Angelus News | January 26, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 2
On the cover: High school student Atticus Maldonado smiles between classes at St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy in Downey. On Page 10, Angelus contributor Steve Lowery has the incredible story of how Maldonado’s school community rallied behind him in prayer — and why his unlikely recovery from a rare cancer may not even be the story’s biggest miracle.
On the cover: High school student Atticus Maldonado smiles between classes at St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy in Downey. On Page 10, Angelus contributor Steve Lowery has the incredible story of how Maldonado’s school community rallied behind him in prayer — and why his unlikely recovery from a rare cancer may not even be the story’s biggest miracle.
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AD REM<br />
ROBERT BRENNAN<br />
Why don’t I have a podcast?<br />
SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
Remember that bygone era when<br />
there were only three on-air<br />
national broadcast networks<br />
and — here in Los Angeles — another<br />
four local television stations? Current<br />
consumers of digital television would<br />
consider that a primitive state equivalent<br />
to cave paintings.<br />
But I actually pine for them every now<br />
and then.<br />
It was not a perfect system. Because<br />
of limited platforms, it was harder to<br />
find your niche either on the news or<br />
entertainment side.<br />
If you were a musician, you worked<br />
in dingy clubs and high school sock<br />
hops for years until you got your break.<br />
An actor may have worked for years<br />
parking cars or waiting tables and doing<br />
local theater only to get one guest spot<br />
on “Bonanza.” Many talented people<br />
never got a break of any kind, yet some<br />
of the most talented artists and news<br />
reporters still managed to burst forth<br />
from this cauldron.<br />
<strong>No</strong>w everyone is a star. And it seems<br />
I am the last person on the planet who<br />
does not have a podcast. There are<br />
literally tens of thousands of podcasts<br />
on every topic under the sun and many<br />
topics that do not deserve to see the<br />
light of day. It does not take much. If<br />
you have about 40 bucks you can get<br />
yourself a cool-looking microphone<br />
at an electronics box store, a little<br />
lighting from the same store and maybe<br />
a bookshelf behind you to give you<br />
gravitas and voila: you are a podcaster<br />
(obviously, you need a good internet<br />
connection, too).<br />
Podcasters have a tendency to take<br />
themselves very seriously with anchorman<br />
desks like they were working at<br />
CNN, but they come off looking more<br />
like Ron Burgundy. I have watched<br />
podcasters that are comical, intentional<br />
and unintentional, but most of the ones<br />
I have found are trivial and listening to<br />
them has not proven an effective use of<br />
time.<br />
And yet, they are legion.<br />
I wish I could say the advent of<br />
technology and its ability to distribute<br />
information so quickly and cheaply<br />
would be a boon for the Church and<br />
her adherents. But when I look at the<br />
Catholic blogosphere that dream vaporizes<br />
like when rubidium makes contact<br />
with water.<br />
It seems anyone with a microphone,<br />
free time, and a copy of the Vatican<br />
II documents, is now an ecclesiastical<br />
expert who needs to be heard. Before<br />
<strong>26</strong> • ANGELUS • <strong>January</strong> <strong>26</strong>, <strong>2024</strong>
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