New podcast will soon be Illuminating Catholics

By RENEE WEBB
Content and Design Coordinator

A new podcast from the Diocese of Sioux City will launch later this month to shed light on topics of faith important to Catholics in northwest Iowa. 

Illuminating Catholics will be co-hosted by Dawn Prosser, diocesan director of communications, and Karmen Bower, diocesan director of formation. Plans are to release the first episode Nov. 19 and it will appear on various podcast hosting sites.

It was a couple of years ago when Prosser began thinking about the possibility of starting a podcast as part of the offerings of Lumen Media, the official communications of the diocese. 

The idea began to firm up several months ago during conversations with the Lumen Media board when The Lumen newspaper was still being printed and plans were in the works for a move to 100% digital news and communications.

“As you probably know, where people in 2024 find their news and information is so varied,” said the communications director. “I keep looking at statistics and it changes every year.”

In her research, Prosser discovered various statistics on podcasts as being a great medium to reach younger people. There is also a healthy growth with adults in general that are listening to podcasts and getting their news from podcasts.

“It’s a place where people are finding not only news but it is a way to access news while they are doing something else,” said Prosser, who noted these findings have also been highlighted in the Pew Report. “With that in mind, I knew podcasts would be part of our mix of offerings.”

Once the decision to create a podcast was made, Prosser began to research how to go about it. She read up on the topic, participated in workshops offered through the Catholic Media Association and sought input from others. In addition to speaking with Aaron Lorch of Catholic Passage for advice and research on podcast, she talked to other diocesan communications offices and news departments.

One of the communications director’s first tasks was to seek a co-host. 

“Karmen has vast knowledge of faith formation in the diocese both at the diocesan level and at the parish level. That experience will be very valuable in the conversations that we will have,” said Prosser. “She is younger than I am, so she will have a different perspective and she still has children at home. She’s fun and intelligent – an obvious choice to co-host.”

While Bower has not hosted a podcast, she has been a guest on podcasts and has offered several educational based webinars from the Office of Faith Formation for catechetical leaders in diocesan parishes. A fan of podcasts, she agreed to co-host because she sees value in this type of format.

“Whether it’s presenting information or communications, we are all struggling with that same question of how we reach people. I think this is a great opportunity for overlap,” said the director of faith formation, who also likes the accessibility factor of podcasts. “You don’t have to log into a certain app or have your computer – you just have to pull your phone out.” 

Over the course of the last few months the women have worked on defining the direction for the podcast’s content and made other important decisions.

When it comes to the name Illuminating Catholics, Bower mentioned they brainstormed titles that would connect to Lumen Media.

“We wanted to stay with Lumen Media’s branding of enlightening and illuminating the faith of the people in northwest Iowa,” added Prosser. “There is always something to learn.”

The faith formation director is a believer that people still want to see the good that is happening which ties in well with the concept of “illuminating and showing how Christ is working in the diocese rather than only seeing where we need growth. Hopefully we can demonstrate that.”

So far the plan is for the two hosts to interview a guest or guests on a specific topic which can range from more serious, difficult issues to lighter, more casual topics. Even though the topics may range from trending issues of the day or longstanding church traditions, all episodes will have the common goal of shedding light on the subjects so that listeners may be informed to better live out their faith in the modern world.

“We have experts at our fingertips. It will not be just a couple of Catholics sitting in a room talking about Advent, we are going to bring in a pastor, a priest with experience that can share with us how we can make the most of Advent,” said Prosser. 

They announced the guest for their first episode will be Father Tim Friedrichsen, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Sioux City and Scripture scholar. The focus will be on the scriptural aspects of Advent.

“We all know what Advent is but there is always something deeper and something to learn,” said Prosser, who mentioned an upcoming podcast will feature Amy Bloch of Catholic Charities discussing the crisis of mental health for youth.
The list of podcast guests will not stop with priests but will include religious sisters, chancery department directors and more – but all will have ties to the diocese or the region. 

Bower pointed out the staff of the Office of Formation spends a great deal of time in parishes and is well aware of the strong ties the faithful of the diocese have with priests and sisters. 

Having guests that are familiar to the people in diocesan pews she believes will be appreciated and a highlight.

The focus for Lumen Media be it the newspaper of the past or current online news, added Prosser, has always been to utilize diocesan experts. Analytics confirm using the local/diocesan sources for stories draws greater interest. 

“The podcast will also be an opportunity for us to highlight what is happening throughout our diocese,” Bower said, acknowledging that while they do have a direction for the podcast in mind there is room to see how it unfolds. “These things always develop. Rather than starting with a narrow vision, I am excited to see what opportunities present themselves to us. Sometimes the Holy Spirit prompts you to do something and you always don’t know the reasons why until later.”

If everything goes as planned, they will offer Illuminating Catholics weekly and new episodes will “drop” – be released – on Tuesdays. In the future, they may look into posting the video podcast on YouTube.

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