What happens when our desire to become holy starts working against the very freedom we're seeking? In this conversation, Bill, Christopher and Mike explore how certain spiritual practices, especially around self-denial, humility, and the desire to be loved, can be misunderstood in ways that lead to fear, defensiveness, or even neurosis rather than genuine freedom. But the conversation goes far beyond that. They talk about childhood wounds, relationships, vulnerability, the human desire to be loved, prayer, suffering, and learning to recognize God's presence in everyday life. At the heart of it is a challenging question: Are some of the things we think are helping us become holy actually keeping us from receiving love?

Why do we still feel empty after getting the things we thought would make us happy? Why do we keep reaching for more... more pleasure, more success, more distraction. Only to find that the ache is still there?In this conversation, we talk about the strange hunger inside us that nothing in this world seems quite big enough to satisfy. We get into art, addiction, attention, desire, and the ways we numb ourselves when the longing becomes uncomfortable. We also revisit Glen Hansard, Anne Sexton, and the surprising ways music, creativity, suffering, and beauty can point us toward something deeper.Sometimes the ache isn't the problem. Maybe it's telling us what we're made for.

🎙️ Word Made Fresh Links:

🎵 Listen WMF on Spotify

📍 Tour Dates

📩 Send us your art & questions: [email protected] 

Christopher West:

📸⁠ Instagram⁠

🔵 ⁠Facebook⁠

🎤 ⁠Ask Christopher West Podcast⁠

Mike Mangione:

🎵 Mike's Music

▶️ YouTube 

📸 ⁠Instagram⁠

🎸 ⁠Mike's website⁠

🗺️ ⁠Mike's tour⁠

Bill Donaghy:

📸 ⁠Instagram⁠

Theology of the Body Institute Resources:

🔥 ⁠3 FREE sessions of our flagship course on the TOB⁠

💬 Text TOB to (404) 647-7682

⚡️ ⁠Support us & get access to leading TOB formation⁠

📚 ⁠Course schedule⁠

🏔️ ⁠Pilgrimages⁠

🛍️ ⁠Store⁠

Why are some of the funniest people also some of the most wounded?In this episode, we talk about the strange connection between suffering, vulnerability, and laughter—from Martin Short facing the death of his daughter, to Chris Farley turning his own awkwardness and vulnerability into comedy, to the simple, almost mysterious experience of making someone laugh. We explore why humor can loosen something in us, break through our masks, and give us a safe way to acknowledge things that are actually painful.Maybe the people who make us laugh aren’t simply telling jokes. Maybe they’re giving us permission to be human.

🎙️ Word Made Fresh Links:

 🎵 Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/45zfXd4tSlqoQQObSCLkwy?si=i1fda-9KSPe7hfP9QzYD4w

🎧 Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/word-made-fresh/id1846137904

📍 Tour Dates: https://tobinstitute.org/live-events/

📩 Send us your art & questions: [email protected] 

Christopher West:

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cwestofficial/

🔵 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cwestofficial

🎤 Ask Christopher West Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2dCkL6l7ogGgbNiqMf7K65?si=d39f694c9eb7486a

Mike Mangione:

🎵 Mike's Music: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/mikemangione/promised-land

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mangionemusic/

▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mikemangione

🎸 Mike's website: https://www.mikemangione.com/

Bill Donaghy:

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewayofwonderofficial/

Theology of the Body Institute Resources:

🔥 3 FREE sessions of our flagship course on the TOB: https://www.tobforfree.com/

💬 Text TOB to (404) 647-7682

⚡️ Support us & get access to leading TOB formation: https://www.tobpatron.com/

📚 Course schedule: https://tobinstitute.org/programs/tobi-schedule/

🏔️ Pilgrimages: http://tobpilgrimages.com/

🛍️ Store https://shop.corproject.com/

What do you do when one spouse longs for sexual intimacy and the other no longer seems interested?

In this conversation, we take a step back and ask a deeper question: What if the problem isn’t simply sex? What if we’ve reduced intimacy to something that happens in the bedroom while neglecting the attentiveness, presence, communication, tenderness, and trust that allow two people to truly open themselves to one another?

From a newlywed disagreement over “good bread” to the simple wisdom of not putting the cart before the horse, we explore why couples often misunderstand each other and how learning to enter the deeper places of the heart can change the way we love.

🎙️ Word Made Fresh Links:

🎵 Listen WMF on Spotify

📍 Tour Dates

📩 Send us your art & questions: [email protected] 

Christopher West:

📸⁠ Instagram⁠

🔵 ⁠Facebook⁠

🎤 ⁠Ask Christopher West Podcast⁠

Mike Mangione:

🎵 Mike's Music

▶️ YouTube 

📸 ⁠Instagram⁠

🎸 ⁠Mike's website⁠

🗺️ ⁠Mike's tour⁠

Bill Donaghy:

📸 ⁠Instagram⁠

Theology of the Body Institute Resources:

🔥 ⁠3 FREE sessions of our flagship course on the TOB⁠

💬 Text TOB to (404) 647-7682

⚡️ ⁠Support us & get access to leading TOB formation⁠

📚 ⁠Course schedule⁠

🏔️ ⁠Pilgrimages⁠

🛍️ ⁠Store⁠

A listener challenged us with a serious accusation: Have we spent so much time talking about marriage and sexuality that we've lost sight of the Church's call to holiness and celibacy? Rather than dismiss the criticism, we slow down and ask what truth might be hidden within it. Together we wrestle with the reality of lust, the fear many Christians carry about sexuality, and the astonishing claim of St. John Paul II that the human body reveals a "great mystery." If you've ever wondered whether holiness means escaping your humanity, or allowing Christ to redeem it, this conversation is for you.

🎙️ Word Made Fresh Links:

🎵 Listen WMF on Spotify

📍 Tour Dates

📩 Send us your art & questions: [email protected] 

Christopher West:

📸⁠ Instagram⁠

🔵 ⁠Facebook⁠

🎤 ⁠Ask Christopher West Podcast⁠

Mike Mangione:

🎵 Mike's Music

▶️ YouTube 

📸 ⁠Instagram⁠

🎸 ⁠Mike's website⁠

🗺️ ⁠Mike's tour⁠

Bill Donaghy:

📸 ⁠Instagram⁠

Theology of the Body Institute Resources:

🔥 ⁠3 FREE sessions of our flagship course on the TOB⁠

💬 Text TOB to (404) 647-7682

⚡️ ⁠Support us & get access to leading TOB formation⁠

📚 ⁠Course schedule⁠

🏔️ ⁠Pilgrimages⁠

🛍️ ⁠Store⁠

What if one of the greatest obstacles to faith isn't doubt, but the way we see our own bodies?This conversation began with a piece of artwork depicting Christ in the womb, but it quickly became something much deeper. Christopher, Bill, and Mike explore why the Incarnation is far more radical than most of us realize, how one surprising biological fact led to a six-month prayer journey, and why recovering a sense of awe for the human body changes the way we understand Christmas, the Eucharist, aging, death, and ultimately what it means to be human.Perhaps the journey home begins where every human life began.

THE TRUTH AND THE LIE book pre-order

🎙️ Word Made Fresh Links:

🎵 Listen WMF on Spotify

📍 Tour Dates

📩 Send us your art & questions: [email protected] 

Christopher West:

📸⁠ Instagram⁠

🔵 ⁠Facebook⁠

🎤 ⁠Ask Christopher West Podcast⁠

Mike Mangione:

🎵 Mike's Music

▶️ YouTube 

📸 ⁠Instagram⁠

🎸 ⁠Mike's website⁠

🗺️ ⁠Mike's tour⁠

Bill Donaghy:

📸 ⁠Instagram⁠

Theology of the Body Institute Resources:

🔥 ⁠3 FREE sessions of our flagship course on the TOB⁠

💬 Text TOB to (404) 647-7682

⚡️ ⁠Support us & get access to leading TOB formation⁠

📚 ⁠Course schedule⁠

🏔️ ⁠Pilgrimages⁠

🛍️ ⁠Store⁠

A month after getting married, Juan shares the biggest lesson he's learned so far: your spouse is a gift—but they're not God.

That sparks a conversation about one of the deepest struggles in every marriage and every human heart. Why do the people and things we love most awaken desires they can never fully satisfy? What do we really mean when we say, "My wife doesn't do it for me anymore"? And why does disappointment so often turn into resentment?

From marriage and desire to C.S. Lewis, John Paul II, and the ache for infinite happiness, this episode explores the longing beneath every longing—and where it ultimately leads.

Every boy desires to become a man. But what happens when authentic models of masculinity are missing?In this episode, we unpack the rise of the manosphere, the deep wounds many young men are carrying, and why so many influencers are gaining traction by speaking to those wounds. Are they offering genuine healing—or simply monetizing male insecurity? Along the way, we explore fatherhood, the need for masculine affirmation, the difference between strength and domination, and what it really means to become a man. Drawing on Theology of the Body, personal stories, and a fascinating documentary, this conversation gets to the heart of a question every man, and every parent of boys, must face: who is teaching our sons what it means to be men?

🎙️ Word Made Fresh Links:

🎵 Listen WMF on Spotify

📍 Tour Dates

📩 Send us your art & questions: [email protected] 

Christopher West:

📸⁠ Instagram⁠

🔵 ⁠Facebook⁠

🎤 ⁠Ask Christopher West Podcast⁠

Mike Mangione:

🎵 Mike's Music

▶️ YouTube 

📸 ⁠Instagram⁠

🎸 ⁠Mike's website⁠

🗺️ ⁠Mike's tour⁠

Bill Donaghy:

📸 ⁠Instagram⁠

Theology of the Body Institute Resources:

🔥 ⁠3 FREE sessions of our flagship course on the TOB⁠

💬 Text TOB to (404) 647-7682

⚡️ ⁠Support us & get access to leading TOB formation⁠

📚 ⁠Course schedule⁠

🏔️ ⁠Pilgrimages⁠

🛍️ ⁠Store⁠

Join Christopher, Bill and Mike as they dive into the profound themes of the newly released papal encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. In this insightful discussion, the team explores the tension between building a digital 'Tower of Babel' versus the human-centered approach of rebuilding the 'walls of Jerusalem.' They analyze how to maintain the dignity of the human person in the age of Artificial Intelligence, emphasizing the importance of embodied experience, the incarnation, and the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness.

📔 THE TRUTH AND THE LIE book pre-order

🎙️ Word Made Fresh Links:

🎵 Listen WMF on Spotify

📍 Tour Dates 

Christopher West:

📸⁠ Instagram⁠

🔵 ⁠Facebook⁠

🎤 ⁠Ask Christopher West Podcast⁠

Mike Mangione:

🎵 Mike's Music

▶️ YouTube 

📸 ⁠Instagram⁠

🎸 ⁠Mike's website⁠

🗺️ ⁠Mike's tour⁠

Bill Donaghy:

📸 ⁠Instagram⁠

Theology of the Body Institute Resources:

🔥 ⁠3 FREE sessions of our flagship course on the TOB⁠

💬 Text TOB to (404) 647-7682

⚡️ ⁠Support us & get access to leading TOB formation⁠

📚 ⁠Course schedule⁠

🏔️ ⁠Pilgrimages⁠

🛍️ ⁠Store⁠

What if the songs and movies you secretly love are revealing something deeper about your soul? In this episode, the conversation unexpectedly turns into a raw and hilarious exploration of vulnerability, music, masculinity, nostalgia, and the human longing for love. From Wild Mountain Thyme and Hallmark movies to Tommy Boy, Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” Bob Marley, Van Morrison, and Pope Leo’s reflections on music, Dr. Christopher, Mike Mangione & Bill Donaghy unpack why certain stories and songs hit us so deeply. This episode is funny, emotional, surprisingly profound, and full of moments that will probably make you rethink the music that lives inside you.

🎙️ Word Made Fresh Links:

🎵 Listen WMF on Spotify

📍 Tour Dates 

Christopher West:

📸⁠ Instagram⁠

🔵 ⁠Facebook⁠

🎤 ⁠Ask Christopher West Podcast⁠

Mike Mangione:

🎵 Mike's Music

▶️ YouTube 

📸 ⁠Instagram⁠

🎸 ⁠Mike's website⁠

🗺️ ⁠Mike's tour⁠

Bill Donaghy:

📸 ⁠Instagram⁠

Theology of the Body Institute Resources:

🔥 ⁠3 FREE sessions of our flagship course on the TOB⁠

💬 Text TOB to (404) 647-7682

⚡️ ⁠Support us & get access to leading TOB formation⁠

📚 ⁠Course schedule⁠

🏔️ ⁠Pilgrimages⁠

🛍️ ⁠Store⁠