NetVUE’s podcast Callings has wrapped up its fifth season with a bonus episode featuring highlights from various interviews. It offers valuable insights and advice for undergraduate students on understanding vocation and navigating life’s uncertainties. Guests discuss the importance of adaptability, resilience, and the complexities of pursuing one’s calling amidst challenges.
NetVUE’s podcast Callings has concluded its fifth season with the release of its annual bonus “Highlights” episode. It features clips from this season’s interviews, offering advice to undergraduate students on how they might think about vocation and the search for purpose and meaning in their lives. These excerpts are not only gems in their own right—representing the most interesting insights from the season—but they also provide listeners brief reflections that might be useful for classroom activities or points of departure for writing or discussion in their work with undergraduate students.
Guests include (top row, left to right) John Inazu, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, and Caryn Riswold; and (bottom row, left to right) Abel Chávez, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Jennifer Herdt.
The final episode of this season of Callings features Jennifer Herdt, a professor of Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School, discussing virtue ethics and the good life. She emphasizes that living well isn’t about self-gain but instead about being responsive to the world. Herdt encourages asking, “What is worthy of my devotion?” to guide one’s vocation.
Jennifer Herdt
The final episode of this season of Callings features an interview with Jennifer Herdt, the Gilbert L. Stark Professor of Christian Ethics at Yale Divinity School, where she also serves as senior associate dean of faculty affairs. She is the author of many books and articles on virtue ethics, early modern and modern moral thought, and political theology. Her most recent book, Assuming Responsibility: Ecstatic Eudaimonism and the Call the Live Well, engages with questions of calling and obligation to others. Jennifer’s research also explores science-informed theological anthropology, which has been funded by a grant by the Templeton Foundation. In her teaching and research, Jennifer explores the connection between virtues, the good life, and the “call to live well.”
The final episode of this season of NetVUE’s podcast features Kwame Anthony Appiah, an influential philosopher and professor at NYU. He discusses his journey from Ghana through England to the U.S., highlighting the significance of liberal education and the need for students to think critically about diversity and moral dilemmas rather than being told what to think.
Mustafa Akyol, a prominent Muslim modernist and senior fellow at the Cato Institute, is featured in the latest NetVUE podcast episode. He discusses his journey as a journalist and academic, emphasizing empathy and collaboration for peace. Akyol reflects on religious liberty, democracy, and his aspirations for peace in the Middle East.
The seventh episode of NetVUE’s podcast features Kiran Singh Sirah, a renowned storytelling artist and folklorist. He discusses storytelling’s role in fostering connection, agency, and communal healing in relation to vocation. A past president of the International Storytelling Center, Kiran’s initiatives have received global recognition. He emphasizes the importance of sharing personal narratives to bridge divides.
Kiran Singh Sirah
The seventh episode of this season of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features Kiran Singh Sirah, an award-winning storytelling artist and folklorist. He is the creative lead for Storytelling: A Gift of Hope, a project that harnesses the art of storytelling to create intimate healing and justice spaces to build dialogue, agency, and change for communities on their own terms. As well, he is the past president of the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee.
This podcast Callings features an interview with Abel Chávez, the tenth president of Our Lady of the Lake University. Chávez discusses his background as a first-generation college graduate and his commitment to supporting first-generation students. He emphasizes the importance of education in improving civic life and encourages listeners to engage as change makers in their communities.
Abel Chávez
NetVUE’s podcast Callings is pleased to release its recent interview with Abel Chávez, the tenth president of Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. In this role, he has energized university efforts in fundraising and outreach, developing strong partnerships at the local, state, national, and international levels. An integrative leader and learner, he has served in multiple roles in higher education, including his work as a civil and environmental engineer. Abel is himself a first-generation, first-in-family college graduate, and a son of immigrants. As such, he brings his bilingual skills and bi-cultural heritage to all of his work, reflecting his commitment to enhancing the quality, access, and affordability for all students while serving the needs of families and communities—all with an eye for their economic prosperity.
Professor Caryn Riswold discusses her work and insights on NetVUE’s podcast Callings. She emphasizes the importance of social justice, identity, and culture in vocational exploration and discernment. Riswold urges listeners to ask ask meaningful questions as a means to foster human connection and empower others in their vocational journeys.
Emmanuel Katongole, a Catholic priest and theology professor, discusses his vocational journey in the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings, emphasizing themes of identity, belonging, and the complexities of living a life that crosses boundaries. His experiences illustrate how dislocation can help explore questions of home and community and foster a deeper understanding of self and hope in creating a better world.
Emmanuel Katongole
In the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings, our hosts John Barton and Erin VanLaningham speak with Emmanuel Katongole, a Catholic priest in Uganda and a professor of theology and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame. Known for his work on violence and politics in sub-Saharan Africa, Katongole is a theologian of peacebuilding and reconciliation who confronts the complexities of callings in various contexts. He is the author of many books, his most recent being Who Are My People? Love, Violence, and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Episode three of the fifth season of NetVUE’s podcast features Bonnie Miller-McLemore discussing her book, Follow Your Bliss and Other Lies About Calling. She delves into the complexities of vocational discernment, highlighting the challenges and conflicts individuals face regarding their vocations. Bonnie emphasizes the need for self-kindness and the enduring pursuit of meaningful callings amidst difficulties.
Bonnie Miller-McLemore
Episode three of this season of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features Bonnie Miller-McLemore, whose new book, Follow Your Bliss and Other Lies About Calling, brings forward the more difficult nuances and complexities of vocational discernment. Bonnie is the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Chair and Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture Emerita at Vanderbilt University. Nationally recognized for her leadership in women’s and childhood studies and pastoral and practical theologies, she has published eighteen books in these areas, as well as over a hundred chapters and journal articles. (She has also contributed a post to Vocation Matters: Follow Your Bliss? Bad Advice for Calling.)
The latest episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features political philosopher Jason Blakely, discussing his book, Lost in Ideology, which explores the impact of ideology on political understanding. He emphasizes the significance of critically engaging with different perspectives and the interplay between ideology and vocation in shaping meaning in life.
