What Hangs Straight on a Crooked Wall: Chesterton's Marian Poetry
Uncommon Sense
In honor of May, Our Lady's Month, Joe and Gretalyn each bring a favorite Marian poem by G.K. Chesterton to share with the other—without any advance coordination. Gretalyn reads "Images," a meditation on six titles from the Litany of Loreto drawn from Chesterton's 1926 collection Queen of the Seven Swords, while Joe shares "Crooked," a lesser-known 1933 poem from GK's Weekly that captures a more introspective, mature side of his Marian devotion. Together they explore what these poems reveal about Chesterton's lifelong love for Our Lady, the apologetics of Marian devotion, and the paradox at...
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Celebrating Chesterton's Vision of Sanity at the 2026 Conference
Uncommon Sense
Gretelyn Darkey and Joe Grabowski invite listeners to join them this June at the 2026 Chesterton Society Conference in Ave Maria, Florida. This year's conference celebrates three remarkable centenaries: the publication of The Outline of Sanity, The Queen of Seven Swords, and Frances Chesterton's conversion to the Catholic Church. With speakers including Dale Ahlquist and Nancy Brown, the conference promises talks on distributism, sanity in an insane world, and Frances's journey to Rome. In This Episode: The 2026 conference returns to a university campus setting with dorm-style lodging at...
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The Man Who Carried a Swordstick and a Pen: Holly Gyger Lee on Writing Chesterton for Young Readers
Uncommon Sense
GK Chesterton was many things—journalist, philosopher, poet, and debater—but what does his life look like through the eyes of a young reader? In this episode, Joe sits down with Holly Gyger Lee, author of the new young reader's biography The Man Who Carried a Swordstick and a Pen, to explore what drew her to Chesterton, what surprised her in the research, and why a boy who didn't fit the classroom mold became one of the most prolific writers in the English language. From Charlotte Mason's "living books" philosophy to Chesterton's theology of play, this conversation is a delight for...
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What Bilbo and Boethius (and Chesterton) Teach Us About Adventure
Uncommon Sense
What does it mean to be inconvenienced? Chesterton has a paradoxical answer. Joe Grabowski and Grettelyn Darkey unpack one of Chesterton's most beloved aphorisms — "An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered; an inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered" — tracing it from its original context in a real 1906 London flood, through the essay "On Running After One's Hat," and all the way to Boethius, St. Lawrence, and the Christian vocation to embrace the cross. In This Episode: The original context of the quote in Chesterton's essay "On Running After One's Hat"...
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Chesterton on Almsgiving, Art, and American Idiom
Uncommon Sense
In this episode, Grettelyn Darkey and Joe Grabowski walk through three newly unearthed Chesterton essays from the latest issue of Gilbert Magazine—exploring almsgiving, portraiture, and a delightful transatlantic linguistic puzzle—and invite you to discover why the magazine is one of the best-kept secrets in Chesterton studies. In This Episode: Why Chesterton's "promiscuous charity" upends our instinct to vet the needy before giving—and what that reveals about the giver's own soul The overlooked personal dimension of almsgiving versus institutional philanthropy, and how...
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Reclaiming Joy in a Mechanical World w/ Filmmaker Nick Bash
Uncommon Sense
Joe Grabowski sits down with Nick Bash, a Biola University alum who studied filmmaking alongside the Rhetoric Honors Great Books Program, to discuss his senior thesis short film The Last Bonaparte—a loose adaptation of Chesterton's The Napoleon of Notting Hill. In This Episode: How film, as a relatively young art form, is still learning to match the depth and immersion of literature What Chesterton's Orthodoxy revealed to Nick about joy, and how that discovery drove the making of The Last Bonaparte The communal nature of filmmaking and how the process of telling a story begins to mirror...
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The Poetic Genius of G.K. Chesterton's "The Donkey"
Uncommon Sense
In this episode, Joe talks about one of Chesterton's most famous, but still too little studied, poems, "The Donkey." Learn a bit more about the poem through a New Critical based reading, consider just some of the allusions that may have shaped the poem in Chesterton's mind, and - perhaps - discover anew a great source for Lenten meditation! ##### FOLLOW US Instagram: Facebook: X: SUPPORT Consider making a donation: Visit our Shop at
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"The Ireland That We Dreamed Of"
Uncommon Sense
Happy Saint Patrick's day! In this episode, Joe talks about some of Chesterton's insights upon and sympathies with the Irish, particularly their faith and culture. Mentioned in this video: "Irish Politics and Irish Religion" by G.K. Chesterton: On Chesterton and Michael Collins: On the "Turning the Tide" report: Archbishop Eomon Martin's introduction of the report: ##### FOLLOW US Instagram: Facebook: X: SUPPORT Consider making a donation: Join the Knights of the Apostolate: Visit our Shop at
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A Thing Worth Doing is Worth Doing Badly?
Uncommon Sense
In this episode, Joe talks about a (in)famous Chesterton quotation, often misunderstood, sometimes misapplied. He digs into its origins and context(s) and shares some interesting facts about it you may not know! ##### FOLLOW US Instagram: Facebook: X: SUPPORT Consider making a donation: Visit our Shop at
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Preparing for a Patriotic Year, with G.K. Chesterton
Uncommon Sense
In this episode, Joe talks about how Chesterton can help us mark the year of America's semiquincentennial and previews some future chats about the subject that we'll be hosting on the channel. Mentioned in this video: Our Groundhog Day episode: "On Neighbors and Nations" by G.K. Chesterton: ACS Books new edition of Chesterton's "What I Saw in America": SPECIAL NOTE Join us for Lent - still time if you haven't signed up! Visit today! FOLLOW US Instagram: Facebook: X: SUPPORT Consider making a donation: Visit our Shop at
info_outlineIn this episode, Grettelyn Darkey and Joe Grabowski walk through three newly unearthed Chesterton essays from the latest issue of Gilbert Magazine—exploring almsgiving, portraiture, and a delightful transatlantic linguistic puzzle—and invite you to discover why the magazine is one of the best-kept secrets in Chesterton studies.
In This Episode:
- Why Chesterton's "promiscuous charity" upends our instinct to vet the needy before giving—and what that reveals about the giver's own soul
- The overlooked personal dimension of almsgiving versus institutional philanthropy, and how Chesterton draws on virtue ethics to expose the difference
- A debate as old as the daguerreotype: does a photograph capture truth, or does a painted portrait go deeper—and what does Chesterton mean when he says truth is a "moral state"?
- Chesterton's fondness for paradox applied to art, literature, and the limits of realism
- How a single American phrase, "rare steak," sent Chesterton on a linguistic rabbit trail through Irish immigration and transatlantic idiom in 1934
Chapters:
- 00:00: Introduction
- 00:24: Welcome & the Gilbert Read-Along Format
- 02:12: The Significance of Almsgiving
- 04:07: "On Giving Money to Beggars"—Chesterton's Humor and Opening
- 10:03: Prudence, Charity, and Getting the Monkey Off Your Back
- 14:40: Personal Giving vs. Institutional Philanthropy
- 20:49: Transitioning to "Portraits"
- 22:00: Photography vs. Portrait Painting in 1901
- 26:29: Truth in Art and Chesterton's Paradox
- 36:28: "A Query for Philologists"—Why Americans Call It "Rare"
Resources Mentioned:
- Gilbert Magazine
- What I Saw in America by G.K. Chesterton
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- Consider making a donation: https://www.chesterton.org/give/
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Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios