Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister has a well-earned reputation as one who dares to ask big, bold questions — of civil and church authorities, of long-held assumptions about women and their place in the church and the wider world, about religious life, about the church itself.

This first episode in her new podcast, "Risking the Questions," fittingly explores her book Called to Question: A Spiritual Memoir, a detailed exploration of one of the important arcs of change she experienced in religious life.

A joint project of Benetvision and NCR, "Risking the Questions" invites you into conversations that most of us only have in our own minds. Sr. Joan Chittister — whose courageous and surprising spiritual insights come from 70 years as a Benedictine sister — and her friend and biographer, former National Catholic Reporter editor Tom Roberts, discuss deep and universal topics in this series.