Podcasts about Commonweal

The swift elevation to the papacy of Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost—known simply as ‘Bob' among his fellow Augustinian friars—defied pundits' predictions even as it was met with joy by Catholics around the world.  It's impossible to say just how Leo XIV's papacy will unfold, though in his early Masses and remarks the pope has already voiced strong support for the continuation of Francis's project of synodality. Leo's chosen name signals his commitment to the advancement of Catholic social teaching. On this episode, Commonweal contributors Natalia Imperatori-Lee and Mollie Wilson O'Reilly and editor Dominic Preziosi reflect on Pope Leo's first week on the chair of Peter.  For further reading:  The editors on Leo's election Anthony Annett on Pope Leo and AI Stephen Millies on Leo and Chicago's CTU Massimo Faggioli on what Leo's pontificate signals for the U.S. Church

Catholics around the world are getting to know the new pontiff, Leo XIV, the first pope from the United States. David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University, and Mollie Wilson O'Reilly, editor-at-large and columnist at Commonweal, talk about the direction the former Robert Francis Prevost, a Chicago-area native, might take the church.

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.With the papal conclave convening in Rome to pick Pope Francis's successor, Matt and Sam are joined by novelist Brandon Taylor to discuss the 2024 film Conclave, directed by Edward Berger and starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini. The film, as you might guess, depicts the shabby and conspiratorial inner-workings of a (fictional) College of Cardinals as they go about picking a new pope. Fun movie! Great chat!Furthering Reading:Brandon Taylor, Real Life, (2020)— Filthy Animals, (2021)— The Late Americans, (2023)— "Is it even good? Two Years with Zola," LRB, April 4, 2024.Ben Munster, "Cardinals are watching ‘Conclave' the movie for guidance on the actual conclave," Politico, May 6, 2025.Dan Walden, "Gender, Sex, and other Nonsense," Commonweal, March 1, 2021.

Mollie Wilson O'Reilly preaches for the Fourth Sunday of Easter - Good Shepherd Sunday: "If we are blessed to be sheep in the care of a Good Shepherd, we can trust that shepherd to keep us safe. It's not our job to patrol the boundaries and keep trespassers out. It's not in our power to take anyone out of Jesus's hands."Mollie Wilson O'Reilly is editor-at-large and a contributing writer for Commonweal magazine, where she worked as an editor from 2008 through 2015. She grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Yale in 2003 with a BA in English Literature. She now serves on the board of trustees for the St. Thomas More Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale. Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/05112025 to learn more about Mollie, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Article- Lawless Judges Going to Jail as Trump Team Fights Lawfare Crippling the Executive Branch. Pope Elections. John Zmirak The Eric Metaxas Show John Zmirak  May 01 2025   Other Episodes More at stream.org Article mentioned- Lawless Judges Going to Jail as Trump Team Fights Lawfare Crippling the Executive Branch By John Zmirak Published on April 28, 2025 Read this article at- https://stream.org/the-brew-lawless-judges-going-to-jail-as-trump-team-fights-lawfare-crippling-the-executive-branch/ John Zmirak- You knew it was coming, didn't you? A full-on showdown between the Trump administration and the out-of-control federal courts.   It has gotten clearer by the day that a conspiracy of biased federal judges and left-wing nonprofits with teams of white-shoe lawyers has been operating to cripple the executive branch of government. The unprecedented use of judicial orders to hamstring and micromanage President Donald Trump's exercise of presidential power has created a constitutional crisis — amounting to a coup d'etat by unelected judges. Try to imagine if GOP-appointed judges had conspired to kneecap Barack Obama while he was in office. The nation would have been treated to earsplitting banshee cries of “racism,” judicial impeachment hearings, and well-funded riots in blue cities.   Don't believe me?   Remember the threats by members of Congress against Supreme Court justices when the decision overturning Roe v. Wade got leaked? (By whom, we'll never know). Think of the protests outside conservative justices' homes, and the near-miss assassination attempt on Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The Democrats tried to pack the court with new, preprogrammed leftist justices and talked about imposing term limits on SCOTUS. None on the left were warbling about the sanctity of “judicial independence” and “the rule of law” then. They only believe in the System when they can game it, like some bratty child demanding “do-overs” whenever he strikes out at bat.   No One's Above the Law Democrats were chanting “No one's above the law” when they invented fake crimes to try to imprison Donald Trump in New York, an effort led by Chief Justice John Roberts' crony Norm Eisen. The same Democrats are now suffering conniption fits as Attorney General Pam Bondi takes action against judges who committed genuine offenses. Let's look at the first two arrests, and pray that more follow wherever judges are flouting the law and undermining our democracy. CNBC reports:   Federal authorities have arrested a Wisconsin judge and a former New Mexico judge in two separate cases, accusing them of interfering with Trump administration immigration enforcement efforts.   Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested Friday morning and charged with obstruction. She is accused of helping an undocumented immigrant evade arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers after he appeared in her courtroom April 18.   Dugan's arrest came one day after federal authorities arrested a former New Mexico judge, Joel Cano, and his wife on charges related to the Canos' reported harboring of an undocumented immigrant with alleged ties to the notorious gang Tren de Aragua.   It's hard to decide which of these arrests is more satisfying.   Before she became a judge who would help smuggle illegal aliens out of her courtroom to evade arrest by ICE, Dugan was formerly the executive director of Catholic Charities of southeastern Wisconsin. As The Stream has reported, that particular wealthy, taxpayer-funded nonprofit has been credibly accused of colluding with Mexican cartels to traffic immigrants into the country. Elon Musk's DOGE investigations have largely cut off government funds to Catholic Charities, which served as the main conduit for some $3 billion sluiced into the U.S. Catholic bishops' coffers over the past 15 years — reimbursing them, almost dollar for dollar, for sex-abuse settlements those bishops racked up.   Fool around, find out, indeed. Next there's the case of former judge Joel Cano, who was keeping an accused Tren de Aragua gang member at his house. Feast your eyes on this servant of the court and the rescue gangster he adopted:   On Fox News Pam Bondi explained just how far Cano had gone to help Lopez evade prosecution:   He took one of the TDA members' cellphones, beat it with a hammer, and destroyed it. Then he walked the pieces to a city dumpster to dispose of them to protect himself. … The judge and his wife gave [Lopez] assault rifles that belonged to their daughter. He goes to the shooting range with these assault rifles, with a suppressor, with other known TDA members, and they are shooting. This is the LAST person we want in our country. Nor will we ever tolerate a judge or anyone else harboring them.   The Biden regime intentionally engineered this perfect storm of lawlessness by refusing to enforce our just, democratically enacted immigration laws. The 10 million-plus illegals Biden imported are counted toward congressional representation, providing the Democrats with 20 seats in the House of Representatives they otherwise wouldn't hold, as Musk has estimated. And as we reported Friday, leftist judges are making it easy for those illegal aliens to vote in federal elections by striking down Trump's executive order requiring proof of citizenship.   When faced with such orchestrated chaos, the Trump administration has no choice but to take drastic action to reimpose order and the genuine rule of law. Faster, please.   Please Support The Stream: Equipping Christians to Think Clearly About the Political, Economic, and Moral Issues of Our Day. Trump Meets Zelensky at Impromptu Summit at Pope Francis's Funeral The petulant, demanding president of Ukraine, Volodomyr Zelenksyy, has been frustrating Donald Trump's peace-making efforts, making impossible demands such as the return of Crimea — which Russia seized in 2014, with hardly a protest from the Obama administration and no organized resistance by Ukraine. Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed the Trump team's impatience last week, threatening to walk away from talks altogether. It's good to see that communications are still open, as evidenced by this hastily arranged meeting of Trump with Zelenskyy and French President Emanuel Macron at St. Peter's Basilica, which will host the funeral of Pope Francis.   Pray for an end to the futile, fratricidal conflict the Biden administration's bungling help to spark, which has claimed more than a million casualties from two historically Christian countries.   Our Diversity Is Our … Strength? Our out-of-control borders haven't just been flooding the country with foreign gang members and high school dropouts who compete with our least privileged fellow citizens for jobs. We're also importing aggressive, intolerant Islam — the religion that's fueling terrorism and the persecution of Christians all across the world. Take a look at this little video, which shows how Dallas, Texas, is being islamicized.   The First Amendment was written to prevent intra-Christian conflict and religious persecution. The Founders never intended it as a charter for the mass influx of religions entirely alien to our traditions. That's just one more reason to drastically and permanently reduce mass immigration into America.   Along The Stream… Could authentic prophetic dreams expose false prophecies and prophets? Join Wanda Alger and her guest Andrew Whalen later this morning for a fascinating exploration of that idea.   The ever-thoughtful Joseph Mattera's latest essay explains why we need not just healing but resurrection — a key insight this Easter season.     John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or coauthor of 14 books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First.     The Brew: Democrat Judge Doubles Down on Election Fraud. No Need to Prove Citizenship to Vote By John Zmirak Published on April 25, 2025 John Zmirak If you want Exhibit #108 proving that President Donald Trump has no choice but to defy judicial orders from lawless, biased jurists, check out the latest. The Daily Wire reports: A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump from implementing an executive order that requires voters to show documentation proving their U.S. citizenship to cast a ballot in federal elections. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Bill Clinton appointee, granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from going forward with the proof-of-citizenship requirements as a lawsuit plays out, the Associated Press reported. The lawsuit, filed by the Democratic National Committee and leftist voting rights groups, claims that Trump's order is “an unlawful action that threatens to uproot our tried-and-tested election systems and silence potentially millions of Americans.” … The judge's move means that yet another Trump action will be tied up in the courts and prevented from taking effect. Federal judges have blocked numerous Trump orders, including on cuts to federal agency staff, deportations, and birthright citizenship. As of Thursday, 108 different rulings have blocked or temporarily frozen Trump's attempts to carry out his agenda, according to The New York Times. There you go. The Democratic National Committee wants non-citizens voting. Or else it thinks that its voters are so clueless and unqualified that they don't have any ID. No drivers licenses, nothing they'd need to show in order to cash a check at a local bank. Check out this classic 2017 video whose host asks white liberals whether non-white Americans carry ID … then asks a series of non-white Americans whether they do. “Why would they think we don't have ID?” one of the questioners asks the host. He doesn't answer. He doesn't have to. Now consider what motive the Biden administration had for importing more than 10 million illegal aliens and sending them to swing states. Foreign Voters and Foreign Money Help the Left Grab Power While some in MAGA world are frustrated at the Trump administration's pace of progress, one man can only do so much. He is taking aim at some of the most important targets, the key players in corrupting American politics. He's going after Act Blue, for instance, as Politico reports: In a shot at ActBlue, the left's major online donation platform, President Donald Trump plans to sign a presidential memorandum on Thursday that he will cast as cracking down on foreign contributions in American elections, according to a person familiar with the policy and granted anonymity to discuss not-yet-public details. Attorney General Pam Bondi's office is expected to be involved in the effort, the person said. The order is expected to specifically target ActBlue. Republicans have long claimed the platform could be exploited by foreign actors, while Democrats have warned the action is an example of Trump baselessly targeting political opponents. … The memo will direct Bondi to “investigate and take appropriate action concerning allegations regarding the use of online fundraising platforms to make ‘straw' or ‘dummy' contributions and to make foreign contributions to U.S. political candidates and committees, all of which break the law” and report results to the president and his general counsel, according to the fact sheet. Why shouldn't foreign billionaires and hostile governments be able to pour billions into U.S. elections and organize non-citizen voters to decide who represents us? That would imply we make distinctions between countrymen and strangers, which the editors of Christianity Today (some of them donors to groups aligned with Act Blue) reliably inform us is alien to “gospel values.” Speaking of funny money, Ashley Biden's nonprofit is having trouble with the IRS. That's what happens when you don't report honestly. The Free Beacon has the real story: Ashley Biden's charity has a $500,000 discrepancy in its books, a watchdog alleged in a complaint filed with the IRS on Monday. … To Paul Kamenar, an attorney with the National Legal and Policy Center watchdog group, the documents show that Ashley Biden's charity clearly violated IRS rules by failing to disclose $500,000 in contributions it received in 2023. Let's remember the immortal words of now-embattled New York Attorney General Letitia James: “No one is above the law.” Abortion Clinic Targets Children for Sexual Grooming Remember the old libertarian talking point about “keeping the government out of our bedrooms”? Now we realize the government and the LGBTQ movement need to be kept out of the nursery, too. See the latest outrage, courtesy of Libs of TikTok: The State cannot sit neutral. It can't reach a stopping point at “consenting adults,” the way Classical liberals pretend. Either the government will make laws based on the Natural Law which God wrote on the human heart — which you don't need faith or grace to understand — or it will base laws on something darker and falser. It took the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire to rescue women and children from sexual slavery. As the Gospel recedes from people's hearts, the vacuum it leaves will be filled, and filled by spirits. The explosion of transgender madness, child castration, and attacks on Christians as “unfit parents” in the wake of the 2015 Obergefell decision shouldn't surprise us; it should goad us to counterattack with the truth. The Next Pope? I'm not following the conclave that's gathering to elect a successor to the disloyal Pope Francis, largely because the people he appointed to the College of Cardinals transformed that body into a lavender Jacuzzi. One of Francis's appointees, Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, is considered a frontrunner among “progressives” who wish to continue transforming the Catholic Church into the chaplaincy of the World Economic Forum. Here he is performing John Lennon's utopian, atheist anthem “Imagine” for a crowd that we can hope was duly puzzled by it. Imagine Pope Francis II. (It's easy if you try.) Catholics don't believe that God picks the popes — otherwise, we'd have to explain why during the Renaissance He always picked the cardinals who'd paid the biggest bribes or were the illegitimate children of previous popes. We just have to pray for Jesus to protect us from our shepherds, who seem to have developed a taste for lamb. Coming Soon: A New Ice Age to Save the Climate Gateway Pundit reports: The British government is reportedly just weeks away from approving bizarre experiments aimed at dimming sunlight in a bid to combat so-called climate change. Proposed outdoor trials may involve spraying aerosols into the upper atmosphere or artificially brightening clouds to bounce sunlight back into space in order to help cool the earth. … The experiments are being pushed under the premise that humanity isn't cutting emissions quickly enough to avoid an environmental apocalypse, at least, according to scientists still clinging to worst-case climate scenarios. Scientists backing the proposals believe that, if the tests yield promising results, the techniques could be expanded and rolled out on a wider scale within a decade. These people want to control the weather, to make the earth less fertile so it can feed far fewer people. But remember that the threat to our freedoms and our future are … conservatives and Christians. Along The Stream… Later this morning, join Allen Jackson, pastor and author of Angels, Demons & You, for a sobering look at how spiritual forces impact our daily lives in this 26-minute video. Why is it crucial that we consider each of our fellow human beings as made in the “image of God”? How does that change everything about how we live our lives? Find out from this insightful essay.   John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or coauthor of 14 books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First.   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  John Zmirak makes his weekly appearance and covers current events and shares recent articles available at-   https://stream.org/author/johnzmirak/ Watch Eric Metaxas on Rumble-  https://rumble.com/c/TheEricMetaxasRadioShow  The Eric Metaxas Show- https://metaxastalk.com/podcasts/ Eric Metaxas Show on Apple Podcasts-    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-eric-metaxas-show/id991156680 Check out- Socrates in the City   Find All of John Zmirak Articles at- https://stream.org/author/johnzmirak/   John Zmirak is a Senior Editor of The Stream. He received his B.A. from Yale University in 1986, then his M.F.A. in screenwriting and fiction and his Ph.D. in English in 1996 from Louisiana State University. He has been Press Secretary to pro-life Louisiana Governor Mike Foster, and a reporter and editor at Success magazine and Investor's Business Daily, among other publications. His essays, poems, and other works have appeared in First Things, The Weekly Standard, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA Today, FrontPage Magazine, The American Conservative, The South Carolina Review, Modern Age, The Intercollegiate Review, Commonweal, and The National Catholic Register, among other venues. He has contributed to American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia and The Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought. From 2000-2004 he served as Senior Editor of Faith & Family magazine and a reporter at The National Catholic Register. During 2012 he was editor of Crisis. He is author, co-author, or editor of twelve books, including Wilhelm Ropke: Swiss Localist, Global Economist, The Grand Inquisitor and The Race to Save Our Century. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First. Zmirak can be found at https://stream.org/author/johnzmirak/   John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or co-author of ten books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. He is co-author with Jason Jones of “God, Guns, & the Government.”   John Zmirak's new book: No Second Amendment, No First  by John Zmirak  Available March 19, 2024 Today's Left endlessly preaches the evils of “gun violence." It is a message increasingly echoed from the nation's pulpits, presented as common-sense decency and virtue. Calls for “radical non-violence” are routinely endowed with the imprimatur of religious doctrine.   But what if such teachings were misguided, even damaging? What if the potential of a citizenry to exercise force against violent criminals and tyrannical governments is not just compatible with church teaching, but flows from the very heart of Biblical faith and reason? What if the freedoms we treasure are intimately tied to the power to resist violent coercion?  This is the long-overdue case John Zmirak makes with stunning clarity and conviction in No Second Amendment, No First. A Yale-educated journalist and former college professor, Zmirak shows how the right of self-defense against authoritarian government was affirmed in both the Old and New Testaments, is implied in Natural Law, and has been part of Church tradition over the centuries.   --------------------------------------------------------------------  Check out our ACU Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/ACUPodcast   HELP ACU SPREAD THE WORD!  Please go to Apple Podcasts and give ACU a 5 star rating. Apple canceled us and now we are clawing our way back to the top. Don't let the Leftist win. Do it now! Thanks. Also Rate us on any platform you follow us on. It helps a lot. Forward this show to friends. Ways to subscribe to the American Conservative University Podcast Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts Click here to subscribe via RSS You can also subscribe via Stitcher FM Player Podcast Addict Tune-in Podcasts Pandora Look us up on Amazon Prime …And Many Other Podcast Aggregators and sites ACU on Twitter- https://twitter.com/AmerConU . Warning- Explicit and Violent video content.   Please help ACU by submitting your Show ideas. Email us at americanconservativeuniversity@americanconservativeuniversity.com   Endorsed Charities -------------------------------------------------------- Pre-Born! Saving babies and Souls. https://preborn.org/ OUR MISSION To glorify Jesus Christ by leading and equipping pregnancy clinics to save more babies and souls. WHAT WE DO Pre-Born! partners with life-affirming pregnancy clinics all across the nation. We are designed to strategically impact the abortion industry through the following initiatives:… -------------------------------------------------------- Help CSI Stamp Out Slavery In Sudan Join us in our effort to free over 350 slaves. Listeners to the Eric Metaxas Show will remember our annual effort to free Christians who have been enslaved for simply acknowledging Jesus Christ as their Savior. As we celebrate the birth of Christ this Christmas, join us in giving new life to brothers and sisters in Sudan who have enslaved as a result of their faith. https://csi-usa.org/metaxas   https://csi-usa.org/slavery/   Typical Aid for the Enslaved A ration of sorghum, a local nutrient-rich staple food A dairy goat A “Sack of Hope,” a survival kit containing essential items such as tarp for shelter, a cooking pan, a water canister, a mosquito net, a blanket, a handheld sickle, and fishing hooks. Release celebrations include prayer and gathering for a meal, and medical care for those in need. The CSI team provides comfort, encouragement, and a shoulder to lean on while they tell their stories and begin their new lives. Thank you for your compassion  Giving the Gift of Freedom and Hope to the Enslaved South Sudanese -------------------------------------------------------- Food For the Poor https://foodforthepoor.org/ Help us serve the poorest of the poor Food For The Poor began in 1982 in Jamaica. Today, our interdenominational Christian ministry serves the poor in primarily 17 countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Thanks to our faithful donors, we are able to provide food, housing, healthcare, education, fresh water, emergency relief, micro-enterprise solutions and much more. We are proud to have fed millions of people and provided more than 15.7 billion dollars in aid. Our faith inspires us to be an organization built on compassion, and motivated by love. Our mission is to bring relief to the poorest of the poor in the countries where we serve. We strive to reflect God's unconditional love. It's a sacrificial love that embraces all people regardless of race or religion. We believe that we can show His love by serving the “least of these” on this earth as Christ challenged us to do in Matthew 25. We pray that by God's grace, and with your support, we can continue to bring relief to the suffering and hope to the hopeless.   Report on Food For the Poor by Charity Navigator https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/592174510   -------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer from ACU. We try to bring to our students and alumni the World's best Conservative thinkers. All views expressed belong solely to the author and not necessarily to ACU. In all issues and relations, we hope to follow the admonitions of Jesus Christ. While striving to expose, warn and contend with evil, we extend the love of God to all of his children. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

"Donald Trump Needs to Defy the Judges and Let the American People Decide at the Midterm Elections whether they Approve of that or Not"- John Zmirak. The Eric Metaxas Show John Zmirak   Apr 23 2025   Other Episodes   Article mentioned- The Brew: Democrat Judge Doubles Down on Election Fraud. No Need to Prove Citizenship to Vote By John Zmirak Published on April 25, 2025 John Zmirak If you want Exhibit #108 proving that President Donald Trump has no choice but to defy judicial orders from lawless, biased jurists, check out the latest. The Daily Wire reports: A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump from implementing an executive order that requires voters to show documentation proving their U.S. citizenship to cast a ballot in federal elections. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Bill Clinton appointee, granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from going forward with the proof-of-citizenship requirements as a lawsuit plays out, the Associated Press reported. The lawsuit, filed by the Democratic National Committee and leftist voting rights groups, claims that Trump's order is “an unlawful action that threatens to uproot our tried-and-tested election systems and silence potentially millions of Americans.” … The judge's move means that yet another Trump action will be tied up in the courts and prevented from taking effect. Federal judges have blocked numerous Trump orders, including on cuts to federal agency staff, deportations, and birthright citizenship. As of Thursday, 108 different rulings have blocked or temporarily frozen Trump's attempts to carry out his agenda, according to The New York Times. There you go. The Democratic National Committee wants non-citizens voting. Or else it thinks that its voters are so clueless and unqualified that they don't have any ID. No drivers licenses, nothing they'd need to show in order to cash a check at a local bank. Check out this classic 2017 video whose host asks white liberals whether non-white Americans carry ID … then asks a series of non-white Americans whether they do. “Why would they think we don't have ID?” one of the questioners asks the host. He doesn't answer. He doesn't have to. Now consider what motive the Biden administration had for importing more than 10 million illegal aliens and sending them to swing states. Foreign Voters and Foreign Money Help the Left Grab Power While some in MAGA world are frustrated at the Trump administration's pace of progress, one man can only do so much. He is taking aim at some of the most important targets, the key players in corrupting American politics. He's going after Act Blue, for instance, as Politico reports: In a shot at ActBlue, the left's major online donation platform, President Donald Trump plans to sign a presidential memorandum on Thursday that he will cast as cracking down on foreign contributions in American elections, according to a person familiar with the policy and granted anonymity to discuss not-yet-public details. Attorney General Pam Bondi's office is expected to be involved in the effort, the person said. The order is expected to specifically target ActBlue. Republicans have long claimed the platform could be exploited by foreign actors, while Democrats have warned the action is an example of Trump baselessly targeting political opponents. … The memo will direct Bondi to “investigate and take appropriate action concerning allegations regarding the use of online fundraising platforms to make ‘straw' or ‘dummy' contributions and to make foreign contributions to U.S. political candidates and committees, all of which break the law” and report results to the president and his general counsel, according to the fact sheet. Why shouldn't foreign billionaires and hostile governments be able to pour billions into U.S. elections and organize non-citizen voters to decide who represents us? That would imply we make distinctions between countrymen and strangers, which the editors of Christianity Today (some of them donors to groups aligned with Act Blue) reliably inform us is alien to “gospel values.” Speaking of funny money, Ashley Biden's nonprofit is having trouble with the IRS. That's what happens when you don't report honestly. The Free Beacon has the real story: Ashley Biden's charity has a $500,000 discrepancy in its books, a watchdog alleged in a complaint filed with the IRS on Monday. … To Paul Kamenar, an attorney with the National Legal and Policy Center watchdog group, the documents show that Ashley Biden's charity clearly violated IRS rules by failing to disclose $500,000 in contributions it received in 2023. Let's remember the immortal words of now-embattled New York Attorney General Letitia James: “No one is above the law.” Abortion Clinic Targets Children for Sexual Grooming Remember the old libertarian talking point about “keeping the government out of our bedrooms”? Now we realize the government and the LGBTQ movement need to be kept out of the nursery, too. See the latest outrage, courtesy of Libs of TikTok: The State cannot sit neutral. It can't reach a stopping point at “consenting adults,” the way Classical liberals pretend. Either the government will make laws based on the Natural Law which God wrote on the human heart — which you don't need faith or grace to understand — or it will base laws on something darker and falser. It took the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire to rescue women and children from sexual slavery. As the Gospel recedes from people's hearts, the vacuum it leaves will be filled, and filled by spirits. The explosion of transgender madness, child castration, and attacks on Christians as “unfit parents” in the wake of the 2015 Obergefell decision shouldn't surprise us; it should goad us to counterattack with the truth. The Next Pope? I'm not following the conclave that's gathering to elect a successor to the disloyal Pope Francis, largely because the people he appointed to the College of Cardinals transformed that body into a lavender Jacuzzi. One of Francis's appointees, Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, is considered a frontrunner among “progressives” who wish to continue transforming the Catholic Church into the chaplaincy of the World Economic Forum. Here he is performing John Lennon's utopian, atheist anthem “Imagine” for a crowd that we can hope was duly puzzled by it. Imagine Pope Francis II. (It's easy if you try.) Catholics don't believe that God picks the popes — otherwise, we'd have to explain why during the Renaissance He always picked the cardinals who'd paid the biggest bribes or were the illegitimate children of previous popes. We just have to pray for Jesus to protect us from our shepherds, who seem to have developed a taste for lamb. Coming Soon: A New Ice Age to Save the Climate Gateway Pundit reports: The British government is reportedly just weeks away from approving bizarre experiments aimed at dimming sunlight in a bid to combat so-called climate change. Proposed outdoor trials may involve spraying aerosols into the upper atmosphere or artificially brightening clouds to bounce sunlight back into space in order to help cool the earth. … The experiments are being pushed under the premise that humanity isn't cutting emissions quickly enough to avoid an environmental apocalypse, at least, according to scientists still clinging to worst-case climate scenarios. Scientists backing the proposals believe that, if the tests yield promising results, the techniques could be expanded and rolled out on a wider scale within a decade. These people want to control the weather, to make the earth less fertile so it can feed far fewer people. But remember that the threat to our freedoms and our future are … conservatives and Christians. Along The Stream… Later this morning, join Allen Jackson, pastor and author of Angels, Demons & You, for a sobering look at how spiritual forces impact our daily lives in this 26-minute video. Why is it crucial that we consider each of our fellow human beings as made in the “image of God”? How does that change everything about how we live our lives? Find out from this insightful essay.   John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or coauthor of 14 books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First.   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  John Zmirak makes his weekly appearance and covers current events and shares recent articles available at-   https://stream.org/author/johnzmirak/ Watch Eric Metaxas on Rumble-  https://rumble.com/c/TheEricMetaxasRadioShow  The Eric Metaxas Show- https://metaxastalk.com/podcasts/ Eric Metaxas Show on Apple Podcasts-    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-eric-metaxas-show/id991156680 Check out- Socrates in the City   Find All of John Zmirak Articles at- https://stream.org/author/johnzmirak/   John Zmirak is a Senior Editor of The Stream. He received his B.A. from Yale University in 1986, then his M.F.A. in screenwriting and fiction and his Ph.D. in English in 1996 from Louisiana State University. He has been Press Secretary to pro-life Louisiana Governor Mike Foster, and a reporter and editor at Success magazine and Investor's Business Daily, among other publications. His essays, poems, and other works have appeared in First Things, The Weekly Standard, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA Today, FrontPage Magazine, The American Conservative, The South Carolina Review, Modern Age, The Intercollegiate Review, Commonweal, and The National Catholic Register, among other venues. He has contributed to American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia and The Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought. From 2000-2004 he served as Senior Editor of Faith & Family magazine and a reporter at The National Catholic Register. During 2012 he was editor of Crisis. He is author, co-author, or editor of twelve books, including Wilhelm Ropke: Swiss Localist, Global Economist, The Grand Inquisitor and The Race to Save Our Century. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First. Zmirak can be found at https://stream.org/author/johnzmirak/   John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or co-author of ten books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. He is co-author with Jason Jones of “God, Guns, & the Government.”   John Zmirak's new book: No Second Amendment, No First  by John Zmirak  Available March 19, 2024 Today's Left endlessly preaches the evils of “gun violence." It is a message increasingly echoed from the nation's pulpits, presented as common-sense decency and virtue. Calls for “radical non-violence” are routinely endowed with the imprimatur of religious doctrine.   But what if such teachings were misguided, even damaging? What if the potential of a citizenry to exercise force against violent criminals and tyrannical governments is not just compatible with church teaching, but flows from the very heart of Biblical faith and reason? What if the freedoms we treasure are intimately tied to the power to resist violent coercion?  This is the long-overdue case John Zmirak makes with stunning clarity and conviction in No Second Amendment, No First. A Yale-educated journalist and former college professor, Zmirak shows how the right of self-defense against authoritarian government was affirmed in both the Old and New Testaments, is implied in Natural Law, and has been part of Church tradition over the centuries.  

Join us for conversation with author and spiritual advisor Yeye Teish and host Cassandra Ferrera, director of Commonweal's Center for Ethical Land Transition. Chief Iyanifa Fajembola Fatunmise (Yeye Luisah Teish) Yeye is an American author of African and African-diaspora spiritual cultures. She also is an affluent ritualist, keynote speaker, and spiritual advisor on a global scale. Primarily known for Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals, a women's spirituality classic published in 1985 by Harper & Row Publishers. This book has been translated into German, Spanish, and Dutch. She has contributed to 40 anthologies, most notably Spiritual Guidance Across Religions: A Sourcebook for Spiritual Directors and Other Professionals Providing Counsel to People of Differing Faith Traditions. As an Oshun priestess (Yoruba Goddess of Love and Sensuality), Yeye continues to officiate over spiritual retreats, rituals, and workshops that span over 40 years since her introduction into the Ifa spiritual practice. Host Cassandra Ferrera Becoming a person of place is Cassandra's orienting cosmology, and her activist real estate career is informed by this path. She became a real estate agent in 2003 as a single mom needing to support her family, and was compelled to understand how market capitalism prevents so many people from a direct and secure relationship with Earth. She committed early on to learning how to support cooperative living and to find ways to decommodify and deprivatize Land. As someone with mixed European settler ancestry, Cassandra is keenly aware of the paradox of how those with white colonial privilege have often been displaced from land-based culture. Cassandra listened her way forward, guided by the generosity of spirit, mentors, and friends who would help her co-found The Center for Ethical Land Transition. Through the work of ethical land transitions, Cassandra works to transform conventional real estate practice in service to Land, cultural reunion, and reparative justice. #yeye #oshun #yoruba #ifa #commonweal #newschoolcommonweal Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

The passing of Pope Francis on April 21, 2025 marked not just the end of a papacy but the end of an era in global politics. The moment in which Francis spoke before Congress a decade ago and identified Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and Martin Luther King as models of Christian moral witness feels like another universe — far from the cruel, cramped, suspicious, and selfish world we are living in. What was the Francis era? Where did he come from, and how did he become pope? And what are we losing — besides a pretty good pope — with his passing from the mortal realm? Matt and Sam discuss the passing of Pope Francis and what his papacy meant (to us and to the world), why he scandalized the Catholic right, and why his message feels so necessary and yet so far away. Further Reading: Vinson Cunningham, "Many and One," Commonweal, Dec 14, 2020. Dorothy Fortenberry, "The climate apocalypse is also a religious crisis," Vox, April 12, 2023.Abeer Salman and Oren Liebermann, "The pope called them every night until his final hours. Now, Gaza's Christians cling to the hope he left behind," CNN, April 23, 2025. Matthew Sitman, "No, Pope Francis is Nothing Like Donald Trump," Commonweal, Feb. 26, 2016.— "Pope Francis and Civil Unions: We Need Clarity, Not a Media Blackout," Commonweal, Oct. 27, 2020.Pope Francis, Laudato si' (“On Care for Our Common Home”), May 2015.Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, Oct. 3, 2020.Ross Douthat, "Francis and the End of the Imperial Papacy," New York Times, April 21, 2025....and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!  

In this episode Cameron and Nathan reflect on the recent passing of Pope Francis—not from a Catholic perspective, but as Christians engaging in serious theological reflection on a major cultural moment. What does this shift mean for global Christianity? How should Protestants interpret the legacy of Pope Francis and the ideological battle lines within the Catholic Church?We compare responses from First Things (conservative) and Commonweal (progressive), and wrestle with key questions: Is reform or stability the greater need in our age? How do different views of human nature affect theology and culture? And what can we learn about leadership, doctrine, and discipleship from this moment in church history?This conversation is for believers who care deeply about theology, culture, and the future of the global church. Join us as we think theologically about the news and how Christians should engage the world with gospel clarity.

Three theologians—Massimo Faggioli, Susan Bigelow Reynolds, and Terence Sweeney—reflect with Commonweal editors on the pope's legacy. More coverage of the death of Pope Francis: Isabella Simon on Let Us Dream César J. Baldelomar on Laudato Si'  Griffin Oleynick on Evangelii gaudium

Belief in a literal six-day creation, including a literal Adam and Eve, is more associated with evangelical Christianity than with Catholicism. Most Catholic schools teach evolutionary theory as the best and most reliable account of the origin of life and see no conflict between this and orthodox Catholic faith. At the same time, some Catholics still promote a creationist view on the origins of humanity. What does the Catholic Church have to say about this? Are Catholics obliged to believe that Adam and Eve were real people who talked to God, were tempted by a snake, and got cast out of a garden because they ate a forbidden fruit? If so, how does this fit with everything science has to tell us about evolution? And if the church accepts evolution, how does this affect other core Catholic teachings, especially on original sin?   On this episode of the podcast, science writer John Farrell talks about how the Catholic Church has grappled with the challenges posed by evolution over the years, as well as what science has to say on the question of whether Adam and Eve were real.  John Farrell is the author of The Day Without Yesterday: Lemaître, Einstein and the Birth of Modern Cosmology (Basic Books, 2005) and The Clock and the Camshaft: And Other Medieval Inventions We Still Can't Live Without (Prometheus Books, 2020). He has contributed to U.S Catholic and many other publications, including Commonweal, Cosmos Magazine, New Scientist, the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, the Boston Globe, Salon, Forbes and the Tablet of London.  You can learn more about this topic, and read some of Farrell's writing, in these links.  “Do Catholics believe in evolution?” by John Switzer “What is original sin?” by Joel Schorn “Benedict's thinking on creation and evolution,” by John L. Allen Jr. “Middle ways on evolution,” by John Farrell “What would an updated natural law ethic look like?” by John Farrell  “The Bible is far more than history. It is legendary.” by Alice Camille “Evolution is our fundamental reality,” by Ilia Delio Original Sin: Origins, Developments, Contemporary Meanings, by Tatha Wiley Original Selfishness: Original Sin and Evil in the Light of Evolution by Daryl P. Domning and Monika K. Hellwig Lone Survivors: How We Came to Be the Only Humans on Earth, by Chris Stringer Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries.

As our centennial series continues, Dominic Preziosi, editor of Commonweal, talks about the 100-year history of the magazine and American Catholicism, in general.

Wisconsin Special Election Voter Fraud and Trump Just Took Over the World. John Zmirak and Mr. Reagan. John Zmirak and David Clements: Wisconsin Special Election Postmortem https://youtu.be/91h3DrSgp3Q?si=-f8NDldSFZCkWsUa The Professor's Record - David K. Clements 16.8K subscribers 271 views Premiered Apr 5, 2025 John Zmirak is a Senior Editor of The Stream. He received his B.A. from Yale University in 1986, then his M.F.A. in screenwriting and fiction and his Ph.D. in English in 1996 from Louisiana State University. He has been Press Secretary to pro-life Louisiana Governor Mike Foster, and a reporter and editor at Success magazine and Investor's Business Daily, among other publications. His essays, poems, and other works have appeared in First Things, The Weekly Standard, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA Today, FrontPage Magazine, The American Conservative, The South Carolina Review, Modern Age, The Intercollegiate Review, Commonweal, and The National Catholic Register, among other venues. He has contributed to American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia and The Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought. From 2000-2004 he served as Senior Editor of Faith & Family magazine and a reporter at The National Catholic Register. During 2012 he was editor of Crisis. He is author, co-author, or editor of twelve books, including Wilhelm Ropke: Swiss Localist, Global Economist, The Grand Inquisitor and The Race to Save Our Century. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First. Zmirak can be found at https://stream.org/author/johnzmirak/ David Clements is a former law professor and prosecutor, and creator of the documentary "Let My People Go." He can be found at https://www.theprofessorsrecord.com/ The Professor's Record - David K. Clements 16.8K subscribers   Trump Just Took Over the World Watch this video at- https://youtu.be/DT_OLIgT6Us?si=_Om-BjFr46TKQukt Mr Reagan 390K subscribers 7,986 views Apr 9, 2025 Podcasts Invest in GOLD! - Visit http://www.MrReaganLikesGold.com or Call 844-696-GOLD  Patreon:   / mrreagan    MR REAGAN MERCHANDISE https://teespring.com/stores/mr-reagan FOLLOW MR REAGAN ON TWITTER!   / mrreaganusa   --------------------------------------------------------------------  Check out our ACU Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/ACUPodcast   HELP ACU SPREAD THE WORD!  Please go to Apple Podcasts and give ACU a 5 star rating. Apple canceled us and now we are clawing our way back to the top. Don't let the Leftist win. Do it now! Thanks. Also Rate us on any platform you follow us on. It helps a lot. Forward this show to friends. Ways to subscribe to the American Conservative University Podcast Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts Click here to subscribe via RSS You can also subscribe via Stitcher FM Player Podcast Addict Tune-in Podcasts Pandora Look us up on Amazon Prime …And Many Other Podcast Aggregators and sites ACU on Twitter- https://twitter.com/AmerConU . Warning- Explicit and Violent video content.   Please help ACU by submitting your Show ideas. Email us at americanconservativeuniversity@americanconservativeuniversity.com   Endorsed Charities -------------------------------------------------------- Pre-Born! Saving babies and Souls. https://preborn.org/ OUR MISSION To glorify Jesus Christ by leading and equipping pregnancy clinics to save more babies and souls. WHAT WE DO Pre-Born! partners with life-affirming pregnancy clinics all across the nation. We are designed to strategically impact the abortion industry through the following initiatives:… -------------------------------------------------------- Help CSI Stamp Out Slavery In Sudan Join us in our effort to free over 350 slaves. Listeners to the Eric Metaxas Show will remember our annual effort to free Christians who have been enslaved for simply acknowledging Jesus Christ as their Savior. As we celebrate the birth of Christ this Christmas, join us in giving new life to brothers and sisters in Sudan who have enslaved as a result of their faith. https://csi-usa.org/metaxas   https://csi-usa.org/slavery/   Typical Aid for the Enslaved A ration of sorghum, a local nutrient-rich staple food A dairy goat A “Sack of Hope,” a survival kit containing essential items such as tarp for shelter, a cooking pan, a water canister, a mosquito net, a blanket, a handheld sickle, and fishing hooks. Release celebrations include prayer and gathering for a meal, and medical care for those in need. The CSI team provides comfort, encouragement, and a shoulder to lean on while they tell their stories and begin their new lives. Thank you for your compassion  Giving the Gift of Freedom and Hope to the Enslaved South Sudanese -------------------------------------------------------- Food For the Poor https://foodforthepoor.org/ Help us serve the poorest of the poor Food For The Poor began in 1982 in Jamaica. Today, our interdenominational Christian ministry serves the poor in primarily 17 countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Thanks to our faithful donors, we are able to provide food, housing, healthcare, education, fresh water, emergency relief, micro-enterprise solutions and much more. We are proud to have fed millions of people and provided more than 15.7 billion dollars in aid. Our faith inspires us to be an organization built on compassion, and motivated by love. Our mission is to bring relief to the poorest of the poor in the countries where we serve. We strive to reflect God's unconditional love. It's a sacrificial love that embraces all people regardless of race or religion. We believe that we can show His love by serving the “least of these” on this earth as Christ challenged us to do in Matthew 25. We pray that by God's grace, and with your support, we can continue to bring relief to the suffering and hope to the hopeless.   Report on Food For the Poor by Charity Navigator https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/592174510   -------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer from ACU. We try to bring to our students and alumni the World's best Conservative thinkers. All views expressed belong solely to the author and not necessarily to ACU. In all issues and relations, we hope to follow the admonitions of Jesus Christ. While striving to expose, warn and contend with evil, we extend the love of God to all of his children. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

John Lennon once described Yoko Ono as the world's most famous unknown artist. Join us for a conversation with David Sheff—author of this intimate and revelatory biography of Yoko Ono, and the #1 New York Times bestseller, Beautiful Boy. David's biography delves into her groundbreaking art, music, feminism, and activism. Join us for a conversation about the book, exploring how she coped under the most intense, relentless, and cynical microscope while being falsely vilified for the most heinous cultural crime imaginable: breaking up the greatest rock-and-roll band in history. Hosted by Steve Heilig, who once bowed respectfully and silently to Yoko Ono in New York City's Central Park, and she bowed back. Co-presented with Point Reyes Books. David Sheff In 1980, David Sheff met Yoko and John when Sheff conducted an in-depth interview with them just months before John's murder. In the aftermath of the killing, he and Yoko became close as she rebuilt her life, survived threats and betrayals, and went on to create groundbreaking art and music while campaigning for peace and other causes. Sheff shows us Yoko's nine decades—one of the most unlikely and remarkable lives ever lived. Host Steve Heilig Steve Heilig is an editor, epidemiologist, ethicist, environmentalist, educator, and ethnomusicologist trained at five University of California campuses. He is co-editor of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics and of San Francisco Marin Medicine at the medical society he has long been part of. A former volunteer and director of the Zen Hospice Project, AIDS Foundation, and Planned Parenthood, he has helped improve laws and practices in reproductive and end-of-life care, drug policy, and environmental health. He is a longtime book critic and music journalist and emcee of the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival. He's been part of Commonweal for 30 years now. #commonweal #newschoolcommonweal #yokoono #yoko

HOW HAVE NON-VIOLENT ACTIVISTS STOOD UP TO POWER, AND WON? In this episode of The Leeds Sanctuary Podcast, Emma speaks to Emma Goodway of The Commonweal Trust, a charity sharing a collection of printed materials on the topic of nonviolent social action. You can find out more about them and how you can support and access the library here: https://www.commonwealnonviolence.org/ We hope you enjoy this podcast; if you do, please share it and tag us on social media at @leedssanctuary . With thanks to Matt at MC Online Events for editing this podcast. Music by Stockaudios from Pixabay.

Catholics listen to snippets of the Bible read every Sunday, but how many of them actually sit with and ponder the text?  It's long been a truism that Catholics don't actually read the Bible — at least not as much or in the same way as their Protestant brethren. But that doesn't mean Catholics don't encounter it, whether in books, films, plays, or popular culture.  On this episode, Fordham theology professor and frequent Commonweal contributor Michael Peppard, author of the new book How Catholics Encounter the Bible,  joins editor Dominic Preziosi to discuss how, paradoxically, the Bible shapes Catholic lives—just usually not in the shape of a book.  For further reading: Michael Peppard on the Bible and Marian art Christian Wiman on the Bible as poetry Eve Tushnet on the queer Catholic imagination

If there's ever been a Know Your Enemy subject worthy of two episodes, it is Elon Musk—currently the world's richest man, CEO and leader of several pathbreaking companies, ringleader of the Department of Government Efficiency, and (for now) Donald Trump's co-president. In other words, to understand what's happening in the United States during the second Trump administration, it's essential to understand Musk: what shaped him, his enduring preoccupations and personality traits, how he made his vast fortune, and why, in unprecedented ways, he decided to go all in on Trump.In this second of two episodes on Musk, Matt and Sam bring his story up to the present. After offering a few concluding details on Musk's various romantic and familial entanglements, they chart the course of his political derangement, especially focusing on his seeming addiction to Twitter—the social media platform he eventually bought and renamed "X," which also is the name he gave one of his young sons. Musk's purchase of Twitter is treated as a case study in how the billionaire now tends to operate, from his penchant for making wild claims and impulsive decisions, to the way he manages people, tasks, and money. The discussion concludes with a theory of why Trump made such a show of buying a Tesla at the White House, and how to understand what Musk is up to with his erratic, ignorant work at DOGE, with plenty of eyebrow-raising details along the way.As mentioned: Join Matt and Sam and Jamelle Bouie at Dissent magazine's fundraiser on April 8 in New York!Listen again: "Becoming Elon Musk, Part One"Sources:Kate Conger & Ryan Mac, Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter (2024)Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk (2023)Ashlee Vance, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (2015)Ella Yurman, "Vivian Jenna Wilson on Being Elon Musk's Estranged Daughter, Protecting Trans Youth and Taking on the Right Online," Mar 20, 2025Kylie Cheung, "World's Richest Man Allegedly Refuses to Pay Appropriate Child Support," Jezebel, Mar 21, 2025Faiz Siddiqui, "Elon Musk is worth $270 billion. He'd buy Twitter with an IOU," WaPo, April 22, 2022Theodore Schleifer  & Maggie Haberman "Elon Musk Seeks to Put $100 Million Into Trump Political Operation," NYTimes, Mar 11, 20225.Eric Lipton, "Musk Is Positioned to Profit Off Billions in New Government Contracts," NYTimes, Mar 23, 2025.Jessie Blaeser, "DOGE shared its receipts — and some of them don't match," Politico, Feb 22, 2025. Hadas Gold, "Trump says he'll buy a Tesla to support Elon Musk, whose companies are struggling," CNN, Mar 11, 2025.Sam Adler-Bell, "Capital without Borders," Commonweal, Feb 8, 2017.  ...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to access to all of our bonus episodes!

On Thursday, we featured a conversation with Red Scare author Clay Risen about Joe McCarthy, Donald Trump and the Paranoid Style of American History. Today our subject is one of the best known victims of McCarthyism - the German writer Thomas Mann. In His Liberties essay “Mannhood: The Coming Revival of Democracy,” Morten Hoi Jensen writes about how Mann, as an exile from Nazi Germany, toured the United States in the spring of 1938 lecturing in support of New Deal democracy. Thomas Mann's brave defense of American democracy might now appear as a model for dissenting intellectuals in Trump's America. Especially since Mann himself became a victim of the anti communist witch hunt after the War. Here are the five KEEN ON takeways in our conversation with Morten Hoi Jensen about Thomas Mann:* Thomas Mann was initially a conservative artist who became an advocate for democracy as he witnessed the rise of fascism in Germany. His political views evolved significantly from his earlier "apolitical" stance to becoming an outspoken critic of Nazism.* Mann's 1938 book and lecture tour "The Coming Victory of Democracy" warned Americans that democracy was vulnerable even in the United States. He saw parallels between pre-Nazi Germany and aspects of American society, which later contributed to his decision to leave the US during the McCarthy era.* Mann became a victim of McCarthyism in the 1950s. He was labeled as a "premature anti-fascist" by American reactionaries despite his prominence as a Nobel Prize-winning author who had been welcomed to America and had even visited the White House during the Roosevelt administration.* Throughout his life and work, Mann engaged in intense self-criticism and introspection about Germany's descent into fascism. Unlike many other political commentators, he looked inward and questioned his own early nationalistic writings, wondering if he had inadvertently contributed to Nazi ideology.* Mann's approach to politics was always that of an artist rather than a political analyst. His views were complex and often contradictory, yet his willingness to engage with difficult political questions through both his fiction (particularly in "Doctor Faustus") and his public speaking made him an important moral voice during a tumultuous period in history.Morten Hoi Jensen is the author of A Difficult Death: The Life and Work of Jens Peter Jacobsen, which was published by Yale University Press in 2017 with a foreword by James Wood. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, Liberties: A Journal of Culture and Politics, The Literary Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Point, The New Republic, The Wall Street Journal, and Commonweal, among other publications. He is represented by Max Moorhead at Massie & McQuilkin.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

John Fox speaks at the 2025 Public Forum on Healing with Integrative Cancer Care in February. The gathering was designed to bridges wisdom traditions with emerging frontiers in healing. This year's forum explores transformation through the intersections of integrative cancer care with consciousness and healing arts, featuring distinguished speakers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds. The day included engaging presentations on patient advocacy, expressive arts, and innovative approaches to cancer care. John Fox, PPM John is a poet and Practitioner of Poetic Medicine. He is author of Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem Making and Finding What You Didn't Lose: Expressing Your Truth and Creativity Through Poem-Making. His work is featured in the PBS documentary, Healing Words: Poetry and Medicine. John presents in medical schools and hospitals including Stanford, Harvard, Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, University Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, National Cancer Centre Singapore, Blythedale Children's Hospital in Vahalla, NewYork, The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington and many others. John is President of The Institute for Poetic Medicine, a nonprofit he founded in 2005. IPM funds poetry projects that serve marginalized persons throughout the United States and internationally. IPM offers training programs for those who want to facilitate the practice of poetry & healing. He lives in Mountain View, California. The New School at Commonweal is a collaborative learning community offering conversations about nature, culture, and inner life---so that we can all find meaning, meet inspiring people, and explore the beauty and grief of our changing world. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for more great podcasts. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Robin Daly speaks at the 2025 Public Forum on Healing with Integrative Cancer Care in February. The gathering was designed to bridges wisdom traditions with emerging frontiers in healing. This year's forum explores transformation through the intersections of integrative cancer care with consciousness and healing arts, featuring distinguished speakers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds. The day included engaging presentations on patient advocacy, expressive arts, and innovative approaches to cancer care. Robin Daly is Chairman & Founder of Yes to Life, a UK Registered Charity. Robin has no training or background in healthcare, but was plunged into the arena in 1990 when his youngest daughter Bryony was diagnosed with cancer, aged 9. She went on to be re-diagnosed twice with treatment-related cancers, eventually dying at 23. The immense difficulties the family faced introducing treatment choices that reflected their own understanding of health and wellbeing prompted him to set up Yes to Life in 2004 to help others in similar situations, and to advocate on behalf of patients for what is now called Integrative Oncology. Yes to Life is now celebrating its 20th Anniversary having helped many thousands with cancer with a wide range of supportive resources, and continues to play a key role in changing the discussion around cancer care. The New School at Commonweal is a collaborative learning community offering conversations about nature, culture, and inner life---so that we can all find meaning, meet inspiring people, and explore the beauty and grief of our changing world. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for more great podcasts. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Dr. Mark Renneker speaks at the 2025 Public Forum on Healing with Integrative Cancer Care in February. The gathering was designed to bridges wisdom traditions with emerging frontiers in healing. This year's forum explores transformation through the intersections of integrative cancer care with consciousness and healing arts, featuring distinguished speakers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds. The day included engaging presentations on patient advocacy, expressive arts, and innovative approaches to cancer care. Mark Renneker, MD Mark is assistant clinical professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Renneker has developed a San Francisco-based private medical consultative practice which, since 1988, has provided intensive research and advocacy services to hundreds of patients, family members, and other healthcare providers. About half of the cases he works with are cancer-related, most often dealing with high-risk, recurrent, and metastatic disease. The general approach he takes in his practice is to try to put the patient (and family) in charge of their overall case (and health) by learning to be in charge of their case with him (such as patient-directed consultations). To accomplish this necessitates, from the outset of the work, his going to where they are, meaning that he needs to do everything possible to understand their feelings, fears, confusion, frustrations, hopes, and desires, as well as their physical symptoms and suffering; he needs to take up their side in dealing with the disease, their doctors and the healthcare system—his alliance, his bond, is to them, less so the profession. He finds that doing this work by phone actually facilitates empowerment and intimacy—their being at home, rather than in a doctor's office, using such a familiar communication medium as the telephone, which many of them use professionally and with great authority. The New School at Commonweal is a collaborative learning community offering conversations about nature, culture, and inner life---so that we can all find meaning, meet inspiring people, and explore the beauty and grief of our changing world. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for more great podcasts. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Jen Green speaks at the 2025 Public Forum on Healing with Integrative Cancer Care in February. The gathering was designed to bridges wisdom traditions with emerging frontiers in healing. This year's forum explores transformation through the intersections of integrative cancer care with consciousness and healing arts, featuring distinguished speakers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds. The day included engaging presentations on patient advocacy, expressive arts, and innovative approaches to cancer care. Jen Green, ND, FABNO Jen Green is a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) who is board certified in Naturopathic Oncology (FABNO). She received her Arts & Science degree from McMaster University, and graduated from the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine in 2000. Dr Green founded the Naturopathic Department at Beaumont Hospitals, Michigan in 2008 and served as the department head for five years. Jen wrote the cardio-oncology chapter in the Textbook for Naturopathic Oncology and has published papers in BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, American Urology Association Update Series, Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine, and the Natural Medicine Journal. Jen Green lectures in both the US and Canada: https://drjengreen.com/conference___lecture Dr Green currently serves as a Research Director for KNOW, the Knowledge in Integrative Oncology Website (www.knowoncology.org). KNOW is an educational platform that supports decision making in cancer care. The KNOW database is updated quarterly with human studies on natural agents or nutrition and cancer care. Dr Green has served on the board of the Oncology Association Naturopathic Physicians and Michigan Association of Naturopathic Physicians. She currently sits on the advisory board of Cancer Choices. After practicing integrative oncology for 24 years, Jen underwent chemoradiation for head and neck cancer in 2024, which deepened her understanding of what it is to be a cancer patient. She is dedicated to teaching a heart-centered, evidence-based and individualized approach to integrative supportive cancer care. The New School at Commonweal is a collaborative learning community offering conversations about nature, culture, and inner life---so that we can all find meaning, meet inspiring people, and explore the beauty and grief of our changing world. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for more great podcasts. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Mark Taylor speaks at the 2025 Public Forum on Healing with Integrative Cancer Care in February. The gathering was designed to bridges wisdom traditions with emerging frontiers in healing. This year's forum explores transformation through the intersections of integrative cancer care with consciousness and healing arts, featuring distinguished speakers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds. The day included engaging presentations on patient advocacy, expressive arts, and innovative approaches to cancer care. Mark Taylor is the CEO and founder of Patient Led Oncology. An organisation that studies alternative cancer treatments from four pillars. Through collating and digesting published research. Working with some of the world's leading experimental oncology doctors and alternative healers. Following patients doing alternative treatments volunteering through his Patient Led Oncology Facebook group and his own personal experience with treatments and alternative healing methods, including learning directly from with Gabor Mate, Shamans from the Amazon, Shaolin Monks and Qi Gong masters. The New School at Commonweal is a collaborative learning community offering conversations about nature, culture, and inner life---so that we can all find meaning, meet inspiring people, and explore the beauty and grief of our changing world. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for more great podcasts. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Dawn Gross speaks at the 2025 Public Forum on Healing with Integrative Cancer Care in February. The gathering was designed to bridges wisdom traditions with emerging frontiers in healing. This year's forum explores transformation through the intersections of integrative cancer care with consciousness and healing arts, featuring distinguished speakers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds. The day included engaging presentations on patient advocacy, expressive arts, and innovative approaches to cancer care. Dawn Gross, MD, PhD, (aka DrAsYouWish) is a national thought leader in Hospice & Palliative Medicine, Writer, Podcaster and Magic Wand Bearer, who pioneers revolutionary palliative medicine as the art of patient care, scientific curiosity and storytelling. Medical director of ANX Hospice and UCSF Palliative Care physician, Dawn earned her MD and PhD in immunology from Tufts University and completed her fellowship training in hematology with an emphasis in bone marrow transplant at Stanford University. She transitioned to the field of hospice and palliative medicine after her father died in 2006. Dawn considers grief an injury and has developed a novel approach to its healing in what she refers to as the ICU “ISEEYOU for the Soul.” She is the creator and host of the radio program, Dying to Talk. Her writing has been published widely including in The New York Times, JAMA, Science and Annals of Internal Medicine. She is an internationally invited speaker most recently sharing true stories from the bedside about what matters most in her 2024 TEDx talk “Ask. The Time is Now” and her new book, Heart Sounds: How a Stethoscope, A Magic Wand, and a Fishing Pole Teach Us to Listen for What Matters Most. Learn more at: www.drasyouwish.com The New School at Commonweal is a collaborative learning community offering conversations about nature, culture, and inner life---so that we can all find meaning, meet inspiring people, and explore the beauty and grief of our changing world. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for more great podcasts. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Dale Borglum speaks at the 2025 Public Forum on Healing with Integrative Cancer Care in February. The gathering was designed to bridges wisdom traditions with emerging frontiers in healing. This year's forum explores transformation through the intersections of integrative cancer care with consciousness and healing arts, featuring distinguished speakers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds. The day included engaging presentations on patient advocacy, expressive arts, and innovative approaches to cancer care. Dale Borglum RamDev Dale Borglum is a pioneering figure in the conscious dying movement, known for his contributions to end-of-life care and spiritual support. As the Founder and Director of the Hanuman Foundation Dying Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he established the first residential facility in the United States dedicated to supporting conscious dying experiences with clients. Collaborating closely with luminaries such as Ram Dass, Stephen Levine, and Elizabeth Kubler Ross, RamDev played a pivotal role in laying the foundation for the conscious dying movement. Since 1986, RamDev has served as the Executive Director of the Living/Dying Project, initially in Santa Fe and later in the San Francisco Bay Area. With an unwavering commitment to integrating Eastern spirituality and Western psychology, the organization has guided countless individuals through the sacred journey of death with compassion and wisdom. His expertise in meditation, honed since 1968, has been instrumental in his teachings and inspirational workshops, where he shares insights on meditation, individual healing, and spiritual support for those in transition. Within his teachings, RamDev also places emphasis on living consciously and compassionately to overcome our individual collective fear of death. Throughout his career as both a meditation and spiritual teacher, RamDev has collaborated with esteemed figures such as Joan Halifax, Robert Thurman, Joanna Macy, Jack Kornfield, Anne Lamott, Jai Uttal, Duncan Trussell, and many others. RamDev co-authored Journey of Awakening: A Meditator's Guidebook with Ram Dass, Daniel Goleman, and Dwarka Bonner, published by Bantam Books. In his popular podcast, Healing at The Edge, hosted on the Be Here Now Network channel, he spreads his unique dharmic teachings and routinely interviews esteemed teachers and professionals within the field of conscious living and dying. His book How To Live So You Can Die Without Fear will be released in 2025. The New School at Commonweal is a collaborative learning community offering conversations about nature, culture, and inner life---so that we can all find meaning, meet inspiring people, and explore the beauty and grief of our changing world. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for more great podcasts. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Diana Lindsay speaks at the 2025 Public Forum on Healing with Integrative Cancer Care in February. The gathering was designed to bridges wisdom traditions with emerging frontiers in healing. This year's forum explores transformation through the intersections of integrative cancer care with consciousness and healing arts, featuring distinguished speakers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds. The day included engaging presentations on patient advocacy, expressive arts, and innovative approaches to cancer care. Diana Lindsay Given a prognosis of a few months, Diana Lindsay has now lived nearly 19 years following adiagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer. She is the co-founder of Healing Circles Langley andHealing Circles Global. She is also the author of Something More Than Hope: SurvivingDespite the Odds, Thriving Because of Them. The New School at Commonweal is a collaborative learning community offering conversations about nature, culture, and inner life---so that we can all find meaning, meet inspiring people, and explore the beauty and grief of our changing world. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for more great podcasts. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Jennifer Bires speaks at the 2025 Public Forum on Healing with Integrative Cancer Care in February. The gathering was designed to bridges wisdom traditions with emerging frontiers in healing. This year's forum explores transformation through the intersections of integrative cancer care with consciousness and healing arts, featuring distinguished speakers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds. The day included engaging presentations on patient advocacy, expressive arts, and innovative approaches to cancer care. Jennifer Bires, LCSW, OSW-C, CST Jennifer is an innovative leader in the field of psychosocial oncology with over 15 years of experience building patient centered, supportive care programs for patients and families impacted by cancer. In her current role at Inova Schar Cancer Institute, Jennifer leads a team of oncology behavioral health therapists, social workers, nurse navigators and oncology dieticians, ensuring that patients and those who support them have access to psychosocial care and education, at no cost to them, to help cope with cancer and its impact on their well-being. Additionally, she oversees the Arts and Healing program utilizing the arts as a modality of healing. Her clinical specialties include sexual health, young adults with cancer and end of life care. Jennifer is a current PhD candidate in Palliative Care at the University of Maryland, Baltimore exploring the use of psychedelics as a behavioral health treatment modality for people impacted by cancer. She earned her master's degree in social work from Washington University in Saint Louis, and her bachelor's degree at Clemson University. She was awarded the Oncology Social Worker of the year in 2017 from the Association of Oncology Social Workers, sits on the Leadership Council for the Association of Oncology Nurse Navigators +, and Board of Trustees for the Association of Cancer Care Centers, is a member of the American Cancer Society National Navigation Round Table and is a past chair for the Board of Oncology Social Work. The New School at Commonweal is a collaborative learning community offering conversations about nature, culture, and inner life---so that we can all find meaning, meet inspiring people, and explore the beauty and grief of our changing world. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for more great podcasts. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

What should great fiction do for us? That's the question asked by Edwin Frank, editorial director of New York Review Books and author of Stranger than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel.  Good books—and there were many written during the past hundred years—can entertain, just as they can give us pleasure. But great ones have the ‘power to breach,' that is, to upset and provoke us, shattering our illusions about the world.  On this episode, Frank speaks with Commonweal contributor and literary critic Tony Domestic about authors like Dostoevsy, Proust, and Virginia Woolf, among others. For further reading: Fiction by Alice McDermott Mollie Wilson O'Reilly on George Eliot's double life  Tony Domestico's latest books column 

In his first month back in office, Donald Trump has made cruelty toward migrants and refugees central to his agenda, while J. D. Vance has used his flawed understanding of Catholic social teaching to justify the administration's plans for mass deportation.  Their actions and remarks have alarmed many in the Church. On this episode, three guests tell us how and why. Massimo Faggioli, Commonweal contributor and Villanova University professor addresses the challenges for Catholicism in the second Trump era.  Kerry Robinson, the head of Catholic Charities USA, explains the vital work of her organization and who will be most harmed by the freezes in federal funding.  And Cardinal Blase Cupich of the Archdiocese of Chicago speaks about why “the protection and advocacy for the dignity of migrants” is the Church's new “preeminent urgency.” For further reading:  Massimo Faggioli on what American regime change means for the Church Griffin Oleynick on Francis's rebuke of J. D. Vance's ethno-nationalism Terence Sweeney on how the bishops may respond to Trump

~ Part One of a Two Part Conversation with host Michael Lerner Join Host Michael Lerner in two conversations with cognitive psychologist, Harvard professor, and author Howard Gardner, who is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences. Howard Gardner Howard is John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He also holds positions as adjunct professor of psychology at Harvard University and senior director of Harvard Project Zero. His numerous honors include a MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 1981, honorary degrees from 26 colleges and universities, and selection by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines as as one of the 100 most influential public intellectuals in the world. The author of 25 books translated into 28 languages, and of several hundred articles, Gardner is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences, a critique of the notion that there exists but a single human intelligence that can be adequately assessed by standard psychometric instruments. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

~ Part Two of a Two Part Conversation with host Michael Lerner Join Host Michael Lerner in two conversations with cognitive psychologist, Harvard professor, and author Howard Gardner, who is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences. Howard Gardner Howard is John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He also holds positions as adjunct professor of psychology at Harvard University and senior director of Harvard Project Zero. His numerous honors include a MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 1981, honorary degrees from 26 colleges and universities, and selection by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines as as one of the 100 most influential public intellectuals in the world. The author of 25 books translated into 28 languages, and of several hundred articles, Gardner is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences, a critique of the notion that there exists but a single human intelligence that can be adequately assessed by standard psychometric instruments. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

There aren't many things most people agree on today across all the different political and cultural divides. But this following claim probably unites most of us: We are too distracted today and our collective ability to pay attention is in bad shape. That seems like pretty conventional wisdom. Today's guest enjoys few things more than taking a piece of conventional wisdom and poking and prodding it to see if it's actually that wise after all. Jonathan Malesic is a writer and writing teacher at Southern Methodist University whose work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Republic, The Washington Post, America Magazine and elsewhere. He's also author the author of the great book “The End of Burnout.” And Jon has offered fantastic spiritual nonfiction writing courses through the Jesuit Media Lab. In a recent essay in the magazine Commonweal, Jon wrote about going to an art museum in San Francisco as a sort of experiment. He wanted to see if looking closely and attentively at works of art for a long time could help heal his own fraying attentiveness. Host Mike Jordan Laskey really enjoyed the essay and was challenged by it, so he invited Jon on to discuss his experiences. They talked about museums and Instagram algorithms and the different types of attention you need while looking at art versus, say, driving a car. The essay and this conversation might make you think some more about our crisis of distraction and what might be the right antidotes to pursue. Jon's recent Commonweal essay, Fix Your Gaze: https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/fix-your-gaze Jon's book, "The End of Burnout": https://www.amazon.com/End-Burnout-Drains-Build-Better/dp/0520344073 Jon's Substack: https://jonmalesic.substack.com/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

Long-time musical collaborators Mariah Parker (piano, santur) and Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar) share their unique blend of captivating music that is sure to uplift. Performing original compositions inspired by the musical cultures of Spain, Brazil and India mixed with the contemporary colors of jazz, the duo creates a mesmerizing sound that has been described by concert goers as ‘absolutely spellbinding' ‘dazzling and unforgettable' and ‘a transporting experience.' Mariah Parker Mariah Parker has been playing music from the time she could reach the keys on the grand piano in her family home. As a composer, pianist and bandleader her work crosses cultural boundaries with an exuberant quest for defying musical labels or categorization. Her academic tenure at UC Santa Cruz was distinguished by her involvement with ethnomusicologist Fred Lieberman and the iconic drummer Mickey Hart on the “Planet Drum” project, marking her early foray into the fusion of musical traditions. Her discography began with the critically acclaimed Sangria in February 2009, followed by Indo Latin Jazz Live in Concert in 2017 and Windows Through Time in 2024. The last two albums have both enjoyed months of prominence on the National Jazzweek Airplay chart and been celebrated globally for their innovative soundscapes and compositional brilliance. Windows Through Time (released June, 2024) “One of the most beautiful and surprising releases of 2024” — Thierry De Clemensat, US correspondent – Paris-Move and ABS magazine “Genre-bending brilliance….with Windows Through Time, Mariah Parker cements her position as a leading voice in contemporary music” — Jazz Sensibilities Matthew Montfort Matthew Montfort is the leader of the innovative world fusion group Ancient Future, and a pioneer of the scalloped fretboard guitar, an instrument combining qualities of the South Indian vina and the steel string guitar. Montfort studied intensively with vina master K.S. Subramanian in order to apply the note-bending techniques to the guitar. In 2012, he was added to the 100 Greatest Acoustic Guitarists list at http://DigitalDreamDoor.com , joining luminaries such as Michael Hedges, Chet Atkins, John Fahey, and John Renbourn. Montfort has recorded with legendary world music figures ranging from Bolivian panpipe master Gonzalo Vargas to tabla maestros Swapan Chaudhuri and Zakir Hussain. He has performed concerts worldwide, including the Festival Internacional de la Guitarra on the Golden Coast of Spain near Barcelona and the Mumbai Festival at the Gateway of India in Bombay. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts. #commonweal #sacredmusic #musicthatheals #healingmusic #solsticeofheroes commonweal, sacredmusic, musicthatheals, healingmusic, solstice, summersolstice, summersolstice, winter solstice, winter

A new year is before us, and soon, a new president will assume office. What does the future have in store? Trump supporters are happy, and his opponents are full of foreboding. Many people also feel that a new era in American history is about to begin — for better or worse. Damir Marusic and Santiago Ramos discuss the nature of this new era. They begin with the question of fear: Are you afraid of the second Trump term? Santiago explains why the Trump phenomenon seemed more frightening in 2016 than it does in 2024. Damir asks whether finding historical analogues for Trump actually illuminates anything about the man, and makes him less scary. Santiago then asks Damir about two of his latest pieces for Wisdom of Crowds, in which Damir seems almost giddy about the collapse of the liberal establishment and Trump's rise. What exactly is Damir happy about? What good does he see coming from this historical moment? What is changing? While not defending Trump himself, Damir argues that Trump's crushing of liberal illusions, and the exposure of the hypocrisy of our political class, are good things. What he hopes for is a new “positive program of skepticism and humility,” and a more limited version of liberalism. In the course of the conversation, Damir and Santiago cover wide variety of topics: Damir's newfound conservatism; Trump and Andrew Jackson; Kissinger on Trump; the USA and Latin America; NATO; Greenland; and the Cold War. Because this is our first podcast of the new year, and season-opener of sorts, we are making this episode free for all subscribers. Required Reading and Listening:* Damir, “The feeling of limitless possibility ahead of Trump's inauguration is dizzying” (WoC).* Damir, “The Peasants, the People and God” (WoC).* Santiago on Latinos and the election (Commonweal).* Santiago on Trump and Latin America (Commonweal). * Black Mirror episode Santiago mentions: “The Waldo Moment” (IMDB). * Henry Kissinger: “I think Trump may be one of those figures in history who appears from time to time to mark the end of an era and to force it to give up its old pretences” (Financial Times). * Jason Willick on Trump and Andrew Jackson (Washington Post).* Samuel Goldman on why the US is more like Latin America than Europe (The Week). * Antonio García Martínez on why the US is like Brazil (X). * Our podcast episode with Yuval Levin (WoC).* Video of Trump and Stoltenberg (YouTube).* Jon Stewart on Nancy Pelosi's “legal corruption” (The Wrap).This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Governance and Markets.Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

Today I am taking sides. I am taking the side of Peace. Peace, which I will not abandon even when its voice is drowned out by hurt and hatred, bitterness of loss, cries of right and wrong. I am taking the side of Peace whose name has barely been spoken in this winnerless war….. From Irwin Keller's viral protest poem, “Taking Sides,” published in his recent volume of essays, memoir, and poetry: entitled Shechinah at the Art Institute: Words, Worry, Wonder. Join Host Michael Lerner for another conversation with New School friend and sometimes-host Rabbi Irwin Keller. A former lawyer and drag queen, Irwin has released a long-awaited volume of essays, memoir, and poetry, entitled Shechinah at the Art Institute: Words, Worry, Wonder. In this book, Irwin, most recently known for his viral protest poem, “Taking Sides,” leads us on dazzling journeys into Jewish mysticism, love, loss, memory, gender, AIDS, and the Milky Way itself. Co-presented with the Mesa Refuge. #shechinah #jewishmysticism #newschoolcommonweal #commonweal #irwinkeller Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Nancy Fraser discusses her understanding of capitalism as an integrated social order and explores its implications for envisioning a desirable postcapitalism.   --- If you are interested in democratic economic planning, these resources might be of help: Democratic planning – an information website https://www.democratic-planning.com/ Sorg, C. & Groos, J. (eds.)(2025). Rethinking Economic Planning. Competition & Change Special Issue Volume 29 Issue 1. https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ccha/29/1   Groos, J. & Sorg, C. (2025). Creative Construction - Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press. https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-construction International Network for Democratic Economic Planning https://www.indep.network/ Democratic Planning Research Platform: https://www.planningresearch.net/ Democratic Planning Forum: https://forum.democratic-planning.com/ --- Shownotes Remarque Institute https://as.nyu.edu/research-centers/remarque.html Nancy Fraser at The New School for Social Research: https://www.newschool.edu/nssr/faculty/nancy-fraser/ Fraser, N. (2023). Cannibal Capitalism: How our System is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet and What We Can Do About It. Verso Books. https://www.versobooks.com/products/2685-cannibal-capitalism?srsltid=AfmBOopHZ8reXaCDUToeZsbdoTqnXb-wbejQdYin2J_bsa9tAu36oQCQ Ivkovic, M., & Zaric, Z. (2024). Nancy Fraser and Politics. Edinburgh University Press. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-nancy-fraser-and-politics.html Fraser, N., & Jaeggi, R. (2023). Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory. Verso Books. https://www.versobooks.com/products/2867-capitalism Fraser, N. (2022) Benjamin Lecture 3 – Class beyond Class (Video) https://youtu.be/jf6laSf6Eko?si=iWL-Za4pPPwF0xvb on social differentiation as discussed in sociology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differentiation_(sociology) Rodney, W. (2018). How Europe underdeveloped Africa. Verso Books. https://www.versobooks.com/products/788-how-europe-underdeveloped-africa?srsltid=AfmBOoqKZ6g4j8UpPJD6qC5yEmKuP0h6sFTvcEX5qjBF7CtPSzedUtcP on Marx's account of surplus value: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surplus_value Robaszkiewicz, M. & Weinman, M. (2023) Hannah Arendt and Politics. Edinburgh University Press. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-hannah-arendt-and-politics.html Vančura, M. (2011) Polanyi's Great Transformation and the concept of the embedded economoy. IES Occasional Paper No. 2/2011 https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/83289/1/668400315.pdf Elson, D. (2015). Value: The Representation of Labour in Capitalism. Verso Books. https://www.versobooks.com/products/159-value?srsltid=AfmBOooSko5DiXwMNN2NjSay4BP4n9cM-4y53r7G90VPbvE6itl5rxKT Robertson, J. (2017) The Life and Death of Yugoslav Socialism. Jacobin. https://jacobin.com/2017/07/yugoslav-socialism-tito-self-management-serbia-balkans Moore, J. W. (2015). Capitalism in the web of life: Ecology and the accumulation of capital. Verso Books. https://www.versobooks.com/products/74-capitalism-in-the-web-of-life Patel, R., & Moore, J. W. (2018). A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet. Verso Books. https://www.versobooks.com/products/817-a-history-of-the-world-in-seven-cheap-things?srsltid=AfmBOoqMnr0nAUfdHOxlQPTXsnGfQtMkDKgFtJsMQ3mtk7Jcyd3Wjqko Brand, U., & Wissen, M. (2021). The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism. Verso Books. https://www.versobooks.com/products/916-the-imperial-mode-of-living?srsltid=AfmBOopUs15MsSgvJ7TRVfwmo330sHvjQIAST_UymD-90i3VIfCw6vg8 Bates, T. R. (1975) Gramsci and the Theory of Hegemony. Journal of the History of Ideas Vol. 36 No. 2. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2708933 Bois, W. E. B. Du. (1935). Black Reconstruction. An Essay toward a History of the Part which Black Folk played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880. Harcourt, Brace and Company. https://cominsitu.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/w-e-b-du-bois-black-reconstruction-an-essay-toward-a-history-of-the-part-which-black-folk-played-in-the-attempt-to-reconstruct-democracy-2.pdf Trotsky, L. (1938) The Transitional Program. Bulletin of the Opposition. https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/tp/ Morris, W. (1890) News from Nowhere. Commonweal. https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1890/nowhere/nowhere.htm Hayek, F. A. von. (1945). The Use of Knowledge in Society. The American Economic Review, 35(4). https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/articles/hayek-use-knowledge-society.pdf Schliesser, E. (2020) On Foucault on 17 January 1979 On the Market's Role (as site) of Veridiction (III) Digressions & Impressions Blog. https://digressionsnimpressions.typepad.com/digressionsimpressions/2020/06/on-foucault-on-17-january-1979-on-the-markets-role-as-site-of-veridiction-iii.html Foucault, M. (2008). The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège De France, 1978-1979. Palgrave Macmillan. https://1000littlehammers.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/birth_of_biopolitics.pdf Marx, K. (1973) Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. Penguin. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/grundrisse.pdf on Bernard Mandeville and “Private Vice, Public Virtue”: https://iep.utm.edu/mandevil/ Kaufmann, F. (1959) John Dewey's Theory of Inquiry. The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 56, No. 21. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2022592 on Habermas: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/habermas/ on “Neurath's boat”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurath%27s_boat   Future Histories Episodes on Related Topics S03E24 | Grace Blakeley on Capitalist Planning and its Alternatives https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e24-grace-blakeley-on-capitalist-planning-and-its-alternatives/ S03E19 | Wendy Brown on Socialist Governmentality https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e19-wendy-brown-on-socialist-governmentality/ S03E04 | Tim Platenkamp on Republican Socialism, General Planning and Parametric Control https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e04-tim-platenkamp-on-republican-socialism-general-planning-and-parametric-control/ S03E03 | Planning for Entropy on Sociometabolic Planning https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e03-planning-for-entropy-on-sociometabolic-planning/ S03E02 | George Monbiot on Public Luxury https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e02-george-monbiot-on-public-luxury/ S02E51 | Silvia Federici on Progress, Reproduction and Commoning https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e51-silvia-federici-on-progress-reproduction-and-commoning/ S02E33 | Pat Devine on Negotiated Coordination https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e33-pat-devine-on-negotiated-coordination/ S03E23 | Andreas Malm on Overshooting into Climate Breakdown https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e23-andreas-malm-on-overshooting-into-climate-breakdown/   Future Histories Contact & Support If you like Future Histories, please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/FutureHistories Contact: office@futurehistories.today Twitter: https://twitter.com/FutureHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/futurehpodcast/ Mastodon: https://mstdn.social/@FutureHistories English webpage: https://futurehistories-international.com Episode Keywords #NancyFraser, #JanGroos, #Podcast, #Socialism, #PostCapitalism, #Capitalism, #MarketPower, #Markets, #EconomicDemocracy, #PatDevine, #WorkingClass, #WelfareState, #CriticalTheory, #Markets, #Veridiction, #Foucault, #Governmentality, #Care, #CareWork, #Labour, #Labor, #Race, #Imperialism, #DemocraticPlanning, #EconomicPlanning, #SocialReproduction, #PostcapitalistReproduction, #Ecology, #FutureHistoriesInternational, #Boundaries, #CannibalCapitalism, #Socialism  

Tara Geer, Program Director of Commonweal's Visual Thinking Strategies program in conversation with host Susan Grelock Yusem Around the world, people understand life and each other in vastly different ways. In "What Do We Know?," we will delve into profound ways of knowing often dismissed by Western thought, including intuition, artistic expression, empathy, and the wisdom of dreams. We will explore diverse, non-Western approaches to knowledge formation including interconnection, collective well-being, intuition, and other ways of knowing. Join us live for three 60-minute conversations followed by 1/2-hour shared community inquiry that could include breakout groups, writing prompts and sharing, demonstrations, or other processes. Hosted by Commonweal Narrative Director Susan Grelock Yusem.

Back in October, before the 2024 election, we had on our friend—and brilliant screenwriter and playwright—Dorothy Fortenberry to talk about gender and the presidential campaign. Amid all the postmortems and Democratic soul searching, we wanted to have Dorothy back on to revisit some of those questions, starting with the difficulties women face in running as "outsiders" or against "The System"—an especially relevant consideration given the prevailing anti-incumbent, burn-it-down sentiment among voters across Europe and the Americas. Along the way we discuss Sarah Palin, Trump's "bad sex" cabinet and administration, how "having fun" is coded in American culture, and more.Sources:Dorothy Fortenberry, "The J.D. Vance sperm cups were probably a troll. But they got me thinking," Slate, Aug 23, 2024— "Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore," Commonweal, Nov 5, 2020Martin Pengelly, "RFK Jr sexual assault accuser says she chose to speak out after Super Bowl ad," The Guardian, Nov 21, 2024. Eric Lutz, "Matt Gaetz Accused of Sex With Minor in House Ethics Report," Vanity Fair, Dec 21, 2024. Eric Tucker, "Trump's Pentagon pick paid woman after sex assault allegation but denies wrongdoing, his lawyer says," AP, Nov 17, 2024.Tony Tulathimutte, "Our Dope Future" in Rejection (Sept 2024)Robert Hanley, "Donor Apologized to Sister for Seduction of Husband," NYTimes, Jan 13, 2005.Damon Linker, "The Bestial Politics of Masculine Self-Assertion," Notes from the Middleground, Nov 22, 2024.Sam Adler-Bell, "MAGA Misfits vs. Nationalists vs. Reaganites vs. Dorks: The battle of the Trump transition," NY Mag, Dec 14, 2024.Listen again:"Suburban Woman," Oct 29, 2019"Living at the End of Our World" (w/ Daniel Sherrell), Sept 2, 2021"'Succession,' 'Extrapolations,' & TV Writing Today" (w/ Will Arbery), May 4, 2023"Boys and Girls in America," Oct 3, 2024...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to all of our bonus episodes!...or give the gift of a KYE Patreon subscription to your loved on

As you probably know by now, 2024 was a big year for Commonweal, marking one hundred years of continuous publication.  It was also an important one for the podcast, which for five years—and nearly one hundred and fifty episodes—has been bringing you reflective conversations with inspiring writers, thinkers, artists, and political and religious leaders.  On this episode, we're revisiting four of our favorite episodes from the past year: Marilynne Robinson and Christian Wiman on Genesis Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman on the ethics of having children Vinson Cunningham on criticism as a way of life Rabbi Shai Held on Judaism's loving heart. 

In this conversation, join TNS Host Michael Lerner with artist and sound healer Deborah Koff-Chapin. Deborah Koff-Chapin has been practicing Touch Drawing since it came into her life as a creative inspiration in 1974. She teaches this simple yet profound process internationally. Deborah is creator of the best-selling SoulCards 1&2, celebrating 25 years in print in 2020. This same year she harvested 25 years of work to produce her deck Portals of Presence. Deborah is creator of five SoulTouch Coloring Journals. She is author of Drawing Out Your Soul and The Touch Drawing Facilitator Workbook. Deborah has served as Interpretive Artist at numerous conferences including The Parliament of the Worlds Religions. She also works with individuals to bring subtle dimensions of their soul into form through Inner Portraits. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

– zen priest teaching the art of war, conflict In this era of profound conflict and rupture, we are witnessing disharmony at every level of humanity---within ourselves, in our relationships, across our communities, within the nation, and across nation states. Group conflict can stretch and break us, but if we are willing to endure the pain, it can also lead us closer to existential realities that are uncomfortable, yet essential, for us to face. When collective conflict arises, it thrusts us into liminal spaces of uncertainty, loss, vitality, and initiation. In these moments, we must ask ourselves: how do we learn to listen to the individual and collective soul that is emerging? This New School conversation series will weave perspectives from depth and transpersonal psychologies, somatics, cosmology, and consciousness into conflict transformation. We will learn from wisdom keepers who are deeply trained in both the technical craft of conflict resolution and the spiritual, ancestral, and traditional wisdom that allows us to see deeply into conflict---transforming shared suffering into opportunities for healing. In this conversation, Serena talks with Norma Wong, Zen priest and teacher about the art of war and conflict, who recently served to help facilitate a mutual path through the conflict between native culture/science and western discovery science posing as a dispute over the construction of a telescope on Mauna Kea. Norma Wong (Norma Ryuko Kawelokū Wong Roshi) Norma is a Native Hawaiian and Hakka life-long resident of Hawaiʻi. She is the abbot of Anko-in, an independent branch temple of Daihonzan Chozen-ji and serves practice communities in Hawai‘i, across the continental U.S., and in Toronto, Canada. She is an 86th generation Zen Master, having trained at Chozen-ji for over 40 years. In earlier years, Wong served as a Hawai‘i state legislator, working on the return of ceded lands and settlement of land issues. In recent years, Wong has been called back into service to facilitate breaking the impasse and transforming policy and governance on issues of seeming contradiction. In the conflict between native culture/science and western discovery science posing as a dispute over the construction of a telescope on Mauna Kea, Wong was a team member narrating and facilitating a path forward through mutual stewardship. She is currently an advisor to Speaker of the Hawai‘i House of Representatives Scott Saiki, serving in policy development and facilitation roles on issues such as the protection of the aquifer from fuel contamination at Red Hill, and the long-term response to the Lahaina wildfires. Find out more about Norma on her website: normawong.com Serena Bian Serena is pursuing a life that remains attentive to the tenderness of a snail's soft body and reverent to the miracle of its spiraled shell. Working with U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, Serena serves as a Special Advisor and brings a spiritual and systemic understanding to the public health crisis of loneliness and isolation. As a chaplain-in-training, Serena is pursuing questions of how we chaplain the end of extractive systems that isolate communities from themselves and one another. She is involved with multi-generational, multi-spiritual communities like the Nuns and Nones, devoted to courage, peacebuilding, and love. She participates on the Board of Commonweal and CoGenerate. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Steven Searcy reads his poem, "Christ's Baptism," and Lisa Rosinsky reads her poem, "Yom Kippur." Steven Searcy is the author of Below the Brightness (Solum Literary Press, 2024). His poems have appeared in Southern Poetry Review, Commonweal, The Windhover, Ekstasis, Amethyst Review, and elsewhere. He lives with his wife and four sons in Georgia. Lisa Rosinsky has been a finalist for the Slapering Hol Chapbook Prize, the Fugue Poetry Contest, and the Morton Marr Poetry Prize. She is a graduate of the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins and holds an MFA in poetry from Boston University, and in 2016, she won the Writer-in-Residence fellowship at the Boston Public Library. Her poems have appeared in Palette Poetry, SWWIM, Third Coast, Tahoma Literary Review, Prairie Schooner, Cimarron Review, Mid-American Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Baltimore Review, and other journals and anthologies. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vita-poetica/support

This is a conversation we've wanted to have for a while, and it seemed like there was no better time than now, as many people on the broad center-left are asking tough questions about Donald Trump's strength in rural America—according to one post-election analysis, he won 62 percent of rural voters. To unpack what's happening in these parts of the country, we talked to Luke Mayville of Reclaim Idaho, a grassroots organization that, among other things, helped win a ballot referendum that expanded Medicaid in the state. Why, when an initiative like that can succeed, or voters in red states reject school vouchers or approve hikes to the minimum wage, does the party that opposes these measures tend to clean up in such places? What can be gleaned from talking to voters from all over a state like Idaho about how they view the two major political parties, understand the role of government, and explain the problems facing them in their lives? We take up these questions and more! Sources:Luke Mayville, "Do Something Big," Commonweal, Sept 22, 2020— "The Battle Against School Vouchers," Commonweal, Dec 11, 2023— John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy (Princeton University Press, 2016)Paul Demko, "The Ballot Revolt to Bring Medicaid Expansion to Trump Country," Politico, Oct 19, 2018Daniel Nichanian, "How Organizers Are Defending Direct Democracy," Bolts, Aug 16, 2023Dana Goldstein and Troy Closson, "Voters Poised to Reject Private School Vouchers in Three States," New York Times, Nov 7, 2024Keith Orejel, "The Political Economy of the Urban-Rural Divide," Law & Political Economy Project, Nov 11, 2024...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to access all of our bonus episodes! 

In the wake of the 2024 election, many are wondering how to make sense of the results—including how a capable, qualified woman could lose to a man like Donald Trump, an adjudicated rapist whose campaign regularly celebrated a version of masculinity that many find offensively misogynistic.  On this episode, Commonweal editor-at-large Mollie Wilson O'Reilly and Natalia Imperatori Lee, professor of religious studies at Manhattan University, reflect on what just happened. They also parse what the second Trump administration might portend for Democrats, the Church, and especially women. It's long past time, they argue, not only for men to confront sexism and misogyny, but to work to articulate healthy versions of masculinity. Trump's election may be a massive setback for feminism—but how the story ends depends on our response. For further reading:  Mollie Wilson O'Reilly ponders Trump's 2016 election Regina Munch on why we can't disengage The editors on why the appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh

Nate Loewentheil is the founder and managing partner of Commonweal Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on solving America's biggest challenges through entrepreneurship. Nate's career spans angel investing, politics, and public policy. Previously, he served in the Obama White House, advising President Obama on emerging technologies such as clean energy and broadband expansion. His background includes roles in the Yale Entrepreneurial Society, founding the Roosevelt Institution, and advising startups during his time running venture investments for a family office.Commonweal Ventures invests in pre-seed and seed-stage companies tackling generational challenges such as climate change, competition with China, and an aging population. The firm focuses on startups that leverage government partnerships as a strategic advantage, tapping into resources like national labs, regulatory data, and long-term infrastructure projects.The firm's investment philosophy distinguishes itself from traditional GovTech by emphasizing the unique ability of government to unlock enterprise value rather than solving it as a "problem to fix." With a bipartisan advisory board that includes former Trump, Bush, Obama, and Clinton administration officials, Common Weal Ventures excels at navigating regulatory landscapes and creating opportunities for impactful innovation.

“For those of us who are drawn into church  history and church tradition and to reading theology,  there is very little as transformative as realizing that history is populated by women and men like us who tried to follow Christ in their own time and place and culture and circumstances,  some of whom succeeded. … Looking at the saints, they make me want to be a better Christian. They make me want to be a saint.” (Brad East, from the episode)In his recent book, Letters to a Future Saint: Foundations of Faith for the Spiritually Hungry, theologian Brad East addresses future generations of the Church, offering a transmission of Christian faith from society today to society tomorrow. Written as a fellow pilgrim and looking into the lives of saints in the past, he's writing to that post-literate, post-Christian society, where the highest recommendation of faith is in the transformed life.Today, Drew Collins welcomes Brad East to the show, and together they discuss: the importance of being passed and passing on Christian faith—its transmission; the post-literacy of digital natives (Gen Z and Gen Alpha) and the role of literacy in the acquisition and development of faith; the significance of community in a vibrant Christian faith; the question of apologetics and its effectiveness as a mode of Christian discourse; the need for beauty and love, not just truth, in Christian witness; how to talk about holiness in a world that believes less and less in the reality of sin; the difference between Judas and Peter; and what it means to study the saints and to be a saint.About Brad EastBrad East (PhD, Yale University) is an associate professor of theology in the College of Biblical Studies at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. In addition to editing Robert Jenson's The Triune Story: Collected Essays on Scripture (Oxford University Press, 2019), he is the author of four books: The Doctrine of Scripture (Cascade, 2021), The Church's Book: Theology of Scripture in Ecclesial Context (Eerdmans, 2022), The Church: A Guide to the People of God (Lexham, 2024), and Letters to a Future Saint: Foundations of Faith for the Spiritually Hungry (Eerdmans, 2024).His articles have been published in Modern Theology, International Journal of Systematic Theology, Scottish Journal of Theology, Journal of Theological Interpretation, Anglican Theological Review, Pro Ecclesia, Political Theology, Religions, Restoration Quarterly, and The Other Journal; his essays and reviews have appeared in The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Comment, Commonweal, First Things, Front Porch Republic, The Hedgehog Review, Living Church, Los Angeles Review of Books, Marginalia Review of Books, Mere Orthodoxy, The New Atlantis, Plough, and The Point. You can found out more, including links to his writing, podcast appearances, and blog, on his personal website: https://www.bradeast.org/.Show NotesLetters to a Future Saint: Foundations of Faith for the Spiritually Hungry  by Brad EastThe importance of being passed and passing on Christian faith—its transmissionSpencer Bogle, the reason Brad East is a theologianThe post-literacy of Gen Z and Gen Alpha and the role of literacy in the acquisition and development of faithThe question of apologetics and its effectiveness as a mode of Christian discourseThe need for beauty and love, not just truth, in Christian witnessChristianity pre-exists you, and pre-existed literate society. So it can survive post-literacyTik-Tok and getting off it“We have to have a much broader vision of the Christian life.”The Doctrine of Scripture, by Brad East, Foreword by Katherine SondereggerCartesian Christianity: me alone in a room, maybe with a flashlight and a bibleSpiritual but not religious (H/T Tara Isabella Burton)We're not saved individuallyAlice in Wonderland and “believing 17 absurd things every day”Is Christian apologetics sub-intellectual and effective?Gavin Ortlund, taking seriously spiritual and moral questions with pastoral warmth and intellectual integrity—”a ministry of Q&A”Bishop Robert Barron and William Lane Craig“People are not going to  be won to the faith through argument. They're going to be won by beauty.”Beauty of lives well-lived, integrity, virtue, and martyrdom“What lies beyond this world is available in part in this world and so good it's worth dying for.”Is Christian apologetics actually for Christians, rather than evangelism?“A person's life can be an apologetic argument.”James K.A. Smith: “We don't want to be brains on sticks.”“You're just going to look bizarre.”“Come and see. … If you see something unique or uniquely powerful here, then stick around.”Saintliness and a cloud of witnessesWhy do the saints matter?The protagonist of Augustine's Confessions is actually St. Monica.“I want to be like Monica…”“For those of us who are drawn into church  history and church tradition and to reading theology,  there is very little as transformative as realizing that history is populated by women and men like us who tried to follow Christ in their own time and place and culture and circumstances,  some of whom succeeded. … Looking at the saints, they make me want to be a better Christian. They make me want to be a saint.”How to talk about holiness in a world that believes less and less in the reality of sin.Is holiness just connected to purity culture?Holiness is very difficult to describe.Hauerwas: “Humans aren't holy. Only God is holy.”Holiness as being like God and being set apart and conformed to his likenessHoliness is, by rights, God's alone.Appreciating the “everyday saints” among usSanctification as an utterly passive actThe final words of Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict), “Jesus, ich liebe dich!” (”Jesus, I love you.”)Peter and JudasLucy Shaw poem, “Judas, Peter” (see below)“There is a way to fail as a Christian. It's to  despair of the possibility of Christ forgiving you.”What it means to journey as a pilgrim towards holiness is, is not to get everything right.Shusaku Endo, Silence“What I say is we're all Kichichiro. We're all Peter and Judas. We're all bad Christians. There are no good Christians.”Kester Smith and returning to baptism“Sometimes it might be difficult for me to believe that God loves me.”“Judas, Peter”by Lucy Shawbecause we are all betrayers, taking silver and eating body and blood and asking (guilty) is it I and hearing him say yes it would be simple for us all to rush out and hang ourselvesbut if we find grace to cry and wait after the voice of morning has crowed in our ears clearly enough to break out hearts he will be there to ask us each again do you love me?Production NotesThis podcast featured Brad East & Drew CollinsEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Zoë Halaban, Alexa Rollow, Emily Brookfield, and Kacie BarrettA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

Brad East joined the pod to discuss his new book, The Church: A Guide to the People of God. From the publisher (Lexham Press):The Bible tells the story of God and his people. But it is not merely history. It is our story. Abraham is our father. And Israel's freedom from slavery is ours.Brad East traces the story of God's people, from father Abraham to the coming of Christ. He shows how we need the scope of the entire Bible to fully grasp the mystery of the church. The church is not a building but a body. It is not peripheral or optional in the life of faith. Rather, it is the very beating heart of God's story, where our needs and hopes are found.Brad East (PhD, Yale University) is an associate professor of theology at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. He is the editor of Robert Jenson's The Triune Story: Collected Essays on Scripture (Oxford University Press, 2019) and the author of four books: The Doctrine of Scripture (Cascade, 2021), The Church's Book: Theology of Scripture in Ecclesial Context (Eerdmans, 2022), The Church: A Guide to the People of God (Lexham, 2024), and Letters to a Future Saint: Foundations of Faith for the Spiritually Hungry (Eerdmans, 2024).His articles have been published in Modern Theology, International Journal of Systematic Theology, Scottish Journal of Theology, Journal of Theological Interpretation, Anglican Theological Review, Pro Ecclesia, and Political Theology; his essays have appeared in The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Comment, Commonweal, First Things, The Hedgehog Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The New Atlantis, Mere Orthodoxy, Plough, and The Point.Find Crackers and Grape Juice on Instagram, Facebook, and Substack.

Jake Meador is the editor-in-chief of Mere Orthodoxy and author of multiple books. His writing has appeared in the Atlantic, Commonweal, First Things, the Dispatch, Comment, Christianity Today, and elsewhere. He lives in his hometown of Lincoln, NE with his wife and family. Our conversation is wide ranging, from culture, to history, to politics, to technology. I found Jake to be both delightful and thoughtful, especially when it comes to his analysis of culture and technology.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This conversation is a little different. We thought that exploring the life of, say, Russell Kirk might not be the best way to spend the weeks before such a consequential election, so this is the first of of a few episodes that won't be about a text or a life, but about the 2024 elections—hopefully digging a little deeper than most, and with a special concern for the themes and topics of Know Your Enemy. To help us get started, we had on a great friend of the podcast, playwright and screenwriter Dorothy Fortenberry, to talk about a presidential campaign that "smacks of gender," from declining sperm counts to abortion to the lives of moms, dads, and children today. In short, it's an unguarded discussion of how we can better care for each other in a world that's making it harder and harder to do just thatSources:Dorothy Fortenberry, "The J.D. Vance sperm cups were probably a troll. But they got me thinking," Slate, Aug 23, 2024— "'One of Those Serious Women': Andrea Dworkin's Radical Feminism," Commonweal, April 29, 2019Mollie Wilson O'Reilly, "When Abortion Isn't Abortion," Commonweal, Mar 21, 2022Listen again:"Suburban Woman," Oct 29, 2019"Living at the End of Our World" (w/ Daniel Sherrell), Sept 2, 2021"'Succession,' 'Extrapolations,' & TV Writing Today" (w/ Will Arbery), May 4, 2023...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to all of our bonus episodes!

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemyMatt and Sam continue the 100th episode extravaganza by answering more truly excellent listener questions and hear from more friends of the show. Topics include: leftwing politics and orthodox Christianity, how to maintain hope (especially on the socialist left), learning to love Freud, complicated family politics, and more! Plus: Dissent co-editor Tash Lewis sings "Happy Birthday" to Matt in Welsh.Sources:Charles Péguy, Portal of the Mystery of Hope (1911)Wesley Hill, "After Boomer Religion," Commonweal, April 29, 2019Herbert McCabe, "The Class Struggle and Christian Love," in God Matters (2012)Matthew Sitman, "Against Moral Austerity: On the Need for a Christian Left," Dissent, Summer 2017Dan Walden, "Gender, Sex, and Other Nonsense," Commonweal, March 1, 2021Peter Gay, Freud: A Life for Our Time(1988)Pat Blanchfield, "Death Drive Nation," Late Light, Nov 1, 2022Casey Blake and Christopher Phelps, "History as Social Criticism: Conversations with Christopher Lasch," Journal of American History, Mar 1994Sam Adler-Bell, "Beautiful Losers," Commonweal, Mar 11, 2020— "Jews in the diaspora must resist the inhumanity being done by Israel in our name," New Statesman, Nov 29, 2023— "Good Enough," The Baffler, April 2024Kim LaCapria & David Mikkelson, "Does This Photograph Show Bernie Sanders at a 1962 Civil Rights Sit-In?" Snopes, Mar 3, 2016