YAY! Happy Birthday Among Women! 7 years old!

Whew! Where did the time go? I feel like the Mom who is looking at her “baby” getting on the school bus or making First Communion. You just stop and stare and have to take it all in for a precious moment. Then you offer a prayer of thanksgiving for getting to see the growing years unfold.

It’s been a labor of love, this apostolate, with over 200 episodes and growing, despite investment in two computers, and a few different websites and blogs later. I’m happy to say that I still have my trusty old analog Shure SM7 microphone that harkens back to my radio days decades ago… but I’ve burned through three sets of headphones and a lot of Skype payments for my long-distance interviews!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my dear listeners!! 80% of you come from the United States, and the rest of you are international listeners! Thank you for downloading Among Women!

Please keep sharing us with your family, friends, and with your parish church community!

There’s been so much faith sharing, teaching, and conversation… and a whole lot of coffee consumed…

A host of guests over the years have made me look good and taught me so much! From notable Catholic women in the news and the writing world, to women next to us in the pew. Among Women has interviewed and profiled so many fascinating and intelligent and faith-filled women! We have laughed and cried and prayed and shared experiences while discussed many, many things about our Catholic faith and what it looks like in real life.

We discovered numerous women saints and women in the bible who’ve given us their inspiration and their holy intercession — and most of all, our podcast patron, Mary, the Mother of God — who is truly BLESSED AMONG WOMEN — and whose “Hail Mary” prayer our “among women” theme is drawn.

Oh!! The people we’ve met! The places we’ve seen! Yes, you’re gonna wanna bookmark this post for future reference! (Each of the links below go back to archived shows for your listening pleasure.)

I’ve been delighted by our many forays into the depths of the feminine genius with shows about the theology of what the feminine genius is, how to understand St John Paul II’s groundbreaking document about women —Mulieris Dignitatem, how it relates to working women. We’ve talked about the call to spiritual motherhood, and what that means for midlife and senior women, plus the rise of new feminism with respect to being pro-life and pro-woman, as well as in foreign nations like Africa. And what exactly does “MOMNIPOTENT” mean?

Listeners have benefitted by theologians sharing their specialties, like Drs. Virginia Kimball on Mariology, Mary Healy on the beauty of  bible reading and the gifts of women, Maura Hearden on the feminine genius, Angela Franks on the moral life and contraception, Elizabeth Dreyer on “grassroots” theology, Mary Ward on St Paul, and philosopher Ronda Chervin on women saints.

Gosh, the books!!!! We’ve explored many conversations with numerous Catholic authors and experts who’ve tackled prayer, miscarriage, midlife, divorce, anger management, growing in virtue, “everyday” or “beyond-the-bedroom” theology of the body, chastity, dating, making peace with body image and eating disorders, and the real hope of healing from the wounds of abortion, or sexual trauma as a child.

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So where to next? What do you want to hear? Send me your thoughts in the comments box, or send off an email at amongwomenpodcast@me.com. You can still find me at the Among Women Podcast Facebook page and on Twitter as @PatGohn and @among_women.

And please, keep sharing Among Women!!

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The early history of Among Women… I may have to blame Lisa Hendey. At her invitation to meet-in-person with her and some of the other east coast Catholic Mom writers,  I attended the first Catholic New Media Celebration (CNMC) hosted by SQPN in Atlanta in 2008. I had no idea what I was getting into, but it was a lot of fun. A lot of work went into it by today’s well known podcasters, Greg and Jennifer Willits, Fr Roderick Vonhogen, and Mac and Katherine Barron, and others. They were the Catholic pioneers in this sphere.

Among Women started because, as a radio deejay in my younger years, I thought “new media” was a combination of radio-like fun, with the potential to reach people with the message of the Gospel. Since I’ve been a longtime beneficiary of Catholic woman’s groups and prayer groups it seemed only natural to do a show that harnessed the kind of conversations that had blessed my faith over the years, and encouraged my growth, over the years.

Early artwork for AW in 2009.

So in the summer that followed my newly minted Masters degree in theology, and my attendance at the CNMC, I had a significant amount of time off to tend to my first hip replacement, I began dreaming about a show that would combine those two ministry loves… using my catechetical skills and passion for the faith, alongside providing a comfortable space for women to share their faith and grow.

It took me a while to get the technical side down… and to afford to buy a new computer… but I saved enough money to buy my first Macbook Pro. I already had the audio equipment so it was a done deal.

I’ll never forget the first few shows after which a review or two came into our iTunes page, or when someone would leave me a Facebook comment, or a personal email. Trust me, folks, those notes — especially the emails — really kept me going. So thank you for that fellowship!

I’ll have two more posts for you tomorrow and Wednesday with more great AW links! (Look for a giveaway in Wednesday’s post!)