Ross Douthat

In this episode, we sit down with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, who joined us on campus this past October for a roundtable discussion about Disarming Beauty, the second volume in our book series Catholic Ideas for a Secular World. In our conversation, we talked about his work at the New York Times, the influence of G. K. Chesterton on his own conversion, and the vocation of the Catholic journalist.

• Ross Douthat at the New York Times — Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009. His column appears every Wednesday and Sunday.
• A Conversation with Fr. Julián Carrón featuring Ross Douthat, Ernest Morrell, and Paolo Carroza — Fr. Julián Carrón, author of Disarming Beauty, was be the featured guest at a discussion about his bestselling book. The roundtable featured Ross Douthat (Columnist, New York Times), Paolo Carozza (Kellogg Institute, Notre Dame) and Ernest Morrell (Center for Literacy Education, Notre Dame), followed by an author book signing. Disarming Beauty is the second volume in the Center for Ethics and Culture's series "Catholic Ideas for a Secular World," published by the University of Notre Dame Press.
• Who is G. K. Chesterton? (by Dale Ahlquist, American Chesterton Society) — I’ve heard the question more than once. It is asked by people who have just started to discover G.K. Chesterton. They have begun reading a Chesterton book, or perhaps have seen an issue of Gilbert, or maybe they’ve only encountered a series of pithy quotations that marvelously articulate some forgotten bit of common sense. They ask the question with a mixture of wonder, gratitude and…resentment. They are amazed by what they have discovered. They are thankful to have discovered it. And they are almost angry that it has taken so long for them to make the discovery.
• G. K. Chesterton's poem dedicated to Notre Dame: "The Arena" — The Chesterton party arrived at Notre Dame on the evening of October 4th, 1930. The lectures began on the following Monday. On Friday, the 10th, in the evening, the stadium was solemnly dedicated. Navy had come on for the dedicatory game, and Father O'Donnell was busy with them. He had told Johnny Mangan, the University chauffeur, to look after the Chestertons, and to see that they got into the stadium and that Mr. Chesterton had a seat on the platform from which the speeches were to be made. There were about twenty thousand people present, and when the students saw the magnificent bulk of Chesterton going toward the platform, they cheered wildly: "He's a man! Who's a man? He's a Notre Dame man!" Chesterton turned nervously to Mangan, saying: "My, they're angry!" "Angry!" exclaimed Johnny, "Golly man, they're cheerin' you!" Whereat Chesterton began such a fit of laughing and sputtering as almost to choke himself.
• Theme Music: "I dunno" by Grapes — I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque