Whiplash with Maxwell Kuzma

The Vatican's declaration that the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) is in schism immediately ignited debate across Catholic social media. Why was the SSPX declared schismatic? Why not other controversial Catholics? In this episode, we move beyond the memes and culture-war talking points to explain what schism actually means in Catholic theology, the history of the SSPX, and why this moment has bec...

For many Catholics, the story of racism and justice is often taught in fragments — as individual moments of prejudice rather than as part of a larger arc of history that continues to shape people’s lives today. Issues like policing, incarceration, housing, employment, and the criminalization of drug use are deeply connected to histories of racial inequality that have shaped the experiences of Blac...

What is missing from my understanding of the Black Catholic experience? In this episode, I reflect on what I’ve been learning about the history of Catholic involvement in slavery, the development of Black Catholic thought, and the ways Black Catholics have challenged the Church to more fully live into its teachings on justice and human dignity. This conversation draws from the work of Black Cathol...

What kind of God is being presented to LGBTQ Catholics? In this episode, Max and Emma respond to Fr. Mike Schmitz and Kim Zember's recent EWTN video "Can You Be Gay and Catholic?" and argue that beneath the conversation lies a troubling image of God—one that encourages self-doubt, scrupulosity, and fear rather than dignity, relationship, and freedom. From purity culture and evangelic...

This Pride Month, Max explores what Pride means through the lens of transgender identity, liberation, and faith. Beginning with the history of Stonewall and the central role that transgender and gender-nonconforming people played in the Gay Liberation movement, this episode examines why Pride remains both a celebration and a protest. Drawing on scripture, queer history, and contemporary reflection...

In this episode, I break down Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas , offering both a clear overview of its main themes and a deeper reflection on what it means theologically and politically. The document engages artificial intelligence, modern warfare, labor, and global inequality through the lens of Catholic Social Doctrine, including striking moments like its critique of “just war” theo...

Today I’m joined by Dr. Ish Ruiz for a conversation about queer theology—what it means to “queer” theology itself, and how that moves us beyond questions of simple inclusion into deeper questions about scripture, doctrine, tradition, and power. We explore what shifts when theology is approached from the margins rather than assumed centers, and how queer theology opens up more liberatory and expans...

Leah Raidt joins me for a deeply personal conversation about Catholicism, embodiment, gender, spirituality, and the search for aliveness within religious practice. Leah serves to uplift and advance LGBTQ+ artists and narratives toward collective liberation through meditation, facilitation, filmmaking, poetry, performance, producing, and presence. Together, we explore what happens when spirituality...

In this episode of Whiplash , Max speaks with Sister Luisa Derouen about her more than 26 years accompanying transgender Catholics through questions of faith, conscience, identity, and belonging. Long before transgender issues became part of mainstream Catholic discourse, Luisa was quietly offering spiritual support to trans people wrestling with isolation, shame, fear, and the feeling that they h...

This week on Whiplash, Max sits down with J.E. Reich—a Jewish, queer, and nonbinary journalist, editor, and writer—for a conversation that stretches beyond a single tradition and into deeper questions of gender, theology, and lived experience. Together, they explore what it means to encounter another religious framework not as a threat, but as an invitation: to rethink assumptions, to expand imagi...

Emma and I start this episode by catching up and talking through Pope Leo’s recent comments on sexual morality—what was said, what it reflects, and how it continues to shape the way LGBTQ people are understood in the life of the Church. Rather than just reacting, we sit with what these conversations do : how they draw boundaries, reinforce certain narratives, and leave others out. From there, Emma...

At nearly 70 years old, Christine Zuba’s story offers a powerful and rarely heard witness. She transitioned just 11 years ago after decades of lived experience, becoming an active voice in transgender Catholic advocacy. A lifelong Catholic, she serves as a Eucharistic Minister at Saints Peter & Paul Church in Turnersville, New Jersey, helps lead her parish’s LGBTQ+ ministry Together In Prayer,...

Longtime listeners of Whiplash and readers of my work will likely recognize much of what I share in this episode. I’ve written and spoken about pieces of my story over the years, across essays, podcasts, and conversations. But I wanted to create a single episode that brings those threads together in one place, especially for those who may be newer to my work or hearing my story for the first time....

Bishop Barron is in the news again, and as usual, it’s complicated. In this episode of Whiplash, I respond to his recent Word on Fire video "The Suffocating Warmth of Marxist Collectivism," examining the claims he makes about collective responsibility, freedom, and economic ideology. I dig into how Catholic social teaching intersects with contemporary economic realities, from industrial-...

Masculinity is often shaped less by attraction to women than by the recognition men seek from other men. Using the public reaction to Timothée Chalamet and the online discourse around “twink death” as a starting point, this episode explores the concept of homosociality and the powerful role status plays in shaping male identity. Drawing on sociology, pop culture, and media analysis, we examine how...

Across the United States, a growing wave of laws is targeting transgender people—restricting access to medical care, limiting legal recognition, and threatening basic rights in everyday life. At the same time, some Catholic leaders are increasingly portraying transgender identities and legal recognition of trans people as threats to religious liberty. When a principle meant to safeguard conscience...

What happens when Catholic theology begins not with abstract debates about transgender people, but with the lived experience of transgender embodiment itself? In this conversation, Max Kuzma sits down with his friend Maddie Marlett to explore what it means to encounter Christ through transition, embodiment, and the lifelong process of becoming. Rather than treating trans lives as distant questions...

In this episode of Whiplash , we unpack the concept of “scandal” in the Catholic Church — what it means in the tradition, and how it often functions in practice. With Chris Damian and Justin from Empty Chairs , we focus especially on the uneven way scandal gets applied to queer Catholics — and with Max’s perspective, to trans people in particular — where identity itself is often treated as suspect...

Millennials have been blamed for everything from killing napkins to buying too much avocado toast, so naturally we decided to talk about the economy. In this episode, I’m joined by my former Franciscan University classmate Shannon Kaschak to unpack why “just budget better” isn’t a serious economic policy, what a $3-per-meal proposal says about how poverty gets framed, and how culture wars keep wor...

Centering yourself in a world that profits from your fragmentation is a quiet act of resistance. In this episode of Whiplash , Max sits down with Cassidy Hall to explore how contemplation can become an embodied, grounded practice — especially for queer and trans people navigating spiritual burnout, political chaos, and inherited religious tension. Drawing from Cassidy’s powerful book, Queering Con...

Power and exploitation often feel unstoppable, but much of what we perceive as power is actually empty. Those who dominate and extract — whether in governments, corporations, or cultural institutions — survive by feeding off the labor, energy, and lives of others. They cannot create, nurture, or love. Recognizing this emptiness reveals an important truth: the real power lies in those who build, ca...

This episode is another informal, more reflective offering. Rather than an investigation or a philosophical / theological argument, it’s a meditation on what it feels like to move through ordinary life under authoritarian conditions — when even small, domestic tasks take on emotional and political weight. I reflect on the feeling of “doing laundry under authoritarian conditions,” and the thoughts...

With national attention focused on ICE actions and events in Minneapolis—and amid a moment when many people’s emotional and intellectual bandwidth is stretched thin—this episode takes a simpler, more informal format. Recorded solo and without a guest, it slows the pace while remaining grounded in research and analysis, making space to think carefully about how language, power, and morality interse...

In this episode, we take a historical and theological dive into the idea of Christian persecution—where it comes from, how it was formed, and why it still holds so much emotional power today. Drawing from early Christian martyrdom, the development of moral frameworks around suffering and faithfulness, and the long arc of Christianity’s relationship to power, we explore how a story meant to sustain...

In a moment shaped by state violence, fear-based politics, and the misuse of religious language, this conversation turns toward a different Christian tradition—one rooted in solidarity rather than hierarchy. We explore the history of liberation theology, how queer liberation theology flows from it, and why Catholic social teaching’s preferential option for the poor matters right now. From the kill...