Hello and welcome to Speaking with Joy, a podcast about books, beauty, and music.

So make yourself a cup of tea, sit down, and let's begin.

Hello everyone and welcome back to speaking with joy. We've been in a bit of a break,

but today I'm very excited to have a very special guest with me, which is Dr. Michael Ward.

Dr. Michael Ward is a research fellow at Blackfriars here at Oxford University,

and is also a professor of apologetics at Houston Baptist University, and the popular author of Planet Narnia,

which will be the subject of some of our discussion today. So welcome to speaking with joy. Thank you, Joy. I hope I

will speak with joy. Yes, my... Not just with you, but with joyfulness. My mother said that you must

speak with joy through walking in the spirit, so I guess that it's a commandment. You are also a dear

family friend, of course, and we are speaking to you now after our bellies being very full

with brownies and shepherds pie.

But not in that order.

No, that would have been very strange.

But hopefully we won't be too sleepy to say deep things.

How did we come, how did our paths begin to cross?

Well, my path crossed with you specifically at the

University Church here in Oxford at a CS Lewis Foundation summer conference a few years ago.

That's right. But I got to know the clerks and family first through your sister Sarah,

who was a student of mine for a term a year or two before we met.

That's right.

And I think that you also did a talk about Planet Narnia at Biola.

I don't remember...

...