CURRENT ISSUE
Vol. 44
No. 03
Vol. 44
No. 03
More from this issue
Featured
New from Comment

PODCASTS

Dark carved wood with intricate leaf and plant patterns forms the background. Large white text in the center reads The Understory. Below, smaller text says A Comment Original with a circular logo above it.

The Understory

In late May 2026, more than a thousand people gathered for three days beneath the vaults of Washington National Cathedral to ask what it means to be human in the light of Christ. This podcast carries the festival’s talks, sessions, and experiences to everyone who wasn’t in the room—and to everyone who was, who wishes to return.
ALL EPISODES
October 7, 20261h 10m

Getting Unstuck on Immigration

Immigration debates tend to oscillate between abstract policy positions and indi...
  • David Lapp
    David Lapp
  • Headshot of a smiling man with a beard and glasses, wearing a suit and tie.
    Diego Sánchez
  • A woman with shoulder-length curly dark hair smiling, wearing a brown turtleneck and a gold chain necklace.
    Jennie Murray
  • Headshot of a smiling, middle-aged man wearing glasses and a patterned bowtie under a blue suit jacket.
    Jim Robb
  • Headshot of an older man with gray hair and a beard, wearing glasses, a white collared shirt, and a dark blazer.
    Peter Skerry
Listen
September 30, 202659m

Critical Yeast vs. Critical Mass

How does cultural and moral renewal actually happen? Two schools of thought emer...
  • Cherie Harder
  • Lisa Slayton
  • Louis Kim
  • Ian DeWaard
Listen

Conversing

Conversing with Mark Labberton invites listeners into transformative encounters with leaders and creators shaping our world at the intersection of Christian faith, culture, and public life.
ALL EPISODES
October 6, 202654m

Permanent Questions: Celebrating Ten Years of Conversing

What if the deepest problems in American life were pre-political? It’s often s...
  • David Brooks
Listen
September 29, 202647m

A Ukrainian Pastor on Faith, Hope, and the Terror of War

War has wracked Ukraine for 1,678 days—outlasting both World Wars. In this con...
  • Fyodor Raichynets
Listen

The Sacred

The Sacred is a podcast interested in the real people behind their public personas. Elizabeth Oldfield hosts unhurried conversations that go deeper, in search of what might heal our fractured world.
ALL EPISODES
October 7, 202651m

Art, Friendship and Trust Across the Israeli-Palestinian Divide

What does it take to create a shared home in a divided city? In Jerusalem, two w...
  • Riman Barakat
  • Karen Brunwasser
Listen
September 23, 202658m

Can Bourgeois Values Save Britain?

Can you really vote your way to a good society—or does it have to be built hou...
  • James Vitali
Listen

Zealots at the Gate

Muslim political thinker Shadi Hamid and Christian theologian Matthew Kaemingk explore the future of democracy and religion, charting a new paradigm for navigating difference.
ALL EPISODES
September 28, 202657m

Can Trump Bomb Iran Into Democracy?

Matt and Shadi’s initiative, The Faith and Future of Democracy Initiative, is ...
  • Nader Hashemi
Listen
September 14, 20261h 1m

9/11: Why We Remember That Day Differently

What are the lessons of 9/11? What does it mean to “never forget”? Join Matt...
Listen

MATERIAL MYSTICISM

Matthew J. Milliner

The Roots of Gender

Goddess fantasies and Christian reality on Crete.

Matthew J. Milliner

Evagrius in Florence

A city for celebrities, tourists, artists, scholars, thieves—and mystics.

Matthew J. Milliner

The Wildest Christianity of All

A field guide to Cynthia Bourgeault.

Matthew J. Milliner

Merton’s Nurse

How Mary helped rescue America’s most famous monk.

more

POPULAR ESSAYS

David Brooks

The Feminine Way to Wisdom

Learning from Etty Hillesum, Edith Stein, and Simone Weil.

Kurt Armstrong

Repair and Remain

How to do the slow, hard, good work of staying put.

Katherine Dee

Internet Overexposure Syndrome

A taxonomy of adaptations to online life.

Laura Fabrycky

Motherhood and the Intellectual Life

What kind of knowing is maternal knowing?

more