I'm Krista Tippett, today TV and parables of our time.

With Diane Winston, a journalist and scholar of media and religion at USC, we'll explore

how shows like Lost, The Wire and Battlestar Galactica are engaging grand themes of ethics

and humanity and helping a new generation tell the story of our time.

I think we underestimate the power of entertainment narratives to influence the way we look at the world.

And storytelling, when it's good storytelling, you know,

orients us to possibilities and helps us structure the way we look at things.

Last week most of us were strangers and God knows how long we're going to be here.

But if we can't live together, we're going to die alone.

This is Speaking of Faith. Stay with us.

This public radio podcast is supported by the Fetzer Institute as part of its campaign

for Love and Forgiveness online at loveandforgive.org.

I'm Krista Tippett, your favorite TV show, once a finite experience, now has eternal

life online. And college students gather ritually to watch programs like Lost, captivated by

its craft, but also by the mystery at its core.

I'll confess that I too am a lost aficionado.

We'll listen in on it this hour, along with The Wire, House, and another of my favorites,

Battlestar Galactica. We'll entertain the notion of my guest,

Diane Winston, that television has gained in vitality as a center of storytelling

in post-September 11th America, and that a new generation of programs is engaging

grand confusions of ethics, identity, and destiny in modern life.

So, despite what your mother told you, TV might be good for you.

...