Evangelization & Culture Podcast

Operators. Manipulators. Cynical. Corrupt. Sadly, these are caustic terms forever used to describe politicians. But, in truth, are politicians entirely bad? Submerged in the incorrigible human condition, are they beyond all hope of authenticity, redemption, or goodness? Join Professor Charles Duffy of Providence College and me as we explore the complicated life of Irish machine politician Frank Skeffington in The Last Hurrah, one of the greatest political novels of the twentieth century, on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of The Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

"When you read Shakespeare," Justice Antonin Scalia's high school English teacher thundered, "Shakespeare's not on trial, you are." What are we to do about college students purportedly incapable of reading, much less finishing, great novels? We are to double down and put in front of them what Matthew Arnold called, "the best which has been thought and said." Join Professor Jennifer Frey and me on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast as we discuss the virtue and necessity of reading classic literature and encouraging its meaningful consumption among the young. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of The Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

Imagine you had ninety minutes to sit with an eminent philosopher who is also a devout Catholic and ask the most vexing questions about our faith. What would you ask? Does science disprove God? Are faith and reason opposed? Why isn't God's existence obvious? Does any evil disprove God's existence? These questions and many more inform Dr. Christopher Kaczor's excellent book, Is Belief Believable? Join Christopher Kaczor and me on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast as we explore the questions that lurk in the back of our minds but can be approached through sound philosophy and intelligent theology. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

What goes into the making of a saint? How does it feel to listen to testimonies, investigate miracles, and explore the lives of Mother Teresa and Padre Pio, Pier Giorgio Frassati and Fr. Damien of Molokai? What are the inner workings of the Holy See that usher some from servant of God to venerable to blessed to saint? Join Msgr. Robert Sarno, a key player in the Vatican's Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, and me as he reveals the fascinating and wondrous way that a person becomes a canonized saint on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

Few phenomena have ushered in a greater sea change in mass communication and human relations than social media. What at once allows us to connect with family, meet new friends, and engage with (not simply observe) the world around us can also create enormous tensions, foster disinformation, and cultivate loneliness. Is social media a blessing or a curse? And how can Catholics tap into its evangelizing power without losing their own souls? Join Bishop Robert Barron, Fr. Steve Grunow, and me as we explore the promise and peril of social media on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

Where does the notion of "free speech" come from? Why does it matter? How have powers attempted to suppress free speech and how have individuals sought to abuse it? Even more, where does "freedom of speech" fit into the life of the Catholic Church? Join Professor Adam Tomkins and me on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast for a riveting conversation about ideological times and his captivating book On the Law of Speaking Freely. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

What happens when we forget that behind the gorgeous redbud tree, the mesmerizing sunrise, and the exquisite infant child cradled in our arms is an ineffable God who loved them all into existence? We miss the sacramental in our lives and chase after honor, power, pleasure, and wealth, which are false infinites and sorry substitutes for God. Join Dr. Christopher West and me as we explore his book Eating the Sunrise, an examination of our hunger for beauty and the God who alone will satisfy it on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

G. K. Chesterton asserted, "We have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are." Is this true? In an age of identity politics and identity confusion, are we defined solely by race or sex, nationality or disability? Or are we something infinitely more? Join Fr. Gregory Pine and me as we explore our truest nature and our greatest selves in his new book, Your Eucharistic Identity, on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

We are all familiar with Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, featuring Ebenezer Scrooge and Marley's Ghost, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. And yet, even so, every year, millions eagerly read the story, watch the film, or attend the play. Why does a 182-year-old English ghost story still captivate us today? In what way are we ourselves haunted by the temptation to selfishness in a world hungry for kindness and generosity? Join Professor Dwight Lindley and me as we explore the soaring heights and the profound depths found in A Christmas Carol on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

Why do most believe that religion is the root of most modern violence while secularism is our dispassionate protector? In Broken Altars: Secularist Violence in Modern History, we discover that Combative Secularism and Eliminationist Secularism have made brutal and furious attempts to marginalize, weaken, and destroy religious faith. Join Dr. Tod Worner and Professor Thomas Albert Howard on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast as they explore the dark history of political secularism and the ways in which religion, time and again, has been an unwitting victim and not an untrammeled aggressor. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

If there is one struggle in life, it is with the unknown. In an age of self-assertion and technological wonder, we strive to obliterate the uncertain, eradicate the imperfect, and master the mysterious. And yet, these goals are impossible. Should we fear the unknown or embrace it? Is mystery threatening, or is it wondrous? Join Dr. Tod Worner and Professor-Poet Robert Cording as they explore these questions addressed in his phenomenal book, Finding the World's Fullness, on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

With Catholic college students losing their faith in devastating numbers, what is the Catholic Church to do? Enjoin the brightest, faith-filled, and articulate college students to help us bring them back. Caroline Kurt is a devout Catholic, a college senior, and a keen writer/editor for Hillsdale College's paper, The Collegian. She and a dozen premier college students are the vanguard of writers for Evangelization & Culture Online's The College Beat. Join us on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast as we discuss the faith life of the modern college student and the means by which we can bring a generation flagging in faith back into the arms of Christ. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

When Fr. Nate Wills raised doubts about his qualifications to serve as the University of Notre Dame's football team chaplain, Fr. Pete McCormick assured him, "We don't need you to call plays. We just need you to point [people] to Jesus." Join me and Fr. Nate Wills on the Evangelization & Culture Podcast as we explore his book, Pray Like a Champion Today, a rich unfolding of lessons learned from and imparted to the extraordinary Notre Dame football team and the greater university community. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "Angels are appointed to the guardianship of men, that they may take them by the hand and guide them to eternal life, encourage them to good works, and protect them against the assaults of the demons." As we grow in our faith, shouldn't we do the same for others? Through his Instagram pages Marian Militia and Monk Mindset, George Jacobson is taking people by the hand. Join me and George Jacobson on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast as we explore how, in an age of uncertainty, one Catholic college student is lighting the fires of faith in others. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

Sir William Osler, the godfather of internal medicine and a gifted professor once observed, "No bubble is so iridescent or floats longer than that blown by the successful teacher." Alasdair MacIntyre was one of the most consequential moral philosophers of the twentieth century and a keen professor at the University of Notre Dame. What did MacIntyre believe and how did he teach? Join me and Catholic philosopher Dr. Christopher Kaczor as we explore the impact Alasdair MacIntyre had on his students (like Dr. Kaczor) and the world of philosophy on the Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

Novelist and short story writer Flannery O'Connor once insisted, "You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate." In her short stories, Katy Carl weaves tales of despair and hope, brokenness and healing, and all being captured in the glory and grit of the human condition. Many ask, "Where have the good writers gone?" Read Katy and you'll find one of them. Join me and Katy Carl, author of Fragile Objects, her first short story collection, on the Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

"Every human person seeks peace, spiritual peace within oneself and with others, and material peace through a social life of friendship, charity, and genuine justice. What is at the heart of this aspiration? What indeed is peace?" Join me and Fr. Thomas Joseph White as we discuss his new book Contemplation and the Cross on the Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.