There’s an old saying in Jesuit circles: If you’ve met one Jesuit, you’ve met one Jesuit. A fun list to make is all the different careers guys had before joining the Society of Jesus. We have actors and comedians, doctors and lawyers, astronomers and one former lieutenant governor. Shane Liesegang, SJ, today’s guest, is the only Jesuit host Mike Jordan Laskey has ever met who was a video game developer. Before entering the Jesuits in 2015, Shane worked for over a decade in video game development for several different studios. He worked on hugely popular games like the Fallout Series and Skyrim ..read more

While Fr. Daniel Hendrickson, SJ, president of Creighton University, is excited for both his women's and men's basketball teams' March Madness journeys, today’s episode isn’t about basketball at all. (Well, it makes an appearance for a couple minutes at the end.) It’s about the roles of Jesuit colleges and universities in our world today. Host Mike Jordan Laskey spoke with Fr. Hendrickson a couple months ago about his book “Jesuit Higher Education in a Secular Age,” which explores how Jesuit education can help students create meaningful connections in our highly self-centered, transactional er ..read more

Ever since the Jesuits in the United Kingdom launched the daily prayer project “Pray As You Go” (PAYG) in 2006, the creative team behind the resource has shared fabulous audio prayer programs that are spiritually nourishing in their beauty and simplicity. Each day combines music, Scripture from the lectionary, and short spoken prayer prompts that always invite you to reflect on the Scripture in a new way. PAYG will slow you down and invite genuine contemplation, making it so different from almost any other smartphone app or podcast program out there. Hundreds of thousands of people around the ..read more

The basic details of Father Walter Ciszek life sound like a movie: An American Jesuit priest ministering in Eastern Europe around the time of World War II, he was arrested by the Soviet Union and falsely accused of being a Vatican spy. He spent time in a KGB prison and more than a decade in Siberian labor camps. His family and his Jesuit brothers back in the U.S. assumed he was dead. During his captivity, Fr. Ciszek secretly heard confessions, celebrated Mass, baptized, comforted the sick, and ministered to the dying. His unwavering faith sustained him through solitary confinement, torture, an ..read more

When you hear the word “Lent,” what is the first thing you think of? Maybe it’s purple or giving up social media or chocolate. Or maybe it’s trying to build better prayer habits or abstaining from meat on Fridays. Or famous Lenten Scripture passages like the Transfiguration. For Margaret Felice, today's guest, one thing that’s always near the top of her mind when it comes to Lent is music. Margaret is a professional singer and liturgical musician with an absolutely stunning voice. She’s also a terrific writer and a first-year doctoral student in theology at Boston College’s Clough School of Th ..read more

Today's guest has an incredible amount of experience of the truly "catholic," global nature of the church. Fr. Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, SJ, today serves as the dean of the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University. This school is one of the two Jesuit “theologates” in the United States, which means it’s a place where Jesuits in formation from all over the world pursue theology studies alongside lay students. Before arriving at JST last August, Fr. Orobator spent seven years as the president of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar, leading the Jesuits on the continent where ..read more

Even though the French paleontologist and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin died in 1955, it feels like his work is still being discussed and debated in theological circles all the time. There are numerous associations and publications dedicated solely to exploring Teilhard’s huge body of work. He made it back into the news this past fall when Pope Francis described him as “often misunderstood” during a Mass in Mongolia. Host Mike Jordan Laskey reached out to one of the foremost Teilhard experts in the United States, Sister Kathy Duffy, SSJ, to learn more about this fascinating Jesuits. Sr ..read more

For more than 60 years, the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) has been a pioneer in the service landscape. With over 100 volunteers each year and over 12,000 alumni, they are one of the largest lay, Catholic, full-time volunteer programs in the world. JVC gives young adults the opportunity to engage in service and solidarity with local communities, rooted in the values of spirituality, simple living, community and social justice. Host Mike Jordan Laskey recently spoke with JVC’s president, Tom Chabolla, who has served in the role since 2018. Tom has more than 30 years working in faith-based and com ..read more

In the final meditation of the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius of Loyola reminds us “that love ought to manifest itself in deeds rather than in words.” We are called to love and serve in all things. And so, it’s hardly a surprise that in the 500 or so years since Ignatius wrote those words, countless service organizations have grown and flourished within the Ignatian tradition. Over the course of the next two weeks, we’re going to explore two of those organizations. Today, we’re talking about the Ignatian Volunteer Corps with President and CEO of IVC, Mary McGinnity. Mary has more than 30 ye ..read more

Have you ever met someone so passionate about something that you just couldn’t help getting excited about it, too? That was host Mike Jordan Laskey's experience when he first met Fr. Tom Curran, SJ, today's guest. Fr. Curran, who served as the president of Rockhurst University in Kansas City for 16 years, is now the coordinator of the Jesuit Prison Education Network (JPEN). Through participation in JPEN, nine different Jesuit institutes of higher learning offer college courses and degree programs -- taught by their own college/university professors -- at correctional facilities around the coun ..read more