The Catholic Culture Podcast CatholicCulture.org

Catholic critics of feminism often start with the assumption that the "first wave" of feminism, led by 19th-century figures such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was basically a good thing and compatible with Catholic teachings; only later in the 1960s and 70s, according to this narrative, was the movement "hijacked" by "radical feminists".
The only problem is that when one actually looks closely at feminism in its early form, whether that of Stanton and Anthony or even earlier with Mary Wollstonecraft, one finds obvious continuities with so-called "radical feminism".
On the level of ideas, we find Enlightenment individualism, rationalism, and egalitarianism attacking as oppressive the natural institutions of marriage and family and the divinely ordained hierarchies of the Church.
On the personal level, feminism was from the beginning the brainchild of traumatized, miserable women who had deeply dysfunctional relationships with the men in their lives - their ideas eagerly championed by men like Percy Shelley, who "liberated" women in order to exploit them.
Carrie Gress returns to the show to discuss her book The End of Woman: How Smashing the Patriarchy Has Destroyed Us, which tells the stories of feminist pioneers from Wollstonecraft, Stanton, and Shelley to Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem.
Links
Carrie Gress, The End of Woman: How Smashing the Patriarchy Has Destroyed Us https://www.regnery.com/9781684514182/the-end-of-woman/
Dawn Eden, “Eve of Deconstruction: Feminism and John Paul II” https://www.catholicity.com/commentary/eden/03324.html
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St. John of the Cross is not only one of the Church’s greatest mystics, but also one of the most important figures in the Spanish poetic tradition. A new book of translations of St. John’s poems, brought into English by contemporary bilingual poet Rhina Espaillat, gives us a chance to discover or rediscover this singular spiritual and artistic master.
Carla Galdo joins the podcast to discuss Espaillat’s translations of St. John of the Cross. Comparing them with earlier translations by Roy Campbell (a friend of Tolkien and Lewis) provides opportunity to highlight various approaches and problems in translating poetry. Carla and Thomas also discuss common misconceptions about the dark night of the soul, and John’s use of the classic mystical symbolism of bride and bridegroom representing the relationship between the soul and God.
Links
The Spring that Feeds the Torrent: Poems by St. John of the Cross, Translated by Rhina P. Espaillat https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p135/The_Spring_that_Feeds_the_Torrent%3A_Poems_by_St._John_of_the_Cross%2C_Translated_by_Rhina_P._Espaillat.html
St. John of the Cross: Poems, trans. Roy Campbell https://clunymedia.com/products/poems
Musical setting of "El pastorcico" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se0fcCvKqzY
Well-Read Mom https://wellreadmom.com
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Go to Catholic Culture's website for tons of written content, including news, articles, liturgical year info, and a vast library of documents: https://www.catholicculture.org

Anyone who went through confirmation prep at some point learned the list of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. But most would struggle to define the gifts, especially the ones that sound a bit similar, like wisdom, knowledge, and understanding? The great 17th-century Thomistic commentator John of St. Thomas discoursed on the gifts of the Holy Spirit with not only technical precision, but spiritual insight and fervor. Since John was not available for a podcast interview, he sent one of his Dominican brothers, Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, to explain his insights to us laypeople.
Links
John of St. Thomas, The Gifts of the Holy Spirit https://clunymedia.com/products/the-gifts-of-the-holy-spirit
Other books mentioned:
Cajetan Cuddy and Romanus Cessario, O.P., Thomas and the Thomists: The Achievement of Thomas Aquinas and His Interpreters https://www.fortresspress.com/store/product/9781506405957/Thomas-and-the-Thomists
Romanus Cessario, O.P., The Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church https://tst.bakeracademic.com/p/the-seven-sacraments-of-the-catholic-church-romanus-op-cessario/251501
Luis Martinez, The Sanctifier https://paulinestore.com/sanctifier-rev-3333-116039.html

Today it's taken for granted that we as Christians are called to "engage the culture" in order to evangelize. Often "engaging the culture" means paying an inordinate amount of attention to popular commercial entertainment in order to show unbelievers how hip we are, straining to find a "Christ-figure" in every comic book movie, and making worship music as repetitive, melodically banal, and emotionalistic as possible. Past a certain point, "cultural engagement" begins to seem like a noble-sounding excuse to enjoy mediocrity - and Christians, unfortunately, are as much in love with mediocre entertainment as anyone else.
The novel doctrine of "cultural engagement" is just one subject covered in Joshua Gibbs's challenging and entertaining new book, Love What Lasts: How to Save Your Soul from Mediocrity. Joshua joins Thomas Mirus for a wide-ranging conversation about how we choose to spend our free time and why it matters.
Topics include:
The dangers of artistic mediocrity The importance of boredom Why streaming has been terrible for music The different kinds of Christian "cultural engagers" Uncommon and common good things and how both are threatened by the mediocre How the "special" apes the holy The meme-ification of art Links
Gibbs, Love What Lasts: How to Save Your Soul from Mediocrity https://circeinstitute.org/product/love-what-lasts/
Gibbs, "Film As a Metaphysical Coup" https://circeinstitute.org/blog/film-metaphysical-coup/
Thomas's favorite episode of Gibbs's podcast, Proverbial https://shows.acast.com/proverbial/episodes/how-to-buy-a-bottle-of-wine
www.GibbsClassical.com
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Looking back at highlights from past episodes of the Catholic Culture Podcast and Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast. Full episodes below:
CCP Ep. 63—Beauty Revealing Being (Vision of the Soul Pt. II)—James Matthew Wilson https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-63-beauty-revealing-being-vision-soul-pt-2-james-matthew-wilson/
CCP Ep. 69 - The Poetry of the English Martyrs - Benedict Whalen https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-69-poetry-english-martyrs-benedict-whalen/
CCP Ep. 70 - The Flannery-Haunted World - Joshua Hren https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-70-reviving-catholic-literary-tradition-joshua-hren-john-emmet-clarke/
 Criteria - Dekalog: One (1988) https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/dekalog-one-1988/
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Distributism, the social-political-economic philosophy advanced by G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc under the influence of Catholic social teaching, offers intriguing ways of rethinking the modern social-political-economic order. But distributists have often been found lacking in serious practical plans to bring about their ideal social order, and in the economic fallacies they commit when critiquing other schools of thought.
Distributists and economists have often seemed to be natural enemies. As an economist, Alexander W. Salter is not willing to embrace many distributists' skepticism that there can such a thing as economic science. But he also believes it would be a mistake to neglect the powerful social vision of Chesterton and Belloc on account of their shortcomings in economic theory. He joins the podcast to discuss his new book, The Political Economy of Distributism, in which he argues that a combination of distributist social philosophy and modern price theory can help us to achieve the much-discussed goal of "common good capitalism".
The Political Economy of Distributism: Property, Liberty, and the Common Good https://www.cuapress.org/9780813236810/the-political-economy-of-distributism/
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Go to Catholic Culture's website for tons of written content, including news, articles, liturgical year info, and a vast library of documents: https://www.catholicculture.org