The Commonweal Podcast

What kind of Catholic is Joe Biden? And what prospects does his presidency hold for the bitterly divided U.S. Church? On this episode, Commonweal associate editor Matt Sitman speaks with contributing writer Massimo Faggioli about his new book, Joe Biden and Catholicism in the United States.   This political moment, Faggioli argues, is different from any other. With public institutions in decline a...

Can private corporations provide public goods? Can capitalism contribute to movements for social justice? In her book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, Georgetown history professor Marcia Chatelain notes that big companies like McDonald's historically have failed to deliver the social benefits they’d promised. And as racism and white supremacy remain potent forces in American life—and...

In an interview with Commonweal last spring, Pope Francis called on Catholics to meet “this time of great uncertainty” with creativity and grace. On this special end-of-year episode, we’re revisiting four of our favorite conversations with Catholics who’ve inspired us to do just that: -      Susan Bigelow Reynolds on changing parish realities -      Stephen Hough on accepting his own sexuality -  ...

Among the things Donald Trump’s presidency will be remembered for is the cruelty of its policies and actions on immigration. While the incoming Biden administration intends to reverse these measures, we should hardly be complacent. The U.S. immigration system is expressly designed to keep people out. On this episode, Commonweal contributing writer Paul Moses speaks with attorney and law professor...

Sr. Simone Campbell, best known as the executive director of the NETWORK social justice lobby and organizer of the Nuns on the Bus tours, has been involved in political advocacy on behalf of the poor and marginalized for decades.   Less familiar, though, are the contemplative practices that ground Sr. Simone’s work—and that she describes in her new book, Hunger for Hope: Prophetic Communities, Con...

We all know the story of the “nones,” and the dire statistics about the decline of religious affiliation among young people. But these data hardly tell the whole story.  On this episode, managing editor Katie Daniels speaks with Ellen Koneck, herself a former Commonweal staffer and now head writer and editor at Springtide Research Institute. Their new report, The State of Religion and Young People...

Could rural America become a hotbed of progressive politics?   Luke Mayville, co-founder of the grassroots movement Reclaim Idaho and a lecturer of political philosophy at Boise State University’s Honors College, certainly thinks so.   His conviction comes from firsthand experience. In 2018, Mayville helped Idaho become the only predominantly rural state in America to approve Medicaid expansion in...

We are at a perilous moment in American history, and public Catholicism must rise to the task. So says E. J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post columnist and Commonweal contributor.   He joins Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi to discuss why American Catholicism needs to put aside culture-war rhetoric and return to its rich tradition of social thought—characterized by what he calls “radical moderation”—...

Modern warfare has become an intensely scattered, depersonalized affair. Violence still rages and traumas proliferate, but often remotely, the carnage hidden from public view. So what’s the best way to write about it? How to convey the horror of armed conflict today? Few writers do that as well as Phil Klay, who won the National Book Award for his 2014 short story collection, Redeployment, which i...

For years, Black churches have worked tirelessly to advance the cause of racial justice in America. In many ways, their white counterparts have done the opposite. White Christians are not simply complicit in racism and white supremacy, argues scholar Robert P. Jones. They’re actually culpable. Without their deliberate consent, white supremacy in America could never have been built. That’s a shocki...

On August third one year ago, a 21-year-old white man from Allen, Texas, drove across the state to a Wal-Mart in El Paso, alongside the Mexican border, where he shot and killed 23 people and injured 23 others, the majority of them Mexican and Mexican-Americans.  The El Paso matanza, or massacre, is considered to be the deadliest anti-Latino attack in U.S. history, and one of the deadliest mass sho...

On August third one year ago, a 21-year-old white man from Allen, Texas, drove across the state to a Wal-Mart in El Paso, alongside the Mexican border, where he shot and killed 23 people and injured 23 others, the majority of them Mexican and Mexican-Americans.  The El Paso matanza, or massacre, is considered to be the deadliest anti-Latino attack in U.S. history, and one of the deadliest mass sho...

While we may experience moments of clarity and insight in our spiritual lives, more often we face struggles as we try to shed old habits and find new ways of thinking about God. On this episode, poet Christian Wiman joins us to read and discuss several poems from his new collection, Survival Is a Style. He also shares insights he’s gleaned from his own grappling with faith and doubt, explaining ho...

Classical pianist and composer Stephen Hough is known as one of the world’s greatest musical performers. He’s also a polymathic writer, with a new book called Rough Ideas. It collects two decades’ worth of short, witty, and perceptive essays, on everything from Lou Reed and Thomas Aquinas to bioethics, sacramentality, and the challenges of living as a gay Catholic. He joins Commonweal editor Domin...

Summer’s here, and we’re reading new books from three writers: Molly McCully Brown, Marie Mutsuki Mockett, and Amy Jo Burns. Their work falls into different genres: memoir, first-person reporting, and fiction. But they’re linked by an abiding interest in God, communal religious practice, and the strangeness of American life at the margins. They speak with managing editor Kate Lucky, who also refle...

Since the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police in Minneapolis nearly two weeks ago, American cities have seen protests over racism and police brutality on an unprecedented scale. On this episode we speak with Fr. Bryan Massingale, author of Racial Justice and the Catholic Church and professor of theology at Fordham University in New York. Racism persists in America and the church, Mass...

Donald Trump’s election provoked backlash from many people of faith, with religious leaders taking a highly visible role in protesting the administration’s policies. But does the so-called “religious left” really exist? Indeed, argues religion reporter Jack Jenkins. His new book American Prophets: The Religious Roots of Progressive Politics and the Ongoing Fight for the Soul of the Country traces...

Even as New York City shows signs of progress, the toll of the coronavirus crisis over the past two months has been high. Hundreds of thousands have been infected, and more than half of the city’s residents say they know someone who’s died from COVID-19. On this episode, we hear from three different people who’ve been dealing with the impact of the pandemic in New York City: Paul Saunders, a cardi...

Held in close quarters in crowded detention facilities, prisoners have been disproportionately harmed by the spread of the novel coronavirus. Now they’re turning to the criminal justice system for help.  Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has taken the lead in responding. He belongs to a new crop of “progressive DAs” fighting to end mass incarceration in favor of fairness, rehabilitation...

In this second special episode on the American parish today, we talk with three writers about their concrete proposals for creating more vibrant, hope-filled parish communities.  Their suggestions are simple: let more people, including women, preach; reach out to LGBTQ Catholics, and learn from their journeys; and finally, help young families and finally, help parents with restless young children...

When it comes to the state of the Catholic parish, we tend to focus on the bad news: declining vocations to the priesthood, dwindling congregation sizes, even parochial mergers and closures. For the people in the pews, it’s easy to feel like the Catholic church today is dying.  But that’s not the whole story, and of course as Catholics, we believe in resurrection. On this episode we hear from two...

The spread of the coronavirus pandemic has upended daily life across the globe, with major outbreaks occurring in countries like China, South Korea, Italy, Iran, and now the United States. But Hong Kong, an island close to mainland China, has managed to limit the spread of the disease, even as it experiences one of the largest and most sustained mass protest movements in history. In this episode,...

How should we understand the current split between so-called “progressives” and “moderates” in the Democratic Party? In the middle of an uncertain primary campaign, where can they find compromise and unity? Longtime Commonweal columnist and political scientist E.J. Dionne, Jr. joins associate editor Matthew Sitman for a wide-ranging conversation about what it means to be a Democrat today. Pointing...

Though we live in a secular age, we sure seem to like reading about faith. Poet and reporter Eliza Griswold, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for her book ‘Amity and Prosperity’ and author of the new poetry collection ‘If Men, Then,’ explains how both genres have helped her tell stories that transcend her ego. She talks with us about writing poetry, reporting from conflict...

What do billionaires like Betsy DeVos know about running schools?  Absolutely nothing, argues public education expert Diane Ravitch. Since the 1980s, wealthy privatizers have passed themselves off as education “reformers.” But the data reveal that they weaken outcomes for students and thrust public-school teachers into poverty.  Thankfully, there’s hope: in her new book Slaying Goliath Ravitch poi...