Uncommon Sense - The Official Podcast of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton

About Uncommon Sense - The Official Podcast of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton

The Podcast of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, where we talk about everything under the sun with a Chestertonian perspective, as well as the writings and legacy of G.K. Chesterton himself. The podcast is hosted by Grettelyn Darkey and Joe Grabowski. Want to give us feedback? Email podcast@chesterton.org.

Publisher

Society of G.K. Chesterton

Category

education · religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

8 Sept 2009

Latest episode

13 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

569 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   13 Oct 2026

   G.K. Chesterton on Mariolatry: Chronic and Quite Incurable

   In 1926, the year his wife Frances entered the Church, G.K. Chesterton published The Queen of Seven Swords, a small book of poems about Our Lady. Grettelyn Darkey and Joe Grabowski skip the expected devotional pieces for the surprising ones, where Chesterton turns his love for Mary into an answer to his critics. In This Episode: Why 1926 may have turned G.K. Chesterton's mind toward Our Lady: his wife Frances entered the Church that year, and his biographer Maisie Ward calls it a lonely time of lost friends Who J.S. Phillimore was, and why Chesterton dedicated a book of poems to this fellow convert and champion of the ballad "A Party Question," Chesterton's reply to Arnold Lunn, an agnostic who attacked his conversion and later became a Catholic himself How "The White Witch" moves the moon from a pagan goddess's brow to beneath Mary's feet Chesterton's short poem against treating birth control as the test of liberality Resources Mentioned: The Queen of Seven Swords by G.K. Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton by Maisie Ward (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18707) Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Vol. XVIII (includes Chaucer) FOLLOW US Instagram Facebook X (https://twitter.com/chestertonsoc) SUPPORT Consider making a donation (https://www.chesterton.org/give/) Visit our Shop (https://www.chesterton.org/shop/) Chapters: 00:00: G.K. Chesterton's book of poems to Our Lady 02:45: Frances Chesterton enters the Church 06:30: A lonely year for Chesterton 08:02: The dedication to J.S. Phillimore 15:00: "A Party Question" 21:22: Arnold Lunn and Roman Converts 25:43: Our Lady's share in Chesterton's conversion 28:25: Our Lady's champion 29:59: Losing sight of Mary, losing sight of Christ 33:06: "The White Witch" 40:58: "An Agreement" 46:35: Bringing the book back into print Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

2. 

   6 Oct 2026

   "Millions Now Alive Will Never Live": G.K. Chesterton's Warning

   Some of the G.K. Chesterton in the new issue of Gilbert isn't collected anywhere else. Grettelyn Darkey and Joe Grabowski open with a 1933 essay on why the two usual arguments against communism fail, and why those arguments push the young toward communism rather than away from it. Then comes Chesterton on shapeless art, and a leisure state run by robots that he could only call all wrong. In This Episode: Why G.K. Chesterton thought both common ways of arguing with communists were wrong: insults win no one over, and sneering at a young person's ideals only sounds like a greedy old man forbidding them to be anything else Chesterton's alternative: appeal to the natural desire for a home and a plot of land, and show that real private property protects everyone's fair share Why, for Chesterton, the opposite of art is shapelessness rather than ugliness Chesterton's 1927 claim that films are more unreal than portraits because they are more like life, read against today's AI-generated actors A blended Chesterton essay on a leisure state where robots do all the work, and his warning that "Millions now alive will never live" Resources Mentioned: Gilbert Magazine (https://www.chesterton.org/gilbert/) Become a member of the Chesterton Society and get Gilbert Magazine! (https://www.chesterton.org/membership/) Justice & Charity by Fulton J. Sheen "Awakening the Sense of Wonder" by G.K. Chesterton, The Illustrated London News, March 19, 1927 Uncommon Sense: G.K. Chesterton vs. Communism and Socialism FOLLOW US Instagram Facebook X (https://twitter.com/chestertonsoc) SUPPORT Consider making a donation (https://www.chesterton.org/give/) Visit our Shop (https://www.chesterton.org/shop/) Chapters: 00:00: A new issue of Gilbert 01:15: Dale Ahlquist's finds from the archives 04:11: "How Not to Do It" (1933) 08:32: The argument from liberty and private property 10:33: Fulton Sheen and the third way 15:08: More from this issue of Gilbert 17:52: The Venus de Milo on the trombone 19:50: Shapelessness, the antithesis of art 26:35: Waxworks, films, and Felix the Cat 28:53: Robots and the leisure state 32:19: "Can't you see? It's all wrong" 37:39: "Millions now alive will never live" Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

3. 

   29 Sept 2026

   Why G.K. Chesterton Thought St. Gabriel More Glorious Than St. Michael

   In 1929, with the world at peace, G.K. Chesterton wrote a prayer to St. Michael, the warrior archangel. For Michaelmas, Grettelyn Darkey and Joe Grabowski read "To St. Michael in Time of Peace" and ask what Chesterton saw coming that made him call on Michael then—and why he still counted Gabriel, stooping to greet a peasant girl, the more glorious angel. In This Episode: The Pope Leo XIII backstory behind the poem: his Prayer to St. Michael, and a famous 1884 vision no one has traced to a source Why G.K. Chesterton prayed to the warrior archangel in a year of peace: he sensed what he called Prussianism returning The poem's image of St. Michael at the Crucifixion, hand on the hilt, holding back his legions until Christ said "It is finished" Chesterton's warning against a peace kept by money A 1926 G.K.'s Weekly passage where Chesterton, arguing against Nietzsche, calls St. Gabriel stooping to greet the peasant girl more glorious than St. Michael striking down the traitor, and how Joe connects it to the single feast the three archangels now share Resources Mentioned: To St. Michael in Time of Peace by G.K. Chesterton Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton "A Word with Dr. Oscar Levy" by G.K. Chesterton, G.K.'s Weekly, October 16, 1926 FOLLOW US Instagram Facebook X (https://twitter.com/chestertonsoc) SUPPORT Consider making a donation (https://www.chesterton.org/give/) Visit our Shop (https://www.chesterton.org/shop/) Chapters: 00:00: Michaelmas and the Feast of the Archangels 01:43: Oxford's Michaelmas term and the darkening of the year 05:17: St. Michael through the centuries 08:19: Leo XIII and the Prayer to St. Michael 13:38: The 1884 vision: a legend without a source 16:42: "To St. Michael in Time of Peace" (1929) 21:23: St. Michael at the foot of the Cross 25:56: Why invoke St. Michael in time of peace 31:30: Why the archangels belong together 34:14: Michael, Gabriel, and the Sacred Heart 37:09: Humility, Tobit, and the Annunciation 40:18: Michaelmas in Tolkien Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios Episode art image credit: "St-Michel-Mont-Mercure, Vendée", original photo by Pom', 26 July 2023; on Flickr; CC BY-SA 2.0

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