Todd Komarnicki is a natural raconteur. He knows well how to distill vast amounts of story information into a resonant format that, well, works. This skill has been honed over many years and helps explain why he’s a sought after screenwriter and movie producer (start the list with Elf, Resistance, and Meet Dave).

His latest film is Sully, directed Clint Eastwood, starring Tom Hanks about Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, the “miracle on the Hudson” pilot. Another of his films it the post-production phase is The Madman and the Professor, starring Mel Gibson and Sean Penn, which Todd co-wrote.

In this frank (and fun!) interview, you’ll find out what being an artist who is also Christian in Hollywood can mean, and learn some of the principal elements that go into a great story. Todd has also crafted a script about the making of It’s a Wonderful Life, centered on the long-suffering efforts of Philip Van Doren Stern to get someone to like his Christmas card letter – which a guy called Frank Capra did, to say the very least. You heard it here first, folks. Can’t wait.

Grab some popcorn. Todd’s endlessly interesting, insightful, and has great taste in ties.

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I’ve been watching and listening to Andrew Klavan for a few years and always admired his communication chops. He has something to say and he says it well. Two of his novels have been adapted into movies, True Crime, directed by Clint Eastwood, and Don’t Say a Word starring Michael Douglas.

In the interview you’ll find out how and why he came to Christ; the unique challenges faced by Jewish finders of Christian truth; and why commentary on culture is more important today than ever.

Few writers also speak very well. Mr. Klavan is one of those few. Enjoy his autobiography The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes To Faith In Christ, as I did.

There’s manhood, and then there’s Catholic manhood. How does the Catholic adjective condition the manhood subject? In this free-wheeling interview with the creators of the popular new podcast, The Catholic Man Show, co-hosts Adam Minihan and David Niles explore the seldom navigated waters of the ways in which the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Faith brings virtue and courage to men today.

The feminist movement was in some ways a reaction to the fact that me were getting an F in manhood. Unfortunately, the proverbial baby was chucked with the famous bathwater and men today need to hear the differenced between true authority and false authoritarianism -- which is the difference between servant leadership and tyranny.

Adam and David are real mensches, young dads, and they play well off one another. I know you’ll enjoy this exchange of manly ideas and ideals.

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Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia speaks with the same direct, guile-free way he writes. As a pastor of a large American city, he knows his audience: They are largely post-Christian, cynical about “organized religion,” and don’t abide clichés and easy grace.

Archbishop Chaput (pronounced SHAP-you) is also a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi tribe, the second Native American to be consecrated a bishop in the United States and the first Native American archbishop. You might say he comes from a non-immigrant family.

I spoke with him about his latest book, Strangers in a Stranger Land: Living the Catholic Faith In a Post-Christian World, a sort of follow-up to the thesis he laid out seven years ago in First Things journal essay, “Catholics and the Next America.” That America is here. Ignited Catholics eager to spread the gospel…not so much.

Chaput has been called “alarmist” by the usual suspects in the lamescream media. Christian realist is more accurate. As Christian leaders go, His Excellency is hard-headed and soft-hearted, not the other way around. You’ll find this a conversation worth sharing after you enjoy it yourself.

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If you’re like me, you enjoy complaining about bad church music. Whether it’s the stuff the Glory and Praise collections, or the St. Louis Jesuits, or the Marty Haugen/David Haas Monster – most of what passes for hymns of Christian worship at suburban parishes today is dreck: saccharine, sentimental, and syrupy, not to mention mostly unsingable (unless you have vast experience belting out Broadway power ballads).

Well, there is good news, and Father George Rutler announces it in his new book The Stories of Hymns: The History Behind 100 of Christianity’s Greatest Hymns  

In this interview, the wry and erudite Father Rutler dives into the stories behind the songs that generations of Christians have loved to sing – yes, including male Christians. As the prophet Joni Mitchell thus spake, “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.”

If you’re a junky for good “story behind the story” content, you’ll love this conversation about the great hymns of the past, which may yet, please God, see a return to your local parish.

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