Podcasts about Commonweal

Dr. Annie Selak (she/her/hers) is an expert in feminist ecclesiology. She studies wounds in the church, or moments where the church fails to live into its mission and causes harm. Racism, sexism, and the clergy sex abuse crisis are examples of the church failing to credibly be church. Guided by a feminist methodology, Selak integrates the lived experience of women with a robust vision for the church. Selak serves as a Visiting Scholar in the Center on Faith and Justice while working as a campus minister at a local independent school. She earned her Ph.D. in systematic theology at Boston College and M.Div at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. Selak has over 15 years of experience in Catholic ministry, and her writing has appeared in Modern Theology, Journal of Catholic Social Thought, Washington Post, National Catholic Reporter, Commonweal, and America. Her forthcoming book, The Wounded Church: Tending to the Harm within Catholicism (Fordham University Press, 2026) puts forth a vision of the church in the shadow of wounds, guided by a feminist methodology. Selak argues that the Catholic Church must confront its own injuries in order to credibly be Church. Using a feminist framework, she develops a new ecclesiology around three wounds, racism, sexism, and clericalism, that actively harm the Body of Christ and distort its witness. Attentive to history, pastoral practice, and lived experience, Selak shows how each wound is both inflicted by the Church and borne within the Church. She offers the resurrected body of Jesus, scarred yet no longer bleeding, as a guiding metaphor for ecclesial renewal, a body that does not deny its wounds but is transformed through them. Drawing on Karl Rahner, she grounds hope in the reign of God while insisting on concrete institutional and spiritual conversion. Written for students and scholars, ministers and lay leaders, The Wounded Church uncovers overlooked histories tied to racism, sexism, and the clergy sexual abuse crisis, and proposes clear theological principles for reform. The result is a constructive, pastorally engaged vision that tells the truth about harm and imagines credible paths toward change, accountability, and justice. You can use the code "church2026" at the link below to receive a discounted book and free shipping.  https://fordhampress.com/the-wounded-church-hb-9781531513368.html

What becomes possible when we understand social and political harm not only as injustice, but as expressions of collective trauma? In this conversation, Kazu Haga—activist, trainer, and author of Fierce Vulnerability: Healing from Trauma, Emerging Through Collapse—joins host Serena Bian to explore why healing is so essential to radically reimagining the worlds we wish to build in the midst of collapse. This conversation explores the possibility that the work of social transformation cannot be separated from the work of inner transformation. Rather than reinforcing the familiar patterns of opposition of “us and them,” “right and wrong," Kazu invites us to consider pathways of change that are rooted in relationship, spiritual practice, and the long arc of healing. Drawing from decades of work in nonviolence, restorative justice, and Buddhist practice, Kazu reflects on the limitations of movement strategies that mirror the very dynamics they seek to transform. What might it mean to respond to harm in ways that do not escalate division, but instead create the conditions for healing, within ourselves, our communities, and the larger body politic? *** The New School is Commonweal's learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our SoundCloud channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts.

Join Michael Lerner in a spiritual biography conversation with Robert Mulhall—Commonweal board member, former president of Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, and a consultant whose work sits at the intersection of leadership development, organizational health, and human potential. *** The New School is Commonweal's learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts. tns.commonweal.org

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. REMINDER: COME SEE KYE x MIKE DUNCAN LIVE IN NYC Given the string of recent episodes that, in various ways, grappled with religion we wanted to take a step back and offer a rather personal conversation about believing in God, or not, and what difference it might makes. The discussion begins by revisiting when we first met over a decade ago and talked a lot about faith, then ranges widely, including: atheism vs agnosticism, W.H. Auden, why we're not experiencing a religious revival in the United States (but could be soon), and more. Sources: Christopher Beha, Why I Am Not an Atheist (2026) Edward Mendelson, "The Secret Auden," New York Review of Books, March 20, 2014 David Martin, w/ a reply from Edward Mendelson, "Why Auden Married," New York Review of Books, April 24, 2014 Matthew Sitman, "Saving Calvin from Clichés: An Interview with Marilynne Robinson," Commonweal, Oct 5, 2017 Ryan Burge, "Religion Has Become A Luxury Good For The Middle Class, Married College Graduate With Children," Religion Unplugged, July 12, 2023 Daniel Cox, "The Illusion of America's Religious Revival," American Storylines, Nov 13, 2025 Walker Percy, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book (1983) — The Message in the Bottle: How Queer Man Is, How Queer Language Is, and What One Has to Do with the Other (1975) The Living Thoughts of Kierkegaard, edited & with an introduction by W.H. Auden (1999) W.H. Auden, "In Praise of Limestone," in Nones (1951) "Jill Lepore on Nationalism, Populism, and the State of America," EconTalk, April 15, 2019

What is healing, really—below the story or journey, and even beyond any meaning? After Dr. Cynthia Li experienced a radical healing firsthand, she began studying the science of physiological coherence, and deepening in her practice of embodied flow. Since then, she has been supporting others in activating their body's peak healing state: for personal healing, for thriving amid life's inevitable challenges, for collective healing, and to allow healing to happen in a more effortless and playful way. Host Serena Bian will be in conversation with Cynthia for the first hour (part 1), followed by an hour of experiential play (part 2). To activate healing, flow has to be embodied. So join us in simple methods to activate what Cynthia calls "the golden triad:" mind empty, heart open, and body inhabited. These will include movement, sound, writing, and whatever emerges collectively (surprise is a quality of flow!). *** The New School is Commonweal's learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts. tns.commonweal.org

What is healing, really—below the story or journey, and even beyond any meaning? After Dr. Cynthia Li experienced a radical healing firsthand, she began studying the science of physiological coherence, and deepening in her practice of embodied flow. Since then, she has been supporting others in activating their body's peak healing state: for personal healing, for thriving amid life's inevitable challenges, for collective healing, and to allow healing to happen in a more effortless and playful way. Host Serena Bian will be in conversation with Cynthia for the first hour (part 1), followed by an hour of experiential play (part 2). To activate healing, flow has to be embodied. So join us in simple methods to activate what Cynthia calls "the golden triad:" mind empty, heart open, and body inhabited. These will include movement, sound, writing, and whatever emerges collectively (surprise is a quality of flow!). *** The New School is Commonweal's learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts. tns.commonweal.org

The Iran war has produced an unlikely main character: the Pope. This week, our dear friend and former colleague Santiago Ramos returns to the pod. He joins Christine and Damir to unpack the escalating clash between the Trump administration and the Catholic Church over the war, Trump's various blasphemies, and JD Vance's remarkable journey from Catholic conversion to, well, rediscovering Protestantism. The conversation then turns to more interesting matters. What does the Catholic tradition actually say about just war, and does anyone in Washington care? Santi argues that the real story isn't just about applying just war principles — it's about the Vatican's deeper commitment to a post-WWII global order that it sees every American war chipping away at. He draws a sharp distinction between just war and holy war, arguing that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's invocations of divine mandate are what really set off the Pope. Christine is fascinated by the public's unexpected hunger for moral authority in a cynical age — and by the spectacle of a charismatic, English-speaking, social-media-fluentAmerican pope suddenly becoming the most compelling critic of the administration. And Damir, true to form, grants the Pope his due as a political operator while insisting that the real story is simpler: while this is a stupid war with no rationale, the savvy Pope saw an opportunity to play politics. The conversation ends with an unlikely convergence, as Christine gets Damir to all but confess his belief in original sin.Required Reading:* Christine Emba, “What a Catholic Church Unafraid of Donald Trump Means to the World” (NYT).* Ross Douthat, “Trump's Blasphemy is a Warning” (NYT).* Jacques Maritain on just war (Commonweal).* Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris (Vatican).* Phil Klay on just war principles and the Iran war (YouTube).* Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, “How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran” (NYT). 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

Fiona and Marlene are joined by Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp for an update on  Believe in Scotland's campaign to end the energy rip-off. Thousands of Scottish households and businesses are demanding answers. Despite being an energy-rich nation with abundant renewable resources, Scotland pays the highest energy prices in the UK—a disparity that defies logic and hits hardworking families where it hurts most. The recent petition has sparked action with thousands of Scots demanding an end to the energy rip off flooding the inboxes of elected representatives with calls for change. With the Holyrood elections on the horizon we also take a look at the manifesto energy pledges from the major parties.  We even ranked this from worst to best in our opinion.  You might not agree with us - you can let us know in the comments how you would rate them! Key topics: 00:01:22  Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp gives us the latest on the energy petition 00:28:26   Our Energy manifesto countdown Find out more about the petition here : https://www.believeinscotland.org/end_scotlands_energy_bill_rip_off With thanks to Craig Dalzell from Commonweal here is a very handy summary of all the manifestos: https://thecommongreen.scot/2026/03/19/the-scottish-parliamentary-election-2026-the-manifestos/ #holyrood2026 #believeinscotland  #energyprices The Indypodcasters team produce a NEW podcast episode every Friday search for Scottish Independence Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts.  Remember to like and subscribe! Get in touch: Email:  indypodcasters@gmail.com  Bluesky: @scottishindypod Visit our website https://scottishindypod.scot for blogposts, newsletter signup and more episodes Subscribe for free to our Youtube channel @scottishindypodExtra for more of our video footage and clips.  Video premieres most Tuesdays at 8pm We're also on TikTok : scotindypodcasters If you've enjoyed this podcast you might like to buy us a coffee?   https://ko-fi.com/scottishindependencepodcasts or choose us as your Easyfundraising good cause.        

Dickens in Brooklyn is a virtuoso collection of unusual, compelling essays in which critically acclaimed and award-winning author Jay Neugeboren explores experiences that have been central to his life: caring long-term for a brother with mental illness; finding and connecting with long-lost family members; a posthumous lunch with Oliver Sacks; his years as single parent to his three children; his decision as a General Motors executive trainee to violate company policy and hang out with "hourlies;" a thwarted kiss at a teenage summer camp where he was a young Jewish man in exile among Jews.Neugeboren is the author most recently of Whatever Happened to Frankie King and twenty-three other prize-winning works of fiction and nonfiction. His essays have been recently published in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The American Scholar, Los Angeles Review of Books, Tablet, and Commonweal, and are here collected for the first time.

In part 9 of the series, Michael Lerner talks with author Jeffrey Kripal about his book, The Flip. Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. In this series, Jeffrey talks with Host Michael Lerner about his body of work---more than 13 groundbreaking books about the mystical and the erotic, the relationship of mind and matter, and parapsychological phenomena. Michael has been reading, talking, and meeting with Jeffrey for more than a year now, immersing himself in the consciousness worldview that Jeffrey presents in his books and teaching. Follow Michael's journey through these conversations, and share your thoughts in the comments. *** The New School is Commonweal's learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for many thousands of listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts.

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. Once more we take up religion and politics, this time a conversation about President Donald Trump's attacks on Pope Leo XIV—the first successor of St. Peter from the United States—mostly, though not only, over the pope's pleas for peace as Trump rages war against Iran. Why is the incredibly unpopular Trump going after the beloved pontiff? Why does Trump's Catholic vice president, J.D. Vance, argue that Leo should stay out of politics and stick to morality, as if politics was not irreducibly a moral enterprise? Who is Pope Leo, and what seem to be his priorities for his papacy? How to make sense over the arguments about just-war theory that Leo's various statements about war and peace—notably, that God does not hear the prayers of those who wage war—have generated? We answer all these questions, and more! COME SEE KYE x MIKE DUNCAN LIVE IN NYC Sources: "Rerum Novarum: Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Capital and Labor," May 15, 1891 "Reflection of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV at the Prayer Vigil for Peace," April 11, 2026 "U.S. Bishops' Chairman on Doctrine Issues Clarification on Just War Theory," April 15, 2026 Chris Cameron, "Vance Says Pope Leo Should Stay Out of U.S. Affairs," New York Times, April 13, 2026 Matthew Sitman, "Pope Francis and Civil Unions: We Need Clarity, Not a Media Blackout," Commonweal, Oct 27, 2020 Jason Horowitz & Natalie Kitroeff, "Pope Francis' Views on Same-Sex Civil Unions Were Cut From a 2019 Vatican Interview," New York Times, Oct 22, 2020 Gerald W. Schlabach, "Just War? Enough Already," Commonweal, May 31, 2017

Informacje o podkaście, odcinkach i autorach: https://teologiazkatowic.pl  W tym odcinku dyskutujemy na temat  koncepcji „wojny sprawiedliwej”. Idea ta przez niektórych teologów/filozofów traktowana jako oksymoron i wytrych do usprawiedliwiania wojen, przez innych uważana jest za jedyny sposób ucywilizowania konfliktów zbrojnych. Katechizm Kościoła Katolickiego, choć odwołuje się do idei „sprawiedliwej wojny”, nie traktuje jej jako punktu wyjścia, w centrum nauczania Kościoła w tym temacie, stawiając dążenie do zachowania pokoju.  Na ile koncepcja „wojny sprawiedliwej” jest wciąż możliwa do utrzymania? Czy istnieje inny sposób uprawnionego zaangażowania militarnego, który nie jest obroną? Czy chrześcijanin z natury powinien być pacyfistą? Odpowiedzi na te pytania usiłujemy szukać, rozmawiając na kanwie niedawnego ataku USA na Iran, który na nowo sprowokował dyskusję wokół możliwości prowadzenia działań zbrojnych przez chrześcijan.   Rozmowa jest komentarzem do dyskusji medialnej w trzech amerykańskich mediach katolickich: First Things, Commonweal i America Magazine. We wszystkich analizowanych mediach idea wojny sprawiedliwej jest traktowana jako punkt odniesienia, choć dla jednych stanowi próbę uzasadnienia słuszności niektórych działań administracji Donalda Trumpa, podczas gdy dla innych jest narzędziem do jednoznacznego potępienia decyzji rządzących Stanami Zjednoczonymi.    Linki do omawianych mediów:  https://firstthings.com https://www.commonwealmagazine.org https://www.americamagazine.org  KKK: 2307-2310 

In part 8 of the series, Michael Lerner talks with author Jeffrey Kripal about some of the key themes that weave through all of his books, especially exploring the nature of consciousness itself. Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. In this series, Jeffrey talks with Host Michael Lerner about his body of work---more than 13 groundbreaking books about the mystical and the erotic, the relationship of mind and matter, and parapsychological phenomena. Michael has been reading, talking, and meeting with Jeffrey for more than a year now, immersing himself in the consciousness worldview that Jeffrey presents in his books and teaching. Follow Michael's journey through these conversations, and share your thoughts in the comments. *** The New School is Commonweal's learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for many thousands of listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts. tns.commonweal.org

Energy bills are soaring, and Scotland's future hangs in the balance. In this episode, we tackle the complexity of Scotland's energy market with Dr Craig Dalzell from Commonweal, exploring whether First Minister John Swinney's bold claim that independence could cut Scottish bills by a third holds water. We unpack the intricate dynamics of energy pricing, the potential economic benefits of Scottish energy independence, and the critical difference between community benefit agreements and true community ownership.  And what would real change look like for Scottish households struggling with rising costs? Key themes: 00:03:39  Energy networks - who does what? 00:08:40  Low cost energy with independence - John Swinney's plan 00:10:29  Can we cut bills by a third?  How? 00:20:18   How are electricity charges set? 00:26:14   Fiona and Marlene's energy bills 00:36:00   A view from the Faroes - Hannah Mary Goodlad 00:38:36    Energy and community benefit 00:48:55   Energy rich Scotland = Energy rich Scots - John Swinney Find Commonweal's policy paper on nationalising energy here https://www.commonweal.scot/articles/7576?rq=nationalise%20energy #scottishenergy #independence #costofliving The Indypodcasters team produce a NEW podcast episode every Friday search for Scottish Independence Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts.  Remember to like and subscribe! Get in touch: Email:  indypodcasters@gmail.com  Bluesky: @scottishindypod Visit our website https://scottishindypod.scot for blogposts, newsletter signup and more episodes Subscribe for free to our Youtube channel @scottishindypodExtra for more of our video footage and clips.  Video premieres most Tuesdays at 8pm We're also on TikTok : scotindypodcasters If you've enjoyed this podcast you might like to buy us a coffee?   https://ko-fi.com/scottishindependencepodcasts or choose us as your Easyfundraising good cause. Music: Inspired by Kevin MacLeod Scottish Independence Podcasts is pro independence but not party political.  Opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily represent our views.

Hosts and Commonweal contributors Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins and Nick Tabor chat with Gary Dorrien, professor at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary, about the life and legacy of Jesse Jackson and the Black social gospel tradition. They explore Dorrien's own intellectual journey from rural Michigan to the academy, his groundbreaking trilogy on the Black social gospel, Jackson's relationship with Martin Luther King Jr., the Rainbow Coalition presidential campaigns of the 1980s, and what Jackson's career reveals about the enduring ties between the Black church and progressive politics.Episode production and original music by Joel Myers.

Beyond Survival: Sustaining Human Agency in Challenging Times | Graham Leicester and Hosts Oren Slozberg and Katherine Fulton We are living in challenging times. Commonweal has been a trailblazer in recognizing this as a moment of long- and short-term peril and opportunity--a rolling “polycrisis.” It may feel overwhelming, but we have copious capacity to rise to the challenge of these times. What will it take to muster a fully human response to polycrisis? How can we draw on reserves of existential courage to face the reality of the present and mobilize our natural human capacities for growth, learning, wisdom, and hope? Join Commonweal Board Chair Katherine Fulton and Executive Director Oren Slozberg for a conversation with Graham Leicester, founder of International Futures Forum, a group established in 2001 precisely to address the challenge of effective agency in “a world we do not understand and cannot control.” Graham spent two weeks in residence at Commonweal in February as a visiting scholar, musing on these challenges with friends and fellow travelers. This conversation is the final event of the residency. *** The New School is Commonweal's learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for many thousands of listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts. tns.commonweal.org #commonwealnewschool #commonweal #thirdhorizon #resilience

In this week's episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviews Jerry Harp about his poem “The Precincts of the Holy.” Jerry's books include Creature (2003), Gatherings (2004), and Spirit Under Construction (2017). His poems appear in America, Best American Poetry (2009), Boulevard, Cincinnati Review, Commonweal, december, The Iowa Review, The Journal, Kenyon Review, Laurel Review, Notre Dame Review, Pleiades, Poetry Northwest, and The Wallace Stevens Journal, among other places. His reviews appear in American Book Review. He teaches at Lewis & Clark College.

What's happening in our world—and how do we respond? For the past four years, Commonweal's Omega Resilience Awards project has been exploring this question with fellows and research teams across Africa, India, and Latin America. Now we're ready to share what we're learning. Join us for a conversation with three of the researchers, who will share their findings and explore together: How do we respond to these times not just through individual stories, but through the larger work of changing our collective narratives? Join us in person or online for a 1-hour moderated conversation, some time for questions, followed by a reception and viewing of the gallery exhibit (on display through March) [link to gallery show page] featuring stunning illustrations by Jon Marro, bringing the four years of this project to life. This is part of Commonweal's 50th anniversary year—a time when we're reflecting on five decades of healing ourselves and the Earth and asking how we navigate these times through community, learning, and resilience. Dr. Urmitapa Dutta (University of Massachusetts Lowell) Exploring how creative expression, cultural preservation, and artistic activism contribute to community resilience Dr. Susan James (Pacifica Graduate Institute) Examining how both traditional and modern technologies—including sacred practices and ritual—support community-based solutions Susan Grelock Yusem, PhD leads strategy and innovation at Commonweal, weaving together her experience in strategic communication, community psychology, and regenerative systems. A trained depth psychologist and community psychologist with a doctorate from Pacifica Graduate Institute, Susan brings psychological depth to collaborative leadership, particularly in narrative design, creative development, and building resilient organizations. Find out more about Commonweal New School on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. On Monday, Manhattan Institute fellow Chris Rufo posted this: "The Right's collective brain is getting melted in a vat of slop, conspiracy, and algorithm-chasing. An intelligent man will guard himself against all of it." Given that Rufo was, after J.D. Vance, perhaps the most prominent Haitians-are-eating-pets-in-Ohio conspiracy theorist in the country, his complaint generated many, many responses rightfully calling him out for his lack of self-awareness and his own role in mainstreaming such a politics. As our friend John Ganz wrote, "Is this hypocrisy, stupidity, or unabashed malevolence? Try all three: it's politics. Specifically, it's the politics of the American Conservative Movement. People cry out for a new William F. Buckley. Give the title to Rufo, I say; he's doing the job already." In this episode we talked to Ganz about how the dynamic Rufo identified has always been a feature of the postwar conservative movement, stretching back at least to William F. Buckley, Jr. and Brent Bozell's defense of McCarthyism; what's distinctive about the Right's present slop era, especially the alignment of conservative movement propagandists, the Republican Party, and the state; populism and the "Madisonian model"; and more! Sources: John Ganz, "I Told You So..." Unpopular Front, Feb 24, 2026 — "Finding Neverland: The American right's doomed quest to rid itself of Trumpism," New Republic, Feb 17, 2020 Olivia Bellusci, "Candace Owens Drops Trailer for Investigative Series About Erika Kirk Months After Charlie's Death," Yahoo, Feb 24, 2026 Matthew Sitman, "Riding the Trump Tiger," Commonweal, Aug 7, 2015 Nathan Taylor Pemberton, "Is ‘Slopulism' Shaping Our Politics?" New York Times, Feb 13, 2026 Ruby Cramer, "You Don't Know Bernie Sanders," Buzzfeed, Dec 16, 2019.  Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word, (1982)

What happens when a poet and a theologian decide to write letters to each other about faith? In this episode, I sit down with Christian Wiman and Miroslav Volf to discuss their book Glimmerings and talk about the language we use for God and why it so often falls short, the tension between God's presence and absence, what the Book of Job has to say about suffering, and whether faith can survive, even deepen, without easy answers. It's a conversation about holding paradox, paying attention, and what it looks like to keep believing in the middle of real life.Miroslav Volf is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and the founding director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. His books include Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation, winner of the 2002 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. His Gifford Lectures (2025) are titled Amor Mundi: God and the Character of Our Relation to the World.Christian Wiman is the Clement-Muehl Professor of the Arts at Yale Divinity School. He is the author, editor, or translator of fifteen books, including Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair and Hammer Is the Prayer: Selected Poems. His work appears regularly in Harper's, The New Yorker, and Commonweal.Miroslav & Chris' Book:Glimmerings: Letters on Faith Between a Poet and a TheologianChris' Recommendations:The Banquet YearsMiroslav's Recommendation:The Cost of DiscipleshipConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.comGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTubeConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link belowGet Your Sidekick Support the show

Hosts and Commonweal contributors Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins and Nick Tabor chat with reporter Daniel Silliman about his tenure at Christianity Today, his bombshell reporting on Ravi Zacharias, the current state of Evangelicals—and more. Episode production and original music by Joel Myers.

Many protections from pollution and toxic chemicals have moved from the federal level to the states. This isn't just a recent phenomenon; it goes back decades, to changes in the structure of agencies that manage environmental health and to a growing partisan divide. As federal regulation of chemicals faltered, states started taking up the slack. States have always had a role as laboratories of innovation, and model environmental health policies can be found around the country. That is the focus of A Healthy Union: How States Can Lead on Environmental Health, recently published by Island Press. For example, Texas was one of the first states to mandate that all school districts implement policies and practices to reduce use of hazardous pesticides. Massachusetts requires factories that manufacture, process or use certain toxic chemicals to develop strategies to reduce them. Regional programs are on the rise. In this CHE Café discussion, we hear from the book's author, Susan Kaplan, an environmental health lawyer and professor whose experience spans federal and state government and academia and Sarah Doll, longtime leader of the Safer States coalition and veteran state policy advocate. The speakers explore leading state environmental health policies and what other states can learn from them. Even as federal protections recede, the potential for state action offers hope. *** 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. #CollaborativeForHealthAndEnvironment #CommonwealNewSchool #Commonweal #statepolicy #environmentalhealth #publichealth

Part of the Festival of Sacred Music Series at Commonweal New School Michelle's music weaves the sacred and the soulful, drawing from traditions, rhythms, and ancestral memory of the African diaspora. Her love of the music connects her to something much larger than herself—community, history, and spirituality—which allows her to channel that energy into spaces of joy. Expect a powerful, heart-opening experience filled with hope and a deep sense of connection that stays with you long after the final note. Join us for the next in our series of sacred music celebrations at Commonweal, presented in collaboration with long-time Commonweal friend Toby Symington, executive director of the Lloyd Symington Foundation and transpersonal astrologer. Held at the solstice and equinox, the concerts—and gatherings afterward—are designed to bring people together in a convivial setting around music which delights, inspires, and elevates the soul. Come for the music—stay for the food and community. *** Find out more about Commonweal New School on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

In part 7 of the series, Host Michael Lerner talks with Jeffrey Kripal about his book Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal. In the book, Jeffrey shows how creators turned to science fiction to convey the reality of the inexplicable and the paranormal they experienced in their lives. He spins out a hidden history of American culture, rich with mythical themes and shot through with an awareness that there are other realities far beyond our everyday understanding. You can find more information on his website, JeffreyJKripal.com. *** The New School is Commonweal's learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for many thousands of listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our Soundcloud channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts. tns.commonweal.org

Hosts and Commonweal contributors Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins and Nick Tabor discuss Spellbound : How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump with author Molly Worthen, professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Episode production and original music by Joel Myers.

In this episode, I talk with David Dault about his book The Accessorized Bible and the ways the Bible is actually used in our churches, institutions, and public life. We wrestle with how the Bible can be taken seriously without being turned into a prop, a weapon, or a justification for harm. Our conversation moves through questions of power, responsibility, and interpretation, and keeps returning to a simple but difficult concern: whether or not our ways of using the Bible are making life more possible for the people around us.David Dault is an assistant professor of Christian spirituality in the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University of Chicago. His previous faculty appointments were at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL, and at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, TN. He began his teaching career at American Baptist College in Nashville, TN, where he served as chair of the department of theology and biblical studies.He is the host and executive producer of Things Not Seen: Conversations about Culture and Faith, an award-winning radio show and podcast, and is the podcast editor for Commonweal magazine, the Paulist Fathers, and GIA Publications.David received his Ph.D. in religion from Vanderbilt University, and he holds an M.A in religion from Vanderbilt, as well as an M.A. in theological studies from Columbia Theological Seminary.He lives with his family in Hyde Park, a neighborhood on the south side of Chicago.David's Book:The Accessorized BibleDavid's Recommendations:Midnight MassThe Essays of James BaldwinConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.comGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTubeConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link belowGet Your Sidekick Support the show

An estimated 1.1 million people in the U.S. are currently living with Parkinson's disease (PD), and this number is expected to rise to 1.2 million by 2030. Globally, more than 10 million people are estimated to be living with PD, which is now the fastest growing brain disorder in the world. Science has long linked certain environmental contaminants to increased risk of PD, and some researchers are now making the case that this fast-growing disease may be largely preventable. This is the case made by the authors of The Parkinson's Plan. The recently released book documents three types of environmental exposures that research has linked to increased risk of Parkinson's disease: certain pesticides, the solvent trichloroethylene, and air pollution. The authors reach the hopeful conclusion that by addressing these pollutants, “it may be possible to create a world where Parkinson's disease is increasingly rare.” In this CHE Café conversation we will explore new approaches to Parkinson's disease prevention. We will hear from Dr. Ray Dorsey, a co-author of The Parkinson's Plan, and Dr. Ted Schettler, long interested in exploring environmental influences on aging and co-creator of Sam's Story, the Story of Health ebook on environmental drivers of cognitive decline. Co-presented with the Collaborative for Health and Environment, and hosted by CHE Director Kristin Schafer. #parkinson #brainhealth #commonwealnewschool 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.

Guest: Lisa Simms Booth, Executive Director, Smith Center for Healing and the ArtsIn this episode of the Beyond the Clinic, Living Well with Melanoma Dr. Sam Siegel welcomes Lisa Simms Booth, Executive Director of the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts—an organization dedicated to whole-person support for people with cancer, their families, and caregivers.Lisa shares the deeply personal story that shaped her nearly 30-year career in advocacy, public health, and patient-centered cancer work. After her mother's ovarian cancer diagnosis, Lisa found herself navigating two worlds at once: the complexities of cancer care and the systemic barriers within the research and advocacy landscape. That experience became the catalyst for her life's mission.Together, Dr. Siegel and Lisa explore:How personal experience can ignite a passion for advocacyWhy resilience in cancer is a learned skill—not an inherent traitThe emotional realities of caregiving and survivorshipSmith Center's “healing basket” approach to integrative supportPractical ways people can manage stress, find community, and cultivate tools for emotional and spiritual well-beingThe importance of accessible, no-cost cancer support programsHow patients can weave integrative practices into their medical careLisa also offers a grounded, compassionate look at the nuances of topics like nutrition, mindfulness, emotional support, and how even a few minutes of intentional rest can change the trajectory of a day.Whether you're a patient, caregiver, clinician, or advocate, this conversation offers wisdom, comfort, and a reminder that no one has to walk the cancer journey alone.Guest BioLisa Simms Booth joined Smith Center for Healing and the Arts following a nearly thirty year career in media, politics, community organizing, and advocacy. Lisa has always had a servant's heart and has aspired to do work that improves the lives of others or empowers them to advocate for positive change. She has previously worked at FasterCures, a center of the Milken Institute, Biden Cancer Initiative, LISTEN, Inc., The Alliance for Justice, Children's Defense Fund, and the National Rainbow Coalition.    As Executive Director, Lisa is responsible for strategic oversight, fund development, administrative and financial management, and community building. In addition to her work at Smith Center, Lisa is a member of the Professional Oncology Navigation Task Force (PONT), the American Cancer Society's Leadership in Oncology Navigation (ACS LIONTM) Advisory Council and Cancer Support Community's Cancer Policy Institute Advisory Board. She also serves on the Boards of Commonweal, the Microbiome Alliance for Disease Prevention and the National Organization of Arts in Health.  

Hosts and Commonweal contributors Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins and Nick Tabor introduce the podcast and discuss the book Christianity's American Fate: How Religion Became More Conservative and Society More Secular by David Hollinger, the Preston Hotchkis Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. 

In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviews Steven Searcy about his poem “Preliminary.” Steven is the author of Below the Brightness (Solum Press, 2024). His poems have appeared in Southern Poetry Review, Commonweal, The Windhover, New Verse Review, and elsewhere. He lives with his wife and four sons in Georgia.

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.We were excited to record and share this conversation with Matt Dinan, a professor who teaches in a Great Books program at St. Thomas University, a liberal arts college in New Brunswick, Canada. It brings together longtime preoccupations of the show — Saul Bellow's late novel, Ravelstein, Allan Bloom, Straussian political philosophy — with the fraught emergence of LLMs like ChatGPT. This past semester, Dinan took a fairly radical approach to confronting AI in the classroom, and it seemed to work. We consider the art of teaching, the qualities of great teachers, and what it all reveals about an insidious technology's effect on how we live and learn as citizens in, at least for now, a democratic republic.Listen again: "Unraveling Allan Bloom and Saul Bellow," June 21, 2021Sources:Saul Bellow, Ravelstein (2000)Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (1987)Matt Dinan, "Saul Bellow's Ravelstein," Hedgehog Review, Spring 2025— "Permission Structures," Prefaces, Dec 10, 2025— "It's Not Just a Calculator," Prefaces, Aug 28, 2024Jorge Luis Borges, "The Lottery in Babylon," Collected Fictions (1999)Jonathan Malesic, "ChatGPT Is a Gimmick: AI cannot save us from the effort of learning to live and die," Hedgehog Review, May 21, 2025— "Taming the Demon: How desert monks put work in its place," Commonweal, Feb 2, 2019

“Conflict is the spirit of the relationship asking itself to deepen” --Sobonfu Somé Facilitator and writer Shilpa Jain deeply understands the nature of being human. She is well known in her East Bay community for hosting more than 250 “Yes Jams!” over the last decade, encouraging laughter and play as she facilitates groups through conflict. Working with change makers—activists, artists, healers, executives, and young people—she helps them navigate conflict from a place of freedom and joy. Join Host Serena Bian in conversation with Shilpa, exploring how conflict can bring us into greater clarity, purpose, and alignment. We'll look at conflict through a trauma healing lens, to learn how to love ourselves and one another better. We will explore conflict transformation and healing, leadership as friendship, alchemizing fear, how we “get free” together, and how to move beyond “cancel culture” with an open-heart. Bring your lunch, and join us after the conversation to walk and sit on the Commonweal land. Shilpa Jain For the last 11+ years, Shilpa has served as the Executive Director of YES!. YES! works with social changemakers at the meeting point of internal, interpersonal and systemic change, and aims to co-create a thriving, just and balanced world for all. Shilpa has researched and written numerous books and articles, and facilitated workshops and gatherings on topics including globalization, creative expressions, ecology, democratic living, innovative learning and unlearning. She has facilitated dozens of transformative leadership gatherings in India, Jordan, Senegal, Lebanon, Egypt, Thailand, Canada, Peru, and the US, working with hundreds of young leaders from more than 50 countries. She was founding coordinator of the Global Youth Leadership Collaborative, a network of 15 Jam facilitators from 14 countries that has collectively produced dozens of international gatherings for young changemakers, and distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to small-scale grassroots social change innovations worldwide. Find more of her writing at shilpajain.substack.com

In this conversation, Host Michael Lerner talks with author Jeffrey Kripal about his book The Serpent's Gift--Reflections on the Study of Religion. The book is a provocative call for a complete reorientation of religious studies--a reversal of the Adam and Eve story--aimed at a larger understanding of the world, the self, and the divine. He considers Feuerbach's Gnosticism, the untapped mystical potential of comparative religion, and even the modern mythology of the X-Men. Jeffrey J. Kripal Jeff holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. He also co-directs the Center for Theory and Research at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Jeff is the author of numerous books, most recently How to Think Impossibly: About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything Else. His remarkable website jefrreyjkripal.com describes his groundbreaking 13 books and his entire oeuvre. This series of conversations explores all 13 books. Host Michael Lerner Michael is founder and board chair emeritus of Commonweal. His principal work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, CancerChoices.org, the Omega Resilience Projects, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and The New School at Commonweal. He was the recipient of a MacArthur Prize Fellowship for contributions to public health in 1983 and is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press). *** The New School is Commonweal's learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for many thousands of listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts. tns.commonweal.org

In part 6 of our series with Jeffrey Kripal and Host Michael Lerner, they discuss Jeffrey's Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred. The history of psychical phenomena, Jeffrey contends, is an untapped source of insight into the sacred. The cultural history of telepathy, teleportation, and UFOs; a ghostly love story; the occult dimensions of science fiction; cold war psychic espionage; galactic colonialism; and the intimate relationship between consciousness and culture all come together in Authors of the Impossible, a dazzling and profound look at how the paranormal bridges the sacred and the scientific. *** The New School is Commonweal's learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for many thousands of listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts. tns.commonweal.org

Widely recognized as one of the most influential and beloved figures in the field of peacebuilding, John Paul Lederach embodies both the rigor of the scholar and sensitivity of the poet. A pioneer of the concept of conflict transformation (as distinct from resolution), his work has redefined peacebuilding as a moral and relational art rooted in empathy, moral imagination, and the human capacity for connection across divides. Join TNS Host Serena Bian for this intergenerational conversation exploring John Paul's enormous body of work in building the fields of conflict transformation and collective trauma healing--as well as his love for poetry and haiku. John Paul Lederach Dr. John Paul Lederach is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work in the fields of peacebuilding and conflict transformation. He is widely known for the development of culturally based approaches to conflict transformation; the design and implementation of integrative, strategic approaches to peacebuilding; and for carving a robust integration of the arts and social change. Over the course of his career, Lederach has garnered extensive experience working with non-governmental organizations, community-based initiatives impacted by cycles of violence, and national peace process design. He has worked extensively as a practitioner in conciliation processes in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast and Central Asia. He is the author or editor of 30 books and manuals (translated into a dozen languages), and numerous academic articles and monographs on peace education, conflict transformation, international peacebuilding, and conciliation training. He currently serves as Senior Fellow for Humanity United and Professor Emeritus of International Peacebuilding at the Joan B. Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Host 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. She is a Chinese-American peacebuilder, storyteller, and community weaver devoted to the belief that intergenerational connection is vital for the future of our peace and justice movements. She recently completed six years as a Special Advisor in Design & Innovation to U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, bringing a spiritual and systemic understanding to the public health crisis of loneliness and isolation. She is a Zen chaplain-in-training and serves on the boards of CoGenerate and Commonweal. #commonweal #commonwealnewschool #peacebuilding #conflict #transformation #virtuouscycle #haiku 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.

~Ecopsychology, Depth Psychology, and Ecological Healing~ Jeanine M. Canty was Visiting Scholar at The New School at Commonweal in October 2025. She is a visionary scholar whose groundbreaking work illuminates the profound connections between consciousness, thought, and our relationship with the natural world. Her teaching weaves together social justice, ecological wisdom, and transformation. During this second event with Jeanine, we will look at our various notions of self—ecological, multicultural, and transpersonal—and engage in some experiences and reflections that embody this. Host Susan Grelock Yusem will be in conversation with Jeanine for the first hour, followed by a half hour of experiential work with Jeanine. Jeanine M. Canty, PhD Jeanine is a professor of transformative studies at CIIS, telecommuting from Boulder, CO. Formerly the chair of environmental studies at Naropa University, she continues to guest teach at Naropa and at Pacifica Graduate Institute. A lover of nature, justice, and contemplative practice, her teaching intersects issues of social and ecological justice, ecopsychology, and the process of worldview expansion and change. She is author of Returning the Self to Nature: Undoing Our Collective Narcissism and Healing Our Planet and her most recent edited book is an expanded, second edition of Ecological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women's Voices (2025). 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.

Laura K. Field's Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right, published earlier this month, is a book we simply had to discuss. Listeners to this podcast will recognize its cast of characters—conservative intellectuals like Patrick Deneen, Michael Anton, John Eastman, Adrian Vermeule, and Harry Jaffa, among others—whose ideas and influence Field carefully categorizes and evaluates, bringing order to an unruly decade of intellectual history. Topics include: Leo Strauss and the problem of great teachers; the use and abuse of grand narratives by the right; how the Claremonters went all in on Trump; the permission given by postliberals to some of the nastiest impulses on the right; and more!Sources:Laura K. Field, Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right (2025)— "Revisiting Why Liberalism Failed: A Five-Part Series," Niskanen Center, Dec 21, 2020Patrick Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed (2018)— Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future (2023)Matthew Sitman, "Liberalism and the Catholic Left," Commonweal, Dec 3, 2018Publius Decius Mus/Michael Anton, "The Flight 93 Election," Claremont Review of Books, Sept 5, 2016Adrian Vermeule, "Integration from Within," American Affairs, Spring 2018The Editors, "The Fight is Now," The American Mind, Nov 5, 2020Anemona Hartocollis, "On Campus, Trump Fans Say They Need 'Safe Spaces,'" New York Times, Dec 8, 2016Further Listening: KYE: "Rise of the Illiberal Right," July 12, 2019. KYE: "Midnight in the Garden of American Heroes (On West Coast Straussians)," Feb 11, 2021. KYE: "Unraveling Allan Bloom and Saul Bellow," June 21, 2021. KYE: "The Afterlife of January 6," July 19, 2021....and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

~ Integrating Self Through Practice~ Jeanine M. Canty, PhD, was Visiting Scholar at The New School at Commonweal in October 2025. She is a visionary scholar whose groundbreaking work illuminates the profound connections between consciousness, thought, and our relationship with the natural world. Her teaching weaves together social justice, ecological wisdom, and transformation. Within this introductory talk, her first event at The New School as Visiting Scholar, we dive into the dualities within the western human's psyche in order to reclaim our ecological and transpersonal identities and to access pathways for healing. Jeanine M. Canty, PhD Jeanine is a professor of transformative studies at CIIS, telecommuting from Boulder, CO. Formerly the chair of environmental studies at Naropa University, she continues to guest teach at Naropa and at Pacifica Graduate Institute. A lover of nature, justice, and contemplative practice, her teaching intersects issues of social and ecological justice, ecopsychology, and the process of worldview expansion and change. She is author of Returning the Self to Nature: Undoing Our Collective Narcissism and Healing Our Planet and her most recent edited book is an expanded, second edition of Ecological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women's Voices (2025). Jeanine M. Canty, PhD Jeanine is a professor of transformative studies at CIIS, telecommuting from Boulder, CO. Formerly the chair of environmental studies at Naropa University, she continues to guest teach at Naropa and at Pacifica Graduate Institute. A lover of nature, justice, and contemplative practice, her teaching intersects issues of social and ecological justice, ecopsychology, and the process of worldview expansion and change. She is author of Returning the Self to Nature: Undoing Our Collective Narcissism and Healing Our Planet and her most recent edited book is an expanded, second edition of Ecological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women's Voices (2025). *** The New School is Commonweal's learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for many thousands of listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for access to our library of more than 400 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.

In part 4, Jeffrey Kripal and Host Michael Lerner explore Jeffrey's remarkable history of Esalen in Esalen---The American Religion of No Religion. This astonishing cultural history of the famed retreat and conference center in Big Sur provides a panoramic insight of West Coast counter-culture over the past half century.  No one serious about understanding our times should miss it. You can find more information on his website, https://JeffreyJKripal.com. *** The New School is Commonweal's learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for many thousands of listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts. tns.commonweal.org

Join Professor Arthur Colman in conversation with Host Michael Lerner about his life and work using Jungian depth psychology as a foundation to bridge individual psychological understanding with group dynamics. Arthur D. Colman, MD Arthur is a psychiatrist trained at Harvard College and Medical School and U.C. Medical Center, San Francisco where he is Clinical Professor at the Department of Psychiatry. He is a depth analyst trained at the C.G. Jung Institute in San Francisco where he is a member, founder and first editor of Connected Works, and former chair of its review committee. The author of nine books on the human life cycle, healing, and scapegoating, he has contributed to many books, professional journals and popular publications on these and other subjects including ecstatic relationships, group consultation, leadership, the psychology of war, and the psychological aspects of music compositions and musical composers. He is also a coeditor of the influential Group Relations Reader I and II and a past president of the A.K. Rice Institute which publishes and distributes them. He currently divides his time between clinical practice, analysis and consultation to leaders and organizations here and abroad. Host Michael Lerner Michael is the president and co-founder of Commonweal. His principal work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, CancerChoices.org, the Omega Resilience Projects, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and The New School at Commonweal. He was the recipient of a MacArthur Prize Fellowship for contributions to public health in 1983 and is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press). *** The New School is Commonweal's learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for many thousands of listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts. tns.commonweal.org

Join us along the wild coast of California, for an afternoon of dialogue, community, and ritual with author and soul activist, Francis Weller, and host of the All There Is podcast and CNN anchor, Anderson Cooper. Attendees gathered on the sacred grounds of Commonweal, a site of healing and cultural renewal for 50 years.* The day included a conversation between Francis and Anderson, a time for questions, a simple communal grief ritual, and closing thoughts. The central work of grief, loss, and community in tenuous times was explored. The event was a fundraiser for Commonweal's Cancer Help Program, co-presented with North Atlantic Books and Point Reyes Books. *This is the traditional lands of the Coast Miwok people Anderson Cooper Anderson is a journalist working for CNN and CBS' 60 Minutes. He also writes, produces, and hosts a podcast “All There Is,” a deeply personal exploration of loss and grief, which will soon be starting its fourth season. Francis Weller Francis is a writer and soul activist who has worked as a psychotherapist for 40 years. He's the author of many books and projects including the beloved grief text, The Wild Edge of Sorrow. Francis is currently on staff at Commonweal Cancer Help Program. His most recent collection, In the Absence of the Ordinary, was released in August. *** The New School is Commonweal's learning community and podcast—we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for many thousands of listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts.

In this conversation, Host Michael Lerner talks with author Jeffrey Kripal about his book Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom: Eroticism and Reflexivity in the Study of Mysticism. Roads continues and expands Kripal's exploration of homoerotics themes in world religion. It focuses on the inner lives of five great scholars of religion and their own engagement with the homoerotic themes in the saints and traditions they studied. Kripal also continues his own autobiographical experience with five "secret talks" interspersed with his five case studies. Jeffrey J. Kripal Jeff holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. He also co-directs the Center for Theory and Research at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Jeff is the author of numerous books, most recently How to Think Impossibly: About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything Else. His remarkable website jefrreyjkripal.com describes his groundbreaking 13 books and his entire oeuvre. This series of conversations explores all 13 books. Host Michael Lerner Michael is founder and board chair emeritus of Commonweal. His principal work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, CancerChoices.org, the Omega Resilience Projects, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and The New School at Commonweal. He was the recipient of a MacArthur Prize Fellowship for contributions to public health in 1983 and is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press). *** The New School is Commonweal's learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for many thousands of listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts. tns.commonweal.org

Episode 95 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh. In this episode of Messy Jesus Business podcast, Sister Julia Walsh, FSPA talks with author and podcast host Matthew Sitman. They explore conversion to Catholicism, the breadth and universality of the Catholic Church, humility and openness, cancel culture, Pope Francis, mercy, ideology, relationships, being a gay Catholic, ritual and wordless gestures, and much more. Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe:  Email | RSS | More A transcript of the show is available. "We give ourselves excuses to dismiss people, to not see them, not see the reality of their lives. And that's just something I don't think we're permitted as Christians." -Matthew Sitman Matthew Sitman You can find more of Matthew Sitman @matthewsitman on X/Twitter. ABOUT THE GUEST Matthew Sitman is a writer in New York City and the co-host of the podcast Know Your Enemy, a guide to the right by two leftists. Prior to writing and podcasting full-time, he was associate editor of Commonweal magazine for six years. He was received into the Catholic Church as an adult—this fall he'll have been Catholic for a decade. Listen to Matt and his Know Your Enemy co-host Sam Adler Bell talk about Pope Francis here. MESSY JESUS BUSINESS is hosted by Sister Julia Walsh.  Produced and edited by Colin Wambsgans. Email us at messyjesusbusiness@gmail.com BE SOCIAL: https://www.facebook.com/MessyJesusBusiness Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MessyJesusBusiness Twitter: @messyjesusbiz Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/messyjesusbusiness SUPPORT US: https://www.patreon.com/messyjesusbusiness

A little more than eight months into the second Trump presidency, many Americans today find the United States increasingly unrecognizable: a volatile and inflationary economy, rising political violence, and brazen corruption at all levels of government don't appear to be going away anytime soon. So how did we get here? What lessons can we learn from the histories of other countries, especially ones that experienced radical destabilization and an authoritarian turn? To answer these questions, on this episode we're speaking with Hille Haker, a professor of Catholic Moral Theology at Loyola University Chicago.  A native German, Haker points out how the current situation in the United States evinces disturbing parallels with the rise of Nazism in Germany.  She also details the intellectual developments that have given rise to the new right wing anti-democratic comfort with authoritarianism—and how Catholic Social Teaching can counter it. For further reading:  Eugene McCarraher on the perils of Christian post-liberalism A Commonweal symposium on the work of Patrick Deneen Philip Jeffery on leaving behind the new right

Resident Kraaken: John Zmirak Returns Resident Kraaken John Zmirak dives back into the depths with sharp, fearless commentary on today's breaking news and cultural battles. Expect bold insights, no punches pulled. The Eric Metaxas Show  Aug 19 2025   More at: stream.org 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.   -------------------------------------------------------------------- 

John Zmirak Covering MAGA, Natural Law, Jihadist Crimes and more. The Eric Metaxas Show John Zmirak Krakens On and On Far and Wide  Aug 04 2025   John Zmirak Krakens On and On Far and Wide covering MAGA, Natural Law, Jihadist Crimes and more. More at: stream.org 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.   -------------------------------------------------------------------- 

John Zmirak "The Tapeworms in the Colon of America Refused to Let Go of Power." The Eric Metaxas Show   Jul 22 2025   John Zmirak on the outgoing admin 2016 scandal "The tapeworms in the colon of America refused to let go of power." The Eric Metaxas Show- Eric talks to John Zmirak.  More at: stream.org 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

John Zmirak on Topics Spanning from the FBI and Deep State to the French Revolution The Eric Metaxas Show  Jul 15 2025   Big Bad John joins Eric to look the FBI and the Deep state. Plus they discuss the French Revolution.    The Eric Metaxas Show- Eric talks to John Zmirak.  More at: stream.org 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

John Zmirak- Trump Is Whipsawing His Base, Sending Contradictory Signals, Amnesty for Sweatshop Farms & Hotels Tempts a Prodigal America to Stay in Its Pigsty   The Eric Metaxas Show  Jul 08 2025   Other Episodes Big Bad John joins us to discuss his article Amnesty for Sweatshop Farms & Hotels Tempts a Prodigal America to Stay in Its Pigsty   Article mentioned- Trump Is Whipsawing His Base, Sending Contradictory Signals https://stream.org/the-brew-trump-is-whipsawing-his-base-sending-contradictory-signals/   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 latest 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. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   

Unexpected Rise In Disease and Death Sinks U.S. Insurance Companies- Dr. Chris Martensen and The Face of Immigration Chaos: 300,000 Kids Lost in the Wind to Abusers and Porn Merchants By John Zmirak   Unexpected Rise In Disease Sinks U.S. Insurance Companies  - Peak Prosperity Watch this video at- https://youtu.be/jQS7rFKwKVo?si=V1L6bykndB4fQo6P Peak Prosperity 555K subscribers 18,173 views Premiered Jul 7, 2025 #donaldtrump #news #usanews To watch Part 2 of this video: https://peak.fan/3hcuj9f3 Join the discussion at Peak Prosperity: https://peak.fan/fr5b44er Unexpected rates of sickness (morbidity) has sunk the stock price of a major US health insurer (Centene or CNC).  Maybe now we can finally have an open conversation about the causes? #donaldtrump #news #usanews #stocks #worldnews #educationalvideo   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Face of Immigration Chaos: 300,000 Kids Lost in the Wind to Abusers and Porn Merchants By John Zmirak Published on July 1, 2025 For article visit-   https://stream.org/the-face-of-immigration-chaos-300000-kids-lost-in-the-wind-to-abusers-and-porn-merchants/   The Face of Immigration Chaos: 300,000 Kids Lost in the Wind to Abusers and Porn Merchants By John Zmirak Published on July 1, 2025 There's one drum I won't stop banging, because it's a righteous call to war: The Left is not a secular, rationalistic, science-driven movement — though for the sake of social prestige and power it still pretends to be. But in fact, it never was. At every point since the invention of the Left/Right spectrum in the fevered, bloodthirsty frenzy of the French Revolution, the Left has been a post-Christian heresy. It's a cargo cult that cherrypicks from the gospels shiny moral sentiments and glittering aspirations, like the work of some mindless magpie. A New Rival Gospel Never mind that Jesus's moral mandates would be literally nonsensical if He was not divine and couldn't offer eternal rewards for self-sacrifice in this life. (Try explaining “Turn the other cheek” to Ghengis Khan and then get back to me; I'd love to hear how that goes. The meek did not inherit the Mongol Empire.) Nor that claims of “equality” among all men only hold up if we mean “in the eyes of God,” since in our own sight we're vastly diverse and manifestly unequal. Even the militantly atheistic, self-styled “scientific” Communist Utopia millions were willing to kill for was cooked up by Karl Marx as a thinly secularized knock-off of the New Jerusalem. Read historian Norman Cohn's authoritative The Pursuit of the Millennium to learn how Marx's program replicated the crackpot claims of self-anointed “prophets” who roused the rabble to murder the priests and pillage the local Jews. But Leftists are born with the same God-shaped hole in their souls as everyone else, so they plunder the Gospel to fill it, picking only the bits and pieces that please them to make a kind of taxidermied replacement Christ fashioned in their own image. These false Christs or antichrists are invariably cast as victims, waved around as banners, and finally used as cudgels … to pummel actual Christians. First the Peasants, Then the Workers The original radical Leftists of the French Revolution held up “the peasants” as the suffering souls for whom they fought — even as the revolutionary government waged a vicious, genocidal war against the real, live peasants of the Vendee region, killing some 300,000 for the crime of clinging to their Church, instead of the fake one the government had set up and imposed on them. A hundred years later, Karl Marx and his movement would claim the international working class as the victims whom they'd champion against the ruthless exploitation of capitalist oppressors. But Marx would fiercely oppose any moderate reforms that would improve workers' real lives, since these might slow down the bloody revolution he needed to impose Communist rule. His followers would fight against any labor unions they couldn't control. Of course, once the Communists seized power in Russia, then other countries, they would enslave the workers and peasants alike, putting them to work in state-owned monopolies, closing their churches, and subjecting them to totalitarian surveillance and persecution. The New Antichrist Idols: “Persecuted” Immigrants The present face of Leftist false religion manifests as a trinity: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and its ersatz Christ figure is the immigrant. Marxists and tribalists paint immigrants as victims of climate change, Islamophobia, and dictatorial governments. Cheap labor globalists depict them as rough and ready workers whose ethic is better than the sullen, spoiled American natives ripe for replacement.   The media, besotted by their new post-Christian creed, like to select which immigrant stories to tell, the better to paint the Trump administration and its backers as heartless, intolerant, ignorant racist bullies. But Trump's team has been clever, having learned from the debacle of 2017, when their efforts to protect child migrants from human traffickers got painted as “separating families” and “putting kids in cages.” So the administration focused its first removal efforts on gang members, rabid antisemites and jihadists, confident that diversity-happy editors and lawless federal judges wouldn't be able to restrain themselves — but would lionize and try to paint as wounded, hapless puppies the worst immigrants on Earth. Poor, Poor Pitiful Jihadis The Left took the bait. Look at the latest “victims” these apostles of counterfeit Christian compassion have decided to paint as martyrs: The equally radical, equally illegal immigrant relatives of the vicious jihadi who used arson to target a Jewish event to aid Holocaust survivors (one of whom he burned to death), Mohamed Sabry Soliman. Mass media can't help themselves. They're too driven by religious zeal: Of course, the facts of the case fall by the wayside in all this jerry-rigged empathy: Collecting Slaves for Sex Traffickers So the Left will go to the wall for privileged, middle-class, jihadi Muslims who blew through their tourist visas and stayed in our country so their patriarch could incinerate Jews who'd escaped the Nazis. You know who the Left won't talk about? The 300,000 unaccompanied minors smuggled into our country and sent to whoever wanted them, with no vetting or DNA tests for alleged relatives. (Joe Biden abolished that.) How are things going for those migrants, who aren't incinerating American Jews? Gateway Pundit gives us a glimpse: A 37-year-old illegal immigrant, Wilson Manfredo Lopez-Carillo, was arrested in Palm Beach County, Florida, for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl placed in his home through the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) “Unaccompanied Alien Children” (UAC) program. According to the Daily Wire, the arrest was made on May 22, 2025. According to charging documents from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, Lopez-Carillo faces three counts of sexual assault on a minor. The victim, who arrived in the U.S. in August 2023 as an unaccompanied minor, was sent by HHS to live with Lopez-Carillo and others in a loosely vetted household.   Police reports detail a horrifying pattern of abuse, with Lopez-Carillo allegedly taking advantage of the girl's isolation to assault her on multiple occasions in February 2024.   On one occasion, while the adult woman in the household was out selling tamales to support the family, Lopez-Carillo allegedly grabbed the teen in the kitchen, dragged her to his bedroom, and sexually assaulted her.   A second incident followed a similar pattern, with the predator offering the girl $100 to stay silent — an offer she bravely refused. Fearing retribution, the teen initially did not report the assaults, as Lopez-Carillo had threatened her to keep quiet.   Go read the rest, if you have the heart. How many more victims are on Joe Biden's catatonic conscience? We won't know on this side of the grave.   This is the filth, the exploitation, the mass rape that the Left is happy to invite into our nation in order to pose as defenders of “victims” and rack up names for voter fraud. Once again, the group designated as “victims” get victimized for real by those who pretend to defend them.   Leftists haven't just chosen Barabbas. They have tarted him up as Christ.   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.   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 latest 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.   --------------------------------------------------------------------