What Has Beowulf to Do with Christ? with Peter Ramey

“Language and values and concepts come packaged together, don't they?” asks Peter Ramey, recent translator of The Word-Hoard Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary. Indeed, his opus reflects just this and resolves the distance between culture and language in a uniquely faithful yet readable translation. 

Join Peter and Ryan as they delve into Beowulf, asking: What is the value of a word? Who was Beowulf? Is Beowulf pre-Christian, Christian by overlay, Christian by accident, or Christian in essence?

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The Once and Future Woman with Abigail Favale

The modern debate on gender elucidates some apparent contradictions: Is gender essential, something we know within us? Or is gender a social construct? Is sex real or not? Does Christianity affirm or deny the body? Abigail Favale, Professor of the Practice at Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life, has traced the evolutions of sex, gender, and feminism from Genesis to Tumblr.

Join in this episode to hear Grant and Abigail discuss the gender paradigm, capitalism, fertility, and the question “What is a woman, essentially?”

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Can AI Reignite Our Faith? With Shanen Boettcher

AI gives us information. It furnishes facts. It prompts us with news headlines. But could AI also answer our religious questions?

When Shanen Boettcher paused his tech career and completed a master's degree in world religions, he began to ask himself this question. Recently, he conducted a study to put it to the test. In this episode, Shanen and Gretchen discuss his findings and explore the previously widely-ignored intersection of technology and faith. They ask: Do people feel they have more privacy speaking about spirituality with AI? What kind of authority do AI-generated answers evoke? How will the religious realm, a realm of mystery and prayer, be incorporated into the factual, statistical world of technology?

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Can Care Jobs Be Good Jobs? with Janette Dill

Health care workers are essential yet underappreciated. Janette Dill, Associate Professor in the Division of Health Policy & Management at the University of Minnesota, is researching why. Her work studies racial and gender disparities, the rewards for professional certification, and the realities of unionization in the health care workforce.

Join Janette and Grant as they ask: Why is social mobility difficult in direct care positions? What unique challenges do men, women, and minorities face in this field? How have the constitution and appreciation of working-class jobs changed since the 1970s? How do we achieve justice in the health care sector?

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