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.
This week we are joined by the creator and host of Saint Podcast, Eric Huang, to discuss Saint Ursula, a British princess who was killed by the Huns in Cologne Germany on October 21st 383 AD, and who miraculously managed to take 11,000 virgins and one pope down with her. We also learn how Ursula inspired a very early commune of liberated women and how a convent of Ursuline nuns suffered madness and demonic possession during a quarantine lockdown in a global pandemic (something we can all relate to). Eric shares how this wild tale inspired both a book by Aldus Huxley and a nearly pornographic 1971 film called The Devils by director Ken Russell.
We also revisit the earlier October feast days of Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, also known as the Little Flower, whose autobiography is much maligned by our co-host Sean Kelly. And finally, we offer our support for the proposed beatification of a modern young woman who was inspired by both St. Francis and St. Thérèse, Cristina Gaztelu Vargas.
You can read about Cristina on the Saint Kateri Conservation website here: https://kateri.org/in-tribute/
And you can learn more about Saint Podcast at: https://www.saintpodcast.com/
Also please check out Saints Preserve Us on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/SaintsPreserve
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