The Table Audio w/ Evan Rosa

Renowned philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff talks to us about his only non-philosophical published work, Lament for a Son—an expression of profound grief written in the wake of his son Eric's untimely death in 1983.

Sister Helen Prejean on her work as an advocate for the abolishment of the death penalty in the United States. Sr. Helen talks about grace, justice, life, and death.

A spiritual riddle to the modern mind: A desert monk burns all of his baskets as a means of fighting off the so-called “Noonday Demon.” Evan Rosa interviews celebrated writer Kathleen Norris, author of The Cloisterwalk, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, and the Quotidian Mysteries, about her 2008 book, Acedia & me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life—discussing ancient Christian spirituality and the deadly vice of acedia, with commentary from theologian Jerry Sittser. Acedia was taken off the list of deadly vices in the 6th century, only to rear its ugly head in contemporary technological life. Has the noonday demon been haunting you? Well, now you’ll know its name.

What is love's response to suffering? Easy, mediated solidarity? Social media lowers the bar for what counts as activism. These days, we’re all activists. But as Tyler Wigg-Stevenson suggests, the danger of lowering that bar is to cut out the costliness of such work for good. This is part 2 of 2 in Evan Rosa’s interview with Catholic priest and theologian Emmanuel Katongole about the ethics of love in response to global suffering, also featuring commentary by Wigg-Stevenson on “mediated solidarity" and the story of a local Ugandan woman—Angelina Atyam—who was faithfully working locally against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) while we were all watching KONY 2012 and staring at our screens.

Pope Francis has criticized "the globalization of indifference" in recent years. Despite the constant cycle of suffering we observe in our social feeds, leading to unprecedented awareness of others' pain, and despite our increasing ability to reach those in need of our care, we're numb. What is the loving response to suffering? Evan Rosa interviews Tom Crisp and Emmanuel Katongole in this first installment of a two-part series on love's response to suffering. Featuring the (in?)famous pond case applied to relief efforts, an exploration of lament, Pope Francis on the globalization of indifference in the face of suffering and violence, and the beautiful story of Maggie Barankitse, who witnessed first hand the atrocities of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and responded with loving action.

What are some aspects of social humility? Becoming humble means more than understanding one's own stature and status. It means finding oneself standing on common ground with others. This is part 2 of Evan Rosa's interview with Krista Tippett (host of On Being and author of Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living). Krista talks about the origins and purpose of the question she asks all of her conversation partners; intellectual humility as an article of faith; and how humility enables communication with the religious and political other.

Evan Rosa interviews Krista Tippett (host of On Being and author of Becoming Wise) on humility, mystery, and self-knowledge.

Evan Rosa introduces The Table Audio and gives a sneak peek for what's coming soon. Bonus: Listen to cute kids as ridiculous (ly awesome) questions.