There are some things we'd rather not remember: old wounds, moral lapses, humiliating failures. But there are also things we have a duty to never forget, like historical traumas and present injustices.

Cultural critic Lewis Hyde explores this tension—how the hard work of "forgetting" can pave the way to healing and regeneration, touching on Buddhist philosophy, St. Augustine, and Marcel Proust. 

Plus, the editors challenge the US Bishops to stop mincing words and take concrete action on immigration.

We all want change: in our inner lives, in our friendships, in our politics. But what's the best way to get there?

Less, as they say, is often more. In this episode, we introduce a new, leaner format.

The editors weigh in on the crowded 2020 Democratic primary field. 

And California-based writer, teacher, and digital artist Jenny Odell explains the merits of doing nothing, arguing that contemplative leisure holds the key to meaningful activity. 

This month, we delve into courtroom dramas and sanctuary spaces. 

Writer Casey Cep explores our growing fascination with true crime, and reveals Harper Lee's struggle with writer's block.

Activist Felix Cepeda roots the sanctuary church movement in the history of Catholic civil disobedience. 

Plus, the editors discuss HBO's Chernobyl.

Novelist Alice McDermott, a self-described “contrarian Catholic,” speaks about her forays into op-ed writing. Pulitzer-prize winning author Paul Harding expatiates on his love of Karl Barth and the literary qualities of the Bible. Mockingbird Ministries’ David Zahl diagnoses our modern spiritual malaise and our foolhardy quest for “enoughness.”

Alice Quinn is the executive director of the Poetry Society of America, and is on the faculty of the graduate school of Columbia University. She was also the longtime poetry editor of the New Yorker magazine. Here she speaks with our associate editor Matthew Sitman about her work and her life in poetry, including her instrumental role in the beloved program that brought poetry to the New York City subways.

The poet Carolyn Forche is also an editor, translator and human-rights activist. Her most recent book is What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance. Nicole-Ann Lobo, the Commonweal Garvey Writing Fellow, recently spoke with Carolyn about the memoir, about her experiences during the war in El Salvador, and about what it was like to meet, and receive Communion from, St. Oscar Romero.

You can read Nicole-Ann and Carolyn's full interview here.

On this episode, we’re marking National Poetry month by featuring conversations with three wonderful writers. Our associate editor Matthew Sitman talks with Alice Quinn about her work and her time as poetry editor with the New Yorker magazine. Our literary editor Anthony Domestico speaks with Shane McCrae, whose collection "The Gilded Auction Block" has just been published. And Nicole-Ann Lobo, our Garvey Writing Fellow, sits down with the poet and human rights activist Carolyn Forché, to discuss her most recent book "What You Have heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness & Resistance". And make sure to stick around until the end, when our senior editor Matthew Boudway steps in with a special reading of a poem by Les Murray. 

Eula Biss is artist-in-residence in the English Department at Northwestern University, where she also teaches creative writing. She’s the author of On Immunity: An Inoculation, which was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by the New York Times Book Review, and of Notes from No Man's Land, a collection of essays that won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism in 2010. Eula spoke with Commonweal’s assistant editor Griffin Oleynick about the spiritual challenges of racism, the meaning of “whiteness,” and the craft of non-fiction writing.

On this episode, Catholic journalist and papal biographer Austen Ivereigh talks with senior editor Matthew Boudway about the Vatican’s February summit on clerical sex abuse. Eula Biss, author of On Immunity: An Inoculation and No Man’s Land: American Essays, speaks with assistant editor Griffin Oleynick about the spiritual challenges of racism, the meaning of “whiteness,” and the craft of non-fiction writing. Boston College professor Hosffman Ospino explains how new generations of Latino Americans are reshaping notions about “cultural Catholicism” in the U.S. And novelist Kathryn Davis talks with literary editor Anthony Domestico about metaphor, mystery, and pilgrimage in her novel, The Silk Road.

Last winter, we sat down for a conversation with Fran Lebowitz, the writer, speaker, wit, and archetypal New York personality. Here you'll hear an excerpt from that interview, which lasted for more than two hours, in which we discuss the Trump presidency, #MeToo, former President Obama, the contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and the rapidity of change in New York City.