Spe Salvi Institute Podcast

In this conversation, Bobby and Andrew talk to Philip Bess, Professor of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame, about his recent article "Buildings, Polis, Landscape, Cosmos: Two Counter-Cultural Christian Humanist Academic Case Studies” and the basics of classical humanist urban design. Professor Bess introduces Our Lady’s Plan of Chicago 2109, explaining why we will have to move from subu...

Bobby and Andrew talk to Dr. Kenneth Craycraft about his new book Citizens Yet Strangers: Living Authentically Catholic in a Divided America. Dr. Craycraft explains why Catholics in the United States today are liberal Protestants before they are anything else and why Catholic Social Doctrine matters for healing the divisions in contemporary America.

Robert and Andrew discuss the fight over the restoration of Cathédral Notre-Dame de Paris and why traditional architecture matters with Michael Diamant, the founder of New Traditional Architecture (https://newtrad.org/). In this interview, Michael helpfully explains the recent revival of interest in the robust classical tradition of architecture that not only is beautiful but environmentally frien...

In this episode, Andrew Petiprin and Robert Mixa recall their travels in Europe. Unlike Europeans who might take the beauty of embodied Catholicism for granted, Andrew and Robert are convinced that Americans might be in a special position to recognize the Catholic culture still present in many parts of Europe.

Cinephiles will love this episode. Writer and director Nathan Douglas and Andrew introduce listeners to the films of Éric Rohmer and the French New Wave. The discussion also covers the importance of film as art and how cinema can unveil human experience better than most mediums. And, of course, Bobby does not miss an opportunity to mention his love for Terrence Malick films.

In this episode, Robert Mixa and Andrew Petiprin talk to Zac Crippen (host of the Creedal Podcast - https://www.creedalpodcast.com/) about finding freedom from screen addiction and how we should think about technology. Additionally, they discuss Ted Gioia’s popular post “State of the Culture, 2024”, which describes the new dopamine culture and how to resist the dopamine cartels.

In this episode, Andrew Petiprin and Robert Mixa talk to writer and art critic William Newton about his latest piece in The Spectator, “The divine Dalí and his ‘Christ’”, Newton’s fascination with Spain and Spanish art, Dalí’s wrestling with the faith, and his return to traditional painting. For more about William Newton, please visit his website (https://wbdnewton.com/).

In this episode, Robert Mixa and Andrew Petiprin talk to Professor Ewa Thompson about key moments in European history when Poland came to the defense of Christendom, how non-Germanic Central Europe seemed to be excised by historians of various empires from the annals of history, the Polish literature that shaped the Catholic imagination and spirituality of John Paul II, the legacy of Sarmatism and...

Robert Mixa and Andrew Petiprin talk to James Matthew Wilson about poetry, his book 'The Vision of the Soul: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty in the Western Tradition,' Conservatism, Christian Platonism, Catholicism in the Americas, and Catholic Modernism.

In this episode, Robert Mixa and Andrew Petiprin talk to Dr. Larry Chapp about Part III of his article “The Falsification of the Good: Mr. Cogito's Monster and the Prolepsis of Heaven and Hell” and his conviction that now is the time of monsters. We discuss Alain Besançon's conviction that the end of the world is palpable, Antón Barba-Kay’s 'Web of Our Own Making: The Nature of Digital Formation,'...

In this episode, Andrew Petiprin and Bobby Mixa talk to Fr. Brian Graebe of the Archdiocese of New York about the backstory to the Break Fast podcast, the goodness and beauty in creation, and the allure of New York City.

Jennifer Newsome Martin, the new director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture and a Notre Dame theologian, joins Andrew Petiprin and Bobby Mixa to discuss Charles Péguy and his writings on hope and modernity.

Andrew and Bobby talk to Dr. Michael Hanby about technocratic totalitarianism, the fate of truth in the Modern Age, and why we need the French poet Charles Péguy.

Andrew and Bobby talk to the Cultural Debris podcast host and writer, Alan Cornett, about cultural renaissance, the connection between culture and agriculture, Russell Kirk’s conservatism, and abstraction as the enemy of the real.

In this episode, Andrew and Bobby talk to theologian Rodney Howsare about leisure, festivity, and work. The conversation covers Josef Pieper’s Leisure: The Basis of Culture, Matthew B. Crawford’s The World Beyond Your Head: How to Flourish in an Age of Distraction, Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

In this episode, Andrew and Bobby discuss Andrew’s new book Popcorn with the Pope: A Guide to the Vatican Film List and why cinema needs to be upheld as an art. They talk about some of the great luminaries in film history, such as Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Terrence Malick and more.

Andrew and Bobby talk to philosopher D.C. Schindler about the nature of liberalism, its rejection of reality, technology and habits of attention, the importance of Hegel, the Catholic affirmation of reality, and his new book God and the City: An Essay in Political Metaphysics. 

In this episode, Andrew and Bobby talk to Carl E. Olson, editor of Catholic World Report and Ignatius Insight and author of many books such as Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead? and Will Catholics Be "Left Behind”?, about the Rapture, Eschatology, Theosis, and the Eucharist. 

In this episode, Konrad Milewski, author of Escape from the American Cage: How to Regain Life, Liberty, and Happiness and Gain Truth, Dignity, and Love, describes what he sees in America and how Americans can regain their lost independence by living in accordance with “The New Declaration”, which not only is focused on helping Americans regain their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi...

In this episode, Andrew and Bobby discuss Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s recent UnHerd article “Why I now a Christian” and why she went from Islam and atheism to Christianity. They also discuss her claim that atheism cannot sustain a civilization. But can Christianity? All these themes and more are covered in this episode. Read Ali’s essay at UnHerd to see why it is so important: https://unherd.com/2023/11/why...

In this episode, Andrew and Bobby talk to Flagg Taylor about Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s 2006 film The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) and anti-Communist dissidents in Czechoslovakia and Poland (e.g. Vaclav Benda and Czesław Miłosz).

Bobby and Andrew talk to theologian Dr. Larry Chapp about his experience at the Synod on Synodality and what gives him hope in the Church. Learn more about Dr. Chapp’s important work at Gaudium et Spes 22 (https://gaudiumetspes22.com/)

In this episode, Bobby and Andrew talk to special guest Prof. Michał Łuczewski (Warsaw University) about the situation in Poland, the legacy of John Paul II in Poland, the Polish intellectual milieu, and putting Christian hope into practice.

Dostoevsky wrote, "Man can live without science, he can live without bread, but without beauty he could no longer live, because there would no longer be anything to do to the world." We agree. Do you?

In this episode, Robert and Andrew tell the story behind the creation of the Spe Salvi Institute and discuss future endeavors.