The November issue of Commonweal featured a special package of stories on Catholic religious communities in the broadest sense of the term, including religious orders, secular institutes, lay ecclesial movements, pious houses, and houses of hospitality.

Despite the variety of communities surveyed, some key themes emerged: the difficulty of adapting to new circumstances, the relationship of community to place, and a sense of hope in the face of precariousness and uncertainty.

On this special podcast episode, we’re joined by editors and writers—including Paul Elie and Kaya Oakes—who helped put that issue together.

Even as political leaders gather in Glasgow to discuss global solutions to climate change, why is it that the most basic facts of climate science still aren’t being taught in classrooms here at home?

On this episode, Commonweal assistant managing editor Isa Simon speaks with Katie Worth, an investigative reporter and author of the forthcoming book Miseducation: How Climate Change Is Taught in America.

The problem, as Worth sees it, is that climate change is too often framed as a “debate” rather than an established fact. Her reporting tells the story of how financial and political interests got us here, and what we can do to change it.

The murder of eleven Jews at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue three years ago in October 2018 was the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.

On this episode, journalist Mark Oppenheimer, author of the new book Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and The Soul of a Neighborhood, joins Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi for a wide-ranging discussion of the aftermath of that event.

Oppenheimer focuses not on the shooting and the gunman, but rather on the century-old currents of Judaism in Pittsburgh, the variety of religious beliefs and practices visible after the attack, and the resilience of Squirrel Hill.

For further reading:

-      ‘Death at the Tree of Life,’ Wesley Hill

-      ‘From Trotsky to Soros,’ James J. Sheehan

-      ‘The Author and the Expert,’ Tzvi Novick

Six weeks after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, can we really say that America is no longer a country at war?

On this episode, we’re featuring two reflections—one political, the other philosophical—on America’s “forever war.”

Longtime Commonweal contributor and historian Andrew J. Bacevich explains the little-understood Carter Doctrine, and why it needs to go, while fiction writer and Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay asks whether war can ever be considered “humane.”

Both are in conversation with Commonweal senior editor Matt Boudway.

For further reading

-      “The Forever War Continues,” Andrew J. Bacevich

-      “Sops to Humanity,” Phil Klay

-      “An Unwinnable War,” The Editors

Our modern food system and its reliance on industrial farming practices has caused considerable harm in rural communities, breaking up family farms and scarring the environment.

That’s a shame, argues journalist Gracy Olmstead, because the legacy of these small farms, and the communities they nurture, could help make life in America fairer and more meaningful.

On this episode, Olmstead joins Commonweal managing editor Katie Daniels for a wide-ranging discussion of her recent book, Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of Places We’ve Left Behind.  

For further reading

·     Yours, Mine, or Ours, by Gracy Olmstead

·     How Progressives Can Win in Rural America, by Luke Mayville

·     Seams of Resentment, by Danny R. Kuhn

This July, Pope Francis largely rescinded permission for priests to celebrate the so-called “Extraordinary Form” of the Roman Rite, also known as the Tridentine Mass. The move generated considerable controversy, especially among Catholics in the United States.

On this episode, longtime Commonweal contributing writer Rita Ferrone draws on her extensive knowledge of liturgical history to explain the logic—and in her view, the wisdom—of Francis’s decision.

For further reading:

·     “A Living Catholic Tradition,” by Rita Ferrone

·     “The Limits of ‘Traditionis Custodes,’” by Massimo Faggioli

·     “The Liturgy Wars,” by Paul Baumann

For National Book Award winner Alice McDermott, being a writer is a lot like being a believer. You get used to uncertainty, and become comfortable living in the dark.

On this episode McDermott, a frequent Commonweal contributor, shares a career’s worth of insights on the art of fiction with managing editor Katie Daniels.

She also recounts the moment when she realized she would be a writer, and discusses what a lifetime of working with words has taught her.

For further reading:

·      Things, Alice McDermott

·      Confessions of a Reluctant Catholic, Alice McDermott

·      Nothing to be Done, Mollie Wilson O’Reilly

Commonweal editor-at-large Molly Wilson O’Reilly addresses the U.S. bishops’ misguided approach to President Biden and communion, their missteps in responding to the presidency of Donald Trump, and missed opportunities in ministering to American Catholics during the pandemic.

For further reading:

·     The Real Threat to American Catholicism, Mollie Wilson O’Reilly

·     Pastors, not Prophets, The Editors

·     There Ought to Be a Law, Matthew Boudway

Both priest and poet have one vocation: to love.

Few know that as well as Spencer Reece—an accomplished poet, former chaplain to the Episcopal Bishop of Madrid, and now the leader of a diverse parish in Queens, NY.

In conversation with Commonweal contributing writer Anthony Domestico, in this episode Reece speaks about his new memoir, The Secret Gospel of Mark.

For further reading:

·     Celebration & Lamentation, Anthony Domestico

·     Uncommon Prayers, Spencer Reece

The life and thought of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) exerted a profound impact on the history of American religion and social activism.

The subject of a new PBS documentary, Spiritual Audacity, Heschel offered prophetic insights into the nature of God, the meaning of justice, and the necessity of Jewish-Christian dialogue.

On this episode, we discuss the rabbi’s legacy with two guests: Martin Doblmeier, who directed the film, and Professor Susannah Heschel, Rabbi Heschel’s daughter.

For further reading:

•         ‘Getting Past Supersessionism,’ The Editors

•         ‘The Call of Transcendence,’ Mary C. Boys

•         ‘Enough Bromides,’ Thomas Albert Howard