Description In this episode I share an upcoming highlight - speaking at SEEK 2026 - as well as four of my favorite podcast moments from 2025, as well as a few things to come in 2026. Here are the three questions I asked: Which episode in Season 5 (2025) resonated most with you and why? Who should I interview in 2026? And do you have an “in” with any of the following ‘dream guests’ (Sr. Miriam Heidland, Bishop Barron, Msgr Shea, Andy Stanley, Francis Chan, or Louis Giglio) What do you think about...
Dec 22, 2025•17 min•Season 4Ep. 113
Description Everybody rambles, all of us do. Run on sentences, tream of consciousness, and too much information. We all do it. Whether you're new to speaking or you're OG, it plagues us all. And the trick though, is recognizing it. You know when it happens, exploring the possible root causes and then figuring out what you can do to fix it. And in today's episode, we're gonna look at each of those three things: what it is, why we do it, and what we can do about it. Links For more information abou...
Dec 01, 2025•18 min•Season 4Ep. 112
Description True confession - I am often in search of the perfect talk. Like Bigfoot, I know it’s out there, I catch a glimpse every once in a while, but just when I think I’m hot on the trail and figuring it out - it eludes me. But is that what we are really after? The perfect talk? Not only is there likely no such thing, but even if there was - what if told you that that brief prayer time at the end of your talk might be what REALLY matters. And this isn’t something we have a whole lot of expe...
Nov 17, 2025•47 min•Season 4Ep. 111
Description Today is a unique episode. I wanna share a talk that I gave from the SEEK 2025 conference, an Impact Session, during those days in Salt Lake City. The Grace of Praise? We don't often think of it that way, that the church in her Scriptures and in particular in her liturgy, remind us, of course, that we have a command, a duty to praise the Lord, but why? Is it good for God? Well, the liturgy kind of answers that question, and I share that today. I'll leave that as a little bit of a cli...
Nov 03, 2025•40 min•Season 4Ep. 110
Description You are in for a treat today…you are about to enter “evangelizing catechesis heaven”. If there is one thing that I believe about teaching and preaching it is that “when you teach, preach!” Catechists can no longer (and this has been true for a long time) assume that the people they are teaching have a real life relationship with Jesus. So…all of our teaching has to be imbued with the core Gospel message. But HOW?? How do you do this? Well this is exactly what we dig deeply into today...
Oct 20, 2025•49 min•Season 4Ep. 109
Description A picture is worth a thousand words. We know that saying very well, and it's, it's really true. In fact, I was just on a call with a colleague from across the country earlier this week and you know, when you're on, or Zoom and, and you're talking to one another and you're trying to describe what it is that you're planning on or thinking, and if there's a document or even better kind of an image or a diagram that kind of lays out what you're describing, you wanna say just like, well, ...
Oct 06, 2025•24 min•Season 4Ep. 108
Description I’ve often repeated the phrase that “communication is not what is said, but rather what is heard”, which is similar to Thomas Aquinas when he says that “everything that is received, is received in the mode of the receiver” (not the deliverer or presenter). Through many incredible stories (which included one of my favorite “worst talk stories” ever), ministry convictions, and tons of practical examples, Michael Marchand always aims to lean into the wisdom and life experiences of the a...
Sep 22, 2025•56 min•Season 4Ep. 107
Description When you are giving a talk there are many things that can go wrong, apart from anything related to your content, preparation and delivery. What do you do when the mic fails, video glitches, or powerpoint dies? How do you react when no one shows up to your talk or teenagers won’t stop looking at their phones? In this conversation with my trusty occasional co-host, Connor Flanagan we dig into each of these questions and more… Things will often go wrong How will you respond? There’s a l...
Sep 08, 2025•40 min•Season 4Ep. 106
Description In the immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s death a few years ago, the conversation in the Church and America turned swiftly to race. And as often is the case those national conversations make their way into (and in a few years) out of, our lives. Today, I’d like to send that email again and you know, bring it to the top of your inbox. The discussion about race is an important one - not just for Americans at large, but for Catholics in the US, as well. The issue is personal for me. ...
Aug 25, 2025•46 min•Season 4Ep. 105
Description So in my opinion, AI, and this is probably your opinion too, AI is here to stay and preparing talks as one example, which we'll get into, get into today, will never be the same. And I'm a bit late to the game for sure on this one, as many of you have been asking me, Hey, what are your thoughts on AI and preaching and that sort of thing? And, and I think this is a great question and I'm excited to kind of dig into it today. And, um, to do that, I wanna share three simple ways that I u...
Aug 11, 2025•34 min•Season 4Ep. 104
Description Father Luke Marquard is a Priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul Minneapolis and a member of the Companions of Christ. Ordained in 2013, he serves as the pastor of St. Joseph's here in West St. Paul, along with a Master of Divinity degree. He also holds a master's degree in Education from the University of Notre Dame. Check out St Joseph’s Website : www.churchofstjoseph.org Links For more information about the Better Preach Podcast visit: www.ryanohara.org/betterpreach Better Preach P...
Jul 28, 2025•47 min•Season 4Ep. 103
Description Ryan shares about some exciting upcoming episodes and asks you to join him for a special prayer request! Links For more information about the Better Preach Podcast visit: www.ryanohara.org/betterpreach Better Preach Podcast is now on YouTube. Here’s a link to the channel. Check out Ryan’s FREE course on “sharing your faith as a Catholic.” Follow Ryan on Instagram , Twitter , YouTube , or Facebook Join the Better Preach email list ....
Jul 17, 2025•5 min
Description After many years of praying with the scriptures on a daily basis, I, I read the daily readings and. Kind of go through a process of, of Lexio, Davina and meditation with the scriptures. Each day I've seen that more and more and more. There's this sort of merging and kind of overlapping of how I approach the scriptures. In prayer and how that informs my preparation for preaching. And I thought, oh, you know, it'd be fun. It'd be fun to talk about that. And I'd love to hear how you see...
Jul 07, 2025•21 min•Season 4Ep. 102
Description Is there an overlap between the art of preaching and the skill of acting? This is something that I have wondered about for a long time. Having spent time on only a few acting stages - not the lease of which earned me a college best actor award at my alma mater for playing a young man with elephant ears - but I digress? Is preaching performative? Yes, in some ways. Is preaching the same as acting? No, of course not, but the overlap and where that line is fascinating and what preachers...
Jun 23, 2025•41 min•Season 4Ep. 101
Description To celebrate 100 episodes I am featuring and discussing seven different messages from listeners of the Better Preach Podcast. Thanks to each of the following for their wonderful contribution! Karl Hendrickson - Teacher, School Administrator and Community formation teacher www.saintagnesschool.org Megan Copeland - Podcaster and Catholic Speaker https://www.hisbelovedcatholic.com Sr. Nicole - Religious Sister with Salesian Sisters of St John Bosco https://www.salesiansisters.org Chris ...
Jun 09, 2025•25 min•Season 4Ep. 100
Description I want to hear from you! Would you be willing to record a voice-text (90 sec or less) and send it to me? If so, here are the four questions I’d like you to answer! 1) Name 2) Ministry / Role (if applicable) 3) How has the podcast supported you as a teacher/preacher? 4) What was one of your favorite episodes and why? or Favorite takeaway from of the episodes? If interested - go to this link: www.ryanohara.org/betterpreach and send me an email through the CONTACT FORM on the middle of ...
Jun 02, 2025•3 min
Description Are you Like me? I always watch TV shows and movies at home with captions on. It's one of the reasons I don't want to go to the movie theater. Because I can't do the captions. I don't know if I'm getting old or what it is, but it's just so much better with the captions . I can follow every little thing that's said, and I feel like I'm understanding what's going on much better, because I can hear it and I can read it. That's kind of the idea that I'm tapping into today. There's this p...
May 26, 2025•30 min•Season 4Ep. 99
Description I don't know if you know this, but Father Mike Schmitz is a huge fan of Superman, but in my conversation today, you get the really strong impression that he's got a lot more in common with the everyday man, just you and me and the kinds of things that we struggle with. And he shared just humbly and honestly about some of his speaking missteps and struggles and the questions that he has around preaching. It gives us this beautiful window into the man, the disciple that's, you know, be...
May 19, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 4Ep. 98
Description One of my favorite questions to ask anyone that I'm interviewing on this podcast is first or worst, I want to hear a story about their first talk or their worst talk. And this is probably the one shot. This is the one shot that I've got on. Better preach to comment on a Pope's first homily, like as a pope, not his very first homily. But anyway, Pope Leo, Pope Leo the 14th, Hauss Popham, we've got a Pope from America. He comes out swinging and I'm so excited to share a little bit abou...
May 12, 2025•22 min•Season 4Ep. 97
Description Alliteration is like a specialized tool that can unlock understanding and retention for the people who are listening to your talks. And those are two things that we want to make sure our talks are always aiming at. Are people picking up? We're laying down and are they walking away with something that can change their lives? Alliteration, I think, can help us do both of those things. And today I'm gonna cover the when, the why, and the how of using alliteration in your talks. Links Fo...
May 05, 2025•17 min•Season 4Ep. 96
Description In the wake of the news this week of Pope Francis’ death, I immediately wondered what we could do here at Better Preach to honor his legacy, teaching and example - particularly around Preaching. For a while I wanted to do a dive into his first major letter to the Church, the Joy of the Gospel, from 2013, and look closely at his lengthy section in that document on homiletics. And thanks to Fr. Craig Vasek, who joined me way back in the beginning on episode 2 of Better Preach, he agree...
Apr 28, 2025•54 min•Season 4Ep. 95
Description Every once in a while you come across a new perspective, fresh eyes, on an age old challenge > and it breaks through lots of baggage and pre-conceived notions. And this podcast in the grand sense is about addressing the age old challenge of reaching everyday Catholics in the pews with the Gospel. Kristin Bird helped me see this perennial challenge with fresh eyes. And she conceives of this challenge and talks about it in a way that is so helpful and accessible. Stick around..this ...
Apr 14, 2025•39 min•Season 4Ep. 94
Description In this episode I discuss the reasons why we are afraid of the PAUSE in our talks and three reasons why your next talk needs the PAUSE. Links For more information about the Better Preach Podcast visit: www.ryanohara.org/betterpreach Better Preach Podcast is now on YouTube. Here’s a link to the channel. Check out Ryan’s FREE course on “sharing your faith as a Catholic.” Follow Ryan on Instagram , Twitter , YouTube , or Facebook Join the Better Preach email list ....
Apr 07, 2025•16 min•Season 4Ep. 93
Description As you listen to this episode, I think it will be abundantly clear that you're witnessing me in real time have something of an “aha” moment. I went in thinking one way: that to teach and preach about same sex attraction to all God's people, including those who experience it, it was really about a technique or a method or a kind of a tweak in style of communication. And that's not at all where we ended up, by the end of the episode, even though I kept yanking the conversation in that ...
Apr 01, 2025•45 min•Season 4Ep. 92
Description The most precious real estate of any talk, I would say is that first 90 seconds where the audience is trying to figure out: Are they gonna stay tuned or are they gonna tune out? Today I wanna share with you what not to do, and hopefully what to do in those first 90 seconds to make sure that you make the most of that precious real estate. Links For more information about the Better Preach Podcast visit: www.ryanohara.org/betterpreach Better Preach Podcast is now on YouTube. Here’s a l...
Mar 24, 2025•18 min•Season 4Ep. 91
Description Welcome back folks, Season 4 of Better Preach is here, and we kick things off with a really special episode, one that was recorded and filmed live (Check out YouTube) at SEEK 2025 in Salt Lake City. You are going to love this conversation, Fr. John didn’t blink at any of the questions I shared - it was an incredible conversation to be a part of. And the big takeaway for me was how well knit together is the gift of preaching and a daily personal prayer life. Father John Burns is a pri...
Mar 15, 2025•46 min•Season 4Ep. 90
Description Today I'm excited to share with you, three things that I've been asked to do at SEEK 25 in Salt Lake City. And I'm looking today both to bring you up to speed on some of those things, because it relates to what we talk about here on Better Preach, but I'm also looking for your input and your prayer. Are you down for one or both of those things? Secondly, this is the last episode of Season 3. We're kind of at a good stopping point and I have some really exciting Interviews coming up t...
Dec 30, 2024•13 min•Season 3Ep. 89
Description By the end of this episode, you'll have a simple way to get good feedback from Catholic leaders who hire you to speak and or anyone else that you'd like to receive feedback from. As an example, here’s a link to my feedback form: ryanohara.org/feedback Link to PDF Overview of Episode Here’s a link to the PDF Overview of this Episode “How to Get Good Feedback, Easily”, which includes a sample email template you can adapt for your purposes, in asking others you trust (or who have hired ...
Dec 10, 2024•15 min•Season 3Ep. 88
Description Many talks in Catholic settings. inspire. But do they transform? Do they have a life changing impact on the people who are listening to them? It's true that not every time you listen to a Catholic talk, it's gonna lead, you know, to life transformation. But what if None of the talks that you listen to lead to any change in your life. Something's missing. Today I want to talk about this, this all important step of making our talks actionable, something that the people who are listenin...
Nov 25, 2024•18 min•Season 3Ep. 87
Description I've got a great episode today with my trusty, occasional cohost, Connor Flanagan, and we talk about a “seven day spiritual prep plan” that you can do ahead of the SEEK conference or ahead of any conference or retreat that you're getting ready to go into. So seven days of different spiritual activities before the conference starts so that your conference experience, the spiritual moment in your life. can really, kind of be maximized so as to make a transformation and a change in your...
Nov 18, 2024•32 min•Season 3Ep. 86
