TalkWise podcast

What would your pastor have to say to your professor? TalkWise brings them together to find out! On Episode 1 of Season 2, we have guests Bishop Mark Seitz (bishop of El Paso, TX) and Professor Cecilia Menjívar (UCLA Sociology) talking about “Migration: The Challenge of Receiving the Stranger." Why has the Catholic Church been so outspoken about current immigration issues? What can be learned from communities living on the border? And how does migration really affect the material and spiritual well-being of our country? Find out with our conversationalists!Cecilia Menjívar is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and holds the Dorothy L. Meier Social Equities Chair at UCLA. She is the director of the UCLA Center for the Study of International Migration. She has written extensively on two main areas: the effects of immigration laws and legal statuses on different aspects of Central American immigrants' lives, and gender-based violence in Central America.The Most Reverend Mark J. Seitz, D.D. has been serving as the Bishop of El Paso, TX since his appointment in 2013. He also serves as the Chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Migration. In his position as prelate of a borderland community, the bishop regularly works with the poor and vulnerable, including migrant families and refugees who have made their home in this region or who choose the community as their point of passage.

What would your pastor have to say to your professor? TalkWise brings them together to find out! Episode 3 brings together Father Gregory Waldrop, SJ (Associate Chaplain at Saint Thomas More) and Professor Joseph Connors (Harvard History of Art & Architecture) to talk about "Churches & Sacred Space." What really makes a religious space sacred—the people? The physical building? The beautiful artwork? The history? Our two conversationalists share thoughts from lifetimes of teaching, touching, praying, and officiating in Catholic churches. Listen as they unpack stories of professional and personal experiences with the sacred!

What would your pastor have to say to your professor? TalkWise brings them together to find out! On Episode 2 we have Bishop Michael Curry (former presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church) and Professor Tyler Anbinder (History at George Washington University) talking about “America the 'Melting Pot'?" How does the Bible tell us to treat people from different backgrounds? How has the immigration situation changed—or stayed the same—in the last four centuries of American history? And can churches truly help create one out of many? Listen as they bring together insights from American history + the church!The Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry was the former presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church until his retirement in 2024. For more than 40 years of ordained ministry, Bishop Curry served parishes in North Carolina, Ohio, and Maryland. Bishop Curry's leadership is animated by Jesus of Nazareth and his way of radical, sacrificial love. You may have seen clips of him preaching on “The Power of Love” at the royal wedding.Professor Tyler Anbinder is a specialist in nineteenth-century America and the history of immigration and ethnicity in American life. Previously professor and chair of the History Department at George Washington University, his books include a 400-year history of immigrant life in New York City. He also served as a consultant to Martin Scorsese for the Academy Award-nominated film, Gangs of New York.

What would your pastor have to say to your professor? TalkWise brings them together to find out! On Episode 1 we have guests Rev. Walter Kim (president of the National Association of Evangelicals) and Professors Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim (Yale School of Environment) talking about “Caring for God's Earth." Is taking care of nature a sacred calling? How can environmental scientists benefit from the ethics of religious communities? Listen as they dive into these questions and make the case for a collaboration between hard scientific knowledge + faith-based values!Rev. Walter Kim is currently the president of the National Association of Evangelicals. He formerly pastored at Boston’s historic Park Street Church while getting his PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard, as well as churches in Vancouver and Charlottesville, and has served as a campus chaplain at Yale. He is on the board of World Relief, Christianity Today, and The Salvation Army. Rev. Kim is often sought out for his theological and cultural commentary on issues facing the church and society.Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim are professors at the Yale School of Environment and co-founders and co-directors of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. They organized 10 conferences on World Religions and Ecology at Harvard, and they are widely credited with establishing religion and ecology as a subfield. Grim’s research is in Native American Traditions, and Tucker’s research is in Asian traditions, especially Confucianism.

What would your pastor have to say to your professor? TalkWise brings them together to find out! On Episode 1 we have guests Rev. Walter Kim (president of the National Association of Evangelicals) and Professors Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim (Yale School of Environment) talking about “Caring for God's Earth." Is taking care of nature a sacred calling? How can environmental scientists benefit from the ethics of religious communities? Listen as they dive into these questions and make the case for a collaboration between hard scientific knowledge + faith-based values!Rev. Walter Kim is currently the president of the National Association of Evangelicals. He formerly pastored at Boston’s historic Park Street Church while getting his PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard, as well as churches in Vancouver and Charlottesville, and has served as a campus chaplain at Yale. He is on the board of World Relief, Christianity Today, and The Salvation Army. Rev. Kim is often sought out for his theological and cultural commentary on issues facing the church and society.Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim are professors at the Yale School of Environment and co-founders and co-directors of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. They organized 10 conferences on World Religions and Ecology at Harvard, and they are widely credited with establishing religion and ecology as a subfield. Grim’s research is in Native American Traditions, and Tucker’s research is in Asian traditions, especially Confucianism.