What Lilo & Stitch Teaches about Healthcare, Family & Social Safety Nets
- Esau McCaulley
- Jun 19
- 1 min read
Pastor and author Sharon Hodde Miller joins Esau McCaulley for a surprising conversation about the live-action Lilo & Stitch and how a children’s film quietly captures the realities of single motherhood, economic pressure, and communal grace. Then, Esau and Sharon talk about the challenges of pastoring in a polarizing time and how their online persona compares to their pastoral persona. Also, we have a Disney movie draft and a winner is declared.
:00 - Theme Song
1:25 - Disney Movie Draft
13:40 - Lilo and Stitch
15:48 - Why Does Sharon Prefer the Remake?
22:42 - Single Motherhood
25:03 - Sponsor - No Small Endeavor - Award-winning podcast where theologians, philosophers, and best-selling authors talk about faith with Lee C. Camp. Start listening today: https://pod.link/1513178238
27:10 - Being a Pastor with a Platform
40:45 - Free of Me
50:36 - End Credits
Free of Me: Why Life is Better When It’s Not About You by Sharon Hodde Miller:
I also need to see the Stitch! anime (yes, the exclamation point is part of the name). It has about 90 episodes plus several specials/movies. (The original US one has 4 movies and about 65 episodes, though the original movie is the most emotionally powerful.) There's also a Chinese series (Stitch and Ai) that only lasted 13 episodes, no idea where to find that one at the moment...
I'm 57, and I absolutely LOVE the original Lilo and Stitch (and the other animated sequels and TV series--yes, there's a lot more than just the first movie)! I urge you, Esau, to check it out--some parts are very different, in some cases I think much better than the live-action, though I do like David's grandmother being a part of the Ohana they form. I enjoyed the live-action, but it is really its own parallel universe compared to the original animated movies and series. I would definitely put the original animated film as one of my very favorite Disney movies, if not my very favorite. (Those of us who have had to find/forge our own non-biological families can definitely re…