, I think I was terrified the entire 35 minutes of it. It was intimidating.

Adam Holz: Can I say one other thing bragging on us and bragging on our incredible production team? Ashley and Laura, and there were others who've been involved as well. We never missed a week. We started in November of 2019 and COVID hit four months later. We had to figure out how to do a podcast with a remote app with all of us at home, and our incredible team figured it out.

Honestly, doing a podcast is hard enough when you're sitting looking at each other and you have each other's non-verbal cues and somebody can put a hand up like, "Hey, I have something to say." We did it completely with just voice and really with no visual ability to see each other. I think we made the best of it. I'm proud of us for that. It's amazing that we made it through that first year.

Paul Asay: When we talk about the people behind the glass back there, we have been blessed with some incredible people. Ashley has been our longtime producer, and she's been great. Laura has really helped soldier us through. As our engineer, she's made us sound good, which is not always the easiest thing to do. Chris Uhalt has been a big part of that as well at times. Then our very first engineer, Dave Sakeld, he did some mammoth work in both of our podcasts.

Adam Holz: He loved us so much that he moved to Louisiana to get away from us.

Paul Asay: Bob, I wanted to talk with you a little bit. You're now sort of the head of Adventures in Odyssey Club. That's where you're spending most of your time. But how long had you been a part of Plugged In?

Bob Smithhauser: 22 years, from '91 or '92 until 2013. I was the editor of the magazine. It was a newsletter and then it became a magazine. That was 16 years. An actual paper magazine, which you hardly ever see anymore. For Plugged In, it was becoming a challenge because as emerging media were making it possible to be much more timely with reviews, a monthly magazine was becoming kind of a dinosaur.

That was one of those issues that allowed us to do blogs and podcasts in 2009. We let that magazine go. Our vice president at the time, Clark Miller, said, "I can't give you more staff, but now you've got more margin because you don't have to do some of those other things you were doing before. Now you can do these emerging media." We were very excited to have that opportunity. I was writing for the kids' magazines and answering kids' questions for a lot of those years too. Adam took over for that when I left Plugged In.

Adam Holz: I still do it for Brio every issue.

Bob Smithhauser: Awesome. Well, that's wonderful because that really hits kids right where they're living with the questions that they're asking.

Paul Asay: Tell me a little bit about why the podcast started. What was the concept behind it?

Bob Smithhauser: It became my responsibility. All of us can remember back in the day, there were a lot of these opportunities that were there, but we just didn't have the margin to do it because of our reviewing schedule, the magazine, and all that kind of thing. Once the opportunity presented itself to do a weekly, which was wonderful, that was my primary goal.

At the beginning of every week, I would loosely script the podcast and then have a lot of the clips from movies and the Christian music. We ended every episode with a clip from a new album being released in the Christian realm that we were able to play. It was a little different format. It was kind of a hybrid between a broadcast and a podcast. It was kind of a news magazine. We moved very, very quickly. You guys are running longer than we did.

Paul Asay: Twice as long, I think.

Bob Smithhauser: It was about 25 minutes. It was a little different in the way that it was structured. We talked about the challenges that we run into as hosts. For me, it was trying to keep you guys all happy because inevitably, the different members of the team had different expertise. Adam, you really focused on music. Paul, you were television. Bob Hoose and another fellow, Kevin, worked on video games.

There were all these different beats that you guys covered. We'd have the guys on who were most knowledgeable, but not everybody liked to do things the same way. There are some people who, like Paul—don't even bother to tell me what the questions are going to be ahead of time. I just want to go in there. Let's just shoot from the hip. Kevin, on the other hand, needed to know exactly what I was going to ask him. If I had a follow-up question in conversation, he'd get a deer-in-the-headlights look.

Kevin was great, and he was stepping out of his comfort zone to do this, and I give him so much credit for doing it. Trying to figure out where each of my people around the table were, what their comfort level was like, and how to get the best out of them as a host was the biggest challenge for me.

Paul Asay: It was really a challenge because it was all new to all of us. You knew what you were doing, but the rest of us just were learning as we were going. It was kind of an exercise, especially for you, of all these different personality types that you were needing to corral into a coherent show.

Bob Smithhauser: It's one thing to edit different people different ways, but you're not doing it in real time.

Paul Asay: When we started the podcast way back when, you were the first host for the Plugged In show. As Bob mentioned, it was a very different show. It's twice as long, and it's a little bit different in terms of how it feels. What was the concept behind it?

Adam Holz: I think our concept was really to give people a glimpse into the conversations that we have offline. We've also tried to frame it in a way that is very parent-focused. Parents have been our audience from the get-go, and so we have wanted to equip parents to have what they need to make the best decisions and to think about pop culture and technology and how it relates to your family. It was that blend of personal, but we don't want it to just be a vanity piece. It's not just personal, but it's sharing our stories, our experience, our perspective for the sake of hopefully equipping parents in the things that you're dealing with now.

Sometimes that's very directive. Sometimes it's, "Hey, stay away from this. It's junk. You don't want your kids going here." But other times, navigating the whole screen time thing has been a sort of perennial conversation because it's not like a one-and-done, avoid-this-movie-and-you're-golden. It's "I still have to keep worrying about this stuff and navigating it with my kids." I think that we have wanted to foster a relationship with those who have listened and help you who are listening to foster a relationship with your kids because it's not easy.

Paul Asay: One of the things that I think about just as these podcasts have stretched over their time span is just how much entertainment and technology has changed. Even since 2019, we're in a different place. It's really incredible. It's staggering to think about just what we've gone through and the different challenges that parents have. I liked what you said earlier where you were talking about this ongoing conversation because every three months, you're almost dealing with a different world in terms of entertainment and technology. So you need to have those kinds of ongoing conversations.

Bob Smithhauser: That's one of the things I appreciate about the Plugged In show because you guys step back and you take a little bit more of a bird's-eye philosophical view of things. When we were doing it earlier, we were still in that place where we used to tell people one of the key things is don't let kids have a television in their bedroom. Well, that's a moot point in the era of cell phones.

Adam Holz: We still tell them not to have cell phones in the bedroom, though.

Bob Smithhauser: And that's a good thing. But it became harder and harder for parents to have that oversight. I think when we were doing the first podcast, it was a little bit more about the content with the understanding that parents were able to at least have a little bit more intentionality and maybe say, "Okay, it's not time for this yet," or make the computer in a public place. Whereas a few years later, it became the Wild West out there. I knew that as a parent because my son was in middle school, and we didn't have cell phones for the kids for as long as we could hold it back, but their friends did. All you had to do was find somebody with a phone between classes and he was being exposed to all kinds of things that he knew better than to think he could watch at home. It's gotten more and more difficult for parents to be aware of that.

Adam Holz: There's always been the alluring idea that we could hermetically seal off the world and that we really can just drop the dome over our kids and protect them from everything. To a certain point, that's our responsibility as parents: to be protectors, to be standing in those guardian spots. But let's face it: stuff got through the net 40 years ago. How much harder is it now with everything that you just talked about? Even if our boundaries in our families and in our homes are pretty secure, they have to know what to do in all sorts of places where those boundaries aren't secure.

I don't want to be pessimistic, but as we've said many times on the show, it's not a question of if they're going to get exposed to something problematic, it's a question of when. Are we going to have the relationship to be able to deal with that, or is it going to be hidden? We don't want it to be hidden.

Paul Asay: I think that springboards into something that I want to be sure to focus on. We talk about the entertainment world, the world of technology, it changes all the time. It is really hard for parents to keep track of it all. But there are some constant principles that parents can lean into when it comes to this. There is that relationship piece.

Adam Holz: I think there's a transition that happens. I think when our kids are younger, we're more self-consciously in protection mode. Somewhere, depending on your kid, depending on your family and what you allow in, by the early teen years, you're beginning to move into a different place. Even if you have fairly tight restrictions, probably most of their friends don't. So learning what does it mean to navigate that.

We want to be in a place where if our kids do see something or have an experience, they know they can come to us. We're moving into almost a coaching kind of role so that as they go through those adolescent years, by the time they leave, they've had practice thinking about this stuff themselves. We're having sophisticated conversations about how do you think about the ideas in the world and the images in the world when they run counter to what we and our family believe as Christians. It's not perfect. It's messy. But I think we have good relationships where nothing's off the table. We can talk about all of it.

Paul Asay: As we talk about those principles, those guidelines, are there other things that parents could lean into? Twenty years down the road, when the next iteration of the Plugged In podcast is going on, are there things that parents can really lean into and say, "This is a principle that no matter what is happening outside, we can trust?"

Bob Smithhauser: Obviously, scripture is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. If we can be praying for our kids and we can be connecting what we're trying to teach them to those eternal principles that we build our lives on, we help them understand that media consumption is just another part of our lives. It's not something that is completely divorced. God cares about it. God's word gives us principles that apply to it.

I'll give you one verse that I've always loved to share. Colossians 2:8: "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." I don't think there are too many places you're going to get more hollow deceptive philosophy or more of it, more voices throwing it at you, than through the media, whether that be entertainment media or advertising. We have to help kids become able to discern the truth and the error in the different messages coming at them so that they can separate the wheat from the tares.

Adam Holz: I would build on that with two passages. One of them when I talk about media and entertainment with groups, I always start with Ephesians 5:15-17: "Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is." What I really concentrate on is that idea of "be very careful" is a word that means "see clearly how you walk around." We're making our way through the world, and there are all of these influences coming at us.

The King James translates it very literally: "Walk circumspectly." That idea that as I'm walking, my head is on a swivel. It's situational awareness as it relates to the ideas and the images in the world and that idea that being careful because the world is on a trajectory toward evil. We hear the word "evil" and we think serial killers or terrorists, but what Paul is talking about is a way of thinking that's at odds with what God teaches. So really helping our kids to have that sort of situational awareness.

Paired with that, I would say is Psalm 16:11: "You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." That idea that God has made us to be filled by something. We can't not seek to be filled. These smartphones that we have right in front of us promise to fill us up, but it's sort of like drinking six cans of Mountain Dew: it may taste good in the moment, but we're going to have a tummy ache. It doesn't deliver on the promise. Helping our kids understand and learning to ask the question: what am I seeking to fill me, and is that really getting the job done?

Philippians 4:8 gives you a perfect list of what we should be filling with: whatever's beautiful, whatever's good, whatever's noble and true, think on these things. Thinking on the things that are good and filling ourselves up with that goodness, that's always been a foundational verse for Plugged In.

Paul Asay: One thing I wanted to mention since we're talking about that verse, because that was one of the very first verses that was sort of pounded into me when I first came to Plugged In. I was mindful that when Paul was writing that, his world was not very pure or truthful or beautiful and not that much different than ours, really. Sometimes I think that we can use that verse and say, "Okay, we need to sequester ourselves." There is an argument for that, but at the same time, we're going to be exposed to some very difficult things. How can we focus in on the beauty, the truth, the wisdom that God wants us to see even in a very fallen world?

That's the struggle that we have at Plugged In: the idea that a lot of the stuff that we watch is not very good. In some of those areas, you have some goodness there, and if you're going to be exposed to it, maybe you can find some truth and beauty within there.

Bob Smithhauser: I would want to offer a word of hope to parents because when I was doing this on a regular basis, my kids were younger and we had not gone through some of those rougher adolescent years. My kids were basically good kids, but in terms of media exposure, there were times when I knew that they were into some things and my wife and I looked at each other and we said, "What house did they grow up in? Who are these kids? Why are they making some of these decisions?"

I can say now that they are in their 20s, they have gravitated back toward the things that we have imparted in the home. It so you may be going through a difficult time right now where you're asking that question: did they absorb anything? Do the principles that we taught them really matter? All I would say is as you focus on relationship, not at the expense of truth, but if you just let at the end of the day choose your battles wisely and make sure they know how much they're loved and how much you believe in them as much as to the arbitrary principle to them, they're going to gravitate back to it as they mature and as the Holy Spirit works on them.

Paul Asay: I love that. That feels like a great place to draw this segment to a close. Bob, I so appreciate you being on here.

Bob Smithhauser: Thank you for the opportunity. I'm just so sorry that this podcast is going away because I've enjoyed it, too.

Paul Asay: It has been a wonderful time. I will miss this podcast a lot. It's done a lot of things that we've talked about even in this segment where we are able to relate to each other, hopefully able to relate to our audience, able to bring scripture, hopefully able to bring some grace and truth and even humor to some of these really difficult conversations. This will not be the end of our conversation with our audience. It's just the end of this iteration.

Bob Smithhauser: Plugged In is not going away. You guys have an important, very valuable ministry that even though our child-rearing years are essentially over—not quite. We're trying. We pull it up. We'll borrow a movie from the library and we'll think, "Let's check it out and see what Plugged In says." I can't tell you how many times I pull up the review, I read it, and I don't even open the case, I send it back to the library. So what you guys are doing is valuable. Keep it up.

Paul Asay: Well Plugged In show, this is it. The end of the road and you're getting on that plane.

Emily Chow: I don't understand. I thought, I thought—

Paul Asay: I thought so too. But Plugged In show doesn't take much to see that the problems of two metaphorical entities like us don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that.

Emily Chow: I said I would never leave you.

Paul Asay: And you never will. But I've got a job to do. Where I'm going, you can't follow. That plane leaves the ground and you're not on it, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.

Emily Chow: But what about us?

Paul Asay: We'll always have "Becoming a Screen-Savvy Family" by the Plugged In team.

Emily Chow: A book?

Paul Asay: Not just any book. This book, a book full of words, sentences, helpful information on how to deal with entertainment and technology, and how you can help your children too.

Emily Chow: Our children?

Paul Asay: All children, Plugged In show. Last night you said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I've done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: this book can help us think about entertainment, about technology, about culture itself.

Emily Chow: But what if I should lose it? What if it falls out of the airplane?

Paul Asay: You can always get another. Just send a gift of any amount to the Plugged In team. They'll send you another copy, no matter where you are. Paris, London, even Casablanca. Just check out this episode's show notes to find out how. And then you can read it again, Plugged In show.

Emily Chow: The plane's about to leave. Oh, I can't bear it.

Paul Asay: You can and you will. And remember: our 300 episodes together will never die. Here's listening to you, kid.

Adam Holz: Major content problems are here. Wait, did you just fire a book?

Paul Asay: I'm telling you, "Becoming a Screen-Savvy Family" is something else.

Adam Holz: I'm glad you arrived, officers. Major content problems have been shot. Round up the usual suspects. Thanks, you two. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Paul Asay: Well, we're back now, and our studio is filled to the rafters with Plugged In team members. I'm going to introduce you all in reverse order by the number of appearances you've made on the Plugged In show. Brett, in fifth place.

Brett: You bring up the rear only because someone has to. I just haven't been around long enough. 24 episodes.

Paul Asay: Kennedy Unthank comes in next with 77 episodes.

Kennedy Unthank: Hello.

Paul Asay: Missing from our team right now is Kristen Smith. She has been on 117 episodes, but you heard her a couple of episodes back. Bob Hoose, 140 episodes.

Emily Chow: I'm a little surprised I had more than Hoose. I would have thought it was the other way around.

Paul Asay: That was going to be the competition between you and Hoose. Who gets the most? Emily Chow, 155 episodes.

Emily Chow: Because neither one of us was a host, but we have been on it for the entire length of the podcast.

Paul Asay: Jonathan McKee is also missing today. He has been on 211 episodes. That's a lot of terrible gameplay.

Adam Holz: That's a lot of Jonathan.

Paul Asay: I have been on 228 episodes. And Adam, you come in first place naturally as the longtime host of the Plugged In show and frequent guest. 272 episodes.

Adam Holz: I thought it would be 350, but we threw a few out.

Paul Asay: I also feel like we need to give thanks to the people who you hardly ever hear on this podcast. Ashley Beazer, our great producer, has been with us almost every single episode. She is with us remotely; she had to leave town. But Ashley has been sort of the rock of this entire operation. Laura Kennedy, she has been doing all the engineering for so long. She is the one who we can credit all the fun little sound effects for the commercials that you might hear. Also want to give a shout-out to Dave Sakeld, our producer before. He had done a great job. Also we'll give a reluctant shout-out to Austin Wright, who has been doing—we have disagreements on movies, so I had to say that. But if you ever watch this show on YouTube, you can thank Austin for all the hard work to get that on.

Adam Holz: Also, if you ever disagree with Paul, know that you end up in your own special category: Paul's ninth circle of movie heck.

Paul Asay: Obviously, we've got a lot of people here. We don't have a ton of time, but I am going to start it off with an informal second icebreaker, and it's going to be a pretty easy one: what is your strongest memory from the Plugged In show? It can be a favorite memory, a miserable memory, or an overall vibe that you enjoyed.

Brett: I can start with an easy one. I really enjoyed the Lord of the Rings episode we did, episode 270-something, I think. That was the geekiest episode we've ever done, which was why I liked it. I enjoyed the moments when Brett and I can just geek out about Lord of the Rings.

Paul Asay: It was great conversation, quite honestly. I know that there were probably a lot of listeners who said, "What is up with this?" But for those who like Lord of the Rings, it was a nice conversation.

Adam Holz: I enjoyed how Adam was able to bring Star Wars into every single episode. I mean, we could be talking about moms teaching their kids the alphabet and their numbers and he'd come up with, "C-3PO is a great example."

Paul Asay: The thing I will always remember is every time we'd just hear about Luke Skywalker looking into the sunset or the sunsets. Right, Adam?

Adam Holz: The twin suns.

Paul Asay: One of my first episodes, I think it might have been the very first episode I was on, I really wanted to do a good job with the game at the end where we have to come up with the little description of the movie and see if we can stump each other. Before I even got the description out, Paul guessed it correctly. It was like the Dark Crystal or something. I was about to say my line and Paul was like, "The Dark Crystal!" I think my brain broke in that moment. I was like, "Is this supposed to happen?"

Emily Chow: I'm actually going to go the opposite direction with this. This is one of my least favorite things that we did on the show, and I gave you and Adam gripe about this, but I hated it when you guys would say, "We're going to land the plane there."

Adam Holz: We were always landing that plane.

Emily Chow: Every single conversation, every single podcast, and it drove me insane. The other thing that I know drove you a little bit nuts, and maybe with reason, was, "If I was this particular movie, what would I be?"

Paul Asay: You're not going to get away from it now. When we have the Plugged In podcast convention where all the fans come, they're going to all be saying it at me and there'll be t-shirts and they'll just be like, "Hey Emily, remember this?"

Adam Holz: And that convention will be in the storage closet over there. Ironically, yes, I don't know that I'm going to call it a favorite memory. I'm going to call it a memorable memory. I'm a little gravelly today because I have COVID for the fourth time, which is really lovely, honestly.

When we started, we started in November of 2019, so we were really just getting our footing the first couple of months. Then COVID hit and we were all remote, and we had to figure out how to keep gaining altitude before landing the plane with all of us remote. We didn't have a snazzy video program like we do now, so we had these audio cues where we had to press the button to raise our hand if we wanted to talk. It was just crazy.

In the midst of that, my first go-around with COVID, I wasn't hospitalized, but I was really sick. I got pneumonia. I lost my voice completely. We soldiered through that for like six months, it felt like, before we were not remote anymore. I'm really proud that we pressed through that, even with so much technical difficulty. We never missed a week.

Paul Asay: Every single week to 300. That's not too shabby. That feels like a somber recollection. My favorite memory is not quite as somber. I think it was when—and this is the silly thing about this show—we've had some great conversations about movies and TV shows and technology and we've been thoughtful and informative and all this kind of stuff. But the thing that actually I remember the best might be us talking about platypi at one point in time. It's like blueberry pie, only it's got platypi in it. I don't even know why we started it. I think it was toward the end, part of an icebreaker or game, but we spent like 10 minutes talking about platypus and how terrible they are.

Emily Chow: I remember talking about the platypuses—and I'm going to say "platypuses" because I like saying that better. I'm sure it is "platypi," I don't care what it is. I remember we were talking about how they're surprisingly ferocious.

Paul Asay: "Surprisingly Ferocious Platypi," that would be a great band name. I'm going to go trademark it right now. So obviously we've had a lot of memories and we've talked about a lot of subjects here. And while it's been a lot of fun to wax nostalgic during this entire show, there may be some people who are listening for the very first time. These are the type of people who wait until a series has been completed on TV before they binge the entire thing. So if you're listening to this for the first time, it's okay, you can binge the whole podcast now.

I do want to sort of go into something that we can actually have as a takeaway, like a real honest-to-goodness takeaway. If you had one piece of parenting advice related to entertainment and technology that you would want listeners to take away and hold close to their hearts for the rest of their lives, what would that one piece of advice be?

Adam Holz: I would encourage families, whatever decisions they make about entertainment and technology for the parents, do it together as a family. Whatever decisions you make about phones and screen times, different movies, do it collectively as a family. I think nothing is going to speak volumes more to your kids than saying, "Mom and Dad, we're in this with you. We all need to reduce screen time. We're going to turn off our phones before bed," whatever it is. No, "We're not going to watch that movie collectively as a family." I think that just speaks volumes to your children and encourages them to say, "You know what, this isn't being just withheld from me. This is a decision that we're making together as a family and I can get on board with that."

Paul Asay: I think that's hugely important because when you have that buy-in, it makes these conversations easier. Mine goes back to something I talked about in "Becoming a Screen-Savvy Family" by the Plugged In team, which you can get a copy of by going to our website and giving a donation of any amount. I talk about explaining the "why" behind the "what." What I mean by that is if you're going to be saying, "No, we can't do this," explain why. Don't just say, "Because I said so," which you can do, but your kid's going to take it a whole lot better if you can at least show that there's some rationale and thought behind and it's not an arbitrary flex of power.

Adam Holz: Mine's in the same ballpark. I think Plugged In for a long time has had that slogan of "It's not just entertainment." That started by Bob Smithhauser way back when we did our first podcast. That sort of implies that, oh yeah, the things that you're enjoying, there's bad stuff in there, too. It is a wise idea to be thinking about what's in the thing that you're watching and enjoying. But my suggestion would be to realize that as bad as some things can get, and sometimes even having bad intentions, there's a lot of good in there, too.

Media and technology isn't your enemy. There are a lot of things that you can encounter, like in movies, that are uplifting and encouraging, that make you think, that focus you in on your family or applaud your faith or how God works in your world. You can find all of that in the context of media and entertainment. It takes wise discernment as you work your way through the good and the bad, and then hold on to the good to use that to your benefit for your family. So in the end, what I'm saying is that media and technology can be your superpower instead of your kryptonite.

Emily Chow: My advice is: keep reading Plugged In. The website is still there, and go to our YouTube channel, youtube.com/pluggedin. That's us, that's our channel. Go there, subscribe, and keep watching. We're going to still be posting videos. We're going to still be having these great conversations. We're going to still be geeking out about movies and music and video games and all the stuff. Just because you know we are still Plugged In, I'm going to advise you: don't build a YouTube addiction, even if it is Plugged In. But we are still going to be creating content all the time. We're just not going to be a podcast anymore.

Adam Holz: I'm going to get sort of big-picture philosophical here. A couple of words that we have talked about throughout the entirety of the podcast are intentionality, engagement, conversation, and relationship. I would say the rules are important, the boundaries are important, all of those things matter. I think what matters the most is your relationship with your kids.

I would really strongly suggest looking for places that you can build a common ground experience with entertainment and technology with your kids. I have shared repeatedly that one of the happiest accidents of my parenting was when my son wanted to download Pokémon GO in 2016. It's 2024; we have walked thousands of kilometers together. We have had so many life conversations over this dumb game that I was grumbling about when my son, Henry, who's almost 19 now, asked me to download it.

That's just one example. We go to concerts together, and we're making our plans for what dates I'm flying either to Phoenix or to Los Angeles to join him for concerts next year because I'm the one that he wants to go to concerts with. Most of these concerts would not pass Plugged In muster, but we are still building that relationship and talking about them. When we share a part of our kids' entertainment world that's really valuable to them, it gives us tremendous capital to relate to them, to connect with them on lots of different issues. It doesn't mean we just throw in the towel and say, "If you can't beat them, join them." There are still discernment choices to be made that are really important, but looking for those places that we can build relationship with our kids, it pays so many dividends.

Paul Asay: I wish that Jonathan McKee was here because I know he'd bring it into a little bit more of a pragmatic level in terms of keeping the phones out of the bedroom at night, making sure you're keeping those boundaries strong. I think that a lot of people come to us for that pragmatic advice, so I don't want to let that just sail on by. What we talk about here and some of those guidelines are super important. But to echo what everyone has been saying around this table is that when you have a real relationship with your child and an open line of communication with your child, you are able to navigate this world together.

I think the together part, the communication part, that is always the biggest key when it comes to these conversations. The world changes so rapidly. The world that we inhabit, the world of media and entertainment, just changes so drastically. What doesn't change is your relationship with your kids, your relationship with each other, and your relationship with God. Those are the things that you need to hold on to as tightly as possible and let everything else within this world of entertainment and technology sort of filter around there.

I really want to thank you all for peppering us with lots and lots of great letters over the last several weeks, ever since we announced that the podcast was sunsetting. Landing the plane. We have received so many great letters just offering thanks. For me personally, that means a ton: to know that we have been even a very, very small part of your life and those relationships. I don't take lightly.

Emily Chow: Dear Plugged In, when I found out that the Plugged In show was coming to a close, I was very disappointed. The Plugged In show is my favorite podcast of all time and I always looked forward to a new episode every week. I wanted to message you to not only beg to keep the podcast going, but also to share why I enjoyed your podcast so much.

In the episode where you announced that the podcast would be going away, it was mentioned that a broader audience needed to be reached, specifically Gen Z men and women. Well, guess what? You have reached a Gen Z individual. I am 18 years old and I want to be a Christian filmmaker. I love working with media and creative storytelling and I have always been passionate about clean content and films. Growing up in a Christian household, there were very limited options as to what we could watch, but as I've grown up, I am grateful for the rules that my parents placed in the house when it came to entertainment. They wanted to include Jesus in everything, and why should we not include him in our entertainment?

Conversations that your team has had have given me a deeper understanding of how entertainment can impact us and how we should approach it wisely. Though your topics were mostly geared towards parents, I have found wisdom in them myself as I navigate how to approach entertainment on my own. Your conversations on geeking out about movie characters, etc., made me feel like I was in the room taking part in the conversations. These are my favorite topics to talk about, and I don't find a lot of people who enjoy talking about them as much as I do. Plus, Pop Rumble will forever be my favorite game. I started playing it with my brothers and we have a lot of fun with it.

More than anything, I wish that this podcast could go on, but if I can't convince you to keep going, then let me at least share my gratitude towards the team. Thank you, Plugged In, for your willingness and consistency to be different from the world and for trying to protect families from the dangers of entertainment. Your work means a lot to me and I am grateful for this team. Thank you to Mr. Bob Smithhauser for his wisdom on screenwriting and directing along with his incredible voice acting for advertising the Plugged In books. To Emily, for her uncanny personality and her heart for teen culture. To Adam, for the serious yet positive attitude that he always brought to the show. To Kennedy, for his mellow voice and critical thinking. To Brett, for always having a smile and for his upbeat attitude yet calm nature. To Paul, for his great hosting skills, his heart for Plugged In, and his unhealthy obsession with Batman. And to Jonathan, for well, being Jonathan. Thank you, Plugged In team. You will continue to be in my prayers. Just remember that you have reached and inspired at least some of the Gen Z generation. Thank you, Plugged In. I look forward for what's next to come.

Adam Holz: She sounds like one of us, doesn't she? A very articulate young woman right there. Thank you so much. It moves me. It really does. This has been a tremendous ride. It has been a lot of fun. As Emily says, we are going to be continuing to go on our merry way. We are going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube. We already have a ton of content on there, quite honestly. We're going to be doing a lot of geeky conversations still, where we're going to get around the table and argue about movies. We're going to discuss serious topics. We'll hopefully have some good interviews with some really fascinating people. We are not going anywhere. The Plugged In show, however, is just about done.

We would love for you to continue to send us any information that you have, any thoughts that you have, anything that you'd like to cover in the future. You can connect with us on Facebook, on Instagram, on YouTube. We don't respond to everything, but we definitely read everything, and we've gotten a lot of things that have influenced and made considerations for how we move forward. So don't think it's going on deaf ears. Final thoughts, Adam?

Adam Holz: It's been a blast. It's been up and down and everything in between, and it was so great, Paul, to end with that letter because I think it encapsulates so much of what we hoped to have accomplished over these last 300 episodes. Thanks, everybody.

Paul Asay: Let's bring it in for a landing. Let's circle back and bring it in for a landing. Let's actually give Bob Smithhauser the last word.

Bob Smithhauser: It's not just entertainment.