Shows
What Matters MostDilexit Mundum: A Christian Education and the Love of the World: Keynote Lecture of Samuel RochaWelcome to Episode 21 of Season 4 with Samuel Rocha on "Dilexit Mundum: A Christian Education and the Love of the World" the keynote Lecture of Samuel Rocha given on May 2, 2025 in Vancouver, B.C. at the CCE Promise of Christian Education: Past, Present, and Future conference in Vancouver. Dr. Sam Rocha is Professor of philosophy of education at UBC where he was awarded the Killam Teaching Prize at UBC in 2019. Sam is the author of a number of books, including A Primer for Philosophy and Education with Cascade Books, which won the American Educational Studies Association Critics Choice Book...2025-07-251h 28
Catholic Education MattersSuper Habits: Why Virtue is at the Heart of Catholic LearningIn this episode of Catholic Education Matters, host Troy Van Vliet is joined by businessman and philanthropist Andy Szocs and Dr. Andrew Abela, Dean of the School of Business at The Catholic University of America for a compelling conversation centered on the power and purpose of virtue in education and leadership. Dr. Abela discusses his book Super Habits, which reintroduces the classical concept of virtue—not as outdated moralizing, but as deeply relevant habits of excellence essential for human flourishing. Drawing from both ancient wisdom and modern research, he explains how virtues such as courage, temperance, self-discipline, and orderliness ar...2025-07-181h 07What Matters MostEducating the Children of God, Infants to Elders: Keynote Lecture of Margaret MacDonaldWelcome to Episode 21 of Season 3 with Margaret MacDonald on "Educating the Children of God, Infants to Elders," a keynote Lecture of Margaret MacDonald from May 1, 2025 at the CCE Promise of Christian Education: Past, Present, and Future conference in Vancouver. Margaret Y. MacDonald is Professor of Religious Studies at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. She was Dean of Arts at Saint Mary’s University from 2014 to 2020 and previously taught at St. Francis Xavier University (Nova Scotia) and the University of Ottawa. In the winter of 2018, she held the McCarthy Chair in Biblical Studies at the Pontifical Biblical Insti...2025-07-091h 16What Matters MostReading the Bible in the Kingdom of Love: A Conversation with Tom BolinWelcome to Episode 20 of Season 3 with Thomas Bolin, who joined me to discuss his important new book An Inspired Word in Season: Reading the Bible Responsibly in a Polarized World, and the always fascinating questions related to how we interpret texts, especially significant texts like those that make up the Bible. Thomas Bolin is a professor of theology and religious studies. Most recently he was a professor of Theology and Religious Studies at St. Norbert College, a small, Catholic, Liberal Arts college sponsored by the Norbertine Order in the heart of Green Bay, Wisconsin. He teaches courses in t...2025-06-251h 19What Matters MostThe Jesuit Disruptor and His Successor Leo: A Conversation with Michael W. HigginsWelcome to Episode 19 of Season 3 with Michael W. Higgins, who joined me to discuss Pope Francis and our new Pope Leo XIV. We discussed his newest book, a portrait of Pope Francis, titled the Jesuit Disruptor. Michael W. Higgins is a distinguished educator, media commentator, and author, and he shows no sign of slowing down! In 1999 Dr. Higgins was appointed President and Vice-Chancellor of St. Jerome's University. He served as President until 2006 when he became President and Vice-Chancellor of St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. While at St. Thomas he also taught English and Religious Studies. He...2025-06-111h 34What Matters MostHabemus Papam! Pope Leo XIV: A Conversation with the St. Mark's Theology FacultyWelcome to Episode 18 of Season 3 with my colleagues from St. Mark's College: Dr. Fiona Li, inaugural Archbishop Michael Miller Chair in Catholic Studies, Fr. Nick Meisl, Profess at St. Mark's College, and Dr. Nick Olkovich, Marie Anne Blondin Chair in Catholic Theology. In this episode we talk about a new Pope, Pope Leo XIV, a native of the United States and a naturalized citizen of Peru. It's an exciting time to see a new Pope no matter what, but as the immediate succcessor to Francis and as another Pope from the Americas, this papacy brings a lot o...2025-05-1047 minWhat Matters MostPop Culture Matters: Christmas Movies with Martin StrongWelcome to the third episode of Pop Culture Matters, a conversation with my good friend and yours Martin Strong. Today we’re talking about Christmas movies, our favorite Christmas movies, and what we think makes for a good Christmas movie. We asked a lot of people on campus at UBC and St. Mark’s and on social media, what their favorite Christmas movies are. Here’s a list of a bunch of them, in no particular order that people mentioned to us: Love, Actually; White Christmas; It’s a Wonderful Life; Elf; While You Were Sleeping;-Miracle on 34th Str...2024-12-1855 minWhat Matters MostStraight Street: Pop Culture MattersWelcome to the first episode of Pop Culture Matters, a discussion with Martin Strong and me regarding Gospel music and the song "Straight Street," written by J.W. Alexander and Jesse Whitaker in the 1950s and first recorded by The Pilgrim Travelers in 1955. Today we are especially looking at Ry Cooder’s version of the song "Straight Street" and the biblical and other spiritual themes that suffuse this song, Cooder’s 2018 album Prodigal Son from this song is taken, and Gospel music in general. We also spend a little time discussing "Wade in the Water" by the Staples Singers. We hav...2024-09-1958 minWhat Matters MostGreen bioethics and Sustainable Healthcare: A Conversation with Father Myles Sheehan, SJRegular listeners know that this episode is late! I apologize for that but blame a nasty norovirus that has run amok through our extended family. And directly through me. It seems right, then, that the fifteenth episode of the second season focuses on health and public health with Fr. Myles Sheehan, SJ. Fr. Sheehan is a Jesuit priest, physician, and, since December 2020, the Director of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University, where he also serves as Professor of Medicine and the David Lauler Chair of Catholic Health Care Ethics. A graduate of Dartmouth College and...2024-03-0856 minWhat Matters MostPope Francis's Laudato Deum: A Conversation with Cristina VaninThis episode, the tenth of the second season of What Matters Most, features Dr. Cristina Vanin, an associate professor of theology and Director of the Master of Catholic Thought program at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario. I invited Cristina on the podcast to discuss Laudato Deum, Pope Francis’s newest apostolic exhortation, released in October 2023. Laudato Deum was released just prior to COP 28 in Dubai, which Francis was unable to make due to illness. Those close to him said he was genuinely upset that he could not travel as it is a significant aspect of his pontificate and cl...2023-12-271h 14What Matters MostThe Rise of Christian Nationalism in the 1930s and Today in the USA: A Conversation with Charles Gallagher, S.J.This episode with Charles Gallagher, S.J. takes us into some dark history concerning Nazis and the Christian Front, a Catholic lay organization, in Boston and New York in the 1930s and 1940s just prior to and during the early stages of World War II. The story of Frances Moran, head of the Boston National Front and his Nazi handler, the German consul in Boston, Herbert Wilhelm Scholz is a depressing story. That neither of them ever paid a real price for their espionage and treason makes it more depressing. The only person who really comes out of this wit...2023-11-011h 31