The ThinkND Podcast

Episode Topic: The Evolution of a Poet Explore the intersections of art, identity, and resistance with award-winning Poet Laureate of Wisconsin Brenda Cárdenas in her second oral history interview with Letras Latinas, recorded nearly nineteen years after her first. Join Brenda and Notre Dame English Ph. D. student Karla Yaritza Maravilla Zaragoza for a chat about the dialogue between poetry and vi...

Episode Topic: The Future of Healthcare How do we build the future we want to see, and how can we ensure artificial intelligence serves the common good? The inaugural RISE AI conference at the University of Notre Dame is a call for a humane approach to the technologies that affect health outcomes for all that uplifts humanity and human dignity. Hear powerful personal stories from leaders in tech a...

Episode Topic: The Female Body and a Culture of Life Is the belief that women's rights conflict with the rights of the unborn a modern invention? Melissa Moschella, professor of the practice at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, challenges the narrative, arguing that true respect for women and their bodies is inextricably linked to the protection of pre-bor...

Episode Topic: The Medicine of Life: Social Life and Survival in Wild Baboons Beth Archie Ph. D., is the Nieuwland collegiate professor at the University of Notre Dame who studies the social lives of wild baboons in Kenya's Amboseli ecosystem. Her work focuses on how social relationships affect an animal's health, disease risk, and survival. Using data from the Amboseli Baboon Research P...

Episode Topic: Muffet McGraw and Ruth Riley Hunter '01, '16 EMBA ND Women Connect is thrilled to present a conversation between Notre Dame legends Muffet McGraw, Hall of Fame and former Notre Dame women’s basketball coach, analyst, and advocate for social justice, women’s equality, and hunger relief, and her former player Ruth Riley Hunter ’01, ’16 EMBA, NCAA and WNBA champion, Olympian,...

Episode Topic: PhotoFutures Hear artist Sarah Sense discuss her powerful photo weaving Hinushi 10, recently added to the permanent collection of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art through the PhotoFutures initiative. Learn how her work, rooted in the Choctaw and Chitimacha traditions, interweaves historical maps and personal landscapes to document Indigenous futures and foster a continuity of culture...

Episode Topic: Participation and Natural Law What is the deep philosophical connection between divine wisdom and human moral reasoning? Professor Rudi te Velde, member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, unveils Aquinas’ revolutionary understanding of natural law as the eternal law profoundly imprinted on rational creatures. Learn how this concept of participation empowers human self-...

Episode Topic: The Durability and Beauty of Bamboo Explore bamboo’s role in energy efficiency, natural ventilation, and creating harmony between built environments and nature. Vo Trong Nghia, founder of VTN Architects and visiting professor of architectural design at Yale University, discusses the durability and beauty of bamboo architecture, showcasing how this sustainable material supports both...

Episode Topic: The Translation of Scripture (https://go.nd.edu/a61109) In Jewish tradition, Adam is the archetypal human being; in Christianity he is the forerunner to Christ, and in Islam he is the precursor of the Prophet Muhammad. Featured Speakers: Gabriel Said Reynolds, professor, University of Notre Dame Francesca Murphy, professor, University of Notre Dam Tzvi Novick, professor, University...

Episode Topic: Leading with Integrity and Purpose (https://go.nd.edu/87603e) During this installment of Leadership in Public Conversation, hear about leadership from a global perspective from Claudio Orrego, Governor of the Santiago Metropolitan Region in Chile. Sharing about his experience attending Holy Cross schools growing up in Santiago, he realized at a young age that he wanted to serve. Wit...

Episode Topic: Is There a Feminine Genius?   Thirty years ago, in both Evangelium Vitae and his Letter to Women, Pope John Paul II issued a clear call for the genius of women to be “more fully expressed in the life of society as a whole, as well as in the life of the Church” (Letter to Women 10). Throughout his papacy, in fact, he emphasized women’s “prophetic character,” calling on them to be “wi...

Episode Topic: The Dim and Deserted Places   Arielle Phillips Ph. D., discusses her research into the "emptier spaces" and "dimmer objects" of the universe. She explains her approach of focusing on the emptier spaces between galaxies to uncover fundamental truths about the cosmos. Using her background in computational astrophysics, she models how galaxies move and evolve. Throu...

Episode Topic: Through the Eyes of a Historian Serhii Plokhy, Mykhailo S. Hrushevs’kyi Professor of Ukrainian History and Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, joins Taras Dobko, rector of Ukrainian Catholic University, in a conversation about what has changed in Ukrainians and their society in the last three years during the Russian aggression, and the ways in which...

Episode Topic: Poets & Art with Brenda Cardenas   Award-winning Poet Laureate of Wisconsin Brenda Cárdenas was in residence with Letras Latinas and the Raclin Murphy Museum Art in late September 2025 to launch “Poets & Art: Ekphrasis at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art,” a multi-year partnership between the Museum and Letras Latinas. Enjoy a reading of her poems and an exploration of poetry...

Episode Topic: Evaluating Impact   As service providers around the country take on poverty in all its complexity, too little is known about what is working and why. Notre Dame’s Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) helps service providers apply scientific evaluation methods to better understand and share effective poverty interventions. Join LEO’s Senior Associate Director of Policy and Impact Rac...

Episode Topic: The Truth of the Matter in the Age of Generative AI   Join Soc(AI)ety Seminars, for a discussion with Tina Eliassi-Rad, the Inaugural Joseph E. Aoun Professor at Northeastern University, about the challenges of generative AI tools, and how we should consider the challenges of governance of these tools as technology continues to change rapidly. Featured Speakers:  Tina Eliassi-Rad, N...

Episode Topic: New Light on Old Stars The chemical diversity of the universe that makes our own existence possible is owed to multiple generations of stars that converted the primordial soup of hydrogen and helium into the periodic table we know today. To understand this process, Roman Gerasimov looks for the oldest objects in our galaxy that formed shortly after the beginning of time and preserve...

Episode Topic: Rethinking Complementarity “Rethinking Complementarity,” was presented by Abigail Favale, Ph. D. This discussion took place at the McGrath Institute for Church Life conference True Genius: The Mission of Women in Church and Culture at the University of Notre Dame in March 2025. The conference was developed by Favale, who is Professor of the Practice, Theology & Literature, at th...

Episode Topic: Architecture, Representation, & Politics Caspar Pearson, director of studies and reader in Art History 1300-1700 at the Warburg Institute in London, shares his work on Leon Battista Alberti, the early Renaissance humanist scholar and architect, and one of history’s most influential writers and thinkers on art and architecture. Featured Speakers: -Caspar Pearson, Warburg Institut...

Episode Topic: Meaningful Work Kick off the 2025-2026 series with a conversation with two contributors from the August 2025 issue of the Virtues & Vocations magazine, focused on meaningful work. Guru Madhavan is the Norman R. Augustine senior scholar and senior director of programs for the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. Chris Higgins is the Chair of the Department of Formative Education...

Episode Topic: Newman and Interrogating Catholic Imagination Take a deep dive with theologian and Catherine F. Huisking Professor of Theology Cyril O'Regan into the worldview of St. John Henry Newman, one of the greatest Catholic thinkers and educators in history. Consider Newman's ideas about the Catholic university, the Catholic imagination, and whether Catholic literature is an oxymor...

Episode Topic: The Christology of Demons What can be known about Jesus Christ intellectually when one doesn’t believe in Him? What exactly did the demons in the Gospels know about Jesus’ identity? Did they see Jesus as a prophet or as a promised Messiah? Consider the case of demons, as St. Thomas Aquinas did, to gain a better understanding, by way of contrast, of what it means to truly know Jesus...

Episode Topic: Transforming Child Care Listen in to a conversation on the current state of child care in the United States and the innovative work being done in local communities to create a thriving sector that equitably values children, families, and workers. Featured Speakers: -Chloe Gibbs '00, University of Notre Dame -Carrie Cihak, King County, Washington -Jessica Tollenaar Cafferty, Bes...

Episode Topic: Cultivating Hope in Ukraine Join Archbishop Borys Gudziak, who is Metropolitan-Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and President of Ukrainian Catholic University, to discuss how to build hope in Ukraine. He is joined in conversation by Rory Finnin, professor of Ukrainian Studies from the University of Cambridge and recipient of the 2024 Laura Shannon Pri...

Episode Topic: In Rez-idence “What is peace, and what does it have to do with poetry, language, stories?” Listen in to a conversation with Aniyunwiya/Cherokee Nation poet, scholar, author, and artist Jessica Doe about her creative journey and her time as the first-ever Indigenous fellow at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Featured Speakers: Spencer French '24 M.A., Universi...