Skip to content

Listen

The Living Tradition Podcast

The Living Tradition Podcast explores the riches of the Catholic faith through real, thoughtful, joyful conversations on Scripture, Theology, the Saints, and the questions of our time.

Hosted by Laura Brand and Sara Sophia Haynes, each episode is an invitation to remember who we are, where we come from, and what we are made for. Some episodes are serious, some funny, but through it all, we return to the same conviction: the Tradition of the Church is not a museum of ideas from the past. It is a living inheritance meant to shape the way we see God, ourselves, one another, and the world.

Now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Amazon Music.

The Living Tradition Podcast cover artwork with Laura Brand and Sara Sophia Haynes

Episodes

Latest Episodes

New episodes are released regularly. Each episode links out to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other listening platforms.
Sort by
Artwork for Beauty Will Ruin Your Schedule
Episode 5New

Beauty Will Ruin Your Schedule

Beauty has a way of interrupting us. A beautiful sunset, a piece of incredible music, a work of art, all of these and more can grab us in unexpected ways. And sometimes these moments of beauty beg us to stay in the moment, even when everything else in life is telling us to move on. In this episode, Laura and Sara Sophia talk about beauty, attention, and the Catholic imagination—from the Transfiguration and Eucharistic silence to sacred music, literature, film, friendship, and even a beautiful set of pencils no one wants to use. What happens when we let beauty be our guide in faith? Where the Church's story becomes our story.

Artwork for What Happened to Our Imagination?
Episode 4

What Happened to Our Imagination?

What do fairy tales, stained glass, Scripture, and the way we see the ordinary world have in common? In this episode, Laura and Sara Sophia talk about imagination—not simply as creativity or fantasy, but as part of the way we make sense of reality. We explore what happens when our imagination becomes flattened by a world of distraction, utility, and constant information, and how the Catholic tradition forms us to see differently. From Scripture and story to liturgy, beauty, and sacrament, the Church gives us an imagination capable of recognizing that the world is more than what appears on the surface. Maybe the problem isn't that we need to escape reality. Maybe we need to learn how to see it again.

Artwork for Chocolate, 17 Cats, and the Human Heart
Episode 3 · September 7, 2026

Chocolate, 17 Cats, and the Human Heart

What is the human heart actually made for? In this short episode, we talk about desire—the good things we reach for, the things we hope will finally satisfy us, and the strange fact that even when they are genuinely good, they still leave us wanting more. We talk about marriage, friendship, doom scrolling, silence, religious life, and yes, chocolate and 17 cats, as we ask what our restlessness is really pointing toward. Ultimately, we were made not simply to know God, but to be in relationship with him—to love and to be loved.

Artwork for You Don't Need a Time Machine to Meet Jesus
Episode 2

You Don't Need a Time Machine to Meet Jesus

What if the problem isn't that God is far away—but that we've gotten really bad at noticing Him right in front of us? We start this episode in a cave. Literally. Laura tells the story of being deep underground in total darkness, where losing light, sound, and any sense of direction made reality surprisingly hard to trust. This leads us to a conversation about what happens when faith feels like this groping in the darkness. We talk about what happens when Christianity is merely "something we know" instead of the reality we actually live in—and how noise, busyness, endless input, and even our own moments of darkness can make the world feel much smaller than it really is. Along the way: Cave of the Winds, doom scrolling, Interstellar, a teenage encounter with the communion of saints, an unexpected experience at the foot of the Cross during Mass, and a child who wishes he could travel back 2,000 years to meet Jesus. But what if we don't need to go back? What if Christ is not simply someone who lived long ago, but Someone alive and available to us now—in the liturgy, creation, friendship, love, suffering, and the ordinary physical world we move through every day? Maybe recovering the deep life begins by learning to see what is already here. Where the Church's story becomes our story.

Artwork for The Faith Is Alive: Welcome to the Living Tradition Podcast
Episode 1 · August 24, 2026

The Faith Is Alive: Welcome to the Living Tradition Podcast

What does it mean for the Catholic faith to be a living tradition—and what does that have to do with the way we actually live? In our first episode, we introduce ourselves, share the heart behind The Living Tradition Podcast, and begin exploring the conviction at the center of it all: Christianity is not simply something handed down for us to know. Through the Church, the sacraments, Scripture, prayer, and the communion of saints, we encounter a reality that is alive—the life of Christ given to us.

More episodes are on the way. New episodes appear here as they are published.

Begin the Conversation

Planning a retreat, parish mission, formation day, catechist workshop, or special event?

Invite us to begin the conversation.