Podcasts about Catholic Church

“Can I become Catholic without an annulment?” This episode addresses the complexities of joining the Church, especially for those with previous marriages. Additionally, we explore questions about purgatory in the Protestant Bible, the implications of sola scriptura, and the reasons behind the Catholic Church’s calendar changes. Tune in for a thoughtful examination of these important topics. Join the Catholic Answers Live Club Newsletter Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com Questions Covered: 14:01 – If I was previously married and couldn't get annulled and as a result and could never receive the Eucharist, why would I become Catholic? 24:22 – Where in the Protestant bible does it talk about purgatory? 33:31 – I'm interested in Catholicism, but I follow sola scriptura very strictly. 45:06 – Why did the Catholic Church change the calendar that now disagrees with the Orthodox? 50:44 – I'm thinking about leaving Catholicism because the Church discriminates against homosexuals from being admitted into seminary to become priests?

Purgatory isn't about punishment—it's about love that purifies. Dr.Sri unpacks one of the most misunderstood Catholic doctrines and reveals how the “fires” of purgatory are really the fire of God's love—healing, cleansing, and transforming our hearts so we can love Him completely. _ _ For full shownotes, visit Ascensionpress.com/Allthingscatholic, or text ALLTHINGSCATHOLIC to 33-777 for weekly shownotes sent to your inbox.

Today, Fr. Mike discusses the confidence that faith in God can provide as we fight the battles of our lives. He also engages with the riddles found in Wisdom 10 and points out that we can now not only understand the characters, stories, and allusions of Scripture, but can recognize the fingerprints of God in the world around us and better understand the main character of Scripture: God. Today's readings are 2 Maccabees 10, Wisdom 9-10, and Proverbs 25:4-7. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

What is God's intended purpose for our sexuality? We confront several significant transgressions that hinder this design. These offenses include lust, the consumption of pornography, and engagement in prostitution. Fr. Mike offers us a poignant reminder that despite these sins, our intrinsic human dignity remains unblemished and worthy of reverence. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 2351-2356. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Pope Leo XIV has recently formally declared St. John Henry Newman—who was canonized only in 2019 by Pope Francis—a doctor of the Catholic Church, a recognition given only to 37 other saints in Catholicism's over 2000 year history. This places Newman among great figures like St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, St. Jerome, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Theresa de Avila, St. Catherine of Sienna, and the Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisieux. What is the significance of giving St. John Henry Newman—an Englishman and Anglican convert to Catholicism who was born over 200 years ago—this title? What is it about Newman's approach to communicating the faith that earned him this great honor—and why now?  Equally important, how can contemporary evangelists draw inspiration from his work to proclaim the Gospel in a drastically different world, religiously and morally, from Newman's 19th century Victorian England? A listener asks for advice on how to give better homilies at Mass. 00:00 | Introduction 01:26 | Bishop Barron's recent domestic travels 03:20 | Defining "Doctor of the Church" 04:55 | Distinguishing doctors from saints 05:50 | John Henry Newman's brief biography 12:18 | Understanding the development of doctrine 17:41 | Safeguards against corruption 22:33 | The wholeness of the truth 25:34 | Newman: "To live is to change" 29:28 | The "illative sense" of the mind's assent to propositions 34:10 | Difficulties vs. doubt 35:54 | How Newman speaks to England now 37:55 | Listener question: How can priests improve preparation for homilies? 39:58 | Join the Word on Fire Institute   Links: Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/ NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.    

“Do Catholics worship bread?” This episode delves into the nuances of Communion and Adoration, addressing common misconceptions. We also explore why laypeople were allowed to partake from the chalice, the omission of the ‘I confess’ prayer during the penitential rite, and the significance of understanding our moral obligations regarding Communion. Join the Catholic Answers Live Club Newsletter Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com Questions Covered: 03:20 – Do Catholics worship bread? 11:18 – Why did they start letting the lay people partake in communion through the chalice? And why was it originally prohibited? 18:37 – Why do some churches, during the penitential rite, omit the ‘I confess' prayer? 20:46 – Why can’t we see what is happening in heaven during the Mass? 28:55 – What is my moral obligation to someone who I know is receiving communion outside of the state of grace? 33:48 – John 6 compared 1 Cor. 11, why are there conflicting consequences? 42:17 – What steps do we need to do to be able to return to the Catholic Church and receive communion? 46:10 – We didn't hear the Gloria yesterday at Mass. Why is that? 48:16 – How do we get the most out of adoration? How can I better explain adoration to people?

Send us a textMany Catholics assume Vatican II got rid of Latin in the Catholic Mass — but that's not what the Council taught.In this episode, Fr. Dan Yasinski and Ken Yasinski explore the Catholic Church's true teaching on Latin, the Mass, and the Sacred Liturgy.Support the showSupport this show and get all future episodes by email atwww.kenandjanelle.com

It goes without saying that War is Peace, especially when the President of Peace continually threatens war or supports the same indirectly: from Gaza to Venezuela and now Nigeria. The President posted this threat to Nigeria over the Halloween weekend: “If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,' to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities. I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!” In response, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth responded: “Yes sir… The killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria — and anywhere — must end immediately. The Department of War is preparing for action. Either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/01/politics/trump-pentagon-nigeria-action According to a 2024 report from “The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa,” there have been 11,000 incidents of extreme violence from October 2019 through September of 2023. The violence left 55,910 people dead in 9,970 deadly attacks — as well as 21,621 people abducted in 2,705 attacks. The total number includes civilian deaths, terror group deaths, and Nigerian Armed Forces deaths. Of the total deaths, 30,880 were civilians. Of the civilians, at least 16,769 Christians were killed, 6,235 Muslims were killed and 154 adherents of traditional African religions were killed. The religions of 7,722 victims are unknown. The report says further: “The ratio of Christians to Muslims killed rises significantly when the religious composition of the states is taken into consideration. Looking at the overall numbers, the ratio of Christians to Muslims killed was 2.7:1; the ratio of Christians to Muslims abducted was 1.4:1. However, when taking into account the relative sizes of the Christian and Muslim populations within the different states, the ratio of Christians to Muslims killed increases to 6.5:1, and the ratio of Christians to Muslims abducted to 5.1:1.” “Fulani Ethnic Militia are targeting Christian populations, while Muslims also suffer severely at their hands,” the Rev. Gideon Para-Mallam, another analyst for The Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa, said in a statement. https://ewtn.co.uk/article-56000-killed-in-nigerias-ethnic-and-religious-violence-christians-disproportionately-affected/ https://orfa.africa/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/26082024-ORFA-4-YEARS-REPORT.pdf Sure, Christians are being targeted, but so are Muslims. But in both cases, religion is not the driving factor behind the attacks and killings in Nigeria. Just as many Christians are killed in Nigeria over farmland, Israeli settler have been slaughtering Palestinian farmers, with no mention of their religion made in the news, for over half a century. A recent AP article confirmed with video evidence that Israeli terrorists beat farmers during the recent olive harvest in the West Bank. https://apnews.com/article/israel-settlers-west-bank-attack-annexation-1e9cbd6af6ea502fbfca5d9ffe949b0bFather Bashar Fawadleh, parish priest of the Church of Christ the Redeemer in Taybeh, told ACI MENA: “The town, which the Gospel of John (11:54) refers to as ‘Ephraim' — the place Jesus withdrew to before his passion — is no longer safe for its people today… We do not live in peace but in daily fear and siege.” https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/amp/news/265035/priest-warns-christian-town-of-taybe-in-holy-land-no-longer-safe-amid-settler-attacksIn July 2025 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country "deeply regrets that a stray ammunition" hit Gaza's only Catholic Church. A few weeks before Israeli forces assaulted Christians in Jerusalem on holy Saturday at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8ge7vllw9o.amp https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-forces-assault-christians-jerusalem-holy-saturdayIn 2024, Israel bombed a Catholic Church in Lebanon, Saint George's, destroying the offices of the parish and the residence of the local priest. They even slaughtered the rescue team.https://zenit.org/2024/10/11/israel-bombs-catholic-church-in-lebanon-and-attacks-un-blue-helmets/#google_vignetteIsrael has repeatedly bombarded Christian towns in Lebanon, specifically targeting Christian homes.  In 2024 they blew up the historic Shrine of Shimon, or the Shrine of Saint Peter. https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-forces-blow-shrine-shimon-south-lebanonIsrael has likewise been working to create sectarian divisions while carrying out sabotage operations or assassinations aimed at triggering internal conflicts in Lebanon. https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/gallery/2024/10/15/israel-kills-at-least-21-in-strike-on-christian-town-in-north-lebanonAfter regime change in Syria, a country that allowed religions to coexist relatively peacefully, the new Israel and US backed Islamic radical government began targeting Christians. In June 2025 60 people were injured in the attack at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Prophet Elias, in an eastern Damascus suburb. The violence has gotten so bad that Christians believe they will be the target of genocide in Syria now. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79q8p8qx1do.ampThe only thing worse than double standards and hypocrisy is a willingness to use oppressed minorities as political fodder. Democrats do this with blacks and gays, Conservatives do this with Jews and Christians. The only thing sicker than that is motivation for a holy war. To ignore the Israeli targeting of Christians, which has only intensified, and instead to focus on what is happening in Nigeria is disingenuous and repulsive.https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250819-the-zionist-project-a-danger-for-lebanon-and-its-christians/?ampPete Hegseth, tattooed with the Jerusalem cross, has all but made it official policy at the pentagon that his Christian warrior ethos will go to war with Islam wherever it can. It appears one of the first battles of this new holy war is set for Nigeria. Meanwhile, Nick Fuentes has called for a universal Catholic theocracy, not too dissimilar from Curtis Yarvin's, the guy who gives JD Vance his political philosophies, techno-monarchy.  https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/articles/when-christ-and-trump-are-kingshttps://www.aiu.edu/blog/the-new-monarchy-the-neo-totalitarian-proposals-of-curtis-yarvin/It's understandable why some cling to extremist religious views when they have otherwise been assaulted with atheistic anti-humanism. The self-correction is also a manual over-compensation. Christians have gone from criticizing the Obama administration's targeting of their identity, claiming First Amendment rights, to calling for the banning of Islam and deportation of all Muslims. That sickness has now grown to include Hinduism too, and even other Christian denominations according to Nick. *The is the FREE archive, which includes advertisements. If you want an ad-free experience, you can subscribe below underneath the show description.https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tst-radio--5328407https://thesecretteachings.info/donate-subscribe/https://x.com/TST___Radio https://www.facebook.com/thesecretteachingshttp://tstradio.info/https://buymeacoffee.com/ryangableBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-secret-teachings--5328407/support.

Support the showRedeemer Church Murfreesboro PCA is 'together trusting the real God to redeem real people"

Fr. Mike draws our attention to the descriptions of wisdom found in our readings for today and reflects on the beauty of wisdom's feminine nature. He also discusses the death of Antiochus Epiphanes and offers two perspectives on reconciling God's role in suffering. Today's readings are from 2 Maccabees 9, Wisdom 7-8, and Proverbs 25:1-3. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

What are the different types of chastity? We learn chastity is "a school of the gift of the person." Mastering ourselves enables us to gift ourselves to another. Fr. Mike explains that chastity bears fruit in the form of true friendship. He explains that God calls everyone to this virtue, no matter his vocation. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 2346-2350. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

--{ "The End of Morality in the New Corporate Feudal System"}-- Torture - "Patriotic" Shopping - Degradation of Society, Military Video Game Desensitization, Programmed New Culture. 100 Years War - Humanoids, Brain Chip - Elimination of Family Unit - A New Way. US Homeland Security, Western Hemisphere Travel, Fenced in Your Borders - Potential "Terrorists", Antib-Globalist "Terrorists". Always Hope while Some of Us Can Think - Diverting this Course - YOU Are Your Own Champion. Think Tank Projections, Riots, 2010 - UN Control and Distribution of Food Supply - Megalomaniacs. Catholic Church, Rome, Caesar - Heretics, Excommunication - Aristocracy - "Caesar and Christ" book by Will Durant. Cultural Christianity, Formulas - Personal Experience - "Born Again", Born into Consciousness - Letting "The Dead bury Their Dead." Mono-Poly - Crop Seeds - Interdependence - Monsanto - Habitat Areas.

Message: Mark Christian, Senior MinisterPassage: Eph 4:1-6, 1 Peter 2:9-10, 1 Cor 12:12-13Series: I Believe: Words That Make Us

As we hear the re-telling of the story of Judas Maccabbeus and his brothers fighting for the honor of the Lord's Temple in 2 Maccabees, Fr. Mike points out how this version gives us an insight into their recognition of God's presence, mercy, and justice in their circumstances. We learn that no matter what we are going through, we can trust that God is our great defender who is present and active in all circumstances of our lives. Today's readings are 2 Maccabees 8, Wisdom 5-6, and Proverbs 24:30-34. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

We are all called to the virtue of chastity, which integrates our sexuality within the fullness of our person. Chastity trains us in freedom, teaching us how to direct and guide our desires. Fr. Mike explains that this virtue requires sustained effort and leads to self-mastery and peace. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 2337-2345. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Read Online“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.” John 6:40Yesterday's Solemnity of All Saints gave us an opportunity to celebrate and rejoice in the fact that there are countless people who have gone before us who are now enjoying the glories of Heaven. These faithful souls lived lives that were grounded in God's grace and have been fully purified of all sin. They now gaze at our good God face-to-face.Today, we commemorate the fact that many who die in a state of grace are not immediately ready to stand before the glorious throne of God and see Him face-to-face. The only way this is possible is if every sin and every attachment to sin is purged from our souls. We must have nothing but pure charity alive within us if we are to enter the eternal glories of Heaven. But how many people die in such a state?The Church, in her wisdom and holiness, has taught clearly through the centuries that when a person passes from this world to the next while still attached to less serious sin, they need to be fully purified in order to enter Heaven. This is Purgatory. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned” (#1030–31a).For some, Purgatory can be a frightening and even confusing thought. Why doesn't God, in His infinite mercy, simply take all our loved ones who followed Him straight to Heaven? The answer is simple. He does! And the path for them to Heaven is this incredible mercy of their final purification.Purification of all attachment to sin within our soul is a mercy beyond what we can imagine. Through this final purification, God prepares the holy souls who have died for an eternity of joy. But this purification is necessary because God, in His love, does not want any soul to live eternally with even a minor attachment to sin. God wants us all free. The truth is that every sin on our soul, even the smallest one, is reason enough for us to be excluded from Heaven. So Purgatory must be seen as a final mercy from God by which He lifts every last burden that keeps us from perfect love, so that our eternity will be one of utmost freedom and ecstasy. God wants us to be filled only with the purity of love forever. Thus, upon our death, we are graced to enter into a final and intense purification of every minor sin, so that when we see God in all His glory, we will see Him with the perfection to which we are called. Purgatory is a gift, a grace, a mercy. It will be painful to go through in the same way that overcoming any sin is painful. But the good fruit of freedom from sin makes every final purification we must endure worth it a hundredfold and more. Reflect, today, upon the spiritual truth that God wants you to be a saint. If you are among those few who die in a state in which you are purified from every sin, then be assured that you have already completed your purgatory on earth. But if you or your loved ones are among the many who still hold some minor attachment to sin at the time of death, then rejoice that God is not done with you yet. Anticipate with much gratitude the final purification that awaits and look forward to the freedom that ultimately comes from that purification. My merciful Lord, You desire that my soul and the souls of all your faithful be purified of every sin, even the smallest imperfection. I thank You for the mercy of Purgatory and pray that I will continually work toward that purification here and now. I pray, also, for all those who have gone before me and are still in need of these purifying fires. Pour forth Your mercy upon them so that they may be counted among the saints in Heaven. Jesus, I trust in You.Image: Luca Giordano, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsSource of content: catholic-daily-reflections.comCopyright © 2025 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission via RSS feed.

Friends of the Rosary,Today, November 1, is the Solemnity of All Saints. The Catholic Church celebrates the multitude of saints in heaven — canonized and uncanonized — enjoying the beatific view.We all have this "universal call to holiness," to join the company of the saints in heaven. To achieve this, we follow in Christ's footsteps and conform ourselves to His image, seeking the will of the Father in all things. We devote ourselves to the glory of God and the service of our neighbor.And what's heaven?The Catechism defines it as “the perfect life with the communion of life and love with the Most Holy Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed.”Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.”During the year, the Church celebrates one by one the feasts of the saints. Today, it recalls the vision "of all nations and tribes standing before the throne and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, proclaiming Him who redeemed them in His Blood."We pray for the Faithful Departed from November 1 to the 8th.Ave Maria!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.Please give us the grace to respond with joy!+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New YorkEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play• November 1, 2025, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET

How the Catholic Church is stepping up as SNAP benefits are set to expire. Plus, an interview with "House of David" actor Michael Iskander on his Catholic faith journey.

Fr. Mike focuses on the powerful theme that connects all of our readings today- the reality of life beyond death. In the story of the martyrdom of the seven brothers in 2 Macabees, we see how the brothers and their mother fiercely reject the temptation to violate God's law, and boldly hold onto their hope in the resurrection of the dead. Our readings from Wisdom also remind us that death is not the end, because we know that eternal life is waiting for us beyond death. Today's readings are 2 Maccabees 7, Wisdom 3-4, and Proverbs 24:27-29. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Why did God create us male and female? We begin our journey through the sixth commandment by learning about the meaning of human sexuality and the complementarity between men and women. Fr. Mike underscores the significance of the body in revealing our sexuality and our vocation to love. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 2331-2336. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

“Do ghosts ask for prayers?” This episode delves into the intriguing question of whether ghosts, potentially souls from purgatory, seek Masses for their peace. Additionally, we explore why God might allow hauntings that seem like repetitive imprints, the moral implications of workplace automation, and the fascinating intersection of Catholic themes in the Star Wars universe. Join the Catholic Answers Live Club Newsletter Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com Questions Covered: 02:32 – If Ghosts may be souls from purgatory whom God has permitted for a particular reason to appear and interact with the living. Why don’t all ghosts ask for Masses to be said for them? 14:45 – Why, in your opinion, would God allow hauntings which act as a non-interactive recording or psychic imprint, which seem to repeat over and over again in the same place, and may even be left by people who are still alive (as opposed to singularly unique and interactive apparitions of the dead)? 21:23 – What are the moral implications of using new technologies in the workplace, knowing that it could lead to other positions becoming obsolete and other employees being laid off? Example: Someone needs to use AI or other forms of automation to meet the requirements for their job, but too much success could convince a CEO to completely replace another human's position with technology 32:20 – Does the phenomenon of dead bodies being incorruptible only happen to saints, or does it happen to non-Catholics as well? 34:18 – Can you explore Catholic themes and spirituality in the Star Wars universe? The chosen one, the Force, jedi order, symbolism, sacrifice of Vader, redemption, etc. I know George Lucas is hardly Catholic, but perhaps he unwittingly drew on the things found in the largest entity in the universe…the Catholic Church. Thanks, and may the Force be with you! 43:15 – Are mine and my husband's guardian angels friends? Is my guardian angel friends with my children's angels? Or is my angel like a mentor to my children's angels? 48:10 – If one’s guardian angel were asked to console Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, would the angel be allowed to do it?

Have you ever thought about what your life smells like to God? Jeff Cavins explores the surprising ways Scripture uses scent to describe our spiritual lives—from the fragrance of prayer and repentance to the aroma of love and sacrifice. Drawing from both the Old and the New Testament, Jeff unpacks how the way we live can become a pleasing offering to the Lord. Email us with comments or questions at thejeffcavinsshow@ascensionpress.com. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff's shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit https://media.ascensionpress.com/?s=&page=2&category%5B0%5D=Ascension%20Podcasts&category%5B1%5D=The%20Jeff%20Cavins%20Show for full shownotes!

Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. This week, amid pomp and circumstance at the Vatican, the Catholic Church marked 60 years to the Nostra Aetate, a document that — among other things — attempts to redefine the two-thousand-year-old relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people. Berman delves into the Nostra Aetate's long-standing significance, especially as the relationship between Israel and the Vatican has frayed during the two-year war in Gaza launched by Hamas's murderous onslaught on southern Israel. We learn of the history behind the creation of the landmark document and the push-pull concerns from the Catholic communities in Mideast countries. We hear of the Jewish French historian Jules Isaac, who compiled Catholic anti-Jewish teachings and delivered them to Pope John XXIII, confirming the need to chart out a new path in the Church. Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Pope Leo XIV attends a commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Vatican 1965 declaration Nostra Aetate (In Our Time) in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, October 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bryan Mercier author of Counterfeit Spirituality: Exposing the False Gods joins Trending with Timmerie. Episode Guide How we celebrate Halloween (0:56) The new age – what are occult practices? Astrology, tarot card reading, seances, ouija boards (24:52) JK Rowling slams Glamour UK's Women of the Year transgender cover (43:45) Resources mentioned: Legend of the Jack O’Lantern https://relevantradio.com/2025/10/the-legend-of-the-jack-olantern-special-podcast-highlight/ Counterfeit Spirituality: Exposing the False Gods https://amzn.to/46QfeOt Episodes on occult with Bryan Mercier https://relevantradio.com/?cat=23210&s=bryan+mercier Crystals and healing energy: what is wrong with using them? https://relevantradio.com/2023/10/energy-crystals-can-catholics-use-them/ Why not yoga? https://relevantradio.com/2023/02/new-age-penn-badgley-in-you/ The Lure of Eastern Spirituality https://relevantradio.com/2025/04/the-lure-of-eastern-spirituality/ Spiritual Not Religious https://relevantradio.com/2025/03/spiritual-not-religious/ Catechism of the Catholic Church on Divination & Magic section 1215-1217 God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility. All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone Catechism of the Catholic Church section 2332-2333 2332 Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others. 2333 Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out.

Send us a textFr Joe Krupp answers your questions about faith and the Catholic Church with humility and humor.Check out the JIBM Web site at:  https://www.joeinblackministries.com/Please use the following link if you would like to financially support Church of the Holy Family: https://pushpay.com/g/hfgrandblanc?sr…Support the show

What gives someone the courage to stand up for truth—even when it costs them everything? Martin Luther’s bold stand for the Gospel wasn’t born from rebellion but from revelation. Rooted in Ephesians 2:8, his discovery that salvation comes by grace through faith ignited a movement that changed history. Having the heart of a reformer means loving God, loving His Church, and being unwilling to compromise the truth of Scripture—no matter the consequences. Highlights A reformer’s heart begins with a deep passion to draw close to God and live by His Word. Luther’s relentless study of Scripture led him to uncover the truth of salvation by grace, not works. True reformers love the Church enough to seek its correction, not its destruction. Luther’s bold action—nailing his 95 Theses—sparked a spiritual awakening that shaped Christianity. Sharing the truth requires courage, humility, and a willingness to face rejection. Luther’s legacy reminds us that faithfulness to God’s Word outweighs fear of man. Every believer is called to carry that same conviction—to speak truth in love and protect the purity of the Gospel. Join the Conversation What truth has God been stirring in your heart to stand for, even if it’s uncomfortable? Share your thoughts with us and tag @LifeAudioNetwork using #FaithThatTransforms #StandForTruth #HeartOfAReformer.

In Season 3, Episode 6 Nick Tilsen is joined by Brittany Koteles, Executive Director of Land Justice Futures. This organization helps religious land owners pursue land justice – shifting the narrative of land as a commodity to one of repair, restoration, and reciprocity. Land Justice Futures works closely with Christian communities and Catholic sisters to move toward repair.  According to Land Justice Future, the Catholic Church is the world's largest private landowner, with land on every continent, in every country across the globe. In this conversation, Nick and Brittany talk about what LANDBACK means to the Catholic church, what organizing nuns is like, and the very first Catholic land return in history. The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration will return two acres of lakefront property to the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa on October 31, 2025. Listen to the episode to hear just how this work is being done and how sisters of the Catholic Church are digging in and riding for LANDBACK.  GUESTS: Brittany Koteles, Executive Director of Land Justice Futures LEARN MORE: https://www.landjusticefutures.org To learn about our big wins and hear stories from our grantees and loan relative across Turtle Island, read our 2024 Impact Report on our website at: https://ndncollective.org/impact-reports Support the For the People Campaign today! Your donation to NDN Collective directly supports Indigenous organizers, Nations, Tribes, and communities leading the fight for justice and liberation. Donate now to fund the frontlines, fuel the movement, and rematriate wealth. ndnco.cc/ftpcdonate For more ways to support, read our For the People Campaign blog: ndnco.cc/25ftpcbb1  EPISODE CREDITS: Host: Nick Tilsen Executive Producer: Willi White Music: Mato Wayuhi Editor: Willi White Copywriter: Jordynn Paz Digital Engagement: Angie Solloa Production Support: Layne L. LeBeaux PRESS & MEDIA: press@ndncollective.org  FOLLOW NDN COLLECTIVE:https://ndncollective.org https://www.instagram.com/ndncollective https://www.linkedin.com/company/ndncollective/ https://www.facebook.com/ndncol https://www.threads.net/@ndncollective https://bsky.app/profile/ndncollective.bsky.social https://www.tiktok.com/@ndncollective https://x.com/ndncollective

Send us a textIn this episode of the Frontiers in Faith podcast, Msgr. Roger Landry interviews Father Bonaventure Luchidio, the National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Kenya. They discuss the growth of the Catholic Church in Kenya, its missionary history, the ecclesiastical structure, and the Fidei Donum program that sends priests to remote areas. Father Bonaventure shares insights into Kenyan Catholic piety, including devotions to the Sacred Heart and the Rosary, and highlights the dual role of Kenya as both a donor and recipient in global missionary efforts.Click here to learn more about supporting the Pontifical Missions Societies:https://pontificalmissions.orgFollow us on socials!https://x.com/tpms_usahttps://www.instagram.com/tpms_us/

In this Episode:Why the 'Immediate Entry Into Heaven', Argument - Fails...Diocesan Staff Apologist and Speaker for Catholic Answers, Dr. Karlo Broussard, explains the Why's behind Catholic Beliefs from Faith, Morality, and Culture. Providing the Reasons behind the claims made by the Catholic Church. Send your questions to...Karlo@stmichaelradio.comA Production of St. Michael Catholic RadioThe Catholic Reason Airs Every Thursday on 94.9 St Michael Catholic Radio at 4 p.m. CST.

Fr. Mike offers a recap of Eleazar's martyrdom and marvels at Eleazar's courage to avoid both sin, and the temptation to lead others into sin. As we begin reading the book of Wisdom today, we also learn three valuable lessons; God did not create death, death entered the world through sin, and we are wise when we walk in the truth but foolish when we walk in evil. Today's readings are 2 Maccabees 6, Wisdom 1-2, and Proverbs 24:21-26. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

The Church offers us a consistent ethic of life from the moment of conception until death. In today's “Nugget Day,” we review the main takeaways from our readings about the fifth commandment. Fr. Mike reiterates that the Church's teachings on the value of human life stem from the truth that every human life is sacred; God wills each person for his own sake. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 2318-2330. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Patrick opens the phones to questions about faith, baptism, and what truly defines the Catholic Church, moving from heartfelt concerns about re-baptism to passionate exchanges with skeptics like Rich, who challenges Jesus’s divinity and the origins of Catholic belief. He fields queries on confession and rituals, all while offering sharp insights, scriptural responses, and the occasional smile when listeners push back or disagree. Calls range from bewildered to bold, and Patrick doesn’t shy away from the tough stuff as he meets every topic, from indulgences to religious freedom, head on. Justin - I feel like Holy Spirit is calling me to be rebaptized. My pastor does not agree and won't do it. Do you have any thoughts? (00:34) Rich - I discovered that Jesus denounced Catholicism, so how could he be the founder? (09:08) John - Do we need to say the Act of Contrition before you get Absolution? (23:04) Dolores – Should we place limitations on the rights of the religious? Didn't Utah have to renounce polygamy before it became a state? (31:14) Patrick shares some emails in response to Rich’s call earlier in this hour Nick - I was baptized as a Ukrainian Catholic. I had the sacrament of Confirmation as an infant. How was this valid? (40:04) Doug - What is required to get a plenary indulgence? (42:41)

Andrea Boring was just scrolling on Facebook. She never expected that one post would lead her back to the Catholic Church. Andrea sensed the Holy Spirit and heard clearly: "It's time to come home." Andrea's life was transformed in many ways. Yet, in God's abundance, God had another gift in store for Andrea—miraculous healing. Andrea was battling addiction, spending her evenings drinking, smoking, and binge-watching TV. On a night many years ago that Andrea will never forget, God healed her. She has stayed sober ever since. In this mini retreat in a podcast, learn how Andrea experienced how "the human and the divine work together in a beautiful dance to bring about healing." Discover how God has this in store for you, too!

In this recap, Lesley and Brad reflect on their powerful conversation with Amber Fuhriman—attorney, NLP trainer, and host of Break Your Bullshit Box. Together they unpack how perfectionism and people-pleasing keep high achievers trapped in fear, and how authenticity, though uncomfortable, is freeing. This episode challenges listeners to take responsibility for their choices and trust that staying authentic is better than constantly seeking approval.If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co mailto:beit@lesleylogan.co. And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/#follow-subscribe-free.In this episode you will learn about:Why people-pleasing is a hidden form of control, not kindness.How perfectionism hides behind fear and the need for validation.What authentic affirmations sound like without toxic positivity.Why creating an “SOS list” can help you act instead of overthink.How taking responsibility for choices leads to personal freedom.Episode References/Links:Cambodia Retreat Waitlist - https://crowsnestretreats.comOPC Winter Tour - https://opc.me/eventsPilates Journal Expo - https://xxll.co/pilatesjournalAgency Mini - https://prfit.biz/miniContrology Pilates Conference in Poland - https://xxll.co/polandtContrology Pilates Conference in Brussels - https://xxll.co/brusselseLevate - https://lesleylogan.co/elevateeLevate Waitlist - https://lesleylogan.co/elevatewaitlistSubmit your wins or questions - https://beitpod.com/questionsTiny Habits by BJ Fogg - https://a.co/d/fNNWEahAmber Fuhriman's Website: https://www.successdevelopmentsolutions.com90 Day Success Jumpstart Training - https://jumpstart.successdevelopmentsolutions.comBreak Your Bullshit Box Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/morethancorporate If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. https://lovethepodcast.com/BITYSIDEALS! DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentCheck out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentBe in the know with all the workshops at OPC https://workshops.onlinepilatesclasses.com/lp-workshop-waitlistBe It Till You See It Podcast Survey https://pod.lesleylogan.co/be-it-podcasts-surveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates Mentorship https://lesleylogan.co/elevate/FREE Ditching Busy Webinar https://ditchingbusy.com/Resources:Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gLesley Logan website https://lesleylogan.co/Be It Till You See It Podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjogqXLnfyhS5VlU4rdzlnQProfitable Pilates https://profitablepilates.com/about/Follow Us on Social Media:Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lesley.logan/The Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gFacebook https://www.facebook.com/llogan.pilatesLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-logan/The OPC YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@OnlinePilatesClasses Episode Transcript:Speaker 1 0:00  She advocates for affirmations that acknowledge the gap between who I think I am now and who I need to be in order to accomplish this. You know, I want to be this type of person. I will become this type of person, right? I am becoming this type of person.Lesley Logan 0:14  Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. Lesley Logan 0:57  Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It interview recap where my co-host in life, Brad, and I are going to dig into the candid convo I had with Amber Fuhriman on our last episode. If you haven't listened to that one, you are going to need to listen to that one, because I'm stumbling over my words today. Brad Crowell 1:12  It's a great episode. It's a lot of fun.Lesley Logan 1:14  It's so good, it's so fun. And it was nice as local. And I really like being on her podcast, so you're gonna want to listen to it whether you listen to it first or last, I mean, there's, it's really okay, I think, in life to hear the ending and then watch the show. Sometimes I do that with real life TV, because I just want to know if I'm like, falling like, if I'm like, rooting for a villain or not. I just want to know. I gotta, I gotta have that information now.Brad Crowell 1:35  Yeah, she's not lying. She literally does this. Lesley Logan 1:38  Hey, you know what? Brad Crowell 1:39  Tell me. Lesley Logan 1:39  Bands would like drop just like a single song, but you'd go buy the whole album without listening to it. So you, in fact, knew there's one song I'm gonna love on this. Speaker 1 1:50  I think there's a difference between the teaser of something and the ending conclusion. Lesley Logan 1:55  These are not teasers. The recap episode is teasers. We are taking a talking point each, right? And of the many talking points that they had, so it's like two things.Speaker 1 2:06  I don't know what that has to do with going and watching the end of a TV show before you start the TV show. That's the conclusion versus a teaser. Lesley Logan 2:12  It's a sample, sampling. Brad Crowell 2:14  Okay. Lesley Logan 2:14  Sampling a part. Brad Crowell 2:16  It just happens to be the ending sample. Lesley Logan 2:18  Okay. Well, today is October 30th and we decided we want to talk about tomorrow, because tomorrow is Halloween. And I don't know about you, but I grew up. First of all, I went to some churches where Halloween was, like, just the evilest thing you couldn't even go trick or treating. Did you ever go to a church like that, like, where, like, they didn't even? Brad Crowell 2:35  No. Lesley Logan 2:35  Okay. Your church has always trick or treated? Brad Crowell 2:37  Yes. Lesley Logan 2:38  Okay. So I did not experience that all of my childhood. But then some churches, we could totally trick or treat, and then there were some churches where you could trick or treat, but like people, like whispered, you know. Brad Crowell 2:49  They whispered about trick or treating? Lesley Logan 2:51  At any rate, what no one talks about is how this holiday had nothing to do with the churches, and it wasn't even the Halloween. It was about something else. And we decided to tell you about the true history of Halloween. So.Speaker 1 3:03  Yeah, it's, it's actually like cultural warfare is, if you, if you want to look at it. Lesley Logan 3:08  I know, like, it's like an appropriation. Brad Crowell 3:10  Yeah. Well, they, yes, they appropriated the time and they renamed it. So we'll talk about that. Lesley Logan 3:16  Okay, many, many holidays were done this way. So Halloween originated from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, right. Brad Crowell 3:24  Samhain. Lesley Logan 3:25  No no. In the thing we looked up, it literally said to how to say it pronounced saa · wn. So Samhain is pronounced saa · wn spelled Samhain, but it's you say it saa · wn, let me go back to my sheet. Okay. A three day celebration held over 2000 years ago that marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the dark, cold winter. Are you gonna just.Brad Crowell 3:52  Sorry, just taking over right there. All right, keep going. Lesley Logan 3:55  Okay. Thank you so much. Okay, so the Celts believed that this was a time when the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead blurred, allowing spirits to roam the earth. To ward off harmful spirits and guide benevolent ones, they lit bonfires, wore costumes and left offerings and food outside their homes. Pause, just so you know, also in October in Cambodia, they do something called Pchum Ben and Pchum Ben, Pchum Ben, it is a almost month long celebration in parts of the country, but for sure, a three day celebration where everyone, no one works, including in the tourist city of Siem Reap we're only going to find expats working. You're not going to find a single Cambodian working. And they they don't get dressed up, but they celebrate and they do all these things so like that is awesome.Speaker 1 4:42  Pchum Ben is a Buddhist holiday that is celebrated every year where they believe that the souls of their ancestors are released for 15 days so that they can basically stay with family. Lesley Logan 4:53  Yeah, it's really cool. People like will travel on a moto for 11 hours to go with family. It's freaking crazy. But I just want to say, like, how cool, like, even across the world, the same, similar thing was happening. So to ward off harmful spirits and guide benevolent ones, they, oh, I already said that part, sorry. Speaker 1 5:09  They lit bonfires, wore costumes and left offerings, which is actually like it trickles down over the, you know, millennia. And the ancient custom, those ancient customs, kind of evolved into what are now, trick or treating, the costumes, decorations and parties celebrated for modern Halloween. I mean, we don't light bonfires and, you know that kind of a thing (inaudible).Lesley Logan 5:30  No because if you did, people are gonna think that you're a witch. But you can actually just say, no, I'm celebrating. How do you say it? Samhain, I'm celebrating Samhain Okay, so the oh, one more thing on this, the Roman and Christian influence. After the Romans conquered the Celtic lands, Roman festivals like Feralia and Pomona were incorporated into Samhain traditions. Later, the Catholic Church established All Saints Day on November 1st and All Souls Day on November 2nd, making October 31st All Hallows Eves, which means hallowed or holy, right? So they just.Brad Crowell 6:05  Which then become Halloween. Yup.Lesley Logan 6:08  .Yeah, So they just stole it. Brad Crowell 6:10  Yeah. Just just renaming things over here. Lesley Logan 6:12  So if you don't like that I'm harping on the church, you know it, sometimes we have to accept the responsibility of people from our past. Every fucking group of people has done something wrong, but it's more important to be like, educated and understand. And if you love Halloween, I love that for you. I decided to get into Halloween-ish, this year I got witchy nails, which are not done for this recording, but just check out my Instagram. They're witchy nails for me anyways. And when I because I just, like, remember, when I was why does everybody like, this holiday, but now that I, like, know the history of it and what it was for, I actually can get down with it.Speaker 1 6:50  It also marks like, it's actually the end of a season, going into the next season. So it was the end of harvest. So imagine, yeah, imagine, imagine you just spent all season, like, you know, really digging in on the harvest, and now it's time to party, and there's a new season coming. So I feel like it all kind of goes together. Lesley Logan 7:11  And also, like, I mean, just imagine a couple thousand years ago, like, life was so hard. And I also (inaudible), the more you look at the celebrations that they had, it really was like taking a pause of the hard work of life, and doing some sort of way to celebrate that. And we don't do that around here. We just, like, keep working through all the things. And like, at least in the States, maybe you take off a couple days for the actual holidays. And so I just, I feel like this is a holiday that has a lot more history to it. And and I, and I kind of like, what that history is. It seems really beautiful. And what a great way to spend time with family and past loved ones. And also, like, let's not forget, you know, in Mexico, they do Día de Muertos, which is on November 1st, right? Like, the big celebration of the like, there's a lot of different cultures that celebrate the people that have come before them and spend time together. And there's all this stuff. So anyways, just think about that. Think about the loved ones you had, and celebrate the harvesting you did, and report back. Okay.Speaker 1 8:09  Yeah, Lesley and I've been back from Cambodia and Singapore now for a week and a half. And it's just always so refreshing for us to get back to our second family over there. You know, people that we love, the places that we love to be in. The environment over there is just it's so magical. And we would love to have you join us next year, but get on the waitlist, because there's limited amount of spots. We're going to be going in October of next year, but we're going to be announcing all of that in January. So go to crowsnestretreats.com to get on the waitlist for information about the upcoming trip for 2026 we're only going one time next year, only going one time next year. We're only going one one time next year. Lesley Logan 8:50  Are you trying to convince yourself or everyone else? Brad Crowell 8:53  I'm letting everybody know, because a lot of people have said, oh, I'll come with you in the spring, and we're not going in the spring. We are only going in the fall next year, so, side note. Lesley Logan 9:04  And probably the year after that, I just have to say it to you. Brad Crowell 9:06  October 1st, we already rolled out our tour go to opc.me/events to join us for the OPC winter tour. We're gonna be driving all around the United States of America. We're gonna be going from Vegas all the way up to Boston, down to Miami and back. It's gonna be something like 24, 25 locations. It's kind of insane. We're very excited about it. We are going to be even bigger.Lesley Logan 9:28  We're going to studios we've not been to and have been excited. They've been on the list for a while. These are human beings that, like, we have literally been like, how do we make sure we get to see them again?Speaker 1 9:39  But you can find out all the specifics where we're stopping. Go to opc.me/events, chances are high that some locations may already be sold out. Lesley Logan 9:47  Yeah it's been out for a month. Brad Crowell 9:48  Because it's been out for a month. So but go check it out opc.me/tour. Then in January, where are you teaching?Lesley Logan 9:55  We'll be at the Pilates Journal, their first ever event in the U.S. It will be at Huntington Beach. If you go to xxll.co/pilatesjournal, you can get your tickets Brad Crowell 10:03  Pilates Journal Expo. Lesley Logan 10:05  Yeah. So Pilates Journal is a Pilates Journal. It's a magazine, and they.Brad Crowell 10:10  It's free, by the way. Lesley Logan 10:11  Is it? Brad Crowell 10:11  Yeah. The journal they release is free. Lesley Logan 10:14  Oh, I love that. I mean, I always just assumed, I just was given it for free. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Pilates Journal, but I just, I don't know. I just thought maybe they just (inaudible).Brad Crowell 10:23  I'm like 90% sure. Lesley Logan 10:25  But they, they do a really, they do events in Australia and. Brad Crowell 10:28  Yeah, subscribe for free. Lesley Logan 10:29  You can subscribe for free. I've written for articles for them several times. I think it's really worth looking into. But if you're a Pilates teacher, you should come. The lineup is amazing. Several of these teachers have taught. We've all taught together somewhere, but never taught all together. So like you're not going to see this line up again, you might as well come and then in February, we're going to host Agency Mini, that is our business coaching program for Pilates instructors and studio owners. And you're going to want to go to prfit,biz/mini. So it's profit without the O dot B-I-Z slash mini, to get on the waitlist. Also probably in January-ish, they'll be letting the waitlist people get the best discount. So I'm just saying. In March, we're going to two places in Europe. We'll be in Poland, at the Pilates Poland Controlology Pilates Conference. So go to xxll.co/poland by the way, I'm doing that with Karen Frischmann. And so if you like me, and you're gonna like Karen, I'm just gonna tell you right now, she's like, she's extremely smart, extremely knowledgeable. And like, I I feel, I feel like, like, you know how there's like the pop band, and then there's like the, like, uber rock, like, just has done, been doing music for decades, and like, they're just like, that's what it is. And so you, if you don't know Karen, I promise you're gonna love Karen. And if you know Karen, then what are you waiting for? The two of us will be together so we can, like, knock it out in one weekend, or go into Brussels, xxll.co/brussels. We'll be at El's studio there in Brussels, and we're very excited about it, different workshops at each event. So, but same teacher. So you're as long as long as you love Karen and I, or one of us, you're gonna have a great lineup. Just pick the one that works the best for you, and then we will, Brad is gonna take me on a second honeymoon, and then we are going to land and arrive at P.O.T in London. And I don't have a link for you, but you could just Google P.O.T., Balanced Bodies P.O.T. London, It will come up. They have amazing SEO. They're really good at what they do. And you can snag your spot. It is limited, and it sells out every year. So there you go. Before we get into this amazing interview with Amber, what is our question this week?Speaker 1 12:29  @marystarpilates asks, hey, Lesley, do you still do your continued education teacher training program? Where can I find information on that? Thank you so much. So I'm assuming she's talking about eLevate. Lesley Logan 12:41  Yes, I did clarify. And the answer is yes, she's talking about my mentorship program for Pilates instructors. So you have to have, you have to have done a comprehensive program in that, like, you should have been trained on the mat, Reformer, Cadillac or Tower and Chair, right? The Wunda Chair. Of course, I'd love it if you (inaudible) on the barrels. But like, I'm not worried about you being overwhelmed by the fifth weekend, but you need and then you have to have access to a mat, a Reformer, a Tower, Cadillac, a Chair and a Barrel. So you don't have to have a full studio access. It doesn't have to be classical. In fact, I work with both classically trained and contemporary trained people who are classic, classically curious, classical people who feel like they were like, taught this, like, rigid, you know, culty perfect way of doing Pilates, and they would like to have a little bit more fun. And we just really break down and ditch perfection and get really excited about what Joe gave us and what the intentions were, and free you from thinking you need to have a million fucking cues all the time. And also really help you with your own personal practice. Help you with seeing, help you with patience in your teaching. And so if you go to lesleylogan.co/elevate, you can learn more about it if you do the same exact URL, but add waitlist to it. So lesleylogan.co/elevatewaitlist, you can get on the waitlist for the next one, because this upcoming what year are we in right now? So 2026, is next year is sold out. Sold out. You can reach out to us. You never know what might happen. But 2027 is where we're already we're actually already taking people, taking applications, selling spots. The reality is mentorship programs like this. I have friends who have one who are five years booked in the future. I'm not going out that far. I'm kind of a year in advance kind of person, but if you know you want it then you can plan ahead. So that's what I would say. Speaker 1 14:24  Yeah, awesome. Well, stick around. We'll be, oh, actually. Lesley Logan 14:28  Go to beitpod you want to send us questions. Brad Crowell 14:30  Yeah, you have to join us for all these questions. Your participation is required, or we don't get to ask answer your questions. So 310-905-5534, hit us up or.Lesley Logan 14:39  And I want some fun questions. I want, I want relationship questions. I want family questions. I want career questions. I want some (inaudible) questions. Brad Crowell 14:50  She wants some juicy questions.Lesley Logan 14:51  I want, I want, I want. I also want the gossip that comes with the questions. You could be anonymous. Speaker 1 14:58  Go to beitpod.com/questions, where you can leave a win or a question. Thank you for that. Stick around. We'll be right back. We're going to talk about Amber Fuhrman. Amber Fuhriman is a recovering perfectionist and people pleaser and an attorney who now works as a coach, human behavior expert and podcaster. As a certified trainer of neuro linguistic programming or NLP, and host of the More Than Corporate Podcast. She blends her legal background with mindset and performance coaching to help high achievers push past limiting beliefs and perfectionism. And after years of believing success was about money and titles, Amber has redefined it as freedom choice and building a life that truly feels fulfilling. A lot of relation like a relatability here with her story and just.Lesley Logan 15:43  I know, another guest where it's like, oh, we're, like, just on the same we're on the same longitude, you know, just a different latitude. Like, she's doing something very similar, like it's, we're on the same longitude, but a different latitude, you know, like, like, Joe Allen was doing similar things with the orthodontist. And we do what we do for Pilates instructors and studio owners, and she does what she does for like, other professional it's just very cool. But also I love how our lives can bring a different lens to it, a different focus to what we do. And we I really appreciate her willingness and interest in like, we talk about people pleasing, and we talk about a bunch of stuff, but I just really got excited about talking about people pleasing because, like, how many of our listeners, how many people do we know that are doing things that are people pleasing? Brad Crowell 16:26  Well, I thought her definition of it was, she said, people pleasing is when you consider other people's feelings before you consider your own. And I thought that was interesting, especially because, you know, and then y'all talked about how.Lesley Logan 16:47  Yeah, we talked about see, so, like, I also think that some people pleasers are it's just another form of control. By the way, you can also be you're controlling people's emotions as well, or the outcome of people's emotions. But we, she clarified that not people pleasing doesn't mean being an asshole. Just for the purpose of being an asshole, like it's about instead about being authentic and speaking your truth. So meaning, like a lot of people will go to dinner with a family member on Thursday to people please, rather than which is not authentic, by the way, because you don't want to be there. You're gonna be somewhere else. So you're actually that's kind of, I think you're more of an asshole if you're people pleasing because you're not being authentic. I think that's we should re define people pleasing as being an asshole, a non-authentic person.Brad Crowell 17:28  Not authentic person. Lesley Logan 17:30  Yeah. So she advised, like, what you can do when you're not people pleasing is, like, were the actions that I took in alignment with who I want to be as a human So, meaning you decided to not people please. Someone had a reaction that was not something that you liked like all, that they're upset that you're not doing the thing for them. And so like, you get to ask yourself, were the actions that I took in alignment with who I want to be as a human being? If the answer is yes, then I will not apologize when I'm 100% in alignment with my actions. And you can understand that and accept me for I am, or you don't accept me and like, that is really hard for a lot of people, because, like, I'm gonna lose people. You guys were allowed to lose people in our life. We just are, and it's gonna happen. Like, it's impossible. It's impossible to keep everyone happy with you all of the time. There's just not, there's no way that is going to even be a possibility. And so if you are, if you are actually being authentic in alignment with how you feel and you speak that and someone doesn't like it, you are not in the wrong. They are also, by the way, there might not even be in the wrong.Speaker 1 18:29  I mean, look, you could be in the wrong, but if you are doing this to protect yourself or to stop people pleasing, this is when you have to ask yourself these questions. You know, were the actions I took in alignment with who I want to be as a human? If that's the case, then, then you can confidently move forward knowing that you weren't doing it to hurt them. You were doing it to uphold your own values, right? So if you were doing it to hurt them, then don't be an asshole. But if you're doing it to uphold your own values, that that's different.Lesley Logan 19:00  If you were doing it then hurt them. Sorry. You are being an asshole. But I just think that the more we can understand ourselves, the recovering people pleasers that we are, these are gonna be conversations you have to have with yourself. You're going to have to chit chat with yourself about like, okay, but give yourself pep talk. I want to be this person who speaks my heart, who shares how I feel, who's honest with how and will I will spend time with people, and that is going to upset some people who would like me to have more of me or have me at this thing. But I'm not in the wrong. I'm not an asshole. I'm being authentic and like, they will either come around or they won't. Speaker 1 19:35  Yeah, I really liked when she was talking about the like, toxic positivity, like, fake it till you make it. Where she was talking about, she, basically, I just, she was so frustrated about the idea of it, and she, she was like, don't ever put me in a room with people who believe this, because she's gonna lose her shit.Lesley Logan 19:59  Yeah, I want to be in that room. Actually, is that terrible? I like, I would like her to, like, she's such a good person with words. I would love to and she's a lawyer, so she's so good at articulating. Speaker 1 20:11  I mean she talked about, she talked about, you can't lie to yourself and convince you like you can, but there's dissidence that's happening when you're lying yourself in that way. And she said, the brain doesn't like distance between what is being said and what is truly believed. So, you know, she said, instead of doing that, instead of being like, I'm amazing, I'm beautiful in the mirror every morning, kind of a thing, she said, she advocates for affirmations that acknowledge the gap between who I think I am now and who I need to be in order to accomplish this. You know, I want to be this type of person. I will become this type of person, right? I am becoming this type of person, right? That's different than, you know, like.Lesley Logan 20:49  Like people do I am, I am rich. But if you're, like, barely able to pay your bills, like the brain is, that is not helpful. So I am becoming rich.Brad Crowell 20:57  Or I make decisions that are going to make me rich. Lesley Logan 21:00  Yes, I make decisions that are making me rich. I am on my way to abundance. I am, you know? Speaker 1 21:05  Yeah, I like that. And so it's, it's nuanced. It's nuanced here, you know, but I, but I actually appreciated that, and I thought, oh, that's a cool way to to adjust it, because sometimes it does feel fake, and that's annoying, and that's not, that's not. I have a hard time embracing that too, so I get that.Lesley Logan 21:20  Well, because scientifically, like in behavior science, like the brain, doesn't like dissonance, right? So, BJ Fogg, his sister, she was talking about how, you know, one of the habits, BJ likes to get people to start with from reading his book, it's like every day, get out of bed, you put your feet on the floor, like everybody does this. You can literally start a habit. Tomorrow morning, you put your feet on the floor. You say, today is going to be amazing. Or you can say, I'm amazing, but, like, usually he would say, today's me amazing day. And then you stand up and like, you like, so you want and like, it's a great first habits, a great way to start the day. And she, like, talked to us just like, yeah, so my husband died, and on the day of his funeral, I'm not going to put my feet on the floor. I go today is an amazing day. Because the brain isn't like dissonance, and that's gonna screw the habit up, right? Because it's gonna be like, oh, this is not real. So what she said is, today is going to be as good as it can be, right? And that's an honest thing. And so I think where she's.Speaker 1 22:16  And it's an affirmation, you know, like, still, is putting you on like, a path to see the good in the day. Lesley Logan 22:22  Without it being toxic positivity. It's like, it's an and so I actually really appreciated that because we taught we have a lot of people talk about, like, affirmation and mantras. And hers is like, yeah, so have ones that are that are actually helping you be it till you see it, not that are lying to you about what you are. That's not gonna be helpful. She's just super cool. I mean, I listened before I was on her podcast, because I met her in person for the podcast. I listened to several of her episodes, and I was just like, I feel like I'm learning so much. Brad Crowell 22:48  That's cool. Love it.Lesley Logan 22:49  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you don't have to put her on faster speed, just gonna be really honest, you can put it on a regular speed, because I had it on 1.75 I was like, maybe we'll take that down a little bit. It's like listening to me.Speaker 1 23:00  That's hilarious. Well, stick around. We'll be right back. We're gonna dig into those into those Be It Action Items that you have with Amber Fuhriman in just a minute. Brad Crowell 23:10  All right, welcome back. So finally, what Be It Action Items, can we take away from your convo with Amber? Oh, I said that differently this time. For those of you who say it along with me, say it along with me. What bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted action items can we take away from your convo with Amber Fuhriman? She said, hey, when you are struggling with overthinking or in or you are struggling with intense emotions, this is really cool y'all. She said, create an SOS list, meaning the list of people that you are flashing the SOS sign to, right? And this list is just two or three trusted people who you can reach out to, and they can be your gauge for you, right, that they can help you when you know you're spiraling out, like if, if you know, for example, if you are like an overthinker and you can't put it into action, and you recognize I'm overthinking again. I'm not acting. I need you to actually just get started. You can text your SOS list, you know, but first ask them if that, you know, they're willing to be on it. But you can develop a specific, predetermined SOS phrase, like Amber said, I'm stuck at the airport, right? And for her, being stuck at the airport is like she's prepping, she's prepping, she's prepping, she's prepping, but she's never taken off. She's never taken off. She's always stuck at the airport. So she said, explain what the SOS phrase means to you, and clarify that if you send that message to your people on the SOS list, it really means I need somebody to check in on me right now. So for example, you know, I imagine it may change over time. You know, what does your SOS mean, right? Especially when Amber's partner died, I imagine it was a, you know, a different reason to be reaching out than now where she's, you know, it's been a couple of years, and she's moving on, and she's running a company and things like that. You know. So she said, it really will help you have somebody check in on you. Who, who you trust to understand like, I need help right now. So when you find yourself in those overwhelm moments, send an SOS to your list. And she said the decision to ask for help actually allows your brain to see solutions. Okay, even if they don't get back to you instantaneously, it will put you on a different path to see solutions, particularly helpful for recovering perfectionists who find it really hard to say, I actually need some help right now. So really cool idea. Lesley Logan 25:35  Something has nothing to do with what we're talking about now, right now. But like my brain went to this person, somebody in China, bought a first class ticket to some Chinese airline, which means that you get to eat in the first class lounge before you take off. And because it's a first class ticket, it's like fully refundable and transferable. So for 300 times, 300 meals, this person would check into the airport, check into the first class lounge, eat for free, and then reschedule their ticket. And they did this 300 times before anyone's like, what is this person doing? So talk about being stuck at the airport, and I just thought, is the food that good? Because the actual like going to an airport, getting into a first class lounge is so annoying.Speaker 1 26:27  Even the food at the Centurion lounge, it's good, but I wouldn't say it's great. Lesley Logan 26:31  And also, not all Centurion lounges are created equal. I like ours, but the L.A. one, you can get it together as can you JFK, just saying, Okay, my big, back on track. Brad Crowell 26:41  Yeah, how about you over here? Lesley Logan 26:43  Recognize you have complete control over your daily decisions. You've complete control your daily decisions. I think we like to outsource decisions like I can't do that because x, y and z, but you have complete control over your daily decisions. And if you're unhappy, you have to dig into the decisions you're making to create that situation. Are you saying yes to things you should be saying no to? Are you staying up late the night before so you feel like shit in the morning, right? So understand that avoiding a decision is still a decision. Oh, avoiding a decision is still a decision, and make different choices to change your outcomes. She also said.Speaker 1 27:22  I think that's been the biggest thing that has changed my stress level is that I would avoid making a decision, but in the back of my mind, it was still I knew I had to address this thing, whatever this thing would be. It didn't matter what it was like, I might like just be unwilling to open a text message from somebody because I knew it was going to launch a whole thing. I got to go down this thing and then I would push it off, and then, you know, or it's like email inbox kind of stuff, too, like, avoid it, avoid it until it's like an actual problem. Yeah, and that was one of the biggest changes, was making the decision to stop avoiding things and to just hug a cactus, as it were. But I love that. I think, I think acknowledging that avoiding a decision is actually still a decision that was super helpful for me.Lesley Logan 28:08  And she said, consider her 90 Day Success Jumpstart Training or join her free Break Your Bullshit Box community. So I and that's on Facebook, if you, if you go there, I mean honest on I went on Facebook the other day, and I was like, oh, wow, look at all these people I can unfollow. Thank you for acknowledging yourself, sir and sir and you so anyways. But I just thought this is such a bright, wonderful, honest and maybe a little maybe you feel called out, maybe you feel called out, and maybe you need to, because you got to break your bullshit. You know. And I just think a lot of us the what's getting in the way of being it till we see it is people pleasing and telling ourselves that we don't have control over certain things, some things you do, and we just gotta be honest about that. So, share this with a friend who needs to hear it, especially the people pleasing one, because those people can bother your life too. And until next time, Be It Till You See It. Brad Crowell 28:56  Bye for now.Lesley Logan 28:58  That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.Speaker 1 29:40  It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell. Lesley Logan 29:45  It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co. Speaker 1 29:50  Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi. Lesley Logan 29:57  Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals. Speaker 1 30:00  Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time. Transcribed by https://otter.aiSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking here.Yesterday, Southern California Edison (SCE), the utility whose power lines may have started the devastating Eaton Fire, announced its Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program. Under the program, people affected by the fire can receive hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in compensation, in a matter of months rather than years—but in exchange, they must give up their right to sue.It should come as no surprise that SCE, in designing the program, sought the help of Kenneth Feinberg. For more than 40 years, often in the wake of tragedy or disaster, Feinberg has helped mediate and resolve seemingly intractable crises. He's most well-known for how he and his colleague Camille Biros designed and administered the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. But he has worked on many other headline-making matters over the years, including the Agent Orange product liability litigation, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust, the multidistrict litigation involving Monsanto's Roundup weed killer—and now, of course, the Eaton Fire.How did Ken develop such a fascinating and unique practice? What is the most difficult aspect of administering these giant compensation funds? Do these funds represent the wave of the future, as an alternative to (increasingly expensive) litigation? Having just turned 80, does he have any plans to retire?Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ken—the day after his 80th birthday—and we covered all these topics. The result is what I found to be one of the most moving conversations I've ever had on this podcast.Thanks to Ken Feinberg for joining me—and, of course, for his many years of service as America's go-to mediator in times of crisis.Show Notes:* Kenneth Feinberg bio, Wikipedia* Kenneth Feinberg profile, Chambers and Partners* L.A. Fire Victims Face a Choice, by Jill Cowan for The New York TimesPrefer reading to listening? For paid subscribers, a transcript of the entire episode appears below.Sponsored by:NexFirm helps Biglaw attorneys become founding partners. To learn more about how NexFirm can help you launch your firm, call 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment@nexfirm.com.Three quick notes about this transcript. First, it has been cleaned up from the audio in ways that don't alter substance—e.g., by deleting verbal filler or adding a word here or there to clarify meaning. Second, my interviewee has not reviewed this transcript, and any errors are mine. Third, because of length constraints, this newsletter may be truncated in email; to view the entire post, simply click on “View entire message” in your email app.David Lat: Welcome to the Original Jurisdiction podcast. I'm your host, David Lat, author of a Substack newsletter about law and the legal profession also named Original Jurisdiction, which you can read and subscribe to at davidlat.substack.com. You're listening to the eighty-fourth episode of this podcast, recorded on Friday, October 24.Thanks to this podcast's sponsor, NexFirm. NexFirm helps Biglaw attorneys become founding partners. To learn more about how NexFirm can help you launch your firm, call 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment@nexfirm.com. Want to know who the guest will be for the next Original Jurisdiction podcast? Follow NexFirm on LinkedIn for a preview.I like to think that I've produced some good podcast episodes over the past three-plus years, but I feel that this latest one is a standout. I'm hard-pressed to think of an interview that was more emotionally affecting to me than what you're about to hear.Kenneth Feinberg is a leading figure in the world of mediation and alternative dispute resolution. He is most well-known for having served as special master of the U.S. government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund—and for me, as someone who was in New York City on September 11, I found his discussion of that work profoundly moving. But he has handled many major matters over the years, such as the Agent Orange product liability litigation to the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund. And he's working right now on a matter that's in the headlines: the California wildfires. Ken has been hired by Southern California Edison to help design a compensation program for victims of the 2025 Eaton fire. Ken has written about his fascinating work in two books: What Is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11 and Who Gets What: Fair Compensation after Tragedy and Financial Upheaval. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Ken Feinberg.Ken, thank you so much for joining me.Ken Feinberg: Thank you very much; it's an honor to be here.DL: We are recording this shortly after your 80th birthday, so happy birthday!KF: Thank you very much.DL: Let's go back to your birth; let's start at the beginning. You grew up in Massachusetts, I believe.KF: That's right: Brockton, Massachusetts, about 20 miles south of Boston.DL: Your parents weren't lawyers. Tell us about what they did.KF: My parents were blue-collar workers from Massachusetts, second-generation immigrants. My father ran a wholesale tire distributorship, my mother was a bookkeeper, and we grew up in the 1940s and ‘50s, even the early ‘60s, in a town where there was great optimism, a very vibrant Jewish community, three different synagogues, a very optimistic time in American history—post-World War II, pre-Vietnam, and a time when communitarianism, working together to advance the collective good, was a prominent characteristic of Brockton, and most of the country, during the time that I was in elementary school and high school in Brockton.DL: Did the time in which you grow up shape or influence your decision to go into law?KF: Yes. More than law—the time growing up had a great impact on my decision to give back to the community from which I came. You've got to remember, when I was a teenager, the president of the United States was John F. Kennedy, and I'll never forget because it had a tremendous impact on me—President Kennedy reminding everybody that public service is a noble undertaking, government is not a dirty word, and especially his famous quote (or one of his many quotes), “Every individual can make a difference.” I never forgot that, and it had a personal impact on me and has had an impact on me throughout my life. [Ed. note: The quotation generally attributed to JFK is, “One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.” Whether he actually said these exact words is unclear, but it's certainly consistent with many other sentiments he expressed throughout his life.]DL: When you went to college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, what did you study?KF: I studied history and political science. I was very interested in how individuals over the centuries change history, the theory of historians that great individuals articulate history and drive it in a certain direction—for good, like President Kennedy or Abraham Lincoln or George Washington, or for ill, like Adolf Hitler or Mussolini. And so it was history that I really delved into in my undergraduate years.DL: What led you then to turn to law school?KF: I always enjoyed acting on the stage—theater, comedies, musicals, dramas—and at the University of Massachusetts, I did quite a bit of that. In my senior year, I anticipated going to drama school at Yale, or some other academic master's program in theater. My father gave me very good advice. He said, “Ken, most actors end up waiting on restaurant tables in Manhattan, waiting for a big break that never comes. Why don't you turn your skills on the stage to a career in the courtroom, in litigation, talking to juries and convincing judges?” That was very sound advice from my father, and I ended up attending NYU Law School and having a career in the law.DL: Yes—and you recount that story in your book, and I just love that. It's really interesting to hear what parents think of our careers. But anyway, you did very well in law school, you were on the law review, and then your first job out of law school was something that we might expect out of someone who did well in law school.KF: Yes. I was a law clerk to the chief judge of New York State, Stanley Fuld, a very famous state jurist, and he had his chambers in New York City. For one week, every six or seven weeks, we would go to the state capitol in Albany to hear cases, and it was Judge Fuld who was my transition from law school to the practice of law.DL: I view clerking as a form of government service—and then you continued in service after that.KF: That's right. Remembering what my father had suggested, I then turned my attention to the courtroom and became an assistant United States attorney, a federal prosecutor, in New York City. I served as a prosecutor and as a trial lawyer for a little over three years. And then I had a wonderful opportunity to go to work for Senator Ted Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington and stayed with him for about five years.DL: You talk about this also in your books—you worked on a pretty diverse range of issues for the senator, right?KF: That's right. For the first three years I worked on his staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee, with some excellent colleagues—soon-to-be Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer was with me, noted litigator David Boies was in the office—and for the first three years, it was law-related issues. Then in 1978, Senator Kennedy asked me to be his chief of staff, and once I went over and became his chief of staff, the issues of course mushroomed. He was running for president, so there were issues of education, health, international relations—a wide diversity of issues, very broad-based.DL: I recall that you didn't love the chief of staff's duties.KF: No. Operations or administration was not my priority. I loved substance, issues—whatever the issues were, trying to work out legislative compromises, trying to give back something in the way of legislation to the people. And internal operations and administration, I quickly discovered, was not my forte. It was not something that excited me.DL: Although it's interesting: what you are most well-known for is overseeing and administering these large funds and compensating victims of these horrific tragedies, and there's a huge amount of administration involved in that.KF: Yes, but I'm a very good delegator. In fact, if you look at the track record of my career in designing and administering these programs—9/11 or the Deepwater Horizon oil spill or the Patriots' Day Marathon bombings in Boston—I was indeed fortunate in all of those matters to have at my side, for over 40 years, Camille Biros. She's not a lawyer, but she's the nation's expert on designing, administering, and operating these programs, and as you delve into what I've done and haven't done, her expertise has been invaluable.DL: I would call Camille your secret weapon, except she's not secret. She's been profiled in The New York Times, and she's a well-known figure in her own right.KF: That is correct. She was just in the last few months named one of the 50 Women Over 50 that have had such an impact in the country—that list by Forbes that comes out every year. She's prominently featured in that magazine.DL: Shifting back to your career, where did you go after your time in the Senate?KF: I opened up a Washington office for a prominent New York law firm, and for the next decade or more, that was the center of my professional activity.DL: So that was Kaye Scholer, now Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer. What led you to go from your career in the public sector, where you spent a number of your years right out of law school, into so-called Biglaw?KF: Practicality and financial considerations. I had worked for over a decade in public service. I now had a wife, I had three young children, and it was time to give them financial security. And “Biglaw,” as you put it—Biglaw in Washington was lucrative, and it was something that gave me a financial base from which I could try and expand my different interests professionally. And that was the reason that for about 12 years I was in private practice for a major firm, Kaye Scholer.DL: And then tell us what happened next.KF: A great lesson in not planning too far ahead. In 1984, I got a call from a former clerk of Judge Fuld whom I knew from the clerk network: Judge Jack Weinstein, a nationally recognized jurist from Brooklyn, the Eastern District, and a federal judge. He had on his docket the Vietnam veterans' Agent Orange class action.You may recall that there were about 250,000 Vietnam veterans who came home claiming illness or injury or death due to the herbicide Agent Orange, which had been dropped by the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam to burn the foliage and vegetation where the Viet Cong enemy might be hiding. Those Vietnam veterans came home suffering terrible diseases, including cancer and chloracne (a sort of acne on the skin), and they brought a lawsuit. Judge Weinstein had the case. Weinstein realized that if that case went to trial, it could be 10 years before there'd be a result, with appeals and all of that.So he appointed me as mediator, called the “special master,” whose job it was to try and settle the case, all as a mediator. Well, after eight weeks of trying, we were successful. There was a master settlement totaling about $250 million—at the time, one of the largest tort verdicts in history. And that one case, front-page news around the nation, set me on a different track. Instead of remaining a Washington lawyer involved in regulatory and legislative matters, I became a mediator, an individual retained by the courts or by the parties to help resolve a case. And that was the beginning. That one Agent Orange case transformed my entire professional career and moved me in a different direction completely.DL: So you knew the late Judge Weinstein through Fuld alumni circles. What background did you have in mediation already, before you handled this gigantic case?KF: None. I told Judge Weinstein, “Judge, I never took a course in mediation at law school (there wasn't one then), and I don't know anything about bringing the parties together, trying to get them to settle.” He said, “I know you. I know your background. I've followed your career. You worked for Senator Kennedy. You are the perfect person.” And until the day I die, I'm beholden to Judge Weinstein for having faith in me to take this on.DL: And over the years, you actually worked on a number of matters at the request of Judge Weinstein.KF: A dozen. I worked on tobacco cases, on asbestos cases, on drug and medical device cases. I even worked for Judge Weinstein mediating the closing of the Shoreham nuclear plant on Long Island. I handled a wide range of cases where he called on me to act as his court-appointed mediator to resolve cases on his docket.DL: You've carved out a very unique and fascinating niche within the law, and I'm guessing that most people who meet you nowadays know who you are. But say you're in a foreign country or something, and some total stranger is chatting with you and asks what you do for a living. What would you say?KF: I would say I'm a lawyer, and I specialize in dispute resolution. It might be mediation, it might be arbitration, or it might even be negotiation, where somebody asks me to negotiate on their behalf. So I just tell people there is a growing field of law in the United States called ADR—alternative dispute resolution—and that it is, as you say, David, my niche, my focus when called upon.DL: And I think it's fair to say that you're one of the founding people in this field or early pioneers—or I don't know how you would describe it.KF: I think that's right. When I began with Agent Orange, there was no mediation to speak of. It certainly wasn't institutionalized; it wasn't streamlined. Today, in 2025, the American Bar Association has a special section on alternative dispute resolution, it's taught in every law school in the United States, there are thousands of mediators and arbitrators, and it's become a major leg in law school of different disciplines and specialties.DL: One question I often ask my guests is, “What is the matter you are most proud of?” Another question I often ask my guests is, “What is the hardest matter you've ever had to deal with?” Another question I often ask my guests is, “What is the matter that you're most well-known for?” And I feel in your case, the same matter is responsive to all three of those questions.KF: That's correct. The most difficult, the most challenging, the most rewarding matter, the one that's given me the most exposure, was the federal September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001, when I was appointed by President George W. Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft to implement, design, and administer a very unique federal law that had been enacted right after 9/11.DL: I got chills as you were just even stating that, very factually, because I was in New York on 9/11, and a lot of us remember the trauma and difficulty of that time. And you basically had to live with that and talk to hundreds, even thousands, of people—survivors, family members—for almost three years. And you did it pro bono. So let me ask you this: what were you thinking?KF: What triggered my interest was the law itself. Thirteen days after the attacks, Congress passed this law, unique in American history, setting up a no-fault administrator compensation system. Don't go to court. Those who volunteer—families of the dead, those who were physically injured at the World Trade Center or the Pentagon—you can voluntarily seek compensation from a taxpayer-funded law. Now, if you don't want it, you don't have to go. It's a voluntary program.The key will be whether the special master or the administrator will be able to convince people that it is a better avenue to pursue than a long, delayed, uncertain lawsuit. And based on my previous experience for the last 15 years, starting with Agent Orange and asbestos and these other tragedies, I volunteered. I went to Senator Kennedy and said, “What about this?” He said, “Leave it to me.” He called President Bush. He knew Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was his former colleague in the U.S. Senate, and he had great admiration for Senator Ashcroft. And so I was invited by the attorney general for an interview, and I told him I was interested. I told him I would only do it pro bono. You can't get paid for a job like this; it's patriotism. And he said, “Go for it.” And he turned out to be my biggest, strongest ally during the 33 months of the program.DL: Are you the managing partner of a boutique or midsize firm? If so, you know that your most important job is attracting and retaining top talent. It's not easy, especially if your benefits don't match up well with those of Biglaw firms or if your HR process feels “small time.” NexFirm has created an onboarding and benefits experience that rivals an Am Law 100 firm, so you can compete for the best talent at a price your firm can afford. Want to learn more? Contact NexFirm at 212-292-1002 or email betterbenefits@nexfirm.com.You talk about this in your books: you were recommended by a very prominent Democratic politician, and the administration at the time was Republican. George W. Bush was president, and John Ashcroft was the attorney general. Why wouldn't they have picked a Republican for this project?KF: Very good question. Senator Kennedy told both of them, “You better be careful here. This is a very, very uncertain program, with taxpayer money used to pay only certain victims. This could be a disaster. And you would be well-advised to pick someone who is not a prominent friend of yours, who is not perceived as just a Republican arm of the Justice Department or the White House. And I've got the perfect person. You couldn't pick a more opposite politician than my former chief of staff, Ken Feinberg. But look at what he's done.” And I think to Senator Kennedy's credit, and certainly to President Bush and to John Ashcroft's, they selected me.DL: As you would expect with a program of this size and complexity, there was controversy and certainly criticism over the years. But overall, looking back, I think people regard it widely as a huge success. Do you have a sense or an estimate of what percentage of people in the position to accept settlements through the program did that, rather than litigate? Because in accepting funds from the program, they did waive their right to bring all sorts of lawsuits.KF: That's correct. If you look at the statistics, if the statistics are a barometer of success, 5,300 applicants were eligible, because of death—about 2,950, somewhere in there—and the remaining claims were for physical injury. Of the 5,300, 97 percent voluntarily accepted the compensation. Only 94 people, 3 percent, opted out, and they all settled their cases five years later. There was never a trial on who was responsible in the law for 9/11. So if statistics are an indication—and I think they are a good indication—the program was a stunning success in accomplishing Congress's objective, which was diverting people voluntarily out of the court system.DL: Absolutely. And that's just a striking statistic. It was really successful in getting funds to families that needed it. They had lost breadwinners; they had lost loved ones. It was hugely successful, and it did not take a decade, as some of these cases involving just thousands of victims often do.I was struck by one thing you just said. You mentioned there was really no trial. And in reading your accounts of your work on this, it seemed almost like people viewed talking to you and your colleagues, Camille and others on this—I think they almost viewed that as their opportunity to be heard, since there wasn't a trial where they would get to testify.KF: That's correct. The primary reason for the success of the 9/11 Fund, and a valuable lesson for me thereafter, was this: give victims the opportunity to be heard, not only in public town-hall meetings where collectively people can vent, but in private, with doors closed. It's just the victim and Feinberg or his designee, Camille. We were the face of the government here. You can't get a meeting with the secretary of defense or the attorney general, the head of the Department of Justice. What you can get is an opportunity behind closed doors to express your anger, your frustration, your disappointment, your sense of uncertainty, with the government official responsible for cutting the checks. And that had an enormous difference in assuring the success of the program.DL: What would you say was the hardest aspect of your work on the Fund?KF: The hardest part of the 9/11 Fund, which I'll never recover from, was not calculating the value of a life. Judges and juries do that every day, David, in every court, in New Jersey and 49 other states. That is not a difficult assignment. What would the victim have earned over a work life? Add something for pain and suffering and emotional distress, and there's your check.The hardest part in any of these funds, starting with 9/11—the most difficult aspect, the challenge—is empathy, and your willingness to sit for over 900 separate hearings, me alone with family members or victims, to hear what they want to tell you, and to make that meeting, from their perspective, worthwhile and constructive. That's the hard part.DL: Did you find it sometimes difficult to remain emotionally composed? Or did you, after a while, develop a sort of thick skin?KF: You remain composed. You are a professional. You have a job to do, for the president of the United States. You can't start wailing and crying in the presence of somebody who was also wailing and crying, so you have to compose yourself. But I tell people who say, “Could I do what you did?” I say, “Sure. There are plenty of people in this country that can do what I did—if you can brace yourself for the emotional trauma that comes with meeting with victim after victim after victim and hearing their stories, which are...” You can't make them up. They're so heart-wrenching and so tragic.I'll give you one example. A lady came to see me, 26 years old, sobbing—one of hundreds of people I met with. “Mr. Feinberg, I lost my husband. He was a fireman at the World Trade Center. He died on 9/11. And he left me with our two children, six and four. Now, Mr. Feinberg, you've calculated and told me I'm going to receive $2.4 million, tax-free, from this 9/11 Fund. I want it in 30 days.”I said to Mrs. Jones, “This is public, taxpayer money. We have to go down to the U.S. Treasury. They've got to cut the checks; they've got to dot all the i's and cross all the t's. It may be 60 days or 90 days, but you'll get your money.”“No. Thirty days.”I said, “Mrs. Jones, why do you need the money in 30 days?”She said, “Why? I'll tell you why, Mr. Feinberg. I have terminal cancer. I have 10 weeks to live. My husband was going to survive me and take care of our two children. Now they're going to be orphans. I have got to get this money, find a guardian, make sure the money's safe, prepare for the kids' schooling. I don't have a lot of time. I need your help.”Well, we ran down to the U.S. Treasury and helped process the check in record time. We got her the money in 30 days—and eight weeks later, she died. Now when you hear story after story like this, you get some indication of the emotional pressure that builds and is debilitating, frankly. And we managed to get through it.DL: Wow. I got a little choked up just even hearing you tell that. Wow—I really don't know what to say.When you were working on the 9/11 Fund, did you have time for any other matters, or was this pretty much exclusively what you were working on for the 33 months?KF: Professionally, it was exclusive. Now what I did was, I stayed in my law firm, so I had a living. Other people in the firm were generating income for the firm; I wasn't on the dole. But it was exclusive. During the day, you are swamped with these individual requests, decisions that have to be made, checks that have to be cut. At night, I escaped: opera, orchestral concerts, chamber music, art museums—the height of civilization. During the day, in the depths of horror of civilization; at night, an escape, an opportunity to just enjoy the benefits of civilization. You better have a loving family, as I did, that stands behind you—because you never get over it, really.DL: That's such an important lesson, to actually have that time—because if you wanted to, you could have worked on this 24/7. But it is important to have some time to just clear your head or spend time with your family, especially just given what you were dealing with day-to-day.KF: That's right. And of course, during the day, we made a point of that as well. If we were holding hearings like the one I just explained, we'd take a one-hour break, go for a walk, go into Central Park or into downtown Washington, buy an ice cream cone, see the kids playing in playgrounds and laughing. You've got to let the steam out of the pressure cooker, or it'll kill you. And that was the most difficult part of the whole program. In all of these programs, that's the common denominator: emotional stress and unhappiness on the part of the victims.DL: One last question, before we turn to some other matters. There was also a very large logistical apparatus associated with this, right? For example, PricewaterhouseCoopers. It wasn't just you and Camille trying to deal with these thousands of survivors and claimants; you did have support.KF: That's right. Pricewaterhouse won the bid at the Justice Department. This is public: Pricewaterhouse, for something like around $100 million, put 450 people to work with us to help us process claims, appraise values, do the research. Pricewaterhouse was a tremendous ally and has gone on, since 9/11, to handle claims design and claims administration, as one of its many specialties. Emily Kent, Chuck Hacker, people like that we worked with for years, very much experts in these areas.DL: So after your work on the 9/11 Fund, you've worked on a number of these types of matters. Is there one that you would say ranks second in terms of complexity or difficulty or meaningfulness to you?KF: Yes. Deepwater Horizon in 2011, 2012—that oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico blew up and killed about, I don't know, 15 to 20 people in the explosion. But the real challenge in that program was how we received, in 16 months, about 1,250,000 claims for business interruption, business losses, property damage. We received over a million claims from 50 states. I think we got probably a dozen claims from New Jersey; I didn't know the oil had gotten to New Jersey. We received claims from 35 foreign countries. And the sheer volume of the disaster overwhelmed us. We had, at one point, something like 40,000 people—vendors—working for us. We had 35 offices throughout the Gulf of Mexico, from Galveston, Texas, all the way to Mobile Bay, Alabama. Nevertheless, in 16 months, on behalf of BP, Deepwater Horizon, we paid out all BP money, a little over $7 billion, to 550,000 eligible claimants. And that, I would say, other than 9/11, had the greatest impact and was the most satisfying.DL: You mentioned some claims coming from some pretty far-flung jurisdictions. In these programs, how much of a problem is fraud?KF: Not much. First of all, with death claims like 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombings or the 20 first-graders who died in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, at the hands of a deranged gunmen—most of the time, in traumatic death and injury, you've got records. No one can beat the system; you have to have a death certificate. In 9/11, where are your military records, if you were at the Pentagon? Where are the airplane manifests? You've got to be on the manifest if you were flying on that plane.Now, the problem becomes more pronounced in something like BP, where you've got over a million claims, and you wonder, how many people can claim injury from this explosion? There we had an anti-fraud unit—Guidepost, Bart Schwartz's company—and they did a tremendous job of spot-checking claims. I think that out of over a million claims, there may have been 25,000 that were suspicious. And we sent those claims to the Justice Department, and they prosecuted a fair number of people. But it wasn't a huge problem. I think the fraud rate was something like 3 percent; that's nothing. So overall, we haven't found—and we have to be ever-vigilant, you're right—but we haven't found much in the way of fraud.DL: I'm glad to hear that, because it would really be very depressing to think that there were people trying to profiteer off these terrible disasters and tragedies. Speaking of continuing disasters and tragedies, turning to current events, you are now working with Southern California Edison in dealing with claims related to the Eaton Fire. And this is a pending matter, so of course you may have some limits in terms of what you can discuss, but what can you say in a general sense about this undertaking?KF: This is the Los Angeles wildfires that everybody knows about, from the last nine or ten months—the tremendous fire damage in Los Angeles. One of the fires, or one of the selected hubs of the fire, was the Eaton Fire. Southern California Edison, the utility involved in the litigation and finger-pointing, decided to set up, à la 9/11, a voluntary claims program. Not so much to deal with death—there were about 19 deaths, and a handful of physical injuries—but terrible fire damage, destroyed homes, damaged businesses, smoke and ash and soot, for miles in every direction. And the utility decided, its executive decided, “We want to do the right thing here. We may be held liable or we may not be held liable for the fire, but we think the right thing to do is nip in the bud this idea of extended litigation. Look at 9/11: only 94 people ended up suing. We want to set up a program.”They came to Camille and me. Over the last eight weeks, we've designed the program, and I think in the last week of October or the first week of November, you will see publicly, “Here is the protocol; here is the claim form. Please submit your claims, and we'll get them paid within 90 days.” And if history is an indicator, Camille and I think that the Eaton Fire Protocol will be a success, and the great bulk of the thousands of victims will voluntarily decide to come into the program. We'll see. [Ed. note: On Wednesday, a few days after Ken and I recorded this episode, Southern California Edison announced its Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program.]DL: That raises a question that I'm curious about. How would you describe the relationship between the work that you and Camille and your colleagues do and the traditional work of the courts, in terms of in-the-trenches litigation? Because I do wonder whether the growth in your field is perhaps related to some developments in litigation, in terms of litigation becoming more expensive over the decades (in a way that far outstrips inflation), more complicated, or more protracted. How would you characterize that relationship?KF: I would say that the programs that we design and administer—like 9/11, like BP, plus the Eaton wildfires—are an exception to the rule. Nobody should think that these programs that we have worked on are the wave of the future. They are not the wave of the future; they are isolated, unique examples, where a company—or in 9/11, the U.S. government—decides, “We ought to set up a special program where the courts aren't involved, certainly not directly.” In 9/11, they were prohibited to be involved, by statute; in some of these other programs, like BP, the courts have a relationship, but they don't interfere with the day-to-day administration of the program.And I think the American people have a lot of faith in the litigation system that you correctly point out can be uncertain, very inefficient, and very costly. But the American people, since the founding of the country, think, “You pick your lawyer, I'll pick my lawyer, and we'll have a judge and jury decide.” That's the American rule of law; I don't think it's going to change. But occasionally there is a groundswell of public pressure to come up with a program, or there'll be a company—like the utility, like BP—that decides to have a program.And I'll give you one other example: the Catholic Church confronted thousands of claims of sexual abuse by priests. It came to us, and we set up a program—just like 9/11, just like BP—where we invited, voluntarily, any minor—any minor from decades ago, now an adult—who had been abused by the church to come into this voluntary program. We paid out, I think, $700 million to $800 million, to victims in dioceses around the country. So there's another example—Camille did most of that—but these programs are all relatively rare. There are thousands of litigations every day, and nothing's going to change that.DL: I had a guest on a few weeks ago, Chris Seeger of Seeger Weiss, who does a lot of work in the mass-tort space. It's interesting: I feel that that space has evolved, and maybe in some ways it's more efficient than it used to be. They have these multi-district litigation panels, they have these bellwether trials, and then things often get settled, once people have a sense of the values. That system and your approach seem to have some similarities, in the sense that you're not individually trying each one of these cases, and you're having somebody with liability come forward and voluntarily pay out money, after some kind of negotiation.KF: Well, there's certainly negotiation in what Chris Seeger does; I'm not sure we have much negotiation. We say, “Here's the amount under the administrative scheme.” It's like in workers' compensation: here's the amount. You don't have to take it. There's nothing to really talk about, unless you have new evidence that we're not aware of. And those programs, when we do design them, seem to work very efficiently.Again, if you ask Camille Biros what was the toughest part of valuing individual claims of sexual-abuse directed at minors, she would say, “These hearings: we gave every person who wanted an opportunity to be heard.” And when they come to see Camille, they don't come to talk about money; they want validation for what they went through. “Believe me, will you? Ken, Camille, believe me.” And when Camille says, “We do believe you,” they immediately, or almost immediately, accept the compensation and sign a release: “I will not sue the Catholic diocese.”DL: So you mentioned there isn't really much negotiation, but you did talk in the book about these sort of “appeals.” You had these two tracks, “Appeals A” and “Appeals B.” Can you talk about that? Did you ever revisit what you had set as the award for a particular victim's family, after hearing from them in person?KF: Sure. Now, remember, those appeals came back to us, not to a court; there's no court involvement. But in 9/11, in BP, if somebody said, “You made a mistake—you didn't account for these profits or this revenue, or you didn't take into account this contract that my dead firefighter husband had that would've given him a lot more money”—of course, we'll revisit that. We invited that. But that's an internal appeals process. The people who calculated the value of the claim are the same people that are going to be looking at revisiting the claim. But again, that's due process, and that's something that we thought was important.DL: You and Camille have been doing this really important work for decades. Since this is, of course, shortly after your 80th birthday, I should ask: do you have future plans? You're tackling some of the most complicated matters, headline-making matters. Would you ever want to retire at some point?KF: I have no intention of retiring. I do agree that when you reach a certain pinnacle in what you've done, you do slow down. We are much more selective in what we do. I used to have maybe 15 mediations going on at once; now, we have one or two matters, like the Los Angeles wildfires. As long as I'm capable, as long as Camille's willing, we'll continue to do it, but we'll be very careful about what we select to do. We don't travel much. The Los Angeles wildfires was largely Zooms, going back and forth. And we're not going to administer that program. We had administered 9/11 and BP; we're trying to move away from that. It's very time-consuming and stressful. So we've accomplished a great deal over the last 50 years—but as long as we can do it, we'll continue to do it.DL: Do you have any junior colleagues who would take over what you and Camille have built?KF: We don't have junior colleagues. There's just the two of us and Cindy Sanzotta, our receptionist. But it's an interesting question: “Who's after Feinberg? Who's next in doing this?” I think there are thousands of people in this country who could do what we do. It is not rocket science. It really isn't. I'll tell you what's difficult: the emotion. If somebody wants to do what we do, you better brace yourself for the emotion, the anger, the frustration, the finger pointing. It goes with the territory. And if you don't have the psychological ability to handle this type of stress, stay away. But I'm sure somebody will be there, and no one's irreplaceable.DL: Well, I know I personally could not handle it. I worked when I was at a law firm on civil litigation over insurance proceeds related to the World Trade Center, and that was a very draining case, and I was very glad to no longer be on it. So I could not do what you and Camille do. But let me ask you, to end this section on a positive note: what would you say is the most rewarding or meaningful or satisfying aspect of the work that you do on these programs?KF: Giving back to the community. Public service. Helping the community heal. Not so much the individuals; the individuals are part of the community. “Every individual can make a difference.” I remember that every day, what John F. Kennedy said: government service is a noble undertaking. So what's most rewarding for me is that although I'm a private practitioner—I am no longer in government service, since my days with Senator Kennedy—I'd like to think that I performed a valuable service for the community, the resilience of the community, the charity exhibited by the community. And that gives me a great sense of self-satisfaction.DL: You absolutely have. It's been amazing, and I'm so grateful for you taking the time to join me.So now, onto our speed round. These are four questions that are standardized. My first question is, what do you like the least about the law? And this can either be the practice of law or law in a more abstract sense.KF: Uncertainty. What I don't like about the law is—and I guess maybe it's the flip side of the best way to get to a result—I don't like the uncertainty of the law. I don't like the fact that until the very end of the process, you don't know if your view and opinion will prevail. And I think losing control over your destiny in that regard is problematic.DL: My second question—and maybe we touched on this a little bit, when we talked about your father's opinions—what would you be if you were not a lawyer?KF: Probably an actor. As I say, I almost became an actor. And I still love theater and the movies and Broadway shows. If my father hadn't given me that advice, I was on the cusp of pursuing a career in the theater.DL: Have you dabbled in anything in your (probably limited) spare time—community theater, anything like that?KF: No, but I certainly have prioritized in my spare time classical music and the peace and optimism it brings to the listener. It's been an important part of my life.DL: My third question is, how much sleep do you get each night?KF: Well, it varies from program to program. I'd like to get seven hours. That's what my doctors tell me: “Ken, very important—more important than pills and exercise and diet—is sleep. Your body needs a minimum of seven hours.” Well, for me, seven hours is rare—it's more like six or even five, and during 9/11 or during Eaton wildfires, it might be more like four or five. And that's not enough, and that is a problem.DL: My last question is, any final words of wisdom, such as career advice or life advice, for my listeners?KF: Yes, I'll give you some career and life advice. It's very simple: don't plan too far ahead. People have this view—you may think you know what you want to do with your career. You may think you know what life holds for you. You don't know. If I've learned anything over the last decades, life has a way of changing the best-laid plans. These 9/11 husbands and wives said goodbye to their children, “we'll see you for dinner,” a perfunctory wave—and they never saw them again. Dust, not even a body. And the idea I tell law students—who say, ”I'm going to be a corporate lawyer,” or “I'm going to be a litigator”—I tell them, “You have no idea what your legal career will look like. Look at Feinberg; he never planned on this. He never thought, in his wildest dreams, that this would be his chosen avenue of the law.”My advice: enjoy the moment. Do what you like now. Don't worry too much about what you'll be doing two years, five years, 10 years, a lifetime ahead of you. It doesn't work that way. Everybody gets thrown curveballs, and that's advice I give to everybody.DL: Well, you did not plan out your career, but it has turned out wonderfully, and the country is better for it. Thank you, Ken, both for your work on all these matters over the years and for joining me today.KF: A privilege and an honor. Thanks, David.DL: Thanks so much to Ken for joining me—and, of course, for his decades of work resolving some of the thorniest disputes in the country, which is truly a form of public service.Thanks to NexFirm for sponsoring the Original Jurisdiction podcast. NexFirm has helped many attorneys to leave Biglaw and launch firms of their own. To explore this opportunity, please contact NexFirm at 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment@nexfirm.com to learn more.Thanks to Tommy Harron, my sound engineer here at Original Jurisdiction, and thanks to you, my listeners and readers. To connect with me, please email me at davidlat@substack.com, or find me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, at davidlat, and on Instagram and Threads at davidbenjaminlat.If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate, review, and subscribe. Please subscribe to the Original Jurisdiction newsletter if you don't already, over at davidlat.substack.com. This podcast is free, but it's made possible by paid subscriptions to the newsletter.The next episode should appear on or about Wednesday, November 12. Until then, may your thinking be original and your jurisdiction free of defects.Thanks for reading Original Jurisdiction, and thanks to my paid subscribers for making this publication possible. Subscribers get (1) access to Judicial Notice, my time-saving weekly roundup of the most notable news in the legal world; (2) additional stories reserved for paid subscribers; (3) transcripts of podcast interviews; and (4) the ability to comment on posts. You can email me at davidlat@substack.com with questions or comments, and you can share this post or subscribe using the buttons below. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit davidlat.substack.com/subscribe

Fr. Mike concludes the book of Sirach today and encourages us to continue the pursuit of wisdom. In our reading of 2 Maccabees, we see again the pillage of the Temple and we are re- introduced to Judas Maccabeus. Lastly, in Proverbs Fr. Mike encourages us to resist the temptation to rejoice when our enemies fall. Today's readings are 2 Maccabees 5, Sirach 50-51, and Proverbs 24:17-20. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

WarRoom Battleground EP 890: The WarRoom's Weekly Round-Up Of Scandals In The Catholic Church With Ben Harnwell And The Team

The Church urges us to pray and work for peace to avoid the evils and injustices of war. Because we live in a broken world, the Church also offers guidance on approaching war. Fr. Mike breaks down just war theory and the criteria of legitimate defense by military force under principles of moral law. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 2307-2317. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Fr. Josh shares an update about the show. Text “askfrjosh” to 33-777 to subscribe to Fr. Josh's shownotes or go to www.AscensionPress.com/askfatherjosh Submit your questions and feedback to Fr.Josh by filling out a form at www.ascensionpress.com/askfatherjosh

How can I have tough conversations with my family during the holidays? Dave reminds us the importance of building trust and getting to know someone before you try to evangelize them; even your own family, can have wounds they are hiding. Listen to them, pray for them, fast for them, respond with love. We want to hear from you! Email us at eksb@ascensionpress.com with your questions/comments Don't forget to text “EKSB” to 33-777 to get the shownotes right to your inbox! You can also find the full shownotes at www.ascensionpress.com/EveryKneeShallBow

As we begin to wrap up the Old Testament, Fr. Mike reflects on our reading from Sirach and what we have already learned on this journey through the Bible. He emphasizes that Scripture encourages us to rise again from our sin and return to God, because our God always picks us up again with his mercy. Today's readings are 2 Maccabees 4, Sirach 47-49, and Proverbs 24:13-16. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Peace is not simply an absence of war. Fr. Mike breaks down the Catechism's teachings about peace as the "work of justice and the effect of charity.” We learn that to cultivate true peace, we must do more than avoid anger, hatred, and harm to our neighbor; we must actively work toward becoming agents of peace. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 2302-2306. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

“How can the Mass be Jesus' single offering and Purgatory?” This episode explores the relationship between the Mass and sanctification, addressing why Catholics may still feel imperfect after attending. Additionally, we delve into the doctrine of purgatory, the meaning of ‘the heaven and the new earth,’ and the role of laypeople in distributing communion. Join the Catholic Answers Live Club Newsletter Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com Questions Covered: 04:05 – Hebrews 10:14 says that Jesus's single offering on the cross perfects those for all time who are being sanctified. Yet, Catholics go to Mass and leave still imperfect. So, how can the Mass be Jesus' single offering if Catholics aren't perfected when they leave it? 13:52 – Can you help me better understand the doctrine of purgatory? 21:26 – What does ‘the heaven and the new earth' mean? 29:04 – What are some practical applications of the teaching on contraception and the exceptions? 40:16 – Why do Catholics allow lay people to give out communion? Wouldn’t touching it make the host unholy? 51:25 – Are there other types of the mass other than the ordinary and the extraordinary? 03:30 – Is God three separate spirits or one spirit? 15:10 – How do you make the distinction of venial and mortal sin? 22:32 – How can Jesus have two wills? 39:59 – I have difficulty accepting that missing mass is a mortal sin. How do I better understand this? 50:44 – Act 22 says you don’t have to die to be a saint. Why do you Catholics only call dead people saints? How can the Catholic Church be the original Church?

How do the saints help us get closer to God? Dr. Sri addresses common questions and misconceptions about the saints, explaining the difference between worship and honor, emphasizing that Catholics do not worship saints but honor them for their exemplary lives devoted to God. As we prepare to celebrate All Saints Day this week, learn how the lives of the saints help us give more praise to God. _ _ For full shownotes, visit Ascensionpress.com/Allthingscatholic, or text ALLTHINGSCATHOLIC to 33-777 for weekly shownotes sent to your inbox.

Visit our website to learn more about The God Centered Concept. The God Centered Concept is designed to bring real discipleship and spreading the Gospel to help spark the Great Harvest, a revival in this generation. www.godcenteredconcept.comKingdom Cross Roads Podcast is a part of The God Centered Concept.In this episode of the Kingdom Crossroads Podcast, Pastor Bob Thibodeau and Scott Wright delve into the historical context of the church, focusing on the transition from the Third to the Fourth Church Age. They discuss the influence of the Catholic Church, the significance of key historical figures, and the theological developments that shaped Christianity. The conversation also touches on the impact of the Crusades and the overarching theme of God's sovereignty throughout history.TakeawaysThe Kingdom Crossroads Podcast aims to spark a great harvest.The 2540 campaign invites community participation in ministry.The Third Church Age was marked by the Catholic Church's power.The Fourth Church Age is foundational for Christian beliefs.God's glory is central to understanding church history.The Crusades had a significant impact on Christian relations.Historical events are tied to God's timing and sovereignty.The church's power dynamics shifted significantly during these ages.The Dark Ages were characterized by limited access to scripture.Future discussions will continue exploring church history.

Fr. Mike provides context to the God-centered perspective of 2 Maccabees and compares it to the more secular perspective provided by 1 Maccabees. He challenges us to reflect on our days with the lens of 2 Maccabees - acknowledging God's presence in each moment of our story. Additionally, Fr. Mike shares the miraculous conversion story of St. Mary of Egypt. Today's readings are 2 Maccabees 3, Sirach 45-46, and Proverbs 24:10-12. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

The Catechism looks at matters relating to scientific research, bodily integrity, and the dead with the lens of the dignity of the human person. Fr. Mike helps us navigate the Catechism's teachings by acknowledging science and technology as a good while emphasizing restrictions and conditions to ensure respect for the dignity of persons. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 2292-2301. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Fr. Mike discusses the story of Jeremiah and the Ark of the Covenant, offering insight on where it was hidden and how that affected the people of God. He also looks ahead to the rest of 2 Maccabees and poses a question for all of us: What will the people who love us remember about us? Today's readings are 2 Maccabees 2, Sirach 42-44, and Proverbs 24:8-9. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Our health is a gift from God, and so we have a responsibility to care for it. Fr. Mike emphasizes the importance of caring for our health while also explaining that we cannot idolize our health and bodies as an absolute good. If we do idolize health, it can greatly distort the way we view the dignity of those around us. He also unpacks the virtue of temperance, defining it as, “doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time.” Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 2288-2291. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Fr. Mike gives us context for the beginning of 2 Maccabees and recounts the story of Nehemiah's discovery of the sacred fire. He also offers a reflection for those struggling with grief and death, which serves as a reminder to all about the blessing of our lives and the lives of those we love. Today's readings are 2 Maccabees 1, Sirach 40-41, and Proverbs 24:1-7. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.