Madang

Episode 27: Publisher and author Robert Ellsberg, editor of Dorothy Day’s On Pilgrimage (2 volumes)

A conversation with Robert Ellsberg about Dorothy Day’s involvement with farmers’ protests, the Cuban Revolution, the Catholic Worker, and more 

Welcome to Madang. 

Madang is the outdoor living room of the world. Here, we invite you to sit and tune into unreserved, remarkable conversations with renowned authors, leaders, public figures, and scholars of religion, culture, and everything in between.

Here in the 27th episode of Madang, I converse with publisher and author Robert Ellsberg about his editions of Dorothy Day’s On Pilgrimage: The Sixties and On Pilgrimage: the Seventies. These two wonderful volumes of Dorothy Day’s columns shed light on Day's work, prophetic life and ongoing influence today. 

We discuss Ellsberg’s work with Dorothy Day in the latter part of her life, as well as Day’s earlier involvement with farmers’ protests, the Cuban Revolution, the Catholic Worker, and other aspects of her prophetic work. We also have an intriguing conversation about his father, Daniel Ellsberg, who is famous for releasing the Pentagon Papers (which Robert helped photocopy as a young teenager). Ellsberg discusses how his father’s activism influenced his own work with Dorothy Day and the vocational trajectory that followed.