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Lisa M. Hendey interviews Alex Dee of Family Rosary about his new Catholic podcast, The Lampstand.

Today, I continue my ongoing series of conversations with awesome storytellers creating fantastic projects as I’m joined by Alex Dee, the content creator for Family Rosary and the host of the new podcast The Lampstand. I’m blessed to call Alex a colleague and friend and to be a listener to his great new show.

In our conversation, Alex hits on why podcasts are such an impactful way of reaching young people and families. I hope you enjoy this conversation and that it helps you realize that our sharing of small gifts, actions, and prayers does matter!

 

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Alex Dee is a husband, father, and a jack of many creative trades. Currently, he lives in Boston and works as the content creator and manager of Family Rosary. He and his wife Melissa welcomed their first son, James a year and a half ago and are experiencing first-hand the joy and chaos of parenthood.

“Family become what you are.” (Saint John Paul II) The Lampstand podcast illuminates the vocation of the family and equips families to answer God’s call to holiness. Produced by Family Rosary, the ministry founded in 1942 by Father Patrick Peyton, C.S.C. Pope Francis declared Father Peyton “Venerable”—a step on the road to being declared a saint—in 2018.  

Alex, congratulations on the launch of the new podcast The Lampstand: God’s Vision For The Family. Please introduce yourself to our readers and share your role at Family Rosary.

First off, I just want to thank you, Lisa, for allowing me to reach out to your audience; it really is such a gift for this new project. I am Family Rosary’s content creator and manager; I directly oversee and foster the development of new video content as well as a variety of other areas of content creation. This past year, since I came on board, my team and I have had many hours of discussions and prayer investigating where the Holy Spirit is guiding us and what content we need to help produce. The podcast was one of the newer areas of content creation that we identified as a space the ministry needed to enter, and thanks to a lot of work and prayers here we are today.

What was the motivation to start a podcast?

Our motivation was simple: we need to reach younger audiences. We are really focused on helping young Catholic families hold on to their faith and begin a family devotion to the Rosary. Most of our content has been focused on writing blogs (and, more recently, creating videos), but today so many of my peers listen to and search for high-quality podcasts.

What are your primary goals for the podcast?

Our mission really revolves around strengthening families’ spiritual lives and inspiring them to pray the Rosary together. However, we have really come to realize that in order to get people to pray the Rosary, we have to meet and equip young families with the faith. We want families to see the light of Christ, His Truth and beauty so they understand how praying the Rosary is a part of the bigger picture of the Church and Catholicism as a whole.

 

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Podcasting opens a proxy conversation of sorts to help people gain perspectives in many different areas of importance in their lives. #catholicmom

You’re already a few episodes in to the show. What has surprised you about the episodes you’ve done so far?

The most surprising thing really is the way that spirit-led conversations can organically go where they need to go. Acting as the podcast’s producer and host can have some stressful moments in pre-production with self-conscious questions like “Is this going to make sense to people?” or “Will I sound dumb asking this question?” But every time those moments arise in the podcast that I was busy trying to plan out, the Holy Spirit has an amazing way of guiding the conversation along.

Why is podcasting such an effective tool for reaching young families with encouragement and information?

Listening to meaningful conversations is naturally interesting and engaging. Podcasts also fit perfectly into what many young people have grown accustomed to with regards to media consumption. Podcasts are instantaneous and you can easily take a break and come back to an episode where you left off. I believe many young people who are starting families today are hungry for deep conversations about truth, love, sexuality, and how the Church has something to say in of all these areas. However, many are scared to enter directly into some of these conversations due to some current social/cultural pressures. Podcasting opens a proxy conversation of sorts to help people gain perspectives in many different areas of importance in their lives.

 


Copyright 2022 Lisa M. Hendey
Images: (top) Canva Pro; all others courtesy of Alex Dee