This week, after a twenty-year-run, the podcast On Being turned off its microphone. Sort of. The podcast is shifting from a weekly schedule to a “seasonal” one, which is something like semi-retirement. I have been an occasional, maybe too-sporadic, listener over the last few years. It’s quite a fascinating, contemplative series, with discussions ranging from poetry to astronomy and everything in between. It’s a real shame to lose this podcast, particularly at this point in history, but then again many of the episodes are rather timeless. Indeed some of the episodes are interviews that were conducted years before the publication date, even including some posthumous interviews. I’ll miss the show but I certainly have to hand it to host Krista Tippett and her crew. This show, begun in the shadow of 9/11, has created a kind of sacred space online, and that was quite an achievement.