Episodes

  • Roxane Salonen talks with The Catholic Connection about Finding Flannery (December 15, 2025)

    Roxane Salonen talks with The Catholic Connection about Finding Flannery (December 15, 2025)
    Dec 17 2025
    Roxane Salonen talks with The Catholic Connection about Finding Flannery: A Travel Memoir Exploring the Mystique of Flannery O’Connor and the Legacy She Has Left Us All authored by Christina Brajkovich, Karen Anne Mahoney, and Roxane B. Salonen

    Follow the journey… During the fiftieth anniversary year of the death of Flannery O’Connor, three writers from the North embarked on a pilgrimage to Milledgeville, Georgia, to uncover the mystique of their heroine, whose stories have left as many shocked as in stitches.

    What formed this famed literary artist, who, though her life was cut short by lupus, became one of America’s most celebrated fiction writers, and whose stories of grace, sin, and redemption–with their misfit characters and grotesque violence–still point us to the light of truth?

    Get ready to be transported into the Deep South, where the world is best taken in from a front-porch rocking chair amid peaches and magnolias, and where Flannery penned her best works in the shadow of a dairy farm. Along the way of this vivid travelogue, you’ll peer into the places that educated and shaped Flannery’s imagination and fed her devout Catholic soul.




    Finding Flannery: A Travel Memoir Exploring the Mystique of Flannery O’Connor and the Legacy She Has Left Us All, authored by Christina Brajkovich, Karen Anne Mahoney, and Roxane B. Salonen | En Route Books and Media
    Show more Show less
    9 mins
  • ITEST Webinar Why the Unborn Matter with Randal Mandock and Francis Etheredge (December 6, 2025)

    ITEST Webinar Why the Unborn Matter with Randal Mandock and Francis Etheredge (December 6, 2025)
    Dec 10 2025
    In this webinar sponsored by the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology, Randal Mandock and Francis Etheredge present on Why the Unborn Matter.

    Our presenters

    Randal Mandock, PhD
    A Rational Case for Life

    Dr. Randal Mandock balanced careers in science and religious education. With a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech, he worked as a geophysicist, professor, and researcher. Simultaneously, he served over 40 years as a Catholic catechist and apologist. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, he remains active in parish ministry and faith formation. Abstract As a free agent (i.e., not officially representing any Church, ecclesial body, or religion), I choose to propose a method of revising definitions and terminology in the area of human pregnancy. I believe the changes inspired by this method will better serve the pro-life cause than the continued adoption of and acquiescence to popular notions about certain definitions and terminology used in popular accounts. My only authority in proposing these changes rests on reason and a desire to assist medical personnel, lawyers, judges, legislators, and the devoutly religious to better position themselves to defend mothers and their unborn children. It is evident that the Magisterium of the Catholic Church has charted for two millennia a masterful path between authority and reason in pursuit of expanding the Kingdom of God on earth. This is evident very recently in its recognition, once again, of the virtue of prudence in assessment of the start of an individual person’s life.

    Francis Etheredge
    The Catholic Faith’s Contribution to Understanding the Moment of Human Conception

    Francis Etheredge is a Catholic married layman, with eleven children, three of whom he hopes are in heaven and the rest of whom are alive and well and stepping through life’s stages of school, university, and career. In the last ten years, he has returned to being a self-employed writer. Find some of his books listed in the resources section below. Abstract On the one hand it would seem that Faith has no contribution to make to an investigation of the beginning of human personhood in that it is a matter of what embryologists can discover, although embryologists do not necessarily recognize that the beginning of the human person transcends the biological action of sperm and egg-cell. On the other hand, then, while Scripture is ordered to our salvation in Christ, we cannot overlook that the question of conception is not without salvific significance. Thus the Scripture speaks of conception, while the dogma of the Immaculate Conception speaks of both the conception of Mary and implicates us. At the same time, the Second Vatican Council, in Gaudium et spes, speaks of both the unity of the human person (14) and the mystery that “For by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man” (22). What, then, are we to make of these contributions to understanding the beginning of human life? https://faithscience.org/why-unborn-matter/
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 48 mins
  • Sonrise Morning Show with Roxane Salonen (November 18, 2025)

    Sonrise Morning Show with Roxane Salonen (November 18, 2025)
    Nov 26 2025
    Matt Swaim and Anna Mitchell interview Roxane Salonen on her book, co-authored with Christina Brajkovich and Karen Anne Mahoney, entitled Finding Flannery: A Travel Memoir Exploring the Mystique of Flannery O’Connor and the Legacy She Has Left Us All. (November 18, 2025)

    Follow the journey… During the fiftieth anniversary year of the death of Flannery O’Connor, three writers from the North embarked on a pilgrimage to Milledgeville, Georgia, to uncover the mystique of their heroine, whose stories have left as many shocked as in stitches.

    What formed this famed literary artist, who, though her life was cut short by lupus, became one of America’s most celebrated fiction writers, and whose stories of grace, sin, and redemption–with their misfit characters and grotesque violence–still point us to the light of truth?

    Get ready to be transported into the Deep South, where the world is best taken in from a front-porch rocking chair amid peaches and magnolias, and where Flannery penned her best works in the shadow of a dairy farm. Along the way of this vivid travelogue, you’ll peer into the places that educated and shaped Flannery’s imagination and fed her devout Catholic soul.

    Finding Flannery: A Travel Memoir Exploring the Mystique of Flannery O’Connor and the Legacy She Has Left Us All, authored by Christina Brajkovich, Karen Anne Mahoney, and Roxane B. Salonen | En Route Books and Media
    Show more Show less
    7 mins
  • Teresa Tomeo interviews Lisa Livezey on the book Minding Mom (September 30, 2025)

    Teresa Tomeo interviews Lisa Livezey on the book Minding Mom (September 30, 2025)
    Nov 17 2025
    In this episode of Catholic Connection, Teresa Tomeo shares some of her own experience during a conversation with Lisa Livezey concerning Lisa's book Minding Mom surrounding a topic she calls, "near and dear to her heart."

    Devotional writer Lisa Livezey understands the challenges of full-time caregiving atop an already-full life. Following her father’s sudden death, Lisa was plunged headlong into caring for her mother who was battling Alzheimer’s. With wisdom and candor, Lisa pairs every-day and extraordinary caregiving moments with scriptures, prayers, and reflections. Caregivers will:
    • Feel recognized and valued
    • Laugh amidst the craziness
    • Experience God in the day-to-day

    Minding Mom: A Caregiver’s Devotional Story by Lisa Livezey | En Route Books and Media
    Show more Show less
    23 mins
  • Episode 5: The Epistle to the Galatians (Part 2) (October 20, 2025)

    Episode 5: The Epistle to the Galatians (Part 2) (October 20, 2025)
    Nov 4 2025
    In our last session of Paul: His Epistles and What They Mean, Dcn Jim McFadden reflected that the truth of the Gospel cannot be negotiated. One of the key components of the Good News is that we are justified by Jesus Christ and, as such, are not bound by the Law, but are called to the demanding life-style of self-giving generosity of the Gospel. But, the Law still has a role—we’re obliged to follow the Ten Commandments—but it serves as a precursor to the Good News.

    1. Paul zealously embraced the evangelical model of the Church. Do you share in that mission? How so?
    2. Paul would not dilute or compromise the Gospel. Do you see that as being rigid or faithful to the Good News? How can the Gospel be compromised today?
    3. The Gospel is Jesus’ gift to us; it gives us life. How do you embrace and live the Gospel?
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 6 mins
  • Thomas Sheahen on The Bible Says What? Episode 328: Science and the Bible (September 21, 2025)

    Thomas Sheahen on The Bible Says What? Episode 328: Science and the Bible (September 21, 2025)
    Oct 26 2025
    The Bible Says What!? is a podcast and YouTube channel that features the atheist host’s one-on-one conversations with Bible-believing podcasters, authors, pastors, and religious leaders from across the globe.

    Have you been told that science and religion are incompatible? Do you think you have to give one up to be consistent?You don’t. In this book, MIT-trained physicist Thomas Sheahen explains how you can:
    • trust in God more readily, by realizing that God is not limited by space and time
    • expand your human thinking and step up to a higher plane of understanding
    • realize that religion and science are complementary paths to knowledge–not opposed
    • understand that God thought up the laws of nature and uses them in creation.
    Everywhen | En Route Books and Media
    Show more Show less
    57 mins
  • ITEST Webinar Challenges and Opportunities of Artificial Intelligence: The MagisAI App (October 18, 2025)

    ITEST Webinar Challenges and Opportunities of Artificial Intelligence: The MagisAI App (October 18, 2025)
    Oct 20 2025
    In this webinar hosted by the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology and the Magis Center, Fr. Robert J. Spitzer introduces the Magis AI app. Fr. Robert J. Spitzer, SJ, PhDChallenges and Opportunities of Artificial Intelligence: The MagisAI AppFr. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D. is President of the Magis Center of Reason and Faith (magiscenter.com), one of the largest science, faith, and reason apologetics institutes in the world. He was President of Gonzaga University from 1998 to 2009, where he increased the student body by 75%, oversaw the construction of 20 new facilities, and raised $200+ million for scholarships and buildings. He is the author of nineteen books, including the award-winning books New Proofs for the Existence of God and Science, Reason, and Faith: Discovering the Bible. He has also authored many scholarly articles on faith and science, metaphysics, and happiness and ethics.Father Spitzer has his own weekly EWTN television show called Fr. Spitzer’s Universe. He has appeared on the Larry King Show (in discussion with Stephen Hawking and Deepak Chopra), the History Channel, the Today Show, and a PBS series. He started seven institutes dedicated to faith and reason and happiness/purpose in life. He was a professor at Georgetown University, Seattle University, and Gonzaga University and was awarded the teaching medal at both Georgetown University and Seattle University. He has held two major academic chairs—the Frank Shrontz Endowed Chair in Professional Ethics (Seattle University) and the John L. Aram Chair of Business Ethics (Gonzaga University), and has won multiple academic and professional awards including the DeSmet Medal (Gonzaga University’s highest award), the Aquinas Medal (for Catholic philosophical scholarship), honorary doctorates, Phi Beta Kappa (honorary), and professional society awards.AbstractArtificial Intelligence, no doubt, presents many challenges – hallucinations, fraud, privacy issues, skewing of truth, and even the “dumbing” of America. Furthermore, there is considerable confusion about whether AI will become sentient, self-conscious, and intelligent. Fr. Spitzer will discuss these challenges and confusing issues, and will then examine the opportunities that AI presents for evangelization, noting specifically his MagisAI App which can help young people to maintain and defend their faith. This App is capable of answering literally thousands of questions about the confluence between science, reason, faith, scripture, and morality for a modern secular audience. With rapid distribution, it could become a premiere tool of evangelization for Christianity and the Catholic Church.Thomas P. Sheahen, PhDAI Comprehension: Sure Things, No-Chance Topics, and MaybesDr. Thomas P. Sheahen, director emeritus of ITEST, earned BS and PhD degrees in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his 45-year career as a research physicist, predominantly in energy sciences, he worked for various industrial and national laboratories. In the 1990s, Sheahen wrote the textbook Introduction to High-Temperature Superconductivity. More recently, he wrote the book Everywhen: God, Symmetry and Time, which stands at the intersection of faith and science, and explains how mankind’s limited capabilities have led to a deficient and weak perception of God.AbstractArtificial Intelligence is rapidly improving and expanding into many fields, and the AI App of the Magis Center is part of that. As a search-aide to locating information about the Catholic Church, especially for persons conflicted about the alleged struggle between faith and science, it will be hard to beat. But creative thinking and the transcendental characteristics that make us truly humans won’t fit into even very advanced machine learning. The question is about where the boundary (however foggy and ill-defined) lies. Can we expect to reach an asymptotic limit of AI content? Will AI no longer be helpful beyond some level? This presentation explores some parameters of such uncertainties. Christopher M. Reilly, ThDAI as a Medium for TruthChristopher Reilly, Th.D. is editor of the journal for ITEST and a board member. He writes and speaks about a Christian response to technology, bioethics, moral theology, and philosophy, and is author of the book AI and Sin: How Today’s Technology Motivates Evil. AbstractMagisAI is an extraordinary vehicle for teaching the Christian truth. AI, however, poses broader challenges to our understanding and expression of truth. How can we best meet these challenges with the help of such tools?
    Show more Show less
    2 hrs and 2 mins
  • Episode 4: The Epistle to the Galatians (Part 1) (October 13, 2025)

    Episode 4: The Epistle to the Galatians (Part 1) (October 13, 2025)
    Oct 14 2025
    Paul’s Letter to the Galatians is an important letter. Not only do we get to know Paul better as he makes biographical references to explain his conversion and his decision to place his whole life in the service of Christ Jesus, but he also deals with certain themes that are important to our faith, such as freedom, grace, and the Christian way of life.
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 4 mins
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_DT_webcro_1694_expandible_banner_T1