The Making Every Class Catholic Podcast

In this episode of the Making Every Class Catholic podcast, I’m joined by Dr. Greg Bottaro, founder of the CatholicPsych Institute. Greg shares his own journey—from philosophy student and aspiring Franciscan friar to clinical psychologist and founder of a growing apostolate dedicated to integrating faith, philosophy, and psychology. Together, we explore what it means to approach psychology not simply as a collection of theories, but as “applied philosophy” rooted our beliefs about the human person.

Our conversation examines why Catholic educators cannot afford to ignore psychology, while also recognizing the limitations of many contemporary psychological frameworks. Greg argues that without a clear understanding of what it means to be human, concepts like mental health, flourishing, and even education itself lose their foundation. We discuss the importance of relationships for human development, the rise of anxiety and isolation among young people, and why a Catholic understanding of the person offers a richer framework than many prevailing cultural narratives.

We also explore how good psychology can help schools can cultivate authentic community, form students for virtue and vocation, and prepare them for a future in which human presence and relationships may become more valuable than ever.

Music by Braden Kuntz

In this episode of the Making Every Class Catholic podcast, I’m joined by Chris Fisher, Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Drawing on his years at Portsmouth Abbey and the Portsmouth Institute, Chris explores what the Benedictine tradition has to offer Catholic schools today: an education that forms not only the mind, but also the heart through beauty, receptivity, contemplation, and community.

Chris expounds what St. John Henry Newman called the Benedictine “poetic imagination” and why it remains foundational for Catholic education. And he argues that before students analyze the world, they must first learn to receive it—to encounter literature, nature, Scripture, and the liturgy with wonder and love. And we explore how practices like lectio divina, the Benedictine tradition of florilegia, and meaningful classroom conversation cultivate habits of attention that prepare students not only for academic success but for a life of faith.

We also look at the integration of faith and culture across the curriculum. How can teachers read Virgil, Freud, Marx, or Shakespeare in a way that takes each author seriously while also placing them in dialogue with the Gospel?

Finally, we discuss the importance of conversation itself as a mode of learning and formation. In an age increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, the distinctly human capacities for dialogue, attentiveness, and community are more essential than ever. Whether you’re a classroom teacher, school leader, or simply someone interested in the renewal of Catholic education, this episode offers both profound philosophical insights and practical ideas for cultivating schools where students learn to love the truth—and ultimately, to desire God.

Music by Braden Kuntz

In this episode of the Making Every Class Catholic podcast, I’m joined by Sister John Dominic Rasmussen of Openlight Media for a conversation on virtue, formation, and the renewal of Catholic education. Sister shares her journey from classroom teacher to school administrator to founder of a rapidly growing apostolate serving hundreds of schools, all rooted in a desire to recover the Church’s rich tradition of virtue formation in everyday school life.

Together, we compare and contrast classical virtue ethics and contemporary approaches like social-emotional learning. What does modern neuroscience get right about human development—and where might its findings be misunderstood or misused without a grounding in Catholic anthropology? Sister offers a compelling vision: one in which virtue provides not only the moral framework for education, but also the language, habits, and interior freedom students need to flourish. Along the way, we discuss everything from the role of relationships in brain development to the dangers of an overly self-focused approach to emotional awareness.

The conversation gets especially fun as we dive into the vocabulary of virtue—those rich, often-forgotten words like magnanimity, circumspection, and eutrapelia. Far from being too advanced, these concepts capture students’ imaginations and give them practical tools for interpreting their experiences and making better decisions. Again and again, virtue emerges not as mere rule-following or “gritting your teeth,” but as the path to joy, freedom, and authentic human excellence.

We also get practical: how schools can build a culture of virtue that endures despite teacher turnover, how educators can integrate virtue into every subject area, and what it looks like to “cultivate” virtue in light of both theology and neuroscience. Finally, Sister shares about Openlight Media’s growing library of resources and offers concrete ways teachers, parents, and school leaders can begin renewing their communities today.

Music by Braden Kuntz

In this episode of the Making Every Class Catholic podcast, I’m joined by Kenneth Craycraft, author of Citizens Yet Strangers, for an engaging conversation on faith, politics, and the challenge of forming students as Catholics in a polarized civic culture. Drawing on his work and experience, Ken reflects on the tensions Catholic educators face when teaching subjects like civics, history, and social studies in a culture shaped by modern political assumptions.

Together, we explore the competing “stories” that shape our moral imagination: the dominant narrative of liberal individualism, and the Catholic vision of the human person as inherently social, ordered toward truth and the common good. Along the way, we examine how concepts like rights, freedom, and political participation are often misunderstood—even by Catholics—and how language itself can subtly form (or deform) our understanding of what it means to live well together.

As the conversation unfolds, we dig into the foundations of Catholic social teaching—human dignity, solidarity, subsidiarity, and the common good—and consider how these principles resist being reduced to either left- or right-wing political ideologies. We also discuss the formation of conscience, the moral meaning of voting, and why participation in political life extends far beyond the ballot box. From classroom practices to concrete assignments, we highlight ways educators can help students critically engage political narratives without losing sight of the Gospel.

Finally, Dr. Craycraft offers a compelling vision of Catholic education as necessarily “subversive” in its refusal of the absolutization of politics. In a culture tempted toward political idolatry, this episode invites educators to form students who can think clearly and act faithfully.

Music by Braden Kuntz

In this episode of the Making Every Class Catholic podcast, I’m joined by Dr. Andrew Salzmann of Benedictine College for an engaging conversation on a fundamental question: What is an education? Drawing from theology, philosophy, and classroom experience, Andy invites us to reconsider education not as information transfer or product generation, but as a process of formation—one that shapes how students think, feel, act, and ultimately love.

Together, we explore a rich Catholic vision of the human person, one rooted in potential, habit, and growth. Framed by the idea of education as exercise, we explore how students develop intellectual and moral excellence through repeated, meaningful action—much like athletes or musicians. We contrast this with modern “productionist” approaches to schooling, where outcomes and outputs often overshadow the deeper formative purpose of learning. Along the way, we draw connections to everything from Jesuit pedagogy and classical liberal education to contemporary challenges like AI, grading, and student disengagement.

We also get concrete: what it looks like for teachers to act as coaches rather than mere lecturers, how imitation serves as the foundation for true creativity, and why practices like competition, repetition, and detailed feedback are essential for real growth. From grammar lessons to baseball fields, we highlight the joy students experience when they gain genuine competence—and how that joy reveals something essential about human flourishing.

Finally, we turn to the ultimate aim of education: the formation of our loves. Drawing on thinkers like Aquinas and Bonaventure, Andy shows how intellectual formation opens the door to deeper love—of truth, of others, and of God. Whether through moments of insight, beauty, or awe, education becomes a path not just to knowledge, but to wonder and gratitude. This episode offers both a philosophical framework and practical vision for educators and parents who want to form not just capable students, but fully alive human beings.

Music by Braden Kuntz

In this episode of the Making Every Class Catholic podcast, I’m joined by Father Nick Schneider—a priest of the Diocese of Bismarck and elementary school Montessori teacher—for a rich and wide-ranging conversation on Catholic education, human formation, and the enduring relevance of Maria Montessori’s work. Father Nick shares the remarkable story of how a struggling parish school led him, through prayer and providence, into the Montessori method—not just as an advocate, but as a classroom teacher.

Together, we explore the Catholic anthropology underlying Montessori education: a vision of the human person rooted in intellect, will, embodiment, and imagination. Along the way, we unpack key concepts like sensitive periods, and the formation of freedom through disciplined choice. As the conversation unfolds we cover everything from the role of the senses in learning to the difference between true creativity and mere mimicry, from the limits of screen-based education to the importance of real, embodied encounters with the world. Over and over again, Montessori emerges as more than a set of techniques, but as the practical outworking of a coherent and deeply Christian understanding of the human person.

We also get concrete: what a Montessori classroom actually looks like at different ages, how structure and freedom work together, and why this approach consistently resists being labeled as either “conservative” or “progressive.” Finally, Father Nick reflects on the broader implications of this vision—for parenting, pastoral ministry, and even spiritual healing—while offering practical advice for those who want to explore Montessori education in their own schools or communities.

Music by Braden Kuntz

In this episode of the Making Every Class Catholic podcast, I’m joined by Dominic de Souza—web designer, writer, and founder of the Legend Fiction community—for an in-depth conversation about stories, imagination, and the cultural importance of fiction. Dominic is the man behind the beautiful Making Every Class Catholic website, but his deepest passion is helping writers create stories that can help “heal the culture.”

We begin with the crisis of meaning facing many young people today and the role stories play in helping human beings make sense of their lives. Dominic proposes four key pillars for healthy storytelling—meaning, myth-making, magic (an enchanted view of the cosmos), and moral good—and argues that the stories that endure in the culture almost always draw on these deeper truths. Along the way we reflect on why stories operate at the level of the soul rather than merely the intellect, why children instinctively hunger for them, and why a rich “diet” of stories helps people interpret and navigate the world.

Dominic shares more about his writing community, Legend Fiction, which brings together storytellers who want to explore meaning-rich fantasy and sci-fi worlds while developing their craft in community.

Music by Braden Kuntz

In this episode of the Making Every Class Catholic podcast, I’m joined by Dr. Randy Boyagoda—novelist, essayist, book critic, and professor of English at the University of Toronto—for a wide-ranging conversation about literature, language arts, and what it means to read and tell stories as Christians. Randy invites us into a faith-informed way of seeing: a sacramental imagination that recognizes the world as “charged with the grandeur of God,” and that understands words as more than labels—sometimes even as instruments that shape reality, from Genesis’ “let there be” to John’s “the Word became flesh.”

From there we get concrete: how Catholic teachers can approach any good literature (not just “Catholic books”) by attending to family life, vocation, and the deep human hunger for coherence. Randy also revisits his famous “I’m sick of Flannery O’Connor” essay—not because he’s tired of the great dead writers, but because Catholics need to read the living and the dead together. Along the way he offers practical pathways for finding contemporary Catholic voices, recommends books across ages and stages, and offers his unexpected (even contrarian) advice for cultivating young writers.

Music by Braden Kuntz

Artificial intelligence has become the question everyone in Catholic education feels obligated to address. But beneath the anxiety about cheating, policies, and classroom management lies a much more fundamental issue: What is education actually for? When AI can generate essays, art, music, lesson plans, and arguments instantly, it forces us to confront a confusion that long predates ChatGPT—the temptation to treat the product of learning as the point, rather than the formation of the person doing the learning.

In this episode, I’m joined by John Brahier of Longbeard, the parent company of Magisterium AI. Drawing on his experience as a former Catholic educator and his close engagement with recent Vatican teaching, John helps us think clearly—and calmly—about AI in schools. We discuss Pope Leo’s recent document on Catholic education, why Catholic schools must avoid both technophobia and digital reductionism, and how technologies inevitably shape not just what students do, but who they are becoming.

John argues that the deepest risks of AI in education are not primarily about cheating, but about mirroring, disruption, and distortion: mirroring, as AI subtly trains us to measure ourselves against machines; disruption, as it short-circuits the slow, iterative processes by which real learning happens; and distortion, as it reinforces the idea that education exists to produce outputs rather than to form persons. Along the way, we consider what responsible AI use might look like for students versus teachers, why education cannot be reduced to content delivery, and why relational, communal formation remains the heart of Catholic education—no matter how powerful our tools become.
Music by Braden Kuntz

What does it mean to “teach theology from a Catholic point of view” when theology is already “the Catholic class”? And how might you do that in a school where many (even most) of your students aren’t Catholic in the first place?

In this episode, I talk with Deacon Charles Beard, theology teacher at Cascia Hall in Tulsa, Oklahoma, about what makes theology more than “religious facts” or “the Jesus answer,” and how to help students see it as the place where their real questions belong—questions about meaning, suffering, love, vocation, and God’s call in their lives.

Together we explore:

• Why Educating for Eternity has chapters on every subject except theology—and what I’d include for theology teachers in a revised and expanded edition

• The methodological difference between theology and religious studies, and why teaching theology as if it were religious studies is dangerous

• Why knowledge in theology is always ordered toward caritas (love), not just information

• How Deacon Charles “sells” theology in a context where Catholics are a minority and many students just want to ace AP Physics

• Helping students see theology as “the most practical subject you can study”… because everyone is going to die someday

• Building trust with colleagues so theology supports, rather than polices, other departments

• Practical ideas for cross-curricular collaboration and “essential questions” that connect theology with every other subject

• A creative assignment idea: a “Theology of X” project that invites students to explore something they already love—sports, music, chess, art, business—theologically.

Whether you teach theology or another subject area, this episode will help you think more clearly about what theology is, how it serves the whole school, and how every classroom can become a place where the deepest human questions are welcomed and taken seriously.