Send us a Text Message. Welcome back to "Restoring the Soul with Michael John Cusick." In today's episode, Michael dives deep into a conversation with Sam Jolman, author of "The Sex Talk You Never Got: Reclaiming the Heart of Masculine Sexuality." Sam’s groundbreaking book, set to release on June 11, explores the often misunderstood landscape of ma…

Irish Women in Religious Orders, 1530-1700: Suppression, Migration and Reintegration (Boydell & Brewer, 2022) by Dr. Bronagh Ann McShane investigates the impact of the dissolution of the monasteries on women religious and examines their survival in the following decades, showing how, despite the state's official proscription of vocation living, rel…

John Michael Talbott is a tremendously successful musician and writer; he is also the founder of a monastery—the Brothers and Sisters of Charity at Little Portion Hermitage in Arkansas—where he is Minister General today. He started as a Methodist and a country rock musician in the seventies and the story of his journey is amazing, from the encounte…

John Michael Talbot is a tremendously successful musician and writer; he is also the founder of a monastery—the Brothers and Sisters of Charity at Little Portion Hermitage in Arkansas—where he is Minister General today. He started as a Methodist and a country rock musician in the seventies and the story of his journey is amazing, from the encounter…

“Wisconsin has always been my home. It’s not a place, however, where I’ve always felt at home,” (ix) declares Dr. Sergio M. González in the first two lines of his acknowledgments for his recently published book Strangers No Longer: Latino Belonging & Faith in Twentieth-Century Wisconsin (University of Illinois Press, 2024). These two sentences are …

"When the Spanish colonization of the Philippines began in 1565, early reports boasted of mass conversions to Christianity and ever-increasing numbers of people paying tribute to the Spanish crown. This suggests an uncomplicated story of an easy imposition of Spanish sovereignty. But as Stephanie Mawson shows in her book, Incomplete Conquests: The …

Send us a Text Message. Welcome to another episode of Restoring the Soul with Michael John Cusick. Today, our special guest is Sam Jolman, author of the forthcoming book, "The Sex Talk You Never Got: Reclaiming the Heart of Masculine Sexuality." In this episode, Michael and Sam explore the genesis of Jolman's book and the pivotal discussions that u…

The crusade movement needed women: their money, their prayer support, their active participation, and their inspiration. Helen J. Nicholson's book Women and the Crusades (Oxford UP, 2023) surveys women's involvement in medieval crusading between the second half of the eleventh century, when Pope Gregory VII first proposed a penitential military exp…

Professor David Bonagura, theologian and Latinist, has translated and edited seven of St. Jerome’s letters dealing with death and mourning. This doctor of the church consoles his friends in first centuries of Christendom, describing death as sleep, and dying as our journey back home to God. And though the Mediterranean is big and fourth-century tra…

Professor David Bonagura, theologian and Latinist, has translated and edited seven of St. Jerome’s letters dealing with death and mourning. This doctor of the church consoles his friends in first centuries of Christendom, describing death as sleep, and dying as our journey back home to God. And though the Mediterranean is big and fourth-century tra…

Send us a Text Message. Welcome to "Restoring the Soul with Michael John Cusick." In today's episode, Michael is joined by Dr. Alison Cook, author of the newly released book, "I Shouldn't Feel This Way." Together, they delve into the complexities of emotions and how we can navigate challenging situations through daily practices. Dr. Cook's book is …

Send us a Text Message. Welcome to another edition of Restoring the Soul. On today's podcast, we tackled the critical topic of betrayal trauma with my bride Julianne. We explored why many women feel stuck in their healing process, diving into relational barriers like ongoing betrayal, gaslighting, and the impact of unresolved past trauma. We discus…

Fabricating Founders in Early Modern England: History, Rhetoric, and the Origins of Christianity (Brill, 2023) argues that in order to understand nationalisms, we need a clearer understanding of the types of cultural myths, symbols, and traditions that legitimate them. Myths of origin and election, memories of a greater and purer past, and narrativ…

The 21st century has witnessed a revolution in how historians approach the study of Roman Catholicism. Long trapped in an unbridgeable chasm between confessional scholars taking revealed truth as a point of departure & secular scholars ignoring the intellectual and experiential richness of religion, Catholicism has increasingly benefited from vibra…

Michael John Cusick argues that our addictions and disordered sexual desires are really a misdirected effort to reach God and live in connection with Him. How can this be? The crude simulation is but at poor substitute for the real thing, for the Truth. Yet in this fallen world, sinners repeatedly fall into the snares. “I do not understand my own a…

Michael John Cusick argues that our addictions and disordered sexual desires are really a misdirected effort to reach God and live in connection with Him. How can this be? The crude simulation is but at poor substitute for the real thing, for the Truth. Yet in this fallen world, sinners repeatedly fall into the snares. “I do not understand my own a…

Marion Casey is a professor at Glucksman Ireland House at New York University where she also serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies. She has published widely on various aspects of Irish-American history and in 2006 she co-edited Making the Irish American: History and Heritage of the Irish in the United States with Joe Lee. In this interview, s…

Send us a Text Message. Welcome to another episode of Restoring the Soul with Michael John Cusick. Today, Michael is joined by Intensive Clinical Soul Care Specialist Brian Boecker. Together, they explore the profound impact of an upcoming men’s intensive weekend in Monument, Colorado, from September 19th through the 22nd, 2024. Throughout this dis…

In Mexican Exodus: Emigrants, Exiles, and Refugees of the Cristero War (Oxford University Press, 2019), Julia G. Young reframes the Cristero War as a transnational conflict, using previously unexamined archival materials from both Mexico and the United States to investigate the intersections between Mexico's Cristero War and Mexican migration to th…

How do we know what we know about the origins of the Christian religion? Neither its founder, nor the Apostles, nor Paul left any written accounts of their movement. The witnesses' testimonies were transmitted via successive generations of copyists and historians, with the oldest surviving fragments dating to the second and third centuries - that i…

Send us a Text Message. Welcome back to another episode of Restoring the Soul with Michael John Cusick. Today, we are delighted to welcome Dr. Rodney Reeves for a captivating conversation about spirituality, imagination, and the profound teachings from the Gospel of John. In today’s episode, we’ll be delving deep into the passage of a remarkable wo…

Temeko Ricardson grew up in the Protestant American tradition; she was a “GPK” (grand-pastor-kid) from a family of church leaders. She has been thinking about Christianity and social issues—failure to include God’s people into His Church, fractured families, homelessness—and how to weave out society together and spread the Gospel. She’s an entrepre…

Send us a Text Message. Welcome to another episode of Restoring the Soul with Michael John Cusick. Joining Michael is Alan Kraft, who will delve into the spiritually nourishing practice of scripture meditation and its power to let the Holy Spirit speak directly to our hearts. In today's episode, titled "The Intimate God," Alan unravels his spiritua…

Over the course of our 60th anniversary in 2024, we'll be revisiting some classic Georgetown books. First up is Loyal Dissent by Charles E. Curran. Loyal Dissent: Memoir of a Catholic Theologian (Georgetown UP, 2006) is the candid and inspiring story of a Catholic priest and theologian who, despite being stripped of his right to teach as a Catholic…

St. Brigid is the earliest and best-known of the female saints of Ireland. In the generation after St. Patrick, she established a monastery for men and women at Kildare which became one of the most powerful and influential centres of the Church in early Ireland. The stories of Brigid's life and deeds survive in several early sources, but the most i…

Send us a Text Message. Welcome to another episode of Restoring the Soul. Alan Kraft is joining Michael on today's podcast. Alan has served as lead pastor of Christ Community Church since 1990. He is passionate about teaching, writing, and prayer to help people experience Jesus in transformative ways. He holds an MDiv degree from Trinity Evangelica…

There have been Christians in the Holy Land for two thousand years; “we are the first church,” says Father Firas Abedrabbo who is from Bethlehem and works in Ramallah. He studied law in France and speaks excellent English and spoke with me about his experience as a priest in Palestine (the West Bank) during the Gaza War. We talk politics and histor…

There have been Christians in the Holy Land for two thousand years; “we are the first church,” says Father Firas Abedrabbo who is from Bethlehem and works in Ramallah. He studied law in France and speaks excellent English and spoke with me about his experience as a priest in Palestine (the West Bank) during the Gaza War. We talk politics and histor…

In The Jesuits: A Thematic History (Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2023), Claudio Ferlan provides an exploration of the tradition of the Society of Jesus. Instead of focusing solely on the Society’s historical milestones and changes, Ferlan traces the continuity of key Jesuit themes over time—covering education, mission, social engagement, and more. …

Send us a Text Message. Welcome to another episode of Restoring the Soul with your host, Michael John Cusick. Forgiveness is a term often uttered with ease but practiced with considerable difficulty. What does forgiveness truly entail? Does it inherently mean reconciliation or forgetting? Joined by Julianne in the studio, they tackle heavyweight qu…

Despite being one of the most influential women of 17th century France, Marie de Vignerot has been largely forgotten. The niece, heiress, and advisor to the infamous Cardinal Richelieu, Marie was deeply motivated by her Catholic faith, yet never re-married after she became a widow at 18. She shaped France and the French empire's political, religiou…

In 1341 in Aragon, a Jewish convert to Christianity was sentenced to death, only to be pulled from the burning stake and into a formal religious interrogation. His confession was as astonishing to his inquisitors as his brush with mortality is to us: the condemned man described a Jewish conspiracy to persuade recent converts to denounce their newfo…

Send us a Text Message. Welcome to another episode of Restoring the Soul. Today, Michael and Julianne delve into the complex tapestry of trauma, unwinding the threads that bind us to our past experiences. Many regard trauma as stemming from life-shattering events, but today’s discussion unfolds its layers, revealing that trauma can emerge from the …

For Christians, the central event in history and in universe is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. This killing of God (or deicide) is so mysterious and terrible that it’s hard to even approach: what kind of a God would choose to be tortured and murdered by his rebellious creatures? Pastor Brian Zahnd’s poetic theolog…

For Christians, the central event in history and in universe is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. This killing of God (or deicide) is so mysterious and terrible that it’s hard to even approach: what kind of a God would choose to be tortured and murdered by his rebellious creatures? Pastor Brian Zahnd’s poetic theolog…

Send us a Text Message. Welcome to Restoring the Soul with Michael John Cusick. Join Michael and Ian Morgan Cron as they delve into the profound topic of spiritual growth. Ian shares insights from his new book, offering a raw and unfiltered look into the existential turmoil that plagues the human condition. They discuss the paradox of powerlessness…

Send us a Text Message. Congratulations, Michael John Cusick, for publishing your 300th episode of Restoring the Soul! In this episode, our good friend Ian Morgan Cron joins the program to discuss the thought-provoking book "What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing" by Bruce Perry, MDPhD, and Oprah Winfrey. Michael and…

Colin Rahill dropped out of law school to become a Catholic writer; he just finished his first book, Castor & Pollux (Emerald Books, 2023), which is about the troubles facing Gen Z: the idolatrous snares of social media, health cults, self-manifesting, neopaganism, a kaleidoscope of prescription drugs, and pornified AI digital realities (to name a …