Saints Preserve Us is an irreverent but informative show that chronicles the bizarre lives, often equally bizarre deaths, and posthumous mythologies of Catholic Saints. It's a glorious mash-up of true-life crime documentaries, shocking but true historical exposés, reassuring spiritual feel-goodery, and gory examinations of mankind's exaltations and depravations.
Each episode will showcase specific saints examining their lives, the art they've inspired, and the legacies they've left behind. Through the lens of these misfits, martyrs, and messiahs we will also explore themes and topics that are relevant to the culture today including political division, apocalyptic fixation, quests for revenge, women's rights, racial inequality, life, death, and the debate over free will versus determinism. We'll interview members of the clergy, art historians, religious studies professors, theologians, and luminaries from the world of literature and pop culture who can offer insight into the pantheon of Saints, their meaning, their significance, their impact on our society and how they can help us understand our current moment.
Every week the show will also feature our in-house Saints experts and award-winning authors of the book Saints Preserve Us, Sean Kelly and Rosemary Rogers. Sean Kelly was the editor of National Lampoon from 1971 to 1978 during which he "broke his own record for obscurantism, reach an apotheosis with a dense parody of Finnegan's Wake." In 1975 he was a founding editor of Heavy Metal, the adult fantasy magazine, and as a freelance writer, he has been published in Bazaar, Benneton’s Colors, Interview, Irish America Magazine, The Old Farmer’s Almanac, Playboy, SPY, The Village Voice, & the Quarterly of Joyce Studies. He reviewed a great many children’s books for the New York Times and created material for John Candy, George Carlin, Jane Curtin, Robert Klein, Steve Martin, Martin Mull, Gilda Radner, & Jonathan Winters.
Rosemary Rogers is an author, humorist, and former music producer whose eight books have been published by Random House, Villard, St. Martin’s Press, Hearst, Barnes & Noble, and City Lights. She collaborated with Sean Kelly on the bestseller Saints Preserve Us, currently in its 18th international printing. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, O. The Oprah Magazine, Oprah: Live Your Best Life, and Irish America, where she contributed to the magazine, website, and podcast and has been running her ongoing series “Wild Women.” She also frequently collaborates with her husband, Robert Downey, Sr.
Sean and Rosemary are joined each week by their producer and co-host Christian O’Toole, former Director of Video and Podcast Producer for Men’s Journal and story producer and editor of two documentary features on psilocybin assisted therapy, Focus on Clinical Research: Part One - The Johns Hopkins Stoy and Focus on Clinical Research: Part 2 - Death, Dying and Psychedelics.
Saints Preserve Us is an irreverent but informative show that chronicles the bizarre lives, often equally bizarre deaths, and posthumous mythologies of Catholic Saints. It's a glorious mash-up of true-life crime documentaries, shocking but true historical exposés, reassuring spiritual feel-goodery, and gory examinations of mankind's exaltations and depravations.
Each episode will showcase specific saints examining their lives, the art they've inspired, and the legacies they've left behind. Through the lens of these misfits, martyrs, and messiahs we will also explore themes and topics that are relevant to the culture today including political division, apocalyptic fixation, quests for revenge, women's rights, racial inequality, life, death, and the debate over free will versus determinism. We'll interview members of the clergy, art historians, religious studies professors, theologians, and luminaries from the world of literature and pop culture who can offer insight into the pantheon of Saints, their meaning, their significance, their impact on our society and how they can help us understand our current moment.
Every week the show will also feature our in-house Saints experts and award-winning authors of the book Saints Preserve Us, Sean Kelly and Rosemary Rogers. Sean Kelly was the editor of National Lampoon from 1971 to 1978 during which he "broke his own record for obscurantism, reach an apotheosis with a dense parody of Finnegan's Wake." In 1975 he was a founding editor of Heavy Metal, the adult fantasy magazine, and as a freelance writer, he has been published in Bazaar, Benneton’s Colors, Interview, Irish America Magazine, The Old Farmer’s Almanac, Playboy, SPY, The Village Voice, & the Quarterly of Joyce Studies. He reviewed a great many children’s books for the New York Times and created material for John Candy, George Carlin, Jane Curtin, Robert Klein, Steve Martin, Martin Mull, Gilda Radner, & Jonathan Winters.
Rosemary Rogers is an author, humorist, and former music producer whose eight books have been published by Random House, Villard, St. Martin’s Press, Hearst, Barnes & Noble, and City Lights. She collaborated with Sean Kelly on the bestseller Saints Preserve Us, currently in its 18th international printing. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, O. The Oprah Magazine, Oprah: Live Your Best Life, and Irish America, where she contributed to the magazine, website, and podcast and has been running her ongoing series “Wild Women.” She also frequently collaborates with her husband, Robert Downey, Sr.
Sean and Rosemary are joined each week by their producer and co-host Christian O’Toole, former Director of Video and Podcast Producer for Men’s Journal and story producer and editor of two documentary features on psilocybin assisted therapy, Focus on Clinical Research: Part One - The Johns Hopkins Stoy and Focus on Clinical Research: Part 2 - Death, Dying and Psychedelics.
Since recording this episode on September 29th, Sean, Rosemary, and Christian have been celebrating Michaelmas, the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, for seven days straight, in honor of the seven churches, lined up from Skellig Michael in Ireland to Stella Maris Monastery in Israel, on the famous geographic Sword of Saint Michael. From the Book of Revelation to Paradise Lost, we learn all about Michael's incredible powers and his legendary performance in the Battle in Heaven, as he cast down the dragon Satan (formerly known as Lucifer). We find that after being cast out of Heaven, Satan landed in a blackberry bush and was so angry he urinated all over it, which is why we don't eat blackberries picked after Michaelmas. We do learn, however, that we can eat blackberry pie at our joyous Michaelmas celebration, along with carrots tied with string, a green goose, french waffles, and a beer made by landlords called Audit Ale. We also share some special Michaelmas connections to Lenny Bruce, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ike & Tina, Wonder Woman, The Seven Samurai, and the Netflix series Dark.
The great Saint Michael rightly reserves most of our reverence this week, but we also save a little time at the end of the episode for The "Not-So-Good" King Wenceslaus, Saint Jerome the reformed skirt chaser, twin brother Saints Cosmas and Damian (early supporters of Medicare For All), and the absolutely lovely and charitable humanitarian St. Vincent De Paul.
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