Amid all the talk about popes and presidents, I was happy to join LAist (Los Angeles’ NPR station) for a live Q & A on what’s precedent and unprecedented about President Trump & Pope Leo’s recent exchanges on war, peace, and the role of politics and faith in it all.

Peace has been a steady refrain from Pope Leo XIV; his book Peace Be With You! sits on my bookshelf. Catholic leaders have long spoken out on social issues of the day. U.S. political leaders are no strangers to engaging and deploying faith in policy pleas at home and abroad. But the particular ranker and attention, buoyed by the current pope’s own American-ness and native English, seems to take this to a new level.

The LAist show clip is here, though the conversation feels far from over.