For Immediate Release: June 11, 2024
WASHINGTON—Just Politics, the podcast collaboration of NETWORK and U.S. Catholic, returned June 10 with its fourth season. The new season is dedicated to the freedoms people enjoy living in a democracy, and how living these freedoms begins with exercising one’s freedom to participate in democracy.
“Our new season plays out against the backdrop of a truly consequential election that has many people wondering — and worrying —about all that is on the line for the future of this country,” said Joan F. Neal, NETWORK Deputy Executive Director and Chief Equity Officer, as well as one of the co-hosts of Just Politics.
Each episode of the new season will reflect a freedom listed in the Equally Sacred Checklist, the multi-issue voting resource of NETWORK’s Vote Our Future non-partisan election education campaign. These include the freedom to be healthy; freedom to care for oneself and one’s family; freedom to live on a healthy planet; freedom from harm; freedom to participate in a vibrant democracy; and freedom to live in a welcoming country that values human rights.
“Catholic Social Teaching offers a vision of a world where everyone has what they need to flourish and live in true freedom. As Pope Francis says, ‘The only future worth building includes everyone,’” said Colin Martinez Longmore, NETWORK Communications and Social Media Coordinator and a co-host of Just Politics.
Sr. Eilis McCulloh, HM, NETWORK Grassroots Education and Organizing Specialist and co-host of Just Politics, added:
“At NETWORK, we believe that people of faith and goodwill have the power to make a difference in this country by showing that freedom belongs to all people. expanding the scope of freedom from only a wealthy, privileged few to a pluralistic, multi-racial, inclusive democracy.”
The first episode of the new season features Katherine Stewart—an investigative journalist and the author of “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism.” She lays out the freedoms on the line in this election year, the dangers of Christian nationalism, and some concrete ways in which people can pitch in to save democracy. NETWORK Executive Director Mary J. Novak then joins the hosts to unpack the conversation with Stewart.
“When we are tempted to be cynical or to despair or to just give up, that is no accident,” Novak said of the political actors seeking to demoralize justice-seekers. “They are making a cynical bet that you and I will do the wrong thing – either for selfish reasons or simply out of apathy and exhaustion.”
Future guests this season will include Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, Rev. Jim Wallis of Georgetown’s Center on Faith and Justice, and Drake Starling, NETWORK’s new Senior Government Relations Advocate for Climate Justice.
Listen to season 4, and all previous seasons, on NETWORK’s website, as well as on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Listeners can subscribe, sign up for email updates, and find additional reading at www.uscatholic.org/justpolitics, and join the conversation about #JustPoliticsPod on social media.
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Founded by Catholic Sisters in 1972, in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, NETWORK is an inclusive, national, Catholic advocacy organization open to all who share our values, working to achieve equity and justice for everyone. Grounded in Gospel values and the Catholic social justice tradition, NETWORK transforms our society by shaping federal policies that achieve racial, economic, and social justice; serve the common good; and honor the dignity of all.