A daily dose of the Good News

Mary Caltrider is here to offer a daily dose of good news — and the Good News.

As the host of the Show Me St. Louis weekday show on KSDK, Mary spotlights local businesses, nonprofits, churches, community events and more. And as a devout Catholic, Mary approaches her stories as an opportunity to share God’s love at work in the world.

“I’ve always had a fascination in people’s stories, and the job that I do directly connects me to people who are searching for that purpose and fulfillment, and they’re finding it in really beautiful ways,” she said. “Even if it’s a story that’s not directly about God, you see God at work. And that’s been a real gift to me.”

Mary was born and raised Catholic in Carmel, Indiana. She earned a degree in journalism at Purdue University, then went on to her first job as a breaking news reporter for a local TV station in South Bend, Indiana. It was tough work, pulling shifts at all times of day and night and covering homicides, severe weather and other emotionally taxing topics.

She felt herself burning out and considered making a career change, going as far as putting down a deposit at Indiana University Law School before a mentor encouraged her to give the news industry one more shot. If she kept going in journalism, she thought, she wanted two things: to feel like she was really helping people, and time to have a better quality of life for herself. In 2022, Show Me St. Louis reached out, and it turned out to be a perfect fit.

“It was the stories I cared about the most, spotlighting the people in the community,” she said.

Actively living her own Catholic faith has helped connect her with people and groups that end up featured on her show, she said. She recently shot a segment with the Daughters of St. Paul, a community she connected with first in her personal life.

“I think sometimes people get afraid to talk about their faith because it can seem sensitive … but the truth is, it’s those people that are making huge differences in the community, and they open their doors to everyone. So isn’t that just as much a part of the community?” she said. “God has given me these stories, He’s connected me to these people, and God’s given me the courage to put something out on the air that, yeah, might be kind of daunting to do in secular media, but at the end of the day, who’s going to say we don’t need a story that’s about finding peace in the holidays?”

Whether a segment has a direct faith tie-in or not, she sees her work as an opportunity to showcase the value and dignity of the people she interviews. One of her favorite stories was about a 95-year-old man named Al who rode his bicycle around his neighborhood every day to simply wave at his neighbors and strike up conversations. He had been diagnosed with a medical condition years earlier that made him unable to eat solid food, but despite that cross, he used his time to bring joy to other people.

“What I loved about telling the story of Al was how he encompassed what St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Therese, all these saints say of doing small things with great love,” Mary said. “Al embodies what I think it is to have community, and that’s the story a lot of people are craving right now, even more so than ever.”

Faith is central to her life, so it feels natural to her to make it part of her work day, too. She makes the Sign of the Cross before every show; she starts her day at the office with a prayer to St. Joseph the Worker.

“My faith is the most important part of my life. It’s my center. And if I was ever in a situation where I feel like I couldn’t live it out, I don’t think I’d be able to do that job, “she said. “So I’m in a space where I can, and that’s probably the biggest gift of them all.”

Outside of Show Me St. Louis, Mary also hosts a podcast, “Let There Be Light with Mary Caltrider,” which she launched to go deeper into faith topics with longer interviews. There, she also shares more about her own faith journey.

“In those quick moments of television I have, I can’t necessarily sit down and talk to people about what I’m going through, and it’s allowed me to do that here. I’ve been able to share some of my own struggles, whether that’s with mental health, whether that’s with just managing my own prayer life in the workplace, and I’ve really enjoyed being able to be really upfront with people in a space and share that,” she said.

She entrusts the podcasts to the Holy Spirit; if nothing else, it’s certainly been enriching to her own faith life to dive deeply into topics like the Eucharist and get others’ best tips about living out the Gospel message, she said with a laugh.

Mary is now a parishioner at Our Lady of Lourdes in University City but also calls St. Joseph in Clayton her second home. When she first moved to St. Louis, she was searching for a faith community and went to an early morning Mass at St. Joseph. It became a daily habit, sitting in the front pew, journal in hand to take notes on Father Chris Martin’s homilies.

“When it comes to evangelization and spreading our faith and spreading the good news, it actually first starts with just loving God more,” she said. “St. Louis has had so many opportunities, and it’s been so encouraging for me just to fall in love with God more. And it was when I fell in love with God more that all of a sudden, before I knew it, I found God in all of the daily doses of good news that I was sharing.”

Good news with Mary Caltrider

Find “Let There Be Light With Mary Caltrider” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Find Show Me St. Louis segments at www.ksdk.com/show-me-st-louis.

Follow Mary on Facebook: Mary Caltrider – Show Me St. Louis, or Instagram: @marycaltridertv.