The Commonweal Podcast

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

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