Emily Oster’s new book wades through the data on questions relevant to many parents of school-age kids. But the book is less about the data itself and more about how to frame decisions on these topics and others in the most effective, logical and efficient way.
Arts & Culture
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
I like many of Glennon Doyle’s messages for women. But some of her ideas about family are problematic.
For Catholics, the basic unit of society is the family and our local church, not the individual.
Posted inArts & Culture, Television
‘Ted Lasso’ officially has its own Judas character.
Both the heroes and villains of “Ted Lasso” remain quite ordinary. And it is the show’s portrayal of that daily reckoning with good and evil, those small temptations, that make it easy to relate to.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Love him or hate him, Jonathan Franzen sparks conversation
Jonathan Franzen remains among the select few novelists who can vie for a Pulitzer Prize and the top spot on best-seller lists every time out of the gate. His new novel might win him both.
Posted inArts & Culture, Film
Daniel Craig has brilliantly reinvented James Bond. But he can’t save the franchise from irrelevance.
The ‘Bond’ franchise has finally rid itself of a decades-long pattern of misogyny and sexism. Unfortunately, the movies are also showing signs of losing relevance.
Posted inArts & Culture, Film
‘Mass’ captures grief in the wake of a school shooting. That unfiltered pain is a liturgical experience.
“Mass” captures perfectly this experience of tragic loss, from two radically different perspectives.
Posted inArts & Culture, Podcasts
Podcast: Toni Morrison’s Black Catholic Novels
Why isn’t Morrison typically thought of alongside the usual lineup of Catholic novelists?
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
3 reasons the Catholic Church should fight to regulate Facebook
As former Facebook employee Frances Haugen testified before Congress, one question seemed to rise to the surface: Is it time to regulate (and perhaps break up) Facebook? From a Catholic standpoint, the answer is absolutely and emphatically yes.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
The gift and challenge of love in Kirstin Valdez Quade’s ‘The Five Wounds’
‘The Five Wounds’ causes the reader pain. Call it compassion. Call it empathy. Call it the Christian experience of being heart-stretched.
Posted inArts & Culture, Film
‘The Many Saints of Newark’ is set in a Catholic world. That doesn’t make it a Catholic movie.
When it comes to their religion, the criminals embrace the rituals and ignore the meaning.