Evangelization & Culture Podcast

Malcolm Guite, poet, scholar, Anglican priest, and Cambridge fellow, explores his lyrical retelling of the Arthurian quest for the Holy Grail. They discuss poetry’s power to preserve communal memory, Arthurian legend’s Christian imagination, chivalry’s struggle against chaos, and the Grail’s Eucharistic symbolism. Galahad’s wilderness journey, Tolkien and Lewis, confession, older stories, and the need for enchantment in a distracted age also come into focus.

What happens when a man who is a faithful husband, loving father, celebrated lawyer, incisive writer, and devoted son of the Church is asked to either violate his conscience or face being imprisoned, hanged, drawn, quartered, and beheaded? If you are most men, you capitulate. But if you are St. Thomas More, you guard your conscience, deepen your faith, and gird yourself for the trial to come. Join Hillsdale College Professor Stephen Smith and me as we explore the saint's powerful prison letters in Smith's new book, The Last Riddle: Advice on Living and Dying Well from the Imprisoned St. Thomas More, on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of The Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

Coming out of the Second Vatican Council, there was a faction that saw the Council's outcome as a tragic rupture with enduring tradition, while another faction seemed eager to declare a rupture with what were deemed outdated, if not ossified, ways. In the face of this, Communio theology emerged with figures like Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, Romano Guardini, and Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) who reminded us that our faith is Christocentric — Christ-centered. Without this understanding, the center cannot hold. Tradition is nothing without Christ and reform is nothing without Christ. Join Dr. Tracey Rowland and me as we explore her compelling new book, Introducing Communio Theology on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of The Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

In America, it is not uncommon to ask what a president achieved in his "First 100 Days." If we asked the same of Adolf Hitler after being appointed Chancellor of Germany, we would learn that he suppressed political parties, suspended civil liberties, purged the civil service, imprisoned political enemies, terrorized the Jews, erected the first concentration camp, and achieved dictatorial power over the state. And that was just in the first 53 days. Join scholar Timothy Ryback and me as we explore the chilling descent of a nation into Nazi darkness in his new book 53 Days: How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of The Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

Elizabeth Corey, a Baylor University political philosopher and author of Michael Oakeshott on Religion, Aesthetics, and Politics, explores Oakeshott’s defense of experience, tradition, and practical knowledge. They discuss his critique of ideology and rationalism, the limits of expert-driven reform, liberal education, apprenticeship, uncertainty, and the pursuit of a humane life beyond careerism and control.

Paul Rahe, a Hillsdale historian of classical republicanism and political theory, remembers his mentor Donald Kagan, the celebrated Thucydides scholar. They trace Kagan’s rise from Brooklyn, his transformative teaching at Yale, and his defense of liberal education. The conversation explores ancient Greece, citizenship, historical judgment, human nature, and the lasting power of an extraordinary mentor.

Bishop Robert Barron, Catholic bishop and founder of Word on Fire, and bestselling author known for the Catholicism series. He probes why many Christians today suffer unnoticed. He tells vivid martyr stories that awaken the moral imagination. He examines why Christ’s death and resurrection uniquely provoke opposition. He outlines how the church endures and practical responses to persecution.

How and why has a nearly three-thousand-year-old story about a man trying to find his way home electrified the twenty-first-century world? And in revisiting this story, what lessons can we learn about the wonder and vexation of the human condition? Join Dr. Patrick J. Deneen of the University of Notre Dame and me as we explore American Odyssey: What an Ancient Story Reveals about Our Divided Souls, his new book tackling Homer's old one, on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of The Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.

Christopher Beha, award-winning novelist and former Harper's editor, reflects on his return to Catholic faith after wrestling with philosophy and personal crises. He shares surreal mystical experiences, battles with depression and substance use, encounters with modern atheism, and how love and practice reshaped his worldview. Short, candid reflections on belief, doubt, and the journey back to faith.

Matthew Spalding, historian and constitutional scholar and dean at Hillsdale College, explores the roots of the Declaration of Independence. He traces colonial and imperial tensions, drafting choices, and the classical and Christian influences that shaped the American mind. Conversations range from Lincoln’s interpretation to why founders framed equality and prudence the way they did.