Dr. Dan Hall is a surgeon and an Episcopal priest who, in addition to teaching at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Center for Bioethics and Health Law, performs surgeries and conducts research at the VA health system. Dan joins Grant for a provocative exploration of the intersections of physical and spiritual health, the advantages and limitations of incorporating artificial intelligence into medicine, and the phenomenon of excluding clergy from hospitals during the recent pandemic. Together, they ask, “If doctors are modern-day priests, what is their obligation to the religious well-being of their patients?”

Get to know the Beatrice Institute podcast hosts, Ryan McDermott and Grant Martsolf, as they take turns interviewing each other. In this wide-ranging conversation, Ryan and Grant explore utilitarian tendencies in higher education, what religious institutes can offer a university community, and the relationship between immortality and incorruptibility. Ryan plays “would you rather” with Grant, and they meditate on two differing apocalyptic views of history

Dr. Karina Schumann is an assistant professor and the social program chair in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on identifying factors that help people successfully manage their conflicts and respond to challenging social interactions in prosocial ways. She leads the Conflict Resolution (CORE) Lab at the University of Pittsburgh. Karina joins Grant for an in-depth exploration of apologies, forgiveness, and intellectual humility. Together they discuss why public apologies seem fake, what elements are necessary for an effective apology, and why women apologize more than men.

Kerilyn Harkaway-Krieger is assistant professor of English and the director of The Great Conversation program at Gordon College. Corey Sparks is assistant professor of English at California State University at Chico, where he teaches courses on medieval literature, literary theory, poetry, and the digital humanities. Kerilyn and Corey join Elise to reflect upon their decade-long friendship, which took root amid the shared anxieties of graduate studies and has flourished despite their physical separation. Drawing upon ancient, medieval, and modern texts, the three friends meditate on tenderness, vulnerability, and viewing oneself through the eyes of one’s friends.

Philipp Rosemann is chair of philosophy at Maynooth University in Ireland and the editor of the Dallas Medieval Texts and Translations series. A native of Germany who studied in Ireland and Belgium, Philipp joins Ryan for a frank discussion of the spiritual wasteland of contemporary Irish culture. Drawing upon themes from Philipp’s latest book, the two cover a variety of topics from Foucault, to the desert of west Texas, to Catholic utopian literature.

Ben Miller is the chief strategy officer for Well Being Trust, a national foundation advancing the mental, social, and spiritual health of the nation. Ben joins Grant to discuss the importance of an holistic approach to health and the challenges facing those with mental health issues as they navigate the tangled health delivery system.

In this episode, Elise talks with Noah Toly, professor of Urban Studies and Politics & International Relations at Wheaton College. They discuss the urban and built environment’s capability of shaping our desires and relationships, the role that the tragic plays in global environmental governance, and the ways we might rethink vocation in an increasingly consumerist and product-driven world.

An interview with Bruderhof member Clare Stober, who produced the Bruderhof's centenary photo book, Another Life is Possible.

Jessica Hooten Wilson is an author and speaker dedicated to the questions: What are the great stories and how do we pass them on? She is the Louise Cowan Scholar in Residence and a professor of Humanities and Classical Education at the University of Dallas. She is the 2019 recipient of the Hiett Prize in the Humanities. Jessica joins Grant to discuss the impact of Walker Percy on questions of evil and the modern human. They talk about Percy’s role as the great diagnostician, why Lost in the Cosmos is the last self-help book you’ll ever need, and how to develop your own Walker Percy Reading Plan. Topics include:   Great books The existence of evil and the phenomenon of despair The spiritual urgency of Dostoevsky The quest for the tertium quid What a 21st-century Walker Percy protagonist looks like The profane as a conduit for grace and the sacred How to tend your garden A sacramental cosmology The contribution of Christian authors to Walker Percy's legacy Seeing the signs and know what they signify   Links: The Moviegoer by Walker Percy  Reading Walker Percy’s Novels by Jessica Hooten Wilson  Walker Percy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the Search for Influence by Jessica Hooten Wilson The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky Kierkegaard on despair Tertium quid Lost in the Cosmos by Walker Percy  The Pale King by David Foster Wallace Prayer in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren   The Last Gentleman by Walker Percy   The Thanatos Syndrome by Walker Percy  Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy  Utopia by Thomas More  Lancelot by Walker Percy  Candide by Voltaire  Giving the Devil His Due by Jessica Hooten Wilson Flannery O’Connor  Virgil Wander by Leif Inger  The Reason for Crows by Diane Glancy  Father Elijah by Michael O’Brien  Exiles by Ron Hansen  The Second Coming by Walker Percy

Michael Sacasas is an independent scholar focusing on technology and culture. Michael joins Elise to talk about the way technology shapes our society. They discuss the role media can have in disintegrating a sense of the common good and why technology tends to reflect ourselves back to us. Together they ask: Is online “real life”? What constitutes reality in digital spaces? And what’s at stake when we refer to the digital as “space”?   Digital and media environment Online identity formation Mediation Spatial metaphors for digital life Digitized relationships Philosophy of technology Temporal lag and immediacy Weaponization of digital memory Social media interfaces as “common things” The algorithmically mediated nature of social media Apathy and numbness Hyperreality and spectacle Acedia and doomscrolling Limits that we ought to embrace Making sense of the insurrection Narrative structure and databases National Mourning and public language Ordering our remembrances   Michael Sacasas’ newsletter, The Convivial Society “The Insurrection Will Be Livestreamed” by Michael Sacasas “The Analog City and the Digital City” by Michael Sacasas “Structurally Induced Acedia” by Michael Sacasas Nathan Jurgenson on “digital dualism” Postphenomenology Evan Selinger Don Ihde Peter-Paul Verbeek Marshall McLuhan Ivan Illich “The Scourge of ‘Relatability’” by Rebecca Mead Liquid Modernity by Zygmunt Bauman Lysistrata by Aristophanes The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt Digital humanist Corey Sparks Vladimir Nabokov Michel de Certeau Alasdair MacIntyre Commemoration of COVID-19 victims The Need for Roots by Simone Weil