Kayla August is a vibrant, up-and-coming leader in the U.S. Catholic community. Maybe you heard her preach on Christmas Eve 2020 on Catholic Women Preach. Maybe you heard her speak at the 2021 FutureChurch Feast of St. Mary of Magdala. Maybe you heard her just last month at Saturdays with the Saints at Notre Dame University speaking about Thea Bowman. Like I said, she’s all around. Currently, Kayla is pursuing a doctorate in Religious Education with an emphasis in preaching. You might find yours...
Oct 18, 2021•36 min•Season 4Ep. 33
You know how sometimes you hear someone talk about climate change… global warming, the island of plastic in the ocean, the destruction of forests around the globe, all that stuff and you feel just so weighed down, guilty, and well, hopeless? Get ready for a hope firehose…Anna Robertson is the Director of Youth and Young Adult Mobilization for Catholic Climate Covenant. The Covenant is an arm of the United States Catholic Bishops whose mission is to help Catholics respond to the Church’s call to ...
Oct 11, 2021•42 min•Season 4Ep. 32
Trigger warning: Erin talks about her sister’s death by suicide in this episode. Please take care of yourself and maybe skip this episode if this subject will trigger you today. Erin Duffy-Burke is many things. She works as an independent minister, spiritual director, yoga therapist, birth doula, the list goes on. We talk about Mary and Jesus, birth and death, trees and books. We talk about her call to the priesthood and why she uses the word priestess to describe it. Stay tuned for a contemplat...
Oct 03, 2021•50 min•Season 4Ep. 31
Maureen Day is a sociologist, specializing in American Catholics. She studies us, interviews us, and writes about us. Her most recent book is Catholic Activism Today: Individual Transformation and the Struggle for Social Justice . We’re talking data. We talk about models of Catholic activism in the 21st century. She is finding that Catholics are engaging their faith more and more through groups that are centered around specialized missions, rather than simply sticking to the neighborhood church....
Sep 26, 2021•51 min•Season 4Ep. 30
** Trigger warning ** the stories in this episode include intimate partner violence, suicidality, and other traumas related to being unhoused. Please take care of yourself as you listen and consider skipping this episode today if these subjects will trigger you. Elizabeth Bowler is a social entrepreneur in Oakland. After being away from the California Bay Area for many years, she was shocked upon her return to see the massive explosion in the homeless population. Volunteering at a youth homeless...
Sep 20, 2021•56 min•Season 4Ep. 29
Today I’m talking with Lydia Wylie-Kellermann. She’s an author and activist I’ve admired for a long time, and I’m so happy to share her with you. Her latest book, The Sandbox Revolution, is a collection of essays from parent-activists around the U.S. It offers advice for raising children committed to social justice in the world today. Lydia offers beautiful forwards to each section of the book. When she’s not writing books, Lydia is the editor of Geez magazine, a paper-only publication that come...
Sep 13, 2021•52 min•Season 3Ep. 28
Today I’m talking with Anne Tropeano! She’s also known as Father Anne, and will be ordained a Roman Catholic Womanpriest on October 16, 2021. She wants to see the Roman Catholic Church start ordaining women in her lifetime. You will love her down to earth way of relating to God, hear about her vision for ministry, and what she says about the role of the body in discernment. Also - listen up for the parable she shares that I’m going to call, “Just put up your hood.” Enjoy my conversation with Fat...
Sep 05, 2021•43 min•Season 3Ep. 27
Welcome back for Season 4! Today I’m talking with Ellie Hidalgo. She’s on staff with Discerning Deacons, a recent effort to promote dialogue around the issue of reinstating women deacons in the Catholic Church. We talk about this recent movement to recover the true memory of women in early Christianity - shout out to St. Phoebe- and about Ellie’s personal journey to doing this work. You’ll love hearing how she started out in Catholic journalism, the inside scoop on Pope Francis’ commissions on w...
Aug 29, 2021•53 min•Season 3Ep. 26
My guest today is Kerry Robinson. She is an international leader in the field of excellence in Church leadership. She has spent the last 15 years traveling the world, bringing together outstanding leaders in the business and nonprofit worlds with the ordained leaders of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church to achieve excellence in leadership and management. We talk about what happens when Catholic women run into obstacles in offering their gifts to the Church, what makes an excellent Catholic par...
Mar 01, 2021•47 min•Season 3Ep. 25
Kate Carter has lived a life dedicated to social justice. She became a Jesuit Volunteer in 1978, serving in Montana. She went on to work for JVC and became deeply involved in Central America solidarity work. She was a key member of a group that was bringing news of the oppression of the poor in Central America to faith communities in the U.S. during the tumultuous 1980s and 90s. We talked about what she’s learned from observing democratic elections in Central America, how those learnings apply h...
Feb 22, 2021•49 min•Season 3Ep. 24
**Trigger warning: we talk about sexual violence in this episode; listen with caution.** Emily Win is a writer and podcaster who is navigating so many intersections. She’s a queer person, a person of faith, and a person of color. And now she’s a Californian too! I came to know about her through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. It’s a volunteer program in the United States and a few other countries where folks learn how to live lives devoted to community, simple living, spirituality, and social justic...
Feb 15, 2021•49 min•Season 3Ep. 23
Well, I did something different this week. See, I reached out to my old friend, Maureen Dunn Fetscher, to talk about her business, Mata Traders. We were best pals in middle school and then went separate ways for a long time. We’ve been in very loose touch, but we circle back about every 10 years… and this is our 10-year circle back. Maureen went on to become this impressive fair trade entrepreneur. She established her company, Mata Traders, almost 14 years ago in Chicago. The company has partner...
Feb 07, 2021•50 min•Season 3Ep. 22
Abby Rampone is the Communication and Activities Coordinator for Call to Action USA. It’s an organization dedicated to reform in the Roman Catholic Church. She grew up in a Catholic family in Vermont, but really became committed to her faith while in college, so much so that she felt called to attend seminary. She just finished her Master of Divinity degree in 2020, and now she’s committed to full time work of change in the Catholic Church. They want to see full inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals i...
Jan 31, 2021•41 min•Season 3Ep. 21
Today we’re talking to Neha Sampat. She is the Chief Executive Officer , founder, coach, and consultant at GenLead|BelongLab, where she focuses on building belonging and true inclusion. She is an expert on Imposter Syndrome and internalized bias, generational diversity, and BELONGING. “Cool, Molleen. How do you know her?” The short answer is that we were introduced by a neighbor - we live in the same city… now. And it turns out - we lived in the same city 30 years ago when we were both growing u...
Jan 24, 2021•57 min•Season 3Ep. 20
Today we are talking with Gabrielle Blair. You might know her from blogging and social media as Design Mom. She is a powerhouse in the world of blogging and design. She has six (!) children and currently lives in Normandy, France where she’s renovating a couple of properties, blogging many times a week, and basically killing it as an entrepreneur. In our conversation, we talk about Mormonism 101, her personal spirituality, and her take on divisive political issues. Listen along as Gabrielle take...
Jan 17, 2021•57 min•Season 3Ep. 19
Jamie L. Manson wrote the column entitled Grace on the Margins for the paper for 12 years. She recently left that post to become the President of Catholics for Choice. We talk about her journey as an out-lesbian Catholic journalist. We talk about reproductive health as a human right. We talk about her deep sacramental spirituality. We talk about Pope Francis...who, by the way… does he read Jamie’s columns? Take a listen and see what you think. Find notes and links about this episode at www.molle...
Nov 23, 2020•47 min•Season 2Ep. 18
Zinzy Nev Geene is a Dutch queer Catholic activist and facilitator. She lives in Amsterdam where she has a day job as a digital designer and, on the side, she fosters safe places for queer people to “just be.” She calls it being a queer facilitator. She is on the board of the emerging organization Vine and Fig co, a online space for queer Catholics to find support along their spiritual journeys. We talk about what ‘queer’ means. We talk about a lot of Catholic stuff, including novenas and uncomf...
Nov 16, 2020•42 min
Wondering what it would be like to have a woman deacon at your Catholic parish? One who has a day job as a medical doctor? Let’s daydream together while we listen to Lydia Tinajero Deck. This is On a Mission - Episode 16! Find links to all the cool things Lydia mentions at www.molleendupreedominguez.com
Nov 09, 2020•42 min
Today is Casey Stanton Day! I first heard about Casey through the Catholic Women Preach movement. Her homily knocked me off my feet. It’s so good. She’s a community organizer, a pastoral minister, and a superb preacher. It was such a blast to talk with her. Be sure to check out the show notes for this episode at molleendupreedominguez.com where you can hear Casey preach and learn more about the journey toward women's ordination in the Catholic Church.
Oct 18, 2020•36 min
Today I’m talking with Anna Mahony. She is an activist with Moms Demand Action and a mother of two. In our conversation we talk about the organization, which she calls just “Moms” and how setting gun violence activism as a priority in her life has focused her public advocacy. We also talk about setting boundaries and being a leader in your own life. She has learned a lot about this. We talk about being a person of service and how her Catholic upbringing imbued a responsibility to give out of her...
Oct 12, 2020•40 min
Today I’m talking with Katie Lacz. She works for Women’s Ordination Conference, the United States branch of a worldwide movement to urge the Roman Catholic Church to reform and welcome women into ordained ministry. Find more details at www.molleendupreedominguez.com
Oct 05, 2020•53 min
Did you ever come into prayer with so much heaviness, grief, or misery that you just couldn’t put it into words? You might just need Fran Pratt. She’s my guest today. She’s known online at The Litanist. That is, she writes litanies. They’re beautiful articulations of emotion and truth, giving individuals and communities words to pray about hard stuff. They offer words when there are no words. So many more details and fun facts await at molleendupreedominguez.com where you can also sign up for my...
Sep 27, 2020•57 min
Today I’m talking with Cameron Bellm. About a year ago, she started publishing her writing on Instagram- and, y’all, it blew up! She started publishing prayers during the Pandemic of 2020… they resonated… and they were shared and repurposed all over the world. She collected those pandemic prayers in an ebook. And now she’s writing a hardcover book. It’s about paying attention as a spiritual practice and being a contemplative in action. It will be out in hard copy in March 2022. She’s a writer, s...
Sep 21, 2020•54 min
Today I’m talking with Brian Stanley, an education nonprofit executive living in Oakland. He’s a Black Catholic man raising two Black boys, along with his amazing wife, Celeste. Our conversation covers the ways his faith influences his quarantine, why he thinks White people are waking up to racist policies in the U.S. NOW, and his work in the educational nonprofit world. Visit show notes at https://molleendupreedominguez.home.blog/2020/09/13/on-a-mission-season-two-is-back/
Sep 13, 2020•45 min
Gene Yang is a Bay Area native, author, and teacher. While teaching computer science at the Catholic high school where I now teach he also casually wrote an award-winning graphic novel, American Born Chinese. It was a finalist for the National Book Award in the category of young people’s literature. It did win many awards outright. Let me list them: the 2007 Michael L. Printz Award, the 2007 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: New, the Publishers Weekly Comics Week Best Comic of the Year, the S...
Dec 10, 2019•1 hr 1 min
Dr. Kellie McElhaney is the founding director of the Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. She started her career in banking, which she calls a heavily masculine industry, where women were compelled to exercise leadership in a masculine way. She is fighting the good fight in the corporate world to insist that yes - welcoming different skill sets, different personalities, different genders, and different ethnicities into the board room is not just a n...
Nov 27, 2019•34 min
Did you ever inherit money? Did you wish you did? This podcast is the story of what my friend Rose Feerick did when she inherited a bunch of money after college graduation. How do we face and deal with our wealth when we call ourselves Christians? When you inherit a bunch of money - would you invest it for your progeny? Would you give it all away? Rose offers a third way - how Jesus! Now she’s the co-director of the organization, Wisdom and Money. She offers a way of participating with money tha...
Nov 19, 2019•1 hr 1 min
Today is a great for you, dear listener. Today I have the privilege of talking with Dr. Emily Reimer-Barry, associate professor of Theology and Religious Studies at University of San Diego. If you read my blog, you may recognize her name as someone who presented at Catholic Theological Society of America’s conference last summer - and received a standing ovation.
Nov 05, 2019•58 min
Today it’s Xouhoa Bowen. She is an activist, former PeaceCorps volunteer, and the founder and CEO of Community Impact Lab, a nonprofit organization in my neighborhood dedicated to taking action and to expanding opportunities for everyone, especially women and children. She’s a mom and talks about how becoming a mom made her more fierce in what she wants and expects. We got into it feminist-mom-wise, which I did not expect. She’s dynamic, energetic, and ambitious. I just love talking with her and...
Oct 22, 2019•1 hr 51 min
On today’s episode we chat with Anne Symens-Bucher, co-visionary behind Oakland, California’s Canticle Farm, a Franciscan-inspired community of activists, families and other folks growing food, sharing with the neighborhood, and building community. Our conversation went in a bunch of different directions - we ended up talking about the Enneagram, being White women, as well as how to persist in activism decade after decade. Listen in.
Oct 14, 2019•1 hr 13 min
