Whiplash with Maxwell Kuzma

This week on Whiplash, Max sits down with J.E. Reich—a Jewish, queer, and nonbinary journalist, editor, and writer—for a conversation that stretches beyond a single tradition and into deeper questions of gender, theology, and lived experience. Together, they explore what it means to encounter another religious framework not as a threat, but as an invitation: to rethink assumptions, to expand imagination, and to take seriously the histories of communities who have been engaging questions of gender and embodiment for far longer than many contemporary Christian spaces.The episode also reflects on J.E.’s powerful writing about the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and the enduring strength of Jewish communal life in the face of violence, alongside a broader discussion of how Jewish texts—from the Talmud to later rabbinic interpretation—approach gender with nuance and complexity. From the recognition of multiple gender categories to interpretive traditions that center intention and authenticity, this conversation offers a compelling look at what becomes possible when we learn across traditions.Resources mentioned:J.E. Reich, “Inside the Tree of Life Congregation, the Prayer for the Dead Brings Hope” (Vanity Fair) - https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/10/inside-the-tree-of-life-congregation-the-prayer-for-the-dead-brings-hopeMyles H. Aronowitz, “The Seven Genders in the Talmud” - https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-eight-genders-in-the-talmud/Joy Ladin, “What Does the Torah Really Say about Cross-Dressing?” - https://www.jtsa.edu/torah/what-does-the-torah-really-say-about-cross-dressing/

Emma and I start this episode by catching up and talking through Pope Leo’s recent comments on sexual morality—what was said, what it reflects, and how it continues to shape the way LGBTQ people are understood in the life of the Church. Rather than just reacting, we sit with what these conversations do: how they draw boundaries, reinforce certain narratives, and leave others out.From there, Emma brings in her work on archiving LGBTQ histories, offering a perspective that widens the frame. Through three historical figures, we explore what it means to see ourselves as part of a much longer story—one that challenges the idea that LGBTQ people are new, marginal, or outside the tradition. It’s a conversation about memory, erasure, and how history can change the way we understand the present.

At nearly 70 years old, Christine Zuba’s story offers a powerful and rarely heard witness. She transitioned just 11 years ago after decades of lived experience, becoming an active voice in transgender Catholic advocacy. A lifelong Catholic, she serves as a Eucharistic Minister at Saints Peter & Paul Church in Turnersville, New Jersey, helps lead her parish’s LGBTQ+ ministry Together In Prayer, and participates in similar ministries across the region. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Fortunate Families, supporting LGBTQ+ Catholics and their loved ones.Together, Max and Christine reflect on what it means to come into one’s truth later in life, the spiritual and emotional journey of transition, and the unexpected joy that can unfold on the other side. They also compare notes on their experiences meeting Pope Francis. This conversation highlights the importance of trans elders in communities of faith—stories that offer not only resilience, but a vision of what is possible.

Longtime listeners of Whiplash and readers of my work will likely recognize much of what I share in this episode. I’ve written and spoken about pieces of my story over the years, across essays, podcasts, and conversations. But I wanted to create a single episode that brings those threads together in one place, especially for those who may be newer to my work or hearing my story for the first time.Today’s episode is exactly that: a more consolidated, reflective look at my journey of transgender experience. I move through some of the most common questions I receive and challenge all of us to think more deeply about the body, faith, and what it means to come into alignment with yourself in a world that doesn’t always give you the language to do so.

Bishop Barron is in the news again, and as usual, it’s complicated. In this episode of Whiplash, I respond to his recent Word on Fire video "The Suffocating Warmth of Marxist Collectivism," examining the claims he makes about collective responsibility, freedom, and economic ideology. I dig into how Catholic social teaching intersects with contemporary economic realities, from industrial-era labor struggles to today’s precarious employment and widening wealth gaps. Along the way, we explore how liberation—far from being threatening—is actually about expanding human dignity and creating conditions where more people can thrive.This episode also takes a broader look at Barron’s public rhetoric, including his appearances in partisan media and commentary on Western civilization. I reflect on the tension between theology and politics, the role of liturgical language in framing social authority, and the ways moral imagination can help us see beyond ideological extremes. Ultimately, this episode asks: what does true liberation look like when it centers human flourishing instead of rigid ideologies?

Masculinity is often shaped less by attraction to women than by the recognition men seek from other men. Using the public reaction to Timothée Chalamet and the online discourse around “twink death” as a starting point, this episode explores the concept of homosociality and the powerful role status plays in shaping male identity. Drawing on sociology, pop culture, and media analysis, we examine how masculinity is often performed through signals meant to earn legitimacy within male peer groups, influencing everything from aesthetics to career choices to public personas.The episode also challenges common myths about testosterone, highlighting research suggesting that testosterone does not simply produce aggression but can also reinforce bonding, cooperation, and relational commitment depending on the surrounding cultural incentives. Through the lens of transgender experience and reflections on gender essentialism in Catholic culture, this conversation asks what healthier masculinity could look like if status were more strongly associated with care, integrity, emotional maturity, and responsibility rather than dominance or performance.Resources & References• Zhang, Jenny – Timothée Chalamet’s twink death• Weber, Max – theories of class, status, and power• Ridgeway, Cecilia – Status: Why Is It Everywhere? Why Does It Matter?• Imara, Mariam – Homosociality – Or: How I found a name for the thing I want to smash and it’s not „the patriarchy“• The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences – The Significance of Status: What It Is and How It Shapes Inequality• Barnard College – Break This Down: The Social Myth of Testosterone• Jordan-Young, Rebecca & Karkazis, Katrina – Testosterone: An Unauthorized Biography• Petric, Kalcounis-Rueppell, & Marler (2022) – testosterone and pair bonding study in monogamous mice• McBee, Thomas Page – Man Alive and Amateur• Kearns, Shannon – No One Taught Me to Be a Man• Green, Jamison – Becoming a Visible Man• Commentary by Derek Guy on masculinity aesthetics in media• Ezra Klein in conversation with Anand Giridharadas, who discusses the status issues at play with the Epstein Files

Across the United States, a growing wave of laws is targeting transgender people—restricting access to medical care, limiting legal recognition, and threatening basic rights in everyday life. At the same time, some Catholic leaders are increasingly portraying transgender identities and legal recognition of trans people as threats to religious liberty. When a principle meant to safeguard conscience is used to justify policies that harm vulnerable communities, it raises urgent moral and theological questions about what religious freedom is actually meant to protect.This episode examines the U.S. bishops’ 2026 Annual Report on Religious Liberty and the broader political and legal landscape surrounding it. Looking at recent court decisions, federal and state policies, and the Church’s own language about “gender ideology,” I explore how religious liberty is being reframed in ways that directly impact transgender people. I also ask a deeper question for Catholics today: whether this use of religious freedom reflects the spirit of Catholic teaching—or distorts it in ways that undermine human dignity.Additional reading: https://maxwellkuzma.substack.com/p/two-errors-catholics-make-about-gender

What happens when Catholic theology begins not with abstract debates about transgender people, but with the lived experience of transgender embodiment itself? In this conversation, Max Kuzma sits down with his friend Maddie Marlett to explore what it means to encounter Christ through transition, embodiment, and the lifelong process of becoming. Rather than treating trans lives as distant questions to be analyzed, this discussion centers the spiritual and theological insights that emerge from actually living as a trans Catholic.Maddie shares her journey growing up Catholic, how her understanding of God evolved through transition, and the role that supportive community—especially through DignityUSA—played in sustaining her faith. Together, Max and Maddie reflect on themes at the heart of Christian theology—incarnation, sacramentality, death and rebirth—and consider how transgender lives might illuminate, rather than threaten, the church’s understanding of the body and the mystery of God’s presence within it.

In this episode of Whiplash, we unpack the concept of “scandal” in the Catholic Church — what it means in the tradition, and how it often functions in practice. With Chris Damian and Justin from Empty Chairs, we focus especially on the uneven way scandal gets applied to queer Catholics — and with Max’s perspective, to trans people in particular — where identity itself is often treated as suspect, even when someone is living in line with the church’s stated expectations. At the same time, we examine how Catholic institutions sometimes respond when credible allegations surface within their own ranks, and why the instinct is so often defensiveness rather than accountability.Find Chris online @cdamianwrites Find Justin online @emptychairshome Find Max online @maxwellkuzma Content statement: Please be aware that this episode includes discussion of clergy sexual abuse, grooming, and institutional misconduct. While we do not go into graphic detail, these topics may be difficult for some listeners. Please take care while listening.

Millennials have been blamed for everything from killing napkins to buying too much avocado toast, so naturally we decided to talk about the economy. In this episode, I’m joined by my former Franciscan University classmate Shannon Kaschak to unpack why “just budget better” isn’t a serious economic policy, what a $3-per-meal proposal says about how poverty gets framed, and how culture wars keep working people fighting each other while wealth quietly concentrates at the top. We laugh. We cringe. We side-eye late-stage-capitalism lunchables.But underneath the memes and millennial slander, we’re getting into something real: what Catholic social teaching actually says about money, power, and who the economy is for. From for-profit detention centers to speculative tech bubbles to the way marginalized people become political distractions, we’re asking what it would look like to build systems where nobody gets left behind. It’s avocado toast with a preferential option for the poor — and yes, we mean that.

Centering yourself in a world that profits from your fragmentation is a quiet act of resistance. In this episode of Whiplash, Max sits down with Cassidy Hall to explore how contemplation can become an embodied, grounded practice — especially for queer and trans people navigating spiritual burnout, political chaos, and inherited religious tension. Drawing from Cassidy’s powerful book, Queering Contemplation, the conversation moves beyond rigid either/or thinking and into integration: body and spirit, identity and mystery, action and stillness. For Max, reading this book as a transgender Catholic opened up new language for embodiment as holy — not something to transcend, but something to inhabit.If you’ve ever felt disconnected from your body, wary of silence, or unsure whether Christian contemplation belongs to you, this episode offers a grounded and accessible entry point. ✨ Book Giveaway: Max is giving away copies of Queering Contemplation to subscribers. To enter, make sure you’re subscribed and fill out the Google Form here: https://forms.gle/k87VJM8pjFmugs3P9 Winners will be contacted by email and asked to provide a mailing address.

Power and exploitation often feel unstoppable, but much of what we perceive as power is actually empty. Those who dominate and extract — whether in governments, corporations, or cultural institutions — survive by feeding off the labor, energy, and lives of others. They cannot create, nurture, or love. Recognizing this emptiness reveals an important truth: the real power lies in those who build, care, create, and share. Small acts of generosity, solidarity, and love have the capacity to transform communities and challenge even the most entrenched systems.The Gospel, together with Catholic Social Teaching, offers guidance through these storms. Human dignity, solidarity, care for the vulnerable, and the moral responsibility to use our gifts for the common good provide a framework for resisting exploitation and fostering liberation. By centering compassion, creativity, and community, we become the light in a world often shadowed by greed and violence. Even seemingly small acts — listening, mentoring, sharing resources, or protecting someone’s dignity — are meaningful forms of resistance that reveal the enduring strength of love over extraction.

This episode is another informal, more reflective offering. Rather than an investigation or a philosophical / theological argument, it’s a meditation on what it feels like to move through ordinary life under authoritarian conditions — when even small, domestic tasks take on emotional and political weight. I reflect on the feeling of “doing laundry under authoritarian conditions,” and the thoughts and feelings that surfaced while navigating cold weather and exhaustion.From there, the episode opens into a reflection on queer and trans survival, liberation, and the spiritual depth of the transgender journey. It considers how small rituals, endurance, and attention to the body can become sites of resistance and meaning — and how trans life, even in its quietest moments, carries a sacred power that refuses erasure.

With national attention focused on ICE actions and events in Minneapolis—and amid a moment when many people’s emotional and intellectual bandwidth is stretched thin—this episode takes a simpler, more informal format. Recorded solo and without a guest, it slows the pace while remaining grounded in research and analysis, making space to think carefully about how language, power, and morality intersect in times of crisis.The episode centers on bothsidesism, with particular attention to how appeals to balance, civility, and “religious liberty” are used to construct false equivalence in contexts of state violence. Drawing on recent media coverage and Catholic leadership responses, it examines how unequal actors and harms are rhetorically flattened into narratives about “division on all sides,” obscuring responsibility and legitimizing existing power structures. Titled Bothsidesism Is a Moral Failure, the episode offers not a provocation but a diagnosis: when neutrality ignores power, refusing false equivalence becomes an act of discernment rather than extremism.Learn more about my work at: https://maxwellkuzma.substack.com/

In this episode, we take a historical and theological dive into the idea of Christian persecution—where it comes from, how it was formed, and why it still holds so much emotional power today. Drawing from early Christian martyrdom, the development of moral frameworks around suffering and faithfulness, and the long arc of Christianity’s relationship to power, we explore how a story meant to sustain people under real violence became something very different once Christianity moved to the center of cultural and political life. When a faith that once survived on the margins becomes dominant, the meaning of opposition changes—and not always in ways we’re prepared to recognize.From there, we look at how this inherited story plays out in contemporary American Christianity, especially when long-standing cultural authority begins to weaken. We talk about how claims of persecution often emerge not from oppression, but from the loss of being unquestioned; how accusation can function as a kind of confession, revealing what people fear losing; and how everyday moments—classrooms, institutions, public disagreement—get transformed into moral crises. Speaking as two people who grew up in high-control Catholic spaces, we approach this conversation with honesty, care, and clarity, not to attack belief, but to ask what kind of faith becomes possible when we stop mistaking the end of dominance for the beginning of suffering.For more of our work, check out Max’s substack: https://maxwellkuzma.substack.com/

In a moment shaped by state violence, fear-based politics, and the misuse of religious language, this conversation turns toward a different Christian tradition—one rooted in solidarity rather than hierarchy. We explore the history of liberation theology, how queer liberation theology flows from it, and why Catholic social teaching’s preferential option for the poor matters right now. From the killing of Renée Nicole Macklin Good in Minneapolis to recent U.S. intervention in Venezuela, we talk through how state violence is justified, how nationalism reshapes Christianity, and why queer lives are so often treated as expendable. We also trace how liberation theology emerged in response to empire and why queer liberation theology belongs fully within that tradition—not as an add-on, but as a continuation. If you want to keep digging into these themes, you can find more writing and podcast work on high-control Catholicism, Christian and Catholic nationalism, fighting fascism, and online radicalization on the Maxwell Kuzma substack: https://maxwellkuzma.substack.com/

The fight for LGBTQ dignity in the Catholic Church didn’t begin in our lifetime—and this episode traces one priest who proved that publicly and without apology. Fr. Tom Oddo was a Catholic priest living in 1944-1989 who openly advocated for gay rights while also defending a rigorous, human vision of Catholic education, reminding us that courage and reform have always existed within the Church.On Whiplash, Max Kuzma is joined by author Tyler Bieber, whose new book Against the Current: Father Tom Oddo and the New American Catholic chronicles Fr. Tom’s life and legacy, alongside co-host Madeline Marlett. Together, they reflect on what it means to inherit a tradition of public advocacy—and how remembering our elders can sustain the ongoing work of building a more honest, diverse, and faithful Church.Buy Tyler’s book here: https://unencumberedpress.com/product/against-the-current/

Purity culture is often framed as a story about sex and shame, but it’s also a political system shaping whose bodies are protected, disciplined, or cast as threats. In this episode of Whiplash, Emma talks with Sara Moslener, scholar of American religion, race, and gender, and author of After Purity. Sara helps us see how purity culture is deeply entwined with whiteness, Cold War politics, and American nationalism, showing how fears about “unruly bodies” continue to shape public life—especially for queer and trans people. This episode isn’t easy listening, but it’s clarifying. Sara and Emma explore the long afterlife of purity culture in our bodies and communities, helping name the forces behind innocence myths, racialized vulnerability, and the policing of desire. Sara's book, After Purity, is available now: https://www.beacon.org/After-Purity-P2238.aspx

In this episode of Whiplash, Max is joined by Bill, co-host of the film podcast Morally Offensive, for a deep dive into Wake Up Dead Man. Framed as a gothic murder mystery, the film becomes a lens for examining Catholic power, clerical authority, and the uneasy overlap between faith, control, and grifting. Together, Max and Bill explore how the movie stages competing visions of priesthood, why hero worship remains so seductive, and what gets lost when institutional preservation takes priority over people.Building on Max’s written review of the film, this conversation moves beyond the question of “good” versus “bad” priests to interrogate the systems that elevate some figures while quietly absorbing harm. The episode also unpacks the cost of belonging—especially for queer people and others taught to endure spiritual violence for the sake of staying inside the Cxhurch—and asks what real discernment looks like when faith itself has been shaped by power.Guest Links - Bill is a co-host of Morally Offensive, a weekly film podcast examining movies condemned or deemed “morally offensive” by the Catholic Legion of Decency and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.🎙️ Listen to Morally Offensive: www.morallyoffensive.com📱 Follow on Instagram, TikTok, & Threads

Thomas Aquinas is very popular on the Catholic internet—especially in high-control spaces where his work is treated as the final word on hierarchy, gender, sexuality, and social order. In this episode of Whiplash, we take a deep dive into how Aquinas’s theology was shaped by aristocratic privilege, scholastic gatekeeping, and a rigid hierarchical imagination—and how those same frameworks continue to be weaponized today. We trace the lines from medieval metaphysics to modern theobro culture, from natural law to racial hierarchy, and from “order” to the policing of bodies, desires, and belonging.

Masculinity operates within a complex web of power, fear, and purity culture. In high-control Catholic spaces, rigid ideals of manhood are enforced not just through behavior, but through moral systems that label certain bodies, desires, and identities as “acceptable” or “threatening.” These structures protect themselves by policing men and women alike, privileging conformity while punishing deviation. Fear—of queerness, softness, vulnerability, or loss of control—becomes the mechanism that maintains these hierarchies, leaving many men trapped in brittle, performative identities while simultaneously erasing or marginalizing queer and trans people who do not fit the sanctioned narrative.We also examine the broader consequences of these dynamics, including the ways communities are remembered—or erased—through the lens of power, what Willow Sipling calls the “violence of the archive.” The conversation becomes a call for integrity, curiosity, and imagination: to resist replicating harmful structures, to embrace accountability, and to build communities where belonging, embodiment, and moral life aren’t rationed by fear or hierarchy. This episode explores the human cost of rigid masculinity while pointing toward the possibilities of creating spaces rooted in solidarity, reflection, and care.Learn more about our work on substack: https://maxwellkuzma.substack.com/

In this episode of Whiplash, we sit down with Nancy Sylvester, IHM, whose life spans the reforms of Vatican II, decades of Catholic social justice leadership, and a profound commitment to contemplative practice. Nancy shares how contemplative prayer can ground us amid uncertainty, help us navigate conflict with greater clarity, and sustain the long work of transforming our communities and our world.Drawing from her years in religious life and national leadership, Nancy offers a vision of contemplation as a practical tool for personal and social renewal. To learn more about her work and explore her books, visit www.iccdinstitute.org. Join us as we reflect on how rest, reflection, and action can strengthen your inner life and empower meaningful change.

Queer and trans people are often told that our lives have no place in the Christian past—that we’re modern disruptions, not part of the story. But when you look closely at the Middle Ages, that certainty falls apart. The archive is full of gender-expansive figures, boundary-crossing saints, and stories that refuse the neat binaries people try to impose on them today. The trouble isn’t that queer and trans resonances don’t exist—it’s that for too long, many have been invested in ignoring them.This week’s episode digs into that forgotten richness. Emma talks with scholars Alicia Spencer-Hall and Blake Gutt about how medieval hagiography preserves lives and narratives that complicate every tidy claim about “traditional” gender. Their work doesn’t force modern categories onto medieval subjects; it simply lets these stories be as strange, porous, and imaginative as they always were. The result is a conversation about reclaiming history—not rewriting it, but finally recognizing the echoes of queer and trans experience that have always been there.Find their book here: https://www.routledge.com/Trans-and-Genderqueer-Subjects-in-Medieval-Hagiography/Spencer-Hall-Gutt/p/book/9789048559190

Today we break down why crusader armor, Jerusalem cross tattoos, and medieval edits are suddenly everywhere. Emma and I dig into how this aesthetic blends fantasy, Catholic symbols, and far-right vibes into a hypermasculine myth—and why it’s so appealing to young men right now. For more background and de-radicalization insight, don’t miss our companion essay, “Breaking the Crusader Spell,” here: https://maxwellkuzma.substack.com/p/breaking-the-crusader-spell-catholic

Matt Fradd’s decision to bring Pints with Aquinas to The Daily Wire is a major shift within conservative Catholic media in recent years. In this episode, we break down why this move matters, how it reshapes the landscape of Catholic commentary online, and what it reveals about the tightening relationship between right-wing political media and religious influencers. We look at how Fradd’s huge audience, mostly young men, will now be funneled into a network built on outrage cycles.We also discuss why this shift doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Vulnerable young men — already wrestling with fear, confusion, isolation, and rigid expectations around masculinity — are being offered a pipeline that promises confidence, clarity, and belonging, but at the cost of empathy and critical thinking. When conservative Catholic creators merge their platforms with political media machines, the result is a powerful echo chamber that amplifies misogyny, anti-LGBTQ extremism, and authoritarian worldviews. This episode unpacks the mechanics behind that pipeline, the risks it poses, and what it means for the future of Catholic digital culture.Read our essays unpacking topics like these and more on Substack: https://maxwellkuzma.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips

In this episode of Whiplash, Max and Emma keep the Halloween spirit alive by sharing their favorite costumes, movie memories, and stories from Halloweens past—while reflecting on the deeper meaning of this season for queer and trans Catholics. As the veil thins and the world turns toward remembrance, they explore how Halloween has long been a space of liberation for queer people: a night to step into authenticity, to play with identity, and to honor those who came before.Together, they turn toward the queer and trans ancestors whose courage, creativity, and love shaped the freedoms we have today. From medieval mystics to modern activists, these are the saints and storytellers who built a lineage of joy and resistance within and beyond the Church. Join Max and Emma as they reflect on what queer ancestry means to them personally—and how remembering our ancestors can help us imagine more inclusive, embodied, and hopeful queer futures.

Queer Catholic history isn’t a closed book—it’s still being written in every act of courage, faith, and community. For more than fifty years, DignityUSA has been at the heart of that story, standing as one of the earliest and most enduring organizations advocating for LGBTQ+ Catholics.In this episode, Emma sits down with Marianne Duddy-Burke, Executive Director of DignityUSA, to reflect on the organization’s legacy, the ongoing struggle for full inclusion in the Church, and the sacred, often slow work of building dignity from the ground up.

As we continue celebrating LGBTQ History Month, we’re turning toward the power of art—how it allows queer people of faith to see ourselves reflected in the sacred. This week, Max speaks with Libby, a young artist and one of the youngest attendees at the recent LGBTQ pilgrimage in Rome. Building on our earlier conversation with Dani from @andhersaints, this episode explores how art becomes a form of advocacy and prayer—a way for queer people to claim space within traditions that have often excluded us.Libby’s work draws deeply from Byzantine iconography and the long tradition of sacred art, while also experimenting with digital media to reimagine religious symbolism through a queer lens. In conversation, she and Max reflect on how creativity can open new doors in the Church—how art becomes a language of faith, reclamation, and hope. You can see some of Libby’s work on Instagram at @kibbyer, including a moving comic about why she’s both queer and Catholic.

In this episode of Whiplash, Max and Emma speak with Dr. Jason Steidl Jack, theologian, historian, and author of LGBTQ Catholic Ministry: Past and Present. Jason traces the long and often overlooked history of queer Catholic ministry in the United States — from early communities like DignityUSA to today’s ongoing efforts to build spaces of belonging within and beyond the Church. He reflects on his own journey from evangelical roots to Catholicism, and the movement from loneliness to communion through the witness of queer saints, past and present.Together, they explore what it means to build bridges that don’t demand assimilation, how queer Catholics have reshaped the Church through resilience and love, and why recovering diverse stories — including those of trans Catholics, queer women, and people of color — is essential to imagining a more just and joyful Church.

What happens when queerness meets fundamentalist religion? This week on Whiplash, we sit down with Willow, an intersex trans person, thinker, and survivor of Christian and Catholic fundamentalism, to explore how queerness can become a way of making meaning inside systems that were never built to hold us.Together, we reflect on how queerness transforms us — how it redefines faith, community, and the very idea of holiness. As we begin LGBTQ History Month, we’re grounding ourselves in that transformative power: the creativity, solidarity, and courage that queer people have always carried, even in the most constraining spaces.

Beneath the surface of Catholic history in America lies a story too often ignored: the deep entanglement of white Catholic identity with racism. In this episode, Maureen O’Connell, author and scholar of Catholic social ethics, helps us uncover that history through her groundbreaking book Undoing the Knots, which traces five generations of her own family in Philadelphia to reveal how Catholic belonging was built alongside systems of exclusion and anti-Blackness.Together, we explore how assimilation became both a survival strategy and a weapon of control, how these dynamics still echo in today’s Catholic nationalism and high-control movements, and what it takes to face this history without turning away. This is a conversation about reckoning—not for the sake of shame, but for the sake of solidarity, clarity, and the possibility of a more honest Catholic future.For more: https://maxwellkuzma.substack.com/

What if the “insider knowledge” driving today’s far-right movements isn’t Christian at all? Dr. Joan Braune joins us to expose how figures like Steve Bannon twist ancient Roman myths about history into pseudo-intellectual narratives of power. These ideas get passed off as “tradition,” but as Joan shows, they’re not Catholic, not Christian—and they’re fueling the dangerous rise of fascism and Christian nationalism in America today.Together, we unpack how fascism operates not as a fringe phenomenon but as a social movement deeply tied to existing power structures. Joan explains why it can’t be defeated through policing or elections alone, but only through strong, organized resistance. Along the way, we connect her analysis to our own work on High Control Catholicism and the ways authoritarian religion manipulates communities under the guise of faith.

Pope Leo’s first four months have been marked by gestures that many LGBTQ Catholics never thought they’d see in their lifetimes. From a historic pilgrimage of LGBTQ faithful into Rome—welcomed after decades of exclusion—to his private meeting with Fr. James Martin, the new pope has signaled continuity with Francis’s posture of welcome. For communities once silenced or cast out, these moments carry deep symbolic weight.Yet symbols don’t resolve the tension between hope, history, and hesitation. What do these early moves really mean for the future of LGBTQ Catholics in the Church? Is Pope Leo laying the groundwork for lasting change, or offering temporary gestures within unchanged structures? In this episode, Max and Emma explore the history behind these events, the meaning they carry for queer Catholics today, and the questions that remain about the road ahead.

In this episode of Whiplash with Maxwell Kuzma, we dive into purity culture and the hold it continues to have in American Christianity. While many remember it through 1990s evangelical movements like abstinence pledges and purity rings, purity culture’s influence stretches far beyond that moment. It shapes how churches and communities regulate sexuality, enforce rigid gender roles, and equate worthiness with “purity”—and its legacy continues to inform modern politics, education, and law.To accompany this conversation, Emma and I co-wrote an essay that traces purity culture’s larger history, from its roots in early America to its present-day impact on queer and trans lives. We look at how these high-control systems use sexuality as a tool of power and exclusion, and what it means to imagine something better. You can read the full essay on Substack. https://open.substack.com/pub/maxwellkuzma/p/inside-the-high-control-world-of?r=2ja4k7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

This week on Whiplash, Jenn Morson joins us to talk about Franciscan University—a place both Max and Jenn attended. While many remember friendly friars and a vibrant campus life, the university also fostered a culture of control, secrecy, and conformity that allowed harm to persist. Jenn has been a leading voice reporting on sexual abuse allegations at Franciscan, including work for the National Catholic Reporter, documenting how some students were manipulated or exploited within systems that appeared nurturing.Content Statement: Before listening, take a moment to prepare yourself. This episode includes discussions of sexual abuse, misconduct, harassment, and institutional failure. In our conversation, we explore how high-control structures shaped student life, the pressures to conform, and the lasting effects on survivors and alumni. These difficult stories are essential for understanding how authority and devotion can be misused, and why accountability matters.

In this episode, we reflect on what it means to engage ethically with stories of High Control Catholicism and religious trauma. As we’ve moved through this series, we’ve seen how easily personal testimony can be flattened into content for clicks, and how platforms often privilege certain voices over others. We share how we approach storytelling differently—by centering lived experience, collaborating with experts, and ensuring that survivors remain in control of their own narratives.Ethical storytelling matters because the way we share stories shapes the future of advocacy. By being intentional about who we platform, creating accessible content, and naming the limits of our own expertise, we hope to build a model of storytelling rooted in dignity, reciprocity, and care. This episode is not a rulebook, but an invitation for others to reflect on how we can all engage our communities more responsibly.

In this episode, we sit down with journalist and author Gareth Gore to explore the hidden world of Opus Dei. From his beginnings as a financial reporter to uncovering a story that stretched far beyond banking, Gareth shares how Opus Dei’s secrecy, influence, and high-control practices have shaped both Catholic life and global politics. Together, we discuss the cult of personality around founder Josemaría Escrivá, the ways Opus Dei exerts control over its members, and how its reach extends into movements of Catholic nationalism and authoritarian politics in Spain and the United States.As queer Catholics reflecting on our ongoing series about High Control Catholicism, we found this conversation to be an important step in naming the structures of power and manipulation that too often go unchallenged. Instead of traditional show notes, we’ll be publishing a deep dive essay on Substack this Friday, August 22, continuing the conversation and expanding on themes from this episode.https://maxwellkuzma.substack.com/

This week’s episode is one of the harder ones we’ve recorded. We’re talking about conversion therapy — something that isn’t just a political talking point, but a lived reality for so many in our community. If this topic is too much for you right now, please take care of yourself and skip this one. Your wellbeing matters more than anything. But for those who can listen, thank you for holding space for a conversation that’s painful and deeply important.We’re speaking with Dr. Lucas Wilson, a scholar and survivor, about the theology that fuels conversion therapy, the systems that keep it alive, and what life can look like after surviving it. This isn’t just history — right now, Republican lawmakers in Colorado and other states are working to make these harmful practices legal again. We believe staying informed is one way we protect each other. Thank you for being willing to face hard truths with us.

In this episode, we’re joined by Theo, the creator and host of Disordered: Responding to Catholic Teachings on Gender and Sexuality. Their podcast takes on the harmful narratives that many conservative Catholic voices promote about LGBTQ people—arguments that are often cloaked in the language of love and pastoral care, but ultimately rely on shame, fear, and pseudoscience. Episode by episode (there are 5), Theo dismantles these claims with clarity, lived experience, and a deep understanding of the Church’s own teachings.Check out their podcast (only on Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/show/5KGCDh8YLjn7J8Ur11iaWpTogether, we talk about the joy and solidarity that comes from sharing space with other queer Catholics, and the power of speaking truthfully about what we’ve survived. We reflect on how familiar rhetoric from figures like Jason Evert and Fr. Mike Schmitz shaped our understandings of ourselves—and how Theo’s work helps expose the holes in those narratives. If you’ve ever been told that queerness is a wound to be healed, this conversation is for you. And after listening, we highly encourage you to check out Theo’s podcast, Disordered, available now on Spotify.Content warning: This episode includes discussions of transphobia, conversion therapy, religious trauma, and Side B theology.

Raised in the Lamb of God Covenant Community, Audrey Clare Farley grew up in a tightly controlled environment shaped by charismatic Catholicism, rigid gender roles, and a theology that demanded obedience at all costs. Now a historian and author, Audrey reflects on how that formative experience shaped her work on eugenics, religious fundamentalism, and the ways society constructs categories like “madness” and “monstrosity” to justify violence.In this conversation, Audrey joins Max and Emma to discuss the quiet violence of spiritual abuse, how high-control religious spaces blur the lines between holiness and harm, and why storytelling is vital for recovery and resistance. Together, we explore what happens when faith communities become more invested in control than care—and how reclaiming your voice can be an act of liberation. Look out for the recap essay on our Substack, which functions as long-form show notes and will include relevant links to Audrey’s work and more.Content statement: Before you listen to this episode, take a beat. Today's episode features discussions of clergy sex abuse, sexual assault, purity culture, grief and loss. As someone who lived through purity culture, Emma knows that discussions of virginity can be especially triggering to many of us, so before diving in, take a breath and assess where you are. If you're not in a good spot right now, feel free to come back later. We really appreciate you holding space with us and taking care of yourselves. The conversations we have are difficult but important, but to create change, we need to respect and maintain our boundaries and prioritize our well being.

What does it mean to investigate the Church you still call home? And what happens when Catholic media itself becomes a tool of control?This week on Whiplash, we continue our High-Control Catholicism series with a powerful conversation with journalist, editor, and teacher Heidi Schlumpf. Heidi reflects on her career investigating the Catholic Church from within, and what it means to report on far-right Catholic media empires as a person of faith. Together we explore the tensions of holding institutions accountable while still being rooted in the tradition — from covering figures like Matthew Kelly to chronicling the rise of conservative movements in Catholic media and politics.We also talk about the challenge of teaching Catholic Social Teaching to a new generation, and the bridge liberal Catholics have built between the past and the present. This is a conversation about faith, power, resilience, and what it means to speak the truth even in high-control spaces.Full show notes and a deeper written recap of this episode are available in our Substack essay, published two days after the show airs. https://maxwellkuzma.substack.com/podcast

What happens when faith becomes more about control than love? In this episode, we kick off our High Control Catholicism series by unpacking the patterns of authoritarianism, rigidity, and fear that show up in certain corners of the Catholic Church—from the windswept plains of St. Marys, Kansas to the halls of Opus Dei and Franciscan University. We share stories from our readers, reflect on our own encounters with high-control dynamics, and explore how seemingly small practices, like the Marian consecration chain bracelet, reinforce a culture of conformity.This series isn’t about condemnation—it’s about naming what so many of us have experienced but didn’t always have language for. Whether you grew up in a traditionalist parish, encountered Catholic fundamentalism in college, or just want to understand how these patterns emerge, this conversation offers tools to help you see and speak about them. Share your own story in the comments—we’d love to hear from you. And don’t forget to subscribe for more deep dives on faith, power, and healing.Check out our longform written essay on St. Marys here: https://maxwellkuzma.substack.com/p/out-of-time-catholic-separatism-in

Kaya Oakes is a Catholic writer, feminist, teacher, and author of Radical Reinvention, The Defiant Middle, and most recently, Not So Sorry. Kaya’s work wrestles with some of the deepest tensions in faith: grief and joy, resistance and belonging, accountability and forgiveness. In this conversation, we explore her journey from Catholic schoolgirl to Bay Area punk activist and back to church on her own terms, her critique of how institutions weaponize forgiveness against survivors, and her vision for a more honest, embodied, and inclusive Catholicism.We also discuss the impact of purity culture, queer joy, respectability politics in church spaces, and why she calls herself an “accomplice” to the queer community. Kaya challenges both secular and religious narratives that demand reconciliation without accountability — and reminds us that Catholicism can and must evolve.Content note: This episode includes discussion of sexual abuse, conversion therapy, purity culture, family estrangement, cancer, and loss. Please take care while listening.

In this special Pride Month episode of Whiplash, Max and Emma sit down with Evelyn Lundy, cohost of the podcast Leave, Laugh, Love, to talk about queer awakening, Catholic deconstruction, and what happens when faith communities can’t hold the fullness of who we are. Evelyn shares her journey from youth group devotion to Franciscan University, where a mix of theology classes, queer Catholic classmates, and a whole lot of fundamentalism led her to start questioning everything. It's a conversation filled with honesty, laughter, and a few eyebrow-raising stories—yes, including Catholic monarchists.But this episode is also about reclaiming what was left out. Emma puts on her “history hat” to lead a deep dive into the roots of Pride Month, tracing the stories, resistance, and erasure that shaped our understanding of queerness and liberation. Together, we reflect on what it means to unlearn harmful theology, remember queer history, and take pride in becoming who we are. Whether you're in the church, out of it, or still sorting things out—this one’s for you.

Dani (@andhersaints) is a queer Catholic artist who grew up in an Opus Dei all-girls high school, where they were assigned to make religious art long before they believed in God. What started as a reluctant chore became a source of spiritual freedom. In this episode, Dani shares how they reclaimed Catholic imagery through humor, creativity, and queer embodiment—transforming saints from symbols of repression into icons of resistance and joy.We talk about everything from St. Thérèse of Lisieux to the gay subtext in Michelangelo’s art, from side-eyed Tumblr theology to the healing power of silliness. Dani reminds us that many queer people have always found refuge and expression through art in the Church—and that no one should have to justify their dignity in order to belong.Whether you’ve wrestled with your faith or just love weird saint trivia, this episode is a playful, powerful look at what happens when queer people take back the canvas.

Twenty-five years ago, Shannon Vavich heard someone say, “It will all be better when there’s a Catholic king.” At the time, it sounded like fringe fantasy. But today, she sees that same dream resurfacing in the far-right Catholic movement, Project 2025, and a growing push toward theocracy. In this episode, Shannon—a progressive Catholic and outspoken critic of far-right groups—joins us to talk about how authoritarian ideals are quietly gaining ground under the guise of faith.From her time inside Opus Dei circles in North Carolina to raising seven children outside of purity culture, Shannon shares how monarchy, gender roles, and natalist ideology are being used to control families and communities. We talk about what it takes to resist these forces—and why rejecting Catholic extremism is not a rejection of faith, but a defense of it.

What happens when doctrine demands obedience, but love calls you to something deeper? In this episode, we speak with Julie, a Catholic mother from Texas whose journey took her from conservative Anglicanism to the Catholic Church—and eventually into full affirmation of her LGBTQ+ children. Along the way, she confronted the harms of fundamentalism, rejected fear-based theology, and embraced the radical call to love without condition.Julie now works with Mama Dragons, leads an interfaith support group for parents, and organizes Pride events for LGBTQ+ youth—all while remaining deeply rooted in her Catholic faith. Her story is a testament to what happens when we put compassion before control and choose to let love, not fear, guide our families and our faith. Whether you’re a parent, a faith leader, or someone healing from the wounds of religious rejection, we hope this episode invites you into a deeper conversation about affirmation, accountability, and the kind of Church our children deserve.

In this episode of Whiplash, we sit down with our friend Jessica—a musician, theologian, and educator who grew up in a relaxed, West Coast version of Catholicism that stood in sharp contrast to the rigid forms Emma and I were raised with. From youth ministry to music, Jessica shares how her understanding of faith, aesthetics, and queerness evolved over time, eventually leading her to teach theology with a deep awareness of power, vulnerability, and liberation.Together, we unpack the sometime-codependent culture of Catholic ministry, the aesthetics of faith as performance, and the reality of queer exclusion in the church. It’s a tender, thoughtful conversation about healing, holding complexity, and finding God beyond the roles we were handed.

When Teresa Thompson sat down with Emma and me, we talked about religious trauma, global perspectives on Catholicism, and how queer people survive in systems not built for us. Teresa encourages us to see healing not only as repair but as a reclamation of our stories and our faith. Together, we explore the weight of trauma without losing sight of joy, community, and the liberating power of spirituality remade on our own terms.Teresa Thompson is a New York-based psychotherapist specializing in religious trauma and a Bernardin Scholar at Catholic Theological Union (where Pope Leo XIV studied!). She also writes on faith and social justice on her Substack, Liturgy of the Ours. With clarity and compassion, Teresa helps us examine how theology can wound—but also how it can be reclaimed and reimagined for healing.In this episode, we look at the systems that deepen religious harm—from colonialism and purity culture to the control of queer bodies and spirits. We also share grounding tools, reflect on our own journeys, and affirm that seeking help is a sacred act. Your story is sacred. Your healing is holy. And your queer, questioning, evolving faith is already enough.

Just weeks after the death of Pope Francis, the Catholic Church has elected its first-ever U.S. pope: Leo XIV. But instead of celebration, his election has ignited a firestorm across the far-right Catholic internet—from memes and AI-generated propaganda to conspiracy theories and calls for “making the Church great again.”In this episode of Whiplash, hosts Max Kuzma and Emma Cieslik trace the rise of Catholic nationalism in the United States and explore how Pope Leo’s election collides with the political and spiritual agendas of the MAGA movement. What does it mean for Catholicism to be at a crossroads? What role is doctrine playing in these ideological battles? And how do we hold both hope and honesty as the Church enters this new chapter?Whether you're a cradle Catholic, an exvangelical, or just deeply curious about the future of religion and politics—this episode is for you.