Podcast appearances and mentions of paul elie

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comDavid Graham is a political journalist. He's a long-time staff writer at The Atlantic and one of the authors of the Atlantic Daily newsletter. His new book is The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America. We go through the agenda and hash out the good and the bad.For two clips of our convo — on whether SCOTUS will stop Trump, and what a Project 2029 for Dems might look like — pop over to our YouTube page.Other topics: growing up in Akron; his dad the history prof and his mom the hospital chaplain; aspiring to be a journo since reading Russell Baker as a kid; the origins of Project 2025; its director Paul Dans; Heritage and Claremont; the unitary executive; the New Deal; the odd nature of independent agencies; Dominic Cummings' reform efforts in the UK; Birtherism; Reaganites in Trump 1.0 tempering him; Russiagate; the BLM riots vs Jan 6; equity under Biden; Russell Vought and Christian nationalism; faith-based orgs; Bostock; the trans EO by Trump; our “post-constitutional moment”; lawfare; the souped-up Bragg case; Liberation Day and its reversal; Biden's industrial policy; the border crisis; Trump ignoring E-Verify; Labour's new shift on migration; Obama and the Dreamers; Trump's “emergencies”; habeas corpus; the Ozturk case; the Laken Riley Act; the abundance agenda; the national debt; DOGE; impoundment and Nixon; trans women in sports; Seth Moulton; national injunctions; judge shopping; and trying to stay sane during Trump 2.0 and the woke resistance.Coming up: Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on the Biden years, Sam Tanenhaus on Bill Buckley, Walter Isaacson on Ben Franklin, Tara Zahra on the last revolt against globalization after WWI, NS Lyons on the Trump era, Arthur C. Brooks on the science of happiness, and Paul Elie on his book The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

In the weeks since Pope Francis's passing, the internet has been flooded by papal memes, election analysis, and even close readings of the newly appointed Pope Leo XIV's own posts. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz consider why the moment has so captivated Catholics and nonbelievers alike. They discuss the online response and hear from the writer Paul Elie, who's been covering the event on the ground at the Vatican for The New Yorker. Then the hosts consider how recent cultural offerings, from last year's “Conclave” to the HBO series “The Young Pope,” depict the power and pageantry of the Church, with varying degrees of reverence. Leo XIV's first address as Pope began with a message of peace—an act that may have contributed to the flurry of interest and excitement around him. “The signs are hopeful,” Cunningham says. “And reasons to hope attract attention.”Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Francis, the TV Pope, Takes His Final Journey,” by Vinson Cunningham (The New Yorker)“White smoke, Black pope?,” by Nate Tinner Williams (The National Catholic Reporter)“The First American Pope,” by Paul Elie (The New Yorker)“Brideshead Revisited,” by Evelyn Waugh“Conclave” (2024)“Angels & Demons” (2009)“The Young Pope” (2016)“The Two Popes” (2019)Pope Leo XIII's “Rerum Novarum”New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comClaire Lehmann is a journalist and publisher. In 2015, after leaving academia, she founded the online magazine Quillette, where she is still editor-in-chief. She's also a newspaper columnist for The Australian.For two clips of our convo — on how journalists shouldn't be too friendly with one another, and how postmodernism takes the joy out of literature — pop over to our YouTube page.Other topics: a modest upbringing in Adelaide; her hippie parents; their small-c conservatism; her many working-class jobs; ADHD; aspiring to be a Shakespeare scholar; enjoying Foucault … at first; her “great disillusionment” with pomo theory; the impenetrable prose of Butler; the great Germaine Greer; praising Camille Paglia; evolutionary psychology; Wright's The Moral Animal and Pinker's The Blank Slate; Claire switching to forensic psychology after an abusive relationship; the TV show Adolescence; getting hired by the Sydney Morning Herald to write op-eds — her first on marriage equality; Bush's federal amendment; competition among women; tribalism and mass migration; soaring housing costs in Australia; rising populism in the West; creating Quillette; the IDW; being anti-anti-Trump; audience capture; Islamism and Charlie Hebdo; Covid; critical Trump theory; tariffs; reflexive anti-elitism; Joe Rogan; Almost Famous; Orwell; Spinoza; Oakeshott; Fukuyama and boredom; tech billionaires on Inauguration Day; the sycophants of Trump 2.0; and X as a state propaganda platform.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Next week: David Graham on Project 2025. After that: Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on the Biden years, Sam Tanenhaus on Bill Buckley, Robert Merry on President McKinley, Walter Isaacson on Ben Franklin, and Paul Elie on his book The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comByron is a political journalist. He was a news producer for CNN in the early years, a reporter for The American Spectator, and the White House correspondent for National Review. He's currently the chief political correspondent for Washington Examiner and a contributor to Fox News. His most recent book is the 2020 bestseller, Obsession: Inside the Washington Establishment's Never-Ending War on Trump. We chewed over the recent political past and then got on to Trump, where things got stickier but still friendly.For two clips of our convo — on Clinton Derangement Syndrome in the ‘90s, and Trump bungling his gains on immigration — pop over to our YouTube page.Other topics: raised in Alabama; his dad a pioneer star in local TV news; the GOP takeover of the South; George Wallace; the Nation of Islam and AIDS; GOP fusionism in the Cold War; Mickey Kaus' courage; David Brock's war on the Clintons; Bill's triangulation and the DLC; Vince Foster; Lewinsky and impeachment; Ken Starr; Iraq and WMD; covering Dubya for National Review; that mag marginalized since Trump; Birtherism and demonizing Obama; McCain and the market crash; Obamacare; the Santorum candidacy; Pat Buchanan; Trump vs Jeb on 9/11; Trump blowing up GOP orthodoxies; Hillary in 2016; Russiagate; pardoning all January 6-ers; Trump's impeachments and McConnell; open borders under Biden; CHIPS and IRA; Trump hypocrisy on E-Verify; authoritarianism and self-deportation; Tom Homan; Bukele; the Alien Enemies Act; the SCOTUS standoff; judge shopping; DEI; Musk and DOGE; USAID and PEPFAR; Zelensky in the Oval; NATO; Chris Krebs; the tariff war; Trump's yips; and the looming empty shelves.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Claire Lehmann on the woke right, David Graham on Project 2025, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on the Biden years, Robert Merry on President McKinley, Sam Tanenhaus on Bill Buckley, Walter Isaacson on Ben Franklin, and Paul Elie on his book The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

Pico Iyer, essayist and author of numerous books including  “The Half Known Life:In Search of Paradise ” and most recently  “Aflame: Learning from Silence,” reflects on the death of Pope Francis and highlights the extraordinary impact Pope Francis’s life had, despite Iyer’s non-Christian faith. Pope Francis’s humility, simplicity, and actions, Iyer says, which exemplified his teachings had and continue to have a great impacted over Iyer’s spiritual life.  Paul Elie, religion scholar with the Berkley Center at Georgetown University, and author of “The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s”  shares his first hand impressions of meeting Pope Francis and particularly how humble and unpretentious the Pope was.  Elie says some of Pope Francis’s early experiences growing up in Argentina shaped his more progressive world views and reflects on the legacy that Pope Francis leaves behind on the world and on the Catholic Church.         Guests: Pico Iyer  Travel writer and author of Aflame: Learning from Silence, The Art of Stillness : Adventures in Going Nowhere, and, Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells, “The Half Known Life:In Search of Paradise ”   Paul Elie  Senior Fellow with the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, and author of “The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s” May 27, 2025       

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comFrances Lee is Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton, and her books include The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Age. Steve Macedo —an old friend from Harvard — is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton, and his books include Just Married: Same-Sex Couples, Monogamy, and the Future of Marriage. The book they just co-wrote is called In Covid's Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us.For two clips of our convo — on the demonization of dissent during Covid, and where the right went wrong on the pandemic — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: Frances raised in the Deep South; Steve from a family of educators in Massachusetts; his Jesuit schooling as a gay Catholic; how both were natural contrarians; the pre-pandemic plans for Covid; their personal reactions to the outbreak; the emergency after 9/11; the Spanish flu; the cost/benefit of lockdowns; the different reactions in red and blue states; the Sweden model; the trillions of dollars in Covid relief; Fauci's appeal to authority; Partygate and Newsom's French Laundry; the remote work enjoyed by elites; how blue-collar workers bore the brunt; the generational injustice suffered by kids; Operation Warp Speed; the early myths of the vaccine; the Ptown vaccinated outbreak; censorship on social media; the moralizing of the MSM; the public-health hypocrisy on BLM protests; the mask mandates after the vaccines; how boosters weren't backed by good evidence; the Great Barrington Declaration; the Ebright testimony; the “Proximal Origin” paper; gain of function and the short-lived moratorium; the illiberal mistakes of Francis Collins; addressing his claims on lab leak; and the alarming current risks of viral escape.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Byron York on Trump 2.0, Claire Lehmann on the woke right, Robert Merry on President McKinley, Sam Tanenhaus on Bill Buckley, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on the Biden years, and Paul Elie on his book The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

Paul Elie, who writes about the Catholic Church for The New Yorker, joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the life and legacy of Pope Francis, his feuds with traditionalist Church figures and right-wing political leaders, and what to expect from the upcoming papal conclave to determine his successor. This week's reading: “The Down-to-Earth Pope,” by Paul Elie “Pope Francis's Tangled Relationship with Argentina,” by Graciela Mochkofsky “The Mexican President Who's Facing Off with Trump,” by Stephania Taladrid “The Cost of Defunding Harvard,” by Atul Gawande “The Supreme Court Finally Takes On Trump,” by Ruth Marcus  Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comFrancis is a physician and geneticist whose work has led to the discovery of the cause of cystic fibrosis, among other diseases. In 1993 he was appointed director of the Human Genome Project, which successfully sequenced all three billion letters of our DNA. He went on to serve three presidents as the director of the National Institutes of Health. The author of many books, including The Language of God, his latest is The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust.Our conversation was entirely agreeable until we talked about trust, and his own handling of the Covid epidemic. I asked him in depth about the lab-leak theory and why he and Tony Fauci passionately dismissed it from the get-go, even as it now appears to be the likeliest source of the terrible virus. Things got intense.For two clips of our convo — intense debate on the “Proximal Origin” paper outright denying a lab leak as the source of Covid-19, and Francis finding God after decades of atheism — pop over to our YouTube page.Other topics: growing up on a rustic farm in Shenandoah; his parents creating a community theater; homeschooled until 6th grade; his amazing scientific accomplishments as a young adult; his scientism; his terminally ill Christian patients; the AIDS crisis; C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity; the First Mover question; Ross Douthat and “fine-tuning”; the multiverse; the limits to the materialist view; deism; cradle believers vs converts; evolution and sacrificial altruism; Socrates; Jesus dying for our sins; the doubting Thomas; how angels manifest; Francis Bacon; Richard Dawkins; being the NIH director during Covid; trust and mistrust in science; the early confusion in pandemics; tribalism; dismal safety standards at the Wuhan lab; gain-of-function; EcoHealth and Peter Daszak; intel agencies on lab leak; furin cleavage sites; Kristian Andersen; geopolitical fears over Trump and China; the opacity of the CCP; the Great Barrington Declaration; Trump threatening science funding at the Ivies; In Covid's Wake; and if Francis has any regrets after Covid.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Claire Lehmann on the woke right, Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee on Covid's political fallout, Byron York on Trump 2.0, Robert Merry on President McKinley, Sam Tanenhaus on Bill Buckley, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on the Biden years, and Paul Elie on his book The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comEvan is an attorney and gay rights pioneer. He founded and led Freedom to Marry — the campaign to win marriage until victory at the Supreme Court in 2015, after which he then wound down the organization. During those days he wrote the book Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry. Today he “advises and assists diverse organizations, movements, and countries in adapting the lessons on how to win to other important causes.” We became friends in the 90s as we jointly campaigned for what was then a highly unpopular idea.For two clips of our convo — on the early, fierce resistance to gay marriage by gay activists, and the “tectonic” breakthrough in Hawaii — pop over to our YouTube page.Other topics: raised in Pittsburgh by a pediatrician and a social worker; being a natural leader in high school; his awakening as a gay kid; the huge influence of John Boswell on both of us; working at Lambda Legal; Peace Corps in West Africa; a prosecutor in Brooklyn; the AIDS crisis; coalition building; engaging hostile critics; Peter Tatchell; lesbian support over kids; the ACLU's Dan Foley; Judge Chang in Hawaii; Clinton and DOMA; Bush and the Federal Marriage Amendment; the federalist approach and Barney Frank; Prop 8; the LDS self-correcting on gays; the huge swing in public support; Obama not endorsing marriage in 2008; Obergefell and Kennedy's dignitas; Trump removing the GOP's anti-marriage plank; Bostock; dissent demonized within the gay community; the Respect for Marriage Act; and Evan and me debating the transqueer backlash.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Claire Lehmann on the success of Quillette, Francis Collins on faith and science and Covid, Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee on Covid's political fallout, Sam Tanenhaus on Bill Buckley, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on the Biden years, and Paul Elie on his book The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comDouglas is a writer and commentator. He's an associate editor at The Spectator and a columnist for both the New York Post and The Sun, as well as a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. His books include The Madness of Crowds and The War on the West, which we discussed on the Dishcast three years ago. His new book is On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization. We had a lively, sometimes contentious session — first on Trump, then on Israel's tactics in Gaza.This episode and a forthcoming one with Francis Collins were challenges. How to push back against someone who is your guest? I never wanted the Dishcast to be an interrogation, an Andrew Neil-style interview. But I also wanted it to air debate, so I try to play devil's advocate when appropriate. I'm sure you'll let me know how I'm doing after this one.For two clips of our convo — on Palestinians “endlessly rejecting peace,” and debating the Khalil case — pop over to our YouTube page.Other topics: the pros and cons of Trump 2.0 for Douglas; his time on the frontlines in Ukraine; the “horrifying” WH meeting with Zelensky; mineral reparations; North Korean conscripts; aggressing Greenland; Blame Canada; the Signal chat; Vance's disdain for Europe; the Houthis; MAGA isolationists; targeting law firms; race and sex discrimination under Biden; Trump defunding the Ivies; anti-Semitism on campus; the Columbia protests and criminality; the Alien Enemies Act and the 1952 law; the Ozturk case; the horrors of 10/7; Hezbollah's aborted invasion; the bombing of Gaza; human shields; dead children; hostages like Edan Alexander; Gazan protests against Hamas; the Israeli dentist who saved Sinwar's life; 9/11 and religious extremism; the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza; Ben-Gurion; Zionism; pogroms in the wake of 1948; audio clips of Hitchens and Bill Burr; the view that only Jews can protect Jews; Rushdie; the hearts and minds of Gazans; John Spencer; just war theory; Trump's Mar-a-Gaza; the West Bank settlements; ethnic cleansing; Smotrich; and the fate of a two-state solution after 10/7.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Claire Lehmann on the success of Quillette, Evan Wolfson on the history of marriage equality, Francis Collins on faith and science and Covid, Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee on Covid's political fallout, and Paul Elie on his book The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comNick is an entrepreneur and journalist. He was the founder of Gawker Media, the publisher of Gizmodo, and the editor of Valleywag. He began his career as a journalist with the Financial Times — as a derivatives and tech correspondent — and later founded a Silicon Valley news aggregator called Moreover Technologies. He's now working on Maze.com, which hosts a network map of near-future timelines.For two clips of our convo — on the growing global dominance of China, and the Chinese outcompeting Elon Musk — pop over to our YouTube page.Other topics: raised in Hampstead in the lower-middle class; a Jewish mom who fled the Communists in Hungary; growing up on sci-fi; Asimov's Foundation; attending Oxford like his father; game theory; being a young reporter in London, Hungary, Romania, and Singapore; pioneering the internet in the ‘90s; Foundation parallels with Singapore; Lee Kuan Yew; Chinese pragmatism; Taiwan; EVs in China; Musk's companies; tech theft between the US and China; DOGE and Trump reigning in Musk; Peter Thiel; Andy Grove; Uber's Travis Kalanick; Kara Swisher; Oculus' Palmer Luckey; how Silicon Valley is PR obsessed; Zuckerberg; David Sacks and crypto; Andreessen; drones; Ukraine; Thatcher; housing crisis in the UK; Orbán; the German Greens; Russian expansionism; the Poles and nukes; Trump's tariffs; Tucker's interview with Putin; the growing US-Europe rift; Greenland; AI and DeepSeek; and Nick's predictions as a futurist.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Douglas Murray on Israel and Gaza, Evan Wolfson on the history of marriage equality, Francis Collins on faith and science and Covid, Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee on Covid's fallout, and Paul Elie on his book The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

Did Pope Francis really tell Ukraine's leaders to hoist "the white flag" — ending a war that Russia began two years ago? Also, the Pope has upset Israel's government in its diplomatic efforts.

Why has Pope Francis triggered anger in Ukraine and Israel? Plus, Putin's unlikely admirers.

Last month's Synod on Synodality in Rome is perhaps one of the most important ecclesial gatherings to take place since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. But what exactly happened remains unclear.  On this episode, Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi is joined by two experts on Vatican affairs to help explain and contextualize the synod's work.  Paul Elie is a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Berkley Center and a regular contributor to Commonweal and the New Yorker, which sent him to Rome for a week to report on the synod.  Anna Rowlands, Professor of Catholic Social Thought at Durham University in the United Kingdom, helped draft the synod's working documents and served as an observer and expert theological advisor in the synod hall.  For further reading: Austen Ivereigh's report from Rome  Massimo Faggioli's analysis of the synod Commonweal's collection of recent articles on the synod

The pontificate of Pope Francis, which just reached its tenth year, has brought a greater willingness to engage with modern issues. Francis has addressed Catholics on the climate emergency, arguing a religious position against consumerism and irresponsible development. Without changing the Church's doctrines, he struck a very different tone than his predecessors Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI on the inclusion of gay people and the involvement of women in Church leadership. The traditionalist reaction against Francis has also been unprecedented, with prominent figures in the Church openly seeking to discredit him. The New Yorker contributor Paul Elie, who recently wrote about this decade of Francis's leadership, explores how tensions in the Church were overtaken by an American-style culture war. Elie speaks with Bishop Frank Caggiano, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and M. Cathleen Kaveny, a prominent law professor and theologian at Boston College. “For John Paul,” Kaveny says, “the main challenge that the faith faced was moral relativism. The conservatives . . . are worried that [moral relativism] is not appreciated by Pope Francis.”

Pope Francis, in a wide-ranging interview with the Associated Press, spoke at length about his health, his critics and the future of the papacy. Most notably, he called laws criminalizing homosexuality fundamentally unjust and said being homosexual is not a crime. Paul Elie of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs joined Geoff Bennett to discuss the pope's interview. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Paul Elie is the author of two big books; The Life You Save May Be Your Own and Reinventing Bach.  The Life You Save May Be Your Own focuses on the lives of, and relationships between, four mid-twentieth century Catholic writers, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Flannery O'Connor and Walker Percy. Reinventing Bach tells the story of the life and music of the famed composer through the particular ways in which his music has been interpreted and recorded by well-known musicians of the twentieth century.  I spoke with Paul about writing about the lives and work of others, the spiritual aspect of Bach's music, and his time as an editor at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. 

Lately you may have heard about Pope Francis taking some heat for not being more severe and explicit with Vladimir Putin in denouncing Russian aggression against Ukraine. Yesterday evening I was taking a walk in my neighborhood listening to a recent episode of The Commonweal Podcast. And in it, New Yorker staff writer Paul Elie points out that as we wait to see how the pope and other church leaders will respond to this situation in Ukraine, we are also in a time when so many things about the papacy, church leadership, how they function on the world stage is unprecedented. Whatever's happened in the past, we really don't know what's possible now in terms of Christian witness and hope. Pretty good stuff to ponder in time for the Lambeth Conference. Pope Francis has undoubtedly been addressing some of the biggest issues of our time in some very public ways, notably with Laudato Si' and Fratelli Tutti, and today we're getting an inside look into the "What now?", into how the Vatican is addressing this big vision for human flourishing, in cooperation with other Christians. For this insider look I had the pleasure of chatting with Alessio Pecorario. Alessio is the Coordinator of the Security Task Force of the Vatican COVID-19 Commission and a senior official of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, which includes many areas of dialogue and oversight. We discuss the importance of Christian witness in this moment, Christian unity even amid disagreement, Anglican vocations to unity and dialogue dovetailing with Catholic gifts, and the gift of the papacy to strengthen the influence of positive Christian leadership worldwide. Now before I let you go here, I've been meaning to ask you, dear listener, for feedback about the podcast. How do you like it these days? This show is for invested Christian leaders like you. So what would you like to hear more of? What are you appreciating? What would you like from this that you don't currently have? If you have a comment or an idea, email me at ambernoel@livingchurch.org. I would love to hear from you. And as always, if you enjoy the podcast, if you enjoy this episode, send it along to a friend. And now, let's head to the heart of Rome, for a listening session on Christian leadership and care for our world. We hope you enjoy the conversation. Learn more about the Laudato Si' Action Platform. Get the Early Bird Discount for Love's Redeeming Work. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/living-church/support

While the humanitarian costs of Russia's invasion of Ukraine continue to make headlines, the war also reveals contemporary religious concerns around global Orthodoxy and Vatican diplomacy.   On this episode, we speak with two guests: George Demacopoulos, professor of Orthodox Christian Studies at Fordham University, and Paul Elie, New Yorker staff writer and longtime Commonweal contributor. Demacopoulos frames the fiery rhetoric of Moscow's Patriarch Kirill, who has called the invasion a “holy war,” while Elie takes Pope Francis to task for not denouncing Vladimir Putin more forcefully.  For further reading: ‘From Complacency to Clear Condemnation,' George Demacopoulos ‘The Pope, the Patriarchs, and the Battle to Save Ukraine,' Paul Elie in the New Yorker ‘Clarity & Consequences,' The Editors

The November issue of Commonweal featured a special package of stories on Catholic religious communities in the broadest sense of the term, including religious orders, secular institutes, lay ecclesial movements, pious houses, and houses of hospitality. Despite the variety of communities surveyed, some key themes emerged: the difficulty of adapting to new circumstances, the relationship of community to place, and a sense of hope in the face of precariousness and uncertainty. On this special podcast episode, we're joined by editors and writers—including Paul Elie and Kaya Oakes—who helped put that issue together.

Three months into the Biden presidency, with pandemic restrictions at last beginning to ease, author and New Yorker contributor Paul Elie joins us to talk about the state of American Catholicism today. In conversation with editor Dominic Preziosi, Elie addresses Joe Biden's political strategy, the Church's stance on LGBT unions and women's ordination, and the legacy of the abuse crisis. He also highlights the enduring resilience of lay Catholics, who continue to live out their faith in changing and challenging circumstances. For further reading: -      Is the Vatican Finally Ready to Get Serious About Women in the Church?   -      The Vatican's Giant Step Backward on Same-Sex Unions -      Can Joe Biden Save American Catholicism from the Far Right?

Joe Biden is only the second Catholic out of forty-six Presidents. Paul Elie, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, considers whether that faith may shape Biden’s policies or his leadership. Elie points out that, though prominent Catholics in government, such as William Barr or Amy Coney Barrett, are associated with groups that oppose modern reforms in the Church, Biden aligns with Pope Francis’s “openness, his informality, his flexibility, his confidence that Catholicism is relevant and lack of anxiety about its place in any culture war.” After decades of sex-abuse scandals in the Church, Elie believes that many Catholic voters “are yearning for some good news,” and that Biden, though not in the Church hierarchy, “suggest[s] that there is some moral authority left in this tradition.”  

The North Carolina pastor William Barber, who spoke at the inaugural prayer service at the start of the Biden Administration, wants politics to be guided by faith and morality. But conservatives, Barber thinks, are deeply confused about Christ’s teachings. Then Paul Elie considers Biden as only the second Catholic President. Elie thinks that Catholics demoralized by decades of the Church’s abuse scandals are welcoming Biden as a “moral authority” outside the religious hierarchy.

Y’all might have to down some redbull (+ vodka) to keep up with vanilla suit connoisseur Tom Wolfe and his eighties brick, The Bonfire of the Vanities. It is, let’s say, equal parts energetic and problematic. We get into why, then do a juicy dive on the misguided movie adaptation starring, bewilderingly, Tom Hanks. Books mentioned: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, A Man in Full & I Am Charlotte Simmons, Tom Wolfe; Furious Hours, Casey Cep; Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, Laura Hillenbrand; I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara; The Devil’s Candy, Julie Salamon. A bonfire of sources: Tom Wolfe Obit (NYT) Retrospective on BoV (NYT) Wolfe on Fresh Air (NPR) Joseph Epstein on BoV (New Criterion) Louis Menand, Adam Gopnik and Paul Elie on Wolfe (New Yorker) BoV Movie Trailer Piece on The Devil’s Candy (LA Times) As always, Patricia Lockwood on Updike (LRB) Chuckle-slinger

Amy Alznauer is a polymath: she is a writer, arts collaborator, and an instructor of calculus and number theory at Northwestern University. Amy and Elise’s conversation touches on all of these things. Amy tells us about why she started writing picture-book biographies and what the genius of childhood can teach grown-up readers. She and Elise dive into Flannery O’Connor’s unpublished early novel, the grief that motivated O’Connor’s writing, and the recent controversy surrounding a New Yorker piece on O’Connor and racism. They wrap up the conversation by investigating what makes infinity simultaneously compelling and terrifying and the relationship between math and love.   Publishing in a pandemic   The work of imagination in biography writing   Reinvestigating childhood books   Grief, staring, and the grotesque in the work of Flannery O’Connor   Flannery O’Connor and racism   The difference between moral vision and piety   Thinking about the infinite   Mathematics and love   Links: Betsy Bird Blog Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell  The Strange Birds of Flannery O’Connor by Amy Alznauer The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity by Amy Alznauer The Zhou Brothers: A Story of Revolution and Art by Amy Alznauer Srinivasa Ramanujan Mystery and Manners by Flannery O’Connor (includes the essay “The King of the Birds”) “On Flannery O’Connor and Race: A Response to Paul Elie” by Amy Alznauer “How Racist Was Flannery O’Connor?” by Paul Elie “This Lonesome Place” by Hilton Als “A South Without Myths” by Alice Walker Benny Andrews illustrations and afterword for “Everything That Rises Must Converge” Benny Andrews website "The Site of Memory," essay by Toni Morrison, anthologized in The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations Radical Ambivalence by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell

On the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, we explore how the United States is engaged in a new and potentially cataclysmic nuclear arms race. Despite the tremendous financial, environmental and human costs, this new nuclear arms race has largely gone unnoticed by the public. Since the nuclear arms race of the 1980s, members of the Plowshares movement have engaged in a bold acts of civil disobedience in an effort to break through the malaise and to protest the United States' preparations for omnicide—the death of everything. On April 4, 2018, seven Plowshares activists infiltrated the Kings Bay Naval Base in St. Mary's, Georgia, the largest nuclear submarine base in the world, containing six Trident submarines, each capable of holding 200 nuclear warheads. Some of the peace activists strung up crime scene tape and hung protest banners that read “The Ultimate Logic of Trident is Omnicide.” Others symbolically disarmed the deadly arsenal by pouring their own blood around the base and using hammers to beat full-scale replicas of the Trident missiles, a reference to a verse in the book of Isaiah that calls on nations to “beat swords into plowshares." In this week's episode, host Jonathan Michels talks with one of the members of the Kings Bay Plowshares Seven, Patrick O'Neill, about the Plowshares action and its impact on the movement to abolish nuclear weapons. O'Neill is a longtime peace and anti-racist activist and a co-founder of the Fr. Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House in Garner, North Carolina. For a transcription of this episode, please click here. Show notes: Kings Bay Plowshares 7 website for more information about the action and the trial “The New Nuclear Threat” by Jessica T. Matthews “The Pope and Catholic Radicals Come Together Against Nuclear Weapons” by Paul Elie

In this episode, Paul+Elie talk about how to reconnect with your S/O, what their favourite candy is among other favourite things, a new love battle to fight for and a couple of marriage myths to boot! For more questions to ask your spouse check out acouplethat Pinterest board Questions for Curious Couples Thank you for listening, Please remember to rate + review our podcast! Where you can hear us: anchor.fm/acouplethat or any other podcast app Where you can see us: @_acouplethat Where you can see our favourite things: Pinterest board Where you can commune with us: #acouplethat website Where you can ask us anything: acouplethat@gmail.com Songs are created by Podington Bear aka Chad Crouch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/acouplethat/message

In this episode, Paul + Elie take a break from the crazy world we live in to dream about better days. Relax with them as they take you away from the stuck-at-home blues of today and walk you through how to envision your future coupledom dream life - when COVID-19 is behind us all. Thank you for listening, Please remember to rate + review our podcast! If you love us, tell other people why. If you hate us, tell us why. Where you can hear us: anchor.fm/acouplethat or any other podcast app Where you can see us: @_acouplethat Where you can commune with us: #acouplethat website Where you can ask us anything: acouplethat@gmail.com Songs are created by Podington Bear aka Chad Crouch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/acouplethat/message

Paul Elie is the author of The Life You Save May Be Your Own, Reinventing Bach and is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. As part of our celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day we invited Paul Elie to trace the literary history of the environmental movement from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring to Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment. Though the plight of the Earth has become a fixture of collective consciousness, he asks if we will live up to the promise of unified action on behalf of the Earth.

Paul + Elie interview their very first couple - Billy + Brittany! An everyday couple who talk about dating apps, the thermostat argument, travelling to portugal,  wearing shorts on your first date and a lovely story about typewriters. Where you can hear us: anchor.fm/acouplethat or any other podcast app  Where you can see us: @_acouplethat   Where you can commune with us: #acouplethat website   Where you can ask us anything: acouplethat@gmail.com   Songs are created by Podington Bear aka Chad Crouch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/acouplethat/message

This lecture by Prof. Paul Elie (Georgetown) was given as part of "The Moral Imagination of the Novel", a conference held at Columbia University on 4-5 October 2019.The conference was co-hosted by the Morningside Institute, Columbia University's Department of Philosophy, and the Thomistic Institute. The program included lectures by Lauren Kopajtic (Fordham), Dhananjay Jagannathan (Columbia), Sr. Ann Astell ( Notre Dame), and Thomas Pavel (Chicago).For more information about this and other events, please visit MorningsideInstitute.org.

This lecture was given as part of "The Moral Imagination of the Novel: A Conference" held at Columbia University on 4-5 October 2019. The conference included lectures by Paul Elie (Georgetown), Lauren Kopajtic (Fordham), Dhananjay Jagannathan (Columbia), Sr. Ann Astell (Notre Dame), and Thomas Pavel (Chicago). For more information on this and other events go to thomisticinstitute.org/events-1

A couple that randomly answers questions, can sometimes get into trouble. This week Paul & Elie tackle random questions related to porn, the preteen boy meanies, and being a sucky boyfriend.  Also we introduce another segment LOVE BATTLES! Send in your love little quarrels that are unsolvable and we shall get our listening friends to vote who is more correct...because that always ends well XD. Where you can hear us: anchor.fm/acouplethat We are also on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, Pocketcasts, RadioPublic, Overcast and Apple Podcasts.  Where you can see us: @_acouplethat Where you can commune with us: #acouplethat website Where you can ask us anything: acouplethat@gmail.com Songs are created by:  Podington Bear aka Chad Crouch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/acouplethat/message

A couple that goes under construction together...smashes things together! In this episode Paul & Elie talk about renovations - specifically the demolition portion. Listen in while they answer questions like should you hire a contractor or diy it? or when is the best time to start renovating? or what do you do when you throw a demolition party!   All of these buring questions get answered and more! They also dive in to the big dangerous (or not) mold debate!  Where you can hear us: anchor.fm/acouplethat We are also on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, Pocketcasts, RadioPublic, Overcast and Apple Podcasts.  Where you can see us: @_acouplethat Where you can commune with us: #acouplethat website Where you can ask us anything: acouplethat@gmail.com Songs are created by:  Podington Bear aka Chad Crouch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/acouplethat/message

A couple that deals with a stalker together will always have each others back! This week Paul & Elie attempt to define what a stalker is and how to handle one as a couple. Where you can hear us: anchor.fm/acouplethat We are also on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, Pocketcasts, RadioPublic, Overcast and Apple Podcasts.  Where you can see us: @_acouplethat Where you can commune with us: #acouplethat website Where you can ask us anything: acouplethat@gmail.com Songs are created by:  Podington Bear aka Chad Crouch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/acouplethat/message

A couple that celebrates love together should do so anytime they want! This week Paul & Elie attempt to explain what St.Valentine's Day should be all about. They try to make their own holiday about love and answer a few questions from yahoo answers. Where you can hear us: anchor.fm/acouplethat We are also on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, Pocketcasts, RadioPublic, Overcast and Apple Podcasts.  Where you can see us: @_acouplethat Where you can commune with us: #acouplethat website Where you can ask us anything: acouplethat@gmail.com Songs are created by:  Podington Bear aka Chad Crouch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/acouplethat/message

A couple that takes a marriage course together learns to communicate better! This week Paul & Elie tackle the age old question, what do you do when the fighting gets so bad you can't feel the love tonight...or at all. Paul gets a little too excited with his dad jokes.     Where you can hear us: anchor.fm/acouplethat We are also on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, Pocketcasts, RadioPublic, Overcast and Apple Podcasts.  Where you can see us: @_acouplethat Where you can commune with us: #acouplethat website Where you can ask us anything: acouplethat@gmail.com Songs are created by:  Podington Bear aka Chad Crouch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/acouplethat/message

Struck by the thought that the Catholic Church and the natural world have traded places as sources of transcendence, Paul Elie wonders how religion and the natural world might come together for shared renewal. Paul is the author of the award-winning book, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker.

A couple that takes a character quiz together learns more about each other! This week Paul & Elie take the 4 tendencies quiz by @gretchenrubin to help understand why Paul gets so grumpy when he doesn't get to do what he wants and why Elie refuses to put away the dishes sometimes.    Where you can hear us: anchor.fm/acouplethat We are also on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, Pocketcasts & RadioPublic.  Where you can see us: @_acouplethat Where you can commune with us: #acouplethat website Where you can ask us anything: acouplethat@gmail.com Songs are created by:  Podington Bear aka Chad Crouch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/acouplethat/message

March 20, 2018 | In this Faith and Culture series conversation, author and series moderator Paul Elie invites acclaimed novelist Jonathan Franzen to carry forward a conversation they began two decades ago, before the 2001 publication of Franzen's novel The Corrections, winner of the National Book Award in fiction and a worldwide bestseller. They will discuss fiction, contemporary affairs, and the religious imagination as they explore Franzen's most recent works—the novel Purity and the essay collection Farther Away.

In this archived version of the Public Morality, Paul Elie discusses theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and Dan Knight joins us to talk about Duke Ellington.

October 26, 2017 | Pulitzer Prize winner and U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith was raised in a Baptist household, and her mother's devout faith shaped her sense of self, language, life, health, and the past. Her childhood experiences are the inspiration for much of her work, which has received national acclaim. In this Faith and Culture series conversation, author and series moderator Paul Elie will invite Smith to talk about her poetry; her searching memoir, Ordinary Light (2015); and her forthcoming book, Wade in the Water (2018). They will explore the role a religious sensibility plays in her work and discuss the challenge of communicating home truths to future generations.

April 22, 2013 | In this seventh event in Georgetown's Faith & Culture series, novelist Alice McDermott discussed her body of work, its sources in her Catholic faith and in the modern literary tradition, and her forthcoming novel, Someone. The Berkley Center's Paul Elie lead the conversation. Alice McDermott is an award-winning author and the Richard A. Macksey Professor for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities at John Hopkins University. Her novels include: A Bigamist's Daughter (1982), That Night (1987), At Weddings and Wakes (1992), Charming Billy (1998), Child of My Heart (2002), and After This (2006). Her seventh novel, Someone, will be published in September. Paul Elie is a senior fellow at the Berkley Center and the moderator of the university's Faith & Culture lecture series, sponsored by the Office of the President. He is the author of two books: The Life You Save May Be Your Own (2003), a group portrait of four American Catholic writers, and Reinventing Bach (2012), an account of the transformation of Bach's music in our time by great musicians working with new technology. Both books were National Book Critics Circle Award finalists.

November 11, 2015 | In their standout new book The Fellowship, Philip and Carol Zaleski tell the story of the lively group of English friends and writers whose members produced The Hobbit, Mere Christianity, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and other great works at the intersection of literature and religious belief. The Zaleskis will share excerpts from the book and engage in a discussion with author and Berkley Center senior fellow Paul Elie, who arranged the book’s publication.

We speak with author and Georgetown fellow Paul Elie about the legacy of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. After that, renowned musician and music professor, Dan Knights stops by to discuss Duke Ellington.

The writers Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy, social activist Dorothy Day, and the Trappist monk Thomas Merton — all four shared a complex Catholic faith. Paul Elie takes us on a kind of literary pilgrimage through a Catholic imagination that still resonates in our time.

Paul Elie is a senior fellow with the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the director of the American Pilgrimage Project. His books include “The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage” and “Reinventing Bach.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Paul Elie — Faith Fired by Literature.” Find more at onbeing.org.

We explore the ideas and present-day relevance of 20th century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, an influential, boundary-crossing voice in American public life. Niebuhr created the term “Christian realism:” a middle path between religious idealism and arrogance. Exploring his wide appeal, three distinctive voices describe Niebuhr’s legacy and ask what insights he brings to the political and religious dynamics of the early 21st century.