Jesuitical

This week, Zac and Ashley take you behind the scenes of Jesuitical in an exit interview with our amazing outgoing editor, Noah Levinson. Noah has been with the podcast since day one, and we could not be more grateful for everything he’s done for the show.  Our Guest: Noah Levinson, the outgoing audio editor extraordinaire of Jesuitical  Related Links:  Learn more about the Camphill Movement (Noah’...

This week, Zac and Ashley talk with Pete Davis about the case for putting down roots and committing—to a relationship, a job, a social cause—in a world that tells us to always keep our options open.  Our Guest: Pete Davis, author of Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an age of Infinite Browsing (out May 4) and co-founder of the Democracy Policy Network. Sings of the Times:  Who is Father Swamy,...

This week, Zac and Ashley discuss the spiritual and liturgical elements of protest movements with Nathan Schneider. Nathan wrote a feature article for America marking the 10-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street and Arab Spring protests, entitled, “Our world is ripe for revolution. 10 years after Occupy and the Arab Spring, what have we learned?” Our Guest: Nathan Schneider, a reporter and pr...

This week, Ashley and Zac discuss the intersection of Christian purity culture and racism with Flora X. Tang. Flora wrote a piece for America in the aftermath of the Atlanta killings of eight people, including six women of asian descent, entitled “Purity culture, racism and the violence against Asian women in Atlanta”.  Our Guest: Flora X. Tang, doctoral student in Theology and Peace Studies at th...

Stina Kielsmeier-Cook had a plan. Or more accurately, she thought God had a plan: She would marry her college sweetheart, and their shared love for Jesus and radical Christian commitment to serving the poor would anchor their marriage in something real and eternal.  But a couple of years into their marriage, her husband, Josh, lost his faith, and now Stina is navigating an increasingly common real...

Why does an all loving God allow evil and suffering in the world? The theodicy isn’t just a problem for popes and theologians—at some point in any believers life it’s a question that seizes and stops a prayer in the throat. Yet we try to offer inadequate answers all the time: God only gives us what we can handle. This is a test. Everything happens for a reason. Push any of these responses a bit, a...

Father Casey Cole, a Franciscan priest and popular YouTuber, has pulled off what few before him have: garnered a massive Catholic following while remaining faithful, truthful and, above all, charitable on social media. We talk to Father Casey about how he deals with internet toxicity, generational differences among Catholics and whether St. Francis would be on Twitter if he were alive today.  In S...

Will Arbery’s 2019 play “Heroes of the Fourth Turning” was praised by viewers from across the political spectrum for its nuanced depiction of Catholic conservatives in the Trump era. While Donald Trump is no longer in the White House (or on Twitter), 74 million Americans voted to give him a second term, and debates about how his supporters will affect the Republican Party and the country have only...

The numbers don’t lie: Young people are less religious than previous generations—at least in the ways we have traditionally understood that dynamic. But behind the numbers lies a fascinating web of stories about how young people find and discover meaning. One of the most important factors: relationships. We discuss a groundbreaking report, “The State of Religion & Young People 2020: Relational Aut...

One year into a global pandemic that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives and disrupted the routines and relationships of millions more, we would all do well to take a moment to take stock of where we are—mentally, physically, spiritually. Tracy G is here to help you do just that. A self-described “wellness artist” and host of the podcast “She’s Beauty & The Beast,” Tracy is overflowing with w...

Pete Holmes refers to Father Richard Rohr affectionately as “Richie.” Pete is a talented comedian, podcaster and television writer, and he’s also a deep admirer of the work of last week’s guest. We talked to Pete last summer about his memoir Comedy Sex God, and after our conversation with Father Richard last week, we were able to appreciate Pete’s story on a much deeper level. Thus, we’re bringing...

This week’s guest hardly needs an introduction. Father Richard Rohr is a Franciscan priest, the author of several well-known books on spirituality, including his latest The Universal Christ, and the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in New Mexico. In this wide-ranging interview, we talk to Father Richard about the difference between “Jesus” and “Christ,” the dangers of tribal reli...

Abortion “is not an argument anyone is going to win,” Caitlin Flanagan wrote in a December 2019 essay for The Atlantic. “The loudest advocates on both sides are terrible representatives for their cause.” Caitlin is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where she writes on politics and culture. She identifies as pro-choice. The hosts of this show identify as pro-life. But all of us yearn for a debate and...

Whether you are an agnostic seeker who’s curious about the whole “prayer” thing or a seasoned Catholic looking to deepen your relationship with God, James Martin, S.J., has a book for you—and everyone else. In his new book, Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone, Father Martin not only answers the question “Why pray?” and introduces readers to different types of prayer; he tackles what he consider...

Every year, tens of thousands of students, priests, sisters and pro-life activists gather in Washington, D.C., around the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade to witness against abortion. This year, the march looks different because of Covid-19. But it is also noteworthy for another reason: It is the first march of the “post-Trump era.”  Though he is no longer president, for...

On Wednesday, Jan. 20, Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, only the second Catholic ever to hold the office. Zac and Ashley are joined by Matt Malone, S.J., to discuss their reactions to President Biden’s inauguration—including the prayers offered by other Jesuits throughout the day. Father Malone is the editor in chief of America, worked in politics before joining t...

One of the most alarming aspects of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Trump was the prevalence of Christian symbols and language. That the cross and the name of Jesus were used to justify a violent attack on our nation’s democratic institutions shows just how far the Christian community has fallen short, according to this week’s guest, the Rev. Bryan Massingale: “We...

We don’t have to tell you that 2020 has been a really tough year. And yet we know that God is still with us, and we are still celebrating the birth of our savior on Christmas morning. To mark the coming of our Lord, we wanted to do something a little different on Jesuitical.  So, instead of covering the Catholic news of the week, we asked you, our listeners, to tell us where you found God in your...

We all need a laugh. 2020 has been an absolutely awful year (no citation needed). But is it O.K. for us to take a step back and laugh at it all? We bring on professional funny man and former professional Catholic, Greg Iwinksi, to discuss. Greg is an Emmy-nominated comedy writer and performer, and he currently writes for “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” He’s previously written for “The Late S...

“We’re all monks now” was an early refrain about life in coronavirus lockdown. Time slowed down as we kept to our houses and limited contact with family and friends. Of course, unlike monks, we also had Zoom calls and Netflix. Lots and lots of Netflix. So we wanted to talk to a monk and find out just how much our Covid quarantines resemble life in a monastery. Dom Benedict Nivakoff, O.S.B., is the...

This was bound to be an odd Advent. But as a lot of Catholics discovered during the odd Lent, Easter and Ordinary Time we experienced this year, there is also an invitation to develop new traditions and prayer practices. Our guest this week, Tsh Oxenreider, has been helping people connect in new ways and live more simply for a long time through her writing and podcasting. We talk to Tsh about her...

There are good writers, there are Catholic writers and then there are the Catholic literary greats like Flannery O’Connor, Cormac McCarthy, and to the surprise of some, Toni Morison. But what exactly makes their stories distinctly Catholic? And how do themes of incarnation, death and resurrection show up even while the artist has lapsed in their religious practice? Ashley and Zac settle in with th...

The release of the McCarrick report has once again brought the church’s sex abuse crisis back to the headlines—and once again Catholics are asking: What is the root cause? Clericalism, writes Sam Sawyer, S.J., a Jesuit priest and our colleague at America Media. While we may not know what drive any individual person to abuse, he believes the McCarrick report confirms that clericalism explains how T...

Choosing your health insurance, going to the doctor, paying unexpected medical bills: these are facts of life that no one would describe as fun. But on his podcast “An Arm and a Leg,” Dan Weissmann explores the U.S. health care system and its costs for consumers in an entertaining—and empowering—way. This week, we talk to Dan about how to hold your own when you are slapped with an exorbitant medic...

By the time you listen to this episode, we may already know who the 46th president of the United States will be. But whoever wins, there is one thing we can say with certainty now: We remain a divided country. So this week, we wanted to talk to someone who has been working across divisions for over a decade: Dr. Eboo Patel. In 2002, Eboo founded the Interfaith Youth Core, an organization that work...