The Wise Guys Podcast

In this episode we explore the relationship between God’s providence, divine justice, and natural disasters. This is a complicated but important question of faith for disciples of the Lord. Listen in as we try to make sense of how best to understand our relationship to the powers of nature, human freedom, and our stewardship of creation.

St. Paul tells us that the Great Mystery hidden from all ages is “Christ in You”. Listen in as we discuss the beauty but huge challenge of depending on Jesus to act in and through us every day. Through the eyes of St. Therese of Lisieux, what does it mean to accept our spiritual poverty and trust that the Lord will make all that we do both fully human and fully divine.   Show Notes Therese of Lisi...

It is perfectly human to use stories to wrestle with reality and to communicate our moral values from one generation to the next. Join us as we explore the importance of story-telling to human culture, and why the Christmas story, especially, is an epic tale of cosmic proportions.

In this episode, we explore the topic of relying too much on our own efforts to manage our lives. Listen in as we discuss the trap of thinking we are responsible for fixing our problems before God will bless us. As the prophets tells us, God will lower the mountains and fill in the valleys to make the path easy for us. We need only turn to Him for help.

How do we reconcile the belief in the God who loves us unconditionally and the just God who holds us accountable to his commandments? Join us as we explore the difficulty of not falling into the trap of feeling we need to perform well for God to love us or that God is tolerant of our sinfulness.

In this episode we discuss the influence of Elon Musk and other tech geniuses on the human experience. Is technological progress inevitable and, even more importantly, is it good for us? Join us as we reflect on these important issues and discuss the Church’s critical role in providing the formation we need to participate in a technocratic age.

Join us as we discuss the role of faith in coming to know God and what God cares about. Dr. Therrien dives in to help us get our heads around the role that the gifts of the Holy Spirit play in our ability to know the truths God reveals to us through His Word.

In this episode we tackle a very challenging topic—the nature of truth and how we as human beings support truth claims. In a world dominated by the empirical sciences, are there ways to attain knowledge outside the scientific method? And can we know things with certainty that cannot be measured by empirical methods?

In this episode - as we come off a rather intense election season - we discuss the reasons why we love America and why our system of government is so successful, election after election. The American system works, so join us as we discuss why Judeo/Christian values make America a great nation and how we, as disciples of Jesus, make America great because of our defense of life, liberty, and the pro...

In this episode we wrestle with understanding the causes of the human struggles we all face in our day to day lives. How active is the devil in the things we suffer in life. And what’s our responsibility for the things that happen to us? Join us as we explore this puzzling mystery of human existence. 

In this episode, we wrestle with the meaning and implications of Pope Francis’ recent remark that all religions are paths to God. Join us as we explore the importance of understanding the history and culture of humanity’s religious sense and the place of Catholicism within man’s universal search for true religion.

In this episode, we explore the faith journey of our friend, Vaughn Thomas, who having grown up in a cradle Catholic home outside of Pittsburgh, found himself needing much more as the difficult challenges of life brought him to his knees.

As we bring our series on Catholic social teaching to a close, we explore Critical Theory, the archnemesis to the Judeo-Christian view of society and the greatest threat to world peace. Listen in as Dr. Therrien explains the philosophy behind Marxism, critical race theory, radical ecology, wokeism, and various other ideologies that threaten the founding principles of America.

In this episode, we discuss the relationship between personal responsibility and rights and how this needs to shape our understanding of healthcare, food production, and environmentalism. Listen in as we wrestle with what it means to be responsible stewards of God’s creation.

In this episode we continue to discuss church teaching on the issue of racism. Join in as we explore challenging topics like the historical roots of slavery, racial profiling, ethnic bias, and the difference between prejudice and discrimination.

In this episode we discuss the highly volatile immigration crisis and frame the issue from a Christian perspective rather than the ideological narratives we get in the mainstream media. Join us as we apply some simple principles of justice to a very thorny issue.

Listen in as we explore the Church’s just war theory and how it relates to what’s happening in Ukraine and Israel. In this election year, the issue of war and peace is a huge one with grave implications. Join us as we explore how best to discern as Christians which party is best suited to help end these two crises.

Throughout this series we are facing squarely the Church’s teaching on the dominate issues we face in this upcoming presidential election. In this episode, we wrestle with church teaching on the economy and economic systems. While the Church is not an expert in economic science, she has much to say about the moral principles that help the economy best align with the nature and dignity of the human...

Throughout this series we are facing squarely the Church’s teaching on the dominate issues we face in this upcoming presidential election. In this episode, we tackle the Church’s teaching on the relationship of government to the institution of marriage, family life, and the fallout of the Sexual Revolution.

In this episode, we dive into the critical importance of Catholic social teaching for how disciples should engage and respond to the issues facing our country in the 2024 election. We also explore the Church’s prophetic role in the history of nations, especially in recent times.

In this episode, we are joined by our friend, Ellen Franty, whose story is a testament to the hidden and quiet transformation of grace in an ordinary life.

In this episode, we discuss the experience of being offended when Christianity is mocked and ridiculed and how Jesus challenges us to respond.

In this episode, we interview Joe and Kristi Indovina. Listen in as they share the story of their childhood drug and alcohol addictions and how Jesus carried them out of the pits of hell. Joe and Kristi met while rehabilitating, got married, and now do their best to live day-to-day in the heart of Christ.

In this episode, we discuss the Archbishop’s excommunication, how we – as Catholics – are called to the obedience of faith, and how we – according to the Spirit of Christ – should handle the challenges we face with our leaders…even the Pope.

Michel celebrates his 55th birthday this week! Join us as we reflect back on our childhood, the cultural changes we’ve seen, and the challenges of parenting the next generation.