Leah Libresco's Blog, page 29

Jen Fulwiler and I discuss rationalization, forgiveness, and my new book!

I got to talk to Jen Fulwiler, the author of Something Other Than God: How I Passionately Sought Happiness and Accidentally Found It on her SiriusXM show today.  If you’d like to tune in, Jen’s show repeats on the Catholic Channel on Thursday (today!) at 4p ET; Friday 12a and 6a (too early for me) and [Read More...]

Does Effective Altruism Dehumanize People You Give To?

I’m discussing Effective Altruism and (possibly!) defusing some concerns about this growing, evidence-based movement in a conversation with Matt Gerken at Philanthropy Daily.  I really appreciation Matt raising some common qualms people have about Effective Altruism (What does this mean for local causes? What about goods that are hard to measure) and having me over [Read More...]

Here are the words my copyeditor was warned about

Once my book, Arriving at Amen: Seven Catholic Prayers that Even I Can Offer, (out May 7th! Tell your friends) was written, there was a lot of editing to come.  At one point, my editor wrote up a style sheet — basically a document warning the copyeditor about any deliberate deviations from normal spelling/grammar and as [Read More...]

Discussing my book (and ballroom dance and bridges) in Sydney!

While I was in Australia, I had the pleasure of speaking at a Theology on Tap in Sydney.  This was the first talk I’ve done specifically on my book, Arriving at Amen: Seven Catholic Prayers that Even I Can Offer (out next week!) and I had a great time talking about my approach to prayer and fielding [Read More...]

Running the numbers on smokers, migrants, cancer, and drones

This past week at FiveThirtyEight, I’ve been covering the grim calculus of migrant ships, the difficult data on drones, smoking laws, and cancer tests.  Read on below!   Migrants Trying To Cross The Mediterranean Are Leaving One Risk For Another When countries confront refugees that aren’t in mortal danger, they’ve found ways to avoid allowing [Read More...]

An Adjective that Feels Like Home [Radio Readings]

You can listen to “Fights in Good Faith,” my weekly radio program, streaming today at 5pm ET and tomorrow (Sun) at 1pm.  I’ll update this post when the episode is available to download and stream. Every week, I put up a “Radio Readings” post, so you can track down the books, articles, and (this week) failed Lenten penances [Read More...]

What question about the world do you want answered? [2015 ITT]

This is part of the 2015 Ideological Turing Test series, where Christians and non-Christians test how well they understand one another.   In this second round, non-Christians (mostly atheists) answer the prompts honestly, and Christians try to answer them as they expect atheists to.  Your job is to see if you can spot the difference. [Read More...]

Talking to The Catholic Weekly about Anger, Beauty, and Confession

I did an interview with The Catholic Weekly while I was in Sydney, and talked a little about my conversion, my book, and my approach to arguments and anger.  I’ve excerpted it below, and you can read the full story here. Q: Obviously you are in demand as a public speaker. What is it that people [Read More...]

What role does ritual have in your life? [2015 ITT]

This is part of the 2015 Ideological Turing Test series, where Christians and non-Christians test how well they understand one another.   In this second round, non-Christians (mostly atheists) answer the prompts honestly, and Christians try to answer them as they expect atheists to.  Your job is to see if you can spot the difference. [Read More...]

What Book Shaped Your Moral Sensibilities? [2015 ITT]

This is part of the 2015 Ideological Turing Test series, where Christians and non-Christians test how well they understand one another.   In this second round, non-Christians (mostly atheists) answer the prompts honestly, and Christians try to answer them as they expect atheists to.  Your job is to see if you can spot the difference. [Read More...]