Catholic encouragement for ordinary family life.
Catholic Women Now brings Catholic teaching into ordinary household questions, from fertility and motherhood to grandparents, body image, conversion, and prayer. Its tone is friendly and devotional, with guests often carrying long, personal stories while the studio voices guide the conversation gently.
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Catholic Women Now is a faith-and-family conversation show built around Catholic teaching, lived testimony, and the ordinary questions that gather around women's lives. It has the feel of local Catholic radio in the best sense: familiar voices, warm welcomes, direct questions, and room for guests to speak at length. Prayer is not decoration here. Episodes often begin with a Hail Mary and return to spiritual application before the close. Recent conversations show the show's range. Deborah Colleton speaks about restorative reproductive care, IVF, embryo dignity, and the moral weight of fertility medicine. Denise Jelinek brings Catholic language to weight loss, body image, and learning to cherish God's goodness amid stress. Dr. Ray Garandi joins a discussion of grandparenting and the family dynamics that come with a new generation. Scott Prickett offers a man's account of prayer, business pressure, trials, and learning to trust God when control slips away. Aaron Gonzalez tells a conversion story shaped by Protestant ministry, Catholic books, marriage, and patient discernment. Sterling Jakewith talks about overwhelmed motherhood, prayer, miscarriage, anxiety, and finding calm in daily chaos. The show does not rush these stories. It lets testimony breathe, then draws a practical spiritual point from it. The tone is earnest and pastoral, with occasional light banter before the conversation returns to prayer, family, or Catholic doctrine. It is not detached analysis. It is Catholic encouragement with specific concerns: marriage, children, fertility, saints, suffering, friendship, and the habits that keep faith alive. Some episodes are gentle enough for broad listening. Others are clearly framed as better for adult ears because they discuss reproductive ethics and pregnancy loss. The show's strength is its combination of intimacy and conviction. It treats faith as a daily practice, not an abstract identity.
Made for: This show is for Catholic women and family-minded listeners who want faith applied to marriage, parenting, fertility, prayer, body image, and vocation. It also suits listeners who appreciate testimonial Catholic radio with a warm, devotional pace.
What sets it apart: Catholic Women Now stands apart through its blend of friendly studio rapport, prayerful framing, and guest-led testimony. It brings morally serious Catholic topics into plain, personal conversation without losing warmth.
In an easy going conversational style, hosts Julie Nelson and Chris Magruder speak to what is on the hearts and minds of women as if sharing coffee with friends in a coffee shop. We cover all things in light of the Catholic faith: femininity, faith, family, marriage, dirty diapers, teenagers, empty nesting. Grab your cuppa coffee and join us!
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Guest testimony and practical questions connect Catholic prayer and formation to the pressures of family life, health, work, and caregiving.
Julie Nelson and Chris Magruder bring Catholic belief into guest conversations that begin and end with prayer. Their questions keep faith close to lived experience, inviting people to describe conversion, intentional prayer, motherhood, health, aging, and care for people with…
Julie Nelson and Chris Magruder say a Hail Mary before your coffee-table questions get personal.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A warm Catholic testimony about intentional prayer, financial pressure, and renewed trust in a difficult season.
Scott Prickett frames prayer as a practice that became more deliberate during a hard season of business strain, financial pressure, and a clear reminder to keep God first. He talks about gratitude, specific requests, and trusting a plan he could not yet see.
A warm, patient conversion story about marriage, prayer, and the search for a church home.
Aaron Gonzalez's departure from Protestant ministry gives this episode a steady center, but the conversation is really about what discernment looks like inside a marriage.
A candid Catholic conversation about conversion, maternal overwhelm, and seeking calm through prayer.
Catholic Women Now shapes Sterling Jakewith's story of conversion, motherhood, and prayer into a steady, emotionally grounded conversation. She recalls learning to pray and listen during a brief Protestant season, sensing a call to marry a Catholic man, and later carrying the…
Zach Schneider's account of dementia care finds dignity in patient presence and the everyday work of keeping someone safe.
The episode sets the dignity of aging alongside the everyday realities of care, following Zach Schneider as he describes Seniors Helping Seniors and its work with people living with Alzheimer's or dementia.
A Catholic conversation about body image, health, prayer, and a gentler inner voice.
Body image receives a distinctly Catholic reading in this Coffee Table conversation with Florencia Moynihan, presented as a Catholic nutritionist.
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Catholic nutritionist Florencia Moynihan discusses her new book 'Made Good: Overcoming the Lies Women Believe About Their Bodies' on Catholic Women Now.
Hosts Julie Nelson and Chris McGruder welcome Zach Schneider, owner of Seniors Helping Seniors, on Catholic Women Now.
Julie Nelson and Chris Magruder discuss the liturgical season of Advent, focusing on hope and peace, and share their reflections on truth, beauty, and goodness.
Debra Colloton discusses the scientific fact that the egg chooses the sperm at conception, highlighting individual human dignity.
A Catholic radio show discusses the hidden costs of IVF and the alternative of restorative reproductive medicine with guest Deborah Colloton.
Catholic Women Now hosts discuss restorative reproductive medicine versus IVF with guest Deborah Colloton, exploring church teachings on fertility treatments.
Julie Nelson and Diane Reinhart introduce a Catholic weight loss coach, Denise Jelinek, who will discuss her faith-based weight loss program and the societal pressures on women's body image.
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On this encore episode of Catholic Women Now from Iowa Catholic Radio, hosts Julie Nelson and Chris Magruder interview Scott Prickett, a Catholic convert since 2009, businessman, father of four, and board member of Iowa Catholic Radio, about his prayer life.
Aaron Gonzalez, a former Protestant pastor who led a Christian Reformed Church congregation in central Iowa for 15 years, describes his conversion to Catholicism at the 2025 Easter Vigil on Catholic Women Now with hosts Julie Nelson and Chris McGruder.
Sterling Jakewith says God’s voice is “soothing,” “comforting,” and “grounding,” while fear “rushes us.”
A Catholic podcast episode introducing Florencia Moynihan and her book 'Made Good' about overcoming lies women believe about their bodies.
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Jon Leonetti joins Catholic Women Now to discuss saints like Padre Pio and St.
Julie Nelson and Chris Magruder discuss the beauty of Iowa and the spiritual richness of gardening and canning tomatoes.