Podcasts

Jesuit scholastics Kevin Spinale and Tim O’Brien join Tim Reidy for a discussion of Peter De Vries’ 1961 novel The Blood of the Lamb. In this tragicomic tour de force, De Vries chronicles the life of Don Wanderhope, a Calvinist from Chicago who works as a garbageman and spends his nights necking in city parks. […]

Brian B. Pinter offers an intriguing account of his experiences teaching the Bible to Catholics in parishes in New York. A small but vocal minority of parishioners have taken issue with the historical/critical approach he espouses, preferring instead a literal account of Genesis and other Biblical stories. Pinter explains why some Catholics may be taken […]

Historian David O’Brien talks about how September 11 marked a turning point in his identity as an historian and “Americanist” and how impressed he was by the stories of courage and love that grew from that day. In a second interview, Fr. Robert Robbins describes his role in inter-religious relations in New York in the […]

Kevin Clarke leads a discussion with Editorial Director Karen Sue Smith and Editor in Chief Drew Christiansen, S.J. on America’s fiscal woes, an upcoming article in America on American Muslims post-9/11 and the signs of dissatisfaction among the British underclass.

Jennifer Haigh’s novel, Faith, centers on a priest who is accused of sexual abuse in Boston in 2002 and his half-sister who sets out to find the truth. In this installment of America‘s Book Club, Kevin Spinale, S.J., describes the complex relationships among the Irish-Catholic family at the heart of the book, and explains why […]

Is the race for the Republican nomination Mitt Romney’s to lose? Will Sarah Palin ever decide whether to run, and can Michelle Bachmann pull a Mike Huckabee at the Iowa stroll poll next month? Can any of these candidates defeat President Obama, even at a time of growing unemployment? Matt Malone, S.J., former associate editor […]

James Martin, S.J., describes the devastating drought in Eastern Africa, and what Catholics can do to help, and Kerry Weber discusses the challenges facing unemployed workers who are now being told not apply for jobs if they have been out of work for an extended period. Kevin Spinale, S.J., reports on Google’s legal battle to […]

Agnes Nixon, the creator of “One Life to Live” and “All My Children,” talks about her Catholic childhood in Tennessee and the faith that spurred her to write on issues of social justice.

Tim Reidy joins Mike Avery and Tim O’Brien, S.J., two of America‘s summer interns, in a discussion of Mark Oppenheimer’s much-talked about article on Dan Savage’s views on monogamy and marriage. The roundtable also takes up Mickey Edward’s six-step plan to fix Congress, published in The Atlantic, and Daniel Okrent’s Last Call: The Rise and […]

How can a Catholic balance the demands of voting with the Christian call to holiness? Nicholas P. Cafardi, dean emeritus and professor of the Duquesne University School of Law, discusses his article in the current issue of America, “Keep Holy Election Day,” explaining why the values of holiness and conscientious citizenship need not be contrary. […]