Kresta in the Afternoon

Zac Kriegman spent six years working in Data science at Thomson Reuters, one of the world’s largest news organizations. His job was to study numbers and stats and figure out what they really meant. When he turned his focus to race and police brutality, he came across a shocking realization – the data was being used incorrectly in our national conversation, with disastrous effects. But when he tried to share his findings, he was chastised by management and eventually fired. He shares his story.

Joseph Haydn is among the most influential composers of the Classical period. He was a friend of Mozart and tutor of Beethoven, and has been called the Father of the Symphony. He was also a man of devout Catholic faith. We look at his life and music with Robert Reilly.

In his Gospel Sequence Lauda Sion Salvatorem, written for the inaugural celebration of Corpus Christi, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote “However much you can do, so much dare to do.” This spirit of “daring to do all we can” should take a special meaning for us during the three year Eucharistic Revival which kicked off last summer. Fr. Roger Landry, one of the National Eucharistic Preachers, joins us.

Mark Twain is arguably America’s most beloved author, and his characters Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn have long served as symbols of youthful rebellion. He had a very complicated relationship with Christianity and modern atheists love to quote him when critiquing religion. Twain once wrote that if Christ were alive today, he would never be a Christian. But he also said his favorite work was his novel about Joan of Arc. So what did Twain believe? Gary Scott Smith joins us.

Alice von Hildebrand’s life accomplishments could fill a book. She escaped Nazi Europe in her youth, became one of the leading women in Catholic philosophy, and devoted decades of her life to writing and teaching. She also had a loving relationship with her husband, the late and great Dietrich von Hildebrand. She passed away last week, and we honor her legacy with John Henry Crosby.

Paying for college has become a major concern for parents and students, and Americans now owe about $1.7 trillion in Student Debt. Some Democrats have called for student debt to be forgiven, and President Biden has announced a plan that is currently being challenged by the courts. What can be done about the problem? Dr. Richard Vedder discusses the matter.

Nominees for Secretary of Education are typically not widely known, so the press and the public grants them the benefit of the doubt. This was not the case with Betsy DeVos; from the time her nomination was announced, she was subject to attacks from critics. The New York Times claimed her nomination was "a triumph of ideology over evidence that should worry anyone who wants to improve results for children." She joins us to reflect on her time in office.

The state of Israel was admitted to the United Nations on May 11, 1949. Ever since the state was founded, there has been debate over whether it should exist. The issue of “the Land” is central to Jewish identity and the Church respects the covenant between God and the Jewish people, but how does this relate to modern-day Israel? Andre Villeneuve joins us.

On March 22, 1606, St. Nicholas Owen, the Jesuit lay brother and carpenter extraordinaire, died under torture in the Tower of London. Stephanie Mann tells us his story.

The Bible has played a decisive role in the shaping of American History, and American History has shaped how we interpret the Bible. From the writings of Tom Paine to the fall of slavery to Teddy Roosevelt, the two are intertwined. Mark Noll joins us looking at the rise and fall of America’s Bible civilization.