Pints With Aquinas - 5 Big Things! + Q&A

Episode Date: November 8, 2022

Become a supporter on Locals to support us and get a bunch of free stuff in return: https://mattfradd.locals.com/support

Ah, oh, ho ho ho ho ho! Hello everybody! Welcome to Pines with Aquinas! Chkaboo, chkaboo, chkaboo! This probably happens when everybody gets a green screen, they get really excited. That's what's happened with me. But anyway, it's nice to have you all here. Thanks for showing up! This video was originally called three big things, but I've changed it to five big things

because there's just a ton going on. So let's just bloody jump into it, I suppose. Let's see if I can, right, good. I presume I'm coming through loud and clear, am I? Can you hear me okay? Anyway, five bits of big news that I'm excited to tell you about. Some of it I gotta keep a little hush hush,

but you'll learn soon enough. All right, so here's the first thing. Number one, this is a little cup and you can't even see it. Oh no, because it's green. If I do that, that's amazing. Alright, here I'm going to show you my cup because I know that you care. Ready? Oh, there you go. See, I had no idea that was going to happen. There you go, see, I had no idea that was gonna happen. That's amazing. Oh, look at that, look at that there. It's almost invisible.

All right, I'll stop doing that. Okay, here's the first thing. Next week I'm going to Italy. It'll just happen so quickly. I'll be in Italy next week, doing some things, trying to organize a big conference. Let's just say in that vicinity next year. Should be big, should be cool, should be great.

But I'm also going to be interviewing somebody. I'm not gonna give any details away. But let's just say we hope to be overlooking, we will be overlooking the Vatican. I'm gonna be hosting a live stream from the Pope Paul VI Residence rooftop. And here is what it'll look like. It'll look like something like that.

Although it'll be nighttime, but it'll still be pretty cool. So you should look forward to that. It's going to be a big episode. No, I'm not interviewing Pope Francis, but I will be interviewing someone and it'll be very cool what we have to talk about. So if you're not yet subscribed to the channel, do that so you don't miss out. That's the first bit of big news. And I'll be streaming to my local supporters all week from there. The next bit of big news is that I've created an Advent reflection ebook for this upcoming Advent.

I don't know about you but Advent kind of approaches and I'm always caught flat-footed. I think it would be cool to have a plan but I always kind of forget and then Advent happens and I've got nothing planned. So what I've done is I've gone into the writings of Thomas Aquinas and I've taken out sections from all different works of his having to do with Advent and Christmas, such as you know the Mother of God, the Two Natures of Christ and the Incarnation and so forth. And then I've put them together in a beautiful ebook. And these aren't the sort of like, I don't know, like soft, inspiring meditations, at least from an emotional perspective that you might be used to when you think of meditations for Advent. These are pretty awesome, theologically dense reflections. And every day throughout Advent, in addition to the text,

I'm going to record myself reading each reflection, and I'm gonna put some beautiful chant behind it. I already have done this. And this will be made available to my people who support me over on Locals. So if you wanna support me, click the link below, matphrad.locals.com. Wow, that was weird.

.com. And when you do, you're supporting the work of P, click the link below, matfrad.locals.co... Wow, that was weird..com. And when you do, you're supporting the work of Pines with Aquinas, but you also get a bunch of free things in return, like all of these Advent reflections. You also get monthly spiritual direction exclusive with Father Gregory Pine. We do morning coffee live streams just for our local supporters.

What else? You'll get our newspaper that comes out quarterly that's actually posted to your house and you don't even have to pay for shipping once you become an annual supporter over on Locals. Golly, we've got a ton of stuff that we do. Yeah, we do bonus interviews. There's a lot that people get

and I think you'll really, I think you will really enjoy it. So go to matfrad.locals and join over there and that way you'll start getting those advent reflections. And what's cool about it is you can just play them every single day throughout Advent if you want. All right, here is the third bit of big news. I just released a new Lo-Fi album

and there's a link in the description to that album if you're interested. Lo-Fi standing for low fidelity. The way I like to describe it to people is it's calming music But not so calming that it puts you to sleep And it's really great to work to I've had a lot of people reach out and say that they have their students listen to this Homeschool mums tell me that their kids listen to it. They put it on the background so there's like beautiful animations that take place on a loop and Like three hours of music that we've created

So I'd really appreciate it. Maybe if you check it out I mean, I don't really doesn't do much for me if you do since YouTube has demonetized us for no good reason But I think it's a beautiful way. That's a beautiful. I think it's a lovely contribution honestly because a lot of the internet today is filled with political division and infighting and trolls and blah, blah, blah. I wanted to create a space on the internet where we could just like listen to beautiful music

and offer prayers for each other. And that's what this Catholic Lo-Fi channel is. Again, the link is in the description if you wanna go check it out. The other thing that's really cool with this latest one is that we've put chant alongside of Lo-Fi. The last two albums in fact, we've done this. So we've taken Gregorian chant and we've blended it with Lo-Fi in a way I think it's very pleasing. So check that out. Also, we're on Spotify and Apple music and Amazon music and all that. So we do actually get a bit of a kickback if you listen to it on those platforms.

So just type Catholic Lo-Fi into Spotify or Apple or wherever, or listen to it on YouTube. If you listen to it on YouTube, you get to watch the video alongside of it. So there's that. All right, so what was that? One, two, no, it was Advent, New Lo-Fi Album. Alright, we got two more things to announce.

I got a big debate that I'm hosting in March between Gavin Ortland and Trent Horn. One of the things I really like about Pines with Aquinas is I'm trying to bring people into the same room. I try very hard not to do virtual interviews, not that there's anything wrong with them, but I personally just prefer to chat with somebody over a table.

The debates have always been virtual, but I am trying to get away from that as well. And so this coming March, I'll be flying Trent Horn and Gavin Ortland to Steubenville, and we're gonna be hosting a live debate at the top of Leo's Coffee House. And if you look in the description below, you can go check out that debate.

It's gonna be live streamed here to the channel, but it's also a live event. I think we've already sold about 100 tickets. We've only, I think we can only hold about 200 people. So the Eventbrite registration is below if you wanna make your way out here in March. If you've been wanting to visit Stubendville or if you just wanna come to this great debate,

Gavin Ortland's a really excellent guy. Very bright, very intelligent. Well, I guess that means the same thing. Very intelligent, very charitable. Really tries to understand where Catholics are coming from before telling us we're wrong, which I appreciate. Trent, of course, is just a machine. Love him, good man.

So yeah, that'll be cool. You can come out to that. And then afterwards, after the debate, we're gonna have a private meet and greet at our cigar lounge just for my local supporters. So if you're one of them, that's another reason to join. Come hang out with Trent and Gavin in a private setting, have a cigar, or don't, just come and hang out.

There's my weird cup again. That's so cool, huh? Gosh, what if I wore a red? What if I wore just a green shirt? What if I wore a green like turtleneck and it was just a floating head? So that's the fourth thing. And then finally, I'm interviewing Michael Knowles this month, Michael Knowles of the old Daily Wire. And he'll be in studio. In fact, we're gonna be setting up our studio in our cigar lounge here in Steubenville on 4th Street. And that's gonna be real fun.

Kind of like I did with George Farmer. We had Michael Knowles in. Funny story about Michael though coming, I guess he's at a whole different level to people I usually have on the show. So I said to my assistant, do I, should I get, should I drive him back to the airport? And she said, no, he'll have a car

and he'll also have security. Ah, no worries. And then I thought it'd be really funny if I tried to pull that off to seem important. Like if I went to like St. Martin's and spoke to 10 people and I brought just some bodyguards with me for no reason at all. And everyone's like, we don't, no one wants to,

no, we don't even really wanna talk to you. And I'm like, I'm sorry, I can't. Bruno, that's the name of my security guard, just tell him to back off. So that'll be fun. So those are the five big things for those of you who are just joining. I'm going to Rome next week.

I'm gonna be interviewing somebody and it's gonna be very exciting. And I would like you to subscribe to this channel so you don't miss out. Again, we're going to have three cameras set up. Please God, it'll all work out. Overlooking the Vatican. It's gonna be a big episode.

I'm really excited about it. So hopefully you can show up for that. We's gonna be a big episode. I'm really excited about it. So hopefully you can show up for that. We're gonna be on a rooftop of the Pope Paul VI residence, Overlooking the Vatican, me interviewing a special guest. I'm not gonna announce who it is yet, but you will find out very soon. The second thing is I have Advent Reflections. Please become a member of Locals,

matphrad.locals.com. Click the link below. Soon as you become a local supporter, every day of Advent you'll get an audio file to play, Thomas Aquinas Meditations, yada yada. New Lo-Fi album is out. Type in Catholic Lo-Fi, please, on Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music, wherever else, listen to us.

I think you'll really enjoy it. It's been cool to see people being introduced to Lo-Fi for the first time. Next, we've got a big debate coming up in March between Trent Horn and Gabbard-Ortland. It's gonna be an in-person debate, very excited about it. Tickets are below if you wanna come.

And then finally, we have Michael Knowles coming on the show. So that should be great. All right, so here's what I'll do before we wrap up today is I'll take some comments and questions. Like Brian, sup Brian? He says, I have been including you in my daily rosary. Thank you kindly. I really, that means the world to me.

Thank you. The Prodigal Traveler says it's the first time he's made it live. Howdy. Howdy, nice to see you. Red Lander wanted to tell us that he does in fact have a green turtleneck, so that's good. Father John Brown appreciates Michael Moles.

Right, Farah, that's good. Then all Catholic channels would be demonetised. That must be in response to something. Let's see. Oh, this fella said they've even demonetized Catholic lo-fi? What the? And he said just because it has the word Catholic, I'm guessing. I don't think so. I don't think that's why. I think they, at least the reason they gave me was that I was using somebody else's content, and that is absolutely false.

I have a fella who helps me put the lo-fi music together. I pay an independent creator to put the beautiful illustrations together. So none of this is taken from any other channel. We tried twice to explain that to YouTube, but we're still demonetized, which really stinks actually, because these are not cheap to make, like as you might imagine.

So that's why you listening to it on Spotify and Apple helps us out, you know. Let's see, what else we got? Favorite Old Testament book? Song of Songs. If I'm in a good state of mind, I can't read the Song of Songs without crying. And just wanting to praise our Lord. What program do you use to create Catholic lo-fi? I personally don't create it, but I work with somebody who does and give them direction, so I'm not the one doing it.

I've been studying the prayer to the saints, thanks to you. Cool, what do you mean the prayer to the saints? Do you mean just prayers to the saints in general? That's awesome. Father John says, really appreciate you having Michael Lofton on. Thank you, I really appreciate him coming on. I really have a lot of love for him.

I'll tell you something about Michael Lofton. I'm gonna speak behind his back for a second, all right? And I mean it. After we had our interview, I took him down to the cigar lounge here in Steubenville and we had a chat. That man speaks so charitably of everybody. Like there was, I'll be honest, even a few times,

like, what do you think about this guy? Like, what's he doing? And it would, you know, a lesser man would have said, yeah, and maybe spoke poorly of him, but even people who criticize him publicly, I'm like, what do you think about that? Even those people in private company, he's like, well, you know, and he's giving them

the benefit of the doubt in front of me. So I have a lot of respect for Michael. He's a cool guy and a really charitable guy, even off camera, I will say that about him. And so, yeah, really, really impressed. Sebastian says, you make really good content, so necessary nowadays, please take Baron to your show. Thank you so much.

I've actually had Bishop Baron on the show once before, back as an audio podcast. If you go to pintswithaquinas.com, type in Baron, you can listen to our conversation about the Eucharist. Maybe one day we'll be on the same platform together in a video format, we'll see. The Prodigal Traveler says he loves the Catholic lo-fi stuff, thank you. Oh this is so, thank you for asking me this question. How did you come up with the name 331272? Okay so that's amazing. So all of the lo-fi songs,

if you go to Spotify and you like check out the titles, they're things that just remind me of childhood. So let me see if I can pull this up here. All right, so here are some of the titles. Sapsaza, Bubblers, Casual Clothes Day, Roxby Downs, Port Davis, Batty Street, Night Fill, Bosco, Sega All Day, Mr. Lacey, Over the Fence, et cetera, et cetera.

So these are just all inside jokes with myself. I take really pleasant, maybe sometimes not so pleasant, childhood memories and just name a song after those memories. So I don't know, it's just something I did. So 331272 is the number, the phone number of the shoe store my mom used to work at as a kid. When I was a kid, not when she was a kid, obviously.

That's so funny. Yeah, so I remember she'd be going to work. Spend less shoes, she worked for. And we had to memorize her number. It was 331272, and so my brother and sister and I came up with 331272. We came up with the most annoying song we could come up with so it would stick deep into our brains.

And that's what we came up with. 331272, 331272. And that's what we came up with. 3-3-12-72, 3-3-12-72. And it was the most annoying thing you could possibly, most annoying sound that we could come up with up until that point. And so I've never forgotten it. And I'm 39 years old and I still, so that's why I named it that.

How long will you be in Rome? I'll be in Rome for about six days. So that's it. John O says, love all your work. Met you at Seek 2019. Thanks so much. Cool. I'm gonna be at Seek in 2023.

I'm very honored that they would ask me. This J says, I'm a public school teacher and I play them when the students are quietly working. That's awesome. Do they like it? I presume they do. Anthony says, I found a clip from a previous interview with Knowles.

There is a link in the description referring to a full episode, but it is unlisted. Oh, I don't know what happened to that. I've been on Michael Knowles' show before. If you type in, maybe he took it down, I don't know. I would if I were him. Frad Noles, if you type that in, you'll probably find it on YouTube.

Let me try it right now. Frad Noles. Oh, I see. No, so I've had him on the show right before Biden was elected, but I've also been on his show, I don't know. But I don't know where that is. So that's that. Are you going to seek 23 years? I am. Thanks for the super chat, Michael. You say,

I am still discerning the faith. Was born Catholic but fell away. Thanks to you, I'm now finding my way back into the faith. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on Michael and Matt Fradd, the sinners. Yeah, bless you. Thanks for being here and just honored to have you, you know, like thanks. And I hope that what you hear is helpful and thanks for being open to the Catholic faith. I also, I don't know if I fell away, I was baptized Catholic, but it never took. Like I was taken to mass every week, but I didn't like it at all. And anyway, it wasn't until I was 17

that I would have said, yeah, I believe in Jesus Christ, I'm a Catholic. Joseph says, what makes it Catholic lo-fi as opposed to just lo-fi? Is it cover Catholic hymns or something? Okay, so I guess two or three things, I would say first, the illustrations always have a Catholic angle to them.

So the first lo-fi album we did was Thomas Aquinas writing in a book. The second lo-fi album we did is called Rosary Girl. It's a woman praying the rosary in a park. The third lo-fi album we did was called Sleepy Dad, and it's a father praying in front of his icons with a cup of coffee, you know, just as a sleepy, awesome dad. And then the latest one we've done is a man on his front porch smoking a cigar and reading

the scriptures. So that's the first thing, it makes it Catholic, it's from a visual perspective. The second thing that makes it Catholic is I think the community, if you look in the comment section, there's a lot of people asking for prayers, requesting prayers, so that would be the second aspect. The third aspect would be we incorporate Catholic chant, like Gregorian chant, into our lofi. Not the first one, but the last two we've incorporated chant into. And here's a funny story, I actually asked a group of monks if I could have, you know, if I could be given the copyright or at least allowed to use their Gregorian chant

that they've recorded. And I said to them, thinking that this was a selling point, I said, you know, and I will advertise you guys. I'll make sure I put a link in the description so people can go and buy, you know, your albums. And he got back to me and he said, okay, so I've spoken with the brothers

and we've agreed that you may use it if you don't tell anybody that you've got it from us. He said, some of the brothers aren't thrilled about having gorgeous ancient Catholic music mingled with your modernist trash. They didn't say that, but they weren't mean at all. They just said, we'd rather you not say that it came from us. So, ah, fair enough.

So anyway, those are the three things that make it Catholic. I'd love to see pints with Aquinas make some Catholic ambience videos. What is that? Can you tell me what that is? That's hard to do, especially when they are wrong. I don't know who you're referring to,

so I don't know why you even put that up. What book would you recommend says, Carbonated Dipping Jam? That might be the best YouTube name in the history of YouTube, I think. What book would you recommend for someone who left atheism six years ago and is getting sick and tired

of not making their mind up about Catholicism? Anything by Trent Horn. Trent wrote a great book called Why We Are Catholic. Not a scholarly book, but a really great overview of why we are Catholic. I would recommend that one. If you're looking for something a bit more sophisticated, Trent also wrote a book on Catholicism published with Ignatius Press. You might check that out. Maybe Rome Sweet Home. Wa Riziz says, I hope you have a long conversation

with Michael, like four hours, and that you get Seamus back on. Yeah, so okay, two things. So Seamus from Freedom Turns is expected to come back on. He's currently engaged and getting married very soon, so he's very busy. But next year year we both hope that he'll be on the show. I'm not sure how much time that Michael has on. I think we'll probably get three hours in so we'll see. Born Again, nice to see you. Can you remind

people to vote today? Yes, vote today. Go and vote today. And if you're confused about who to vote for just remember this vote for who you think hates you less that's what Jimmy Akin said to me once and I thought that was a pretty good low bar I would vote except I'm not American but my wife did vote yesterday let's see lo-fi title on hello crack me up oh good I'm glad yeah it's also over on Halo. Sega all day. That's, yeah, one of the names of my Lo-Fi.

Oh my gosh, I just have the most beautiful memories of playing video games as a kid. And when I tell my wife that, she looks at me with pity. Like I said to her, my family used to lock me in a closet. Oh, and I'm like, no, no, it was great. I really have great memories. I'd go to my me in a closet. Oh, no. No, it was great. I really have great memories I'd go to my friend Jake's house. I'd ride my BMX bike to his house Do I got the best memories my his mum Evie would drive us to KFC now KFC in Australia is way better than KFC in

America KFC in Australia Comes close, but doesn't exceed Chick-fil-A. KFC here comes close but maybe doesn't quite exceed dumpster food, but in Australia it's actually quite good. So she'd take us to KFC and we'd come back to his house. Oh my gosh, and we'd just play Sega and Mortal Kombat and oh my god great memories just so

nostalgic yeah that's another name of one of my songs Emma's playing Zelda that's my sister so yeah I'm so glad you guys like that thanks thoughts on how to vote on rec MJ it's on our ballot I'm not sure I see it as worse than alcohol. Oh yeah, it's a big topic which I don't wanna comment on. I have thoughts on it but I don't wanna comment on it right now. What's up with the Mazurksky picture? I'm not ever gonna tell you.

I'm never going to tell you. You're going to have to come up with a narrative, Kyle, yourself. And I would like that to happen. Who's your favorite composer? I'm not really, I wish I was more like, sophisticated and cool, but I do like listening to Bach. I mean, Yo-Yo Ma and others who play the cello. I like listening to Bach on cello. Like you find some videos like 10 hours of Bach or something

like that. I sometimes play that around the house but I don't know much about classical music. The reason I like lo-fi is because often if you just put on classical music it'll be super sweet and peaceful and gorgeous and then it'll be so intense you want to run off into battle or punch your wife in the face, which you shouldn't do. But the cool thing about lo-fi is it's just chill the whole way through. That's what I like about it.

Obviously it's not as good as, obviously it's not as good as classical music, but anyway, does that answer your question? I don't know. When are you going to have an SSPX Priest on the show? I'm not, probably won't have an SSPX Priest on the show? I'm not, probably won't have an SSPX Priest on my show. When will you, when will, when will Matt Walsh hook you up with a Joe Rogan episode?

If Joe Rogan asked me to come on his show, I think I'd say no. So I haven't actually watched the episode with Matt. I watched about 10 minutes of it this morning between him and Joe Rogan, but didn't watch much more. But I'm not interested in being on Joe Rogan's show. Just, yeah. I enjoy, I appreciate him.

I think I'd get on well with him, but I don't wanna be on his show. Thanks for replying to my comment. I will listen on Spotify. Thanks. Lauren says, good to know that both Matt and I are on the same page and both our foreheads are increasing in size. Yes, every year my forehead increases in size. It's either that or my hair is receding. I'm not sure. Probably that one. But it is gigantic. Matt says, would love, love, love

to see Father Jim Blount. He's a charismatic exorcist. Cool. Maybe put a link in the description so I can check him out. How much a donation needed to consider it? Ha ha ha. No, I wouldn't want you to make a donation, but I'd be open if I think he'd be a good guest.

Actually I changed my mind, $1 million. What else have we got here? Thanks for being Matt Frad. That's, don't know how to be anything else, but appreciate it. Hey Matt, what's your plan with Pints with Aquinas in five years time? Would you venture outside your studio

and table conversations? How about a mini documentary once in a while? Eh, not a bad idea. I don't know, I have no plans for Pines. I am planning on bringing another priest on to do kind of solo episodes like Father Pine is doing. So maybe my plan is to... Here would be my dream.

You want to know my dream? Here's my dream. Once a week, I come into the studio and I interview a fabulous person for three to five to seven hours. And then I leave my studio and I go to a shack that I've built in the woods that has no electricity or running water and sit there. And that's it.

And then I come back on, I guess my family should, yeah, right, I shouldn't forget my family. So my wife can come and the kids, you know, they can hang out as long as they can stand it. Then they can go and I'll just sit there and pray and read and smoke and... That sounds like heaven to me, I don't know. Brant Petra is a good read too, absolutely.

Huge fan of Brant, good dude. Carbonated dipping jam, are you an Australian, are you? Because ta means thank you in Australian, ta. Could you have Michael O'Brien down to your studio I I've tried I don't think he travels anymore So we have reached out to him, but he doesn't travel so no Michaela lovely to see you Or Micaiah sorry what advice would you give someone planning to convert to Catholicism and not knowing how to see you. Oh, Micaiah, sorry. What advice would you give someone planning to convert to Catholicism and not knowing

how to tell you Protestant, how to tell your Protestant anti-Catholic family friends? Oh, I can't imagine. I've never had that experience before. Golly. You know, maybe you have to have, before the cat gets out of the bag and everybody knows, maybe approach those people who mean the most to you and sit down with them and say,

I'm thinking about becoming a Catholic. And I wanted to tell you first, because I know you're going to object to it, but here's why I'm doing it. And, you know, I don't expect you to understand or even be happy for me, but I just, I love you. And I want you to know that I don't expect you to understand or even be happy for me, but I just love you and I want you to know that I don't think I'm abandoning Christianity. I think I'm coming into the fullness of it. Maybe that's a good idea. But at the end of the day, people might be upset and you're just going to have to be okay with that. Lawrence says, I mean

being charitable to others is difficult when their criticism of us is wrong. Most of the time people's criticism of me is accurate, which is a real pain in the arse. Sup Hallie, nice to see you. It's so great to hear that Seamus is getting married first time hearing it., not sure if I should announce it or not, but there you go. How's, okay, this is a good question. How's not being on Twitter going? Good. It's going well. So I'm not gonna lie.

Now that Maskyboy, Masky Bums is back or has taken over Twitter, I've definitely felt a pull to get back on it, but I don't think I'd have any self-respect if I did that. So I'm going to remain off Twitter. And then somebody said to me, well, you've got to keep your handle because if you don't keep your handle, someone will get it. But I don't want, I don't care.

You know, like, what am I supposed to do? Sign up to every social media platform just to get my handles if someone doesn't impersonate me? I'm not going back on Twitter. And so if someone wants to take that handle and start saying things, that's a shame, but I don't wanna, you know?

You know. Yeah, it's going well. So true, KFC is gross here. Yeah, Chick-fil-A is the Lord's chicken. Chick-fil-A, oh my gosh, it's so good, dude. It's so good, so good. Joseph says, American gloslop, what's that, g-slop? What does that mean?

It's always worse than it is outside of the USA because we have no consumer protection law. Is that right? I heard recently that Subway in Ireland couldn't advertise their subs as being bread because there was too much sugar in it. So I think it counted as cake is what I heard. I hope that's true.

I don't know. I mean, here's what I reckon might happen. You tell me. Whenever a fast food chain began in America, it probably didn't begin by serving crap. It probably began by serving things that were pretty good. You know, not restaurant quality good, but good. But then I think what happens is, you know,

profit leading the business as it tends to, they start kind of eroding the ingredients and people over time become accustomed to the increasingly crappier food. But then you can't take your crap McDonald's or KFC and go, hey Australia wants some crap, because we don't. We really, really don't.

So you've gotta, you know, you gotta start. So if you go to Australia and go to McDonald's, it's actually really quite good. Like, I'm talking like brie cheese, sliced green apple, nice sauce thing, like it's bizarre, it's so bizarre. Anyway, maybe you're from Australia and you can concur. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be. Cool.

Love your channel. Thank you very much. It's so kind of you to say that. I mean that, I know it sounded like I don't mean that, but I actually really appreciate when people appreciate what we're doing here. You're doing so much for reuniting the youth with our faith. Ah, thanks.

The Porn Myth Plus Catholic Lo-Fi, cool. The Porn Myth is a book that I wrote, if you're interested. It's a non-religious response to pro-porn arguments. It's on Audible, you can buy it on Amazon. 100% of the proceeds go to help sexually traffic victims in San Diego. I don't make a cent from you buying that book. I'm so glad I did that.

I understand that by talking about it, I'm losing all credit, but I was jumping on the trampoline with my kids once, and the porn myth was about to come out, and I just felt moved to give all of the proceeds away. And I thought, well, that's a dumb idea because, you know, money. And I spoke to Jason Everett once over a meal.

I said, I'm thinking maybe the Lord wants me to give all the proceeds away. And he said, do it. And I went, oh, crap, all right. So I did it. So it's a good book. The reason I like to tell people that all the proceeds go there is because

whenever you promote your own book, you know, people might think, well, you're just promoting it because you want money. And fair enough, I do enjoy money. But no, like I really, it's a great book and I'm not talking about it because I make money from it because I make no sense from it. But it's a non-religious book. So I'd love to hear Marta, if you have enjoyed the porn myth and what you've enjoyed about it. Childhood memories are of sweet freedom. Guys, I'm really enjoying this conversation. I don't think I'll leave until the questions dry up.

Might be the espresso. Yeah, it is. If you ever read The Brothers Karamazov, there's a section towards the end where Alyosha speaks to a group of boys and says something similar. That if you've got a beautiful memory from childhood, it can get you through a great deal. Let's see, Alex. G'day Alex, can we get some sacred polyphony in Lofi?

Yeah, that would be wild in a good way. I think we might have a bit of polyphony going on in some of it, but maybe I'm wrong. Samantha, oh man, I was looking for some help, but I respect not wanting to comment right now. I don't know what your question was. I must have missed it, apologies. Oh yes, another great book is by Joe Heschmeyer,

the early church is the Catholic Church, okay. Yeah, Joe's great. I've had him on the show before. Catholic ambience would be very similar to your lo-fi videos. It would be Catholic scenery with Catholic sounds, flickering candles. Okay. Maybe I just need to look up ambience. Ah, Bach, nice. What would you say to a Protestant youth pastor considering the move to Catholicism? Look, the Second Vatican Council makes it clear that if you know that the church Christ establishes the Catholic Church. If you know that and you refuse to join it, then you cannot be saved. So that's something to really, really take seriously. So, you know, losing an income is a big deal. You know, marital strife, if your wife or husband is opposed to it, that's a big deal.

But it's not a bigger deal as not being saved. And I don't mean to say it so abrasively, but this is indeed what the church teaches, so you know, you've got to take that into account. Try to be as intellectually honest as you can. Listen to Catholic channels like this one, Father Mike Schmitz, Bishop Barron and others, you know, take heart, the Lord is good and he'll provide for you, you know. Okay, Christian says, what's up Matt, we miss you here in Georgia. Thank you so much, I love Georgia and miss it a great deal. I want to go next summer to, where do I want to go?

Dillonega and have that beautiful barbecue on Main Street. Bento Leal says, please pray for me, I left a monastery a year ago and I've been thinking I've made a mistake. Ah bless you Bento, hopefully you have a good spiritual father who can direct you in this. In my opinions as Joseph, the best western music is from before the classical period, early renaissance. You are a much more educated and cultured band than I am. I like the arvo part, I'm not sure what that is. Arvo means afternoon but I don't know what you're referring to. that is. Arvo means afternoon but I don't know what you're referring to. Matt says Gloria are you planning on interviewing Roy Showman? I would love to interview Roy Showman. If you have his contact deets find a way to let me know.

Bornagainrn says thanks again for submitting my question when Matt asked my question to Michael Lofton about the Canon. It generated a lot of discussion, much appreciated. Yeah, thanks mate. Also, if you're into classical music, you might enjoy Hen-Rick-Go-Rack-Key. Pretty sure that's how you pronounce it. Oh, ambience videos, yeah, now know's what you mean. That would be cool. People are so mean, Matt, you look great. It's funny, I haven't even noticed all the negative comments

about how I look, but now I've, this comment has made me aware that they're there. But yeah, cheers. I really appreciate the episode with Mother Gabriella and Mother Natalia and with Father Boniface. Both were very wonderful and I've listened multiple times. That's awesome. Thanks so much. Has Father Chad Rippiger ever been on your radar? Yeah I'm open to him being on the show. Let's see... oh my gosh so many questions.

What is your best advice to re-engage into the Catholic studies if you feel overwhelmed? Just, you know, one bit at a time. You know, like read something that's not gonna break your brain but that's gonna stretch it. That'd be my advice. I'd love to see Father Mark Goring on your show. Actually, thank you. I just asked him to be on the show but he's too busy. I asked Brian Holdsworth to be on the show but I guess you have to be vaccinated, fully vaccinated. That was one of the- there was a deal breaker for me. I was going to Italy. Well, I'm going to Italy next week, but I thought for a second,

ah, gosh, you gotta be fully vaccinated, so I guess I'll never go to Italy again. Because I just don't want to be. But apparently you don't have to be, so we'll see what happens. Living in Europe, would you be fine if I made a T-shirt with a point? Of course, of course you can do that. Do whatever you want. Could you do a stream video about the lie

that Christmas is a pagan? Well, here's what's interesting. I have a newspaper, comes out quarterly, it's only for my annual supporters on Locals. And it'll be arriving in people's mailboxes next few weeks. And we actually have a whole article on this. So maybe I should.

Man, you guys are great. There's a ton. I'm gonna try to scroll down a bit here because there's a lot going on. Hi Matt from Canada. Thank you very much. Hi. Oh, there's Rob Pretzel.

Robert, it's lovely to see you. Robert and myself go to jujitsu very early in the mornings and choke each other, which is perhaps the most bad ass thing you could do at six in the morning. Some people wake up for an hour, go for a run. Some people wake up for an hour, plunge themselves into an icy pond.

We wake up and choke each other for an hour. I got actually burned. I got like, this is just me talking to Rob at this point. The rest of you are welcome to listen in. But I have like a burn on my head from where my head was hitting the mat when I was choking you. I don't know if you got that,

but like that's actually a burn on my head. Like that red stuff you see is from my head, you know. Anyway. Golly, questions are coming in hard and fast. What questions would you ask and what would the answer be? I don't know. Could you do something about distribution,

localism in the future? Sure. Marta says, I am enjoying the book, The Porn Myth. I'm actually doing my master's as a med student on porn and sex dysfunction. Because of it, really awesome book. Thanks so much. Glad to hear it. Did you ever win the Jill photo contest for father? Did anyone ever win that?

No, because no one posted about it online. At least that I saw, but I'll keep checking. Matt, Fred, you are the real deal. Pines has changed my life powerfully. Glory to Jesus Christ. Do you believe Michael Lofton over explains Pope Francis? What's your thoughts? In my opinion, the Pope actions appear to go against Lofton's explanations. You'd have to take each instance

and then examine it, wouldn't you? Because I think it is true that people get a narrative in their mind about a particular individual and then they read every new action through that narrative. And if we're going to give anybody the benefit of the doubt, it seems to me that we ought to be giving Pope Francis the benefit of the doubt. Doesn't mean we can't criticize him,

doesn't mean we can't say he made a terrible decision here and there. But if you're gonna try to give someone the benefit of the doubt, like, probably should be Pope Francis. That doesn't, so you'd have to look at a particular instance and maybe I disagree with Michael, maybe I don't. But, uh, I don't know.

I don't know if that answers your question. Have you thought about having Shia LaBeouf on the pod? I think he'd be great. I haven't really, but I'm open to it. Have you ever been to a CC? Yeah, I have been. Or would you consider a trip while in Rome? I would actually,

but I think it's pretty hard to get there, isn't it? Taipan Taipan, thanks for the super chat. He says, g'day mate. Nikki says, do you really like peanut butter beer? Thanks. No, I didn't really like it. I tried it because I thought maybe it'd be all right. Matt Bruinger, you say, Brandon says,

your interview with Matt Bruinger helped me with my decision to enter grad school. That's wonderful. Just so you know, me, Rob, and Matt Bruinger all strangle each other. So Matt's the third guy who comes to Jiu Jitsu. Yesterday morning, I used my gi to choke Matt Bruinger. He also used his gi to choke me, but it did happen.

So if you know Matt, if you know Matt Bruinger, ask him, what was it like when Matt Fradd choked you with his own gi? That'd be kind of cool. What else? Good morning, says KK. May the Lord take a liking to you. Wait, what?

Good morning all. May the good Lord take a liking to you. Pretty sure he does. But cheers. What are some great things to do in Steubenville if I bought tickets for the debate? You could go to the Franciscan, you could go to a great bagel place, you could come to the coffee shop, you could go to our cigar lounge. It's also about 35-40 minutes from Pittsburgh, so there's a lot of great things to do there. You know?

Oh, what else have we got here? What are we doing? What are we bloody doing? JPCF says, have you seen the first two episodes of Master of the Ages? I like them, but I'd like to understand better how biased they might be. I haven't seen them. The little things I've seen I thought were really well filmed

and put together, but I haven't seen them, so I can't. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. What's some things I can do in Steubenville? Well, you could go to Pittsburgh. No, that's funny. What are your thoughts on Protestants that say, I don't believe in religion because it's manmade? I would ask them what they think religion is.

And if they say, it's something that men make, that's circular, so they're gonna have to give a different definition to that. I mean, isn't it the apostle, isn't it James who says that true religion is to take care of widows and orphans, et cetera? So he seems to talk about religion in a positive light, doesn't he?

Kinda late to ask what the best airport to use to come to the debate. Pittsburgh. That's the best one. I hope you guys come to this debate. It's gonna be a really, really good debate. Or it won't be. Gloria says, hope Jimmy show me the money Aiken. I love Jimmy Aiken so much. You should watch the interview he did on Cameron, not an interview, debate he did on Cameron Batuzzi's podcast a couple of weeks ago with someone called The Other Paul. It was so good.

Props to The Other Paul for having the courage to get into the ring with Jimmy Aiken. But it really was like taking a knife fight into a gun fight. And, no, I'm not putting him down. I think he got just destroyed by Jimmy. But I think that's because Jimmy has the truth on his side. But I will say the other Paul was very humble.

And he was, I think, humble in that he would sometimes say, I'm not making my case as good as I could. He also never got frustrated, and that's very impressive. Like to get into the ring with Jimmy Aiken, who keeps going, you haven't answered my question, and you don't get like visibly frustrated, that takes a lot. And I think he's a really cool guy from the look of it.

And he's an Australian, so I just like him for that reason. This person, Zzz, also perhaps pronounced, Zzz, says, as a recent convert, a convert, I don't think much about the Pope. Yeah, it seems like I have other priorities in my, that's probably a good idea. Take care of your family, love Jesus Christ, read the scriptures, I think you're probably good.

I think that's right, I think that's probably a good take. Yeah. Do you have any inside info on when the Ignatius study Bible will be completed? No, I could ask, but I don't know. I have Scott Hahn in a couple of weeks. He'll be on the show. We can ask him then. What do you think of the word on fire bibles? I saw the New Testament one that was put out it looked terrific. I think that Barron is putting out some great stuff. Okay I'm just scrolling through here. Are you going to seek in 2023? Yep, I'll be there. Marie says, thoughts on Catholic teaching to take birth control for six months to help a severe medical issue? Yeah, I mean, if you take birth control and you're not using it for birth control,

then it's not intrinsically evil. That said, according to my wife, who's had a lot of health issues and who was told as a teenager to go on birth control for all sorts of things, my wife says it's just a bandaid and there's other ways you can get to the underlying problem and that if you're just using the morning,

what is it called, the oral contraceptives, then you're not getting to the root of it. So try to maybe find a more holistic solution perhaps, but it's not immoral provided you're not using it, provided you're not you know not using it for contraceptive purposes. I mean, well no, I'm not going to do that. Do you mean the end of Psalm 19? Perhaps, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable

in your sight or of my strength. Yeah, I shouldn't have read that out because he was not talking to me. Greetings from the Catholic University. Things have been improving spiritually ever since the Dominicans moved in. Good. Love Scott.

Oh, Han, gotcha. Love Baron too. Sweet. Anthony Esselen. Well, Henry's not, Henry says you should get Anthony Esselen on the show. I've tried, but he doesn't travel anymore. And I don't like doing virtual interviews,

so I'm not sure if I will. What does this mean? Scott Han low looks like Tom Hanks. Please tell me what that means because I really want to know. Kyle Whittington. Can I buy you a beer if you have time? Of course. I'm always open to people buying me things. What's your favorite Dostoevsky novel? It's probably the Brothers Karamazov. I think Crime and Punishment is a more kind of holistic package, but I love all of the detours in Brothers. They're all brilliant, so I love those as well. Do I ever. Any advice for Catholics who think they're called to start a YouTube channel? I don't know, do something you love, do something you enjoy. Don't do it for subscribers, don't know do something you love do something you enjoy Don't do it for subscribers. Don't do it for money

Those things might follow and it's great when they do but you want to be doing something you feel called to do and You don't want to let the tail wag the dog You want to just do something because you enjoy it like when I said appliance of the quietness I didn't even advertise it for the first 12 weeks. I didn't even put up a tweet. I just enjoyed it and I still do. I love it so much. I don't know, do that. Just start. Let it be bad until it gets better. Stoies. Love your work Matt. Keep it up and stay strong. Thank you kindly. Javier, is that how you say your name? Hello from Florida State University.

Has beating up people in Jiu Jitsu helped your spiritual life? I wanna try it sometime. Absolutely. Strangling people is the greatest form of meditation. You can quote me. Let's see, hi Matt, hi Terrence. Is Pines with Aquinas hiring at all?

No, but just, not right now, but I mean we do have about seven or eight people who work for Pines. Neil is selfishly leaving me. I informed him that he didn't have that right and that he was my slave and we just had a difference of opinion and he said he's getting married and he needs to move to Denver and I said well you're fat and he said why would you say that and I said because I'm deeply

hurt and I'm sorry and he said I forgive you. It was a really great conversation. But when he leaves I have somebody else coming in in January who I'm already be hiring. Did you watch the Rings of Girl Power? No, I didn't. Oh, I got a great answer for this one, Jennifer. Buckle up, Jennifer. What's a good book to start with Dostoevsky?

I would recommend reading a short story of his to get a taste for him. So one of the most beautiful novellas I've ever read is A Gentle Creature by Dostoevsky. In the very first page you learn that a woman has committed suicide. She's laid out dead on a card table in the room, in the same room as her husband

who's now recounting to those around him how he first met her and what led her to kill herself. And it is, I've never cried in my life the way that I cried after I finished that book. It broke my heart in the most beautiful way. Read that book, A Gentle Creature. Probably take you about three hours or so. Best way to build an apologetic channel. I would say be consistent

and, um, if you obviously get better at apologetics, you know, so make your videos as good as you can. Better to have videos less frequently but more substantive than frequently and off the cuff, I would say. Like this one. Hi Matt, are you inspired to write a new book next year? No, not really. I'm still writing a few stories, horror stories. My sister and I run a podcast called Sibling Horror, so I should have a new story coming out soon,

maybe in a month or two. What else am I doing? Am I writing more? No, I'm not really writing these days, other than fiction. What do you guys think of Witcher? Is it called Witcher? Witcher. Because I just bought it.

I don't wanna see what it's like. The Witcher. Do you guys like it? Is it terrible? I don't know. I just, I'm reading Andrew Claven's latest book right now. And it's good. I mean nothing's, once you've read Dostoevsky,

it's like, come on. Nothing else is worth reading. But he's an excellent writer, Klaven is. Oh my gosh, so many questions. Laura says, how do you start your writing a book? I want to share my story of my journey of my, oh, beautiful. So I've got good advice for people, I think, who wanna just write. I would say write drunk, edit sober.

It's the best advice I ever got. So for example, if I wanna write, because I got this, I'll share with you a premise to a horror story I'm thinking about. Are you ready? This fella moves into a house that was left to him by a grandparent. that was left to him by a grandparent.

And the strange thing about this little collection of houses, he never sees anybody during the day. And he only gradually becomes aware of this, and then one night he hears this thing outside his window. He thought he'd dreamt it. It sounded like a little jewelry box sound, you know, those musical sounds. Next night he wakes up and he realizes it's an ice cream truck circling the neighborhood and there's a lot of people coming out

from the different houses lining up to get stuff. Long story short, it's a vampire colony and they're in rehabilitation. All right, point is, all right, if I want to write a story like that, I have to be okay writing a really bad story. Like the worst story you've ever read. I need to just tell myself,

I mean, you're talking about something that's nonfiction, right, so that's different. But for me, I gotta tell myself that story a lot. So I'll go for a walk and I'll tell myself the story. And then when I've told myself the story enough, I write it and I don't edit while I'm writing. I just dump it into a Google Doc and it's so disappointingly bad.

Once I've done that, I now have something to work with. So that's the best advice I'd give to writers. And this is somebody who's a complete amateur, you understand. I'm not in a place to give any kind of advice, I think. But, you know, as a friend to a random YouTuber, that's. I'm not in a place to give any kind of advice I think but you know as a friend to a random youtuber that's what I'd say just let it be bad and then you got something to work with. Mark says Anna Karenina was the best I've read. Yeah Tolstoy is amazing. I don't know who said it but they said if reality could write itself it would write like Tolstoy. But Anna Karenina was the most awful character,

dull, boring, selfish woman I've ever encountered. So I wasn't thrilled with her personally. Have you heard about the sex abuse cover-up scandal at Franciscan? Yeah, I heard several years. Well, this is not a new thing. I guess I don't know the details So I'm afraid to say anything about it. But my understanding is not a cover-up

It was sort of a maybe in the beginning it was handled poorly and I think a priest has gone to prison or is And should be good But I don't know enough about it so I probably shouldn't have just pulled up a comment like that. Have you seen Matt Walsh on Joe Rogan? I watched like 10 minutes this morning and I'm sure it was good because Matt's pretty great but I don't know much. Matt Mara, what's up?

Any more collaborations with Magdala Ministries coming soon? Rachel Kolaki is a good friend of mine. Aw, say hi to her. I love that woman. She's so good. I joined Magdalene. That's lovely. Good for you.

Well, I hope to have her on the show when her book comes out. So that would be it. The Witcher books are Chef's Kiss. What is it? I don't know what that means. But so good. All right, good. Thank you.

My friends call the new Lord of Rings show Power Rings. Ah, okay, yeah, I haven't watched a second of it and I never will. Oh, oh no, it's vaguely pornographic? How vague are we talking? Let's see. The witch is not very Catholic, but it is a guilty pleasure. Cool.

Hi Matt, have you ever considered being the voice behind The Lord of the Rings in audiobook format? You'd knock it out of the park. That's very kind of you, but no I haven't. You know, once I wrote The Porn Myth, I had an audiobook publisher reach out to me and say, we'd like to publish your book, The Porn Myth, because it was a best seller on Amazon for a long time.

And I shouldn't say a long time, but about three or four months. Is that a long time? Anyway, they asked and I said, well, I'm happy to read it. I said, I know people like hearing the author. And they said, well, send us a sample. So I did.

And they said, yeah, no. So they at least thought I had a terrible voice. The bastards. The first two books, okay we're talking about Witcher here, of The Witcher are great but in my opinion the farther you go in the saga the worse it gets. Okay greetings from Poland, nice. Who is your favourite contemporary horror novelist or novel? Who's your favourite classical horror novelist or novel? I am a big fan of Knifepoint Horror. Sorin Narnia writes those stories.

And he's released a couple of books which I've bought. I really like him. I like him because there's no gratuitous gore. It's quite simple. Certainly, he's not a great author in the sense of, you know, the classics, but I really like listening to him. Classical horror, the most, the scariest book I ever read was Dracula by Bram Stoker when I read the first several chapters of my wife. I remember feeling afraid in my bed. Like that's with my wife. I was like it was great Is this an impromptu sibling horror story? Yeah, the one I brought up is one I'm working on Only problem at am dyslexia and have a DHT. Oh

Yeah, that's gonna be a problem But I probably do as well. Not dyslexia, but... There's not much Polish folklore in The Witcher, but it builds strongly on European fairy tales. Oh, nice. I have dyslexia too, somebody says. Yes, The Witcher stories are great, super thought out,

huge in Poland, the show on Netflix is meh. Ah cool, Ever Read Ghost Rider, no I haven't. Oh man, life. Which are three favourite saints? Mary, the virgin mother of God. Thomas Aquinas. Ah, I don't know. Theresa Leisure?

C.S. Lewis, I like his non-fiction best. Yeah, me too. Guys, this has been fun. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. This went way longer than I thought, but it's nice to chat with you. Frank C says, have you thought of having Taylor Marshall on to try and build a bridge between the Catholic YouTube divide?

Have I thought about it? Yeah, but I don't think I will. That isn't to say I don't think he puts things out of value. I just I'm not interested really having him on my show. If that's alright. Japanese ghost stories are super scary. Oh cool, I'll take your word for it. What are my thoughts on Stephen King? I don't like him. I'm sure he's a talented guy but the two or three times I've bought, three times I bought a book by Stephen King, I started reading it and I liked the first paragraph and I'm the first paragraph and then I'm just like, oh, that just got weird or sexual

just so I throw it away. I'm reading Andrew Clavin right now and I think he's a way better author than Stephen King in my estimation. Right, listen, we've got five things in the comment section in the description below that I want you to check out. We have a whole Advent ebook slash audio book

coming out every day of Advent. Become a local supporter to get that. I'm going to Rome next week. I've got a really big interview planned overlooking the Vatican. Please subscribe to this channel. We're almost at 300,000 subscribers. Help us reach that landmark.

And that way you won't miss that. I've got a debate coming up with, you know, what's his name, Trent Horn. And the other what's his name, Gavin Ortland. It's gonna be in person in Steubenville. So click the link below to buy a ticket if you wanna show up in Stooby Boobies. No, why?

Don't speak off the cuff ever, you idiot. It'll also be streamed. Yeah, lots of stuff going on. New Lo-Fi album just out. Gregorian Chant meets Lo-Fi. Please listen to it on Spotify and Apple helps us out. That's it. God bless you.

God bless you. You beautiful people. I thought, we're just gonna leave it. Here's the last one. This is the last comment. I thought you were Indonesian for some reason. Just gonna leave it there. See you later.

We should do this first. Doh! See you later.