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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 journalist Gareth Gore, author of the new book Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church.
Relying on bank records and the testimony of whistleblowers, Gore demystifies the secretive world of Opus Dei, showing how it has recruited powerful individuals and harmed vulnerable ones in its quest for political sway.
For further reading:
Daniele Palmer on Opus Dei’s ‘ordinary secularity’
George Scialabba reviews Opus for The Baffler -
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 the deep questions of life, love, and vocation.
On this episode, Moreland and Smith speak with associate editor Regina Munch about their book, explaining how young people can live rich, flourishing, and meaningful lives.
For further reading:
Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko on the good life
Regina Munch on the advantages of marriage
Brenda Noriega on synodality, young people, and leadership -
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The Trump campaign has made us all too familiar with the ideology of Christian Nationalism, with its violent rhetoric and racist undertones.
Far less well-known, though, is the tradition of Black Christian Nationalism, a radical social and religious movement founded by Rev. Albert Cleage, Jr., in civil-rights-era Detroit.
On this episode, associate editor Griffin Oleynick speaks with writer Aaron Robertson, author of The Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America.
Blending history and memoir, Robertson’s book traces the untold story of Black Christian Nationalism while grappling with a question: what does Utopia look like in black?
For further reading:
Tia Noelle Pratt on Black Catholic parishes
Shannen Dee Williams on Black nuns in Baltimore
Gary Dorrien on the theology of Sen. Raphael Warnock -
Corporate boosters of artificial intelligence promise that the technology will vastly improve efficiency in the world of work. But is that actually desirable?
On this episode, associate editor Regina Munch speaks with University of Virginia sociologist Allison Pugh, whose new book The Last Human Job explores the concept of what she calls “connective labor”—interpersonal work that relies on empathy, human contact, and mutual recognition.
In fields like medicine, teaching, and even chaplaincy, such connective labor is increasingly performed by machines. Pugh challenges us to resist this trend, both by deprioritizing efficiency and by returning to authentic human relationships.
For further reading:
Miles Doyle on efforts to regulate AI in congress
A symposium on our posthuman future
The editors call for a moratorium on AI development -
Garth Greenwell’s latest novel, Small Rain, is set in a midwestern ICU during the early days of the pandemic, as its unnamed narrator, a writer, experiences a health crisis and lies confined to his bed in excruciating pain.
In long pauses between visits with nurses and doctors, amid the weird dilations of ‘hospital time,’ the narrator muses on his suffering and disappointments, but also the nature of art and the ‘adventure’ of domestic life.
On this episode, Greenwell joins Commonweal contributor Tony Domestico to talk about the novel.
For further reading:
A review of Garth Greenwell’s Cleanness
Another interview with Garth Greenwell -
As the fall semester begins, colleges and universities are bracing for fresh controversies over free speech, affordability, and the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence.
On this episode, Tania Tetlow, the first layperson and first woman to serve as the president of Fordham University, joins editor Dominic Preziosi to weigh in on what Catholic colleges and universities can do differently.
If entering students increasingly hail from diverse religious backgrounds—or sometimes no faith background at all—that’s an opportunity for “mission,” pursued with openness, inclusivity, and a willingness to be proven wrong.
For further reading:
Nancy Dallavalle on whether Catholic colleges have a future
Susan Bigelow Reynolds on public scholarship
An interview with former UC Chancellor Nicholas Dirks -
Religious disaffiliation, the drifting away of Americans from their churches, isn’t a new story. But it’s certainly a true one.
And yet it’s also not the whole story, as veteran New Yorker journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Eliza Griswold argues in her new book, Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church.
Griswold’s is a work of ‘immersion journalism,’ reported by embedding for four years with a progressive evangelical community in Philadelphia. She stuck with the story even as heated conflicts over race, gender, and power threatened the church’s survival.
On this episode, Griswold speaks about the book and the future of American Christianity, with Commonweal associate editor Griffin Oleynick.
For further reading:
Brett Hoover on young Catholics’ waning religiosity
Kate Lucky on the ‘ex-vangelicals’
Julia Marley on the ‘Jesus Freaks’ -
The 2024 Paris Olympics have brought massive investment to the City of Light, including the construction of new housing, sports facilities, and public transportation.
Yet we shouldn’t let that obscure a more sinister phenomenon: gentrification, which has rapidly transformed many of the city’s former immigrant and working-class strongholds into expensive quarters for the newly affluent.
On this episode, Commonweal senior editor Matt Boudway speaks with journalist Cole Stangler, author of Paris Is Not Dead: Surviving Hypergentrification in the City of Light.
Stangler, who lives in France, explains Paris’s historical transformation, as well as more recent developments in French politics.
For further reading:
Cole Stangler’s writing for Commonweal
Fran Quigley on social housing
Max Holleran on gentrification and the YIMBYs -
Alim Braxton, a convicted murderer who admits his guilt, has been incarcerated in North Carolina prison for more than thirty years, spending seven years in solitary confinement and many more on death row.
He was once hopeless, but after his conversion to Islam many years ago, he began working for redemption by advocating for prison reform and the exoneration of innocent inmates.
Braxton is also a rapper, and just released his first album, along with a book, Rap and Redemption on Death Row, co-written with UNC Chapel Hill musicologist Mark Katz.
On this special episode, Commonweal’s Claudia Avila Cosnahan speaks with both Braxton and Katz about Braxton’s spiritual and artistic journey.
For further reading:
Dominic Preziosi on Biden’s broken death penalty promise
David Bentley Hart on Christians and capital punishment
Burke Nixon on the Texas prison system -
Egalitarianism remains one of the core tenets of most liberals and progressives. But does the idea that everyone ought to be equal in the sphere of political economy also hold true for the realm of culture?
Absolutely not, argues Becca Rothfeld, nonfiction book critic at the Washington Post and author of the debut collection All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess. The modern insistence that all cultural objects are “equal” is actually a symptom of our failure to create a society in which genuine equality is present.
That, Rothfeld insists, is why we need more of everything—more personhood, more sincerity, more critical judgment, and even more chaos. It’s the only way to overcome the ascendance of anodyne minimalism that has stifled contemporary culture.
On this episode, Rothfeld joins Commonweal senior editor Matthew Boudway to discuss her book, medieval mysticism, and more.
For further reading:
Costica Bradatan on the theology of Simone Weil
Thomas Merton on whether mysticism is normal
Matthew Boudway on the agony of Gerard Manley Hopkins -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
The past year or so hasn’t been the best one for higher education. Debates over affirmative action, free speech, and affordability, combined with recent cuts to the humanities, have led many to wonder what the future holds.
Here to speak about all of this is Nicholas Dirks, former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, and author of City of Intellect: The Uses and Abuses of the University.
Dirks argues that we certainly need structural change. Even more important is that colleges and universities return to their core functions: the pursuit of free inquiry, reasoning about fundamental human values, and training future generations of engaged citizens.
For further reading:
Zena Hitz on why we need the humanities
Nancy Dallavalle on whether Catholic colleges have a future
Our recent editorial on affirmative action and affordability -
Recent weeks have seen an intensification of the Republican campaign against Catholic groups that offer assistance to migrants and refugees along the southern border.
Last month, Texas state attorney general Ken Paxton announced a lawsuit against Annunciation House, a network of houses of hospitality run by Catholic volunteers in El Paso, Texas.
On this special episode, activist Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House, speaks with associate editor Regina Munch about the recent controversy—and why we need comprehensive immigration reform.
For further reading:
Brett Hoover on the inadequacies of migration metaphors
An interview with El Paso bishop Mark Seitz
Alejandro Nava describes working at a hospitality house in Tucson
Susan Bigelow Reynolds attends an Easter Vigil in Matamoros -
For many religious people, the pandemic accelerated a decline in institutional allegiance and trust that was already well underway. Many Catholics stopped attending Mass and still haven’t returned.
One figure who thinks deeply about the contemporary decline in religious practice and affiliation is Irish poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama, host of the weekly podcast Poetry Unbound and author of the new book Being Here: Prayers for Curiosity, Justice, and Love.
On this episode, he joins associate editor Griffin Oleynick for a conservation sparked by this collection of ‘anarchic’ prayers. Touching on the Church’s difficult relationship with women, LGTBQ people, and abuse victims, Ó Tuama testifies to the peace and freedom made possible by laying down “the burden of belief.”
For further reading:
A collection of essays on staying in and leaving the Church
Christian Wiman on poetry in the Bible
A profile of the poet Fanny Howe -
For the first time, a majority of Americans now live in the suburbs—places that have been transformed over the past several decades by boom-and-bust construction cycles and rapid demographic shifts.
On this episode, associate editor Regina Munch speaks with journalist Benjamin Herold about his new book Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America’s Suburbs, which profiles five families in the suburbs of Dallas, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
American suburbs were never sustainable, Herold argues. They were built for upwardly mobile white families, who extracted wealth and benefits before moving further out and sticking subsequent generations—often families of color—with the bill.
Now that we’ve begun reckoning with this painful legacy, Herold invites us to look for seeds of renewal.
For further reading:
Bill McKibben explains what’s wrong with the ‘burbs
Max Holleran on American housing scarcity
Diane Ravitch on the fight over public education - Se mer
