Augustine Institute Studios

09/01/2026

Meet Producer MOLLY!

Molly has always had a heart for the arts. From falling in love with drawing and painting at an early age to discovering photography and eventually stepping into video production, her creative journey has been fueled by a passion for storytelling. Today, she loves using her gifts to serve the church — capturing moments, telling meaningful stories, and sharing the message of the Lord through the Augustine Institute!

08/17/2026

🎬That’s a wrap on our FIRST summer internship cohort here on our new campus in Missouri!

These two young filmmakers (pictured front and center) truly became part of our team this summer. Austin & Kateri, we miss you already and wish you the best of luck on your future creative endeavors!

catholicfilmmaker

07/31/2026

There's nothing like a table read to close out the week!

Our team had a great time reading a script out loud together for an upcoming season of Welcome to Hope Springs. A lot goes into developing the stories and the characters for each season before we even get to the studio to record with the actors. These table reads help our writer hear what needs to be fine-tuned before we get into production. 🚂🌄🎙🛤

📸 photos by

06/24/2026

Meet our Summer Filmmaker Interns AUSTIN and KATERI!

We were so excited to finally bring back our summer internship program this year and we're having a great summer so far thanks to these two emerging Catholic artists!

Kateri recently graduated from John Paul the Great Catholic University with a BS in Communications Media and a Minor in Digital Music Production. Austin is currently pursuing his BFA in Cinematic Arts at Texas State University.

06/19/2026

🎙Go Behind the Scenes of WELCOME TO HOPE SPRINGS...a place of everyday wonders and eternal mysteries.

Welcome to Hope Springs is a family audio drama series following the lives and adventures of a few Colorado kids through an unforgettable journey of friendship and faith!

What does it take to create this audio drama series? It all starts with the script written by Paul McCusker, then the script is recorded by a full cast of actors here in St. Louis at Shock City Studios. Next, our composer Jared DePasquale writes his original score and sound cues. Foley, ambience, and other sound elements are recorded by the sound design team at Dream Audio Productions. Finally, it's all mixed and mastered and delivered to your favorite platforms! 🌄🚂🎧🎶

You can listen to Welcome to Hope Springs anywhere you get your podcasts, and of course on our streaming platform Formed!

Turn off your screens, turn on your imagination, and Welcome to Hope Springs.

06/06/2026

Meet Senior Director of Creative Content PAUL!

Paul McCusker is a writer and dramatist best known for his work on the long-running children’s audio program Adventures in Odyssey and award-winning Radio Theatre productions for the Augustine Institute and Focus on The Family. His published works include The Adventures of Nick & Sam first-reader series; The Virtue Chronicles series for 10-13 year-olds; The Imagination Station book series, the Passages series (tie-in novels to Adventures in Odyssey); adult mysteries and thrillers; biographies; plays and musicals.
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His audio drama work for the Augustine Institute includes Brother Francis: The Barefoot Saint of Assisi (winner of the 2018 Audie Award for Best Audio Drama), The Trials of Saint Patrick, Ode to Saint Cecilia, The Victory of Joan of Arc and The Legends of Robin Hood.

He is the writer and director of the new children's audio drama series Welcome to Hope Springs (Bronze winner for Entertainment: Children/Young Adult Program in the 2026 NY Festivals Radio Awards).

Paul is currently Senior Director of Creative Content for the Augustine Institute in St Louis. He lives in Missouri with his wife and daughter.

06/05/2026

We are thrilled to announce that Welcome to Hope Springs is now officially an AWARD-WINNING audio drama series! Welcome to Hope Springs is a 2026 winner!

🥉The series was awarded a Bronze trophy in the "Entertainment: Children/Young Adult Program" category & was considered a finalist in both the "Entertainment: Drama Special" and "Podcast: Drama Podcast" categories.

This is the first production the Augustine Institute has submitted to the New York Festivals and we are humbled by the results! Congratulations to the cast, crew, and creative team involved with Welcome to Hope Springs, especially writer/director Paul McCusker. Sincere thanks to the New York Festivals Radio Awards Grand Jury for this recognition, which places the Augustine Institute alongside the world's finest audio storytellers.

If you love entertaining children's content that's fun for the whole family, go listen to this award-winning audio drama series! Seasons 1 & 2 are out NOW! You can find Welcome to Hope Springs everywhere that you get your podcasts. 🎧🎙🏔

Learn more at www.hopesprings.org!

05/29/2026

Exciting news! This year our team earned 10 wins in the 47th Annual Telly Awards! 🏆⁠

⁠Foretold took home 2 Silver 🥈& 4 Bronze awards🥉
The 3rd Season of What Catholics Believe - one Bronze🥉
How to Advent - 2 Bronze🥉
Drawing Closer to God - one Bronze🥉

For the first time ever, we took home a for the Craft of Writing for our production of Foretold!

For the full list of Telly Award winners, go to www.tellyawards.com/winners/. Congratulations to all of the amazing production companies who won this year.

We’re grateful to keep sharing stories that help Catholics understand, live, and share their faith & we're honored to receive this recognition from the Telly Award judges.

05/20/2026

🎧Have you listened to our newest audio drama yet? 🎙

Growing up can be an incredible adventure. And that’s before you throw in the lost treasures, mysterious messages, and podcasting rivalries. But hey, that’s just life in Hope Springs, where even the ordinary becomes extraordinary. An original audio drama podcast series from the Augustine Institute and award-winning author Paul McCusker, Welcome to Hope Springs will delight children ages 10-12 with its faith, charm, and wonder.

If you loved Season 1, you'll be excited to hear that all 9 episodes of Season 2 were released on Monday! You can listen to both seasons wherever you get your podcasts or on Formed. Now that kids are out of school and vacations are on the horizon, It's the perfect show for summer listening with your whole family.

Follow on your favorite podcast platform and give the show a rating & a review. Go to hopesprings.org to find out more (link in our bio). 🚂🛤🏔

Tune in to Hope Springs, an Augustine Institute original audio drama podcast following the adventures of Catholic kids.

05/20/2026

Meet Editor and Director, SOLENNE!
Ever since she was little, Solenne has been enamored by the beauty of God’s creation and has always tried to capture it - whether that literally meant scooping up a butterfly in a net or sitting behind a camera to film and preserve a moment in time. These combined interests of nature and video eventually found their outlet on YouTube, where she began creating educational content about exotic pets. After growing her channel to over 100K subscribers and graduating from Olympic College with her Associate in Arts, she joined Augustine Institute Studios in 2022. Today, she works as an editor and director, and occasionally pops up on camera as the host of How To Advent and How To Lent on Formed. She loves getting to make beautiful content for Jesus - and when she doesn't have a camera out, she can be found hiking, playing Catan and Scrabble, or tending to her small menagerie of critters.