Visitation Sessions (A Podcast)

By Emily Stimpson Chapman, Chris Chapman, Kate Stapleton, Casey StapletonReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Visitation Sessions (A Podcast) episodes

July 20 The Gift of the Church's No: IVF & Embryo Adoption
This week, we talk about the complicated moral quandaries posed by IVF—including the topic of embryo adoption. What does the Magisterium of the Church have to say on this subject? And how should we respond to the Church whenever we’re told No?
Show notes:
* Does the Catholic Church Approve of Embryo Adoption?
* Donum Vitae
* Dignitas Personae
* The Vatican's Orphans from 60 minutes
* IVF is Not the Way by Stacy Trasancos, PH.D.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit visitationsessions.substack.com/subscribe
1 hr 2 min
July 13 America 250
Are we living in the twilight of the American empire? Was the American Revolutionary war a Just War? Is Donald Trump quint-essentially American? This week, we tackle all of these issues with the grace of someone doing pirouettes in a minefield.
Show notes:
* The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
* The Advent of Salvation by Jean Daniélou S.J.
* Rick Monday saves the American flag
* John Adams quote

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit visitationsessions.substack.com/subscribe
1 hr 12 min
July 03 There and back again
We’re BAAAaaack! The gang is back together again, and share stories and insights of their travels abroad. Emily & Chris return from the green pastures of Austria and the English moors, and regale us with tales the motherland, and how our souls are really pining for something beyond this world. Hear how Kate produced a Shakespeare production, and how Casey rescued a stranger on hot day.
Show notes:
* Select International Tours
* Franciscan University's Austria Abroad program
* Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf
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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit visitationsessions.substack.com/subscribe
1 hr 7 min
May 26 Romancing the Chatbot
The ever-reaching tentacles of AI are EVERYWHERE these days, and Pope Leo has finally given us some insights and moral considerations in his recent Encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.
All of us on the far-flung corners of the globe currently are pouring through his writings, preparing for a future episode. This week, Emily is busily lecturing in the kitchen of a medieval monastery, and has assigned her students the same article we’re sharing with you.
The topic: a man whose mother is in love with an AI-Chatbot.
Show notes:
* Magnifica Humanitas
* Lanterns on the Levee by William Alexander Percy
* Melania by Melania Trump
* My Mother gave up on Love. Then she met Chat GPT

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit visitationsessions.substack.com/subscribe
45 min
May 14 Monthly Q&A
How Not to Save the Planet
Letters from Austria
Steubenville Warming Center

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit visitationsessions.substack.com/subscribe
44 min
May 08 The F-word
Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O'Connor
All Along the Waterfront
Silver, Sword, and Stone: Three Crucibles in the Latin American Story by Maria Arana
Thomas Crapper
Ursula K. Le Guin article

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit visitationsessions.substack.com/subscribe
1 hr 5 min
May 01 What the Heck is Friction-Maxxing (and Do We Really Need to Do It)?
As the age of AI dawns, how do you hold on to your capacity to think, write, focus, empathize, and do all the things proper to human persons? According to some folks, the answer is friction-maxxing — otherwise known as going out of your way to do human things the old-fashioned way. This week, we’re chatting about the nature and benefits of friction-maxxing … and whether it’s actually necessary for parents of small children.
Show Notes:
“In 2026, We Are Friction-Maxxing,” by Kathryn Jezer-Morton
“Can Friction-Maxxing Fix Your Focus” by Alexandra Patillo
“I Balked at the Idea of Friction-Maxxing, But There’s More to It Than Meets the Eye,” by Gaby Hinsliff
The World As We Know It Is Falling Away by Jane Greer
Love Like a Conflagration by Jane Greer
Micha-el
By Jane Greer
You lull yourselves with dimple-handed cherubs
simpering in your étagère half-naked;
small-breasted maidens, tissue-winged and swooning
there on your desktop;
all those complacent fleshy pastel eunuchs
posing with harp or horn on the Christmas mantel:
you underestimate to your own peril
Whom we have come from,
Whom we are acting for, and it’s too late now:
suddenly it’s too late to ask for mercy.
Mercy is what you’ll get—His wide-armed mercy—
but you won’t like it.
He has been with you, at your elbow, lovesick,
down the millennia. He knows you deeply,
yet still encumbers your black hearts with blessings.
Willing unwillful
swain, He has wept and waited while you mocked Him.
Finally, now, the muscles of His jawline
clench and unclench beneath that holy shadow:
Enough is enough.
Don’t act as though some game’s been played unfairly:
He’s never skimped on prophets since He breathed you
out of the mud and on your way to Heaven—
yours for the asking—
but you were too intent on what you’d crawled from.
You can’t begin to dream what you’ve rejected,
what we would give to need His fierce salvation,
require His dying ….
Love like a conflagration shall be yours now;
love like an April river, like a temblor;
love like an avalanche, a midnight bomb-blast,
finding you hidden,
shrieking the air with shards of stained-glass windows;
love like a sunstorm, sweeping before it nations,
continents, galaxies, and all your hubris.
Yes, say your prayers now.
This is your Precious Moment, I its angel,
angry and dark and terrible. God With Us,
Emmanu-el, comes bearing yet more mercy,
but you won’t like it.
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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit visitationsessions.substack.com/subscribe
55 min
April 24 Who is "The Good Neighbor"?
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit visitationsessions.substack.com

Last week, we couldn’t record our podcast because Emily had no voice. Not a raspy voice. Not a hoarse voice. Quite literally no voice. This week, we can’t record because the Stapletons are sailing the high seas sans Internet with Casey’s family. We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming next week, but in the meantime, we have a treat for you.
Right before they set sail, Kate and Casey recorded a conversation for our full subscribers about their newest documentary, “The Good Neighbor,” which tells the true story of a cowboy doctor from Wisconsin, who rides on horseback to serve the Amish. This week, full subscribers not only get to hear that conversation, but watch the documentary itself.
Because it documentary is currently on the film festival circuit, it can’t be available to the general public just yet. But if you click the little button below and join the loyal band of supporters who make this podcast possible, that pesky paywall will just go away. It’s like magic!
7 min
April 10 Is Gambling a Sin?
Is it wrong to bet on sports? What about playing the lottery? Or all those 50/50 tickets every Catholic school in America is selling? This week, we’re parsing the Church’s very broad teaching on gambling, as we chat about games of chance and being good stewards of the money God has given us.
Show Notes:
CCC 2413
“The Rise of Sports Betting is a Growing Public Health Crisis”
AOC on gambling
On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs by James Schall
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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit visitationsessions.substack.com/subscribe
54 min
April 02 What's So Great About Holy Week?
Why do Christians celebrate Holy Week? What is the point of it all? How have we done it in the past? How are we doing it now? And how does it shape us as Christians? Talking about all that and more this week, on Visitation Sessions.
P.S. Special thanks to Select International Tours for sponsoring this week’s episode. Select does many things very, very well, and one of those things is pilgrim formation. Through their online pilgrim formation program, Stella Pelegrina, they offer all those traveling with them the chance to prepare spiritually and practically for all the graces and challenges that pilgrimages have to offer. Learn more by visiting their website today.
P.P.S. Please forgive the lack of show notes this weel! We’ll try to come back and get them up in the next few days, but this week, due to time, family, and travel constraints, it was a choice between posting without show notes or not posting at all. We chose no show notes!
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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit visitationsessions.substack.com/subscribe
1 hr 11 min