May 28, 2026 • 20 mins
Buck sits down with writer and commentator Aubrey Strobel to discuss the resurgence of Catholicism among young people, especially in places like New York City. Drawing from her viral Catholic Herald piece, “Why Catholicism No Longer Feels Uncool in New York,” Aubrey explains why packed churches, growing conversions, and renewed public expressions of faith are becoming increasingly common among Gen Z and millennials.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Is Catholicism cool for young people out there these days?
Is it having a resurgence among the youth? Topic that
I wanted to get into with writer Aubrey Strobel, who
joins US now. She wrote a piece in The Catholic
Herold that really caught my attention, really interesting why Catholicism
no longer feels uncool in New York And I wanted
(00:22):
to chat with her about this because, you know, Aubrey,
by the way, the subheading is, after years of quiet observance,
New York's Catholics are finding a renewed confidence to live
and speak their faith publicly. You know, I'm noticing I'm
down here in Florida. I grew up in New York.
I'm in Miami.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
There are more and more.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Catholic meetups happening, and by the way, not like dating,
just just people who want to be with other young
Catholics and explore their faith. And more of the stuff
happening in Miami. And the people are starting to see
this here. So I think this is bigger than just
New York. But speak to it in the New York
context of what is going on here with again younger
folks and and Catholicism and this resurgons.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
What do you see?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Sure? First, thanks so much for having me on the show.
And yeah, Catholicism is live and well in New York
City and across the world. Quite frankly, we've seen record
numbers of conversions all over the world this past Easter
for New York specifically. I live in the West Village,
so I don't know if people are familiar with the
West Village and the diocera sort of the churchs around here,
(01:25):
but Saint Joe's is maybe one of the most packed churches.
You can't even get into Mass, like you have to
go an hour before. And if you grew up, you know,
I'm kind of like a cradle cath Like we were
kind of sneaking into Mass like ten minutes before, and
we weren't like on our best behavior back when you know,
my parents were raising us. We were you know, wouldn't
get a seat if you showed up been ten minutes
(01:47):
before the mass. So it is people outside the church
in lines, just trying to hear any sort of message.
And it's remarkable. It's so shocking to me in a
way as someone who grew up and kind of never
had that like lapse Catholic phase where I'm like I
left the church. Sure I didn't. I've always been a follower.
(02:08):
I've always attended Sunday Mass. And to see people embracing Catholicism,
which is a very rigid, very quite frankly tough and
you know, straightforward religion is I feel like I'm in
a dream. I feel like I'm in a weird dream
every Sunday, and quite frankly, it's been a weird past year,
(02:30):
but I'm happy about it.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, No, of course, I think, by the way, the
data is all supportive of this, very broadly nationally, that
more young people are turning toward their faith, which is
overwhelmingly by the numbers, Christianity still in this country, by
far the biggest faith tradition is Christianity, by far the
biggest denomination I think still, although other more well, Evangelicals
(02:54):
is such a broad term. I was going to say,
I think Catholics if you take them against any or
you know, line it up again, any one particular strain
of Protestantism is the single biggest. But anyway, but put
that aside for a moment, let's get into the why
you're you're a you a young lady, and but it's
funny you live in the West Village. The West Village
(03:15):
is where my wife lived when we got engaged. So
I and I actually lived in the West Village. Yeah,
though I live in the West Village too, so I
know the West Village very very well. I lived on
Charles Street, I lived on West tenth Street, and I
lived later on on nineteenth Street and Sixth Avenue, which
is technically not the West Village but close.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
So I know you're area very well.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
And I honestly would have been surprised to find out
that there was a Catholic church in the West Village.
Now you're telling me that it is pack So why
is this? Like, let let's explore the why a little
bit and again focusing on people under you know, under
forty is where this huge resurgence seems to be happening.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
What's going on?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, so I think, I mean a lot of this
leads to a lot of the topics that we're talked
about in the cyclic that just came out on Monday,
Magnifica Humanitists, which talks about a lot of the issues
that are plaguing the youth. Right we have a lot
of young people who are not getting married, that are
not finding a partner and not putting a spouse. A
lot of that is, you know, not even to get
(04:16):
a job, not able to buy a house. There's a
lot of tough issues that people are facing, and there's
a lot of purpose driven issues. What's my purpose? More?
When we have AI robots and AI girlfriends and all
these sort of things that you can talk to, where
do I fit in? How do I relate to another
human being? I find community and things that are real.
(04:37):
And what I write about in my article for the
Catholic Herald is that the rigidity of the Catholic Church
is not a bug. It is a feature. It is
the reason why people are drawn to it. We don't
say that a man is a woman and a woman
is a man. We are very strict about what is
right and it doesn't change based on social norms. And
(04:58):
what I go into in the art is that a
lot of the Protestant churches throughout these sort of I
guess call them the more woke years, definitely bent the
knee to the waves of change. And they did that
because they wanted to. Probably, I think with good pen
I don't. I'm not trying to like shame Protestantism. I
think they were trying to be more welcoming and opening
(05:20):
or and welcoming to everyone. But I think in doing so,
they actually became just like the culture itself, because they
became indistinguishable from the culture itself. And what people don't
want is more of the same nonsense. They want to
hear something that is true. And that is why Catholicism
is resonating with so many people right now, because it's true.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I well the for me, by the way, and I'll
say this, and I'm curious how you view my assertion, right, Uh,
it feels to me like and I'm somebody who has
And one of the reasons I think your article struck
home with me and well, I reach out and wanted
to have you want on is I'm a relatively new dad.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Right So I got a little one year old.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
His name is Speed, and he is as cool as
his name sounds. Is a family and it's actually a
family name of his name is Speed. He's the cutest life.
Thank you, And I've got I've got an amazing wife, Carrie,
and I view myself now very much as dad, husband,
head of household, and I want a faith.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Tradiction, tradition and to create that.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
You know, spiritual structure and honestly, uh foster for each
member of my family a relationship with God and the
Church the greatest three possible. So we've started, we have
returned to the church, right. So I'm part of this wave.
I think that you write about a bit having grown up.
I mean I went to a school where you had
to have a baptismal certificate and have your priest signed
(06:48):
basically an attestation that you would attend Sunday Mass to go.
Like it was not It wasn't a Catholic. It wasn't
Georgetown University Catholic school, which I think has more atheists
and non Christian students now and anything else. It was
a real Jesuit school where you had to actually practice
the Catholic faith to be uh. This is for high
school to go. And then in college I remember going
(07:10):
and I was among the very few who would attend
Sunday services on campus, very very few students.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I remember a member of.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
The Scalia family, you know, Justice Scalia, may you rest
in peace. She was there and like there was like
a handful of us that would be at Sunday Mass.
I'm like, well, of course, Supreme Court Justice Scalia has
got family here, But there weren't that many people attending
that mass. And now I just view it as the war. Sorry,
and this is what I wanted to have you refer to.
But I just thought that was interesting back you see,
I'm passionate about this topic you wrote about when you wrote.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Such a great articles.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
That's why I wanted to It feels to me like an era,
in an era of social media, and in a time
of all of this superficiality and turning inward, there is
a bit of a cry of despair from younger people
who recognize this stuff is meaningless clicks and likes and
(07:59):
you know, and and there's stuff going on now with
everyone's trying to be the biggest and everyone wants to
make all this money, and women are setting up only
fans accounts all over that certainly here in Miami, all over.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
The place, and all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
It is godlessness. And I think people realize that's not
going to be a recipe for happiness or purpose.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
But isn't it amazing that there's something innately in the
human soul and the human condition that we know it's false.
We know when something is false, we know and is
something is phony, and that is why we are drawn
to something greater, something more divine. And that is why
specifically the Catholic Church is resonating because it is the
one true church, and people know that what is going
(08:42):
on right now with people coming back, even you know,
the new pope and sort of embracing and talking about
a lot of these topics like AI and technology, like
they resonate from it. Because when I do write in
the article as well, I was going to Mass when
people were you know, like hating on the Catholic Church.
I mean, can't ignore those Catholic Church has had scandals,
(09:03):
is very unpopular to be a like for a long time,
and I was still going to Sunday Mass, and I
had a lot of friends and people who would honestly
be shocked, like you you would think that when I
told them, like, what would you know my Sunday plans
them going to math, that they like I had chopped
at like I don't know, chop my hair off or
(09:23):
like done something really crazy a hobby that's like really antiquated.
I was just going to Mass, and they thought that
was so crazy, and I thought it was crazy that
you don't even spend one hour a week on your soul,
but you go to like a yoga class five times
a week and that's an hour, So you know, where
are you spending your time? And I thought that was
the least I could do as a Catholic was to
(09:44):
go to my math mass every week and just to
see a lot of these people kind of come around
to Catholicism or like I even have Jewish friends reaching
out me that are interested in Catholicism. I've you know,
helped a lot of people get into OCIA programs and
things like that. It's just so strange. I'm very happy
about it. I almost don't believe as like how much
(10:08):
the Holy Spirit is working right now in the world
it is. It is really crazy. It also just shows
how much of the Western world really believes in Catholicism
and it really has like a lot of strength here.
So I think, I think all of that is really crazy.
My original title for this article was The Prodigal Son
turns to New York. They did change it, not which
(10:28):
I thought was a better title. But you know, the
Herald does what the Harold wants to do with the title,
and I think really our job as Catholics and as
people who have been here a long time is not
to look with on others with suspicion, but to look
at them and welcome them back, just as the father
welcomed the son back in, and so we need to
(10:48):
have sort of that approach as the converts and the
new Catholics.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
I want to speak to you about AI and just
more broadly actually AI. So I know you work in
the tech space and do colms there, and I have
a lot of a lot of thoughts that I want
to throw your way.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I want to hear what you think and where you
see all this going.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
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eight four Birch Gold Group. All right back with Aubrey
strobul here. Great article in The Catholic Herald. She wrote
about why it's no longer uncool to be a Catholic
in New York, or that's at least the title. And
let's speak about AI for a second, because I got
asked a question.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
This is funny.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I'm gonna ask you the question that I was asking
a podcast earlier this week. And I don't want to
shade your thinking at all in this one. But it
was a well, very well known political analyst, because that's generally.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
What I do. And he asked me, he said on
his show.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Are you are you excited or worried about AI? And
it was like a very broad base where are you
on this? You do tech comms communications in the tech world.
Do you follow tech closely? Are you excited or worried
about AI?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I'm excited about AI as somebody who works in tech
have always been very early to new technologies. But that
doesn't mean that I think AI is good. And I
think in the encyclical Poclio address that no technology it
can be ever neutral because of investors and people who
regulate it. It takes on the characteristics of those people who
are heavily involved in that. So but that's everything, right,
(12:51):
you know, everything kind of has stalers and key people
that are in control of different industries. So while I, well,
I am excited about it, I do think that replacing
it for a human being is wrong, and I think
we've already seen that. Like I think a lot of
the I don't know a lot about the only fans
side of things, but I I know that, like there's
(13:13):
a lot of people that just follow we fake only fans.
People like these aren't even real women. And I'm not
saying that like you should be following the real woman.
That's not my argument here. I'm just saying that the
fact that we have people having these relationships with these
artificial people has gotten us so far in the wrong direction.
I think the pornography situation with men in this country
(13:36):
and women I'm sure has gotten us. So, you know,
far adrift we are. I have these relationships with digital creatures,
but that's not new with AI. That is that is
a problem of loneliness and people need to like remove
these toxic behavioral patterns that have obviously been built by
the Internet. But like, do we call the internet bad? No,
(13:58):
we have personal agencies. So it's like, what do you
do with the tools that are given to you, given
to us? That is how we understand choices that we're making,
and it's on us.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Do you feel like increasingly you know that this is
all actually ties together with the rise in younger people
going to church. I mean there's also there's an inherent
sense of community from the physical proximity of being at
a worship service with other people. And I do think
(14:28):
maybe people crave more even though there's all this constant
connectivity online and you know, with being able to text
and all this other stuff. But put aside, I mean
you're talking about the only fans stuff, which I'm in Miami,
which is unfortunately the epicenter for that.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
It's like the capital of you know only fans.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Creators in the country, but the just general lack of
real contact with other human beings that a lot of
people have, which AI cannot make up for, right, I mean,
I think that's part of the part of the problem
here is that if you're having a conversation with anyone
who's actually an AI, and this is becoming let's just say,
your friend, never mind any kind of like an object
(15:04):
of desire, which is bizarre on so many levels, but
you're not actually having any contact with a human being.
And I think that there's an inherent emptiness in that.
And so again religious faith and religious worship is an
antidote to this.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Yeah, And I think somewhere quietly we know that we
know that the AI is going to respond in a
positive way because it's a business and it makes money
off of us. Chat to bt claude, it's it's not
a real thing. And I think the sad part about
these relationships with AI is that it's a one way street.
You're you know, you're mutually benefiting from this, but you
(15:43):
don't have to work on the things that are really hard,
Like what's really hard loving your family? Isn't that like
one of the hardest things, dealing with friends, dealing with coworkers,
where it's difficult. If we try to and pop Leo
talk about this, if we try to take try to
take all the struggle out of life, that is not
going to get us to a better place. We think that,
like we can automate things away, we cannot automate those away.
(16:05):
The struggle is the path. It's always been the path.
It is always going to be the path. Struggle and
a lot of the you know, pain that was suffered
on the cross. That is the highest form of love
and you cannot have that love without that pain and struggle.
And so we've gotten back to that truth Pee We
really people really want that And yeah, sure maybe people
(16:30):
are going to be lost in talking to AI chatbots,
but I mean hopefully they can come back and realize
that it's it's not a fulfilling relationship.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Well, what are the Because we got into I just
wanted your thoughts on this part. We got into some
of the dark side of AI there. So in response
to the question, we went in that direction. What are
you what are you most enthusiastic about as just progress
for humanity, as as a tool of of of helping people.
(16:59):
I mean a tool of goodness if you will, from AI, Like,
what are the areas of it where you think this
is going to make such a hugely positive impact.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Well, healthcare for one, I think a lot of people
in this country can't get a doctor's appointment, right, So
it's like I have questions, I can query an AI
and they're probably going to give me what the doctor
would give me if I went in and just got
a check up. And I can get those answers pretty immediately,
So it's helpful for people in that way. I need
to synthesize this for work and I can maybe do
(17:31):
more work or do have more time with my kids.
That's probably a better use time because I get my
work done sooner and I'm not buried with having to
do these more menial tasks. Like speeding things up is
not inherently bad if it's you know, you're using the
rest of your time for something good, and so like
it's fine, it's fine that it can do those things.
I also do think that we need to be using
(17:54):
our brains and like making sure that we're actually because
it's a muscle, right, the brain is a muscle. We
need to make sure it works. It's great for some things,
it's not great for everything. But it's hard for people
to regulate. We have a society that is not high agency.
We want people to tell us what to do. We
want to blame other people. If you are using a
tool like AI, you are responsible for how you use it.
(18:16):
And I think a lot of people don't like to
hear that because they don't like personal accountability.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yes, oh, absolutely, lack of accountability. I think narcissism and
lack of accountability are the two twin pillars of like
destruction of our entire civilization.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
But that's and like, well, it's like I can raise
my hand right now and tell you, like, should I
be querying AI to make myself a grocery list? Like
probably not, like I can. I could probably remember that
I need bananas and like more eggs. But like, so
I'm using it perfectly? Am I perfect user of AI?
Probably not? But sometimes you're just like I need to
(18:51):
get this thing done. But we should be trying to
use a trying to use our brains because a lot
of cognitive function your years. Like I had a grandmother
who just asked in January she had dementia. A lot
of things about keeping your mind working. And I'm sure this,
if not now, in the future a study will come
out about how AI is probably making dementia like kind
(19:12):
of like earlier onset because you need to be using
your brain like you will. It's gonna hurt society if
you are not using your brain, so you need to
be doing things on your own.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
You use it or lose it, as they say for
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(20:06):
Aubrey Strubble fantastic article in the Catholic Health And where
should people go to find your stuff or to follow
your commentary? Social media your main place? Well, all things
come on.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Twitter. Twitter is like my home. But I now I'm
growing on Instagram, doing a lot of Catholic videos. I
wasn't really a big Instagram person before, but I guess
that's where people are, so you can follow me there.
I'm at Aubrey's struggle on all the platforms.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Wonderful. Thank you,
Is Catholicism cool for young people out there these days?
Is it having a resurgence among the youth? Topic that
I wanted to get into with writer Aubrey Strobel, who
joins US now. She wrote a piece in The Catholic
Herold that really caught my attention, really interesting why Catholicism
no longer feels uncool in New York And I wanted
(00:22):
to chat with her about this because, you know, Aubrey,
by the way, the subheading is, after years of quiet observance,
New York's Catholics are finding a renewed confidence to live
and speak their faith publicly. You know, I'm noticing I'm
down here in Florida. I grew up in New York.
I'm in Miami.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
There are more and more.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Catholic meetups happening, and by the way, not like dating,
just just people who want to be with other young
Catholics and explore their faith. And more of the stuff
happening in Miami. And the people are starting to see
this here. So I think this is bigger than just
New York. But speak to it in the New York
context of what is going on here with again younger
folks and and Catholicism and this resurgons.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
What do you see?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Sure? First, thanks so much for having me on the show.
And yeah, Catholicism is live and well in New York
City and across the world. Quite frankly, we've seen record
numbers of conversions all over the world this past Easter
for New York specifically. I live in the West Village,
so I don't know if people are familiar with the
West Village and the diocera sort of the churchs around here,
(01:25):
but Saint Joe's is maybe one of the most packed churches.
You can't even get into Mass, like you have to
go an hour before. And if you grew up, you know,
I'm kind of like a cradle cath Like we were
kind of sneaking into Mass like ten minutes before, and
we weren't like on our best behavior back when you know,
my parents were raising us. We were you know, wouldn't
get a seat if you showed up been ten minutes
(01:47):
before the mass. So it is people outside the church
in lines, just trying to hear any sort of message.
And it's remarkable. It's so shocking to me in a
way as someone who grew up and kind of never
had that like lapse Catholic phase where I'm like I
left the church. Sure I didn't. I've always been a follower.
(02:08):
I've always attended Sunday Mass. And to see people embracing Catholicism,
which is a very rigid, very quite frankly tough and
you know, straightforward religion is I feel like I'm in
a dream. I feel like I'm in a weird dream
every Sunday, and quite frankly, it's been a weird past year,
(02:30):
but I'm happy about it.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, No, of course, I think, by the way, the
data is all supportive of this, very broadly nationally, that
more young people are turning toward their faith, which is
overwhelmingly by the numbers, Christianity still in this country, by
far the biggest faith tradition is Christianity, by far the
biggest denomination I think still, although other more well, Evangelicals
(02:54):
is such a broad term. I was going to say,
I think Catholics if you take them against any or
you know, line it up again, any one particular strain
of Protestantism is the single biggest. But anyway, but put
that aside for a moment, let's get into the why
you're you're a you a young lady, and but it's
funny you live in the West Village. The West Village
(03:15):
is where my wife lived when we got engaged. So
I and I actually lived in the West Village. Yeah,
though I live in the West Village too, so I
know the West Village very very well. I lived on
Charles Street, I lived on West tenth Street, and I
lived later on on nineteenth Street and Sixth Avenue, which
is technically not the West Village but close.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
So I know you're area very well.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
And I honestly would have been surprised to find out
that there was a Catholic church in the West Village.
Now you're telling me that it is pack So why
is this? Like, let let's explore the why a little
bit and again focusing on people under you know, under
forty is where this huge resurgence seems to be happening.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
What's going on?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, so I think, I mean a lot of this
leads to a lot of the topics that we're talked
about in the cyclic that just came out on Monday,
Magnifica Humanitists, which talks about a lot of the issues
that are plaguing the youth. Right we have a lot
of young people who are not getting married, that are
not finding a partner and not putting a spouse. A
lot of that is, you know, not even to get
(04:16):
a job, not able to buy a house. There's a
lot of tough issues that people are facing, and there's
a lot of purpose driven issues. What's my purpose? More?
When we have AI robots and AI girlfriends and all
these sort of things that you can talk to, where
do I fit in? How do I relate to another
human being? I find community and things that are real.
(04:37):
And what I write about in my article for the
Catholic Herald is that the rigidity of the Catholic Church
is not a bug. It is a feature. It is
the reason why people are drawn to it. We don't
say that a man is a woman and a woman
is a man. We are very strict about what is
right and it doesn't change based on social norms. And
(04:58):
what I go into in the art is that a
lot of the Protestant churches throughout these sort of I
guess call them the more woke years, definitely bent the
knee to the waves of change. And they did that
because they wanted to. Probably, I think with good pen
I don't. I'm not trying to like shame Protestantism. I
think they were trying to be more welcoming and opening
(05:20):
or and welcoming to everyone. But I think in doing so,
they actually became just like the culture itself, because they
became indistinguishable from the culture itself. And what people don't
want is more of the same nonsense. They want to
hear something that is true. And that is why Catholicism
is resonating with so many people right now, because it's true.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I well the for me, by the way, and I'll
say this, and I'm curious how you view my assertion, right, Uh,
it feels to me like and I'm somebody who has
And one of the reasons I think your article struck
home with me and well, I reach out and wanted
to have you want on is I'm a relatively new dad.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Right So I got a little one year old.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
His name is Speed, and he is as cool as
his name sounds. Is a family and it's actually a
family name of his name is Speed. He's the cutest life.
Thank you, And I've got I've got an amazing wife, Carrie,
and I view myself now very much as dad, husband,
head of household, and I want a faith.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Tradiction, tradition and to create that.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
You know, spiritual structure and honestly, uh foster for each
member of my family a relationship with God and the
Church the greatest three possible. So we've started, we have
returned to the church, right. So I'm part of this wave.
I think that you write about a bit having grown up.
I mean I went to a school where you had
to have a baptismal certificate and have your priest signed
(06:48):
basically an attestation that you would attend Sunday Mass to go.
Like it was not It wasn't a Catholic. It wasn't
Georgetown University Catholic school, which I think has more atheists
and non Christian students now and anything else. It was
a real Jesuit school where you had to actually practice
the Catholic faith to be uh. This is for high
school to go. And then in college I remember going
(07:10):
and I was among the very few who would attend
Sunday services on campus, very very few students.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I remember a member of.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
The Scalia family, you know, Justice Scalia, may you rest
in peace. She was there and like there was like
a handful of us that would be at Sunday Mass.
I'm like, well, of course, Supreme Court Justice Scalia has
got family here, But there weren't that many people attending
that mass. And now I just view it as the war. Sorry,
and this is what I wanted to have you refer to.
But I just thought that was interesting back you see,
I'm passionate about this topic you wrote about when you wrote.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Such a great articles.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
That's why I wanted to It feels to me like an era,
in an era of social media, and in a time
of all of this superficiality and turning inward, there is
a bit of a cry of despair from younger people
who recognize this stuff is meaningless clicks and likes and
(07:59):
you know, and and there's stuff going on now with
everyone's trying to be the biggest and everyone wants to
make all this money, and women are setting up only
fans accounts all over that certainly here in Miami, all over.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
The place, and all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
It is godlessness. And I think people realize that's not
going to be a recipe for happiness or purpose.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
But isn't it amazing that there's something innately in the
human soul and the human condition that we know it's false.
We know when something is false, we know and is
something is phony, and that is why we are drawn
to something greater, something more divine. And that is why
specifically the Catholic Church is resonating because it is the
one true church, and people know that what is going
(08:42):
on right now with people coming back, even you know,
the new pope and sort of embracing and talking about
a lot of these topics like AI and technology, like
they resonate from it. Because when I do write in
the article as well, I was going to Mass when
people were you know, like hating on the Catholic Church.
I mean, can't ignore those Catholic Church has had scandals,
(09:03):
is very unpopular to be a like for a long time,
and I was still going to Sunday Mass, and I
had a lot of friends and people who would honestly
be shocked, like you you would think that when I
told them, like, what would you know my Sunday plans
them going to math, that they like I had chopped
at like I don't know, chop my hair off or
(09:23):
like done something really crazy a hobby that's like really antiquated.
I was just going to Mass, and they thought that
was so crazy, and I thought it was crazy that
you don't even spend one hour a week on your soul,
but you go to like a yoga class five times
a week and that's an hour, So you know, where
are you spending your time? And I thought that was
the least I could do as a Catholic was to
(09:44):
go to my math mass every week and just to
see a lot of these people kind of come around
to Catholicism or like I even have Jewish friends reaching
out me that are interested in Catholicism. I've you know,
helped a lot of people get into OCIA programs and
things like that. It's just so strange. I'm very happy
about it. I almost don't believe as like how much
(10:08):
the Holy Spirit is working right now in the world
it is. It is really crazy. It also just shows
how much of the Western world really believes in Catholicism
and it really has like a lot of strength here.
So I think, I think all of that is really crazy.
My original title for this article was The Prodigal Son
turns to New York. They did change it, not which
(10:28):
I thought was a better title. But you know, the
Herald does what the Harold wants to do with the title,
and I think really our job as Catholics and as
people who have been here a long time is not
to look with on others with suspicion, but to look
at them and welcome them back, just as the father
welcomed the son back in, and so we need to
(10:48):
have sort of that approach as the converts and the
new Catholics.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
I want to speak to you about AI and just
more broadly actually AI. So I know you work in
the tech space and do colms there, and I have
a lot of a lot of thoughts that I want
to throw your way.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I want to hear what you think and where you
see all this going.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
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(11:37):
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eight four Birch Gold Group. All right back with Aubrey
strobul here. Great article in The Catholic Herald. She wrote
about why it's no longer uncool to be a Catholic
in New York, or that's at least the title. And
let's speak about AI for a second, because I got
asked a question.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
This is funny.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I'm gonna ask you the question that I was asking
a podcast earlier this week. And I don't want to
shade your thinking at all in this one. But it
was a well, very well known political analyst, because that's generally.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
What I do. And he asked me, he said on
his show.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Are you are you excited or worried about AI? And
it was like a very broad base where are you
on this? You do tech comms communications in the tech world.
Do you follow tech closely? Are you excited or worried
about AI?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I'm excited about AI as somebody who works in tech
have always been very early to new technologies. But that
doesn't mean that I think AI is good. And I
think in the encyclical Poclio address that no technology it
can be ever neutral because of investors and people who
regulate it. It takes on the characteristics of those people who
are heavily involved in that. So but that's everything, right,
(12:51):
you know, everything kind of has stalers and key people
that are in control of different industries. So while I, well,
I am excited about it, I do think that replacing
it for a human being is wrong, and I think
we've already seen that. Like I think a lot of
the I don't know a lot about the only fans
side of things, but I I know that, like there's
(13:13):
a lot of people that just follow we fake only fans.
People like these aren't even real women. And I'm not
saying that like you should be following the real woman.
That's not my argument here. I'm just saying that the
fact that we have people having these relationships with these
artificial people has gotten us so far in the wrong direction.
I think the pornography situation with men in this country
(13:36):
and women I'm sure has gotten us. So, you know,
far adrift we are. I have these relationships with digital creatures,
but that's not new with AI. That is that is
a problem of loneliness and people need to like remove
these toxic behavioral patterns that have obviously been built by
the Internet. But like, do we call the internet bad? No,
(13:58):
we have personal agencies. So it's like, what do you
do with the tools that are given to you, given
to us? That is how we understand choices that we're making,
and it's on us.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Do you feel like increasingly you know that this is
all actually ties together with the rise in younger people
going to church. I mean there's also there's an inherent
sense of community from the physical proximity of being at
a worship service with other people. And I do think
(14:28):
maybe people crave more even though there's all this constant
connectivity online and you know, with being able to text
and all this other stuff. But put aside, I mean
you're talking about the only fans stuff, which I'm in Miami,
which is unfortunately the epicenter for that.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
It's like the capital of you know only fans.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Creators in the country, but the just general lack of
real contact with other human beings that a lot of
people have, which AI cannot make up for, right, I mean,
I think that's part of the part of the problem
here is that if you're having a conversation with anyone
who's actually an AI, and this is becoming let's just say,
your friend, never mind any kind of like an object
(15:04):
of desire, which is bizarre on so many levels, but
you're not actually having any contact with a human being.
And I think that there's an inherent emptiness in that.
And so again religious faith and religious worship is an
antidote to this.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Yeah, And I think somewhere quietly we know that we
know that the AI is going to respond in a
positive way because it's a business and it makes money
off of us. Chat to bt claude, it's it's not
a real thing. And I think the sad part about
these relationships with AI is that it's a one way street.
You're you know, you're mutually benefiting from this, but you
(15:43):
don't have to work on the things that are really hard,
Like what's really hard loving your family? Isn't that like
one of the hardest things, dealing with friends, dealing with coworkers,
where it's difficult. If we try to and pop Leo
talk about this, if we try to take try to
take all the struggle out of life, that is not
going to get us to a better place. We think that,
like we can automate things away, we cannot automate those away.
(16:05):
The struggle is the path. It's always been the path.
It is always going to be the path. Struggle and
a lot of the you know, pain that was suffered
on the cross. That is the highest form of love
and you cannot have that love without that pain and struggle.
And so we've gotten back to that truth Pee We
really people really want that And yeah, sure maybe people
(16:30):
are going to be lost in talking to AI chatbots,
but I mean hopefully they can come back and realize
that it's it's not a fulfilling relationship.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Well, what are the Because we got into I just
wanted your thoughts on this part. We got into some
of the dark side of AI there. So in response
to the question, we went in that direction. What are
you what are you most enthusiastic about as just progress
for humanity, as as a tool of of of helping people.
(16:59):
I mean a tool of goodness if you will, from AI, Like,
what are the areas of it where you think this
is going to make such a hugely positive impact.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Well, healthcare for one, I think a lot of people
in this country can't get a doctor's appointment, right, So
it's like I have questions, I can query an AI
and they're probably going to give me what the doctor
would give me if I went in and just got
a check up. And I can get those answers pretty immediately,
So it's helpful for people in that way. I need
to synthesize this for work and I can maybe do
(17:31):
more work or do have more time with my kids.
That's probably a better use time because I get my
work done sooner and I'm not buried with having to
do these more menial tasks. Like speeding things up is
not inherently bad if it's you know, you're using the
rest of your time for something good, and so like
it's fine, it's fine that it can do those things.
I also do think that we need to be using
(17:54):
our brains and like making sure that we're actually because
it's a muscle, right, the brain is a muscle. We
need to make sure it works. It's great for some things,
it's not great for everything. But it's hard for people
to regulate. We have a society that is not high agency.
We want people to tell us what to do. We
want to blame other people. If you are using a
tool like AI, you are responsible for how you use it.
(18:16):
And I think a lot of people don't like to
hear that because they don't like personal accountability.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yes, oh, absolutely, lack of accountability. I think narcissism and
lack of accountability are the two twin pillars of like
destruction of our entire civilization.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
But that's and like, well, it's like I can raise
my hand right now and tell you, like, should I
be querying AI to make myself a grocery list? Like
probably not, like I can. I could probably remember that
I need bananas and like more eggs. But like, so
I'm using it perfectly? Am I perfect user of AI?
Probably not? But sometimes you're just like I need to
(18:51):
get this thing done. But we should be trying to
use a trying to use our brains because a lot
of cognitive function your years. Like I had a grandmother
who just asked in January she had dementia. A lot
of things about keeping your mind working. And I'm sure this,
if not now, in the future a study will come
out about how AI is probably making dementia like kind
(19:12):
of like earlier onset because you need to be using
your brain like you will. It's gonna hurt society if
you are not using your brain, so you need to
be doing things on your own.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
You use it or lose it, as they say for
a long time. That's exactly our sponsor here to close
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(20:06):
Aubrey Strubble fantastic article in the Catholic Health And where
should people go to find your stuff or to follow
your commentary? Social media your main place? Well, all things
come on.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Twitter. Twitter is like my home. But I now I'm
growing on Instagram, doing a lot of Catholic videos. I
wasn't really a big Instagram person before, but I guess
that's where people are, so you can follow me there.
I'm at Aubrey's struggle on all the platforms.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Wonderful. Thank you,
Host
Buck Sexton
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