Religion To Reality

About Religion To Reality

Religion to Reality is a Catholic podcast about living an integrated life, one where faith isn't filed away in a separate drawer from the rest of who you are. In Season 2, we take that conviction somewhere new: into conversation with voices from other Christian traditions and other faiths entirely. Not to debate, not to draw lines, but to listen. Because the most radical thing we can do in a noisy, polarized world might be to sit with someone whose faith looks different from ours, and discover what God is already doing in them.

Publisher

Dave Plisky

Category

religion & spirituality · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

14 Aug 2025

Latest episode

13 Jul 2026

Latest episodes

54 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   13 Jul 2026

   To Affirm Our Humanity with Dave Plisky and Fr. John Gribowich

   QUICK SUMMARY What happens when two Catholics spend a season in interfaith dialogue with 30 guests, including monks, rabbis, professors, a Princeton wrestling champion, and a singer-songwriter rewriting the footnotes of the Greek New Testament? In this season finale, Dave and Fr. John sit down alone to answer that question. They unpack the threads that ran through every conversation, reveal (finally) where the name Religion to Reality comes from, and land on one idea that reframes everything: life is about participation, not orchestration. If you've ever wondered whether other traditions threaten your faith or deepen it, start here. IN THIS EPISODE, WE EXPLORE Timestamps are approximate and based on the rough cut — update after final edit. [02:30] "This season has been all about listening." How an unprompted theme from Season 1's discipleship study became the mission of Season 2. [05:00] The season by the numbers. 26 episodes, 30 guests, 9 faith traditions, including two former advisors to President Obama and five current or former monastics. [09:15] "Religion is basically philosophy that involves God" — and why Dave no longer believes that. What the guests revealed about labels, categories, and the colonial origin of the word "Hindu." [13:00] "Life is about participation, not orchestration." Fr. John on why the guests felt "more human than religious." [16:00] Is the church only 21 years old? Richard Rohr's second-half-of-life idea, Nostra Aetate, and whether interfaith dialogue is a sign of the church maturing. [21:00] "It's not about changing things. It's about going deeper in things." [26:15] The names that kept coming up: Thomas Merton, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Bede Griffiths — and what ties them together. [29:45] Threads across traditions: the Jesus Prayer, purification rituals, major illness as spiritual turning point, and contemplation as "open awareness." [34:30] "Catholicism has nothing to say about what a good hike looks like." What Shinto, Daoism, and other traditions taught the hosts about mind-body-spirit integration. [39:00] "Maybe the Trinity is less to be understood and more to be experienced." What the radical oneness of God in Islam illuminated. [42:30] The name reveal. Fr. John finally explains how Alexander Schmemann's For the Life of the World gave the show its name and why Christianity, in Schmemann's view, is "a new life, not a new religion." [48:15] The craft of making this show: the hardest part of interviewing, and why some guests wouldn't talk about their own practice. [56:15] Can you really listen without agenda? Two guests, AJ Levine and Lauren Fister, challenged the season's central question. Fr. John's answer: learn to hear a person's wounds through what they're saying. [1:03:00] "You're telling me you just got lucky enough to be born into the true one?" Dave gets personal about a lifelong insecurity and how this project dissolved it. [1:11:30] Final thoughts: "To affirm our humanity is to affirm our divinity." [1:13:15] What's next: the Substack, and the free monthly interfaith gathering. MEMORABLE QUOTES "Life is about participation, not orchestration." — Fr. John Gribowich "It's not about changing things. It's about going deeper in things." — Fr. John Gribowich "Maybe the Trinity is less to be understood and more to be experienced." — Dave Plisky "To affirm our humanity is to affirm our divinity. That's incarnational theology 101." — Fr. John Gri...

2. 

   13 Jul 2026

   Seeds of the Word with Fr. Cyprian Consiglio

   QUICK SUMMARY What if the entire spiritual life came down to breathing in and breathing out? In our penultimate episode, we sit down with Fr. Cyprian Consiglio, Camaldolese monk, musician, and the Abbot Primate of the Benedictines, for a conversation that ranges from Miles Davis to the Quran, from Taoist silence to quantum physics. He even sings for us. If you've ever wondered how interreligious dialogue actually works, or why the next stage of human evolution might be consciousness itself, hit play. IN THIS EPISODE WE EXPLORE Who are the Camaldolese? The oldest reform within the Benedictine family and their "threefold good", hermitage, monastery, and radical availability to the Spirit. (03:00) The whole spiritual life in one equation: "The love of God is poured in, and the love of God pours back out… you just have to breathe in and breathe out." (07:00) Music born from silence: "The sound of the music you make must be better than the quality of the silence you break." How a mentor's words shaped Cyprian's approach to chant, melody, and "singing the building." (11:00) Setting the Quran to music: why singing sacred texts from other traditions is an act of listening and Cyprian performs his setting of "A Common Word" (Surah 3:64) live. (24:00) Lectio Divina as an interreligious practice: the four levels of scripture's meaning and how his Rome advisory board will apply the method to Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu texts. (28:00) "Seeds of the Word": the 2nd-century idea behind the Church's modern approach to interreligious dialogue, recognize, preserve, and promote what is good, true, and holy in other religions. (34:00) Where religions genuinely disagree: "You'll never hear me say it's all the same." The self, time, and why discernment, not blending, is the real work of dialogue. (39:00) Discovering the silence of God through Buddhism and Taoism and finding it again in his own tradition: "In the beginning was the Tao." (46:00) Why meditation is hard everywhere — from video screens at the gas pump to the noise of India: "Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good." (51:00) The next stage of evolution is consciousness: Einstein, the abolition of slavery, and why this question is "not hypothetical, this is life or death." (55:00) Can AI be conscious? Qualia, the taste of chocolate, and what only humans can preserve. (65:00) Holy vs. enlightened: Cyprian's parting challenge, a fierce commitment to spiritual practice and reading the Beatitudes every day. (70:00) ABOUT FR. CYPRIAN CONSIGLIO Fr. Cyprian Consiglio is a Camaldolese monk, musician, composer, author, and teacher with dozens of recordings and five books, most recently Epiphanies of Nature and Grace (Orbis Books). After a ten-year term as prior of New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California, he is now based in Rome, where he serves the Benedictine Confederation and the Cistercian Orders as Abbot Primate of the Benedictines. Books: Epiphanies of Nature and Grace Prayer in the Cave of the Heart: The Universal Call to Contemplation MEMORABLE QUOTE "Artificial intelligence will never know the taste of chocolate, will never know th...

3. 

   13 Jul 2026

   The Scaffolding with Kelly Deutsch

   QUICK SUMMARY What happens when the faith container you grew up in no longer fits and you don't want to abandon it? Former nun turned "spiritual wilderness guide" Kelly Deutsch joins Dave and Fr. John to explore the second half of life spirituality: the shift from certainty and security toward mystery, wholeness, and a wilder encounter with God. Kelly shares how 18 months of bedridden illness dismantled her identity, why practices are scaffolding rather than the point, and how guilt can be an invitation into deeper spiritual growth. IN THIS EPISODE WE EXPLORE [00:03] Cold open — "Find the way that you connect with the divine… and that is your path." [01:00] What is "second half of life" spirituality? Dave frames the three responses to a spiritual dilemma: batten down the hatches, throw out the container, or blossom beyond it. [06:30] Kelly's story: an "audacious heart." Meditating an hour a day at 17, discovering Ignatian prayer, and joining a religious community in Rome devoted to spiritual formation. [09:00] The turning point. A sudden, severe illness leaves Kelly bedridden for 18 months and dismantles the three big things: identity, purpose, and community. [12:30] The origins of Spiritual Wanderlust. From a Rome term paper on Augustine and John of the Cross to a book, then a contemplative formation platform with year-long programs like the Women Mystic School, Celtic Spirituality, 20th Century Mystics, and this year's Night School. [16:30] Who shows up — and why. The two hungers Kelly sees in seekers everywhere: depth and community. [24:00] First half vs. second half of life. Building the ego's identity, grasping for certainty and security, until great suffering "dropkicks" us into openness to mystery. [26:30] Religious suburbia vs. the Yukon. Kelly's signature analogy: leaving the HOA-approved color palettes of prescriptive religion for a wilderness that's both gorgeous and terrifying and learning to read your inner compass there. [29:00] "Nothing and everything." How Kelly's Catholicism has changed: dwelling at the mystical heart of Christianity, theosis through kenosis, and why holiness is simply doing the will of God. [35:30] Practices are scaffolding, not the point. Why rote prayer can insulate us from the wildness of God, and how to "catch the breeze" of the Spirit wherever it blows — Lectio Divina, nature, music, or conversation. [40:00] Like-minded vs. different-minded community. The relief of finding fellow "spiritual weirdos," the danger of echo chambers, and why niceness isn't the virtue — kindness is. [46:00] Mothers, guilt, and grace. Why guilt is an indicator worth examining, how parenting confronts us with powerlessness, and why feeling like a hot mess is often exactly where the spiritual path leads. [55:30] Spiritual direction, done holistically. Bringing the body into direction, using Internal Family Systems ("parts work") to untangle the inner life, and honoring John of the Cross's "I know not what." [59:30] Listening without agenda. Dropping "quidgestions," holding a sacred container, and trusting that the second half of life isn't a problem to be fixed. [1:01:30] Where to find Kelly + a look ahead to next episode's guest, Fr. Cyprian Consiglio. ABOUT KELLY DEUTSCH Kelly Deutsch is a spiritual director, teacher, and founder of Spiritual Wanderlust, a platform for contemplative formation and inner transformation. A former nun, she brings 20+ years of experience at the intersection of mysticism, psychology, and embodied spirituality. After a severe illness left her b...

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Apple Podcasts (US)

4.9 / 5

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