The Family Room

Guest: Dr. Greg Popcak, author and co-founder of CatholicCounselors.com and CatholicHOM Dr. Greg Popcak and his wife, Lisa, have been helping people tackle life’s challenging problems for more than 20 years. Everyone struggles in their marriage, but do our struggles draw us closer or tear us apart? We evangelize others by showing how we allow God to speak into our struggles, transforming us into b...

Guest: Dr. Martin McCaffrey, pro-life neonatologist Dr. Marty McCaffrey is a neonatologist who has developed a strong interest in helping parents of babies given prenatal diagnoses carry their pregnancies to term and beyond. Accustomed to seeing babies diagnosed with Trisomy 13 & 18, his daughter’s diagnosis of Trisomy 21, or Down Syndrome, was a shock. It was at a conference in 2009 where McC...

Guest: Dr. Michael Egnor, neurosurgeon and Professor of Neurosurgery Many scientists and doctors believe that there is no such thing as the soul, and we are completely controlled by our brain. Initially a functional atheist, Dr. Michael Egnor fell in love with the brain during college, believing that understanding the brain would help him understand what it meant to be human. In his groundbreaking...

Guest: Peter Burak, vice president of Renewal Ministries, author, and speaker In an age where anything goes, Pete Burak has seen the devastation that befalls young men who didn’t grow up with strong role models. They search for clarity and courage after years of being bombarded with messages stressing masculinity is toxic and professing the need to cultivate a softer side.  Their innate desir...

 Guest: Fr. Tamiru Atraga, priest of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Healing Ministry A beloved member of the Atlanta priesthood, Fr. Tamiru Atraga was born in Ethiopia and received his name after his parents were told both he and his mother would die during his gestation. Mary appeared in a dream, encouraging Mr. Atraga to pray, and both survived. The name Tamiru means miracle.  As one of 1...

Guest: Dr. Gabrielle Wesemeyer, chiropractor and cancer survivor Gabrielle Wesemeyer loved being Catholic as a young child, but when her family moved to Atlanta at the age of 10, things shifted, and she began to question her faith. The daughter of The Family Room co-host Craig Wesemeyer, Gabrielle sat down with Mari, John and Craig for some serious dialogue about how her struggles challenged her f...

Guest: Dr. Jeffrey Talley, President of Belmont Abbey College Belmont Abbey College, situated in the picturesque mountains near Charlotte, North Carolina, was founded 150 years ago by Benedictine Monks seeking a place where scholarship and faith could thrive. Its new President, Dr. Jeffrey Talley, calls it a “gem of a place – a beautiful school focused on Christ.” Recognized as one of the Top 20 B...

Guest: Emily Jaminet, Executive Director, Sacred Heart Enthronement Network In recent decades, Catholicism has seen a tendency to do away with the old and usher in the new. More recently, the trend is to look back and retrieve those traditions which held deep meaning in our childhood, drawing us closer as a Catholic community. One such tradition is the practice of “Consecration,” or setting oursel...

Guest: Anna Sonoda, licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and psychotherapist Licensed therapist and child safety expert Anna Sonoda returns to share her book, “Wait…That’s Weird:  Spotting Strange Behavior Together.” As the mother of five whose early career took her into prisons, Anna is determined to give us a toolbox to help protect our most vulnerable.  She breaks down complex ideas...

Guest: Fr. Charles Sikorsky, president of Divine Mercy University Raised in suburban Maryland, Fr. Charles Sikorsky attended Catholic schools and followed the cultural trend of drifting away in college. An accomplished basketball player who went on to law school, he experienced a gut check upon the sudden death of a former teammate. Realigning his vision, Sikorsky left a productive law practice to...

Guest: Juan Perez, Salesforce Chief Information Officer Advisor Is artificial intelligence, or AI, today’s equivalent of the Tower of Babel - the deliberate attempt by man to create a world that doesn’t need God? AI gathers unlimited data, stores it indefinitely, and retrieves it as needed. It processes information, but doesn’t understand the meaning behind it. It generates patterns, but doesn’t s...

Guest: Peter Herbeck,  Executive Vice President & Director of Missions, Renewal Ministries After describing how God healed his father of alcoholism, Peter Herbeck explains the power of the Holy Spirit to transform us. It was his sister who first began to attend prayer meetings which created an atmosphere for God to change their hearts. Her insistence on the family’s prayerful intercession...

Guest: Kevin Wells, journalist, author, and speaker While poor role models wring their hands at the downward cultural spiral, author Kevin Wells sees an urgent need for heroic lives in the public square. Although raised in a strong Catholic family with 10 children, Kevin’s faith became lukewarm. Attending a retreat at 40, God grabbed Kevin by the scruff of the neck, convincing him the retreat was...

Guest: Fr. Jeffrey Kirby, Catholic priest, moral theologian, and Papal Missionary of Mercy If you were told there was a way to be totally restored from the eternal consequences of sin, would you believe it? In the Old Testament, a Jubilee Year was a ceremonial rejuvenation wherein God offered a “reboot” to His people, bringing them back into full restoration as His children. Today that same concep...

Guest: Casey Chalk, freelance writer, editor, author What are the “Seven Last Words” of Christ? More than seven words, they are phrases which Jesus spoke as he hung on the Cross, naked and defiled. Casey Chalk noticed that these phrases have been pondered since the Church’s beginning. As he researched meditations from a variety of sources, including Scripture and the saints, he realized each one s...

Guest: Sean Corcoran, lawyer, husband, father, and CEO of Men For Life For many decades, women have led the pro-life movement, boldly speaking up for the voiceless babies and their wounded mothers. Men were told abortion doesn’t affect them, even though their genes coursed through that blob of tissue being killed. Men were intimidated into silence. No more! Emotionally destroyed when his college g...

🌿 Spring 2026 Pledge Drive Episode with guests Fr. Mark White, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church (Washington, Ga.) and Queen of Angels Catholic Church (Thomason, Ga.) and Jeff Lukich, writer and endurance coach Father Mark White and his parishioner, Jeff Lukich, share their respective Catholic journeys. Fr. Mark followed his sister from Protestantism, and Jeff returned to Catholicism after 40...

Guest: Louise Perrotta, writer, editor, wife, and mother It was a quirky twist of fate which led Louise Perrotta to begin investigating the mystique of silent Saint Joseph, the husband of Mary. Uncovering a small statue which had been buried in the backyard of their new home, Louise immediately felt an attachment and placed him in her line of vision on the kitchen windowsill. As a woman who marrie...

Guest: Christy Wilkens, Catholic wife, mother, nurse, and author Christy Wilkens was a typical Catholic in many ways, checking the boxes as she dutifully raised her growing family. In what she later describes as faith with strings attached, Christy learned that God wanted something so much deeper from her. The birth of her sixth child became a turning point when her son, Oscar, became ill shortly...

Guest: Florencia Moynihan, nutritional therapy practitioner Starting in early childhood, a woman’s body image is greatly impacted by her environment. How women see their own bodies will have a lasting effect on how they view themselves and their relationships. Florencia Moynihan, nutritional therapy practitioner and founder of The Catholic Nutritionist, imagined her body as a broken vase that was...

Guest: Charlie McKinney, Publisher of Sophia Institute Press More and more people are listening to audiobooks or ebooks. Recent studies report up to 50% of millennials read an ebook last year compared with 15% who read a physical book. Capitalizing on this growing trend, Sophia Institute Press has entered the digital book market with their new app, Saintifi. The app has quickly gained notoriety be...

Guest: Bobby Fredericksen, digital missionary, podcaster, author In our modern culture, "influencers" on social media are becoming more and more prevalent, even in the area of faith. But are they making the right impact? Bobby Fredericksen's article titled "Influencers vs. Saints: Why Teaching the Faith Requires Character, Formation, and Maturity" addresses how we're seeing a negative side of this...

Guest: Leslie Albizzatti, wife, mom, ministry leader, and author Most of us walk right up to Ash Wednesday without any idea of the transformative power hidden in the 40 days of Lent. As a young mother, Leslie Albizzatti began to understand her responsibility to pass her faith to her children, just as her mother and grandmother had for her. Familiar with the typical Catholic pattern of reciting pra...

Guest: Sylvia Dorham, wife, mother, and author Stories teaching virtue and vice were foundational to most American children fifty years ago. Every family knew what you meant when you referenced “The boy who cried wolf” or “The tortoise and the hare.”  They were called “fables.” Realizing these beautifully-teachable stories were being lost to current generations, Sylvia Dorham set out to recap...

Guest: Dr. Ray Guarendi, clinical psychologist, author, speaker, and national radio/television host It was a plea for parenting help from a colleague which took Dr. Ray Guarendi’s career down a trajectory that has become his trademark: common-sense wisdom combined with self-deprecating humor. As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Ray has written more than 20 books that give practical, no-nonsense guidan...