Episodes

Friday Jun 09, 2023
Friday Jun 09, 2023
Jeremy Christiansen was a young married man, raising his children in the Mormon faith in which he’d grown up himself, when he began experiencing doubts about the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. As he looked at his upbringing, his marriage, and everything he had always believed to be true, Christiansen began a journey of spiritual questioning that led him away from Mormonism and ultimately into the Catholic Church.
Christiansen’s process of conversion is the subject of his new memoir, “From the Susquehanna to the Tiber,” available now at Ignatius.com.
In this episode, our host Andrew Petiprin speaks with Christiansen about the destabilizing experience of losing his faith in Mormonism, the joys and challenges of finding a spiritual home in the Catholic Church, and how the Church can better understand and engage with Mormons.
Related links:
- “From the Susquehanna to the Tiber: A Memoir of Conversion from Mormonism to the Roman Catholic Church” by Jeremy Christiansen
- “Logically navigating the journey from Mormonism to the Catholic Church” by Casey Chalk
- “To be deep in history is to cease to be Mormon: An interview with Jeremy Christiansen” by Paul Senz

Thursday Apr 27, 2023
Thursday Apr 27, 2023
“Christian existence must be cruciform—it has to be ready for martyrdom, especially now in the modern world.”
Larry Chapp’s new book “Confession of a Catholic Worker” is a call to Christians to shake off the idolatrous spirit of the age, and go to the root of our Gospel calling: radical love and radical living according to the Sermon on the Mount.
In this episode, Chapp speaks with Carl E. Olson about the new book, how modern Christians can best confront today’s spiritual and societal crises, and about the pitfalls of sharing the Gospel in a world increasingly in denial about the existence of the transcendent.
Related links:
“Confession of a Catholic Worker: Our Moment of Christian Witness” by Larry Chapp
“The Moment of Christian Witness” by Hans Urs von Balthasar
Larry Chapp’s website and blog, Gaudium et Spes 22

Tuesday Feb 07, 2023
Post-COVID meditations on building a Christ-centered culture
Tuesday Feb 07, 2023
Tuesday Feb 07, 2023
In this episode, Ignatius Press founder Fr. Joseph Fessio talks to his friend and fellow Jesuit, Fr. Robert McTeigue, about Fr. McTeigue’s new book, “Christendom Lost and Found: Meditations for a Post Post-Christian Era” (http://bit.ly/3Rl25FY ).
The book is a kind of a war journal, written between 2020 and 2021 during “the COVID Interruption” and the violent outbursts in cities across America. Witnessing cultural collapse in every direction, Fr. McTeigue offers meditations on what it will take to build Christ-centered cultures in our time—what must be retrieved and what must be renewed.
Fr. McTeigue can be heard Monday through Friday at 5pm Eastern on his radio show “The Catholic Current”; listen on your favorite podcast platform or online: https://thestationofthecross.com/programs/the-catholic-current/
Find Fr. McTeigue’s first book, “Real Philosophy for Real People,” at Ignatius.com: http://bit.ly/3HI1WIz

Wednesday Dec 21, 2022
Should Catholics embrace Critical Race Theory? Edward Feser on racism and CRT
Wednesday Dec 21, 2022
Wednesday Dec 21, 2022
Was the Catholic Church slow to condemn racism? Can Catholic teaching be used to justify slavery? How should Catholics engage with Critical Race Theory, in its popular or academic forms?
In this episode, philosopher Edward Feser discusses these and other questions with Catholic World Report editor Carl E. Olson. Feser is the author of the new book “All One in Christ: A Catholic Critique of Racism and Critical Race Theory,” in which he examines what the Church has said and done historically on issues of race, and takes a close look at the origins—and recent bestselling popularizations—of Critical Race Theory.
Feser and Olson talk about the genesis of the book, common misconceptions about the Catholic Church and race, the inherent limitations of CRT, and more.
Find “All One in Christ” at Ignatius.com: http://bit.ly/3VZ0OWl
You can read more from Edward Feser on his blog: http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/
Feser was interviewed at Catholic World Report about “All One in Christ”: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/09/08/the-churchs-teachings-about-racism-and-the-truth-about-critical-race-theory/
“Countering disinformation about Critical Race Theory” by Edward Feser | Catholic World Report, 8/22/22: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/08/22/countering-disinformation-about-critical-race-theory/

Thursday Dec 01, 2022
Diogenes Unveiled: Fr. Fessio and Phil Lawler remember Fr. Paul Mankowski, SJ
Thursday Dec 01, 2022
Thursday Dec 01, 2022
When Fr. Paul Mankowski, SJ died in September 2020, friends, colleagues, and long-time readers mourned the loss of the biting wit and keen insight that characterized his writing, much of which was published under the pseudonym “Diogenes.”
In this episode, two men who knew and admired Fr. Mankowski—his fellow Jesuit, Fr. Joseph Fessio, and his editor at Catholic World Report and later Catholic World News, Philip F. Lawler—remember their friend, whose writing spanned decades and covered Church news, art and culture, politics, and more.
A sampling of Fr. Mankowski’s writings, most of which he published as Diogenes, has been collected in the new book, “Diogenes Unveiled: A Paul Mankowski Collection,” edited by Lawler and available at Ignatius.com: http://bit.ly/3X6UuNR
You can read more essays by Mankowski in the book “Jesuit at Large,” edited by George Weigel: https://ignatius.com/jesuit-at-large-jlerp/
You can find Philip F. Lawler’s writing at CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/authors.cfm?authorid=3
And you can follow him on Twitter, @PhilLawler.