Podcast appearances and mentions of mike jordan laskey

Fr. Kevin DePrinzio, OSA, is an Augustinian priest who has known Pope Leo XIV -- his fellow Augustinian friar -- since the late 1990s. Fr. Kevin is now the vice president for mission and ministry at Villanova University outside Philadelphia -- Pope Leo's alma mater -- and he talked to host Mike Jordan Laskey about his connections with the Holy Father, the history and charism of the Augustinian order, and what he thinks we can expect from this historic pontificate. AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

Even though Easter started ten days ago now, the season continues for a full 50 days. So we will wish you a happy Easter and encourage you to keep that going for a few weeks, even if it confuses your friends and neighbors. Last month, as the famous cherry blossoms hit their peak bloom in Washington, DC, host Mike Jordan Laskey sat down in our studio with Emma Hudson, the director of the incredible Jesuit audio prayer resource called Pray As You Go. As you'll hear from her accent, Emma is English, and while Pray As You Go is a project of the Jesuits in Britain, well more than half their regular listeners are here in the US and Canada. You can bring Pray As You Go into your own daily prayer life by downloading their app or subscribing to their feed wherever you get podcasts. Trust us, you'll be glad you did. Anyway, Emma was in the U.S. with a great Polish filmmaker named Miko Cemplaj to do some filming for Pray As You Go projects. Mike roped her into recording this Easter episode with me. The prompt was to have a draft of signs of Easter hope. Mike had to explain the concept of a draft to Emma, which has roots in American sports. They don't have amateur drafts in English sports, see, so Mike had to lay it out for her. But Mike and Emma found it was a spiritually helpful exercise to talk about signs of hope, especially when the world around us can feel not-that-hopeful pretty frequently. Hope is something you have to work at even when you're not feeling it. We know that can feel naïve, especially given global events these days and the recent death of Pope Francis, but we don't know what else we can do. Maybe our conversation will prompt you to think about signs of hope in your own life these days. Eastertide blessings from all of us here at the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. Pray As You Go: https://prayasyougo.org/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

Fr. Brian Paulson, SJ, the president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, reflects on the legacy and witness of Pope Francis. Fr. Paulson and host Mike Jordan Laskey discussed the Holy Father's pastoral style, his Ignatian spirit, his approach to leadership, and some of the Pope's decisions that will likely affect the Catholic Church for years to come. Fr. Brian Paulson, SJ: https://www.jesuits.org/profile/brian-paulson-s-j/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

On this episode of our limited series, "The Work of Lent," we talk to Mike Jordan Laskey, director of communications for the Jesuit Conference and Jesuit Media Lab, about Lent as a time of reconciliation.

March is a big month on the American Jesuit calendar because it's the biggest month for men's and women's college basketball. The March Madness tournaments are the most purely fun and chaotic sporting events on the planet. Nothing beats massive single elimination tournaments if you're looking for surprises and drama. And these tournaments are often big showcases for our Jesuit colleges and universities, many of which have rich basketball histories. In recent decades, no Jesuit program has been more successful than the Gonzaga University Bulldogs men's team, led since 1999 by head coach Mark Few. And one person you might notice on the end of the bench if you watch a Gonzaga men's or women's game this March is a rather short guy wearing a red Gonzaga sweater over black clerical attire. This is Father Bryan Pham, SJ, a Jesuit priest and the chaplain for both Bulldog hoops teams. You might think someone with this job would be a huge basketball fan. Not so in Fr. Bryan's case, who was quick to tell host Mike Jordan Laskey that he rarely understands what he's watching on the court. Fr. Bryan is a huge fan of the athletes themselves, though, and he sees his role as one of availability and spiritual support. We wanted to find out what the work of a Jesuit basketball chaplain entails and what March Madness looks like through his eyes. Fr. Bryan also shared reflections about his many other roles at the university. He's a lawyer by training and serves as a professor and chaplain at the law school, runs legal clinics and appears in court with his student interns, and lives in a freshman dorm on campus. We know you'll love getting to know this thoughtful, funny, impossibly busy Jesuit. Go Bulldogs. And go Bluejays, Golden Eagles, Musketeers and Stags. Fr. Bryan Pham, SJ: https://www.gonzaga.edu/about/our-mission-jesuit-values/university-ministry/meet-our-team/fr-bryan-pham-sj 2025 Jesuit March Madness: https://www.jesuits.org/stories/jesuit-march-madness-trivia/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

Ash Wednesday is fascinating: We get these reminders of death and decay smeared on our foreheads and just walk around like that the whole day after. Not the most cheerful message. Yet folks can't seem to get enough of it. Some parish priests say it's right up there neck and neck with Christmas and Easter on the list of busiest church days of the year. We're sure there are a bunch of reasons for that, but we wanted to mark this Ash Wednesday and welcome the beginning of Lent by digging into its popularity. Our guest is Paul Jarzembowski, who serves the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in their work with the laity. He's also the author of the 2022 book “Hope from the Ashes: Insights and Resources for Welcoming Lenten Visitors.” He talked with host Mike Jordan Laskey about the history of Ash Wednesday and what Paul thinks explains its enduring popularity. They also discussed the season of Lent and making our churches more welcoming places. For a rather solemn topic, our conversation was tons of fun. We also want to mention our special Lenten audio offering this year here at AMDG. Our host Eric Clayton interviewed what we call “professional Catholics” who work in ministry about how they keep Lenten observance fresh year after year. He's lined up some super thoughtful and interesting guests for the series, which you'll find here on the AMDG feed every Friday in Lent. Paul's book, “Hope From the Ashes”: https://www.amazon.com/Hope-Ashes-Insights-Resources-Welcoming/dp/0809155753 AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

Whether you're a big New Year's Resolutions person or not, it's never a bad idea to take stock our own spiritual lives. Where might we want to grow in our relationship with God? So host Mike Jordan Laskey invited one of our favorite spirituality experts onto the show: Julianne Stanz. Julianne is the Director of Outreach for Evangelization and Discipleship at Loyola Press. She's also an acclaimed author and international speaker. A native of Ireland, Julianne was shaped by that country's deep and distinctive Catholicism. And in line with one of the very best Irish stereotypes, Julianne is also one of the best storytellers around. Julianne came up with three possible spiritual resolutions we might want to try out in the New Year. All three is are both meaningful and accessible. As a mom of three kids, Julianne knows huge time-intensive commitments in the spiritual life just can't work for everyone. No matter your stage of life, you'll enjoy hearing Julianne's ideas and stories. Happy New Year from all of us here at the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. Julianne Stanz: https://www.juliannestanz.com/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

It's time for one of our favorite AMDG traditions: Our annual Christmas draft. It's an idea we stole outright from the sportswriter Joe Posnanski's podcast, so a tip of the Santa hat to him. For newcomers, this is how a Christmas draft works: First, host Mike Jordan Laskey picks a Christmas related category. This year, it's Christmas objects. Some guests and Mike take turns selecting their favorite individual members of that category. It's like a draft that the NFL or NBA sponsors. Once someone makes a specific pick, that option is off the board for everyone else. We do three rounds. This year, we two guests: Sister Bethany Welch, SSJ, and Father Marty Ngo, SJ. A nun, a priest, and a father of three walk into a podcast… the jokes just write themselves. We asked Bethany and Marty to introduce themselves at the top of the show, so I won't say too much about them. But we think you'll see why we invited them – they're two people who are both deeply spiritual, immensely creative and just joys to be around. We're grateful for their vocations. And we're grateful to all you out there in AMDG land for spending some of your busy holiday season with us. All of us here at the Jesuit Conference wish you a very merry Christmas and a blessed 2025. Sister Bethany Welch, SSJ: https://jesuitmedialab.org/how-this-catholic-sister-used-art-to-prepare-for-taking-vows/ Fr. Marty Ngo, SJ: https://www.jesuits.org/profile/martin-huynh-ngo-sj/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

From the Jesuit Media Lab, this is AMDG. I'm Mike Jordan Laskey. Today's episode is the fourth and final one in our series on faith and politics leading up to the 2024 presidential election here in the U.S. Our guest is the Jesuit Conference's very own Tom Mulloy, who serves as our director of government relations. Sometimes people are surprised to find out that we have a director of government relations and that our Office of Justice and Ecology spends the majority of its time here in Washington meeting with lawmakers and others in power, trying to influence laws and policies. Tom is a lobbyist, essentially, but you have to think about that word differently in this case. Instead of lobbying on behalf of big oil or a tech behemoth like Google, Tom works alongside other faith groups and NGOs to advocate for a more just and peaceful world. He brings the voices and experiences of the huge Jesuit network to the halls of power in order to humanize issues ranging from immigration to tax policy to indigenous housing. Host Mike Jordan Laskey asked Tom to share how he got into this work and why his faith calls him to bring Gospel values to Capitol Hill. They also talked about how all of us can be informed, faith-filled advocates on behalf of justice. Because the work of politics is not just about elections. It's about making sure those we elect pursue the common good. The Jesuit Conference Office of Justice and Ecology: https://www.jesuits.org/our-work/justice-and-ecology/oje/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. Go Yankees. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit M

This is the second in our series on faith and politics leading up to the 2024 presidential election here in the United States. Our guest is Dr. Nichole Flores, one of the most exciting young theologians around. Nichole is an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia, and completed her doctoral study in theological ethics at Boston College. It was tricky to decide what to talk to her about because her work covers so many topics: Her research in practical ethics addresses issues of democracy, migration, family, gender, economics, race and ethnicity, and ecology. She talked with host Mike Jordan Laskey about her background and topics like polarization, faith and politics within the various Hispanic communities in the US, and how we might try to seek out spaces in our daily lives that are not just echo chambers of our own views. It was a wide-ranging discussion and it's fascinating to see how Nichole brings her intellectual interests together with the very practical day-to-day stuff of family and community living. Dr. Nichole Flores: https://religiousstudies.as.virginia.edu/nichole-m-flores Nichole's writing at America Magazine: https://www.americamagazine.org/voices/nichole-m-flores AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

Today's episode is different from anything we've ever done. Instead of an interview, we have three audio pieces about what you could call the spirituality of everyday life. What are the things we do to find meaning and purpose within the daily grind? First, host Mike Jordan Laskey tells you about his “kindie rock” band, Down By The Bagel. Then, New York-based writer Kaitlin Campbell shares “You Can Do This,” a story about a big case of writer's block and her prayer for God to just show her a sign already. Finally, Steve Givens, an author and spiritual director from St. Louis, has a piece about how an imaginary baseball game he played as a kid shaped his spiritual life in ways he only would come to realize decades later. If you'd like to submit us your own proposal for some creative work, check out our pitch guide at JesuitMediaLab.org. AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

Sometimes on this show, host Mike Jordan Laskey has topic in mind he'd like to cover and then he goes and finds someone great to talk about it. Other times, he knows he wants to talk to a specific person because they're brilliant and Mike doesn't really care what the topic is. Whatever the guest wants to discuss will be interesting. Today's episode is this latter type of show. Dr. Mahri Leonard-Fleckman teaches at the College of the Holy Cross, where she's an associate professor in the Departments of Religious Studies and Classics. She's an Old Testament scholar, and first came on the show about four years ago to talk about the Book of Ecclesiastes and King David. Mike wrote her recently and asked what's fascinating her these days. And that's how we have come to have an episode about Samson, that strong guy with the long hair from the Book of Judges. Mahri has been researching the history of Samson, how this bizarre Biblical character came to be and how interpretations about him have shifted through centuries. Mahri's research has way deeper concerns than the surface-level story of Samson – she uses the story to reflect on the nature of Biblical biography writ large. Where do these larger-than-life characters come from and what do they mean? How do cultures receive and interpret sacred texts over generations? After hearing form Mahri, you won't think about Samson the same way ever again. Mahri Leonard-Fleckman, Ph.D.: https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/mahri-leonard-fleckman Mahri's “Ponder: Contemplative Bible Study”: https://litpress.org/Products/PONDERSET/Ponder-Complete-Set?srsltid=AfmBOopdlMpTTpBbZ-ug-XsSwHtMz-zSQYcBLkw3BBr6-h8AcDpI1Szl World Day of Migrants and Refugees Audio Reflection Series: https://sites.ignatiansolidarity.net/world-refugee-day-website AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

There aren't that many times in the Gospels when Jesus tells his disciples how they might act if they're hoping to get to heaven one day. When Jesus does indeed get that direct, it's probably a smart idea to pay attention. And probably the most famous example of this sort of Jesus talk comes in the 25th chapter of Matthew's Gospel. It's the Last Judgment story, the one about the sheep and the goats. Jesus tells his friends that whenever they feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick or visit the prisoner, they are caring for Christ himself. He makes a radical one-to-one identification with people who suffering and oppressed. Perhaps the most challenging category of person listed in Matthew 25 is the prisoner. Because Jesus doesn't just say you can find him in unjustly held prisoners. He just says prisoners. If you want to see Christ, he seems to be saying, look into the eyes of someone on death row. That's a privileged place to find Jesus, important enough to make it into this dramatic story in the Gospel. Our criminal justice system is certainly not set up to treat prisoners as if they were reflections of the Lord's face. But our guest today is the founder of a Catholic organization that's working hard to make world a bit closer to God's dream for it. Fr. Zach Presutti is a Jesuit priest and the founder and executive director of the Thrive For Life Prison Project. In 2017, before his ordination to the priesthood, Zach founded Thrive For Life with a mission to transform lives both behind and beyond prison walls. In jails and prisons, Thrive For Life offers thousands of men and women in New York and Wisconsin retreats and spiritual direction rooted in Ignatian spirituality. On the outside, the organization is growing a network of houses of study for returning citizens to live in community while receiving holistic support services. Recently, Fr. Zach was nominated as one of three finalists for the prestigious Opus Prize, hosted this year at Santa Clara University. The Opus Prize is given to recognize unsung heroes, anywhere in the world and from a variety of faith traditions, solving today's most persistent social problems. All Opus finalists receive gifts of $100,000, with the winner receiving $1 million. When host Mike Jordan Laskey spoke with Fr. Zach recently, he asked him to share the story of how Thrive For Life got started and why he thinks it has grown and thrived the way it has. Fr. Zach shared his reflections on working in prison ministry and why he finds it to be such an enlivening mission. While he's a humble guy who deflects praise and is always quick to lift up members of Thrive For Life's team and network, we couldn't help but be struck by Fr. Zach's passion, energy and vision. We think you'll enjoy getting to know him a bit. Thrive For Life: https://thriveforlife.org/ The Opus Prize: https://www.scu.edu/news-and-events/press-releases/2024/july-2024/santa-clara-university-announces-opus-prize-finalists.html AMDG is a product of the Jesuit Media Lab, a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

A few weeks ago, our guest was the sociologist of religion Tricia Bruce, who talked about what we know about the state of the American Catholic Church today. On this episode, host Mike Jordan Laskey is pursuing the same questions but from a different angle. Our guest is Scott Moringiello, and he's an associate professor of religious studies at DePaul University in Chicago. In that role, he teaches a rather large course called Introduction to Catholicism, which he has taught multiple times. Over the years, he has taught hundreds of Gen Z kids from all sorts of religious backgrounds about the foundational basics of the Catholic faith. He's gotten to learn about the students' own experiences with faith and what energizes them or keeps them distant. Scott was also an academic mentor of Mike's almost 20 years ago. He was a graduate assistant in a phenomenal liberal arts seminar Mike took, which he still considers the greatest intellectual experience of his life. One way you can tell the power of that class is the fact Scott and Mike are still friends all this time later. So they talked a bit about what made that class so incredible and how it informed Scott's own approach to education. They also discussed some of his Scott's mentors from Regis High School in New York City, his Jesuit alma mater that's still near and dear to his heart. Finally, Mike also asked Scott the role of the liberal arts and college education in the world of ChatGPT. They had a wide-ranging conversation that feels a bit like old friends getting together over a meal or a libation. Scott Moringiello: https://las.depaul.edu/academics/catholic-studies/faculty/Pages/Scott-Moringiello.aspx AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

Most of our listeners have surely at least heard of Homeboy Industries, which is the largest gang intervention, rehab and re-entry program in the world. Founded in Los Angeles by the Jesuit priest Fr. Greg Boyle in 1988, Homeboy works with about 10,000 former gang members each year in dozens of different ways, from job training to tattoo removal to wraparound case management services. Fr. Greg recently received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his pioneering work in this area. One of Homeboy's initiatives that host Mike Jordan Laskey just learned about recently is the Homeboy Art Academy, which engages at-risk youth and adults in diverse forms of art as tools for healing and transformation. The art academy is the brainchild of today's guest -- Fabian Debora, an accomplished visual artist and a former gang member himself. Fabian's story is so powerful – full of trauma and despair and hope and beauty and community. Unlike most episodes of AMDG, this one isn't a classic interview. We're just going to let Fabian share his story with you. You don't want to miss it. Fabian Debora: https://www.fabiandebora.com/ LA Times profile of Fabian in conjunction with his “Cara de Vago” exhibition: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-03-15/fabian-debora-wants-you-to-see-the-light-of-gang-life-homeboy-industries Homeboy Art Academy: https://homeboyindustries.org/services/art-academy/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. AMDG theme music by Kevin Laskey. Other music in this episode includes “Cool Math” by AstroMouse, “Coastin” by CTrox, “Fat Cloud” by Marscott and “Dawn” by Nicolas G, licensed through Audiio.com. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

Of all the saints and heroes of the faith we have in our Catholic tradition, it can be difficult to spiritually connect with martyrs. Maybe that's part of the point of martyrs, to trouble us a bit in a holy way, to remind us that sometimes faith in Christ can mean literally laying down one's life for one's friends. The martyrs invite us to reflect on the depth of my own faith commitments, and whether we'd share their steadfast courage if we were in their shoes. Does faith come first in my life, or only when it's convenient? Today's guest is the perfect person to ask about Christian martyrdom and what we might learn from the stories and witness of individual martyrs. Fr. Peter Nguyen, SJ, is a theologian and a scholar of Christian martyrdom, and he has devoted much of his career learning and writing about martyrs. A Jesuit priest who spent this past academic year at Marquette University as the Reverend Francis C. Wade, SJ, Chair, Fr. Nguyen spoke to host Mike Jordan Laskey recently about two martyrs who gave their lives during World War II: Fr. Alfred Delp, SJ, and Edith Stein, who is also known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Both Delp and Stein died as part of the resistance to Nazi Germany. Fr. Nguyen thinks it is worthwhile to engage with their legacies today, even as the details of their lives might challenge us and make us uncomfortable. Learn more about Fr. Nguyen: https://www.creighton.edu/campus-directory/nguyen-peter His book on Alfred Delp: https://www.amazon.com/Against-Titans-Theology-Martyrdom-Alfred/dp/1978704771 AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

There's an old saying in Jesuit circles: If you've met one Jesuit, you've met one Jesuit. A fun list to make is all the different careers guys had before joining the Society of Jesus. We have actors and comedians, doctors and lawyers, astronomers and one former lieutenant governor. Shane Liesegang, SJ, today's guest, is the only Jesuit host Mike Jordan Laskey has ever met who was a video game developer. Before entering the Jesuits in 2015, Shane worked for over a decade in video game development for several different studios. He worked on hugely popular games like the Fallout Series and Skyrim. Shane was living his dream. But then he felt called to something more. Today, Shane is a Jesuit scholastic studying Theology at Boston College's Clough School of Theology and Ministry. He didn't leave his entire gaming life behind when he entered the Jesuits, though. In fact, one of Shane's former employers, a hugely influential studio called Bethesda Game Studios, brought him back into the fold to work on a game called Starfield that was released in 2023. In this deeply complex space exploration game, the studio wanted to create a fictional religion that certain characters in the game would profess. So they asked Shane to write this religion's core texts, which are featured in several places in the game. Shane argues that creating video games is an art form. The combination of visual aesthetics, interactivity and storytelling, not to mention the incredibly detailed and vast universes game developers make, all combine to elevate video games to something more than a mere time waster. If you're skeptical about this claim, let Shane try to convince you in this conversation. Shane also talked about his unique vocation story and how game design is not dissimilar from Ignatian imaginative prayer in some crucial ways. This was an utterly fascinating conversation and we think you'll really enjoy meeting Shane, whether you love video games or not. Clip from the game that features the religion Shane wrote: https://youtu.be/hrPhQSP7no8?si=Fig5KmRuQjozJ_w_&t=93 Learn more about Shane: https://shaneliesegang.com/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

Ever since the Jesuits in the United Kingdom launched the daily prayer project “Pray As You Go” (PAYG) in 2006, the creative team behind the resource has shared fabulous audio prayer programs that are spiritually nourishing in their beauty and simplicity. Each day combines music, Scripture from the lectionary, and short spoken prayer prompts that always invite you to reflect on the Scripture in a new way. PAYG will slow you down and invite genuine contemplation, making it so different from almost any other smartphone app or podcast program out there. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world love PAYG, especially here in North America – maybe you're one of them. For years, host Mike Jordan Laskey – a huge fan of PAYG – has been curious about the team behind the app. How does an episode come together? What inspired the format and why does it work so well? How do they want to grow? So Mike invited Emma Holland onto the show, who serves as PAYG's director. She has worked for the Jesuits in the UK for almost a decade and has advanced from an audio producer to the leader of the project. Mike asked Emma to take us behind the scenes of PAYG and to share what she loves about her work. It was such a fun conversation and if you haven't prayed with PAYG before, we really hope you'll give it a try. You can find it in your smartphone's app store or download daily episodes using your podcast player of choice. Pray As You Go: https://pray-as-you-go.org/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/

Have you ever met someone so passionate about something that you just couldn't help getting excited about it, too? That was host Mike Jordan Laskey's experience when he first met Fr. Tom Curran, SJ, today's guest. Fr. Curran, who served as the president of Rockhurst University in Kansas City for 16 years, is now the coordinator of the Jesuit Prison Education Network (JPEN). Through participation in JPEN, nine different Jesuit institutes of higher learning offer college courses and degree programs -- taught by their own college/university professors -- at correctional facilities around the country. The programs are open to both those who are incarcerated and prison staff members, and Fr. Curran has some incredible stories about how the programs have changed the students and teachers lives and even the cultures of the correctional facilities themselves. In the conversation, Fr. Curran describes some of the ways our criminal justice system is dehumanizing and how prison education is a prophetic statement against that reality. He also talks about how Ignatian spirituality inspires his work and shared some of the most powerful stories from the JPEN programs. Subscribe to the JPEN email newsletter: https://jesuitscentralsouthern.us21.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=7e1f684649378603a3b6af1a0&id=6aee2e3285 AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus https://jesuitmedialab.org/

It's an AMDG Christmas jamboree: our first-ever five-person episode. Friends of the pod (and awesome writers/retreat leaders) Shannon Evans and Cameron Bellm join AMDG's three co-hosts Mike Jordan Laskey, Eric Clayton and MegAnne Liebsch for a draft of Christmas characters. The conversation is raucous, overstuffed, reflective, spiritual, a little melancholic, mostly fun -- kind of like the whole Christmas season overall. The appearance of Shannon and Cameron is also a teaser for our new project, the Jesuit Media Lab, which gathers, forms and unleashes Ignatian creators. See how you can get involved at jesuitmedialab.org. Merry Christmas from AMDG and everyone at the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

From the Jesuits of Canada and the United States, this is AMDG. I'm Mike Jordan Laskey. Sometimes, people wonder how we pick guests for the show. We tell them the Jesuit network is so huge that we'll never run out of interesting conversation partners. Sometimes, though, we come across someone outside of a Jesuit context whose work we love and who we wish we could ask on the show. If only they had a Jesuit connection! But then in some rare occasions, when we look into this great person who's not connected to the Jesuits, we discover they do indeed have a connection! That was the case with today's guest, the author and University of Michigan professor Phil Christman. Phil is the author of two great books of essays, which are titled “How to Be Normal” and “Midwestern Futures.” He also writes a Substack newsletter called “The Tourist” and contributes frequently to “Commonweal.” And, we just found out that he got his master's degree at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There's the Jesuit connection we needed! Phil's essays are funny, sharp, clear, complex and always original. He weaves together elements of memoir, theology, pop culture and literary criticism and more. Host Mike Jordan Laskey's most common reaction when reading Phil Christman, beyond marveling at his curiosity and his mastery of the essay form, is to sit back and think, “Well, I've never thought about that topic in that way before.” One of Mike's favorite essays of Phil's is from his book “How to Be Normal,” and it's titled “How to Be Religious.” An observant Christian in a largely secular milieu, Phil writes about faith in an incredibly compelling way. Phil and Mike talked about the essay and the nature of religious faith. They also discussed teaching English composition in the age of ChatGPT, and why Phil left Twitter after years of being an active user. Phil's Substack: https://philipchristman.substack.com/ Phil's books: https://beltpublishing.com/blogs/authors/phil-christman AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

At the end of October, about 1900 people arrived at a massive hotel in Washington, DC, for the 26th annual Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice, which is sponsored by the Ignatian Solidarity Network. Most of the attendees were students from Jesuit high schools and colleges, gathered for three days of prayer, encounter, Catholic social teaching education and political action. Like always, the energy at this year's teach-in was palpable. There were great keynote speakers and informative workshops on topics like the war in Israel and Gaza and the legacy of Jesuit slaveholding. One new element of the teach-in, though, was a temporary art gallery assembled right outside the main hall. Organized through a joint project of the organizations Catholic Artist Connection and Discerning Deacons, the exhibit showed off the work of dozens of artists who had participated in three-month process of prayer and dialogue in response to the ongoing Synod on Synodality. The artists created paintings and sculptures and wrote poems in response to their experience. As host Mike Jordan Laskey walked around the gallery, one enormous canvas caught his eye: It's a brightly colorful painting of Jesus titled “But Who Do You Say That I Am?” Jesus looks out at the viewer, gesturing toward us, inviting us to answer the question ourselves. Surrounding him on the canvas are some of Christ's ancient titles: Bread of Life, Good Shepherd. The painter of the work is a California-based artist named Jen Norton, and she's one of today's guests. Our other guest is Allison Beyer, who was the Art & Synodality program coordinator. Mike asked them both about the project and why they think art is such a powerful force for healing in our divided church and world. Check out the virtual Art & Synodality gallery: https://catholicartistconnection.com/artandsynodality-virtual See more of Jen Norton's work: https://www.jennortonartstudio.com/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

Today's episode is the second part of host Mike Jordan Laskey's conversation with Fr. David Collins, SJ, about his fabulous new book “The Jesuits in the United States: A Concise History.” If you didn't hear the first part of the interview, you might want to go back to last week's episode and catch up. On today's show, we focus mostly on American Jesuit history from the 20th and 21st centuries. Fr. Collins is an associate professor in the Department of History at Georgetown University, where he's also the Haub Director of Catholic Studies. “The Jesuits in the United States: A Concise History”: www.amazon.com/Jesuits-United-St…ory/dp/1647123488 Fr. David Collins, SJ: gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/0…vid-collins AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

“The history of America cannot be told without the history of religion, the history of American religion cannot be told without the history of Catholicism, and history of Catholicism in America cannot be told without the history of the Jesuits in America.” That's the beginning of the dust jacket text for the new book “The Jesuits in the United States: A Concise History” by Fr. David J. Collins, SJ, published by Georgetown University Press. Fr. Collins is an associate professor in the Department of History at Georgetown University, where he's also the Haub Director of Catholic Studies. It's incredible how you can learn about America and the Society of Jesus in just 175 pages of Fr. Collins' clear and engaging prose. If you have any interest at all in the Jesuits in the U.S., then we can't recommend this book highly enough. Starting in 1566, the book traces the activity and growth of the Jesuits throughout America, highlighting key figures, landmark events, and important stories like the history of Jesuit slaveholding. When host Mike Jordan Laskey started the interview, hey thought they'd make it through the book in one episode, but there's so much richness to cover that we're splitting up the conversation into two parts. Today, we're covering the 16th century up through the U.S. Civil War. Next week, you'll hear their discussion about more modern Jesuit history. “The Jesuits in the United States: A Concise History”: https://www.amazon.com/Jesuits-United-States-Concise-History/dp/1647123488 Fr. David Collins, SJ: https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RZf9AAG/david-collins AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

If you have followed Jesuit-related headlines over the past few months, you might have heard about the situation in Nicaragua. In August, the government of dictator Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, closed the Jesuit-run University of Central America in the capital city of Managua. They confiscated the property, too, including the Jesuit residence there. While these developments have captured the attention of the Society of Jesus globally, they are just one part of a much larger trend of repression in Nicaragua. To learn more about the context, host Mike Jordan Laskey spoke recently with Juan Sebastián Chamorro. An economist by trade who ran for president of Nicaragua against Ortega in 2021, knowing full well the election would not be free and fair, Juan was arrested by the police in the middle of the night in June 2021. He would go on to spend 20 months behind bars as a political prisoner, separated from his wife and daughter. Last February, Juan was one of 222 political prisoners from the country who was freed and put on a plane to the United States. Nicaragua has revoked his citizenship, and Juan now lives here in exile with his family. This academic year, he is serving as a visiting fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame. In the conversation, Juan described the context and background of the repression in Nicaragua. He also talked about the experience of his arrest, imprisonment and exile to the United States. Juan also has had a lifelong connection to the Jesuits and spoke of how his faith supported him during his incredible hardship. Juan is a member of one of the most prominent families devoted to public service in the modern history of Nicaragua – his aunt was the first female president of the country and his cousin Christiana was imprisoned at the same time Juan was. His commitment to carrying on his family's legacy despite the risks, not to mention his impassioned defense of democracy in his beloved home country, made this conversation one of the most moving interviews in the history of AMDG. If you would like to learn more about how to support the Jesuits, students and faculty connected to the University of Central America, visit Jesuits.org/nicaragua. Learn more about Juan: https://kellogg.nd.edu/juan-sebasti%C3%A1n-chamorro AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

Here's a list of famous comedians who all have at least one thing in common that's relevant to this podcast: Bob Newhart, Bill Murray, Bob Hope, Chris Farley, George Carlin, Amy Poehler, Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Dan Aykroyd, John Leguizamo, John Candy, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Jim Gaffigan, Janeane Garofalo and John Mulaney. Did you guess? They all have a Catholic background in some way or other. Some were raised Catholic and left the church, some are still practicing Catholics today or practiced throughout their lives, and Bob Hope was a famous convert to Catholicism thanks to his devout wife Dolores. Why are so many Catholics, including a bunch of Jesuit high school and college alumni, comedians? What is it about the faith that leads performers down this road? Today's guest is uniquely qualified to reflect on this question. Fr. Jake Martin, SJ, is a Jesuit priest. He's also a standup comedian with a deep background in theater, improv comedy and the study of film. After completing his Ph.D. in film studies at Trinity College Dublin earlier this year, Fr. Jake is now teaching film at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He also writes about culture for America magazine. And it was a recent piece on the Catholic comedian Jim Gaffigan that led host Mike Jordan Laskey to reach out for this interview. Jim Gaffigan, an alum of Georgetown University, has never been shy about including his Catholicism in his standup comedy performances, but his most recent special, titled “Dark Pale,” takes the religiosity to a whole new level. There's a whole segment in the performance when Gaffigan just tells the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego. There's no big punchline or payoff. He just tells the story, in his own clever way. But it felt like it could've been a homily, or at least a talk at a parish mission. Mike asked Fr. Jake about Gaffigan and for Fr. Jake's own theories about why there are so many Jesuit-educated, Catholic comedians out there. They also talked about Fr. Jake's own background as a performer and how he integrates his identities as priest in comedian into a single, unified person. Read Fr. Jake Martin, SJ: https://www.americamagazine.org/voices/jake-martin AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

There are so many theories about why young adults are leaving the Catholic Church today. Maybe our parishes aren't welcoming enough, or maybe they're watering down the faith. Maybe young people are being asked to do too much to be part of the community. Or maybe they're not being asked to do enough. Maybe they're angry at the church's positions on social issues. Or maybe they just drift away because they don't find anything relevant at church. It can be challenging to offer grand, sweeping theories about young adults and the church because we're talking about millions of people. Young adults aren't monolithic. But there is some good quantitative and qualitative data we can work with, and today's guest is uniquely equipped to offer some compelling arguments. Ellen Koneck is the executive director of Commonweal Magazine, the venerable Catholic journal of opinion that celebrates its 100th birthday next year. She's an incredibly insightful writer with experience in pastoral ministry, making her an astute observer of the reasons her fellow young adults slip out the church door. She also took over her role at Commonweal after working as head writer at the Springtide Research Institute, which does some of the best statistical work on young people and the church you can find anywhere. Ellen combined her wealth of experiences and observations into a talk she gave this past April for the Catholic Common Ground Initiative in Chicago. Ellen and host Mike Jordan Laskey recently had a wide-ranging conversation on why church membership is a bad metric for measuring youth involvement in faith, why the problem of polarization might not be as crucial to address as alienation, and how Commonweal is trying to reach a new generation of readers. Watch Ellen's talk here (starts at 30:50): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6E54YDSdEY&t=4s Commonweal: https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/ Springtide Research Institute: https://www.springtideresearch.org/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

“Lodge 49,” a comedy-drama TV series that ran on the channel AMC for two seasons, is about an ex-surfer named Dud (Wyatt Russell) who's drifting through life after the loss of his father and the closing of his family's pool supply store. He stumbles into a rundown old fraternal lodge belonging to a group called the Order of the Lynx. (Think of the freemasons or the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.) At the Lodge, he meets a luminous knight of the order named Ernie (Brent Jennings) who's also a plumbing salesman. Ernie welcomes the much younger Dud with open arms. And so begins host Mike Jordan Laskey's favorite onscreen friendship in television history, these two guys of wildly different backgrounds and personalities hanging out and having some truly wild adventures together. Because running alongside this story of friendship and community in the face of economic downturn and social erosion is the mysterious legend of the Order of the Lynx itself, which is centered on some sort of alchemical philosophy that may or may not be true. Mix all of its ingredients together and “Lodge 49” is one of the strangest, most beautiful works of art you can find on television or anywhere else. The wildly original creative mind behind “Lodge 49” is Jim Gavin, today's guest. A writer, Gavin published an acclaimed collection of short stories called “Middle Men” in 2013 before making the transition to TV. Gavin grew up in an observant Catholic family and went to Catholic school all the way through his college years at the Jesuit Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Both the show and the book are shot through with Gavin's Catholic imagination, calling to mind work by other Catholic and lapsed-Catholic authors like Walker Percy, Don DeLillo, and George Saunders as we meet wounded characters searching for meaning and mercy. Mike asked Jim about his Catholic background and its influence on his work. They also talked about the current writers' strike in Hollywood, which Jim is participating in. Watch “Lodge 49” on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/lodge-49-5061e151-c887-4e29-9e13-c1b48e392123 Read “Middle Men”: https://www.amazon.com/Middle-Men-Stories-Jim-Gavin/dp/1451649347 AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

Most of us probably don't stop to reflect on our use of technology and how the devices and apps we use affect our lives and society as a whole. What is it doing to our brains and our souls that we reach for our smartphones mindlessly hundreds of times a day? What do we say on social media that I wouldn't say in real life, and how does our behavior online make the world better – or, more likely, worse? Today's guest, L.M. Sacasas, is an incredible thinker and writer who has devoted his career to asking big questions of our technology and what it's doing to our communal life and individual lives. Sacasas has a great Substack newsletter called “The Convivial Society” that is host Mike Jordan Laskey's favorite thing to read these days. Sacasas has this amazing ability to read and absorb scholars from the past like Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman, Hannah Arendt and the Jesuit literary theorist Walter Ong and apply their arguments to our very different media environment today. In this conversation, Sacasas shares his thoughts on AI chat-bots like ChatGPT and Microsoft's new Bing and Google Bard. He and Mike also talk about social media and smartphones and artificial light and time and what countercultural roles faith communities might play in offering venues for incarnational, authentic community. Subscribe to “The Convivial Society”: https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/ Read L.M. Sacasas on Fr. Walter Ong, SJ: https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-inescapable-town-square Listen to L.M. Sacasas' interview on the Ezra Klein Show: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-lm-sacasas.html AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

There's nothing better than the Easter Triduum – from the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday through the bitter, heavy celebration of the Lord's Passion on Good Friday to the unparalleled drama of the Easter fire and baptizing new Christians at the Vigil on Saturday night. The one big danger this time of year: We've heard the stories of Christ's suffering, death and resurrection so many times now that it's easy for them to go in one ear and out the other. To paraphrase the words of T.S. Eliot, we might have the experience but miss the meaning. Sometimes, approaching a familiar story like the Passion in a new way can make all the difference. And today's guest has just released a new musical project that does just that. J.J. Wright is a composer, pianist and director of the Notre Dame Folk Choir. This Lent season, J.J. and the Folk Choir, in collaboration with professional musicians, writers and producers, released “The Passion.” The project is a 95-minute, fully--staged production that depicts the disciples on Holy Saturday as they retell the events of Jesus' last days, from the anointing at Bethany to Golgotha. Using contemporary musical forms to get into the story in a new way really made host Mike Jordan Laskey pray and reflect with the Passion narratives with new depth and attention. Now Notre Dame isn't a Jesuit university, of course, but the project is an extremely powerful example of Ignatian imaginative prayer: The work does a great job of really bringing you into the scene yourself. Mike asked J.J. about how the work came to be and how putting together something so huge and ambitious affected the way J.J. hears the Passion story himself. You'll hear some of the music included in the episode during our conversation. You can also find and listen to “The Passion” wherever you get music, including services like Spotify. Learn more about J.J. Wright: https://jjwrightmusic.com/ Learn more about the Notre Dame Folk Choir: https://folkchoir.nd.edu/ Learn more about “The Passion”: https://news.nd.edu/news/notre-dame-folk-choir-to-release-new-album-on-christs-passion-on-ash-wednesday/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

One of the most interesting Jesuit universities in the world is Saint Joseph University in Beirut, Lebanon. Founded in 1875, Saint Joseph is the only Jesuit university in the Arab World. On its incredibly impressive list of alumni are seven presidents of Lebanon. The former Superior General of the Jesuits, Fr. Peter Hans Kolvenbach, earned his doctorate there and then joined the faculty. Saint Joseph has a medical and a law school and five total campuses in all in the capital city. In the middle of a religiously diverse country, it brings together 12,000 students from all backgrounds, including large communities of both Christian and Muslim students. As they carry out their essential mission, Saint Joseph is facing unimaginable challenges due to multiple intertwined crises plaguing the country of Lebanon right now. On August 4, 2020, a historically powerful explosion at the Port of Beirut killed over 200 people and left about 300,000 homeless. All five of Saint Joseph's campuses were damaged by the blast. This instability worsened an already-dire economic crisis. A few weeks ago, host Mike Jordan Laskey talked to the university's president, Fr. Salim Daccache, SJ, about the university and how it's responding to today's challenges. Fr. Daccache has led Saint Joseph's since 2012 and earned his undergraduate degree there in 1973. A scholar and an experienced administrator, Fr. Daccache has such a clear passion for the school and is dedicated to doing whatever he can to support students, faculty and staff. Against this backdrop, the university is asking for donations in support of scholarships. Our listeners in the United States can make tax-deductible donations via a PayPal link on our website, which you can find at Jesuits.org/Lebanon. AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

Here in the American Jesuit universe, we're in two parallel holy seasons at the same time: Lent and March Madness. Nine Jesuit teams between the women's and men's tournaments are in the Big Dance this year, and you can read all about them on our website at Jesuits.org/basketball. Today's guest didn't quite make it to the NCAA tournament this year, but he led one of the biggest success stories in all of college basketball this season. And this was his first year as a head coach at any level. Keith Urgo is the head coach of the Fordham Rams men's team – and the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year. Fordham put up a record of 25 wins and 8 losses this season; the last time Fordham won this many games in a season was all the way back in 1991. Coach Urgo has deep Jesuit roots: He went to Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC, then played basketball and lacrosse at Fairfield University. After college, he spent time working with a nonprofit organization called PeacePlayers, which uses basketball to bring people together in some of the most divided countries on Earth. He's a fascinating guy and you'll want to keep your eye on him in future years. In the second half of the show, we're re-running one of our favorite basketball segments we've ever done here on the show. A couple years ago, host Mike Jordan Laskey talked to the author John Gasaway, who writes on college hoops for ESPN and wrote a book on Catholic college basketball called “Miracles on the Hardwood.” At the end of that conversation, John and Mike took turns drafting the greatest men's players in Jesuit basketball history, building fantasy teams who will only ever compete against each other in our imaginations. Don't forget to root for Creighton, Marquette, Gonzaga, Saint Louis University, Holy Cross and Xavier this week. Learn more about PeacePlayers: https://peaceplayers.org/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

The Academy Awards are coming up March 12th, so we wanted to recommend a couple of Oscar-nominated movies that fans of the podcast might enjoy. And there was one person host Mike Jordan Laskey was hoping to interview for this episode: his favorite film critic of all time, Alissa Wilkinson from the website Vox, where she's the senior culture writer. Nobody writes on the intersections of cinema and theology and spirituality like Alissa does. Over and over again, she finds angles that no other critics see. Alissa writes essays that are profound, funny, moving, and eminently readable. She joined Mike to talk about two Best Picture nominees: “Women Talking” and “The Banshees of Inisherin.” Alissa talked about both films and what makes them especially compelling for a Catholic audience. She also discussed what goes into the art of criticism more broadly, and what she thinks about the current trend of religious communities depicted on the big screen. Alissa on "Women Talking": https://www.vox.com/culture/23345084/women-talking-review-tiff-augustine Alissa on "The Banshees of Inisherin": https://www.vox.com/culture/23413305/banshees-inisherin-review-history-civil-war Alissa's newsletter: https://wilkinson.substack.com/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

A disturbing trend over the past couple of years has been the rise of antisemitism. The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks antisemitic incidents, says 2021 was the worst year in decades and that 2022 will look similar once the numbers are tabulated. We're in a five-year upswing overall. Let's not give any more oxygen to acts of hate. Instead, we are thrilled to be sharing this conversation host Mike Jordan Laskey recently had with Dr. Phil Cunningham and Dr. Adam Gregerman, two scholars who have devoted their careers to building bridges between Jews and Catholics. Phil and Adam lead the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. The institute was founded in 1967 in response to the Second Vatican Council. Phil is Catholic and Adam is Jewish, and their shared leadership models the type of engagement the institute is all about. You'll see this sort of collaboration on display throughout the episode. Mike asked them for a brief historical overview of the relationship between Catholics and Jews, and why the promulgation of the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate was such an important turning point. Adam and Phil also talked about the work they're doing today, and how we can build relationships across religious divides without erasing each faith's uniqueness. Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations: https://www.sju.edu/college-arts-and-sciences/ijcr Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations: https://ccjr.us/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

Over the past couple of weeks, there have been countless reflections on the life and work of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, highlighting his rich theological writings and his decades of church service and even some of the challenging moments he faced before, during and after his papacy. He was a complex man with so much experience. Let us pray that he might rest in the peace of Christ forever. Whenever a world-historical event happens related to the papacy, host Mike Jordan Laskey likes to call up his friend Dr. Christopher Bellitto, Ph.D. Chris is a medievalist, a church historian and a professor of history at Kean University in New Jersey. He's a frequent media commentator on church history and contemporary Catholicism, and you might have seen him quoted in recent days in the Washington Post, CNN, NBC and other outlets. He always brings the long view to current events as a scholar of history. Chris talked about the history of papal resignations and what lessons the church might learn from how Benedict's post-papacy unfolded. He also talked a bit about the history of Jesuit superior general resignations, and teased his upcoming book from Georgetown University Press titled “Humility: The Secret History of a Lost Virtue.” Learn more about Dr. Bellitto: https://sites.google.com/a/kean.edu/christopher-m-bellitto-ph-d/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. https://www.jesuits.org/ https://beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

Poetry can be intimidating and inaccessible. Why even bother? Guest Philip Metres is a living reminder that it's worth it to bother, worth it to wrestle with poetry even when it's difficult because the power of language is uniquely human and is one of the best parts of being alive. Phil is a poet, author and professor of English literature at John Caroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. He's the author of ten books and has won fellowships from institutions like the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. As the product of a Jesuit high school and college education, it's consoling to see that much of his work takes up themes of spirituality and social justice, and what prompted host Mike Jordan Laskey to invite Phil on the show was a fabulous essay Phil wrote for Image Journal that was part book review, part memoir and part theological reflection. Phil also reads two of his poems and talks about them. Read Phil's Image Journal essay: https://imagejournal.org/article/the-other-world-and-this-one-immanent-and-transcendent-tendencies-in-contemporary-poetry/ Learn more about Phil: https://philipmetres.com/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

Earlier this month, Nicole Perone and John Grosso were anxiously awaiting the birth of their first child. Nicole and John are both what you could call professional Catholics – Nicole is the national coordinator for a young adult initiative called ESTEEM that works to prepare college students for faith life after graduation. And after several years working in digital media for the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, John is on the communications team at a network of Catholic philanthropic organizations called FADICA. In between Nicole and John's conversation with host Mike Jordan Laskey and the release of this episode, Rose Marie Grosso was born on December 12, and both she and Nicole are doing well. The question at the heart of this episode: What was Advent like for two super-thoughtful, Jesuit-formed parents-to-be? Does the story of the Holy Family resonate differently when you're nine months pregnant? And as people who have devoted their professional and personal lives to serving the church, Nicole and John offered their reflections on the state of the church today – their thoughts and feelings on this community of faith they're bringing Rose Marie into. AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

It's a great time of year to sit back, relax and watch a Christmas movie. To help you fill out your binge-watching schedule these last few days before Christmas, host Mike Jordan Laskey invited Fr. Jim McDermott, SJ, onto the show to talk about some of their favorite movies to watch this time of year. Jim is an ideal candidate for this work. He's a fantastic writer who covers the intersection of pop culture and spirituality. (His Twitter handle is literally “@PopCulturPriest.” These days, he's an associate editor at America Magazine in New York, but he has training and experience as a screenwriter and spent some time working for the TV channel AMC. Jim and Mike each picked three of their favorite Christmas movies to discuss. They also talked about Jim's life as a Jesuit writer and what interests some of his Hollywood executive friends about his vocation to the priesthood. It was a super-fun conversation and should get you in the Christmas spirit – which, as you'll hear from Jim and Mike as a common theme in this discussion, means two parts joy and maybe three parts melancholy. Read Fr. Jim in America Magazine: https://www.americamagazine.org/voices/jim-mcdermott AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

Saint Joseph is the most mysterious character from the Advent story. He doesn't say anything and we know pretty much nothing about him, yet there are few figures more central to the story of our faith community. So host Mike Jordan Laskey asked his friend, Sister Colleen Gibson, SSJ, if she could help shed some light on this shadowy member of the Holy Family. Sr. Colleen is a Sister of Saint Joseph of Philadelphia and has spent a lot of time praying and reflecting on her community's patron. Unsurprisingly, given Sr. Colleen's intelligence and creative gifts, she brought multiple perspectives on St. Joseph you might have never considered before. Sr. Colleen also talks about her own vocation story of becoming a millennial religious sister, plus a bit of the history of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, which were founded in France by a Jesuit in 1650. Sr. Colleen also tells us about her own new podcast project, which she's co-hosting with another sister of Saint Joseph. It's called Beyond the Habit and they've just released their first few episodes. If you'd like some more Advent content from us here at the Jesuit Conference, you can sign up for daily email reflections on faith heroes formed in the Ignatian tradition at Jesuits.org/advent22 and register for a free evening of reflection on Zoom at Jesuits.org/adventprayer, which is being hosted by iconographer Kelly Latimore and writer Cameron Bellm (Wednesday, December 14, 7:30pm ET). Listen to Beyond the Habit on Spotify or wherever you get podcasts: https://open.spotify.com/show/3dcsfiK6IQJvWFvgAbZUuR Follow Sr. Colleen on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yoitssistercoll/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

If you were going to make a list of the most demanding and important jobs, nurses would be right near the top. The pandemic has revealed how much we ask of our nurses. They face exposure to illness, they juggle multiple patients simultaneously, all of whom have different needs and face a huge range of challenges. They work extremely long shifts and are on their feet most of the time. And so often they're accompanying people who are in the middle of the worst day or week or month of their lives. How do you prepare a college nursing student for all that? Georgetown professor Dr. Sarah Vittone has one surprising idea for nurse training: She takes the students to Lourdes. Lourdes, of course, is the French town in the Pyrenees made famous by Marian apparitions witnessed by a teenage girl named Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. Soon after the apparitions, visitors began to report miraculous healings after drinking or bathing in water from the grotto spring there. Millions of pilgrims continue to travel to Lourdes each year, many of whom are facing serious medical diagnoses. Dr. Vittone, her colleagues and the ten or so students who make each trip do a lot of things to support pilgrims while they're in Lourdes, but most of their time is spent assisting those who come to bathe in the waters. The trip is rooted in the Ignatian principle of “cura personalis,” or care for the whole person – Dr. Vittone hopes students who take part in the project will become nurses who are comfortable noticing and responding to the spiritual needs of their patients, no matter what those needs might be or how they are expressed. Dr. Vittone teaches students in ethics and professional formation in the School of Nursing, and she's a consultant at Georgetown' Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics. She talked with host Mike Jordan Laskey about her experiences with the students in Lourdes and how the project connects to her scholarly work as a healthcare ethicist. Dr. Vittone shares stories from her trips and the ways she has seen the experiences help shape nurses who are equipped to care not just for the physical needs of patients, but their mental and spiritual health as well. Learn more about the Georgetown Lourdes project for nursing students: https://gumc.georgetown.edu/gumc-stories/georgetown-nursing-students-focused-on-spiritual-health-of-pilgrims-in-lourdes-france/ Learn more about Dr. Vittone: https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RdvBAAS/sarah-vittone AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

If you live in the suburbs, you're probably used to hopping in your car to run pretty much every errand, even if you just need to get cold medicine at the drug store. Have you ever wondered why this is part of your daily life at all? Or why you can't walk more places? It's easy to just assume that's just the way things are, have always been and will always be. But the built environment of our suburbs is the result of decades of choices. And looking at how we use land in our local communities and trying to grow things like public transit are central ways to work on a whole collection of social justice issues. Usually when we make a list of social justice issues that people of faith care about, land use policies like zoning regulations aren't on the top of the list. But maybe they should be. Today's guest writes on these issues in such compelling and unexpected ways. Addison Del Mastro runs his own Substack newsletter on urbanism and cultural history called The Deleted Scenes, and he also contributes to places like Vox and The Bulwark and America Magazine. A Catholic who describes himself as a bit right-of-center politically, Addison crosses boundaries between groups that are often uncrossed in today's polarized America. He's a thinker you want to know. Read his writing or listen to him during this conversation with host Mike Jordan Laskey and you might start to see why words and phrases like zoning regulations, land use and parking minimums are important things for all of us to be thinking and advocating about. Addison Del Mastro's newsletter: https://thedeletedscenes.substack.com/ His writing at America: https://www.americamagazine.org/voices/addison-del-mastro “NIMBYISM is a Distorted Love”: https://www.thebulwark.com/nimbyism-is-a-distorted-love/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

The stunning new images of outer space from the Webb Space Telescope might prompt people of faith to ponder big questions: How do I square my belief in the Big Bang with my belief in the creator-God of the Book of Genesis? Could we really have an all-loving God who cares about such a tiny little speck of dust in this massive universe? Guest Fr. Adam Hincks, SJ, is the perfect person to talk to about God and the universe. Fr. Hincks is an accomplished astrophysicist and a Jesuit priest. He's assistant professor and holder of the Sutton Family Chair in Science, Christianity and Cultures at the University of Toronto, with a joint appointment between the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and St. Michael's College, the Catholic college at the university. He's also written about the intersections of science, philosophy and theology. He talked to host Mike Jordan Laskey about faith and science, Fr. Hincks' vocation to the Jesuits, and what has interested him most about the new Webb images. Learn more about Fr. Adam Hincks: https://adh-sj.info/ Read Fr. Hincks' essays in America Magazine: https://www.americamagazine.org/voices/adam-d-hincks AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

The Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola on July 31 will mark the end of the Ignatian Year, through which we have been celebrating the 500th anniversary of Ignatius getting hit in the leg with a cannonball. This is admittedly a weird-at-first-glance event to be marking. What about Ignatius' birth or the beginning of his ministry? The cannonball gets special attention in Ignatius' story because it was such a vivid and transformative moment. The cannonball sparked Ignatius' conversion. It shattered his plans for a life of chivalry and set him on a dramatically new path. This anniversary has been a great opportunity for all of us to look at our own life paths and see how the Lord might be trying to reach out to us or maybe even shake us up a little. Today's guests took the opportunity of the Ignatian Year to start a brand-new creative project. Dr. Paola Pascual-Ferrá is a communications professor at Loyola University Maryland. Her friend Sean Bráy is the interim vice president for mission at the university. They decided to start a podcast called "This Ignatian Year," which welcomed guests to reflect on how they live Ignatian spirituality in their everyday lives. They talked with host Mike Jordan Laskey about how their how their own spiritualities were affected through this process, and how we might continue living the key themes at the heart of the Ignatian year even after this celebration is over. Listen to “This Ignatian Year”: https://www.loyola.edu/department/campus-ministry/ignatian-spirituality/ignatian-year Read about its creation: https://www.ajcunet.edu/june-2022-connections/2022/4/25/loyola-maryland-thematic AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, was founded in 1843. It's the oldest Jesuit and Catholic college in New England and one of the oldest in the whole country. Despite 178 years of educating students, Holy Cross' current president, Vincent D. Rougeau, represents two huge firsts in the history of the college: He is the first lay president and the first Black president of the school. President Rougeau and host Mike Jordan Laskey talked recently, just a few weeks after the end of his first academic year as president. President Rougeau is a legal scholar and came to Holy Cross after serving as Dean of Boston College's Law School, and he talked about how his experience in the law has affected his views on social justice and how a Jesuit college can be a force for good in the world especially as higher ed institutions face an increasingly competitive landscape. Read President Rougeau's work in America Magazine: https://www.americamagazine.org/voices/vincent-d-rougeau AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

When a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked last month, the person host Mike Jordan Laskey most wanted to interview was Gloria Purvis. Gloria is the host of the Gloria Purvis Podcast, a show produced by America Media. She's also a longtime pro-life advocate and one of the most outspoken Catholic commentators on racism. The way she ties these two justice issues together in particular is so impressive. One common temptation for American Catholics is to try to fit our faith's teachings into the platform of our preferred political party. For Catholics on both sides of the aisle, it's often the case that party affiliation is a stronger predictor than Church teaching for where we'll come down on issues like abortion, racism, immigration, economic justice, physician-assisted suicide and so many others. Gloria is a refreshing exception to this trend. You can't fit Gloria neatly on our partisan spectrum. She spoke with Mike last week about both of these central issues to her, why they're connected, and how she handles the vitriol and hate mail sent her way from all sides. The Gloria Purvis Podcast: https://www.americamagazine.org/gloria-purvis-podcast Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gloria_purvis The Helen M. Alvaré article Gloria mentions in the conversation: https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/01/2380/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

All of us have been watching Russia's invasion of Ukraine with feelings of horror and sadness and helplessness. There have also been incredibly moving stories of the resilience and compassion of the Ukrainian people, who have been living under existential threat for years and years. It was our absolute privilege at AMDG to welcome one of Ukraine's leading Catholic theologians last week. Pavlo Smytsnyuk is the director of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, a city in the western part of Ukraine. Pavlo has been in New York for a few months researching for a book, but his parents and colleagues are in Ukraine. He doesn't know when he'll be able to make it home. Now, in addition to his research, Pavlo wakes up early in the morning and spends hours on calls with his colleagues at the university and other faith leaders in Ukraine, helping to coordinate the faith community's response to the war. Pavlo is an expert on the religious makeup of Ukraine, which is one of the more religiously diverse countries in Europe. If you want to learn more about Ukraine, the religious landscape there is absolutely essential context. The son of a Ukraininan Greek Catholic priest, Pavlo has also been deeply formed by the Jesuits: He got his bachelor's degree at the Gregorian University in Rome and his doctorate at the University of Oxford's Campion Hall, which is run by the Jesuits. Pavlo is among the most impressive people you will ever hear from – he could've done an equally insightful interview in seven other languages besides English. His devotion to his faith and his country and sharp intelligence shined through his whole conversation with host Mike Jordan Laskey. Please keep Pavlo and his family and friends in your prayers. AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

Well, Lent is here. Hooray. To be honest, it feels like the last thing we need right now is 40 days of fasting and penance and just the general heaviness that comes with this season. We've been living in a perpetual state of Lent for two years now. So host Mike Jordan Laskey called up his friend Fr. Paddy Gilger, SJ. Fr. Paddy is a sociology professor at Loyola Chicago and a super thoughtful person. He suggested we reframe what the season is all about in the first place. His insights are so helpful and consoling if you'd rather just skip straight to Easter this year. Fr. Paddy was also the founding editor in chief of the Jesuit Post back in 2012, the wonderful culture and religion website that's run by young Jesuits to this day. So we had to get his music and movie and reading recommendations for Lent. His picks are linked below. All of our hearts are especially heavy as this Lent begins due to the horrifying war underway in Ukraine. Pray and act here: https://www.jesuits.org/stories/pray-and-act-for-ukraine/ Fr. Paddy's Lenten picks: “Come Healing” by Leonard Cohen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUB1O2cT2gM Springsteen on Broadway: https://www.netflix.com/title/80232329 “Ecce Homo” by Xavier le Pichon: https://onbeing.org/blog/xavier-le-pichon-ecce-homo-behold-humanity/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

Ana Grande's great uncle was Fr. Rutilio Grande, SJ, a Jesuit from El Salvador who was just beatified last month. (Beatification is the final step before canonized sainthood in the church, and we can call him Blessed Rutilio now.) Blessed Rutilio was assassinated by El Salvador's security forces in 1977 for his ministry and community organizing with impoverished farmers. He was good friends with Archbishop Oscar Romero, and Rutilio's death sparked Romero's own conversion from a reserved leader who preferred to stay away from controversy into an outspoken prophet for peace and justice. Ana spoke with host Mike Jordan Laskey just a few hours after she had returned to her home in Los Angeles from Fr. Rutilio's beatification. She talked about was like to be there for the ceremony, plus what it's like to have someone in your own family so close to sainthood. Ana has so clearly been inspired by Blessed Rutilio's work for justice herself, as she has dedicated her life to social justice causes like immigration reform. She's also a longtime member of Blessed Sacrament Church, the Jesuit parish in Hollywood. It's a privilege to hear from Ana about her experience at the beatification and how she thinks her great uncle's legacy can inspire all of us today. Follow Ana Grande on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MsAnaGrande AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. Subscribe to AMDG wherever you get podcasts.

John W. Miller was a successful journalist with the Wall Street Journal, covering all sorts of topics all over the planet. A few years ago, he gave it all up for an extremely different path. He tells host Mike Jordan Laskey about the spiritual journey that led him to co-directing his first feature film, the documentary "Moundsville," which tells the story of a small West Virginia town on the Ohio River. John also discusses a series of articles he wrote for America Magazine on economics and Catholic social teaching. In the conversation, John moves seamlessly between personal stories and high-level social analysis, peppering in plenty of Ignatian spirituality along the way. If you haven't encountered John or his work before, he's an incredible person to get to know. Watch "Moundsville": https://www.pbs.org/show/moundsville/ Learn more about the town: https://moundsville.org/ Read John in America Magazine: https://www.americamagazine.org/voices/john-w-miller Learn more about John: https://www.johnwmiller.org/

This week, Blake and Joe welcome Mike Jordan Laskey, host of AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast. Mike shares his thoughts after his first viewing experience of Grosse Pointe Blank, celebrating the movie's surreal comedy, its outstanding soundtrack, and its most memorable lines. Also, he totally shames us in the podcast host department, thanks to his outstanding audio.Mike Jordan Laskey is the communications director for the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States (jesuits.org), where he hosts the AMDG podcast. His writing has appeared in Vice, the National Catholic Reporter, US Catholic Magazine and elsewhere. He lives with his family in Maryland.