NPR's Book of the Day: “Convent Wisdom — How Renaissance-Era Nuns Can Help Us Today”

Episode Date: December 1, 2025
Host: Andrew Limbong (intro) / Asia Roscoe (interview)
Guests: Ana Gariga & Carmen Urbita, co-authors of Convent Wisdom

Episode Overview

This episode explores the newly released book Convent Wisdom by Ana Gariga and Carmen Urbita, which draws surprising life lessons from the rarely-heard voices of 16th and 17th-century nuns. The conversation delves into how these historical women’s writings deliver enduring advice on everything from assertive self-expression (including writing better emails) to personal self-discovery and community relationships, revealing the often overlooked inner lives and agency of women in Renaissance convents.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Renaissance-Era Nuns? The Origins of Fascination

• Ana Gariga shares that her deep dive into nuns’ writings began during her doctoral work in Spain, where nun-authored texts presented the only available women’s perspective in early modern literature.
  • “I was truly fascinated by the way all these women were able to revolt and to write.” — Ana Gariga [02:13]
• Carmen Urbita says her entry point was reading the autobiography of a demon-possessed nun, Jean Desange, which flipped cinematic exorcism tropes on their head.
  • “She talked about possession in her own terms...how these demons had to do with her own personality and her own traits.” — Carmen Urbita [03:08]

2. Relevance of Convent Lives to Modern Struggles

• Urbita explains that convents were, in many ways, rare spaces that allowed women to live outside the expectations of marriage, giving them time and agency to write, reflect, and form close bonds.
• The book's project is framed as recovering this “female archive” to find wisdom or comfort for today’s challenges:
  • “Maybe we'll find some answers or at least a little bit of peace for the present.” — Carmen Urbita [04:15]

3. Practical Wisdom: Assertive Communication from Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

• The authors adapt strategies from 17th-century Mexican nun and scholar Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz on navigating power hierarchies and self-assertion in writing:
  • Learned the “sandwich technique” for assertive but polite communication (compliment → humility → ask for what you want → compliment again):
    • “You say something that it's going to make your reader feel great, and then you say something terrible about yourself because you're so humble. And then...you say what you really want to say, but in a very subtle way. And then you finish up with…being really laudatory.” — Carmen Urbita [05:36]
  • Notably, Sor Juana often signed her letters, “Yo, la peor de todas” (“I, the worst of all”), as a rhetorical move. [05:57]

4. Community, Rivalry, and Personal Growth

• The authors’ own relationship evolved while researching the nuns, reflecting lessons on female community and conflict:
  • Initially suspicious and competitive (“I thought, we're gonna hate each other”), they realized convent life meant learning to coexist and resolve differences.
    • “Something that we learned from our nuns is that...it made it harder to just get people out of their lives at the first difficulty. So we learned something of value there.” — Carmen Urbita [06:29]

5. Unexpected Personal Revelations

• Urbita recounts how reading about nuns’ struggles with identity helped her come to terms with her sexuality, a journey that paralleled the emotional self-exploration found in convent writings:
  • “It was truly therapeutic...I was married, then I got divorced...and I came out of the closet...I had to face the truth.” — Carmen Urbita [07:06]
• Gariga notes the irony and power of Renaissance nuns influencing modern sexuality and self-knowledge:
  • “It’s very funny to think that early modern nuns held out. Yes.” — Ana Gariga [07:23]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Sor Juana’s letter-writing tactics:
  • “It’s like the sandwich technique...And then you finish up with, again, you're being really laudatory.” — Carmen Urbita [05:36]
• On female camaraderie in convents and academia:
  • “We were doing exactly the same thing.” / “I didn't wanna tell that, but it's so much.” — Carmen Urbita & Ana Gariga [06:27]
• On the enduring impact of lost women’s voices:
  • “We've tried to recover this female archive and continue to do what they were doing.” — Carmen Urbita [04:14]

Important Timestamps

• 01:18 — Asia Roscoe sets the stage: Why look to convents for guidance on modern anxiety
• 02:13 — Gariga and Urbita explain their scholarly and personal connections to nuns’ writings
• 04:37 — Insight on Sor Juana's rhetorical advice for assertive communications
• 06:04 — How academic rivalry was transformed into collaboration through lessons learned from nuns
• 07:06 — Urbita describes how researching nuns helped her personal journey of self-acceptance

Tone & Style

The conversation is warm, approachable, and laced with scholarly enthusiasm. Both authors enjoy candidly discussing the unexpected modernity of Renaissance nuns—their resilience, intellect, and humor—as well as their own vulnerabilities as researchers and women.

Summary

Convent Wisdom demonstrates that the world of 16th- and 17th-century nuns offers more than historical curiosity—it gives blueprints for resilience, assertiveness, community, and even self-discovery. Ana Gariga and Carmen Urbita, with both academic rigor and personal candor, bring these lost voices into today's world. Whether you want to write a better email, mend a friendship, or explore your authentic self, their book argues: listen to the nuns.

Listen to the episode for more details, humor, and inspiration from history’s “original self-help” writers.