Ben Stone has spent his life in music, beginning at the organ as a child and building a career shaped by years of professional experience. In this episode, he reflects on his journey as a musician, the demands of working within the Church, and the ongoing challenge of balancing craft, vocation, and personal life. A conversation about longevity, discipline, and what it means to make music a lifelong practice.

Ike Ndolo is a musician who speaks openly about the realities of creating and performing music within the Catholic Church. In this episode, he reflects on the tension between being a performer and leading worship, the challenges artists face in church spaces, and how his experience as a Black man has shaped his relationship with faith and vocation. A conversation about music, identity, and what it takes to remain faithful to the work.

Ike Ndolo Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7GybhnbNqgYBkIIU7zE90W?si=csP_XnGcSnui6NlHzOwVTg

This season of CIOT centers on musicians and their work. Guests from a range of musical paths share how they understand their craft, how they lead worship, and how their approaches differ. A season about sound, practice, and faith lived through music.

Season three of CIOT brought conversations shaped by real questions, real stories, and ordinary encounters with grace. In this final episode, Fr Jack reflects on the themes, voices, and moments that defined the season and what they revealed about faith lived in everyday life.

Valerie Stivers built her career in cultural journalism, beginning as an intern at a major fashion magazine and later working as a sex columnist for the Moscow based alternative paper The Exile, editing Time Out New York, and writing as a freelance journalist for numerous publications. Raised in an atheist family, she did not arrive at faith through argument or study. Instead, a personal experience led her directly and without hesitation into the Catholic Church. In this episode, Valerie reflects on that moment, her life as a writer, and what it meant to follow something she did not expect.

Troy never expected to become Catholic. A friendship opened the door. Hearing Bishop Barron teach on the Eucharist pushed it wide. That moment became a turning point in his discernment and led him into the Church. He and his husband later married outside the Church and continue living as Catholics. This episode looks at the steps that shaped his story.

Advent invites us into a kind of wilderness. Not dramatic, just honest. A place where waiting becomes its own teacher. In this bonus conversation, Fr Jack talks about how God meets us when the path feels quiet and unfinished.

Jesse Anderson joins Fr Jack to share his journey from being a lukewarm Lutheran to finding a deeper home in the Catholic Church. His story is honest and down-to-earth shaped by questions friendship and the slow awakening of a faith that finally felt alive.It’s a conversation about searching surrender and discovering a place where his heart could truly burn with conviction.I hope you like this conversation. I certainly did.