Pico Iyer, essayist and author of numerous books including “The Half Known Life:In Search of Paradise ” and most recently “Aflame: Learning from Silence,” reflects on the death of Pope Francis and highlights the extraordinary impact Pope Francis’s life had, despite Iyer’s non-Christian faith. Pope Francis’s humility, simplicity, and actions, Iyer says, which exemplified his teachings had and continue to have a great impacted over Iyer’s spiritual life. Paul Elie, religion scholar with the Berkley Center at Georgetown University, and author of “The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s” shares his first hand impressions of meeting Pope Francis and particularly how humble and unpretentious the Pope was. Elie says some of Pope Francis’s early experiences growing up in Argentina shaped his more progressive world views and reflects on the legacy that Pope Francis leaves behind on the world and on the Catholic Church.

Guests:

Travel writer and author of Aflame: Learning from Silence, The Art of Stillness : Adventures in Going Nowhere, and, Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells, “The Half Known Life:In Search of Paradise ”

Paul Elie

Senior Fellow with the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, and author of “The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s” May 27, 2025

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“He showed us what simplicity could offer:” Pico Iyer and Paul Elie remember Pope Francis