The Commonweal Podcast

Ep. 155 - The Counterweight: Against White Christian Nationalism Aug 05, 2025

One of the most prominent features of the second Trump administration has been its bluntly racist actions and policymaking.

Recent examples abound, from the suspension of asylum for migrants and refugees, the all-out war on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs in federal agencies and higher education, and the ongoing and increasingly militarized efforts at mass deportation, which have terrorized Latino, Haitian, and other communities across the country.

This second episode in our series The Counterweight: Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching in a Time of Crisis features Fr. Bryan Massingale.

He’s a professor in Fordham University’s theology department and a priest of the archdiocese of Milwaukee. He joins Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi to examine the ideology that in his view undergirds so many of the Trump administration’s actions: white Christian nationalism.

Fr. Massingale’s remarks are followed by discussion between him and three other experts, Fordham’s Cristina Traina and Loyola Chicago’s Miguel Diaz and Hille Haker.

Ep. 154 - The Counterweight: Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching Jul 25, 2025

Since becoming pope, Leo XIV has reminded us that the Catholic Church “offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching.” That tradition is especially salient now, amid the rise of Christian nationalism and of alternative interpretations of Catholicism among some high-profile politicians in the United States.

As we confront the political, social, and spiritual challenges brought on by the second Trump administration, the moment seems right for a clear examination of Catholic social teaching by leading scholarly voices deeply rooted in the Catholic intellectual tradition, especially its ethics, political philosophy, and theology.

In this special four-episode series, a collaboration between Commonweal and senior members of the theology departments at Fordham University and Loyola University Chicago, we present four conversations, each providing a provocative, informative analysis of key political and social issues rooted in the understanding of Catholic social teaching.

We’re calling it ‘The Counterweight: Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching in a Time of Crisis.’

Our participants are Christina Traina and Bryan Massingale of Fordham University, and Hille Haker and Miguel Diaz of Loyola University Chicago. Each episode will have a featured presenter, followed by a conversation among all the participants.

Today’s episode, our first, takes up the purpose of government, an especially urgent topic given the radical departure from the principles and conventions of liberal democracy by the Trump administration. Fordham’s Christina Traina is here to explain how that departure is also a departure from Catholic social teaching’s more expansive and communal understanding of government—not just as a guarantor of rights, but a steward of the common good.

Ep. 153 - It’s Just Wrong Jul 08, 2025

For decades, public support for the death penalty in the United States has been declining. But in recent years, the number of executions has risen sharply—and a majority of Americans still say they support capital punishment.

What’s needed, argues Atlantic staff writer Elizabeth Bruenig, is not just a deeper understanding of forgiveness, but the actual practice of mercy. Bruenig has written extensively on the death penalty in a series of articles and essays.

On this episode, she reflects on how witnessing executions—some botched, all harrowing—has shaped her thinking about capital punishment.

For further reading:

Elizabeth Bruenig’s July cover story for The Atlantic
David Bentley Hart on Christianity and the death penalty
The Editors on Pope Francis’s declaration on capital punishment

Ep. 152 - Crypto-Religiosity Jun 06, 2025

It’s often remarked that America has become less religious, especially during recent decades. But what if that religiosity hasn’t disappeared, but just taken less visible forms?

That’s exactly what was happening in the arts in 1980s NYC, argues Paul Elie, author of The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s.

As Elie tells it, the era wasn’t just marked by the ascendance of the moral majority and the authority of tradition—figures like Pope John Paul II and Ronald Reagan.

It also featured subtle engagement with spiritual themes by the likes of figures like Leonard Cohen, Andy Warhol, Madonna, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, and Martin Scorcese, and provides a template for understanding where Catholicism stands today.

For further reading:

An excerpt from Paul Elie’s new book
Kaya Oakes on why religion must ask better questions
Susan Bigelow Reynolds on millennial religious rejection

Ep. 151 - The First U.S. Pontiff May 20, 2025

The swift elevation to the papacy of Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost—known simply as ‘Bob’ among his fellow Augustinian friars—defied pundits’ predictions even as it was met with joy by Catholics around the world.

It’s impossible to say just how Leo XIV’s papacy will unfold, though in his early Masses and remarks the pope has already voiced strong support for the continuation of Francis’s project of synodality. Leo’s chosen name signals his commitment to the advancement of Catholic social teaching.

On this episode, Commonweal contributors Natalia Imperatori-Lee and Mollie Wilson O’Reilly and editor Dominic Preziosi reflect on Pope Leo’s first week on the chair of Peter.

For further reading:

The editors on Leo’s election
Anthony Annett on Pope Leo and AI
Stephen Millies on Leo and Chicago’s CTU
Massimo Faggioli on what Leo’s pontificate signals for the U.S. Church

Ep. 150 - Remembering Francis Apr 24, 2025

Three theologians—Massimo Faggioli, Susan Bigelow Reynolds, and Terence Sweeney—reflect with Commonweal editors on the pope’s legacy.

More coverage of the death of Pope Francis:

Isabella Simon on Let Us Dream
César J. Baldelomar on Laudato Si’
Griffin Oleynick on Evangelii gaudium

Ep. 149 - When the Good Book Isn’t a Book Mar 27, 2025

Catholics listen to snippets of the Bible read every Sunday, but how many of them actually sit with and ponder the text?

It’s long been a truism that Catholics don’t actually read the Bible — at least not as much or in the same way as their Protestant brethren.

But that doesn’t mean Catholics don’t encounter it, whether in books, films, plays, or popular culture.

On this episode, Fordham theology professor and frequent Commonweal contributor Michael Peppard, author of the new book How Catholics Encounter the Bible, joins editor Dominic Preziosi to discuss how, paradoxically, the Bible shapes Catholic lives—just usually not in the shape of a book.

For further reading:

Michael Peppard on the Bible and Marian art
Christian Wiman on the Bible as poetry
Eve Tushnet on the queer Catholic imagination

Ep. 148 - What Novels Do Mar 06, 2025

What should great fiction do for us?

That’s the question asked by Edwin Frank, editorial director of New York Review Books and author of Stranger than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel.

Good books—and there were many written during the past hundred years—can entertain, just as they can give us pleasure. But great ones have the ‘power to breach,’ that is, to upset and provoke us, shattering our illusions about the world.

On this episode, Frank speaks with Commonweal contributor and literary critic Tony Domestic about authors like Dostoevsy, Proust, and Virginia Woolf, among others.

For further reading:

Fiction by Alice McDermott
Mollie Wilson O’Reilly on George Eliot’s double life
Tony Domestico’s latest books column

Ep. 147 - The New ‘Preeminent Urgency’ Feb 18, 2025

In his first month back in office, Donald Trump has made cruelty toward migrants and refugees central to his agenda, while J. D. Vance has used his flawed understanding of Catholic social teaching to justify the administration’s plans for mass deportation.

Their actions and remarks have alarmed many in the Church. On this episode, three guests tell us how and why.

Massimo Faggioli, Commonweal contributor and Villanova University professor addresses the challenges for Catholicism in the second Trump era.

Kerry Robinson, the head of Catholic Charities USA, explains the vital work of her organization and who will be most harmed by the freezes in federal funding.

And Cardinal Blase Cupich of the Archdiocese of Chicago speaks about why “the protection and advocacy for the dignity of migrants” is the Church’s new “preeminent urgency.”

For further reading:

Massimo Faggioli on what American regime change means for the Church
Griffin Oleynick on Francis’s rebuke of J. D. Vance’s ethno-nationalism
Terence Sweeney on how the bishops may respond to Trump

Ep. 146 - Aging in America Feb 06, 2025

Fights over federal spending usually follow a predictable pattern, with Republicans attempting to cut entitlement programs as Democrats seek to expand the social safety net.

One thing that’s rarely threatened, though, is Social Security, a testament to the political clout of “older people”—formerly known as “senior citizens” in America.

How did things get that way?

On this episode, historian James Chappel speaks about his recent book Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age, which details the creation of Social Security as it criticizes the failure of the political left to make its benefits more broadly available.

For further reading:

Peter Quinn on aging, aging, and gratitude
Rand Richards Cooper on caring for aging parents
James Chappel on material insecurity
Charles Morris on the future of social security

Ep. 145 - Memory Matters Jan 24, 2025

For as long as humans beings have existed, we have had a knack for forgetting—not only when memory proves difficult, but when it becomes inconvenient.

We need only look at Donald Trump’s pardoning of the January 6 “hostages” for the latest, most egregious example.

Why do humans long to forget? Why do we hide the truth from ourselves? What is the function of memory in democratic societies?

On this episode, senior editor Matt Boudway speaks with Mark Lilla, professor of humanities at Columbia University and author of the new book Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting not to Know.

For further reading:

Matt Boudway on a memoir by Julian Barnes
Tal Howard reviews Mark Lilla’s Shipwrecked Mind
Timothy Snyder on the indignity of voting for Donald Trump
Tomáš Halík on what some in the Church prefer to forget

Ep. 144 - Best Interviews of 2024 Dec 27, 2024

As you probably know by now, 2024 was a big year for Commonweal, marking one hundred years of continuous publication.

It was also an important one for the podcast, which for five years—and nearly one hundred and fifty episodes—has been bringing you reflective conversations with inspiring writers, thinkers, artists, and political and religious leaders.

On this episode, we’re revisiting four of our favorite episodes from the past year:

Marilynne Robinson and Christian Wiman on Genesis
Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman on the ethics of having children
Vinson Cunningham on criticism as a way of life
Rabbi Shai Held on Judaism’s loving heart.

Ep. 143 - ‘Hope Grows in the Dark’ Dec 12, 2024

What does it mean to “have hope,” especially during challenging times? Is it something we can possess, like a talisman to ward off despair?

No, argues Norman Wirzba, distinguished professor of Christian theology at Duke and author of the new book Love’s Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis. Instead, “hope” is a verb—an action we have to do.

On this episode Wirzba explains how he manages to hope, even in the face of some of our most intractable problems—including war, migration, and the climate crisis.

For further reading:

Oscar Romero on politics and Christian love
Vincent Miller on Pope Francis’s ecological hope
Eric Miller on the fiction of Wendell Berry

Ep. 142 - ‘What Backlash Looks Like’ Nov 26, 2024

In the wake of the 2024 election, many are wondering how to make sense of the results—including how a capable, qualified woman could lose to a man like Donald Trump, an adjudicated rapist whose campaign regularly celebrated a version of masculinity that many find offensively misogynistic.

On this episode, Commonweal editor-at-large Mollie Wilson O’Reilly and Natalia Imperatori Lee, professor of religious studies at Manhattan University, reflect on what just happened. They also parse what the second Trump administration might portend for Democrats, the Church, and especially women.

It’s long past time, they argue, not only for men to confront sexism and misogyny, but to work to articulate healthy versions of masculinity. Trump’s election may be a massive setback for feminism—but how the story ends depends on our response.

For further reading:

Mollie Wilson O’Reilly ponders Trump’s 2016 election
Regina Munch on why we can’t disengage
The editors on why the appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh

Ep. 141 - Follow the Money Nov 14, 2024

The invitation-only Catholic prelature known as Opus Dei, founded in Spain in 1927 by the recently canonized priest Josemaría Escrivá, currently counts just around 3,000 members in the United States. Yet its influence, especially among rightwing Catholics who occupy significant posts in Washington, is vast.

On this episode, editor Dominic Preziosi speaks with financial journalist Gareth Gore, author of the new book Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church.

Relying on bank records and the testimony of whistleblowers, Gore demystifies the secretive world of Opus Dei, showing how it has recruited powerful individuals and harmed vulnerable ones in its quest for political sway.

For further reading:

Daniele Palmer on Opus Dei’s ‘ordinary secularity’
George Scialabba reviews Opus for The Baffler

Ep. 140 - Fewer Screens, More Meaning Oct 24, 2024

It’s no secret that there’s a mental health crisis affecting young people in the United States. Rates of anxiety, symptoms of depression, and even suicide attempts have hit record highs.

That’s partly what motivated Anna Moreland and Thomas Smith to write The Young Adult Playbook, a kind of “self-help” book intended to help high school and college students think through the deep questions of life, love, and vocation.

On this episode, Moreland and Smith speak with associate editor Regina Munch about their book, explaining how young people can live rich, flourishing, and meaningful lives.

For further reading:

Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko on the good life
Regina Munch on the advantages of marriage
Brenda Noriega on synodality, young people, and leadership

Ep. 139 - Detroit’s Black Christian Utopia Oct 10, 2024

The Trump campaign has made us all too familiar with the ideology of Christian Nationalism, with its violent rhetoric and racist undertones.

Far less well-known, though, is the tradition of Black Christian Nationalism, a radical social and religious movement founded by Rev. Albert Cleage, Jr., in civil-rights-era Detroit.

On this episode, associate editor Griffin Oleynick speaks with writer Aaron Robertson, author of The Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America.

Blending history and memoir, Robertson’s book traces the untold story of Black Christian Nationalism while grappling with a question: what does Utopia look like in black?

For further reading:

Tia Noelle Pratt on Black Catholic parishes
Shannen Dee Williams on Black nuns in Baltimore
Gary Dorrien on the theology of Sen. Raphael Warnock

Ep. 138 - The Work AI Can’t Do Sep 26, 2024

Corporate boosters of artificial intelligence promise that the technology will vastly improve efficiency in the world of work. But is that actually desirable?

On this episode, associate editor Regina Munch speaks with University of Virginia sociologist Allison Pugh, whose new book The Last Human Jobexplores the concept of what she calls “connective labor”—interpersonal work that relies on empathy, human contact, and mutual recognition.

In fields like medicine, teaching, and even chaplaincy, such connective labor is increasingly performed by machines. Pugh challenges us to resist this trend, both by deprioritizing efficiency and by returning to authentic human relationships.

For further reading:

Miles Doyle on efforts to regulate AI in congress
A symposium on our posthuman future
The editors call for a moratorium on AI development

Ep. 137 - Epic in the Everyday Sep 12, 2024

Garth Greenwell’s latest novel, Small Rain, is set in a midwestern ICU during the early days of the pandemic, as its unnamed narrator, a writer, experiences a health crisis and lies confined to his bed in excruciating pain.

In long pauses between visits with nurses and doctors, amid the weird dilations of ‘hospital time,’ the narrator muses on his suffering and disappointments, but also the nature of art and the ‘adventure’ of domestic life.

On this episode, Greenwell joins Commonweal contributor Tony Domestico to talk about the novel.

For further reading:

A review of Garth Greenwell’s Cleanness
Another interview with Garth Greenwell

Ep. 136 - Are Catholic Colleges Unique? Aug 29, 2024

As the fall semester begins, colleges and universities are bracing for fresh controversies over free speech, affordability, and the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence.

On this episode, Tania Tetlow, the first layperson and first woman to serve as the president of Fordham University, joins editor Dominic Preziosi to weigh in on what Catholic colleges and universities can do differently.

If entering students increasingly hail from diverse religious backgrounds—or sometimes no faith background at all—that’s an opportunity for “mission,” pursued with openness, inclusivity, and a willingness to be proven wrong.

For further reading:

Nancy Dallavalle on whether Catholic colleges have a future
Susan Bigelow Reynolds on public scholarship
An interview with former UC Chancellor Nicholas Dirks

Ep. 135 - When A Church Dies Aug 08, 2024

Religious disaffiliation, the drifting away of Americans from their churches, isn’t a new story. But it’s certainly a true one.

And yet it’s also not the whole story, as veteran New Yorker journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Eliza Griswold argues in her new book, Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church.

Griswold’s is a work of ‘immersion journalism,’ reported by embedding for four years with a progressive evangelical community in Philadelphia. She stuck with the story even as heated conflicts over race, gender, and power threatened the church’s survival.

On this episode, Griswold speaks about the book and the future of American Christianity, with Commonweal associate editor Griffin Oleynick.

For further reading:

Brett Hoover on young Catholics’ waning religiosity
Kate Lucky on the ‘ex-vangelicals’
Julia Marley on the ‘Jesus Freaks’

Ep. 134 - Whose Paris? Jul 25, 2024

The 2024 Paris Olympics have brought massive investment to the City of Light, including the construction of new housing, sports facilities, and public transportation.

Yet we shouldn’t let that obscure a more sinister phenomenon: gentrification, which has rapidly transformed many of the city’s former immigrant and working-class strongholds into expensive quarters for the newly affluent.

On this episode, Commonweal senior editor Matt Boudway speaks with journalist Cole Stangler, author of Paris Is Not Dead: Surviving Hypergentrification in the City of Light.

Stangler, who lives in France, explains Paris’s historical transformation, as well as more recent developments in French politics.

For further reading:

Cole Stangler’s writing for Commonweal
Fran Quigley on social housing
Max Holleran on gentrification and the YIMBYs

Ep. 133 - ‘Live from Death Row’ Jul 11, 2024

Alim Braxton, a convicted murderer who admits his guilt, has been incarcerated in North Carolina prison for more than thirty years, spending seven years in solitary confinement and many more on death row.

He was once hopeless, but after his conversion to Islam many years ago, he began working for redemption by advocating for prison reform and the exoneration of innocent inmates.

Braxton is also a rapper, and just released his first album, along with a book, Rap and Redemption on Death Row, co-written with UNC Chapel Hill musicologist Mark Katz.

On this special episode, Commonweal’s Claudia Avila Cosnahan speaks with both Braxton and Katz about Braxton’s spiritual and artistic journey.

For further reading:

Dominic Preziosi on Biden’s broken death penalty promise
David Bentley Hart on Christians and capital punishment
Burke Nixon on the Texas prison system

Ep. 132 - The Glory of ‘Too Much’ Jun 27, 2024

Egalitarianism remains one of the core tenets of most liberals and progressives. But does the idea that everyone ought to be equal in the sphere of political economy also hold true for the realm of culture?

Absolutely not, argues Becca Rothfeld, nonfiction book critic at the Washington Post and author of the debut collection All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess. The modern insistence that all cultural objects are “equal” is actually a symptom of our failure to create a society in which genuine equality is present.

That, Rothfeld insists, is why we need more of everything—more personhood, more sincerity, more critical judgment, and even more chaos. It’s the only way to overcome the ascendance of anodyne minimalism that has stifled contemporary culture.

On this episode, Rothfeld joins Commonweal senior editor Matthew Boudway to discuss her book, medieval mysticism, and more.

For further reading:

Costica Bradatan on the theology of Simone Weil
Thomas Merton on whether mysticism is normal
Matthew Boudway on the agony of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Ep. 131 - How to Talk About Having Kids Jun 13, 2024

In the past, having kids was simply taken for granted. It was just a thing a person did, like going to college or getting a job.

But now, in the face of rising costs and environmental degradation, more and more millennials and zoomers are questioning whether they should become parents at all.

On this episode, Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi is joined by Rachel Wiseman and Anastasia Berg, editors at The Point and co-authors of What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice.

They explain (and lament) how having kids has become so highly politicized in our culture, and offer suggestions for how to make better decisions about becoming a parent.

For further reading:

Jennifer Banks on reckoning with childbirth
Kate Lucky reads to her new baby
A symposium on anti-natalism and posthumanism

Ep. 130 - What Plants Know (And Why We Should Care) May 30, 2024

Can trees ‘hear’? Can flowers ‘see’? Are shrubs ‘intelligent’?

A decade ago, these questions might have seemed absurd. But an emerging scientific consensus posits that plants are much more like animals than previously thought.

On this episode, managing editor Isa Simon speaks with Zoë Schlanger, a staff writer and science reporter at The Atlantic and author of The Light Eaters.

Schlanger shows how the study of plants—and the wonder their behaviors inspire—can offer a welcome alternative to the despair induced by climate change.

For further reading:

Vincent Miller on plant ‘communities’ in old growth forests
David Pinault on environmental activism in Cambodia
Isa Simon on Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass

Ep. 129 - Judaism’s Loving Heart May 02, 2024

One of the misconceptions about Judaism is that the religion is concerned primarily with justice and the law, not love and grace.

That’s precisely backward, argues Rabbi Shai Held, president and dean of the Hadar Institute in New York and author of the new book Judaism Is About Love. Jewish theology, spirituality, and ethics emerge as free responses to a generous, loving God.

On this episode, Held speaks with associate editor Griffin Oleynick about how recovering this more accurate view of Judaism can help believers and non-believers alike lead richer, fuller, more joyful lives.

For further reading:

Why Christians should read Leviticus and Deuteronomy
Tzvi Novick on Jewish memory after October 7
An update on Jewish-Christian dialogue

Ep. 128 - Diagnosing Disadvantage in America Apr 18, 2024

For decades, discussions of poverty and inequality in America have tended to focus on cities. That’s understandable—cities are often the places where income disparities are most visible.

But as poverty researchers Kathryn Edin, H. Luke Schaefer, and Timothy Nelson argue in their recent book The Injustice of Place, traditional income-based indicators of poverty can mask the “deep disadvantage” faced by rural communities across the country.

On this episode, they join associate editor Regina Munch to discuss how centuries of resource extraction, racism, and “internal colonization” have blocked the advancement of regions like Appalachia, southern Texas, and the “cotton belt” from sharing in American prosperity.

For further reading:

Luke Mayville on how progressives can win in rural America
An interview with poverty expert Matthew Desmond
The editors on pandemic-era relief bills

Ep. 127 - Criticism as a Way of Life Apr 04, 2024

Vinson Cunningham is one of the most dynamic critics working today. Best known as the New Yorker’s theater critic and co-host of the weekly podcast Critics at Large, he’s also the author of the novel Great Expectations, based on his experience working for the Obama campaign in 2008.

On this episode, Cunningham joins Commonweal contributing writer Anthony Domestico for a discussion about criticism—engaging deeply with a work of art on a personal level, and then responding in writing and speech—as a way of life. Along the way, they also touch on the theological dimensions of Great Expectations.

Anybody, Cunningham argues, can be a critic. All it takes is curiosity, and the willingness to share your observations with others.

For further reading:

Vinson Cunningham on Pope Francis’s Fratelli tutti
William Giraldi on criticism as an act of love
Paul Baumann reviews Barack Obama’s memoir

Ep. 126 - God, According to Marilynne Robinson Mar 21, 2024

We’re all familiar with the tired stereotype of the “God of the Old Testament,” a capricious creator Who subjects His chosen people to endless cycles of punishment and retribution.

But in her reading of the Book of Genesis, novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson describes a God of gentleness, one wildly in love with creation and humanity.

In this special episode of the Commonweal Podcast, moderated by senior editor Matt Boudway, poet and memoirist Christian Wiman joins Robinson for a conversation about the Book of Genesis.

Robinson and Wiman also discuss scripture and theology more generally—especially as the two practice it through fiction and poetry.

For further reading:

Marilynne Robinson on forgiveness in Genesis
Christian Wiman on the Bible as poetry
Jack Miles on the Bible and translation

Ep. 125 - What Are Universities For? Mar 07, 2024

The past year or so hasn’t been the best one for higher education. Debates over affirmative action, free speech, and affordability, combined with recent cuts to the humanities, have led many to wonder what the future holds.

Here to speak about all of this is Nicholas Dirks, former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, and author of City of Intellect: The Uses and Abuses of the University.

Dirks argues that we certainly need structural change. Even more important is that colleges and universities return to their core functions: the pursuit of free inquiry, reasoning about fundamental human values, and training future generations of engaged citizens.

For further reading:

Zena Hitz on why we need the humanities
Nancy Dallavalle on whether Catholic colleges have a future
Our recent editorial on affirmative action and affordability

Ep. 124 - The GOP Attack on Catholic Shelters at the Border Mar 04, 2024

Recent weeks have seen an intensification of the Republican campaign against Catholic groups that offer assistance to migrants and refugees along the southern border.

Last month, Texas state attorney general Ken Paxton announced a lawsuit against Annunciation House, a network of houses of hospitality run by Catholic volunteers in El Paso, Texas.

On this special episode, activist Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House, speaks with associate editor Regina Munch about the recent controversy—and why we need comprehensive immigration reform.

For further reading:

Brett Hoover on the inadequacies of migration metaphors
An interview with El Paso bishop Mark Seitz
Alejandro Nava describes working at a hospitality house in Tucson
Susan Bigelow Reynolds attends an Easter Vigil in Matamoros

Ep. 123 - The Hall Beside Belief Feb 22, 2024

For many religious people, the pandemic accelerated a decline in institutional allegiance and trust that was already well underway. Many Catholics stopped attending Mass and still haven’t returned.

One figure who thinks deeply about the contemporary decline in religious practice and affiliation is Irish poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama, host of the weekly podcast Poetry Unboundand author of the new book Being Here: Prayers for Curiosity, Justice, and Love.

On this episode, he joins associate editor Griffin Oleynick for a conservation sparked by this collection of ‘anarchic’ prayers. Touching on the Church’s difficult relationship with women, LGTBQ people, and abuse victims, Ó Tuama testifies to the peace and freedom made possible by laying down “the burden of belief.”

For further reading:

A collection of essays on staying in and leaving the Church
Christian Wiman on poetry in the Bible
A profile of the poet Fanny Howe

Ep. 122 - The New Suburbia Feb 08, 2024

For the first time, a majority of Americans now live in the suburbs—places that have been transformed over the past several decades by boom-and-bust construction cycles and rapid demographic shifts.

On this episode, associate editor Regina Munch speaks with journalist Benjamin Herold about his new book Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America’s Suburbs, which profiles five families in the suburbs of Dallas, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

American suburbs were never sustainable, Herold argues. They were built for upwardly mobile white families, who extracted wealth and benefits before moving further out and sticking subsequent generations—often families of color—with the bill.

Now that we’ve begun reckoning with this painful legacy, Herold invites us to look for seeds of renewal.

For further reading:

Bill McKibben explains what’s wrong with the ‘burbs
Max Holleran on American housing scarcity
Diane Ravitch on the fight over public education

Ep. 121 - Rescuer of the Written Word Jan 25, 2024

For decades, Fr. Columba Stewart, a Benedictine Monk of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, has traveled the world in an effort to preserve manuscripts belonging to endangered communities.

On this episode, Fr. Stewart joins Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi to discuss how he first got involved in this work, the care and attention it requires, and why digitizing ancient manuscripts remains so necessary.

These texts, Fr. Stewart points out, are in a sense the original “internet of things.” Books and fragile documents carry not just the stories and ideas that connected diverse communities, but also the physical traces of the individual scribes and librarians who cared for them.

For further reading:

Luke Timothy Johnson on the earliest Christian manuscripts
Jonathan Malesic on how monks put work in its place
A profile of Columba Stewart in Harper’s Magazine

Ep. 120 - An Evening with Christian Wiman Jan 11, 2024

Last month, Commonweal hosted a book launch in New York City with poet Christian Wiman. The topic was his new book Zero at the Bone: 50 Entries Against Despair, a mixture of poetry, essays, quotations, and close readings.

The former editor of Poetry magazine and now a professor at Yale Divinity School, Wiman has long been an admirer of Commonweal. As he told the audience, he dutifully reads every issue cover to cover.

On this episode, we’re featuring some of the conversation from that evening—including Wiman reading and discussing his poetry—and his interview with Commonweal senior editor Matthew Boudway.

More from Christian Wiman in Commonweal:

The radical vision of poet Lucille Clifton
Listening to the poetry of the Bible
On the mystic Etty Hillesum

Ep. 119 - Best of 2023 Dec 21, 2023

On this special year-end episode, we’re revisiting four of our favorite conversations from the past year.

Sociologist Matthew Desmond explains how the United States can choose to abolish poverty. Sr. Helen Prejean and singer Ryan McKinney discuss the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Dead Man Walking. Poet-scholar and slam champion Joshua Bennett talks about the history of spoken word. And philosopher Zena Hitz unpacks the spirit of “wholeheartedness” at the center of religious life.

Listen to the full conversations here:

Matthew Desmond on poverty in America
Sr. Helen Prejean and Ryan McKinney on Dead Man Walking
Joshua Bennett on spoken word poetry
Zena Hitz on the essence of religious life

Ep. 118 - Why Conservatives Should Be Pro-Labor Dec 07, 2023

American workers have fared poorly in recent decades, suffering the loss not just of purchasing power, but of political power, too.

On this episode, Commonweal senior editor Matt Boudway speaks with journalist Sohrab Ahmari, a conservative political commentator and editor whose new book Tyranny, Inc critiques corporate power in a way that will resonate with left wing progressives.

It’s time for a new left-right consensus on labor, Ahmari argues, and enhancing the collective bargaining power of workers is crucial to the project of restoring American democracy. But can the Republican Party really help do that?

For further reading:

Our review of Ahmari’s Tyranny, Inc.
Regina Munch on corporate consumerism
Joseph McCartin on the scourge of wage suppression

Ep. 117 - Processing the Synod Nov 22, 2023

Last month’s Synod on Synodality in Rome is perhaps one of the most important ecclesial gatherings to take place since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. But what exactly happened remains unclear.

On this episode, Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi is joined by two experts on Vatican affairs to help explain and contextualize the synod’s work.

Paul Elie is a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center and a regular contributor to Commonweal and the New Yorker, which sent him to Rome for a week to report on the synod.

Anna Rowlands, Professor of Catholic Social Thought at Durham University in the United Kingdom, helped draft the synod’s working documents and served as an observer and expert theological advisor in the synod hall.

For further reading:

Austen Ivereigh’s report from Rome
Massimo Faggioli’s analysis of the synod
Commonweal’s collection of recent articles on the synod

Ep. 116 - Saving Liberalism Nov 09, 2023

Today, the political and social philosophy known as liberalism—which champions democracy, individual rights, and free enterprise—is on the defensive.

Conservatives often charge it with eroding community, while some progressives view it as a justification for economic exploitation.

On this episode, Yale political theorist Samuel Moyn, author of the new book Liberalism against Itself, joins features editor Alex Stern to discuss the debates that surrounded liberalism during the Cold War.

Instead of a narrow liberalism that focuses on individual liberties, Moyn argues that a broader, more expansive view of the idea is possible—one that retrieves the original Enlightenment emphasis on egalitarianism and emancipation.

For further reading:

Samuel Moyn on the theology of liberalism
Alex Stern on how not to defend liberalism
A symposium on Patrick Deneen’s Why Liberalism Failed

Ep. 115 - An Opera for ‘Life People’ Oct 18, 2023

Dead Man Walking, based on the acclaimed memoir by Sr. Helen Prejean, may be the world’s most popular contemporary opera. But it had never before been performed on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City—until now.

On this special episode, in anticipation of the Met Opera’s Live-in-HD broadcast in cinemas on October 21, host Dominic Preziosi is joined by bass-baritone Ryan McKinny, who plays the condemned murderer Joseph DeRocher, and Sr. Helen Prejean herself.

Together, they discuss the significance of this new production of Dead Man Walking, and why its message of mercy, forgiveness, and redemption continues to resonate with audiences today.

For further reading:

Commonweal’s review of Dead Man Walking
An interview with the composer, Jake Heggie
Sr. Helen Prejean remembers her 1950s novitiate

Ep. 114 - Moving With the Ocean Oct 05, 2023

With its frequent earthquakes, mudslides, wildfires, and other maladies, California is no stranger to environmental disaster. But in the long run, even these highly visible effects of climate change pale in comparison to the looming threat of sea-level rise.

On this episode, Commonweal’s Claudia Avila Cosnahan, a resident of southern California, speaks with Rosanna Xia, an environmental reporter at the LA Times.

Xia’s new book California Against the Seablends traditional reportage with an unconventional and important perspective on concepts like “managed retreat,” climate resilience, and what it means to listen to and even love the ocean itself.

Listen to more Commonweal interviews about climate change:

Bill McKibben on suburban carbon emissions
Dorothy Fortenberry on adapting climate change for TV
Katie Worth on climate change in schools

Ep. 113 - How to Abolish Poverty Sep 22, 2023

The fact that nearly 40 million Americans live in poverty is a national embarrassment. But it’s also a choice. If poverty exists, it’s because we “wish and will it to.”

That’s the thesis of Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond, who joins Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi to discuss Desmond’s recent book Poverty, By America.

We don’t need to capitulate to the ultra-wealthy or the corporations hoarding resources, Desmond argues. Instead, we can change the way we shop, work, and vote not just to alleviate poverty, but to eradicate it completely.

For further reading:

Robin Antepara on working-class women in the Ozarks
Max Foley-Keene explains the Nordic welfare model
The editors on ending child poverty

Ep. 112 - Has News Always Been ‘Fake’? Sep 07, 2023

The 2016 presidential election brought “fake news” to the center of national debates over media bias, election interference, free speech, and content moderation. But the phenomenon isn’t exactly new.

Misleading stories, sensationalism, and outright lies, explains Andie Tucher, have been part of American journalism from the very beginning.

A professor at Columbia Journalism School, Tucher is also the author of Not Exactly Lying: Fake News and Fake Journalism in American History.

On this episode, Tucher joins Commonweal features editor Alex Stern to discuss how lessons from the history of journalism in America can help reform the profession in the age of the internet, social media, and AI.

For further reading:

The editors condemn Fox’s factual malice
Paul Baumann on the history of Time magazine
Paul Moses on the legacy of Fr. Charles Coughlin

Ep. 111 - Writers Shouldn’t ‘Prance’ Aug 24, 2023

John McPhee is widely regarded as America’s most prolific nonfiction author. Over a career spanning seven decades, McPhee has written more than thirty books, elucidating everything from shipping and boatbuilding to geology, engineering, and aviation.

On this episode, McPhee joins contributing writer Tony Domestico to discuss his latest book, Tabula Rasa, Vol. I, a series of short vignettes about “desk drawer projects”—pieces that McPhee started, but never finished.

McPhee stresses that when it comes to good writing, authorial ego must be put aside. Instead, it’s the work—the writing process and the humble attention to the subject—that matters.

For further reading:

Dominic Preziosi on whether parking explains the world
Morten Høi Jensen on the writing life of Martin Amis
The latest from Tony Domestico’s books column

Ep. 110 - Living for God Alone Aug 10, 2023

Religious life stands in radical opposition to much of modern culture. But what is it, exactly?

On this episode, philosopher Zena Hitz speaks with senior editor Matt Boudway about her new book on religious life—a crucial part of the Catholic Church, and one that remains poorly understood.

Religious life is not primarily about what you give up, Hitz explains. Rather, it’s a way of orienting your whole self around a single purpose: loving God, and serving God’s people.

For further reading:

Zena Hitz on renunciation and happiness
Jonathan Malesic visits a desert monastery
Regina Munch farms with lay Catholics

Ep. 109 - Bordering on Compassion Jul 27, 2023

The border is a place, but it is also a metaphor: for our complicated personal identities and political allegiances, and for the moral claims made on us by those born on the other side.

On this episode, interpreter and activist Alejandra Oliva, author of Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration, shares insights from her work with asylum seekers along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Plus, in anticipation of Commonweal’s upcoming centennial, Nicole-Ann Lobo offers a short reflection on the Christian socialism of the late Dominican priest Herbert McCabe.

For further reading:

A photo essay featuring asylum seekers in Piedras Negras
A dispatch from Casa Alitas in Tucson
Herbert McCabe’s essay on priesthood and revolution

Ep. 108 - God’s Editor Jul 13, 2023

Though you’ve probably never heard of him, book editor Eugene Exman (1900–1975) exerted tremendous influence on the shape of American religion in the twentieth century.

On this episode, special projects editor Miles Doyle speaks with Stephen Prothero, author of the new Exman biography God the Bestseller: How One Editor Transformed American Religion One Book at a Time.

Prothero explains how Exman’s relationships with religious leaders like Dorothy Day, Howard Thurman, and Martin Luther King, Jr. helped shift American religious discourse away from denominational boundaries and toward a more personal, individual experience of God.

For further reading:

Dorothy Day’s collected writing for Commonweal
Gary Dorrien on Martin Luther King’s theological mentors
Gordon Marino reviews a biography of William James

Ep. 107 - Rescuing Philosophy Jun 29, 2023

What should philosophy do? Despite record numbers of practitioners, today the discipline is in crisis, awash in abstraction and increasingly isolated—even within the academy.

But there’s a way out, argues veteran philosopher Philip Kitcher. It starts with attending to the ordinary concerns of human life, then illuminating them with clear, rigorous thought.

On this episode, Kitcher speaks with Commonweal features editor Alex Stern about Kitcher’s most recent book, What’s the Use of Philosophy?

Plus, in anticipation of Commonweal’s centennial in 2024, we’re featuring a special segment by contributor Kate Lucky on author Marilynne Robinson’s understanding of “true community.”

For further reading:

A collection of pieces by Gary Gutting
Alex Stern on Walter Benjamin and democracy
Marilynne Robinson on imagination & community

Ep. 106 - Belief in Something Big Jun 15, 2023

At first glance, John West’s Lessons and Carols: A Meditation on Recovery is an unconventional memoir about addiction and the healing power of community.

But it also addresses the challenges of belief today, when almost everything—the nation, religious institutions, the environment—appears on the verge of collapse.

On this episode, West speaks with associate editor Griffin Oleynick about the paradoxes of autobiographical narrative, grief and loss, and the power of art.

For further reading:

Mollie Wilson O’Reilly on Mary Karr’s Lit
Matthew Sitman interviews Marilynne Robinson
Terry Eagleton on the philosophy of Wittgenstein

Ep. 105 - How Hospitals Could Be May 25, 2023

Is single-payer health care really feasible in America? For one Texas physician, the answer is an unqualified ‘yes.’

On this episode, Commonweal associate editor Regina Munch speaks with Ricardo Nuila, an internist at Houston’s Ben Taub hospital and author of the new book The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine.

Then, as Commonweal approaches its centennial in 2024, we’re featuring brief reflections on writers we’ve published since our founding. Here, associate editor Griffin Oleynick reflects on the spiritual writing of the late John Garvey.

For further reading:

Paul Farmer’s theology of accompaniment
Luke Mayville campaigns for healthcare in Idaho
Pope Francis’s priorities for Catholic healthcare
John Garvey on spiritual surrender

Ep. 104 - After We’re Gone May 11, 2023

Would the world actually be better without us? For most of human history, the question was inconceivable.

But now, anxious over climate change and elated at technological breakthroughs, a growing chorus of thinkers is heralding the end of humanity’s reign on Earth.

On this episode, poet and critic Adam Kirsch, author of The Revolt Against Humanity: Imagining a Future Without Us, analyzes these ideas with Commonweal senior editor Matthew Boudway.

For further reading:

Eugene McCarraher critiques the ‘technocratic paradigm’
An interview with ex-environmentalist Paul Kingsnorth
Santiago Ramos on the perils of the metaverse

Ep. 103 - Out Loud Apr 27, 2023

As National Poetry Month draws to a close, Commonweal’s Claudia Avila Cosnahan is joined by poet, scholar, and professor Joshua Bennett to talk about his new book, Spoken Word: A Cultural History.

A prominent slam champion himself, Bennett explains how spoken word poetry has shaped his life and how the art form contributes to the ongoing work of community-building and liberation.

And be sure to stick around for a short conversation with Mollie Wilson O’Reilly about the life of Claire Huchet Bishop (1898–1993), a writer, librarian, and opponent of anti-semitism who also served for many years as the children’s books editor at Commonweal.

For further reading:

Alejandro Nava on the theology of hip-hop
Anthony Domestico reviews Joshua Bennett’s Owed
Daria Donnelly on the imagination of children’s books
Claire Huchet Bishop on book bannings in the 1940s

Ep. 102 - Writing Climate Change Apr 20, 2023

In honor of Earth Week, we’re releasing a special bonus episode featuring our friend Dorothy Fortenberry in conversation with Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi.

Fortenberry, who has written and commented widely on climate change, is also the co-writer and executive producer of Extrapolations, a new show on Apple TV+ that imagines what life on Earth might look like in the near future.

Instead of giving in to climate “doomerism,” Fortenberry argues that there are indeed reasons to be hopeful about addressing the environmental crisis—if we could only summon the political will to do it.

For further reading:

A collection of Commonweal’s best writing on the environment
Dorothy Fortenberry explains why she stays Catholic
An interview with climate activist Bill McKibben

Ep. 101 - A ‘Mindset’ of Misanthropy Apr 13, 2023

The billionaire founders of Big Tech firms are constantly touting “revolutionary” new products like cryptocurrency, AI, and the metaverse. They claim these exist “for the good of humanity,” but we should be extremely wary of their altruistic professions.

On this episode, Commonweal features editor Alexander Stern speaks with media critic Douglas Rushkoff, author of more than twenty books. His most recent is Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires.

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Peter Thiel want one thing, according to Rushkoff: profit, which comes at the expense of our psychological attention, physical well-being, and social cohesion. Only by understanding their misanthropic mindset can we begin imagining alternatives and fighting back.

For further reading:

Ep. 100 - Renaissance Man Mar 30, 2023

In addition to being an accomplished writer, frequent Commonweal contributor Clifford Thompson is also a self-taught painter.

On this episode, Thompson speaks with associate editor Griffin Oleynick about his first solo gallery show in New York City.

Using Thompson’s art as a jumping-off point, they touch on a range of topics, including music, film, race, and the madness of American politics.

Then, in a special segment, Kaya Oakes speaks briefly with special projects editor Miles Doyle about Doris Grumbach’s memorable portrait of Dorothy Day.

For further reading:

Clifford Thompson on rootedness and political division
Clifford Thompson reviews Wendell Berry’s most recent book
Doris Grumbach reports on a conference with Dorothy Day

Ep. 99 - Hot & Bothered Mar 09, 2023

In communities across the United States, the effects of climate change are already displacing tens of thousands of Americans from their homes. How should the federal government respond? What are the responsibilities of homeowners and insurers?

These questions lie at the heart of The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration, a new book by Jake Bittle, a reporter and staff writer at Grist.

On this episode, Bittle joins Commonweal managing editor Isa Simon for a wide-ranging discussion about how sea-level rise, extreme heat, and water scarcity are reshaping American society.

For further reading:

Bill McKibben on suburban development and the environment
Vincent Miller on the theology of wildfires
Solmaz Daryani documents drought in Iran

Ep. 98 - Gustavo Arellano’s California Feb 23, 2023

Los Angeles Times columnist and podcast host Gustavo Arellano is well known for his acerbic sense of humor and his commitment to holding powerful figures to account.

On this episode, Arellano joins Commonweal Director of Mission & Partnerships Claudia Avila Cosnahan for a wide-ranging conversation on his prolific career in journalism.

They touch on a number of Southern California topics, including food, faith, and film, as well as local politics, history, and culture.

For further reading:

Nicole-Ann Lobo on the art of Yolanda López
Claudia Avila Cosnahan on Our Lady of Guadalupe
The editors on the 2019 L.A. teachers’ strike

Ep. 97 - Ukraine, Revisited Feb 09, 2023

It’s been nearly a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and we’ve since become accustomed to tragic reports and gruesome images of the war.

But there’s another side of Ukraine—its complicated history and rich culture—that’s seldom seen by Americans.

On this episode, we’re joined by Megan Buskey, author of Ukraine Is Not Dead Yet: A Family Story of Exile and Return.

Using family history as a window into broader dynamics within Ukraine, Buskey touches on a number of topics, including memory, migration, and the war’s impact on young Ukrainians.

For further reading:

John Connelly explains what makes Ukraine different
Kathryn David on Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church
Adrian Bonenberger on Ukraine’s Orthodox spirituality

Ep. 96 - Unity, not Uniformity Jan 26, 2023

It’s no secret that the demographics of the American Catholic Church are changing rapidly and radically. The future of Catholic parishes depends on their ability to welcome and adapt.

On this episode, we speak with Candler School of Theology professor Susan Bigelow Reynolds, also a regular Commonweal contributor.

Her new book People Get Ready: Ritual, Solidarity, and Lived Ecclesiology in Catholic Roxburyoffers an ethnographic and theological deep-dive into how one small Boston parish has managed to revel in difference, rather than eradicate it.

For further reading:

Susan Bigelow Reynolds on the parish’s changing landscape
Brett Hoover on the ethics of shared parishes
James Chappell on how the Church became modern

Ep. 95 - Must We Forgive? Jan 12, 2023

When a crime is committed or moral injury occurs, we often respond in one of two ways: we condemn the offense and seek redress, or we declare our willingness to forgive and move on.

But a reflexive willingness to pardon—though praised by the Christian tradition—can actually be a problem, argues Matthew Potts. He’s a professor and pastor at Harvard Divinity School, and author of the new book Forgiveness: An Alternative Account.

Joined by Commonweal literary editor Anthony Domestico, Potts explains how his novel account of forgiveness demands a habit of non-retaliation, and why literary fiction provides the perfect vantage point for parsing the moral complexity of mercy.

For further reading:

Clifford Thompson on Wendell Berry and forgiveness
Adam DeVille on counseling sex offenders
B.D. McClay on the sacrament of reconciliation

Ep. 94 - Best of 2022 Dec 22, 2022

On this episode, we’re revisiting four of our favorite conversations from the past year.

Mallory McMorrow explains how her faith informs her politics and denounces the GOP’s “performative nonsense.” Mollie Wilson O’Reilly and Natalia Imperatori-Lee react to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Fr. James Martin, SJ talks about his expanding ministry with LGBTQ Catholics. And Kim Haines-Eitzen shares desert recordings that shed light on ancient Christian monasticism.

Have a great holiday. We’ll be back with new episodes in January.

Listen to the full conversations here:

‘McMorrow’s Way,’ with Mallory McMorrow
‘Is This What We Wanted?’ with Mollie Wilson O’Reilly and Natalia Imperatori-Lee
‘An Early Spring,’ with Fr. James Martin, SJ
‘Sounds of Silence,’ with Kim Hains-Eitzen

Ep. 93 - A Flock without Shepherds? Dec 08, 2022

Last month saw the election of Archbishop Timothy Broglio as leader of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops—a choice seen by many as a reactionary rebuke to Pope Francis and his synodal agenda.

On this episode, regular Commonweal contributor Massimo Faggioli joins editor Dominic Preziosi to discuss what Archbishop Broglio’s leadership might mean for the U.S. Church. They touch on a number of other topics, including how Catholics voted in the midterms, the sixtieth anniversary of Vatican II, and the ongoing fallout from the abuse crisis.

And, in anticipation of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Natalia Imperatori-Lee, professor of religious studies at Manhattan College, explains how the art and activism of Yolanda López can help us recognize the holiness of lo cotidiano, the everyday.

For further reading:

‘No Longer the Bishops’ Church?” Massimo Faggioli
‘The Art of Activism,” Nicole-Ann Lobo
‘Encounters Between Equals,’ Timothy Matovina

Ep. 92 - Which Latino Voter? Nov 22, 2022

In the aftermath of the midterm elections, political experts and the media are once again trying to make sense of the choices that Latino voters made at the ballot box.

On this episode, editor Dominic Preziosi is joined by Eli Valentin, a contributing columnist at Gotham Gazette and frequent political analyst for Univision New York, who says that much of that analysis misses the mark.

Valentin doesn’t just highlight the myths about Latino voters that need debunking. As a former pastor attuned to how beliefs shape elections, he suggests that a new “political pastoral theological agenda” could help many more voters, not just Latinos, think differently about their decisions at the polls.

For further reading:

“Sweet Home Hialeah,” César J. Baldelomar
“The Complicated Case of Hispanic Voters,” Brandon Sanchez
“Who Will Save the Bronx,” Eileen Markey

Ep. 91 - Care, Commodified Nov 04, 2022

Women who cross the border to perform care work for American families—cleaning their homes, running their errands, and raising their kids—number among the most hidden and undervalued laborers in our society. Too often, their voices go unheard.

On this episode, Commonweal associate editor Regina Munch speaks with Elizabeth Cummins Muñoz, a lecturer at Rice University and author of Mothercoin: The Stories of Immigrant Nannies.

Cummins Muñoz points out that while these workers don't see themselves as “victims,” the conflict between providing care and being paid to do it—sometimes at the expense of one's own family—can be devastating.

For further reading:

“The Empowerment Trap,” Emma McDonald
“Putting Ourselves Together Again,” Rebecca Bratten Weiss
“The Feminist Wife,” Kate Lucky

Ep. 90 - A City to Live In Oct 20, 2022

It’s no secret that access to affordable housing in America is increasingly out of reach. Activists in the growing YIMBY (“Yes In My Back Yard”) movement believe they have a solution: build more of everything.

On this episode, associate editor Griffin Oleynick speaks with Max Holleran, a sociologist at the University of Melbourne in Australia and author of Yes to the City: Millennials and the Fight for Affordable Housing, a detailed study of the YIMBYs.

The YIMBYs’ push for new construction, Holleran argues, won’t entirely solve the problem of housing affordability. To do that, we must not only re-invest in alternatives like community land trusts, but also continue fighting for higher wages and greater income equality.

For further reading:

“Making the Rent,” The Editors
“The Bay Area’s Infinite Loop,” Kaya Oakes
“Poverty and Profit in the American City,” Frank Pasquale

Ep. 89 - Life Inside, and Out Oct 06, 2022

It’s no secret that the United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. Less well known, though, is what actually takes place within prison walls.

On this episode, Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi speaks with veteran journalist Bill Keller, founder of the Marshall Project and author of the new book What’s Prison For? Punishment and Rehabilitation in the Age of Mass Incarceration.

Having spent years immersed in prisons as a reporter and teacher, Keller offers a blunt indictment of our broken prison system, while also pointing out real possibilities for reform.

For further reading:

“The Purposes of Punishment,” Derek Jeffreys
“Carceral Aesthetics,” Griffin Oleynick
“Waking the Giants,” Regina Munch

Ep. 88 - A Hidden Struggle Sep 22, 2022

For many Catholic women experiencing infertility, the Church has not been a welcoming, listening place—and that’s something that needs to change.

On this episode, associate editor Regina Munch speaks with Emma McDonald, a doctoral candidate at Boston College who has researched the issue extensively through a series of ethnographic interviews with Catholic women, doctors, and clinicians.

McDonald argues that synodal dialogue alone is inadequate for confronting the Church’s culture of silence around infertility. What’s need is real structural reform based on the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.

For further reading:

“Listening to the Laity,” Emma McDonald
“Finding Our Way,” Ellen Koneck
“Making Pregnancy Safer,” Jessica Keating Floyd

Ep. 87 - Sounds of Silence Sep 08, 2022

Ancient monks entered the desert wilds of Egypt and the Holy Land in search of solitude and silence. What they found instead was a rich sonic landscape replete with melody, cacophony, and deep spiritual resonance.

On this episode, associate editor Griffin Oleynick speaks with Kim Haines-Eitzen, professor of religious studies at Cornell, about her new book, Sonorous Desert: What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks—And What It Can Teach Us.

Haines-Eitzen’s project, which includes field recordings made in the deserts of the Middle East and the American Southwest, shows us how the ancient monks’ attentiveness to sound can help us slow down and better connect with ourselves and our communities.

For further reading:

“Taming the Demon,” Jonathan Malesic
“Silence in the City,” Kaya Oakes
“Opening to the World,” Luke Timothy Johnson

Ep. 86 - Not Too Late Aug 04, 2022

Intractable racism, increasing inequality, and intensifying climate change—for author and environmental activist Bill McKibben, these are some of the legacies wrought by the growth of American suburbs during the past forty years.

On this episode, McKibben joins Commonweal associate editor Griffin Oleynick to speak about his new memoir, The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon, which identifies the 1970s as the pivotal decade that marked a definitive shift toward individualism.

Our problems are real, but not insurmountable, McKibben argues. Our situation can be improved by organizing for change, and reclaiming American symbols of patriotism, faith, and fairness.

For further reading:

“Tears & Ashes,” Vincent Miller
“Beyond Growth,” Max Foley-Keene
“At Our Mercy,” Elizabeth Johnson

Ep. 85 - Should Catholics Promote Democracy? Jul 21, 2022

For most of its history, the Catholic Church clung to a deep skepticism concerning the legitimacy of democracy.

But that all changed during the twentieth century, explains Notre Dame historian and longtime Commonweal contributor John McGreevy.

On this episode McGreevy talks with Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi about how that unlikely shift occurred, and offers suggestions for how the Church can help bolster our wavering faith in democracy today.

For further reading:

“‘Natural Enemies’ No More,” John McGreevy
“Sturzo in Exile,” Massimo Faggioli
“Radical, Moderate, & Necessary,” E.J. Dionne, Jr.

Ep. 84 - Forward & Backward Jul 07, 2022

One quality of a Catholic poet is a heightened capacity to see—not just into the future, but into the past as well.

On this episode, poet Paul Mariani speaks with Commonweal contributor Anthony Domestico about his latest collection, All That Will Be New.

Their discussion touches on a number of topics, including Mariani’s working-class upbringing in New York City, his love of the American idiom of William Carlos Williams, and the spirituality embedded in visual art.

For further reading:

“Broken Beauty,” Paul Mariani
“Inscape, Instress & Distress,” Anthony Domestico
“Elegy for Our 130-Year-Old Catalpa,” Paul Mariani

Ep. 83 - ‘An Early Spring’ Jun 09, 2022

In the American Church today, few figures are as outspoken about the need for Catholics to treat LGBTQ people with love, respect, and compassion as Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin.

Martin is also the subject of a new documentary, Building a Bridge, which offers a close look at Martin’s LGBTQ ministry—from its origins after the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando in 2016, to Martin’s meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2019.

On this episode, Commonweal associate editor Griffin Oleynick speaks with Fr. Martin and filmmaker Evan Mascagni about the film.

For further reading:

“Still Beloved,” Robert Fieseler
‘Gender, Sex, and Other Nonsense,” Dan Walden
‘Necessary Affirmation,’ Jason Steidl
‘Facing Down the Wolf,’ James Alison

Ep. 82 - ‘Broken Places’ May 25, 2022

Few living writers speak as eloquently and incisively about the terrible contradictions of armed conflict as Marine Corps veteran and award-winning author Phil Klay.

On this episode, Klay joins Commonweal senior editor Matt Boudway to discuss his new book Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless War, a collection of essays, journalism, and other nonfiction written over the past ten years.

Their conversation touches on a number of topics, including war and religious faith, the complex reintegration of returning soldiers, and the deceptive political rhetoric that surrounds and shrouds modern combat.

For further reading:

“A Whip of Cords,” Phil Klay
“War & Penance,” Philip G. Porter
“The Paradoxes of Deterrence,” Bernard G. Prusak

Ep. 81 - Is This What We Wanted? May 10, 2022

It’s been just over a week since Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion appearing to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to the press.

On this episode, Commonweal editor-at-large Mollie Wilson O’Reilly and theologian Natalia Imperatori-Lee share their initial reactions to the news.

In addition to pointing out the potentially damaging consequences of reversing Roe, they also highlight the complex realities of women’s reproductive health, discuss their experiences as mothers, and identify what a true “culture of life” might look like.

For further reading:

“When Abortion Isn’t Abortion,” Mollie Wilson O’Reilly
“When Timing Is Paramount,” Peter Steinfels
“My Two Abortions,” Anonymous

Ep. 80 - McMorrow’s Way Apr 27, 2022

On April 19, Mallory McMorrow, Democratic State Senator of Michigan, delivered a speech in the chamber of the Michigan State Capitol. It instantly struck a chord on social media, and has since been viewed by millions of people throughout the world.

Pushing back forcefully against a Republican colleague’s accusations of “grooming and sexualizing children” as well as defending her support of LGBTQ people, McMorrow cited her Christian faith—and in particular her Catholic upbringing—as an inspiration for her political outlook and her insistence on taking the side of the marginalized.

On this episode, McMorrow speaks with Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi about what went into writing that speech, what she hopes listeners will take from it, and what role she hopes a renewed, nuanced understanding of faith might yet play in public life.

For further reading:

‘Let Church Be Church Again,’ Sr. Carol Keehan, DC
‘American Politics & Social Catholicism,’ E.J. Dionne, Jr.
‘Civic Virtue & the Common Good,’ Bishop Robert W. McElroy, John T. McGreevy, Cathleen Kaveny, and Matthew Sitman

Ep. 79 - Beyond Consent Apr 14, 2022

As the #MeToo movement was unfolding, Washington Post columnist Christine Emba began asking questions about the broader health of American sexual culture.

On this episode, Emba speaks with Commonweal contributing writer and Christianity Today editor Kate Lucky about the findings presented in her new book, Rethinking Sex: A Provocation.

Our contemporary understanding of sexual consent, Emba argues, is not enough to ground our sexual ethics. For that, we need to recuperate traditional virtues like patience, care, and restraint.

For further reading:

‘Finding Our Way,’ Ellen B. Koneck
‘The Feminist Wife,’ Kate Lucky
‘Clearing the Field,’ B.D. McClay

Ep. 78 - Unholy War Mar 31, 2022

While the humanitarian costs of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continue to make headlines, the war also reveals contemporary religious concerns around global Orthodoxy and Vatican diplomacy.

On this episode, we speak with two guests: George Demacopoulos, professor of Orthodox Christian Studies at Fordham University, and Paul Elie, New Yorker staff writer and longtime Commonweal contributor.

Demacopoulos frames the fiery rhetoric of Moscow’s Patriarch Kirill, who has called the invasion a “holy war,” while Elie takes Pope Francis to task for not denouncing Vladimir Putin more forcefully.

For further reading:

‘From Complacency to Clear Condemnation,’ George Demacopoulos
‘The Pope, the Patriarchs, and the Battle to Save Ukraine,’ Paul Elie in the New Yorker
‘Clarity & Consequences,’ The Editors

Ep. 77 - Democracy or Empire? Mar 17, 2022

It’s been three weeks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

As Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky continues to plead for Western aid, the situation in his country is deteriorating as the Russian army bombards cities, hospitals, evacuation routes, and other civilian targets.

How did we get here? And which historical parallels can shed light on what’s happening now in Ukraine?

On this special episode, historian John Connelly, professor of history at UC Berkeley and an expert on east central Europe, shares his insights.

For further reading:

“What Makes Ukraine Different,” John Connelly
“Putin’s Apocalyptic Goals,” Piotr H. Kosicki
“The Orthodox Response to Putin’s Invasion,” George E. Demacopoulos

Ep. 76 - Will Catholic Colleges Embrace Synodality? Mar 10, 2022

Why haven’t Catholic colleges and universities in the United States more urgently engaged Pope Francis’s repeated calls to practice “synodality”?

After all, these centers of intellectual development and social change are crucial in getting younger Catholics to care about the future of the Church.

On this episode, we’re featuring a series of conversations with three experts on the current state of the synod and American Catholic higher education: Massimo Faggioli of Villanova University, Micah Kiel of St. Ambrose University, and Amirah Orozco of Dominican University.

For further reading

‘Unexcused Absence,’ Massimo Faggioli
‘Catholic Colleges & the Synod,’ Micah Kiel
‘Learning from Las Hermanas,’ Amirah Orozco
‘Speak Boldly, Listen Carefully,’ Austen Ivereigh

Ep. 75 - Love Entails Loss Feb 24, 2022

Shortly before the death of her father, New Yorker staff writer Kathryn Schulz met the woman she would marry. These opposite experiences prompted Schulz to reflect on the ways in which they’re joined.

On this episode, Schulz joins Commonweal literary editor Anthony Domestico for a wide-ranging conversation about her new memoir, Lost & Found.

Our humanity, Schulz argues, guarantees that we’ll eventually lose the ones we love. But it’s their very finitude that makes them worth loving.

Ep. 74 - ‘Always Writing, Always Thinking’ Feb 10, 2022

What do scholars do, exactly? Which virtues does a life of scholarship require?

On this episode, longtime Commonweal contributor and renowned New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson speaks with editor Dominic Preziosi about his lifelong intellectual journey.

One of the keys to being a good scholar (and a good Christian) Johnson argues, isn’t simply discipline and fortitude, but imagination and humility.

Read more from Luke Timothy Johnson

Ep. 73 - The Way We Work Jan 27, 2022

Since the pandemic began, large numbers of Americans working in diverse fields have reported increased levels of burnout and exhaustion.

But the phenomenon of burnout is nothing new, argues frequent Commonweal contributor Jonathan Malesic. The problem has been with us for decades, a consequence of the increasingly blurry lines between our professional and personal lives.

On this episode, Malesic speaks with Commonweal managing editor Katie Daniels about his new book The End of Burnout: Why Work Drains Us and How to Build Better Lives. If we want to combat burnout, he says, we first need to agree on a definition.

Read Jonathan Malesic’s Commonweal essays here:

Ep. 72 - The Right Questions Jan 13, 2022

The pandemic has forced many of us to rethink our answers to some of life’s deepest questions: How should we treat other people? Should we practice a religion? Does it matter what we believe? What would make our lives meaningful?

Thankfully, we’re not alone. Virtue ethics, as Notre Dame’s Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko contend, offers a method for reasoning about, and gaining new insights into, these age-old questions.

On this episode, Sullivan and Blaschko join Commonweal assistant editor Griffin Oleynick to discuss insights from their new book The Good Life Method: Reasoning through the Big Questions of Happiness, Faith, and Meaning, based on their popular course at Notre Dame.

For further reading:

“Inside the Seminary,” Paul Blaschko
“The Problem with Lazarus,” Meghan Sullivan
“Highbrow Self-Help,” Charles McNamara
“Should Philosophy Retire?”, George Scialabba

Ep. 71 - Best of 2021 Dec 23, 2021

It’s our favorite time of year here on the Commonweal Podcast.

On this special episode, we revisit four of our best interviews from 2021:

Phil Klay elucidates the complexities of modern warfare. Rita Ferrone explains how Catholic tradition evolves. Alice McDermott tells us what made her decide to become a writer. And Susannah Heschel describes how the spiritual legacy of her father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, can help us fight for social justice today.

Listen to the full-length interviews here:

· ‘War Without End,’ with Phil Klay

· ‘The Rite Stuff,’ with Rita Ferrone

· ‘Life Sentences,’ with Alice McDermott

· ‘Friend of God,’ with Susannah Heschel

Ep. 70 - A Book That Builds Community Dec 17, 2021

When the first pandemic lockdowns began back in March 2020, acclaimed novelist Yiyun Li took to social media with a modest proposal: a communal reading of Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece War & Peace, complemented by daily reflections and live conversation on Twitter.

Li’s invitation met with a hearty response from readers around the world: hundreds participated in the online book club. Some of their comments, along with Li’s reflections, were published earlier this fall in Tolstoy Together: 85 Days of War & Peace.

On this episode, Li joins Commonweal literary editor Anthony Domestico for a wide-ranging conversation about the project, the pleasures of reading together, and why Tolstoy still matters.

For further reading:

· “2021 Books in Review,” Anthony Domestico

· “Bracing for Impact,” Cassandra Nelson

· “The Zen of Tolstoy,” Christopher Bram

Ep. 69 - Violent Faith Dec 02, 2021

In 1940, a group of armed, anti-Semitic Catholic militants were arrested by the FBI in Brooklyn and charged with plotting to overthrow the U.S. government.

All were members of the Christian Front, a radical rightwing group inspired by Catholic theology and galvanized by the preaching of notorious “radio priest” Fr. Charles Coughlin.

On this episode, we speak with Charles Gallagher, a historian at Boston College and author of the new book The Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten Story of the Christian Front.

Gallagher doesn’t just fill a major gap in our understanding of the history of Christian extremism. He tells a story about faith curdling into violence, one that holds important lessons for us today.

For further reading:

- “On Anti-Semitism,” Jacques Maritain

- “Hitler’s Gospel,” John Connelly

- “From Trotsky to Soros,” James J. Sheehan

Ep. 68 - The Varieties of Religious Community Today Nov 18, 2021

The November issue of Commonweal featured a special package of stories on Catholic religious communities in the broadest sense of the term, including religious orders, secular institutes, lay ecclesial movements, pious houses, and houses of hospitality.

Despite the variety of communities surveyed, some key themes emerged: the difficulty of adapting to new circumstances, the relationship of community to place, and a sense of hope in the face of precariousness and uncertainty.

On this special podcast episode, we’re joined by editors and writers—including Paul Elie and Kaya Oakes—who helped put that issue together.

Ep. 67 – A Hostile Climate Nov 04, 2021

Even as political leaders gather in Glasgow to discuss global solutions to climate change, why is it that the most basic facts of climate science still aren’t being taught in classrooms here at home?

On this episode, Commonweal assistant managing editor Isa Simon speaks with Katie Worth, an investigative reporter and author of the forthcoming book Miseducation: How Climate Change Is Taught in America.

The problem, as Worth sees it, is that climate change is too often framed as a “debate” rather than an established fact. Her reporting tells the story of how financial and political interests got us here, and what we can do to change it.

Ep. 66 - Beliefs Made Visible Oct 21, 2021

The murder of eleven Jews at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue three years ago in October 2018 was the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.

On this episode, journalist Mark Oppenheimer, author of the new book Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and The Soul of a Neighborhood,joins Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi for a wide-ranging discussion of the aftermath of that event.

Oppenheimer focuses not on the shooting and the gunman, but rather on the century-old currents of Judaism in Pittsburgh, the variety of religious beliefs and practices visible after the attack, and the resilience of Squirrel Hill.

For further reading:

- ‘Death at the Tree of Life,’ Wesley Hill

- ‘From Trotsky to Soros,’ James J. Sheehan

- ‘The Author and the Expert,’ Tzvi Novick

Ep. 65 - War Without End Oct 07, 2021

Six weeks after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, can we really say that America is no longer a country at war?

On this episode, we’re featuring two reflections—one political, the other philosophical—on America’s “forever war.”

Longtime Commonweal contributor and historian Andrew J. Bacevich explains the little-understood Carter Doctrine, and why it needs to go, while fiction writer and Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay asks whether war can ever be considered “humane.”

Both are in conversation with Commonweal senior editor Matt Boudway.

For further reading

- “The Forever War Continues,” Andrew J. Bacevich

- “Sops to Humanity,” Phil Klay

- “An Unwinnable War,” The Editors

Ep. 64 - Greener Pastures Sep 23, 2021

Our modern food system and its reliance on industrial farming practices has caused considerable harm in rural communities, breaking up family farms and scarring the environment.

That’s a shame, argues journalist Gracy Olmstead, because the legacy of these small farms, and the communities they nurture, could help make life in America fairer and more meaningful.

On this episode, Olmstead joins Commonweal managing editor Katie Daniels for a wide-ranging discussion of her recent book, Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of Places We’ve Left Behind.

For further reading

· Yours, Mine, or Ours, by Gracy Olmstead

· How Progressives Can Win in Rural America, by Luke Mayville

· Seams of Resentment, by Danny R. Kuhn

Ep. 63 - The Rite Stuff Sep 09, 2021

This July, Pope Francis largely rescinded permission for priests to celebrate the so-called “Extraordinary Form” of the Roman Rite, also known as the Tridentine Mass. The move generated considerable controversy, especially among Catholics in the United States.

On this episode, longtime Commonweal contributing writer Rita Ferrone draws on her extensive knowledge of liturgical history to explain the logic—and in her view, the wisdom—of Francis’s decision.

For further reading:

· “A Living Catholic Tradition,” by Rita Ferrone

· “The Limits of ‘Traditionis Custodes,’” by Massimo Faggioli

· “The Liturgy Wars,” by Paul Baumann

Ep. 62 - Life Sentences Jul 29, 2021

For National Book Award winner Alice McDermott, being a writer is a lot like being a believer. You get used to uncertainty, and become comfortable living in the dark.

On this episode McDermott, a frequent Commonweal contributor, shares a career’s worth of insights on the art of fiction with managing editor Katie Daniels.

She also recounts the moment when she realized she would be a writer, and discusses what a lifetime of working with words has taught her.

For further reading:

· Things, Alice McDermott

· Confessions of a Reluctant Catholic, Alice McDermott

· Nothing to be Done, Mollie Wilson O’Reilly

Ep. 61 - Bishops & Blind Spots Jul 15, 2021

Commonweal editor-at-large Molly Wilson O’Reilly addresses the U.S. bishops’ misguided approach to President Biden and communion, their missteps in responding to the presidency of Donald Trump, and missed opportunities in ministering to American Catholics during the pandemic.

For further reading:

· The Real Threat to American Catholicism, Mollie Wilson O’Reilly

· Pastors, not Prophets, The Editors

· There Ought to Be a Law, Matthew Boudway

Ep. 60 - The Parson’s Office Jun 24, 2021

Both priest and poet have one vocation: to love.

Few know that as well as Spencer Reece—an accomplished poet, former chaplain to the Episcopal Bishop of Madrid, and now the leader of a diverse parish in Queens, NY.

In conversation with Commonweal contributing writer Anthony Domestico, in this episode Reece speaks about his new memoir, The Secret Gospel of Mark.

For further reading:

· Celebration & Lamentation, Anthony Domestico

· Uncommon Prayers, Spencer Reece

Ep. 59 - Friend of God Jun 10, 2021

The life and thought of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) exerted a profound impact on the history of American religion and social activism.

The subject of a new PBS documentary, Spiritual Audacity, Heschel offered prophetic insights into the nature of God, the meaning of justice, and the necessity of Jewish-Christian dialogue.

On this episode, we discuss the rabbi’s legacy with two guests: Martin Doblmeier, who directed the film, and Professor Susannah Heschel, Rabbi Heschel’s daughter.

For further reading:

• ‘Getting Past Supersessionism,’ The Editors

• ‘The Call of Transcendence,’ Mary C. Boys

• ‘Enough Bromides,’ Thomas Albert Howard

Ep. 58 - A Diminished Thing? May 27, 2021

Three months into the Biden presidency, with pandemic restrictions at last beginning to ease, author and New Yorker contributor Paul Elie joins us to talk about the state of American Catholicism today.

In conversation with editor Dominic Preziosi, Elie addresses Joe Biden’s political strategy, the Church’s stance on LGBT unions and women’s ordination, and the legacy of the abuse crisis.

He also highlights the enduring resilience of lay Catholics, who continue to live out their faith in changing and challenging circumstances.

For further reading:

- Is the Vatican Finally Ready to Get Serious About Women in the Church?

- The Vatican’s Giant Step Backward on Same-Sex Unions

- Can Joe Biden Save American Catholicism from the Far Right?

Ep. 57 - Ending Islamophobia May 13, 2021

Though often invisible, Islamophobia is still alive in the United States today, from bullying in schools to political scapegoating to violence at houses of worship.

On this episode, we speak with Jordan Denari Duffner, a doctoral student at Georgetown University and author of the new book Islamophobia: What Christians Should Know (and Do) about Anti-Muslim Discrimination.

Talking with contributing writer Paul Moses, Denari Duffner explains how Islam nourishes her own faith, and calls on Christians to become better acquainted with their Muslim neighbors.

For further reading:

· ‘Enough Bromides,’ Thomas Albert Howard

· ‘In the Steps of Father Abraham,’ Paul Moses

· ‘No One is a Stranger,’ Jordan Denari Duffner

Ep. 56 - Iran & America Apr 22, 2021

Nearly one hundred days into Joe Biden’s presidency, the new administration is rethinking American foreign policy on a number of fronts—including relations with Iran.

On this episode, assistant editor Regina Munch speaks with John Ghazvinian, Executive Director of the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the book America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present.

Ghazvinian explains that while most Americans are used to thinking of Iran as an adversary, that hasn’t always been the case. A deeper knowledge of the rich history between the two countries would go a long way toward improving diplomatic relations today.

For further reading:

- The Paradox of Deterrence, Bernard G. Prusak

- A Better Way, The Editors

- Christian Iran, Christopher Thornton

Ep. 55 - ‘The Open Destiny of Life’ Apr 08, 2021

Kirstin Valdez Quade’s debut novel The Five Woundstells the story of a year in the life of a Mexican-American family, chronicling their struggles as they confront teenage pregnancy, unemployment, and addiction.

On this episode, Valdez Quade speaks with Commonweal managing editor Katie Daniels about the value of vulnerability, the religious history of the American southwest, and the importance of empathy in fiction.

For further reading:

· Hope for Suffering Souls, Valerie Sayers

· To Look Closely Is to Love, Kirstin Valdez Quade

· Writing into Uncertainty, Dominic Preziosi

PS: “The problem in life is that we need so many epiphanies—one is not enough.”—Kirstin Valdez Quade

Ep. 54 - ‘Tell Me Your Story’ Mar 29, 2021

Ep. 54 – ‘Tell Me Your Story’

Maria Hinojosa’s nearly thirty-year career as a journalist includes reporting for PBS, CNN, and NPR, as well as anchoring and producing the Peabody Award–winning radio program Latino USA.

She’s also the founder of Futuro Media, an independent nonprofit that provides a platform for people often overlooked by mainstream journalism.

On this episode, Hinojosa speaks with assistant editor Regina Munch about her career in media, her recent memoir, Once I Was You, and her work informing readers and listeners about the changing cultural and political landscape in America.

For further reading:

· Refounding Chicago, Milton Javier Bravo

· No Longer Peripheral, César J. Baldelomar

· Welcoming the Stranger, The Editors

Ep. 53 - Why We Pray Mar 11, 2021

Can we “converse” with God? Why can prayer be so difficult, sometimes even impossible? And is there a right way to do it?

On this episode Fr. James Martin, author of a new book on prayer, shares his thoughts on these questions, but he also takes on a bigger one: why do humans pray at all?

For further reading:

· Spring Cleaning,Katherine Lucky

· Perpetual Lent, Claudia Avila Cosnahan

· Lenten Reflections, a collection

Ep. 52 - Baseball & Borders Feb 25, 2021

At the start of spring training, with opening day a little more than a month away, it’s time to talk about baseball.

On this episode, theologian Carmen Nanko-Fernández, whose work focuses on the surprising connections between religion, politics, and popular culture, helps us do just that.

Baseball, Nanko-Fernández explains, is much more than a game. That’s especially true along the U.S.-Mexico border, where sports, race, immigration, labor, and politics are all intertwined.

For further reading:

· Béisbol, Baseball, & ‘Bad Hombres,’ Carmen Nanko-Fernández

· Quit Trying to ‘Fix’ Baseball, Gregory K. Hillis

· More than Cricket, Rand Richards Cooper

Ep. 51 - Story as Ceremony Feb 11, 2021

How does great fiction work? Which techniques enable readers to lose themselves in plots and connect with characters?

On this episode, celebrated novelist and short story writer George Saunders shares the lessons he’s learned from Russian masters like Chekhov and Tolstoy.

The best literary works, Saunders tells Commonweal literary editor Anthony Domestico, are much more than something beautiful or entertaining. Like the liturgy, they’re also a way of loving.

For further reading:

· A Kindly Presence of Mind, Anthony Domestico

· A Moralist with an Ear, John Garvey

· Near Occasion, Dominic Preziosi

Ep. 50 - The Second Catholic President Jan 28, 2021

What kind of Catholic is Joe Biden? And what prospects does his presidency hold for the bitterly divided U.S. Church?

On this episode, Commonweal associate editor Matt Sitman speaks with contributing writer Massimo Faggioli about his new book, Joe Biden and Catholicism in the United States.

This political moment, Faggioli argues, is different from any other. With public institutions in decline and democracy’s survival no longer assured, Biden’s challenge—like that of Pope Francis—is to unite a center than may no longer exist.

For further reading:

· Lots of Politics, Little Legitimacy, Massimo Faggioli

· The One Missing Fact, Paul Moses

· The New Integralists, Timothy Troutner

Ep. 49 - Capitalism Can’t Save Us Jan 14, 2021

Can private corporations provide public goods? Can capitalism contribute to movements for social justice?

In her book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, Georgetown history professor Marcia Chatelain notes that big companies like McDonald's historically have failed to deliver the social benefits they’d promised.

And as racism and white supremacy remain potent forces in American life—and in the Catholic Church—we should harness our power to care for one another, rather than our power as consumers, to bring real change.

For further reading:

· Three Cheers for Socialism, David Bentley Hart

· Authentically Black, Truly Catholic, Tia Noelle Pratt

· Many and One, Vinson Cunningham

Ep. 48 - How We Found Hope in 2020 Dec 23, 2020

In an interview with Commonweal last spring, Pope Francis called on Catholics to meet “this time of great uncertainty” with creativity and grace.

On this special end-of-year episode, we’re revisiting four of our favorite conversations with Catholics who’ve inspired us to do just that:

- Susan Bigelow Reynolds on changing parish realities

- Stephen Hough on accepting his own sexuality

- Fr. Bryan Massingale on racism and white supremacy

- Ellen Koneck on the spiritual lives of Gen Z

We hope you’ll enjoy hearing from them again as much as we have.

Ep. 47 - The Hidden Cruelty of U.S. Immigration Law Dec 11, 2020

Among the things Donald Trump’s presidency will be remembered for is the cruelty of its policies and actions on immigration.

While the incoming Biden administration intends to reverse these measures, we should hardly be complacent. The U.S. immigration system is expressly designed to keep people out.

On this episode, Commonweal contributing writer Paul Moses speaks with attorney and law professor Michael Kagan, author of The Battle to Stay in America: Immigration’s Hidden Front Line, about the illogic of U.S. immigration law, the need for solidarity, and the prospects for reform.

For further reading:

- Collateral Damage, by Paul Moses

- Trapped at the Border, by Joseph Sorrentino

- Progressives Have an Immigration Problem, by Tom Deignan

Ep. 46 - Broken Open Nov 27, 2020

Sr. Simone Campbell, best known as the executive director of the NETWORK social justice lobby and organizer of the Nuns on the Bus tours, has been involved in political advocacy on behalf of the poor and marginalized for decades.

Less familiar, though, are the contemplative practices that ground Sr. Simone’s work—and that she describes in her new book, Hunger for Hope: Prophetic Communities, Contemplation, and the Common Good.

Speaking with Commonweal assistant editor Regina Munch, Sr. Simone talks about how the courage to confront our own brokenness can bring about personal and political healing in this fractured moment.

For further reading:

- Is There a Religious Left? by Kaya Oakes

- American Politics and Social Catholicism by E.J. Dionne, Jr.

- Griever-in-Chief by Paul Moses & Michael Connor

Ep. 45 - The Kids Are All Right Nov 17, 2020

We all know the story of the “nones,” and the dire statistics about the decline of religious affiliation among young people. But these data hardly tell the whole story.

On this episode, managing editor Katie Daniels speaks with Ellen Koneck, herself a former Commonweal staffer and now head writer and editor at Springtide Research Institute. Their new report, The State of Religion and Young People, invites us to think differently about the religious practices and spiritual aspirations of Gen Z.

Sure, young people are skeptical of institutions and have lower levels of trust in traditional kinds of authority. But they’re also more open than ever to relationships that offer wisdom and support—and that’s exactly where religious leaders can meet them.

For further reading

- Further Adrift, Peter Steinfels

- Finding Our Way, Ellen Koneck

- Under Pressure, John Thornton, Jr.

Ep. 44 - Local People Oct 29, 2020

Could rural America become a hotbed of progressive politics?

Luke Mayville, co-founder of the grassroots movement Reclaim Idaho and a lecturer of political philosophy at Boise State University’s Honors College, certainly thinks so.

His conviction comes from firsthand experience. In 2018, Mayville helped Idaho become the only predominantly rural state in America to approve Medicaid expansion in a statewide referendum.

On this episode, he talks withassociate editor Matt Sitman about that campaign, arguing that if we want to pass more progressive legislation, we should put our energies into on-the-ground organizing and local persuasion.

For further reading

· Do Something Big, Luke Mayville

· Drinking Alone, Jonathan Malesic

· Democracy in America?, The Commonweal Editors

Ep. 43 - The Election & Social Catholicism Oct 15, 2020

We are at a perilous moment in American history, and public Catholicism must rise to the task.

So says E. J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post columnist and Commonweal contributor.

He joins Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi to discuss why American Catholicism needs to put aside culture-war rhetoric and return to its rich tradition of social thought—characterized by what he calls “radical moderation”—and how such ideas could play out in the upcoming election and beyond.

Suggestions for further reading:

· Radical, Moderate, and Necessary, E.J. Dionne Jr.

· The Faith of Amy Coney Barrett, Matthew Sitman

· Canons & the Candidate, Nicholas P. Cafardi

Ep. 42 - Killing Machines Oct 08, 2020

Modern warfare has become an intensely scattered, depersonalized affair. Violence still rages and traumas proliferate, but often remotely, the carnage hidden from public view. So what’s the best way to write about it? How to convey the horror of armed conflict today?

Few writers do that as well as Phil Klay, who won the National Book Award for his 2014 short story collection, Redeployment, which is based on his experiences as a marine during the Iraq War. His debut novel, Missionaries, expands those insights through the interlocking stories of four characters living in Colombia, Yemen, and the United States.

In conversation with Commonweal critic Anthony Domestico, Klay shares insights into the ways that globalization, capitalism, and technological advances have made warfare both more deadly and less noticeable. A committed Catholic, Klay also discusses the sacramental worldview that undergirds his fiction, in which even death is “charged with the grandeur of God.”

Ep. 41 - White Churches & White Supremacy Sep 11, 2020

For years, Black churches have worked tirelessly to advance the cause of racial justice in America. In many ways, their white counterparts have done the opposite.

White Christians are not simply complicit in racism and white supremacy, argues scholar Robert P. Jones. They’re actually culpable. Without their deliberate consent, white supremacy in America could never have been built.

That’s a shocking assertion. But citing historical evidence and contemporary survey data, Jones, in conversation with assistant editor Regina Munch, maps the long road white Christians must travel if they hope to ever atone for their sins.

Ep. 40 - El Paso: One Year Later (Part 2) Aug 03, 2020

On August third one year ago, a 21-year-old white man from Allen, Texas, drove across the state to a Wal-Mart in El Paso, alongside the Mexican border, where he shot and killed 23 people and injured 23 others, the majority of them Mexican and Mexican-Americans.

The El Paso matanza, or massacre, is considered to be the deadliest anti-Latino attack in U.S. history, and one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.

On this two-part episode, we talk with several people from El Paso about that day, about what has transpired in the year that has passed, about how life has and hasn’t changed along the border—politically, culturally, and spiritually.

In part two, we’re joined by Dylan Corbett and Marisa Limón Garza of the Hope Border Institute in El Paso, and by Bishop Mark Seitz of the El Paso Diocese.

For further reading:

Night Will Be No More, Bishop Mark Seitz
Confronting White Supremacy, John Gehring
Injustice at the Border, a collection of Commonweal pieces

Links:

Ep. 39 - El Paso: One Year Later Jul 31, 2020

On August third one year ago, a 21-year-old white man from Allen, Texas, drove across the state to a Wal-Mart in El Paso, alongside the Mexican border, where he shot and killed 23 people and injured 23 others, the majority of them Mexican and Mexican-Americans.

The El Paso matanza, or massacre, is considered to be the deadliest anti-Latino attack in U.S. history, and one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.

On this two-part episode, we talk with several people from El Paso about that day, about what has transpired in the year that has passed, about how life has and hasn’t changed along the border—politically, culturally, and spiritually.

In part one, we’re joined by Monsignor Arturo Bañuelas, a priest in the diocese of El Paso, and Professor Neomi DeAnda, the current president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States. Look for part two soon.

For further reading:

Night Will Be No More, Bishop Mark Seitz
Confronting White Supremacy, John Gehring
Injustice at the Border, a collection of Commonweal pieces

Links:

Ep. 38 – A ‘Form for Failure’ Jul 24, 2020

While we may experience moments of clarity and insight in our spiritual lives, more often we face struggles as we try to shed old habits and find new ways of thinking about God.

On this episode, poet Christian Wiman joins us to read and discuss several poems from his new collection, Survival Is a Style. He also shares insights he’s gleaned from his own grappling with faith and doubt, explaining how poetry not only delights us, but helps us become free.

For further reading:

· ‘Eight Distillations,” Christian Wiman

· Issues of Blood, Christian Wiman

· Goaded by Doubt, Paul K. Johnston

Ep. 37 - A ‘Musical’ Life Jul 09, 2020

Classical pianist and composer Stephen Hough is known as one of the world’s greatest musical performers.

He’s also a polymathic writer, with a new book called Rough Ideas. Itcollects two decades’ worth of short, witty, and perceptive essays, on everything from Lou Reed and Thomas Aquinas to bioethics, sacramentality, and the challenges of living as a gay Catholic.

He joins Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi for a discussion about his writing, his art, and his new life during the coronavirus quarantine.

Ep. 36 - ‘Divine’ Summer Reading Jun 19, 2020

Summer’s here, and we’re reading new books from three writers: Molly McCully Brown, Marie Mutsuki Mockett, and Amy Jo Burns.

Their work falls into different genres: memoir, first-person reporting, and fiction. But they’re linked by an abiding interest in God, communal religious practice, and the strangeness of American life at the margins.

They speak with managing editor Kate Lucky, who also reflects on her time at Commonweal, a place where she has found not just intellectual and literary fellowship but a true sense of community and of “being known.”

For further reading, three Commonweal pieces, all by Kate Lucky:

Ep. 35 - A Response to Racism Jun 05, 2020

Since the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police in Minneapolis nearly two weeks ago, American cities have seen protests over racism and police brutality on an unprecedented scale.

On this episode we speak with Fr. Bryan Massingale, author of Racial Justice and the Catholic Church and professor of theology at Fordham University in New York. Racism persists in America and the church, Massingale contends, because racist policies and structures benefit white people—and white people assent to it through a kind of perverse “liturgy.”

Massingale also tells us what Americans shocked at Floyd’s death, particularly white bystanders, need now: the virtue of courage, motivated by righteous anger. We must move beyond the mere conviction that racism is wrong, and actually begin dismantling it.

For further reading:

Police Brutality & Protest, The Editors
A Sign of Contradiction, Gregory K. Hillis
King & His Mentors, Gary Dorrien

Ep. 34 - Is There a Religious Left? May 14, 2020

Donald Trump’s election provoked backlash from many people of faith, with religious leaders taking a highly visible role in protesting the administration’s policies. But does the so-called “religious left” really exist?

Indeed, argues religion reporter Jack Jenkins. His new book American Prophets: The Religious Roots of Progressive Politics and the Ongoing Fight for the Soul of the Countrytraces the inspiration, dreams, and demands of the clergy and activists that make up this growing “coalition of coalitions.”

Jenkins speaks with Commonweal associate editor Matt Sitman about how the religious left differs from the religious right, the growing influence of Rev. William Barber, and what the Democratic party might do to court religious voters in the upcoming 2020 election.

For further reading

· From Catholic Worker to DSA, Gary Dorrien

· Reading Buttigieg, James T. Kloppenberg

· Three Cheers for Socialism, David Bentley Hart

· American Paganism, David Albertson

Ep. 33 - A Community Afflicted May 01, 2020

Even as New York City shows signs of progress, the toll of the coronavirus crisis over the past two months has been high. Hundreds of thousands have been infected, and more than half of the city’s residents say they know someone who’s died from COVID-19.

On this episode, we hear from three different people who’ve been dealing with the impact of the pandemic in New York City: Paul Saunders, a cardiothoracic surgeon in a Brooklyn hospital; Zach Presutti, SJ, founder of a nonprofit serving the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated in the greater New York area; and Fr. Robert Imbelli, a priest living in a retirement community in the Bronx.

Together, they offer a portrait of a city under duress—shaken and afflicted, but not without hope.

Further reading:

Privileged & Vulnerable, Fr. Robert Imbelli
Distance, not Desertion, B.D. McClay
The Coronavirus: A Collection, The Editors

Ep. 32 - Ending Mass Incarceration Apr 17, 2020

Held in close quarters in crowded detention facilities, prisoners have been disproportionately harmed by the spread of the novel coronavirus. Now they’re turning to the criminal justice system for help.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has taken the lead in responding. He belongs to a new crop of “progressive DAs” fighting to end mass incarceration in favor of fairness, rehabilitation, and community.

In this episode Krasner talks with us about the concrete steps his office has taken so far, and the legal philosophy undergirding them.

The American Parish Today, part II Mar 31, 2020

In this second special episode on the American parish today, we talk with three writers about their concrete proposals for creating more vibrant, hope-filled parish communities.

Their suggestions are simple: let more people, including women, preach; reach out to LGBTQ Catholics, and learn from their journeys; and finally, help young families and finally, help parents with restless young children in tow make it through Mass by shortening homilies—no more than five minutes please

Plus, the Commonweal staff share thoughts about what our readers most want in parishes: robust social justice ministries, prayerful liturgies, and a sense of home.

Teaching & Preaching, Natalia M. Imperatori-Lee
Necessary Affirmation, Jason Steidl
Just Five Minutes, Mollie Wilson O’Reilly
The American Parish, By the Numbers

The American Parish Today, part I Mar 27, 2020

When it comes to the state of the Catholic parish, we tend to focus on the bad news: declining vocations to the priesthood, dwindling congregation sizes, even parochial mergers and closures. For the people in the pews, it’s easy to feel like the Catholic church today is dying.

But that’s not the whole story, and of course as Catholics, we believe in resurrection. On this episode we hear from two of the most knowledgeable, hopeful voices in the American church: Susan Bigelow Reynolds, an expert theologian who studies “lived ecclesiology” at the parochial level, and Fr. Hector Madrigal, pastor of the multi-ethnic and multi-lingual St. Joseph’s Church in Amarillo, Texas.

Together they urge us not to be afraid, suggesting that there’s never been a better time than now to begin the ‘heart’ work of power sharing and ecclesial integration.

And don’t miss the next episode of the Commonweal Podcast, when we’ll be joined by three leading lay Catholics who tell us what parishes could do to be more welcoming to aspiring preachers, families, and LGBTQ Catholics.

Way Stations for a Pilgrim Church, by Susan Bigelow Reynolds
Look Who’s Here, by Brett C. Hoover
The ‘Heart’ Work, an Interview with Fr. Hector Madrigal
The American Parish Today, By the Numbers

Ep. 28 - Why Hong Kong Matters Now Mar 13, 2020

The spread of the coronavirus pandemic has upended daily life across the globe, with major outbreaks occurring in countries like China, South Korea, Italy, Iran, and now the United States.

But Hong Kong, an island close to mainland China, has managed to limit the spread of the disease, even as it experiences one of the largest and most sustained mass protest movements in history.

In this episode, China expert and social historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author of the new book Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink, joins us for a discussion about what we can learn from the protests. And our spring intern Emily King, herself a Hong Kong native, gives us a feel for the city and explains what the protests mean for young people today.

For further reading:

Nicole Ann Lobo, Revolution of Our Times
Nicholas Haggerty, What I Saw During the Protests
The Editors, Desperate Times

Ep. 27 - The Democrats’ Dilemma Mar 02, 2020

How should we understand the current split between so-called “progressives” and “moderates” in the Democratic Party? In the middle of an uncertain primary campaign, where can they find compromise and unity?

Longtime Commonweal columnist and political scientist E.J. Dionne, Jr. joins associate editor Matthew Sitman for a wide-ranging conversation about what it means to be a Democrat today. Pointing to Catholic social thought, and in particular the notion of human dignity, Dionne makes the case that there’s a lot both wings of the party can agree on for improving people’s lives.

Plus, Phil Klay, winner of the National Book Award for his collection ‘Redeployment’ and co-host of the podcast ‘Manifesto!’ sits down with senior editor Matthew Boudway to talk about the “enfant terrible” of the contemporary French literary scene, Michel Houellebecq.

Ep. 26 - Reporting Religion Feb 14, 2020

Though we live in a secular age, we sure seem to like reading about faith.

Poet and reporter Eliza Griswold, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for her book ‘Amity and Prosperity’ and author of the new poetry collection ‘If Men, Then,’ explains how both genres have helped her tell stories that transcend her ego. She talks with us about writing poetry, reporting from conflict zones, and what the secular media get wrong about religious belief today.

Plus, Dominic Preziosi and Matthew Sitman report on the state of the Democratic Primary so far, offering a few prognostications and underscoring the stakes of the 2020 presidential election.

Ep. 25 - Public Education in Crisis Jan 31, 2020

What do billionaires like Betsy DeVos know about running schools?

Absolutely nothing, argues public education expert Diane Ravitch. Since the 1980s, wealthy privatizers have passed themselves off as education “reformers.” But the data reveal that they weaken outcomes for students and thrust public-school teachers into poverty.

Thankfully, there’s hope: in her new book Slaying Goliath Ravitch points to the growing resistance: parents, teachers’ unions, and progressive politicians working together to save the public sphere from the wealthy.

Plus, the editors discuss Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life, a “simple” film that plumbs the depth of Austrian Catholic martyr Franz Jägerstätter’s decision to refuse to sign an oath of loyalty to Adolph Hitler in 1943.

Ep. 24 - God & Mammon Jan 17, 2020

Does capitalism make us bad Christians?

Eugene McCarraher thinks so. His new book, The Enchantments of Mammon, explains how money came to replace God in the modern era, seducing us with false promises of profit maximization. But he hasn’t given up hope. We can reverse our “misenchantment” and return to real abundance: beloved community in a world charged with the glory of God.

Plus, the Commonweal staff gathers for a conversation about “popes on film,” weighing in on The Two Popes, The New Pope, and that infamous pontifical hand-slap.

Ep. 23 - Truth & Dignity Dec 20, 2019

Proudly LGBT, and proudly Catholic? Many believers are both.

In this episode, journalist Michael O’Loughlin joins associate editor Matt Sitman for a behind-the-scenes conversation about his new podcast series “Plague: Untold Stories of AIDS & the Catholic Church,” out now from our friends at America Media.

They discuss the urgency of documenting an understudied period of church history, when priests, nuns, and cardinals in cities like New York and San Francisco responded to the AIDS crisis during the 1980s.

Plus, assistant editors Regina Munch and Griffin Oleynick preview the new “Comment” section of the January issue, praising the rise of “progressive DAs” and decrying the Trump administration’s recent cuts to food stamps.

Ep. 22 - Against the Machine Dec 06, 2019

What is a home? And what happens when old patterns of life break down?

In his new book Savage Gods, British writer and former environmental activist Paul Kingsnorth wrestles with these questions. Contemporary threats to nature, he argues, are indicative of a deeper problem: the crisis of culture and language in the West. He joins Commonweal books columnist Anthony Domestico for a wide-ranging conversation on everything from the writings of Annie Dillard to the practice of Zen Buddhism.

Plus, December at Commonweal means one thing: the publication of our annual Christmas Critics feature. The staff joins Dominic to talk about their favorite books this year.

Ep. 21 - End Times Nov 22, 2019

Native Californian (and Catholic writer) Kaya Oakes stopped by our offices a few weeks ago.

She spoke with associate editor Matt Sitman about what it’s like to live, think, and write from her perch at the other end of the country. Noting the utopian thrust of California culture, Oakes explains how religion and spirituality continue to lurk beneath the surface of her state’s supposedly laid-back, secular ethos.

Plus, Dominic talks with managing editor Kate Lucky about her new feature on the last living Shakers, now online (and forthcoming in the December issue).

Ep. 20 - Before & After Oct 31, 2019

Conversion is never neat and tidy. We like to think of “the new life” as a radical break from the past. But in reality the threads of our prior lives—both good and bad—are woven into our present. Few know this as well as Megan Phelps-Roper, author of the new memoir Unfollow, and a former member of the now-infamous Westboro Baptist Church. She talks with us about her formative early years in that community, as well as her faith journey since, in which she’s discovered spiritual freedom and a growing comfort with uncertainty.

Plus, Dominic and the Commonweal staff chat about the new Fall Books issue, which features a profile of Catholic poet Fanny Howe.

Ep. 19 - Borderlands & Barrios Oct 18, 2019

Political power doesn’t just “happen.” It has to be built.

In this episode we speak with Benjamin Francis-Fallon about his new book, The Rise of the Latino Vote. Tracing the decades-long process of organizing among hispanic immigrant communities in the U.S., Francis-Fallon rebuts the myth of Latino voters as the country’s “sleeping giant.” They constitute not a unified political bloc, but a variegated coalition with a diverse array of concrete interests. It’s the grassroots, not the top, that matters.

And members of the Commonweal staff speak about what they witnessed last weekend in El Paso, Texas. There, they participated in the Jornada por la Justicia, a national teach-in and binational action against racism and xenophobia, organized by the Catholic Latinx Leadership Coalition and Hope Border Institute.

Ep. 18 - A Call to Public Life Oct 03, 2019

Is Catholicism compatible with representative democracy?

A twentieth-century Italian priest, Don Luigi Sturzo, certainly thought so. As populism threatens democratic norms across the globe, Massimo Faggioli tells us how Sturzo’s anti-fascist Popular Party empowered lay Catholics to respectfully challenge the hierarchical church as they asserted their right to engage meaningfully in public life.

Plus, we speak with Dr. Mike Lovell, president of Marquette University in Milwaukee, about the challenges facing Catholic higher education today: shifting demographics and cost structures, a changing curriculum, and addressing trauma and the mental-health needs of students.

Ep. 17 - Back to School Sep 12, 2019

In this episode, we speak with Fr. Anthony Andreassi, principal of Regis High School, the historic Jesuit institution in Manhattan. Fr. Andreassi talks about the school's early twentieth century roots before discussing the challenges faced by Catholic educators today: not just soaring costs and falling enrollment, but also dealing with uncomfortable questions about gender, economic privilege, and the increasingly fractious American culture wars.

Plus, our own Matt Sitman critiques the duplicitous rhetoric of ‘national conservatism,’ a growing movement among conservative intellectuals to systematize the disruptive politics of the Trump presidency.

Ep. 16 - Servants of Memory Aug 22, 2019

Each day we find ourselves awash in a sea of information. Our social media feeds, newspapers, and cable news bring stories of fresh catastrophe, clouding our memory and our judgment. Fake news might be easy to spot, but where can real wisdom be found?

In this episode, we speak with award-winning author Barry Lopez, whose magisterial new book, Horizon, came out earlier this year. A longtime travel writer, Lopez has spent decades living with indigenous peoples. He issues a cautionary word about the dangers of capitalism and climate change, but also points toward the powers of human cooperation and communion with the divine as authentic sources of hope.

Plus, our staff explains big changes coming to your mailbox: we've redesigned the print magazine, we're excited to tell you all about what you can look forward to in the new sleeker, longer, monthly Commonweal.

Ep. 15 - Leisure & Labor Aug 08, 2019

Summer's closing days are upon us. As temperatures cool and the days grow shorter, it's also the best time to hit the beach (or a nice shady grove) with a stack of books.

In this episode, Commonweal editors and writers discuss what they've been reading this summer, touching on everything from David Hockney and Robert Caro to Jia Tolentino and Rick Steves.

Plus, we speak with Mexican actress Gabriela Cartol, the star of one of this summer's best films, "The Chambermaid." It’s set entirely in a sleek high-rise hotel, and Cartol’s performance is a revelation, lending emotional poignancy and spiritual warmth to the cold world of capitalist exploitation in modern-day Mexico City.

Ep. 14 - Forget-Me-Not Jul 25, 2019

There are some things we'd rather not remember: old wounds, moral lapses, humiliating failures. But there are also things we have a duty to never forget, like historical traumas and present injustices.

Cultural critic Lewis Hyde explores this tension—how the hard work of "forgetting" can pave the way to healing and regeneration, touching on Buddhist philosophy, St. Augustine, and Marcel Proust.

Plus, the editors challenge the US Bishops to stop mincing words and take concrete action on immigration.

Ep. 13 - Action & Contemplation Jul 11, 2019

We all want change: in our inner lives, in our friendships, in our politics. But what's the best way to get there?

Less, as they say, is often more. In this episode, we introduce a new, leaner format.

The editors weigh in on the crowded 2020 Democratic primary field.

And California-based writer, teacher, and digital artist Jenny Odell explains the merits of doing nothing, arguing that contemplative leisure holds the key to meaningful activity.

Ep. 12 - Crime & Sanctuary Jun 19, 2019

This month, we delve into courtroom dramas and sanctuary spaces.

Writer Casey Cep explores our growing fascination with true crime, and reveals Harper Lee's struggle with writer's block.

Activist Felix Cepeda roots the sanctuary church movement in the history of Catholic civil disobedience.

Plus, the editors discuss HBO's Chernobyl.

Ep. 11 - Literature & Longing May 15, 2019

Novelist Alice McDermott, a self-described “contrarian Catholic,” speaks about her forays into op-ed writing. Pulitzer-prize winning author Paul Harding expatiates on his love of Karl Barth and the literary qualities of the Bible. Mockingbird Ministries’ David Zahl diagnoses our modern spiritual malaise and our foolhardy quest for “enoughness.”

Bonus Extended Segment: Alice Quinn, director of the Poetry Society of America with associate editor Matthew Sitman Apr 29, 2019

Alice Quinn is the executive director of the Poetry Society of America, and is on the faculty of the graduate school of Columbia University. She was also the longtime poetry editor of the New Yorker magazine. Here she speaks with our associate editor Matthew Sitman about her work and her life in poetry, including her instrumental role in the beloved program that brought poetry to the New York City subways.

Bonus Extended Segment: Poet and memoirist Carolyn Forche with Garvey writing fellow Nicole-Ann Lobo Apr 25, 2019

The poet Carolyn Forche is also an editor, translator and human-rights activist. Her most recent book is What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance. Nicole-Ann Lobo, the Commonweal Garvey Writing Fellow, recently spoke with Carolyn about the memoir, about her experiences during the war in El Salvador, and about what it was like to meet, and receive Communion from, St. Oscar Romero.

You can read Nicole-Ann and Carolyn's full interview here.

Bonus Extended Segment: National Poetry Month Edition: Alice Quinn, director of the Poetry Society of America, Shane McCrae, poet and Guggenheim fellow, and poet and memoirist, Carolyn Forché Apr 17, 2019

On this episode, we’re marking National Poetry month by featuring conversations with three wonderful writers. Our associate editor Matthew Sitman talks with Alice Quinn about her work and her time as poetry editor with the New Yorker magazine. Our literary editor Anthony Domestico speaks with Shane McCrae, whose collection "The Gilded Auction Block" has just been published. And Nicole-Ann Lobo, our Garvey Writing Fellow, sits down with the poet and human rights activist Carolyn Forché, to discuss her most recent book "What You Have heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness & Resistance". And make sure to stick around until the end, when our senior editor Matthew Boudway steps in with a special reading of a poem by Les Murray.

Eula Biss with Assistant Editor Griffin Oleynick Mar 25, 2019

Eula Biss is artist-in-residence in the English Department at Northwestern University, where she also teaches creative writing. She’s the author of On Immunity: An Inoculation, which was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by the New York Times Book Review, and of Notes from No Man's Land, a collection of essays that won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism in 2010. Eula spoke with Commonweal’s assistant editor Griffin Oleynick about the spiritual challenges of racism, the meaning of “whiteness,” and the craft of non-fiction writing.

Ep. 9 - Austen Ivereigh on the Vatican Summit on Clerical Sex Abuse, Eula Biss on "Whiteness", Hoffsman Ospino on the Latinx Church, and Tony Domestico with Novelist Kathryn Davis Mar 18, 2019

On this episode, Catholic journalist and papal biographer Austen Ivereigh talks with senior editor Matthew Boudway about the Vatican’s February summit on clerical sex abuse. Eula Biss, author of On Immunity: An Inoculation and No Man’s Land: American Essays, speaks with assistant editor Griffin Oleynick about the spiritual challenges of racism, the meaning of “whiteness,” and the craft of non-fiction writing. Boston College professor Hosffman Ospino explains how new generations of Latino Americans are reshaping notions about “cultural Catholicism” in the U.S. And novelist Kathryn Davis talks with literary editor Anthony Domestico about metaphor, mystery, and pilgrimage in her novel, The Silk Road.

Bonus Extended Segment: A Wide-ranging Chat with Archetypal New York Personality Fran Lebowitz Mar 07, 2019

Last winter, we sat down for a conversation with Fran Lebowitz, the writer, speaker, wit, and archetypal New York personality. Here you'll hear an excerpt from that interview, which lasted for more than two hours, in which we discuss the Trump presidency, #MeToo, former President Obama, the contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and the rapidity of change in New York City.

Ep. 8 Marie Collins and Massimo Faggioli on Clerical Sex Abuse, Vinson Cunningham writes about hell, and Staffers on Swedish Abstractionist Hilma af Klint Feb 14, 2019

Dominic Preziosi sat down with Commonweal contributor Massimo Faggioli to get his thoughts about the upcoming bishops’ summit on clerical sex abuse, which gets underway at the Vatican on February 21. Contributor, Paul Moses, speaks with Marie Collins, a former member of Pope Francis's papal commission on clergy sexual abuse, about her experiences and insights on the issue. Associate editor, Matthew Sitman, interviews New Yorker staff writer Vinson Cunningham, and associate publisher Meaghan Ritchey and assistant editor Griffin Oleynick discuss the paintings of Swedish abstractionist Hilma af Klint, whose work is now on exhibit at New York’s Guggenheim Museum.

Ep. 7 - Peter Steinfels on the PA Grand Jury Report on Clergy Sex Abuse, Allan Lichtman on Voting Rights in the U.S., and poet Danielle Chapman with Tony Domestico Jan 17, 2019

Peter Steinfels discusses the PA Grand Jury Report, a document he contends is "inaccurate, unfair, and fundamentally misleading" in its characterization of how church officials handled allegations of abuse there. Allan Lichtman, author of The Embattled Vote in America, discusses the complicated history of voting rights in the United States and how the Constitution is actually responsible for many of our current problems. And Commonweal literary columnist Tony Domestico interviews poet Danielle Chapman about everything from metaphysics to John Ashbery to Tennessee and Chicago, with Danielle's poetry read throughout the conversation.

Ep. 6 - "Why We Came. Why We Left. Why We Stayed.", Christmas Critics Roundup, and Cassandra Nelson on the Liturgical Calendar and Advent Dec 12, 2018

Senior editor Matthew Boudway introduces special feature "Why We Came. Why We Left. Why We Stayed" — with essays by converts, practicing cradle Catholics, and lapsed or ex-Catholics. We speak with three of our contributors: Ross Douthat, Helene Stapinski, and Dorothy Fortenberry. Four editors discuss the books they read in 2018 and recommend to you in our annual Christmas Critics roundup. Plus, a reading of Cassandra Nelson's new essay about the lifeline that the liturgical calendar provides.

Ep. 5 Long Segment - Dominic Preziosi and Dan Barry Nov 29, 2018

Reporter Dan Barry spent more than a decade crisscrossing the United States, chronicling ordinary lives and extraordinary moments for his column in the New York Times, This Land. About a hundred of these standalone dispatches have now been collected in a hardcover book of the same name. Dominic Preziosi talked to Dan about the book and also about the importance of journalism, local and otherwise, and what it’s like to be called an “enemy of the people” by the president of the United States.

Ep. 5 Long Segment - Tony Domestico and poet Katie Ford Nov 27, 2018

The poems in Katie Ford’s fourth collection, If You Have to Go, implore their audience—the divine and the human—for attention, for revelation, and, perhaps above all, for companionship. Our literary columnist Anthony Domestico spoke with Katie recently about the poems in the book, including the sonnet sequence at its heart. It’s a great conversation—and hearing Katie read her work, as you will—really provides a sense of what poetry can do.

Ep. 5 - The USCCB, the NYT's Dan Barry, poet Katie Ford, and staffers on Cultural Appropriation Nov 21, 2018

Dominic Preziosi and John Gehring wrap-up November's US Bishop's meetings in Baltimore. Our literary columnist Anthony Domestico interviews poet Katie Ford about her new collection If You Have to Go. Dominic Preziosi chats with longtime New York Times writer Dan Barry about his collection of reported essays, This Land. And senior editor Matthew Boudway moderates an exchange on cultural appropriation between contributor Rand Richards Cooper and intern Nicole-Ann Lobo

Ep. 4 Long Segment - Katherine Lucky with Meghan O'Gieblyn Nov 10, 2018

Meghan O'Gieblyn is the author of Interior States, a new collection of essays on topics like living in what some call "flyover country," contemporary Christian music, and the concept of "hell" and how it is marketed to the masses. Her collection is being hailed by writers such as Lorrie Moore and Daphne Merken; here, Meghan talks about her work and background with managing editor Katherine Lucky.

Ep. 4 Long Segment - Tony Domestico with Emily Ruskovich Nov 03, 2018

Emily Ruskovich's debut novel Idaho received wide acclaim in 2017, named a New York Times Editor's Choice Book and The Idaho Book of the Year. Here, she talks with Commonweal contributor Tony Domestico, who described Idaho as "a wondrous novel about the enchanting and terrifying wonders of experience: unexplained and unexplainable actions, the ways in which love can pivot to hate and back again, the strangeness of memory and loss and mercy."

Ep. 4 - Synod 2018, writers Emily Ruskovich and Meghan O'Gieblyn, and Derek Jeffreys on America's Jails Nov 02, 2018

This episode features a conversation between Meghan O'Gieblyn and Katherine Lucky, a pair of young writers whose essays on the life of faith are already receiving acclaim. Editor Dominic Preziosi and Assistant Editor Griffin Oleynick discuss his coverage from the 2018 Synod on Young People at the Vatican. Contributor Anthony Domestico talks to Emily Ruskovich about her 2017 debut novel. And Derek Jeffreys discusses his new book, America's Jails: The Search for Human Dignity in an Age of Mass Incarceration.

Ep. 3 Long Segment - Dominic Preziosi interviews Katherine Lucky Nov 02, 2018

Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi talks with managing editor Katherine Lucky about the power of female rage in this political moment.

Ep. 3 Long Segment - Staffers on David Wojnarowicz Oct 09, 2018

Staffers Griffin Oleynick, Nicole-Ann Lobo, and Meaghan Ritchey chat about the recently closed David Wojnarowicz retrospective at The Whitney Museum. Wojnarowicz was a multi-media artist working in NYC from the 1970s through 1992 when he died of AIDS-related complications. According to the exhibition's catalog, his work "documents and illuminates a desperate period of American history...his rightful place is also among the raging and haunting iconoclastic voices."

Ep. 3 Long Segment - Julian Revie on Sacred Music Oct 09, 2018

Julian Revie is a composer of sacred at St. Thomas More, the Catholic Chapel at Yale University. His Composition "Kyrie"—which you can hear in the segment— won the Francesco Siciliani Prize in 2016. In this segment, you'll hear him and assistant editor Griffin Oleynick discuss the process of musical composition, sacred art-making as a vocation, and even the theology behind "Kyrie," the musical setting of the penitential rite at the beginning of the Catholic Mass.

Ep. 3 Long Segment - Matthew Boudway and Alan Jacobs Oct 09, 2018

Senior editor Matthew Boudway and Dr. Alan Jacobs discuss Jacobs' new book The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis, in which he recounts how thinkers like Jacques Maritain, T.S. Eliot, Simone Weil, C.S. Lewis, and W.H. Auden understood that their soon-to-be victorious nations weren't culturally or morally prepared for their power and success. Their work sought to articulate a sober critique of their own culture and and outline a plan for spiritual regeneration in a post-war world.

Ep. 3 Long Segment - Paul Moses and Donald Kerwin on Immigration Policy Oct 09, 2018

Contributing Editor Paul Moses speaks with Donald Kerwin, the Director of the Center for Migration Studies, about the Trump administration's immigration policies. Moses and Kerwin reflect on these policies in light of Catholic teaching, contextualizing the Holy Family as a refugee family with migrant histories in scripture.

Ep. 3 Long Segment - The editors on Brett Kavanaugh Oct 09, 2018

The editors discuss their editorial "Injudicious," on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, subsequent Senate Judiciary hearings with Dr. Ford, and Kavanaugh's conduct therein.

Ep. 3 - Donald Kerwin on Immigration, Alan Jacobs on Christian Humanism, Julian Revie on liturgical music; the editors on the Kavanaugh hearings, and staffers on artist David Wojnarowicz Oct 04, 2018

In our third episode, the editors of Commonweal discuss Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court and the subsequent hearing with Dr. Blasey Ford. Contributing writer Paul Moses chats about U.S. immigration policy with Donald Kerwin, Director of the Center for Migration Studies. Senior editor Matthew Boudway and Alan Jacobs discuss his new book, The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis. Assistant editor Griffin Oleynick and Julian Revie, a composer of sacred music at St. Thomas More, the Catholic Chapel at Yale, have a wide-ranging conversation about liturgical music. And Commonweal staffers discuss the David Wojnarowicsz retrospective at The Whitney Museum of American Art.

Ep. 2 - Paul Griffiths on Brexit, Christine Emba on a Moral Economy, and Cole Stangler on French Politics Sep 23, 2018

In our second installment, the Commonweal staff discusses the shape of future podcasts. Matthew Boudway talks with theologian Paul J. Griffiths about Roger Scruton’s latest book and Brexit. Griffin Oleynick sits down with Christine Emba to talk about the issues raised in "A Moral Economy—Faith and the Free Market in an Age of Inequality," a conversation between Cardinal Tobin and Jeffrey Sachs. And Matthew Sitman speaks with Cole Stangler about the populist turn in French politics.

Ep. 2 Long Segment - Matthew Sitman interviews Cole Stangler Sep 23, 2018

Matthew Sitman interviews Cole Stangler about the recent state of French politics, and what it might suggest about the American political situation.

Ep. 2 Long Segment - Griffin Oleynick interviews Christine Emba Sep 23, 2018

Griffin Oleynick interviews Christine Emba of the Washington Post about ethics and economics in light of Catholic moral and social teachings.

Ep. 2 Long Segment - Matthew Boudway interviews Paul Griffiths Sep 23, 2018

Matthew Boudway interviews Paul Griffiths about his recent review of Roger Scruton's Where We Are: The State of Britain Now.

Trailer: We're Making a Podcast Sep 22, 2018

Commonweal editors Dominic Preziosi, Matthew Sitman, and Griffin Oleynick speak with Executive Producer Meaghan Ritchey about this new project - why we're doing it, and what we hope the experience will be for you, our listeners.

Ep. 1 - Kathleen Sprows Cummings and Massimo Faggioli on the sex abuse crisis, Sam Adler-Bell on Jonah Goldberg, the poetry of Micheal O'Siadhail, and staffers on Alberto Giacometti Sep 18, 2018

In our pilot episode, editor Dominic Preziosi interviews Massimo Faggioli and Kathleen Sprows Cummings about recent developments in the sex-abuse crisis, Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell discuss Jonah Goldberg's book Suicide of the West, Anthony Domestico interviewsMicheal O'Siadhail about his book The Five Quintets, and several Commonweal staff discuss the recent Alberto Giacometti exhibit at The Guggenheim.

Ep. 1 Long Segment - Staffers discuss the work of Alberto Giacometti Sep 18, 2018

Commonweal staffers discuss the work of Alberto Giacometti, who was recently the subject of a major show at the Guggenheim Museum.

Ep. 1 Long Segment - Anthony Domestico interviews Michael O'Siadhail Sep 18, 2018

Anthony Domestico interviews poet Michael O'Siadhail, whose book The Five Quintets was published by Baylor University Press in 2018.

Ep. 1 Long Segment - Matthew Sitman interviews Sam Adler-Bell Sep 18, 2018

Associate Editor Matthew Sitman interviews Sam Adler-Bell, Senior Policy Associate at the Century Foundation, about Jonah Goldberg's Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy.

Ep. 1 Long Segment - Dominic Preziosi interviews Massimo Faggioli Sep 18, 2018

Editor Dominic Preziosi chats with Commonweal contributor and Villanova Prof. Massimo Faggioli about the controversy raised by the "testimony" of former Nuncio Carlo Mario Viganò and why Francis's response to his allegations is, perhaps, the right one.

Ep. 1 Long Segment - Dominic Preziosi and Kathleen Sprows Cummings Sep 18, 2018

Editor Dominic Preziosi talks with Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at Notre Dame, about revelations of sexual abuse and cover-up in six Pennsylvania dioceses and what meaningful reform would require.

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