Episodes
Parenthood as Spiritual Practice – with Bonnie Miller-McLemore
Zech chats with Dr. Miller-McLemore about her work on the practices involved in parenthood (and why we can call these practices spiritual), why parenthood is also a confrontation with one’s own finitude and inevitable failures, and the role of sacrifice and *transitional* family hierarchy in the par...
OCD and Christian Faith – with John Andrew Bryant
John Andrew Bryant on the experience of OCD, Christian readings of “mental illness,” and why it might be important to think about mental health challenges without leaning overmuch on psychiatric and diagnostic labels. NEWSLETTER: Subscribe to our podcast newsletter and get ***40% OFF*** any Wipf and...
Philosophy of Fatherhood – A Crossover Episode with Careful Thinking
A crossover episode in which Zech swaps seats and appears as a guest on Martin Robb’s care ethics podcast, Careful Thinking . Zech shares about his book, The Unthinkable Sacrifice: An Essay on Fatherhood , and discusses his own experience as a father and the ways French phenomenology has helped him ...
Pilgrimage Between the Sacred and the Secular — with Colby Dickinson
In this episode, Zech talks with Colby Dickinson about his many pilgrim journeys in the city of Rome. Together they ask: how does religious identity—or lack thereof—shape one’s experience of places with historically thick spiritual meaning? What might it look like to encounter something beyond ourse...
The Mother’s Smile and Natal Philosophy — with Esther Lightcap Meek
Dr. Meek on the mother’s smile as a form of philosophical formation and a form of epistemic access to reality, why it’s important to see oneself being seen (as beloved), and how modernity operates as a barrier to such interpersoned philosophy. BIO: Esther Lightcap Meek is Professor of Philosophy e...
Body Problems, "Problem Bodies" – with M. Wolff
TOPICS: – Sally Gross – intersex embodiment – religious belonging – Foucault – the “medical gaze” – activism BIO: M. Wolff is Associate Professor of Religion at Augustana College and author of Body Problems: What Intersex Priest Sally Gross Teaches Us About Embodiment, Justice, and Belonging (2025...
Reformation Doctrine – with Corneliu Simuț
KEYWORDS: – Reformation – confessionalization – law-gospel dialectic – doctrine of justification – sacramental theology – preaching – Reformation myths BIO: Corneliu Simuț is Professor of Theology at Aurel Vlaicu University in Arad, Romania. He is the author of numerous books, including Reading Doct...
A Philosophy of Belonging – James Greenaway
KEYWORDS: – presence – communion – personhood – cosmos – communitas – politics – eucharist BIO: James Greenaway is the San José-Lonergan Chair in Catholic Philosophy at St. Mary’s University. He is the author of The Differentiation of Authority: The Medieval Turn Toward Existence (2012) and A Philo...
The New Natural Law – with Melissa Moschella
KEYWORDS: - new natural law – moral philosophy – ethics – Aquinas – Aristotle – subsidiarity – political philosophy BIO: Melissa Moschella is a professor of the practice in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life. She is the author of To Whom Do Children Belon...