Podcasts & Radio

On this episode, Chris is joined by Dr. Kevin Baxter, former superintendent of Catholic schools for the largest U.S. archdiocese, Chief Innovation Officer for the National Catholic Education Association, and current director of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program at the Alliance for Catholic Education at the University of Notre Dame. They discuss Dr. Baxter’s recent book, Greatness in Smallness: A Vision for Catholic Microschools, published by the NCEA. As Dr. Baxter describes it, a “microschool” isn’t defined so much by total enrollment, but is rather an attitudinal posture that isn’t afraid to depart from historical paradigms. For example, he describes how multi-age instruction (multiple ages of kids in one classroom) couldn’t be further from a “desperate” measure, but rather is a model with many, many benefits for children, and which is being used in some premier, high-tuition schools. Looking to the future, he sees leadership and innovation as the two pillars on which Catholic schools can newly thrive (again, not defined in enrollment data) in the years ahead.

Airing for this week’s installment of F&P is a segment from Catholic Views, the weekly broadcast of the diocese of Sioux Falls. Guest host Dr. Chris Burgwald interviews SD Catholic Conference director Chris Motz on bills that he’s tracking in the state capitol. Chris (Motz) rounds out the half-hour with late-breaking updates on several bills. Find all Catholic Conference legislative positions at https://sdcatholicconference.org/category/2022-session/ or follow updates on Twitter @SDCatholicCon.

Chris is joined by Luke Niforatos, Executive Vice President at Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM). Luke shares SAM’s position on marijuana policy, unpacks who is driving the push to legalize marijuana across the nation and in South Dakota, and describes what science has told us about legalization efforts. He also reveals some of the failed promises of legalization advocates, namely that blackmarkets would disappear (they’ve expanded) and that it would be a boon to state revenues (far from it). Lastly, reflects on how Christians might approach the topic of marijuana policy.

Chris gives a legislative update to open this episode, and then welcomes Fr. Joe Forcelle, a priest of the diocese of Sioux Falls. Fr. Forcelle recently directed a one-day retreat titled, “God and Country: Prayer in the Midst of Conflict and Grace,” which they discuss. He offers reflections on love of country through the lens of the 19th century short story, A Man Without a Country, by Edward Hale. Awareness and right-ordering of one’s passions, prayer, and the virtue of patriotism (pious love of one’s country and countrymen) are all important to holiness for those navigating turmoil in the civic sphere.

Your road-weary host gets a chance to relax in the studio with Dr. Chris Burgwald, for a conversation on the moral implications of a number of bills currently in the legislative process. They discuss prayer in schools, tax-credit scholarships, intoxication and marijuana, the death penalty, the power of humor, and more.

This week, Chris is joined by Dr. Glenn Ridder a family practice doctor, medical director at the Alpha Center, state director of the Catholic Medical Association, and a permanent deacon for the diocese of Sioux Falls. Dr. Ridder explains how chemical abortions function in depriving a child of it’s needed environment in the uterus, resulting in death, followed by a second drug that causes intense labor that expells the deceased baby from the womb. He also explains the science behind abortion “discontinuance” laws and medical protocols, and shares the hearwarming story of a young boy who was recently saved with these methods. Lastly, they unpack the FDA’s recent loosening of safety protocols surrounding abortion drugs, and South Dakota’s legal efforts to place these protections for women in state law.

This episode, Chris is joined by Norman Woods, director of Family Heritage Alliance for a preview of the 2022 legislative session. They talk about sexual identity and compassion, pro-life, education, surrogacy, and marijuana. Plus, the SD Catholic Conference is now on Twitter (in addition to Instagram and Facebook). Follow us at @SDCatholicConf

On this episode, Chris is joined by Dr. Scott Yenor, professor of political science at Boise State University, where he teaches political philosophy. He is the author of The Recovery of Family Life: Exposing the Limits of Modern Ideologies, published in 2020. Chris and Scott discuss modern ideological trends that cut against the formation of family life, as Scott argues that a renewed public consensus supporting marriage is urgently needed today.

On this episode Chris is joined by Cameo Anders, a South Dakota lawyer and bioethicist, and Dr. John DiCamillo, a staff ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center. They take up the topic of vaccines, which have remained prominent in national and state political conversations. They discuss the moral analysis Read more…

Chris is joined this episode by Shawn Peterson, president of Catholic Education Partners, an organization founded by US bishops in 2017 in order to provide a Catholic voice in education choice policy discussions. Chris and Shawn walk through Catholic teaching on this topic, including Vatican Council II, which exhorted civil Read more…

As Catholics, we know the importance of intentionality in church design. Beauty matters, layout matters, elements of proportionality and ratio matter. Taking this as a metaphor for city planning, the design of our homes, neighborhoods, and cities matter too. Engineer and city planner Chuck Marohn joins the show to talk Read more…

On this episode, Chris is joined by Katy Faust, Founder and Director of Them Before Us, an organization formed to advance and defend the primacy of children’s rights above adult desires. Chris and Katy unpack the issue of surrogacy, a process by which a child is deliberately subjected to mother-loss.  Read more…

Regular guest Dr. Jon Schaff returns to the show to unpack a new address given by Archbishop Jose Gomez, president of the USCCB, titled, “Reflections on the Church and America’s New Religions,” in which he proposes that Marxist secular ideologies must primarily be understood in spiritual terms in their quest Read more…

On this episode, Chris is joined by past guest Dr. Aaron Weldon, program director for the USCCB Committee on Religious Liberty. Aaron explains why this great feast is linked to our religious freedoms. Instituted in 1925, the 16th centenary of the Council of Nicea, by Pope Piux XI, the feast Read more…

Fr. John Paul Trask joins the show to share about the life of Fr. Pierre Jean DeSmet, a Belgian Jesuit who dedicated his life to mission among the native peoples of the west. Fr. DeSmet’s nineteenth century missionary journeys took him from Belgium to St. Louis, up the Missouri, and Read more…

On this episode, we get a front row seat to an interview by Dale Bartscher with Harold Cassidy, the attorney representing Alpha Center as intervenor in the state of South Dakota’s lawsuit with abortion giant Planned Parenthood. The facts of this case are incredible! Most South Dakotans don’t know the Read more…

Chris is joined by Dale Bartscher, executive director of SD Right to Life. Dale recaps SDRTL’s recent 50th Anniversary Convention in Sioux Falls, shares about the process for reviewing legislation in the lead up to the winter legislative session, and updates us on the growth of local RTL chapters throughout Read more…

On this episode, Chris is joined by Rachel Morrison, a lawyer from the Ethics and Public Policy Center and member of its HHS Accountability Project. Rachel unpacks recent moves by the federal HHS department to give Title X dollars to Planned Parenthood, disregard a separate-payment for abortion requirements for health Read more…

On this episode, Chris is joined by Leslee Unruh, founder of Alpha Center, a pregnancy help center based in Sioux Falls. Leslee shares Alpha’s mission to “clear the confusion with a message of hope.” Founded in 1984, Alpha offers warm, loving counseling to women and men in crisis pregnancy situations. Alpha introduces its clients Read more…