maurinacademy 
The series of videos on the Maurin Academy’s Political Philosophy YouTube channel and podcast is now complete. You can find the entire series at this playlist as well as on any podcast platform (just look for Political Philosophy with Dr. Laurie Johnson).
We have a regular check-in with our Patreon supporters once every month or so. Our next one is Monday, September 29. To come to this and all our classes, reading groups and lectures, head to the Maurin Academy Patreon and follow us there. Also, check out more of our website: pmaurin.org
Join Stephen Paff and Laurie Johnson October 14, starting at 7 p.m. US Central Time, as they discuss the implications the recent AI technology will have on people and society. The session will be live on zoom. You can get in on this conversation by becoming a patron of the Maurin Academy at the Salt of the Earth level or above.
Laurie and Spencer talk to Colin Miller and Tyler Hambley, who trace their path to the Church through the practices of Catholic Workers: praying daily, sharing meals, and opening their homes to the homeless. Now in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, they live family-to-family alongside formerly homeless men and teach through the Center for Catholic Social Thought. They argue for “thick” Christian community over thin, optional social ties.
In this episode, Colin Miller and Tyler Hambly trace their path from Anglican clergy to the Catholic Church through the concrete practices of the Catholic Worker: praying daily, sharing meals, and opening their homes to unhoused neighbors. What began as the Daily Office in Durham became a life of works of mercy that made them “Catholic before they knew it,” later confirmed by Newman and Augustine. Now in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, they live family-to-family alongside formerly homeless men and teach through the Center for Catholic Social Thought. They argue for “thick” Christian community—defined by prayer, meals, child-rearing, conflict and reconciliation—over thin, optional social ties. The friction is real, but they see it as a share in Christ’s Passion that yields the true fruit: a reconciled people.
This Friday’s session with Gavin will be postponed! There was a last minute scheduling issue, but we will post the reschedule date as soon we get that in the calendar.
Mary Berry’s latest article in the Berry Center’s newsletter really said it succinctly–America has never had a plan to make the country food independent. Instead, the government has prioritized participation in the global commodity market, food interdependence and soft power, for over 70 years with tax and regulatory policies that help one type of agriculture over another. See the full article here: https://berrycenter.org/2025/08/21/4028/
In 1973, Dorothy Day was in California to stand with the United Farm Workers. The UFW was in conflict with grape growers who had signed contracts with the rival Teamsters union, undermining years of organizing and collective bargaining by the farm workers’ movement. When farm workers launched strikes and boycotts, the growers responded with intimidation … Read more
This Thursday, September 4 at 7-8:30 p.m. US Central Time, the Maurin Academy’s Great Books Reading Group will meet live on Zoom for our first meeting on Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. This is a classic originally published in 1985 which is all too relevant today. We are now living in the full-blast … Read more
Spencer and Laurie discuss an article by Paul V. Stock, “The Perennial Nature of the Catholic Worker Farms: A Reconsideration of Failure,” in Rural Sociology, 2014.
https://pmaurin.org/get-involved/