The Commonweal Podcast

Mar 27 2025 171 ep. 34 mins 335
The Commonweal Podcast artwork

Conversations at the intersection of politics, religion, and culture: Commonweal Magazine editor Dominic Preziosi hosts The Commonweal Podcast, a regular compendium of in-depth interviews, discussions, and profiles presented by Commonweal’s editors and contributors.

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Ep. 149 - When the Good Book Isn’t a Book

Mar 27 2025 30 mins  
Catholics listen to snippets of the Bible read every Sunday, but how many of them actually sit with and ponder the text? It’s long been a truism that Catholics don’t actually read the Bible — at least not as much or in the same way as their Protestant brethren. But that doesn’t mean Catholics don’t encounter it, whether in books, films, plays, or popular culture. On

Ep. 148 - What Novels Do

Mar 06 2025 30 mins  
What should great fiction do for us? That’s the question asked by Edwin Frank, editorial director of New York Review Books and author of Stranger than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel. Good books—and there were many written during the past hundred years—can entertain, just as they can give us pleasure. But great ones have the ‘power to breach,’ that is, to

Ep. 147 - The New ‘Preeminent Urgency’

Feb 18 2025 39 mins  
In his first month back in office, Donald Trump has made cruelty toward migrants and refugees central to his agenda, while J. D. Vance has used his flawed understanding of Catholic social teaching to justify the administration’s plans for mass deportation. Their actions and remarks have alarmed many in the Church. On this episode, three guests tell us how and why. Massimo Fagg

Ep. 146 - Aging in America

Feb 06 2025 42 mins  
Fights over federal spending usually follow a predictable pattern, with Republicans attempting to cut entitlement programs as Democrats seek to expand the social safety net. One thing that’s rarely threatened, though, is Social Security, a testament to the political clout of “older people”—formerly known as “senior citizens” in America. How did things get that way?

Ep. 145 - Memory Matters

Jan 24 2025 63 mins  
For as long as humans beings have existed, we have had a knack for forgetting—not only when memory proves difficult, but when it becomes inconvenient. We need only look at Donald Trump’s pardoning of the January 6 “hostages” for the latest, most egregious example. Why do humans long to forget? Why do we hide the truth from ourselves? What is the function of memory in de

Ep. 144 - Best Interviews of 2024

Dec 27 2024 35 mins  
As you probably know by now, 2024 was a big year for Commonweal, marking one hundred years of continuous publication. It was also an important one for the podcast, which for five years—and nearly one hundred and fifty episodes—has been bringing you reflective conversations with inspiring writers, thinkers, artists, and political and religious leaders. On this episode, we’

Ep. 143 - ‘Hope Grows in the Dark’

Dec 12 2024 31 mins  
What does it mean to “have hope,” especially during challenging times? Is it something we can possess, like a talisman to ward off despair? No, argues Norman Wirzba, distinguished professor of Christian theology at Duke and author of the new book Love’s Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis. Instead, “hope” is a verb—an action we have to do. On this episode Wirzba e

Ep. 142 - ‘What Backlash Looks Like’

Nov 26 2024 27 mins  
In the wake of the 2024 election, many are wondering how to make sense of the results—including how a capable, qualified woman could lose to a man like Donald Trump, an adjudicated rapist whose campaign regularly celebrated a version of masculinity that many find offensively misogynistic. On this episode, Commonweal editor-at-large Mollie Wilson O’Reilly and Natalia Imperator

Ep. 141 - Follow the Money

Nov 14 2024 27 mins  
The invitation-only Catholic prelature known as Opus Dei, founded in Spain in 1927 by the recently canonized priest Josemaría Escrivá, currently counts just around 3,000 members in the United States. Yet its influence, especially among rightwing Catholics who occupy significant posts in Washington, is vast. On this episode, editor Dominic Preziosi speaks with financial journali

Ep. 140 - Fewer Screens, More Meaning

Oct 24 2024 26 mins  
It’s no secret that there’s a mental health crisis affecting young people in the United States. Rates of anxiety, symptoms of depression, and even suicide attempts have hit record highs. That’s partly what motivated Anna Moreland and Thomas Smith to write The Young Adult Playbook, a kind of “self-help” book intended to help high school and college students think through