. [ music ]. . good morning, st. mark's lutheran church, this morning i welcome two guests, the first is an author, gary bubelbous, you've written a wonderful book, the gospel according to seasme street, learning, life, love, and death. welcome. we want to hear more about your book. >> pleasure to be here. >> thank you so much. how did you get interested in connecting seasme street with the gospel? >> i did my doctoral

dissertation on seasme street. it was this wonderful woman pioneer joan gance cooney who came up with the show. i did my research on her. and then i started thinking about there are faith themes in the show, even though it never discusses organized religion. but it's kind of the underlying rule as far as the golden rule in the show. and it's taught in very subtle ways but besides teaching numbers and letters and colors and shapes, you know, this is the underlying thing. >> love your neighbor as yourself. >> yes. who are the people in the neighborhood? >> and who are our neighbors. >> yes, yes. >> and as we are in the season of lent we do focus on loving our neighbors, caring for our neighbors, and serving our neighbors. so i'm just so fascinated and curious about how these themes were

taught to children and through which characters. so let's start with big bird. tell us what -- what did big bird teach us about the golden rule, loving our neighbors. >> the big bird was designed specifically to be like a 2-year-old. the researchers said, you know, we needed mr. bumbler character who doesn't know very much and is constantly asking questions. and so they designed big bird. and he is probably one of the most visible characters on the show. and one of the chapters i write about is equating doubt be thomas to big bird as far as people doubted him for years because he had his friend snuff ilgus and eventually he gets revealed to everybody, all the adults on the set,

that's the the connection between big bird and scripture. >> big bird had that tender heart. >> very much so. >> you felt drawn to it. similarly as we might feel drawn to jesus and jesus' tender heart fort the sick and the poor. >> he's very compassionate. >> learning life, love, and death. and death is a provocative word in this title. what does seasme street teach children about death and how to cope with it. >> i think two things, internally and externally. one of the most famous episodes was the death of mr. hooper who owned the shop. >> candy store. >> and was very good friends with big bird. so the humans on the show have

to teach big bird about what is death. and then mr. hooper's never coming back. and the show did that very skillfully. they could have written him out of the show, he retired to florida or did something like, that but they decided to meet with it head on. and you know, they were able to in a very simple way teach big bird. and it's probably as i said one of the most memorable episodes, on thanksgiving morning when families could watch together and parents could instruct children as far as taking off on the show as far as what is death. >> as pastor i get asked, how do i help my children cope with the death of a grand parent or a sibling, and so here, then; a show that's helping parents do that. >> yes. and internally, a number of people, key people on the show, passed away. jim henson being the most

notable. >> that's right. >> he died at 53 of pneumonia. there was a mixture of emotion with me because extreme sorrow but there was some regret and anger , too, because if he had gotten to the hospital two hours before the antibiotics could have kicked in and he may be alive today. >> we remember so fondly kermit the frog, one of jim henson -- you called him his alter ego. what did kermit represent in the show? >> i think he's the glue. >> yes. >> he's the emcee who holds everything together. he was jim henson's alter ego. jim would say things through kermit the frog that he would not say in person because jim was a very modest and humble kind of guy. >> well, that is the gift of watch being a show like seasme street, both as

children but also as adults and kind of continue to learn as adults. you were watching college students watching seasme students during a break and enjoying the show as much as when they were children enjoying the show. >> it was amazing because this was very early on in the show's broadcast. i saw them in the tv lounge and they why laughing. >> we'll find out more about the show in just a minute. thank you so much while we take a break.

. [ music ]. good morning again. we are back. we said goodbye to our author gary, he wrote the gospel according to seasme street. i recommend it to you to church groups and to other people. but now we need to say welcome to michael

pappus. >> thank you. >> nice to be here. >> executive director of the interfaith council for san fransisco. it's involved in issues here in the city and uniting the different religious groups to working together. i know we're working on, and i say we because i'm a part of t we're working on housing issues. tell us about the constituency, who are we and why are we focusing on housing. >> interesting the council was formed because the city came to the council and said we have a homeless problem and that was 28 years ago. >> yeah. >> and in that time the 800 congregations in the city and county of san fransisco, their judicatories that are headquartered hears, our faith based schools and hospitals, as well as the faith based social services agencies that provide the social safety net for the

most vulnerable residents had a voice and the council became that portal through which civic government to speak to the faith community and vice versa. >> even more important, vice versa, the religious groups speaking to civic authorities and being engaged with it. there is a crisis of housing in san fransisco. we live it, we know about t and the council decided to get very involved, first with supporting a housing bond measure which was the first time ever, i believe. >> yes. and you can imagine having a constituency that is the most conservative orthodox to the most progressive liberal, you have to be careful when taking stances. this felt so much in the purview of the council and the council realizes that our faith community and our constituency are sitting on some of the most valuable and yet underutilized property in some cases

that we felt that we needed to be part of the solution. and be part of the response. so when the city came to us and asked if we would support a $310 million housing bond that would provide relief and a real hope, and that it needed a 2/3 majority threshold to get to, we found ourselves in the position of advocacy on something so core and central to the city. >> i know people in religious communities watch their church, their synagogue, to be engaged and respond to the crisises they see. and many people do something with homelessness. we do that through the interfaith shelters. but the whole issue of housing it's hard to get our hands around because there's so much money involved and politics. so how does the interfaith council provide a place for churches to get engaged with this? >> first and foremost, we've

carved out a niche in housing because there are advocates for below market rate housing and there are advocates for market rate housing. one area that we see, we see essential workers who are teachers and nurses and social workers, having to move to vallejo and stockton and richmond, they're shall pushed out of the city. they're providing essential services and we thought they needed a voice. so sitting on property that could be repurposed in it many ways for rental housing for these low paid workers that provide essential services is the niche we took up. >> okay. so you're talking about the possibility of congregations leveraging their property that might be available for mother purpose. -- another purpose: for housing. >> i've never seen such traction

and unity and consensus amongst prominent religious leaders in the city to take this leadership position and realizing that, you know, seeing the demand and seeing people being pushed out and sitting on this property, they want to be part of the solution, and so we are working with some consultants, dutra sarah graden who have been helpful in guiding us along the way if you will. they're owner representatives. >> i know development is a very complicated process in san fransisco, it's very political and if the inter faith council can help religious communities negotiate and navigate this that would be wonderful. we'll hear more about that in just a minute after our break.

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. [ music ]. . good morning. we are back with michael pappus,

the executive director of the san fransisco interfaith council and the council has taken up a big, critical issue and that is the issue of providing affordable housing for essential workers here in san fransisco. and as you were saying, congregations have land or they might have underutilized property that might be able to be used to help provide housing for these essential workers. but the question is, how? what's a housing trust? >> well, first and foremost, i think what you're going to see in san fransisco more and more is the repurposing of properties because there certainly is also a benefit to the congregations themselves when they can have a worship space on the first floor and then housing up above. you will see a mutual benefit there. what is important is that, that we look at these properties as opportunities to provide that housing. >> m-hmm. >> we worked with the university

of san fransisco's leo tim mccarthy society to do a mapping of all the properties in san fransisco and worked with the mayor's office of housing and office of workforce development to assess which one of those properties would be good candidates for development. and from there we had additional, we had additional faith leaders step forward and say we have certain properties we feel we could offer in this process as well. so we do have the properties, so right now what we're looking to do is feasibility studies to see how that would work. >> where is the money going to come from because development takes money and lots of it with construction costs in san fransisco. >> and to really provide essential housing, because you have to understand, below market rate has its own restrictions. >> that's right. >> so what we need to do is to fill a gap, that's what we call it,

between market rate and what we call this essential housing sector. and so one of the things that we are exploring right now is the creation of a housing trust fund in which faith communities, even if they didn't have the land but could contribute to this revolving trust fund to make it possible for congregations who are exploring to take the next step. and i think that's an important thing. you're pastor you know about these things. >> right, yep, i do. and we've tried to do development on st. mark's square and it's -- we have the land, we have property, we have people who want to do it, but it takes time. you have to find the right deal, work with the city, we certainly hope we can do that. considering the new hospital is two blocks from us. we'd like to provide housing for those essential workers in the hospital, the nurses, the teches and all of that. >> and that is sore is sore lyly

needed. >> that's right. >> and if the housing trust fund was intact, we could be of support to a project such as you're speaking. >> yeah. >> and so this is something that we are seriously exploring right now. and there's been a lot of interest. so we are looking forward to coming back, perhaps, at another point and sharing our progress with you because we believe it's realistic and it's going to happen in the short run. >> short run. that's, that's hopeful. i'd like to be optimistic, but we know that development takes time in san fransisco. but with san fransisco interfaith council and the longstanding work and reputation you have you'll be here in the long run to see these delopments through and that's what so critical.

>> and certainly. and that is our macro vision for the project. we realize there's a demand now. >> that's right. >> and if we don't step forward now, a lot of people will suffer. >> yeah. >> and ... >> i think what's inspiring for me and what i like our viewers to hear is your religious institutions are not just concerned about themselves and their own survival, they're really looking to serve their neighbors, to serve the greater good of san fransisco, and to provide housing for workers who are either having to leave the city because rents are too high, or have to relocate just simply elsewhere. >> and you bring up a very important and central core element of our work. because we really believe that congregations and religious institutions have a moral obligation to respond. >> that's right. >> and there's a human rights issue at stake here.

and we really believe that, that housing is a human right in san fransisco. >> m-hmm. >> and i've been heartened to see really the sincerity and the consensus among faith leaders in providing that housing because of that moral obligation and because of the theological underpinnings. >> and the other piece here are interfaith groups working together, and so we are an example of jews and muslims and hindus and christians and all of our denominations and flavors working together on this one issue and i think that's the gift of the interfaith council. >> we were founded to celebrate our diversity, to build understanding and serve our community. >> and that's needed more and ever. we thank you for coming in from the interfate council and good work you are edoing on behalf of housing. we'll be back. [ music ].

. [ music ]. >> we are in the season of lent and with me is reverend hugh burrows who is the producer of mosaic and my mentor and colleague and we want to talk about lent because we are in the 40 days of lent, this wonderful season before easter. >> the 40 days that lead up to it so i thought we would look at how lent is formulated and what it's all about. the formula is the first sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox and by that we set easter and then we move back 40 days excluding sundays and

holy saturday is 40 and so easter is the 41st day. it's lunar based. if we look back the jewish calendar for setting dates are also lunar based that's why passover will often overlap. >> that's right. >> with holy week but not only that, ramadan for the muslims is based on sighting of the new moon. >> first new moon. >> and when it's sighted is something of a controversy so people argue about that, and for the buddhists, in thailand and burma, it has to do with the new moon and coming of the rainy season. they have a lent when the monks have to stay inside of the monastery. and then at the end of the rainy season and the lunar cycle they get to come out and get presented with new robes. so many of the religious faiths cycles on

a new moon. >> yes. >> and so we're just being a part of that. of course, the big controversy here in the west came with julius caesar started a new calendar in 40 bce. this was great until 1500 when people noticed the seasons were beginning to get a little bit out of sync and so the good pope gregory convened a group of people and they deliberated and they looked at the skies and they said they discovered that there was an 11-day gap. >> oh-oh. so what happened. >> caesar had added 11 minutes to the 365 days, and if you multiply 1 minutes1 minutes by 1500 yards, they come up short. and there's good german lutherans agreed to this 60 or 70 years later and

the japanese not until the 1700s, and parts of slovenia are still arguing about t so the orthodox and catholic have different observances of easter and that's why it goes back to good pope gregory and julius caesar. >> okay. with all that in mind we are in the season of lent and lent, i want to remind people beings comes from an anglo saxon word which means spring. so i think of lent as the church's springtime, and it's a time to focus on those faith practices that help us grow in our faith. so the church encourages and invites people to focus on practices such as prayer, alms giving, service to the poor, worship, reflection on scripture, those kind of basic, back to basic faith practices that help our faith grow, in essence springtime, we want our

faith to grow. it's this intensive 40 days in preparation, yes, to easter but a time of kind of simple living, back to basics. our eating is simpler, we've had fat tuesday, the fat has been removed out of our diet presumably. out of the house hold, and now we go back to simple living and being more mindful of god and god's gifts in our lives. so for instance, at st. mark's, what do you do leading up to easter from holy week? >> well, during the season of leapt we have mid-week services so we add services mid-week on wednesdays. we also have a light soup supper, simple meal, people can come for that. and after the service we have a bible study on the last seven words of christ. so again, just meditation and opportunities for people to refocus, recalibrate their lives on what god is calling them do and be. and you know, i'm finding people are hungry for this in the midst of

distractions in the midst of anxiety over politics and war and life. this is a time to remind ourselves of the promises of god. and certainly lent originally in the early christian communities was a time for bap 'tistismal preparation. so it was a time of preparation, also a time of repentance, turning around, turning back to god. god has never turned god's back on us, but we turn around and realize that god has been there for us all along. >> when does lent end? >> it ebdz end at holy week, the great week before easter, it ends on munday thursday.

40 days, we don't want people to miss it. go back to church. you'll be welcomed during leapt. we wish you a healthy, happy, and meaningful lent at this time. welcome and thank you for joining us on mosaic. [ music ].

. [ music ]. welcome to bay sub, i'm kenny choi. our first guests are small and cool, that's because they're bugs. save nature.org and cofounded the program that brings bugs to schools and parties and this morning to our study. welcome norman to the show. >> absolutely, thank you. >> what is that you have in your mind. >> this is an eastern lubber grasshopper and put your hands back for a moment. there you go. so the question is. >> whoa. >> the question is why isn't it flying away? >> right. >> it has these warning colors, red, yellow, orange, and black in nature m