The Commonweal Podcast
1) Ep. 156 - The Counterweight: The Common Good & American Liberalism
A little more than eight months into the second Trump presidency, many Americans today find the United States increasingly unrecognizable: a volatile and inflationary economy, rising political violenc...Show More
2) Ep. 155 - The Counterweight: Against White Christian Nationalism
One of the most prominent features of the second Trump administration has been its bluntly racist actions and policymaking. Recent examples abound, from the suspension of asylum for migrants and ref...Show More
3) Ep. 154 - The Counterweight: Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching
Since becoming pope, Leo XIV has reminded us that the Catholic Church “offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching.” That tradition is especially salient now, amid the rise of Christian nat...Show More
4) Ep. 153 - It’s Just Wrong
For decades, public support for the death penalty in the United States has been declining. But in recent years, the number of executions has risen sharply—and a majority of Americans still say they su...Show More
5) Ep. 152 - Crypto-Religiosity
It’s often remarked that America has become less religious, especially during recent decades. But what if that religiosity hasn’t disappeared, but just taken less visible forms? That’s exactly what w...Show More
6) Ep. 151 - The First U.S. Pontiff
The swift elevation to the papacy of Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost—known simply as ‘Bob’ among his fellow Augustinian friars—defied pundits’ predictions even as it was met with joy by C...Show More
7) Ep. 150 - Remembering Francis
Three theologians—Massimo Faggioli, Susan Bigelow Reynolds, and Terence Sweeney—reflect with Commonweal editors on the pope’s legacy. More coverage of the death of Pope Francis: Isabella Simon on Le...Show More
8) Ep. 149 - When the Good Book Isn’t a Book
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 lea...Show More
9) Ep. 148 - What Novels Do
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. ...Show More
10) Ep. 147 - The New ‘Preeminent Urgency’
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 ...Show More