Jesuitical
Welcome to Jesuitical, a podcast for young Catholics hosted by two young, lay editors at America—Zac Davis and Ashley McKinless. Each episode features a guest who offers a unique perspective on faith, culture or current events. We also bring you some of the top (and maybe more obscure) Catholic news of the week. And we'll ask: Where do we find God in all this?
276
Christians have been in Iraq for thousands of y...
Kevin Clarke is the chief correspondent at America. Recently, he traveled to Iraq for 12 days where he met with Iraqi Christians and other religious minorities. We talk to Kevin about why he decided to take this trip and the future of Christianity in...
47 min
277
Haley Stewart’s Catholic guide to living simply...
I’m sure I am not the only city dweller who sometimes fantasizes about putting in my two-weeks notice and escaping to a dude ranch in Wyoming or an organic pumpkin farm in Nebraska (or wherever they grow pumpkins). The ever-increasing rent, the...
36 min
278
Lakota and Catholic: Jesuit education on the Pi...
“My hope is that we can learn that we can be indigenous and all these other things: Catholic, worldly, a diplomat, a scientist, etc. My hope is that being indigenous is not limited,” Maka Clifford in the pages of America last year. Maka is the...
34 min
279
A survivor of sex abuse on how the church can h...
“[The sex abuse crisis is] not something that I think can be fixed by our priests alone,” Amanda Zamora told us this week. “The pain and the harm has been caused by the church and the solution will need to come from the church—and that...
38 min
280
Stephanie Saldaña on love, loss and memory in t...
He was a French novice living in a desert monastery in Syria. She was a journalist from Texas who wanted to become a nun. Then, they fell in love. I know, it sounds like a rom-com. But that is, in fact, how this week’s guest, Stephanie Saldaña,...
38 min
281
Synod on Youth preview: How will we keep young ...
Next month, the Vatican will hold the Synod of bishops on young people. Earlier this year, in preparation for the October gathering, the Vatican hosted 300 delegates from around the world. These delegates met in Rome and produced an 11-page document,...
32 min
282
"I can't date Jesus": A conversation with Micha...
Michael Arceneaux has stopped going to church. After growing up as a gay black Catholic in the South, he eventually decided that he could not find a way to integrate his identities into the Catholicism he grew up with. In his new memoir: I Can’t...
34 min
283
We don’t use religious words anymore. That’s a ...
When was the last time you talked about faith with a friend? If you’re listening to this podcast, maybe you don’t mind dropping words like “sin,” “grace” and “confession” in casual conversations. But most Americans, according to , have...
38 min
284
Julio Ricardo Varela on being the only Latino (...
“Being the only Latino means that while the white men get to disagree with each other and develop idiosyncratic or counterintuitive arguments, you can never just say how you feel or what you think about a story,” wrote Julio Ricardo Varela in ...
39 min
285
The one where two of the Jesuitical hosts get e...
Did you miss us? Jesuitical is BACK from its summer break and we are sunsprayed, rested and ready to hit the studio for a new season. We also have some pretty big personal news to share, so tune in for some life updates. We also loved getting to spend...
41 min
286
What does Catholic architecture look like in th...
This week, we talk with Gilbert Sunghera, S.J. He is an architectural consultant and associate professor of architecture at the University of Detroit Mercy. Gilbert has worked on projects such as the , the parish of in Wyoming and . We talk with...
22 min
287
Why you (yes you) should care about theology. E...
You don’t have to have a Ph.D. in theology to write about religion (thank goodness)—but Tara Isabella Burton’s work shows it certainly doesn’t hurt. After getting her doctorate in theology at Oxford University, Tara became the first full-time...
17 min
288
Questioning the Bible just might help you fall ...
Rachel Held Evans grew up loving the bible. Like, was on her high school’s homecoming court representing the Bible club. She was taught to honor and defend it from all its enemies, science and history included. But her Biblical worldview started to...
41 min
289
The untold history of black nuns in the United ...
Ask most people what they know about black Catholic sisters, and they will probably murmur something about “Sister Act.” Dr. Shannen Dee Williams did, too, until she began digging into communities’ archives and uncovering the previously hidden...
37 min
290
How living in L’Arche made Jeremy McLellan a be...
This week, we talk with Jeremy McLellan, a comedian from Charleston, S.C. Jeremy was recently named a “New Face of Comedy” at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal. He was recently baptized at this year’s Easter Vigil. We talk to the...
31 min
291
What Mario Lopez learned about his Catholic fai...
It was a curious Tweet that came across my timeline. Was A.C. Slater really getting baptized in the Jordan River? Got baptized in the same river Jesus did... — Mario Lopez (@MarioLopezExtra) And there was another one—this time at the...
33 min
292
Fighting Islamophobia with social justice comed...
How do you change the mind of someone who thinks you don’t belong in this country because of your faith? Make them laugh, says Negin Farsad, Muslim-American comedian, actress, writer and filmmaker. And she does. Back in 2014, she took a troupe of...
37 min
293
Meet Cyrus Habib: the most interesting Catholic...
Cyrus Habib is the 16th and current Lieutenant Governor of Washington State. Born in Baltimore, Md., Cyrus is a three-time cancer survivor and has been fully blind since he was 8-years-old. His parents immigrated to the United States from Iran before...
48 min
294
Ross Douthat is worried about Pope Francis’ lea...
It’s not an easy position for faithful Catholics to stake out, criticizing a popular pope. But is worried about where Pope Francis is leading the Catholic Church. In his new book, To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism,...
46 min
295
What makes a good "Christian" movie? Ep. 61
What makes a Christian movie? Can you define it based on its themes and subjects? Or is it all in whom it’s marketed at? is a film critic at , where she covers film and culture. Before writing at Vox, Alissa was critic-at-large at . We discuss the...
39 min
296
Wajahat Ali reminds U.S. Catholics of their own...
This week, we talk with Wajahat Ali, a contributing op-ed writer for The New York Times, where he covers religion, family life and U.S. politics. Wajahat is also one of the producers of the Emmy-nominated series, which takes a look into the...
49 min
297
From alcoholism and agnosticism to converting t...
“Any way I tell this story is a lie.” Mary Karr opens her memoir “Lit” with a warning about the inevitable unreliability of memory. But don’t be fooled. Mary Karr delivers many truths that you need to hear. Mary Karr is an award-winning poet...
42 min
298
Have we reached a turning point in the gun cont...
As I write this, thousands of students across the country are walking out of their high schools to protest gun violence. April 20 marks the 19th anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colo., which left 13 dead. At the...
42 min
299
The (Catholic) Science Guy Ep. 57
Whoever says you have to choose between science and faith has not met Guy Consolmagno, S.J.—a Jesuit brother and director of the Vatican Observatory. We ask what projects the pope’s astronomers are working on now, if he believes in aliens and why...
41 min
300
Sarah Silverman on whether hell exists and why ...
“You know, I don’t know about Jesuits except what I am learning,” Sarah Silverman tells us on this week’s episode of Jesuitical. “Every Jesuit I meet, I find that I adore and just love the bringing emotion and feelings and intellect...
37 min