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Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics and life.

My name is Freddie Gray. I'm the deputy editor of the spectator. I am delighted to be joined by Julia Yost. And Julia, you are

an editor, a senior editor at First Things magazine. And you wrote an article that generated quite a lot of

interest recently, which was under the headline New York's hottest club is the Catholic

Church. And you identified something that has been bubbling up a little bit

in America the last few years, I think, which is that Catholicism has become sort of cool and

hip, to use a very embarrassing word. It's become a thing in Brooklyn and sort of the cooler parts

of New York. And it's seen as a bit transgressive to embrace traditional morality.

Can you explain to us bearing in mind that some British listeners, mostly British listeners, what's going on?

Yeah, so I'll start with a little New York geography.

So Catholicism is becoming supposedly transgressive or cool,

not so much in Brooklyn, but actually in a little neighborhood in Chinatown,

which is in downtown Manhattan, called Dimes Square.

And this is a little neighborhood that became very cool during the pandemic in 2020,

which is when rents were low and so ambitious young people who wanted to move into Manhattan

could finally afford to do so.

And the cohort that gathered there is quite young.

It's Zumer or Generation Zee more than millennial.

Millennials more associated with Brooklyn, though of course,

...