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153 episodes
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The Commonweal Podcast Commonweal Magazine
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- Religion & Spirituality
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. 131 - How to Talk About Having Kids
In the past, having kids was simply taken for granted. It was just a thing a person did, like going to college or getting a job.
But now, in the face of rising costs and environmental degradation, more and more millennials and zoomers are questioning whether they should become parents at all.
On this episode, Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi is joined by Rachel Wiseman and Anastasia Berg, editors at The Point and co-authors of What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice.
They explain (and lament) how having kids has become so highly politicized in our culture, and offer suggestions for how to make better decisions about becoming a parent.
For further reading:
Jennifer Banks on reckoning with childbirth
Kate Lucky reads to her new baby
A symposium on anti-natalism and posthumanism -
Ep. 130 - What Plants Know (And Why We Should Care)
Can trees ‘hear’? Can flowers ‘see’? Are shrubs ‘intelligent’?
A decade ago, these questions might have seemed absurd. But an emerging scientific consensus posits that plants are much more like animals than previously thought.
On this episode, managing editor Isa Simon speaks with Zoë Schlanger, a staff writer and science reporter at The Atlantic and author of The Light Eaters.
Schlanger shows how the study of plants—and the wonder their behaviors inspire—can offer a welcome alternative to the despair induced by climate change.
For further reading:
Vincent Miller on plant ‘communities’ in old growth forests
David Pinault on environmental activism in Cambodia
Isa Simon on Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass -
Ep. 129 - Judaism’s Loving Heart
One of the misconceptions about Judaism is that the religion is concerned primarily with justice and the law, not love and grace.
That’s precisely backward, argues Rabbi Shai Held, president and dean of the Hadar Institute in New York and author of the new book Judaism Is About Love. Jewish theology, spirituality, and ethics emerge as free responses to a generous, loving God.
On this episode, Held speaks with associate editor Griffin Oleynick about how recovering this more accurate view of Judaism can help believers and non-believers alike lead richer, fuller, more joyful lives.
For further reading:
Why Christians should read Leviticus and Deuteronomy
Tzvi Novick on Jewish memory after October 7
An update on Jewish-Christian dialogue -
Ep. 128 - Diagnosing Disadvantage in America
For decades, discussions of poverty and inequality in America have tended to focus on cities. That’s understandable—cities are often the places where income disparities are most visible.
But as poverty researchers Kathryn Edin, H. Luke Schaefer, and Timothy Nelson argue in their recent book The Injustice of Place, traditional income-based indicators of poverty can mask the “deep disadvantage” faced by rural communities across the country.
On this episode, they join associate editor Regina Munch to discuss how centuries of resource extraction, racism, and “internal colonization” have blocked the advancement of regions like Appalachia, southern Texas, and the “cotton belt” from sharing in American prosperity.
For further reading:
Luke Mayville on how progressives can win in rural America
An interview with poverty expert Matthew Desmond
The editors on pandemic-era relief bills -
Ep. 127 - Criticism as a Way of Life
Vinson Cunningham is one of the most dynamic critics working today. Best known as the New Yorker’s theater critic and co-host of the weekly podcast Critics at Large, he’s also the author of the novel Great Expectations, based on his experience working for the Obama campaign in 2008.
On this episode, Cunningham joins Commonweal contributing writer Anthony Domestico for a discussion about criticism—engaging deeply with a work of art on a personal level, and then responding in writing and speech—as a way of life. Along the way, they also touch on the theological dimensions of Great Expectations.
Anybody, Cunningham argues, can be a critic. All it takes is curiosity, and the willingness to share your observations with others.
For further reading:
Vinson Cunningham on Pope Francis’s Fratelli tutti
William Giraldi on criticism as an act of love
Paul Baumann reviews Barack Obama’s memoir -
Ep. 126 - God, According to Marilynne Robinson
We’re all familiar with the tired stereotype of the “God of the Old Testament,” a capricious creator Who subjects His chosen people to endless cycles of punishment and retribution.
But in her reading of the Book of Genesis, novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson describes a God of gentleness, one wildly in love with creation and humanity.
In this special episode of the Commonweal Podcast, moderated by senior editor Matt Boudway, poet and memoirist Christian Wiman joins Robinson for a conversation about the Book of Genesis.
Robinson and Wiman also discuss scripture and theology more generally—especially as the two practice it through fiction and poetry.
For further reading:
Marilynne Robinson on forgiveness in Genesis
Christian Wiman on the Bible as poetry
Jack Miles on the Bible and translation