The Commonweal Podcast

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Ep. 119 - Best of 2023 Dec 21, 2023

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

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