Suzanne Iovaldi

We are not here for ourselves. Creator of @whatifstl

[James Martin, SJ @JamesMartinSJ]

For Jesus, sin is often a failure to bother to love. As I mentioned in the podcast with Hasan Minhaj, this insight is from the moral theologian James Keenan, SJ.

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

“Dear migrants, before I say any other word to you, I want to bow before your dignity.

“You are not numbers or case files.

“You are people — with a family and a home left behind, with dreams that no one has the right to scorn.” — Pope Leo XIV

[The Associated Press @AP]

Spanish lawmakers gave Pope Leo XIV a standing ovation after he called for respect for migrants’ rights and international law in a historic address to parliament that signaled a new level of acceptance of the Catholic Church in the overwhelmingly secular country.

[Adam Grant @AdamMGrant]

An easy way to get unstuck is to get up and take a walk.

We generate more creative ideas during and after walking outdoors—and even on a treadmill facing a blank wall.

Divergent thinking rarely happens when we're tethered to a desk. Moving our bodies frees our minds.

[Suzanne Iovaldi @suziovaldi]

If Congress doesn’t restore funding for local public media stations, communities across the country will lose local stations, programs and services they count on. #RisingforLocalStations https://t.co/Fy86hpQ7bl

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas

[James Martin, SJ @JamesMartinSJ]

Pope Leo XIV: "Among these ideologies, I consider particularly insidious the one that suggests that every person must earn or justify his or her own worth, to the point of attributing greater value to those who are more efficient or effective. From this perspective, persons end up being reduced to a means of achieving results, a resource to be used and exploited, and are no longer recognized as a proper end in themselves who should never be instrumentalized. The value of persons, however, does not depend on what they achieve or produce. There are rights that apply to everyone simply by virtue of being human, and no human power can legitimately deny or arbitrarily limit them." #MagnificaHumanitas

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

There is clear scientific evidence that the people you surround yourself with determine your outcomes.

The Pygmalion Effect is the name of the behavioral phenomenon where we rise to the level of expectations of those around us.

So, if you surround yourself with people who push you to think bigger, who believe you are capable of more, you will rise to the level of those expectations.

But conversely, if you surround yourself with people who tell you to be realistic, who belittle your ambitions, you will fall to the level of those expectations.

Be deliberate about the people to whom you gift your precious time, energy, and attention. Your environment determines your outcomes.

Choose wisely.

[Suzanne Iovaldi @suziovaldi]

“A faith that cannot say no to a golden calf is not Catholic.”

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

NEW: Last month, Pope Leo XIV said, “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain.”

Two weeks later, a 22-foot golden Trump was blessed by MAGA evangelical leaders at Doral.

Here’s the full story. https://t.co/UKwsgxAQHx

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

Life advice nobody told you: Always default to praise of people who aren't in the room. The way you talk about someone who isn't in the room is one of the loudest signals about the energy you carry. An observation about the most impressive, magnetic people I've been around: They never speak badly about people who aren't there. They never use underhanded or discrediting comments. They glow about them, or they say nothing. If everyone is speaking negatively about someone, it's perfectly reasonable to opt out and say nothing. It shifts the entire power balance of the conversation in your favor. It shows a level of stoic awareness and calm that stands out. We all silently catalogue how others speak about people who aren't in the room, because we know that we may be the topic of that conversation as soon as we leave. Those who default to praise command the room and silently set a standard of safety that everyone else can feed off of.

[David Fahrenthold @Fahrenthold]

The Trump administration gave a secret, no-bid contract to the firm building the WH ballroom -- after inflating its value 3X. This time, the government pays, not private donors.

https://t.co/k7bZdeSPMq

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

The worst mistakes in life are made when you try to do fast what’s meant to be done slow. Real, durable things take a long time to build. Careers. Businesses. Relationships. Health. No hacks or shortcuts. The long way is the right way.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs. Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples.

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

Nobody tells you this: Ignore your mood. It doesn't matter whether you want to do the thing. It matters that you said you'd do it. The world belongs to the people who show up and do what they said they'd do. Reliability is the key to life. Just keep showing up.

[Suzanne Iovaldi @suziovaldi]

“Institutions need to be reformed, not destroyed; governing well requires skill and careful attention to detail rather than leaders acting on impulse and ignorance; and character and mental stability matter perhaps most of all.”

https://t.co/CPhSvWByBJ

[The Sting @TheStingisBack]

All the President’s Men turns 50 today.

This famous “six‑minute shot” is a masterclass in phone acting and pure technical nerve.

Director Alan J. Pakula and cinematographer Gordon Willis pull off a single, unbroken slow zoom: from a wide, humming newsroom to a tight close-up on Redford. No cuts. No safety net. Tension builds in real time.

Redford carries it with typical quiet confidence. Six minutes of note-taking and talking into a phone, no flashy “Oscar clip.” He even flubs a name (“McGregor” for “Dahlberg”), corrects himself naturally, and Pakula keeps it because it feels authentic.

The background is part of the story. As Woodward hones in on his phone call, everyone behind him huddles around a TV watching Senator Tom Eagleton resign. The contrast is deliberate: they chase the “obvious” headline, while the camera drifts past them to Woodward, and the real story.

To hold Redford and the busy background in focus early on, they used a split‑diopter lens, then had to ease it out as the camera moves in. A technical tightrope. The timing of both actor and cinematographer is spot on.

As Woodward closes in on the truth, the world literally falls away: the newsroom blurs, the noise fades, and we lock into his obsession. It’s one of cinema’s great moments: Redford doing almost nothing—and somehow everything at the same time.

What makes this shot brilliant is the contrast it carves between Redford and the newsroom around him. The visual language does the talking: he’s locked in, disciplined, driven, all focus and fire. He stands apart because the work matters more than anything else.

[NASA @NASA]

The Artemis II crew had the rare chance to see a solar eclipse from space. 🚀🌘☀️

This video stitches together views from Orion's solar array wing cameras throughout the eclipse, showing the Sun as it disappears behind the Moon, revealing a glowing halo around the lunar disk.

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

Exclusive: The acting director of the CDC has delayed publication of a report showing the covid-19 vaccine cut the likelihood of ER visits and hospitalizations for healthy adults last winter by about half, according to two scientists. https://t.co/p1zapRIpxj

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

One of the saddest things about success is that it quickly reveals how few people actually wanted to see you succeed.

I think the reason behind it is clear:

It's very hard to be genuinely happy for their success if you don't feel like you're in a good place.

You have to be really secure in your own life in order to be truly supportive of someone else's success.

And the reality is that very few people are.

So when you start achieving something and winning in some way, it just reveals that insecurity in a lot of other people. They can't just be nice about it and be truly supportive. They need to make the subtle, underhanded remarks behind your back or give the fake compliments to your face.

When someone I know wins, whether I'm friends with them or not, I try to be really incredibly supportive of all those things because I know how hard it is to achieve that stuff and it's so incredible to me.

But the only reason I really feel like I can do that is because I'm secure in my own life and success now.

I also know there was a time in my journey when I wasn't, and when it felt much harder to be truly, genuinely happy for others. So I'm also not judgmental of it, but it is interesting to experience on the other side.

Just something I've been thinking about and wanted to share, as I imagine it's something others have felt in their own life.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

There is no human experience that God does not redeem. When lived in union with the passion of the Lord, even suffering can become a path to holiness. The grace that converts and transforms life strengthens us in every trial. It does not point us towards a distant ideal, but towards the encounter with God, who became man out of love. #GeneralAudience #LumenGentium