- 3:17Journey to Sainthood: Dorothy DayDuring Walk the Walk Week each year, Notre Dame students, faculty, and staff participate in events designed to foster deeper belonging and inclusion on campus and beyond. This work continues year round, and we can draw inspiration from the examples of those in the Church who have come before us.Dorothy Day’s life is a powerful witness to faith lived in service of others.In 1972, the University of Notre Dame honored Day with the Laetare Medal. As Father Ted Hesburgh said, she embodied “the most radical approach of all: Christian love.” As co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, Day united faith and action through hospitality, justice, and solidarity with the poor.Her legacy lives on in South Bend through ministries like St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker House and Our Lady of the Road, and in more than 220 Catholic Worker communities worldwide. In 2012, U.S. bishops recommended her for canonization. Today, she is recognized as a Servant of God.“We are working for ‘a new heaven and a new earth, wherein justice dwelleth.’ We are trying to say with action, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’” - Dorothy Day
- 17:47Cold Plunges and Unicorns | Notre Dame StoriesWhat can extreme cold teach us about the human body—and ourselves?In this episode, Director of the Human Energetics Laboratory and anthropologist Cara Ocobock takes listeners inside her research on human adaptation, from subzero fieldwork in Finland with reindeer herders to lab studies on metabolism, cold exposure, and hunting unicorns.She also unpacks popular cold-plunge trends, what science actually says about them, and how lessons from our ancestors can help us understand resilience, wellness, and the remarkable ways humans have survived across time.Show links: • Episode page (https://fightingfor.nd.edu/podcast/cold-plunges-and-unicorns/) • The Winter Olympics, equality in sports, and exercising in the cold (https://fightingfor.nd.edu/podcast/the-winter-olympics-equality-in-sports-and-exercising-in-the-cold/) • ‘Woman the hunter’: Studies aim to correct history (https://news.nd.edu/news/woman-the-hunter-studies-aim-to-correct-history/ ) • Women’s higher resting metabolic rates in cold environments could be thyroid requirements for pregnancy, researcher says (https://news.nd.edu/news/womens-higher-resting-metabolic-rates-in-cold-environments-could-be-thyroid-requirements-for-pregnancy-researcher-says/)
Notre Dame Videos
- 3:17Journey to Sainthood: Dorothy DayDuring Walk the Walk Week each year, Notre Dame students, faculty, and staff participate in events designed to foster deeper belonging and inclusion on campus and beyond. This work continues year round, and we can draw inspiration from the examples of those in the Church who have come before us.Dorothy Day’s life is a powerful witness to faith lived in service of others.In 1972, the University of Notre Dame honored Day with the Laetare Medal. As Father Ted Hesburgh said, she embodied “the most radical approach of all: Christian love.” As co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, Day united faith and action through hospitality, justice, and solidarity with the poor.Her legacy lives on in South Bend through ministries like St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker House and Our Lady of the Road, and in more than 220 Catholic Worker communities worldwide. In 2012, U.S. bishops recommended her for canonization. Today, she is recognized as a Servant of God.“We are working for ‘a new heaven and a new earth, wherein justice dwelleth.’ We are trying to say with action, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’” - Dorothy Day
- 17:47Cold Plunges and Unicorns | Notre Dame StoriesWhat can extreme cold teach us about the human body—and ourselves?In this episode, Director of the Human Energetics Laboratory and anthropologist Cara Ocobock takes listeners inside her research on human adaptation, from subzero fieldwork in Finland with reindeer herders to lab studies on metabolism, cold exposure, and hunting unicorns.She also unpacks popular cold-plunge trends, what science actually says about them, and how lessons from our ancestors can help us understand resilience, wellness, and the remarkable ways humans have survived across time.Show links: • Episode page (https://fightingfor.nd.edu/podcast/cold-plunges-and-unicorns/) • The Winter Olympics, equality in sports, and exercising in the cold (https://fightingfor.nd.edu/podcast/the-winter-olympics-equality-in-sports-and-exercising-in-the-cold/) • ‘Woman the hunter’: Studies aim to correct history (https://news.nd.edu/news/woman-the-hunter-studies-aim-to-correct-history/ ) • Women’s higher resting metabolic rates in cold environments could be thyroid requirements for pregnancy, researcher says (https://news.nd.edu/news/womens-higher-resting-metabolic-rates-in-cold-environments-could-be-thyroid-requirements-for-pregnancy-researcher-says/)
- 3:12Journey to Sainthood: Augustus ToltonDuring Walk the Walk Week each year, students, faculty and staff at Notre Dame participate in events designed to foster deeper belonging and inclusion on campus and beyond. This work continues year round, and we can draw inspiration from the examples of those in the Church who have come before us.Born into slavery in Missouri in 1854, Augustus Tolton became the first recognizably Black Catholic priest in the United States. After escaping to freedom as a child and overcoming racism that barred him from U.S. seminaries, Tolton was ordained in Rome in 1886 and returned to minister in Quincy, Illinois, and Chicago.Known as “Fr. Gus,” he founded St. Monica’s Church for Black Catholics and preached a Gospel of unity that drew together Black and White, rich and poor, Catholic and Protestant during an era of segregation. Declared Venerable by Pope Francis in 2019, his cause for canonization continues to inspire the Church today.In July 2025, the University of Notre Dame hosted a convocation of Tolton Ambassadors dedicated to advancing his sainthood cause and sharing his enduring witness of faith, courage, and reconciliation.
- 2:50Student-Made Art Installation at Notre Dame Tells 1,225 StoriesTwenty-five panels. Forty-nine tiles each. A total of 1,225 student-made tiles come together to form one 105” x 105” artwork to show Notre Dame.In this collaborative project at the University of Notre Dame, the Sister Thea Bowman Center partnered with the Moreau First-year Seminar invited students to work alongside a visiting artist to create individual panels that reflect who they are in this moment of their lives. Using carbon paper to trace a shared design, each student added personal symbols of identity, culture, faith, home, and memory.Learn more about the Sr. Thea Bowman Center: https://bowmancenter.nd.edu/ Learn more about the Moreau Seminar: https://moreaufirstyear.nd.edu/ Learn more about Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman: https://youtu.be/6QO6NHF-L2k
What Would You Fight For?
- 2:01Fighting for Community RegenerationGary, Indiana, is a city with deep roots and a powerful story of resilience. Once a thriving steel town, Gary has faced decades of economic decline—but today, community leaders and the University of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture are working together to rebuild its downtown and restore opportunity.Through Notre Dame’s Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative, the city is developing a plan to revive its downtown, honor its history, and create a stronger future for residents. With community input and thoughtful urban design, Gary is charting a path toward social and economic renewal.
- 2:00Fighting to Educate Children in GhanaWhen Notre Dame student-athlete Daniel Boateng ’26 showed exceptional promise on the soccer field, his mother and grandmother reminded him to never lose sight of the power of education. Now a midfielder for the Fighting Irish, Daniel is helping children in his native Ghana access the same opportunities that changed his life.Through his nonprofit Changing Lives GH, founded with two Notre Dame teammates, Daniel is sponsoring 100 students who might otherwise never attend school and dreaming of a future where every child in Ghana can learn for free.Learn more: https://go.nd.edu/fighting-to-educate-children-in-ghana
- 2:01Fighting to cure brain cancerEach year, more than 12,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer. The disease grows rapidly, adapts quickly, and evades the immune system—making it one of the most difficult cancers to treat.At the University of Notre Dame, Meenal Datta, the Jane Schoelch DeFlorio Collegiate Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, and her research team are pushing the boundaries of cancer research by taking the fight to space. In 2024, they launched a first-of-its-kind glioblastoma experiment to the International Space Station, using microgravity to grow more realistic tumor models and accelerate testing for new therapies.Their groundbreaking work is helping scientists understand glioblastoma in new ways—and bringing us closer to a cure here on Earth.
- 2:01Fighting for Maternal HealthThe United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed nation. For many new mothers, the weeks and months after giving birth can be the most dangerous—and too often, lifesaving care ends too soon.When Notre Dame professor, nurse, and researcher Joyce Adams saw these risks firsthand, she developed a groundbreaking model of postpartum care. Tested in Ghana and now saving lives in the U.S., her Focused Postpartum Care (Focused-PPC) program offers women yearlong follow-up visits, education on warning signs, and peer-to-peer support.Learn more: https://go.nd.edu/fighting-for-maternal-health
