Kresta in the Afternoon

Emily DeArdo was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at eleven, so she knows what it’s like to live with a keen awareness of her own mortality. It’s a good practice to keep in mind at any time, but especially on today’s Feast of All Souls. She joins us.

The U.S. Supreme Court spent nearly three hours Monday hearing arguments in a pair of cases challenging Texas’ new abortion ban. Now the justices must decide what action, if any, to take in response to a state law crafted expressly to ward off the court’s intervention. What do we know about how they might rule? Steven Aden joins us.

Some healthcare workers today have a different approach to the Hippocratic Oath than doctors from the past. What is the purpose of healthcare when it comes to suffering? Al discusses.

Even non-Catholics are familiar with a few saints – Francis of Assisi, Patrick, Teresa of Calcutta and so on. But what about Damien of Molokai? Or John – not Teresa – of Avila? They may not be well-known, but they lived extraordinary lives and worked in their own way to build the Church. Matthew Bunson joins us on this All Saints Day with Forgotten Saints you should know.

What does an ancient thinker born centuries after Christ have to say that applies to our lives today? Well, if that thinker is St Augustine of Hippo, he has a whole lot to say. Dr James K A Smith has traveled long on the road with St Augustine, he joins us today on the saint's birthday with a look at how Augustine can be a pilgrim guide to the complicated world we live in.

Even non-Catholics are familiar with a few saints – Francis of Assisi, Patrick, Teresa of Calcutta and so on. But what about Damien of Molokai? Or John – not Teresa – of Avila? They may not be well-known, but they lived extraordinary lives and worked in their own way to build the Church. Matthew Bunson joins us on this All Saints Day with Forgotten Saints you should know.

Colonial Catholics were viewed with great suspicion. Many thinkers of the time doubted Catholics’ ability to separate country from pope, and thus declared them to be “dangerous until proven loyal.” Yet Catholics went on to sign the Declaration of Independence and helped draft the First Amendment. We talk with Michael Breidenbach about how those colonial Catholics transformed the idea of liberty.

Who holds the primary responsibility for a child’s education? You’d think it would be a simple question, but it’s become highly politicized – especially in this era of gender ideology and “Critical Race Theory.” And we’re seeing the effects in districts where school boards think that responsibility is primarily theirs. Should parents pull their kids from public schools? We’ll talk about it with Mary Rice Hasson.

On Sunday Pope Francis called on the international community to stop deporting migrants to unsafe countries. What happens when migrants apply for asylum in the US? Do they ever misrepresent their situation in the hope of being accepted? We’ll talk about it with Danilo Zak.

Were humans vegetarians in the Garden of Eden? Strange as it may seem, we think they were. Understanding what changed begins with understanding just how devastating the impact of the Fall was. Al discusses.