The Search for Aliveness with Leah Raidt

If You Didn’t Read the Pope’s Encyclical, Here’s What You Missed

In this episode, I break down Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, offering both a clear overview of its main themes and a deeper reflection on what it means theologically and politically. The document engages artificial intelligence, modern warfare, labor, and global inequality through the lens of Catholic Social Doctrine, including striking moments like its critique of “just war” theory and its acknowledgment of the Church’s historical role in slavery. But beyond summary, I also explore what it feels like to read a text that is at once significant and limited—especially from the perspective of liberation theology and my own experience as a transgender Catholic formed at the margins of the Church. This episode asks what it means when institutional theology begins to name realities that marginalized communities have long been living and thinking through, and why that tension between excitement and frustration might actually be the most important part. Check out more of my work at: https://maxwellkuzma.substack.com/

Queer Theology 101 with Dr Ish Ruiz

Today I’m joined by Dr. Ish Ruiz for a conversation about queer theology—what it means to “queer” theology itself, and how that moves us beyond questions of simple inclusion into deeper questions about scripture, doctrine, tradition, and power. We explore what shifts when theology is approached from the margins rather than assumed centers, and how queer theology opens up more liberatory and expansive ways of understanding God and the Church. Dr. Ish Ruiz is an assistant professor of Latinx and Queer Decolonial Theology at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. His work sits at the intersections of queer theology, Catholicism, Latinx theology, sexual ethics, liberation, and ecclesiology, shaped by both academic scholarship and years of ministry alongside LGBTQ Catholics. In this conversation, we also discuss his theological vision for the Church, his two recent books—LGBTQ+ Educators in Catholic Schools: Embracing Inclusivity, Synodality, and Justice and Cornerstones: Sacred Stories of LGBTQ+ Employees in Catholic Institutions—and the pastoral importance of remembering the inherent dignity and belovedness of LGBTQ people. To learn more about Dr. Ish Ruiz and his work, visit his website here: https://www.ishruiz.com/ [https://www.ishruiz.com/]

The Search for Aliveness with Leah Raidt

Leah Raidt joins me for a deeply personal conversation about Catholicism, embodiment, gender, spirituality, and the search for aliveness within religious practice. Leah serves to uplift and advance LGBTQ+ artists and narratives toward collective liberation through meditation, facilitation, filmmaking, poetry, performance, producing, and presence. Together, we explore what happens when spirituality moves beyond performance and certainty and becomes something rooted in mystery, discernment, and relationship. Throughout the episode, we reflect on growing up in Catholic culture, the pressure to suppress intuition in favor of rigid expectations, and the tension between inherited religion and lived experience. Leah shares how Catholicism became a kind of friction that sharpened their discernment, while I speak about navigating faith as a transgender Catholic trying to reconcile what I was taught spiritually with what I knew in my body. This conversation explores paradox, embodiment, and the possibility of a spirituality that reconnects people to themselves rather than teaching them to disappear. Links to find out more about Leah Raidt: https://linktr.ee/lraidt

26 Years of Trans Catholic Ministry - Sister Luisa Derouen

In this episode of Whiplash, Max speaks with Sister Luisa Derouen about her more than 26 years accompanying transgender Catholics through questions of faith, conscience, identity, and belonging. Long before transgender issues became part of mainstream Catholic discourse, Luisa was quietly offering spiritual support to trans people wrestling with isolation, shame, fear, and the feeling that they had to choose between authenticity and God. Their conversation explores accompaniment, mercy, Vatican II spirituality, and what it means to affirm the dignity of transgender people within the life of the Church. Listeners are also encouraged to read the powerful Outreach profile “No Body Now But Yours” as well as “Trans ally, Catholic nun: Sister Luisa Derouen’s 26-Year mission of quiet resistance” by Leah Raidt from Queer Kentucky, both of which offer a deeper look into Luisa’s decades of ministry and advocacy. While much work remains to be done for transgender Catholics, Luisa’s presence has meant that countless people did not have to navigate that struggle alone. This episode reflects on the spiritual importance of being seen, accompanied, and reminded that there is nothing inherently incompatible between being transgender and being loved by God. https://outreach.faith/2024/08/no-body-now-but-yours/https://queerkentucky.com/trans-ally-catholic-nun-sister-luisa-derouens-26-year-mission-of-quiet-resistance/

Interview with a Nonbinary Trans Jew

This week on Whiplash, Max sits down with J.E. Reich—a Jewish, queer, and nonbinary journalist, editor, and writer—for a conversation that stretches beyond a single tradition and into deeper questions of gender, theology, and lived experience. Together, they explore what it means to encounter another religious framework not as a threat, but as an invitation: to rethink assumptions, to expand imagination, and to take seriously the histories of communities who have been engaging questions of gender and embodiment for far longer than many contemporary Christian spaces. The episode also reflects on J.E.’s powerful writing about the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and the enduring strength of Jewish communal life in the face of violence, alongside a broader discussion of how Jewish texts—from the Talmud to later rabbinic interpretation—approach gender with nuance and complexity. From the recognition of multiple gender categories to interpretive traditions that center intention and authenticity, this conversation offers a compelling look at what becomes possible when we learn across traditions. Resources mentioned: J.E. Reich, “Inside the Tree of Life Congregation, the Prayer for the Dead Brings Hope” (Vanity Fair) - https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/10/inside-the-tree-of-life-congregation-the-prayer-for-the-dead-brings-hope [https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/10/inside-the-tree-of-life-congregation-the-prayer-for-the-dead-brings-hope?srsltid=AfmBOopUUlQRkoVSSzPF_T6P8oJEdufzMj2tL1-aC6J4bbu1ie6VtFar] Myles H. Aronowitz, “The Seven Genders in the Talmud” - https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-eight-genders-in-the-talmud/ [https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-eight-genders-in-the-talmud/] Joy Ladin, “What Does the Torah Really Say about Cross-Dressing?” - https://www.jtsa.edu/torah/what-does-the-torah-really-say-about-cross-dressing/ [https://www.jtsa.edu/torah/what-does-the-torah-really-say-about-cross-dressing/]