The Magnificast

This week, we're locking in and answering all of the hottest questions from the internet about Christianity. In this episode, we talk about walking into a Catholic Church, gaseous Jesus, Nudist Episcopalianism, Scotland, and chicken fossils.  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Supp...

When it comes to climate change and mitigation, some have suggested that we harness the power of capitalist growth and use it for something useful like green energy. But, there are some problems baked into capitalism about why that won't work. Listen in and learn all about why. Here are the books we mentioned in the ep.  Brett Christophers - The Price is Wrong -  https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/p...

Over the past few weeks, Trump's mass deportations have started and everyone's least favorite Catholic convert, JD Vance, has tried to add the intellectual weight of Catholic social teaching to defend it. In response, Pope Francis wrote a subtle reply to Vance. Tune in this week and learn more! Also, read Jim Hodgson's blog on USAID here: https://unwrappingdevelopment.ca/2025/02/09/dismantling-usa...

With Trump back in the White House, Threatening to ramp up the genocide against Palestinian people, it's a good time to revisit the conversation we had with Jonathan Kuttab. To talk about solidarity with Palestine we brought on Jonathan Kuttab, the director of Friends of Sabeel North America, to tell us about Palestinian Liberation Theology, the horrors of Israel's apartheid, and what the good new...

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, we're bringing you an episode from the archive!  We're always talking up a storm about Ernesto Cardenal, but this time around we're talking with Stephen Henighan, a real scholar on Latin American literature! In this episode, we learn more about Cardenal's background, influences, and his lasting impact on the politics of Nicaragua. 

This week, we chatted with a friend of the show, Jim Hodgson, about Biden removing Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Unfortunately, since we recorded this Trump has rescinded that decision and we're right back where we started. It's still a worthwhile conversation! Get more from Jim at his blog: https://unwrappingdevelopment.ca/ Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by theillo...

Last week we talked about the GDP and growth and that was fun. But, this week, we're taking things a bit further by talking about monopoly capitalism, monopsony, and the financialization of capitalism. If you want to learn more about finance then look no further: https://monthlyreview.org/2010/10/01/the-financialization-of-accumulation/ https://monthlyreview.org/2010/10/01/the-great-financial-cris...

Capitalism can't work unless it's growing. How do economists measure capitalist growth? Through the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The GDP is a magical number that goes up and down, but do you know how it's calculated? Well, tune in and learn all about the GDP and why it sucks!  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up...

In the weird liminal space between Christmas and New Year's, your favorite leftist youth pastors are locking you in to talk about feeling bad for the devil, dinosaurs, bones, magic portals, and AI. Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues Support The Magnificast on Patreon http://patreon....

The Pope is opening the magic doors for the year of Jubilee! In this episode, we're talking about the 2025 year of Jubilee in the Catholic church. Of course, we're talking about the weird Catholic stuff in this episode, but we're also talking about the material side of the Jubilee and the campaign to forgive and restructure debt throughout the world.  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music b...

This week, we chat with, friend of the pod and Sojourners editor, Josiah Daniels about his recent trip to Palestine with Sabeel. Listen in as we talk about Palestinian resistance, liberation theology, and what it's like to be an American in Palestine at this moment in history. Read Josiah's piece about his trip in Sojourners . Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by theillogicalspoon https...

The last few weeks have been an advent calendar of wild stuff happening. This week, we're reflecting on the latest bit of news and discourse about the murder of the United Healthcare CEO and talking about how liberation theology helps us orient ourselves stopping and organizing against social murder. Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.band...

The rules-based international order is rigged in favor or the United States and other global north countries and it's only going to get worse. In this episode, we talk about the failures of liberalism and multilateralism during the Biden presidency and talk about the future of what solidarity looks like under new right-wing governments. In this episode, we reference Pope Francis' Laudate Deum ( ht...

Folks, we're back. As a disclaimer, the first 6 or so minutes of the podcast is Dean giving an update on his second trip to the bone church in Rome. So, if you're not an enjoyer of bones and crypts smash that fast forward button! After that we talk about John Pavlovitz, Christianity, liberalism, and what it is liberals even want out of their politics.  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music...

While Dean is traveling, enjoy this episode from 2021!  When it comes to Christianity and politics everyone loves to talk about the "political imaginary." This week we're going to talk through the political imaginary and what it's all about! To do that, we read a really fascinating article called Bhima Koregaon and the “Powers of the Other Shore by Saroj Giri you can read the article here: https:/...

Folks, the US election just wrapped and we're here to report that we've got four more years of crab season. There's no escaping it! In this episode, we snap our claws, blow some bubbles, and scuttle around while we chat about the election results and all of the stuff we're not looking forward to. Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp...

It's Election Day, so we're giving you an old episode. We hope everyone has fun out there. Liberation theology is cool! But, what about theology done from inside revolutionary contexts like Cuba? This week we're discussing Cuban theologian Sergio Arce Martinez and his book The Church and Socialism. You can check out his book here on archive.org. What's interesting about Arce's work is that rather...

This week on the pod, we're remembering Liberation Theologian, Gustavo Gutiérrez, by chatting about his life and his work. In the episode, we talk about his impact on Catholicism and just why he was controversial. Then, we talk about Gutiérrez' thoughts on poverty and solidarity Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-u...

Matt and Dean spent some time in Rome last week and this week we're reflecting on our trip to the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Capuchins, a church with a crypt full of the skeletons of 3,000+ Capuchin monks in it. In the episode we reflect on the bones, death, Jean Bone-drillard, how weird tourism is, and what's going on in the gift shop.  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music...

This past week, friend of the pod, Greg Hillis passed away. Greg was a great scholar and wrote a fantastic book on Thomas Merton called Man of Dialogue: Thomas Merton's Catholic Vision. Back in 2019 we talked with him about his book. Tune in and celebrate Greg with us. You can get Greg's book here: https://litpress.org/Products/8460/Man-of-Dialogue?srsltid=AfmBOopqHnBJy3UDYkI9esGMSr8Wp5uait3kASHrr...

This week, Matt and Dean are geographically together in Scotland. To mark the occasion, they finally get to the bottom of what happens to your body when you're resurrected. Get excited to find out what happens. Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon  https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Support The Magnificast on Patreon...

This week, Dean is preparing for his big European adventure, so we're taking it easy with another episode of the Magnificast Lockin. If you don't know, the magnificast lockin takes place in an alternate reality, where we're your youth pastors and we're answering pressing spiritual questions. We also talk a bit about climate change and the ghosts of popes past. 

It's crab season, folks. We're here giving your our crabbiest takes about Christians for Kamala and the ways evangelicals and mainline Christians are engaging with the presidential election. Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon  https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Support The Magnificast on Patreon*  http://patreon.co...

Dean is traveling this week, so here's one more from the archive. Dean should be back next week and we'll get things back on track.  Since we talked with Richard Gilman-Opalsky a few weeks ago, we've focused a bit on the idea of morality and communism as a relationship between people. To keep riding that theme, we talked with Taylor Genovese about his essay The Necessity of Communist Morality!  Yo...

Matt and Dean are traveling this week, so here's another one from the archives!  It's time for the second installment of our Monopoly Capital series. In this episode, we talk about the ways monopoly capital reabsorbs all of the surplus it produces in some incredibly frustrating ways!  Here's the MR article we mentioned in the show: https://monthlyreview.org/2016/07/01/surplus-absorption-and-waste-...