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Episode 001  ·  The Pilot  ·  May 2026

Back to the
Future

"Did the generation that built the digital world owe the generation that inherited it a warning — and if so, what do we do about it now?"
GuestEd Handel
RoleCatholic Deacon · Virginia
Runtime~81 Minutes
FormatAudio · Radio
Episode Audio
Back to the Future — Ed Handel
American Insight Radio · EP.001 · 1:21:16
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Ed Handel in Virginia and Mike Isaacs in New Mexico — two rooms, one signal, 1800 miles of American terrain between them — AIR Episode 001
This Episode Is Built Around
Back to the Future: Three Letters, One Mission
Read the Essay →
The Illustrated Episode

Thirteen Scenes

What follows is the visual record of a conversation between two men who've known each other long enough to disagree well. Each illustration was built from a moment in the transcript — a scene that earned a drawing. Scroll through before you listen, or after. Either way, the conversation will sound different once you've seen where it went.

Scena I: The Sacristy — The priest and deacon face Ed in unison
Scene 01 · The Sacristy
The priest and the deacon turned in unison. "So you wanna be one?" Ed backed toward the door with both hands raised.

"I turned around and held my hands up. I said, I don't have time for this. I'm sorry."

Ed Handel · 08:48
Scena II: The Kitchen — Karen stands at the counter, silent
Scene 02 · The Kitchen
He expected laughter. All he heard was silence. Karen: Immota.

"I said, did you hear what I said? She goes, yeah. What did you tell them?"

Ed Handel · 09:47
Scena III: The Back Door — The boy runs free into the neighborhood
Scene 03 · The Back Door
Puer Liberatus. Saturday morning. The screen door swings open. Don't come back until the sun goes down.

"On a beautiful Saturday morning you got kicked out of your house by your parents, don't come back until the sun goes down."

Ed Handel · 38:10
Scena IV: The Payphone — A man walks toward a payphone on a rural roadside
Scene 04 · The Payphone
Dime Required. Your car broke down. You walked to the nearest payphone. Someone pulled over to help — because that's what people did.

"Back then people would see you walking along the side of the road and there was a car broken down just half a mile back. Maybe that's that person. Let me see if I can help them somehow."

Ed Handel · 39:04
Scena V: The Trade Show Floor — Ed pulled aside from the crowd
Scene 05 · The Trade Show Floor
In the middle of a convention floor someone pulled Ed aside — not to talk business. Ed: Diaconus in Mundo. The deacon in the world.

"I am twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, a husband. A father. And a deacon. It's not on the weekend and I'm done. It's whenever somebody needs me."

Ed Handel · 18:33
Scena VI: The Thanksgiving Table — Three generations, the elder speaks
Scene 06 · The Thanksgiving Table
Three generations around a table. The elder speaks. Tace et Audi — shut up and listen. Memoria Transfertur.

"We were taught just shut up and listen. We weren't told that we had all the answers."

Ed Handel · 01:10:04
Scena VII: The One TV — A family united around a single screen
Scene 07 · The One TV
Unus Focus. Familia Unita. One screen. One signal. One shared experience. The remote control does not exist.
Scena VIII: The Divided House — Same roof, different worlds
Scene 08 · The Divided House
Idem Tectum Diversi Mundi — same roof, different worlds. Five screens. Four people. Each one alone inside their own rectangle of light.

"The digital world has actually been more isolating than the world you and I grew up in."

Ed Handel · 38:00
Scena IX: The Nine Funerals — December, Rome, twelve days
Scene 09 · The Nine Funerals
December. Rome. Twelve days. Nine funerals. Ed: Resignatus. He raised his hands and said: I got ya.

"If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."

Ed Handel · 24:09
Scena X: The Digital Slope — Two men building, neither seeing the edge
Scene 10 · The Digital Slope
Two men building the digital world. The ground looked flat. Non Viderunt — they did not see. The slope was already there.

"We were looking at this from the point of view that these things were going to be useful tools to allow us more free time — and it totally went the other way."

Ed Handel · 47:16
Scena XI: The Subaru Girl — Vita Simulata versus Vita Vera
Scene 11 · The Subaru Girl
Electio — the choice. Left: Vita Simulata, the simulated life. Right: Vita Vera, the real one. The wall between them is just a decision.
Scena XII: The Broken World Forward — Ed walks toward the light, not looking back
Scene 12 · The Broken World Forward
Ed: Progrediens. The road behind him is fractured. The horizon ahead holds light. He does not look back. Mundus Procedit.

"The world always moves forward. Look at the past, learn from the mistakes of the past while we move forward — so we don't make those same mistakes again."

Ed Handel · 01:00:31
Scena XIII: Act More Like There Is a God — One figure, looking up, the light above infinite
Scene 13 · Act More Like There Is a God
Age Quasi Deus Adsit. One figure. Looking up. The noise of the world below him. The light above — infinite.

"We need to act more like there is a God than we are God."

Ed Handel · 01:17:32 · The closing line
Mike00:00 Alright, well let's kick this off... my hope is I'm gonna do a couple three of these kinds of interviews, with other people and then at some point kind of aggregate them all together and then produce sort of this more interesting kind of product if you will.
Mike00:31 Edward, thank you. Appreciate it. Why don't you give a sense of why you went from Crutchfield to getting deeper into your faith and then moving into becoming a deacon — and then what's coming next?
Ed01:24 You and I met — I won't say how many years ago, all it does is prove that we're old. At that point I was raised Catholic. I never really lost my faith. I just ceased practicing it probably when I was about fifteen, until probably into my early thirties.
Ed08:33 He and father in unison said — so you wanna be one?
Ed09:28 I go home that afternoon and Karen's in the kitchen making lunch. I said, I gotta tell you this funny story. I expect laughter out of the kitchen and all I hear is silence.
Ed24:09 If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
Ed35:22 They're starting to come back to the church — whatever church that is — for a reason of stability. It's another way for them to deal with their anxiety.
Ed38:00 The digital world has actually been more isolating than the world you and I grew up in.
Ed47:33 We became a less social society with the advent of all of these things.
Ed01:00:31 The world always moves forward. Look at the past, learn from the mistakes of the past while we move forward so we don't make those same mistakes again.
Ed01:17:32 We need to act more like there is a God than we are God.
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